Round The States

New Delhi, 11 October 2007

President’s Rule In Karnataka

JD(S) GORY TALE OF BETRAYAL

                                                                  By Insaf

The Supreme Court’s judgment limits the President’s power initially to imposing Central rule and keeping the Assembly in suspended animation. The President can consider dissolution of the Assembly only after both the Houses of Parliament have ratified Central rule in the State. Perhaps it is as well that the Assembly is in animated suspension in view of the uncertainty over Parliament’s next session because of the UPA-Left logjam over the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. This leaves scope for two alternatives since politics is the art of making impossible possible. At one stage, the Congress was receptive to JD(S) feelers favouring a Government headed by Union Minister of State for Planning, M.V. Rajasekharan, a Lingayat, like BJP’s CM-designate Yediyurappa. But Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna, a Vokaligga, scuttled the proposal. Secondly, the JD(S) and BJP could still decide to bury the hatchet and rule the State.

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Himachal Greatly Surprised

Himachal Pradesh has been taken totally by surprise by the Election Commission’s announcement of the dates for the Assembly poll on November 14 for the snow-bound constituencies and December 19 for the rest of the State. In fact, the first response to the announcement was one of panic as the State was expecting the election in February since the term of the 68-member Assembly ends only on March 9 next. The Government’s biggest worry now is that its plans to announce a slew of pre-election sops --- jobs and development works in the districts --- have gone awry. The State Government had planned to announce these sops after October 15 following the Chief Minister, Virbhadra Singh’s return from Washington. However, the CM is not unduly bothered. He is confident of winning once more on the strength of his Government’s performance over the past five years!

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Ajmer Sharif Blast

The bomb blast in the dargah of the Sufi saint, Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer, a shrine in Rajasthan venerated alike by Muslims, Hindus and Christians on Thursday has once again pushed the Centre and the State Governments into the dock. Mercifully, the blast was low-intensity and causalities were limited to 2 killed and 17 injured when some 5000 devotees were present. But the incident could have been prevented if only both the Central and State Intelligence and the Police had been truly alert. Only last week, Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil had warned once again that terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, based in Pakistan, would strike religious institutions to provoke communal conflict. In fact, he even issued a red corner alert to the States at a two-day conference of Director Generals and IGs of Police New Delhi. Sadly, however, in all such exercises continue to end in rhetoric and still more rhetoric. Time for some solid action.

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Assam I-Cards For Muslims

What the Centre can do, Assam can do one better when it comes to minority appeasement. The State Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi, in a first of sorts, has decided to issue identity cards to daily wage labourers belonging to the minority community. Ostensibly, to stop their “harassment” in the name of identifying illegal Bangladeshi migrants. “The Government cannot allow this,” he thundered at an Iftar party in Guwahati. In addition, the Muslims have also been promised a slew of welfare schemes. All with an eye on reaping the political harvest in the forthcoming Panchayat polls. However, the Congress is worried that a major chunk of Muslims, particularly those of erstwhile East Pakistan origin, might yet vote for the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) headed by Badruddin Ajmal. Interestingly, ensuing criticism of the CM’s announcement has got Gogoi to promise something long overdue: an I-card for every citizen. But the question is when?

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National Tears Over Onion

Failure of the onion crop in Maharashtra and Karnataka has led to copious tears all over the country. So severe is the shortage that the States which account for 30 per cent of the country’s 66 lakh tonne annual crop of onion, are also feeling the heat. Retail prices are now as high as Rs.30 per kg and continue to rise. Adding to the consumer woes, at many places farmers are hoarding onions expecting more prices for their produce. While Government officials blame traders for hoarding, the traders hold the unseasonal rain guilty. Either way for Indian households, barring the National Capital Region of Delhi, the writing is on the wall: pay more for onions in the next couple of months. Delhi’s Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, has arranged to provide the common man with onion at Rs.22 per kg from Government-managed counters!

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J&K On The Boil Again

Jammu and Kashmir is on the boil again. Juma’t al’vida, last Friday of the holy month of Ramzan, which fell yesterday, saw a two-member fidayeen squad attack  the headquarters  Battalion of the CRPF in Srinagar, leaving three police personnel injured on the eve of the 72-hour unilateral cease-fire declared by the Pakistan-based United Jihad Council. Earlier on Wednesday, nine terrorists, two Army majors and a jawan were killed in a fierce battle in the Tanmarg area in Baramulla district. Incredibly enough, the cross-fire between the Rashtriya Rifles and the militants lasted three days, prompting the new Army Chief, Gen Deepak Kapoor to disagree with his predecessor and rule out any “troop cut till the State returns to normalcy.”  The outgoing Army Chief, Gen. J.J. Singh had asserted on his last day that the situation in J&K was “fast moving towards normalcy.”

