Round The States

New Delhi, 1 March 2007

Three Assembly Polls

CONGRESS ROUTED OUT IN TWO

By Insaf

The outcome of the three Assembly elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur has clearly shown once more that the voter now understands the value of his vote and wants good, clean governance.  If the Congress Governments have been routed out in Punjab and Uttarakhand, the Manipurians have retained the party in office for another term in the interest of moderation and stability. In Punjab where no party or combine has been voted consecutively for a second term during the last 20 years or so, the Akali Dal-BJP combine has this time romped home with a clear majority, bagging 67 seats in the 117-member Assembly and leaving the ruling Congress behind with 44 seats.  However, despite the defeat, the Congress has recorded in its favour a swing of five per cent of the votes polled in 2002. It has also improved its position in the rural areas, thanks to considerable development under the outgoing Amarinder Singh Government.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP combine improved its vote percentage by seven and fourteen per cent respectively, mostly in the urban areas. However, the Akalis won six seats less than its tally of 54 in 2002. But the BJP has improved its position considerably,  to the surprise of even its Central leadership.  The party has won 19 of the 23 seats it contested, against only three in 2002.  This gives Prakash Singh Badal, fourth-time Chief Minister of the State, a comfortable majority in the Assembly and a greater clout to the BJP in the Ministry.  Their victory is attributed to the fact that Sikh and Hindu votes combined in the urban areas and, what is the more, a large number of Sikh workers actively campaigned for the BJP candidates.  This was well reflected in the victory of the BJP’s Navjot Sidhu against Finance Minister Surender Singh Singla. The combine’s declared economic policies, especially plans for farmers and Dalits, also helped. Surprisingly, BSP’s Mawayati received a major rebuff. All her 113 candidates lost.

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BJP Wins In Uttarakhand

The BJP’s victory in Uttarakhand has indeed brought back the party to the centre-stage of national politics.  It has won 34 seats against 21 of the ruling Congress. The BJP has gained 16 seats with a vote swing of seven per cent in its favour over its 2002 performance.  But, unlike the Congress, the saffron party has failed to secure an absolute majority in the 70-member Assembly.  Much would depend on the three independents, who are Congress rebels. The Congress’ loss of 15 seats against the 36 it won in 2002 was mainly due to acute infighting in the party. This led to the presence of several rebel candidates in the fray as Independents and, significantly, an ineffective poll campaign that failed to project the Narayan Datt Tiwari Government’s many achievements during the last two-three years.

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Consolation In Manipur

In Manipur, the Congress has something to cheer about. Although the party fell short of an absolute majority by two votes with 29 seats in the 60-member Assembly, it should have no difficulty in forming the Government for the second time in succession.  It has the support of the current coalition partner, the CPI, which has won four seats. In fact, the stability of the Okram Ibobi Singh-led Ministry, which became the first Government in the State to complete its full five-year tenure, was one of the main reasons that prompted the people to vote it back to power. Another reason for popular support to the Congress was its reputation for moderation and its decision to keep away from the several underground groups that are known to be receiving active support from politicians of other regional parties. Significantly, the pro-NSCN United Naga Council succeeded in sending to the Assembly six of its eleven candidates for pursuing its demand for the creation of Nagalim or greater Nagaland.  

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Poll Pitch Moves To U.P.

Poll campaigning in UP has jazzed up with the rout of the Congress in adjoining Uttarakhand, once the hilly part of the larger State. The BJP and the BSP of Mayawati, emboldened by their success in Uttarakhand, have moved their crack troops into U.P. for the poll in seven phases, starting April 7. Adding to the excitement is the ruling Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh’s success in winning the seventh vote of confidence in his Government (the second in two months) on Monday in a near-empty House. The BSP, Congress and the RLD stayed away and the BJP walked out of the Assembly, leaving Mulayam Singh to sail through comfortably. The trust motion was passed by a voice vote after which the Speaker Pandey adjourned the House to meet again on March 12.

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Madhya Pradesh Towards Progress

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan of Madhya Pradesh has reason to celebrate. He and his Government received a major compliment the other day from the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Madhya Pradesh, he said, was moving in the right direction on the economic development front. The occasion was the Chief Minister’s discussion with the Planning Commission for finalising the State’s annual plan for 2007-08.  The plan has been pegged at Rs.12,011 crore, a hike of Rs.2061 crore in the current year’s allocation. Considering the State’s progress roadmap, the Commission has allocated a one-time additional Central assistance of Rs.111 crore for projects of special benefit to the State, which has made appreciable progress in the social sector, especially education and health. The Commission has also appreciated the continuous efforts to improve irrigation and women empowerment. The Commission has, however, advised acceleration of efforts for employment generation and poverty reduction.

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Special Central Grant For Orissa

Orissa, too, has been given an additional one-time grant of Rs.80 crore for projects of special interest to the State. This was announced by the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Ahluwalia while finalizing with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik the State’s annual plan for 2007-08 in New Delhi last week.  Ahluwalia complimented the State for its economic performance, pointing out that Orissa had developed potential to go for a higher plan size for the Eleventh Plan (2007-12).  There has been a substantial improvement both on revenue deficit and fiscal deficit. The Commission has noticed that the State Government has created an investor-friendly environment and a large amount of foreign investment has been indicated. Several foreign companies have shown interest in setting up industrial projects in Orissa.

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Gujarat’s Tax-Free Budget

Gujarat’s Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala has presented a tax-free budget for 2007-08. He has also announced in his proposals an additional tax relief of about Rs.400 crore, leaving a deficit of Rs.70 crore which he hopes to meet by reducing Government and non-development expenditure.  Chief Minister Narendra Modi has described the budget as “pro-people”, benefiting more than 90 per cent of the poor and middle-class families. The Finance Minister has also announced a massive Rs. one-lakh crore outlay for the State’s Eleventh Plan (2007-08). It will be more than double the Tenth Plan outlay of Rs.47,000 crore. The State Government is hoping to achieve a 10.62 per cent growth rate at the end of the Tenth Plan.

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Fresh Trouble In Singur

Fresh trouble has arisen for the West Bengal Government and its Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee over the farmland acquired for the Tata car project at Singur. Over 350 protestors tried to force their way into the village on Saturday last in a bid to damage the fence around the project site.  Most of the protestors are marginal land owners who are dissatisfied with the compensation package. To make matters worse, the Calcutta High Court has pulled up the State Government on a batch of public-interest litigations (PILs) for following two sets of compensation rules for the acquisition of land. The Court has directed the Government to show it all the documents and agreements in this regard. Nevertheless, the Tatas are pushing ahead with their plans for manufacturing a people’s car of Rs. one lakh---and keeping their fingers crossed. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 22 February 2007

Seven-Phase Poll in U.P.

CONGRESS GAMEPLAN WRECKED

By Insaf

Fast moving political developments on U.P., crucial Assembly polls in Uttarakhand and Manipur and the heart-rending Samjhauta Express blasts pushed into the background a welcome review of the UPA Government’s Twenty Point Programme (TPP) for the aam aadmi. Planning Secretaries of the States met in New Delhi during the past week to monitor implementation of the programme all over the country and identify the black sheeps among the States. Interestingly, the review showed that the non-UPA Governments had performed better than those led by the Congress or its supporters during the first eight months of the current fiscal. The performance report prepared by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation threw up a surprise: U.P. finished third in the implementation of welfare schemes for the common man. Assam finished last.

Notwithstanding its performance on the economic front, the Mulayam Singh Government faced dismissal and imposition of the President’s rule under Article 356. The Congress, which leads the UPA Government, had almost decided to take this route to settle scores with Mulayam Singh. Brazenly ignoring the point settled by the Supreme Court and the Sarkaria Commission that the majority of any Government has to be tested only on the floor of the Assembly.  The Congress gameplan with the connivance of Governor Rajeshwar was initially held up by the CPM’s firm ‘No’ to the use of Article 356 and the strong possibility of the President not concurring. Thereafter, it was wrecked by the Election Commission on Wednesday with the announcement of the poll schedule for the State Assembly in a month-long seven-phase process starting on April 7.