Not unexpectedly, the PDP President, Mehbooba Mufti, latched on to the two statements and attacked the two Army Chiefs for giving confusing signals to the troubled State. However, the PDP, which has been vociferous in demanding troop withdrawal, today finds itself caught on the wrong foot, thanks to its Tanmarg MLA, Ghulam Hassan Mir and former Housing Minister. Shockingly, Mir offered prayers at the graves of the nine militants killed in Tanmarg. Queried about his “betrayal”, he explained to a national daily: “I offered fateha in the capacity of being a Muslim. I don’t think there is anything wrong in this.” Yet the message that has gone out from this PDP leader, who was once in the running for the Deputy Chief Minister’s job under Ghulam Nabi Azad, has caused great embarrassment to his party. It confirms once more the PDP’s close links with the militant groups.  

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Yamuna Satyagraha

Save the Yamuna campaign in New Delhi is growing. Ignored by the Government, the activists of the “Yamuna Satyagraha” have decided to spread to 11 places across the Capital. Their demand of exempting the river’s floodplains from construction work has fallen on deaf ears, despite their campaigning for the past 60 days. The sit-in, near the riverbed site where the Commonwealth Games Village is to be constructed, will now extend to places including the Supreme Court, India Gate and Raj Ghat.  It may be recalled that the Yamuna Satyagraha started in 2000 in protest against construction of the Akshardham complex on the riverbed. It made no impact on the authorities. Now in its seventh year, the campaign is trying to urge journalists, sportsmen, artists and students to join in. Time will tell. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 4 October 2007

Unprecedented Confrontation

TAMIL NADU Vs SUPREME COURT

By Insaf

Tamil Nadu is more or less back to normal after an unprecedented confrontation between the State Government and the Supreme Court, triggered by Chief Minister Karunanidhi’s virtual defiance of the latter’s order banning a bandh to press for early execution of the controversial Sethusamudram Project. Fortunately, Karunanidhi realized in good time that all that the Supreme Court had done was to follow its previous binding judgments. On November 1997, the Supreme Court expressly approved a judgment of the full bench of the Kerala High Court (February 1997) that “a call for a bandh effectively precluded citizens from exercising their fundamental rights and was, therefore, unconstitutional.” Subsequently in December 2003, the Supreme Court thundered in the case of James Martin vs. State of Kerala about the necessity of controlling bandhs with an iron hand to protect “victims of the high-handed acts of some fanatics with queer notions of democracy and freedom of speech or association.”

Karunanidhi also now recognizes inwardly that the Supreme Court was within its right to take notice of what it considered to be a break-down of the Constitution. True, the law does not permit the Apex Court to pass orders for dismissing the Government under Article 356 of the Constitution. Nevertheless, according to leading jurists, if the Court is of the opinion that there is a constitutional breakdown of machinery, it can advise the Government to look into it. At any rate, the Court’s oral observations threatening to recommend sacking of the State Government and imposition of the President’s rule were intended to ensure that the State machinery functioned and followed in accordance with its orders. Importantly, not many are aware that oral observations made by the judges have no force in law. No formal order was passed by the Court threatening imposition of President’s rule, a power which vests only in the Central Government. 

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Karunanidhi: Facts and Fiction

What next? Will Karunanidhi be hauled over by the Supreme Court for contempt? Much depends upon Karunanidhi’s willingness to stop trying to be clever by half. On Wednesday last, the CM made “amends” by coming up with a new explanation for his inability to enforce the Supreme Court order banning the 1 October bandh. The official order, he said, “had reached the Chief Secretary only by 10.30 p.m. and there were only a few hours left for the bandh to commence.” Yet the facts of case go against the DMK Chief’s claim. The Apex Court ruling was flashed by all news channels by 1.30 p.m. and Karunanidhi himself stated before the TV cameras at 2.30 p.m. that a hunger strike would be held instead; he even mentioned the venue in Chennai. Eyewitnesses confirm that the speakers at a public meeting that Karunanidhi attended that evening touched on the point repeatedly. Interestingly, the Court had ordered that there should be no disruption of public transport on 1 October. However, only 61 of the city’s 16,000 buses came out that day! 

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All the States have been put on their best fiscal behaviour by the Centre. Playing spoil sport, New Delhi has issued a stern ultimatum to the States: show work, only then we will show you the money. Consequently, the States are now busy drawing up plans to meet their fiscal targets. Peeved by the fiscal profligacy of the States, the Finance Ministry has made it clear to all the State Governments that no more funds would be released unless they furnish utilization certificates for the past allocation. Adding to the woes of the States, the Centre has outlined “specific steps” to ensure compliance. Moreover, it has also declared that no further transfers would be made to a Reserve Fund until unspent balances in the Fund had been utilized. The Centre’s control over extravagance and wastefulness has also been tightened. Further, the Chief Controller of Accounts has been directed to keep vigil during his “pre-payment scrutiny.”  It remains to be seen how many States will comply with this new directive.

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DGHC Assured Autonomy

Better late than never! The Centre has at long last agreed to give the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council autonomous self-governing status under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, as demanded by Subhash Ghising, President of the Gorkha National Liberation Front. The West Bengal Assembly had earlier bowed to the GNLF supremo’s wishes and adopted on 16 March 2006 a resolution for bringing the DGHC, set up in 1987 following an agreement between the Union Government, headed by Rajiv Gandhi, the West Bengal Government and the GNLF, under the Sixth Schedule.  Inclusion in the Sixth Schedule will give the DGHC constitutional protection. Its existence will no longer be dependent on the goodwill of the State Government and its laws. The Centre has promised to bring forward a Bill for the purpose during the winter session of Parliament. It has also agreed to take into account the GNLF’s demand for incorporation of some more areas of Siliguri District in the autonomous Council to make it economically viable. Ghising and his GNLF will need to keep their fingers crossed!

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BSP’s Social Engineering

UP Chief Minister Mayawati is once more at her social engineering best. After successfully wooing Brahmins in Uttar Pradesh and now trying to repeat the same in Gujarat, the Bahujan Samaj Party in Chhattisgarh has decided to engineer a social pact with the OBCs and Scheduled Castes to make inroads into the State polity. Hoping to replicate her successful UP social engineering experiment  Mayawati has decided to contest all the 90 States Assembly seats in next year’s election. In the last Assembly poll the BSP had contested 52 seats and won two seats. To bring the 52 per cent OBCs and 22.3 per cent SCs into the party fold bhaichara (brotherhood)  committees have been launched in the State. The shrewd Mayawati has dumped the upper castes in the State as they constituted only 4 per cent of the total population here. Notwithstanding the fact that the present Chief Minister belongs to the upper caste.

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In Harmony in Kerala Village

A small village in Kerala has set a heart-warming example of living in harmony. A Muslim family in Perruvalloor panchayat in Malappuram district has given some of its land for the rebuilding of an ancient temple. And, the Hindu temple would be just 50 metres away from a mosque, behind a madrasa! The decision was taken by a five-member committee constituted by the panchayat, after debris of an old Gowri Shankar temple was recovered near the madrasa a few weeks ago. Though minor disagreements between members of the two communities were resolved initially, the final approval of constructing the temple was kept a secret to avoid any unpleasant incident. Now, in the holy month of Ramzan one can hear at the same time priests chanting prayers and calls for namaaz from the mosque.

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Gujjar’s Step-up Demand

The Gujjars of Rajasthan appear hell bent to get themselves the status of Scheduled Tribes. In a planned agitation, over five lakh Gujjars courted arrest in the State last week as part of their “jail bharo” action. The agitation started on Sunday last, when the Gujjars decided to stop supplying milk to dairies and customers throughout the State. The agitation is a “do-or-die situation” whereby, anyone who goes against the collective decision would be fined Rs 5,100, thereby affecting milk supply in the State. The Gujjars provide 60-70 per cent of milk to small cities and towns and another seven to 13 lakh litres to the Rajasthan Saras Dairy. The Gujjars claim that their’s is a fit case for ST status and, in support, they have decided to lay siege in New Delhi on Saturday. The community will protest outside the BJP headquarters as it is angry with the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP Government in the State. Whether their protest will be successful or not is anyone’s guess. The only thing certain is that the country’s capital may well be held to ransom. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 27 September 2007

Whither Law & Order

INCREASING MOB VIOLENCE

By Insaf

More and more States are getting engulfed in mob violence. Other than infamous Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, cases of intolerance or “street justice” have been reported from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Delhi and Manipur in the past fortnight. A brief glance at what is happening in the country should make both the authorities and the people sit up and ask: whither law and order in the 60^th glorious (?) year of India’s independence?