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Close Race In Uttarakhand

The Assembly poll in Uttarakhand on Wednesday seems to have produced a neck-and-neck race between the ruling Congress and the BJP. Various exit poll predictions indicate that both contestants for power would win 25 to 30 seats each in the 70-member Assembly, leading to a hung House.  The regional parties, Uttarakhand Kranti Dal (UKD) and the BSP of Mayawati are expected to improve their positions and play a major part in the Government formation.  The UKD has only four MLAs in the present Assembly but may win eight to ten seats. If that happens, the BJP would stand a better chance of forming the Government. However, if Mayawati’s BSP wins more seats, the Congress is almost certain to gain. The final outcome would be known on February 27 when counting is due to take place.

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Bihar Performs Well In Social Sector

Derided until recently as a laggard State, Bihar has considerably improved its performance in the implementation of the Centre’s 20-Point Programme. The State has now jumped to the 13^th position from a tail-ender among the 29 States across the country. Equally surprising,  is the performance of the U.P. Government which has been placed at No.3. Interestingly, the non-UPA ruled States like U.P., Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Orissa figure among the first ten. In sharp contrast, the progress report shows poor performance by the “progressive” States of Maharashtra and Kerala, which have been placed at 21^st and 19^th rank. J&K and Assam are at the bottom, ranking 27^th and 29^th respectively. So much for full autonomy enjoyed by successive J&K Governments.

The 20-Point Programme 2006, monitored by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, includes Centrally-supported 20 social sector programmes. These are: poverty eradication; power to the people; support to farmers; labour welfare; food security; housing for all; clean drinking water, health for all; education for all; welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Minorities and OBCs; women welfare; child welfare; youth development; improvement of slums; environment protection and afforestation; social security; rural roads; energization of rural area; development of backward areas; enabled e-governance. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has issued detailed guidelines on the programme.

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Buddhadeb’s New Policy

Acquisition of farmland for industrial development through SEZs continues to needle the Left Front Government of West Bengal, led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee has now given an ultimatum to the Government of a Statewide agitation if the acquisition of the agricultural land continues. This has constrained Buddhadeb to look for an alternative route to industrialization: acquiring the land of various closed or sick industries.  Since most of these industries are in the small or medium sectors, the Government now plans to target them across the State. It has already surveyed about 500 medium and large sick or closed industries which could be acquired and offered for suitable Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

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Bar On “Political” Violence

The historic verdict of the Additional District Sessions Court in Salem, Tamil Nadu, awarding death sentence to three AIADMK activists and seven years rigorous imprisonment to 25 others may have a sobering effect on reckless violence as part of political agitations. Remember, three girl students were burnt to death at Dharmapuri on February 2, 2000 when a mob of the AIADMK workers sent fire to a bus in which they were traveling, to protest against a verdict in a corruption case against their leader, Jayalalitha.  The father of one of the girls filed a petition in the district court, which remained pending during the five years of the AIADMK rule in Tamil Nadu during 2001-06. With the change of the Government and of the public prosecutor, the Sessions Court found the death of the three girls as the “rarest of the rare” cases. The verdict has made the country sit up and think. Better late than never.

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Shyama Charan Passes Away

Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh have lost a great and noble son and the Congress Party a Gandhian in the death of Shyama Charan Shukla, 83, thrice Chief Minister of the undivided Madhya Pradesh in 1969, 1975 and 1989 on February 14.  Son of MP’s first Congress Chief Minister, Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla, he was the party’s tallest stalwart in Central India and admired even by his rivals as a gentleman politician. He symbolized five decades of history of the Chhattisgarh region, now a State. Popularly known as “Shyama Bhaiya”, he preferred active politics even in his eighties to the comfort of a  gubernatorial assignment. His popularity was widely reflected in the mourning in both States, irrespective of party affiliations.  The BJP Government at Bhopal declared a State mourning and its Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan attended the cremation and lauded  Shukla for “always advocating high values in politics”. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, also attended, alongwith Congress Treasurer, Motilal Vora.