In Bihar’s Vaishali district, ten unarmed “thieves” were lynched by a mob of hundreds in Rajpakar village, barely three km from the local police station on September 13. The bodies bore signs of shocking brutality: four had their throats slit and one his hand chopped off. The faces of all were badly battered. Initial inquiry reveals that they were no thieves. On September 21, two suspected thieves were bludgeoned to death in Patna’s Nutan colony by a mob of about 200. Three days earlier, Rakesh Kumar, belonging to the backward Lohar caste, in Patahi village, Sitamarhi district was beaten all night and allegedly strangulated by the sarpanch and his Rajput friends. The boy had reportedly stolen idols from the sarpanch’s temple! The local police station came to know of the incident only in the morning.

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UP, Jharkhand, Manipur

In Uttar Pradesh, the VC of Aligarh Muslim University, Prof Abdul Aziz, had to face the wrath of a mob of students, following the murder of a fellow student in the University premises on September 23. The VC’s house was ransacked and his personal belongings burnt. Not enough, the mob ransacked the Proctor’s office and set on fire the Staff Club, Allahabad Bank’s ATM and vehicles on the premises. In Jharkhand, the same day three unarmed thieves, who allegedly stole water pumps, were beaten to death in Ramgarh district by members of the village defence committees. Here, too, the police reached the scene of crime only next morning.

On Sunday last, in Manipur, angry locals of Thoubal district, Imphal locked up 16 Assam Rifles personnel and burnt two vehicles at Sangaiyumpham, in retaliation of a raid at a local panchayat candidate’s house to nab insurgents. In Chhattisgarh the same day, a policeman and a group of construction workers, mistaken as Naxalites, were beaten up mercilessly with lathis and stones by about 50 villagers of Torfa in Bulgrampur police district. In Maharashtra, a 55-year-old dhaba owner was lynched by tribal villagers of Balvidi in Virar, in the wee hours as he allegedly tried to molest a woman.

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New Delhi Too Erupts

In India’s capital, a mob of 600-700 people belonging to the minority community torched two police outposts, cars and gypsies in Batla House area of Zakir Nagar, South Delhi on Saturday evening. Four policemen were admitted to hospital with serious injuries. It all started when copies of the Quran reportedly fell on the ground after a beat constable tried to stop a local from setting up his pushcart of books on the road. The mob claimed the Quran had been desecrated and went into a rage. It pelted stones at the Batla Police Chowki and then set it and two gypsies ablaze. Later the mob went to Shaheen Bagh police post under Sarita Vihar and also set it on fire. About 15,000 policemen had to be rushed to the area to restore order. 

Bihar’s Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar, has ordered that collective fines be slapped on people where incidents of lynching take place. He has also directed that the police machinery be overhauled and cases tried speedily. Nevertheless, the incidents haven’t stopped. Basically, these reflect not only a breakdown of law and order but increasing lack of confidence among the people in the ability of both the Central and the State Governments to tackle lawlessness and bring the culprits to book. Law and order, as an old saying goes, ultimately depends upon the people’s perception of the ruler and his “iqbal” Remember, none dared touch even the uniform of a policeman under the British rule knowing full well that it would bring the entire might of the Raj crashing on his head!

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Shinde For Maharashtra

Maharashtra is expected to provide the Congress an answer to Mayawati’s growing clout among the Dalits and her mounting focus on the Centre. Union Power Minister and the State’s former Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, appears to have emerged as his party’s Dalit icon. For starters, the Congress High Command may replace Vilasrao Deshmukh with Shinde as Chief Minister. Shinde had replaced Deshmukh in 2003 and had, in fact, led the Congress to victory in the 2004 Assembly poll despite the anti-incumbency factor, thanks to the Dalit vote bank. The Dalit’s were, however, greatly upset when Vilasrao was reappointed Chief Minister and Shinde packed off to Andhra Pradesh as Governor.

Two years later. Shinde, a Sonia loyalist was brought back to the Centre as Union Power Minister. Many viewed him as the Congress potential candidate for India’s Presidentship. Recall, he was the Party candidate for Vice-Presidentship in 2002, when he lost to BJP’s Bhairon Singh Shekhawat.  In fact, Shinde was very much in Sonia Gandhi’s shortlist as the Congress candidate for the July Presidential election. But this was not to be once Mayawati triumphed in UP, and refused to countenance a Dalit as her rival in the top echelons of India’s governance. The question now is not how soon will Shinde occupy “Varsha,” the CM’s official residence in Mumbai, but will he be able to counter effectively Mayawati’s Dalit juggernaut? 

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DMK Chief Guilty Of Violence

Tamil Nadu continues to attract the spotlight on the Ram Setu issue. Grave note has been taken at the Centre of the attack by the DMK cadres on the BJP and VHP offices in the State --- and the havoc caused. The State’s Chief Minister appears to be mainly responsible for the violence, notwithstanding his claim of being innocent. The Centre had alerted him against violent strikes by the DMK. But he did little to ensure that the protest demonstration against the Sangh Parivar remained peaceful. His deliberate decision to ignore New Delhi’s advice is tantamount to a break-down of the Constitution. The Centre could exercise its right and dismiss the DMK Government, as demanded by the BJP. But it is in no position to do so, dependent as it is on the DMK for its own survival of the UPA Government at the Centre.

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“Indian Idol” Integrates

Meghalaya and its leaders have reason to be grateful to the producers of the popular TV programme “Indian Idol”.  Time was not very long ago when Khasi sub-nationalism led to riots against the dkhars or outsiders. Even Amit’s father, Deepak Paul was forced to sell his house in Mawprem, a Khasi dominated area of Shillong, and move to a place near Police Bazar in the heart of the State Capital. All that has changed, thanks to “our Shillong boy” Amit Paul, a Bengali, one of the two finalists in the programme. Songs were written for him and even yagnas held for his success as part of mass hysteria triggered by the programme.

Unfortunately, Prashant Tamang from Darjeeling beat Amit in the popularity, which had seven crore enthusiasts voting. Expectedly this came as a great shock and disappointment. Nevertheless the people of the State have taken a gracious and positive view of the outcome. Amit has brought about what seemed impossible in the “Scotland of the East.”  He has gloriously “bridged” the divide among the locals and the outsiders and emerged as Meghalaya’s singing idol. Significantly, the State government, headed by DD Lapang, has named him Meghalaya’s Brand Ambassador.  India could surely do with more such programmes. ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 20 September 2007

Majority Of States Guilty

SCANDALOUS LOOT OF FOOD GRAINS

By Insaf

Sensational disclosures about the “great Indian grain drain” have pushed a majority of the States into the dock. Wheat and rice worth more than Rs.31,585 crore meant for the poor was reportedly siphoned off from the Public Distribution System in the last three years. Last year alone, according to a statistical study commissioned by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in 2005, Rs.11,336 crore worth of food grain that was meant for distribution to the needy at subsidized prices found its way into the market clandestinely. The total cost of wheat and rice stolen from the PDS was Rs,9,918 crore in 2004-05 and Rs.10,330 crore in 2005-2006. The study shows that India’s poor and needy are cheated out of 53.3 per cent of wheat and 39 per cent of rice meant for them. 

The six top offenders guilty of criminal loot among the States are: UP Rs.3,289.713 crore, Left-ruled West Bengal 1,913.758 crore; Madhya Pradesh 1,038.69 crore; Assam 958.48; Rajasthan Rs.665.71 crore and Maharashtra Rs.435.80 crore.  The North-East region beats all. Of the eight States, not even a grain of the wheat supplied to six --- Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and Nagaland --- reportedly reached the targeted poor. Arunachal was a little less corrupt at 96.2 per cent. Shockingly, Vigilance Committees to catch the culprits have not been constituted so far in Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, MP, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa, Punjab, Tripura, Uttarakhand, UP, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Daman & Diu.

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Ram Setu Controversy

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, is up in arms against the Centre on the controversial Ram Setu issue. His annoyance stems from the Union Government’s decision to take a re-look at the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSPC) while withdrawing its affidavit in the Supreme Court questioning the existence of Lord Ram and Ram Setu. Chiding the Centre for its stand, Karunanidhi who has been pushing hard for the project, sought to underscore the Ramayana as fiction floated by the Aryans (represented by Ram) to dominate the Dravidians (read Ravana). “Who is Ram?” he derisively asked and added: “If he built the Ram Setu, from which engineering college did he graduate?” Leading to a sharp reaction from the Sangh Parivar and an attack on his daughter’s residence in Bangalore.