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Goa’s Carnival of Fun & Frolic

Panaji, Goa’s capital city reverberated to a non-stop, three-day carnival of fun, frolic, music, song and dance over the last week-end.  Highlighting the Goa extravaganza were colourful floats on parade along the city’s streets to the chant of “Viva Carnival”, with the mythological central figure of the festival, King Momo ushering in his three-day mock rule and calling upon his people to “eat, drink and have fun”.  The floats were based on the State’s traditional occupations, like fishing, and depicted its local traditions to the tune of “Amcha Goem” (Our Goa).  The annual festival, celebrated since the 18^th century Portuguese rule, provides an occasion for feasting, drinking and merrymaking for 40 days before “Lent”, a time of abstinence and spirituality. ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 15 February 2007

Punjab Assembly Poll

CLOSE RACE BETWEEN MAIN RIVALS

By Insaf

A record voter turn-out of 72 per cent for the Punjab Assembly poll on Tuesday, despite rain and chilly weather, leads to two predictions: a decisive popular verdict or a nail-biting finish between the ruling Congress and the Opposition Akali Dal (Badal)-BJP combine.  The true picture will be clear only on February 27, the counting day. Various exit polls differ in their projections at the end of the day of largely peaceful polling. One assessment favours the Congress, which could win 53 to 63 seats in the 117-member Assembly against the Akali Dal’s 47 to 53 seats. Two other exit polls give the Akali-BJP combine a decisive lead. These have, however, estimated the Independents and others winning upto ten seats. The close predictions have prompted the main two contestants to claim victory with their spin doctors coming out with various theories and possibilities.

Whatever the outcome, much of the  credit for a peaceful and largely free and fair polling at the end of an hectic campaigning goes to the Election Commission which took tough measures to implement the model code of conduct from the start. It banned the presence of political functionaries from outside the constituency once campaign ended.  It strictly enforced the voter identity cards at each and every polling booth.  Even the CM’s wife, Preneet Kaur, M.P. from Patiala who came without her ID card was refused voting. It also kept a check on consumption and sale of liquor on the polling day in a State which is known to be a tipler’s delight. It is another matter that the candidates amassed their stock well in time. Alcohol sales during January showed a nine-time high increase over the corresponding month last year---from 2.5 lakh litres to 22 lakh litres.  Added to this was the import of sexy bar girls from Mumbai, Bangalore and elsewhere, each dancer making anywhere Rs.500 to Rs.5,000 per performance.

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Naga Interest In Manipur Poll

The outcome of the Manipur Assembly poll, two phases of which have already been held on February 8 and 14 and the last phase is scheduled for February 23, is being watched with great interest for two reasons. First the “Naga Cause” (demand for Greater Nagalim) in five hill districts having 19 of the 60 Assembly seats. For them the main issue is “Manipur integration versus Naga integration”.  Manipur’s apex Naga body, the United Naga Council (UNC) has fielded its own candidates in the Naga-dominated districts of Senapati and Ukhrul, who will be expected to defend the interest of the Naga people through integration of the Naga majority areas, as demanded by NSCN-IM in its decades-old talks with the Centre.  In the four valley districts with 41 Assembly seats, the ruling Congress-led Secular Progressive Front (SPF) is hoping to romp home easily on the valid plea that its present Government in the State is the first to last its full term in office.