Forgotten in the political churning on Ram Setu are the views of renowned experts that the SSCP is not only a bad idea but bad economics. The distance saved by ships coming from Europe and Africa by using the canal has been highly over estimated by assuming Kanyakumari and Tuticorin as the starting points. These ships need not touch either before going around Sri Lanka. Even time saved will be much less. The ships negotiating the canal will have to slow down considerably to enable them to be piloted through. Moreover, the Rs 3000 crore project faces one other disincentive. The canal will be able to carry vessels up to 32,000 DWT as against the latest trend of operating vessels of 60,000 DWT and above. According to a top infrastructure expert, the project may take more than 200 years to break even!

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Andhra Bails Gulf Returnees

While neighbouring Tamil Nadu continues to be embroiled in the Ram controversy, the Andhra Government is being revered as a ‘godsend’ by thousands of Indians returning from the Gulf. Following the State’s decision to give the workers a year’s “holiday” from repaying the loans they had taken before going abroad. Moved by a spate of suicides among 28,000 workers who have already returned and 15,000 who are awaiting deportation. Chief Minister Rajasekhar Reddy has also put the onus on the private money lenders, who charge interest ranging from 36 per cent to 100 per cent as against 14 per cent by the financial institutions. Harass and be punished, is his stern message to them. Going a step further, the State Government plans to provide employment too. A classic case of Mera Bharat Mahan!

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Riding high on her electoral success in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP chief Mayawati plans to brave it out alone in the forthcoming Assembly election in Gujarat. The Party intends fighting all the 182 seats, even though Mayawati’s recent rally in Ahmedabad attracted a crowd of no more than a few thousand and her BSP has yet to open its account in the Assembly. Undeterred, Mayawati seems to be banking on repeating her Dalit-Brahmin success story in the State. Going a step further, she has also demanded a quota for Dalit Christians and the poor among the upper castes. Gujarat has a sizeable Dalit Christian population. Will Mayawati’s quota wheels churn her rich electoral dividends?  Much will also depend upon the outcome of quiet attempts to get her to join hands with the Congress on a trial basis.

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Even as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) takes flak for the Ram Setu controversy, it deserves a pat for its performance in Madhya Pradesh: reconstructing temples dating back to the 6^th and 9^th centuries --- literally from scratch. More importantly, it is now successfully working on the borders of dacoit-infested Chambal, near Gwalior. Earlier attempts of the ASI had failed as the ruins were the hideout of the dacoits. But not anymore, thanks to a chance meeting of an ASI archaeologist with a group of dacoits. He convinced them that the temples were of the same deities as they worshipped and that the ASI team was neither the police nor its informers. The dacoits are now staying away from the site. And with hundreds of stones and idols in the debris, score of temples shall go up at Bateshwar before very long. 

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ULFA Commander Captured

Assam may well get some respite from the ruthless operations of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), following the arrest of Prabal Neog, its self-styled commander. For the State police it is, indeed, a prize catch. Not only was Neog beind the  killing of Hindi-speaking people in Upper Assam this January. He was also responsible for conducting monthly extortions to the tune of Rs 2 crore from the “industrialist districts” of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh. Neog, according to the police, had been trained in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Mynamar and had the reputation of being an excellent organizer and planner. Meanwhile, the English version of an article published by ULFA’s monthly mouthpiece Freedom and e-mailed to newspapers last week has sought to give the peace talks a new lease of life. It has claimed that these talks have neither come to a halt nor broken down. Time alone will tell.

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Mothers’ Milk Bank

Few are aware that we now have even human milk banks! The Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in Sion, Mumbai was the first in Asia to set up such bank in 1989. Other Government hospitals have followed suit giving hope for survival to premature, sick and abandoned babies. The milk is collected, pasteurized at 65 degrees Celsius for30 minutes and frozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius. It can be stored for at least  six months. The Lokmanya Tilak hospital has collected 924 litres of milk from mother donars and created a record of sorts. Dr Armida Fernandez, the founder of the human milk bank, cites scientific data to claim that mother’s milk given to a premature baby on ventilator can prevent asthma, diabetes and other allergies which are the cause for infant death. The milk is, indeed, a boon for the babies. Mum’s the word! ---- INFA

(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)