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BJP Hopes In Uttarakhand

In Uttarakhand, the present poll “hawa” favours the BJP and its Chief Ministerial candidate, former Union Minister B.C. Khanduri prior to the second Assembly poll in the hill State on February 21.  The present Congress Government, led by N.D. Tiwari, undoubtedly has an unquestioned record of progress and development during the last five years. Nevertheless, the BJP is going all out to nail the Tiwari Government. It claims that the Congress won the last Assembly poll in 2002 because of a swing of less than two per cent of the popular vote. But the BJP is now all set to reverse its fortunes. Its hope is based mainly on the fact that the ruling Congress is fighting the election as a divided house. Several of its leaders denied party nominations are contesting the poll as Independents. Moreover, other smaller parties have also launched an aggressive campaign against both the Congress and the BJP.

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Rahul’s Plan For U.P.

The Election Commission has now turned its attention to U.P.. Final touches are being given to its plans for ensuring a free and fair Assembly poll, proposed to be held in five phases, starting in mid-April and spread over almost a month. The main political parties too have started working on their plans. Rahul Gandhi has already worked out the Congress strategy at a high-level meeting in New Delhi last week, attended by Sonia Gandhi and AICC General Secretary Incharge for U.P.  Accordingly, the party’s plan is to concentrate on 165 of the 403 Assembly seats.  These constituencies include the seats of 15 sitting MLAs, 26 in which the party finished second in the 2002 Assembly poll, 47 of the Parliamentary constituencies where the party won in 2004 Lok Sabha poll and those where its nominees polled more than 8,000 votes. Some senior national level leaders, like Salman Khurshid and Mohsina Kidwai, are also being sounded for contesting the poll.

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Bengal’s SEZ Plan On Hold

All is not well with the industrialization model of the Left Front Government in West Bengal, headed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee of the CPM.  It is not only the Trinamool Congress Chief Mamata Bannerjee, who has been breathing fire against the acquisition of farmlands for industries, but also the Left allies CPI, RSP and Forward Block. They are dead against the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) projects. After a resolute fight to bring the Tata Motors at Singur, Bhattacharjee is showing signs of cracking and has gone on record to say that he would not set up any SEZ “if that is what the Left parties want”.  After a CPM Politburo meeting at Kolkata over the week-end, General Secretary Prakash Karat announced that all SEZs, including the one at Nandigram have been put on hold. However, the Singur project of Tatas is on, notwithstanding Mamata‘s threat to continue the stir against it.

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Farmer’s Suicides: 6 in 3 Days

Even though the suicide spree of the cash-starved farmers in Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region continues; with six of them ending their lives in three days last week, not more than 10 per cent of the promised relief is reaching the sufferers.  According to Maharashtra’s Finance Minister Jayant Patil, a paltry sum of Rs.248 crore has been released by the Centre out of the relief package of Rs.3,750 crore, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced in July last.  Patil has now disclosed that most of the Centre’s share has been earmarked to complete the pending irrigation projects in the area, with the stated objective of increasing agriculture productivity in the suicide belt.  This has been communicated to the Planning Commission by the State Government last week. The Commission was told that only 17.8 per cent of the net sown area in the State has access to irrigation, as against the national average of 38 per cent.

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ULFA Wants To Restart Talks

Assam’s Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has reason to feel elated, thanks to successful conduct of the National Games at Guwahati which end on February 18 and getting the dreaded ULFA first to withdraw its boycott of the Games and then to strike the right chord with them for re-starting the peace talks. During the Games, some ULFA leaders established contact with the Chief Minister and other political leaders. Gogoi, on his part, made it clear that a direct approach by the ULFA’s C-in-C Paresh Barua or “Chairman” Arabinda Rajkhowa would be required for the Government to re-start the talks process which was scuttled last year.  This development clearly indicates that the militant group is now keen to revive the peace talks with the Centre since public opinion in Assam has largely swung against them. More and more people are beginning to see the ground reality that ULFA and its leaders are shameless paid agents of Pakistan’s ISI and of Bangladesh!

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J&K Probe On Rights Violations

The sensitive issue of human rights violation has taken centre-stage in J&K at a time when the peace process between India and Pakistan is on the fast track. Massive demonstrations have taken place in the last few days following an exposure of anti-militancy Special Operation Group (SOG) killing civilians and dubbing them as foreigners for rewards and promotions.  The protest against such killings has forced the State Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to act fast, particularly because the issue took a political turn when it was taken up by the National Conference Chief Omar Abdullah. The CM announced on the floor of the State Assembly that all incidents of human rights violations in the State since 1990 would be probed. A number of cops, including a Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent of Police, have been arrested. ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Round The States

New Delhi, 8 February 2007

Maharashtra Civic Poll

OUTCOME UPSETS CONGRESS HOPES

By Insaf

The outcome of civic polls in Maharashtra last week has cast a shadow over the Congress Party’s prospects in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur later this month and in U.P. in April-May. The party was hoping to romp home easily in the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC) poll and regain control over the country’s richest local body after a lapse of ten years.  But this did not happen, despite the anti-incumbency wave against the Shiv Sena-BJP combine and the decision of the Sena’s senior leaders, Raj Thackarey and Narayan Rane to part company. The saffron combine has won 111 of the 226 seats in the BMC.  In fact, In Mumbai, the Sena has a strong base among the Marathi-speaking people, the core being the migrant community from the Konkan region.

However, it has not been hunky dory for the Shiv Sena-BJP combine elsewhere in the State. Its overall performance in the ten Municipal Corporations for which the elections were held is disappointing.  It has also lost a large number of seats it won in the last election in 2002. In eight of the ten Corporations, its tally is significantly lower----declining from 133 to 111 seats in Mumbai, from 63 to 53 in Thane, 53 to 45 in Pune, 60 to 40 in Nashik, 25 to13 in Pimpri-Chinchwad, 32 to 18 in Akola, 40 to 24 in Sholapur and from 37 to 27 in Amaravati. In fact, the poor performance of both the saffron parties and the Congress in Maharashtra has turned out to be a gain for the ruling Samajwadi Party in U.P.. There is evidently a massive shift of the Muslims and Dalits from the Congress as reflected in the performance of the SP and BSP candidates in all the ten Corporation polls.

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Development Main Plank In Punjab

Economic development and pro-people governance planks have held the spotlight during the on-going hectic campaigning for the Punjab Assembly poll on February 13.  While the main contestant for power, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Badal (SAD) has promised in its manifesto to concentrate on issues like arrest of price spiral, self- sufficiency in power, employment generation, farmers’ welfare etc, the Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, have claimed considerable progress on these developmental issues during the last five years of the party’s Government, led by Amarinder Singh. The AICC member and former Union Minister Mohsina Kidwai praised the Amarinder governance and even assured her rally at Nabha that the present incumbent would continue as the Chief Minister, if the Congress won a majority once more.

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Rebel Problem In Uttarakhand

Rebel candidates for the Assembly poll in Uttarakhand on February 21 are causing concern to both the ruling Congress and the BJP. In nearly a dozen of the total 70 constituencies, the official candidates may get affected by the rebels who have decided to contest as Independents or are being fielded by other smaller parties. Senior Central leaders of both parties are now busy persuading the rebels not to take on the official candidates. The Congress is also faced with two other problems: intense group rivalry and the leadership’s failure to arrive at an electoral alliance with Sharad Pawar’s NCP. This may harm the party in at least a dozen seats.  The BJP too is facing a challenge from Uma Bharti’s Bhartiya Janshakti Party, which is fielding 46 candidates, 41 of whom were earlier with the BJP.

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Karnataka For Cauvery Review

More than a century old Cauvery water dispute among the four southern States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondicherry (mainly the first two) does not seem to be over yet, despite the Tribunal’s final award last week. The legal and political fight, which began in 1986 and led to the constitution by the Union Government of a Tribunal at the stance of the TN Government in 1990, has seen several violent agitations for the last 17 years, over the distribution of the Cauvery water. The final order of the three-member Tribunal, headed by Justice N.P. Singh, has hiked Tamil Nadu’s share from 205 tmc ft (thousand million cubic feet) in its 1991 interim order to 419 tm cft, leaving 270 tm cft to Karnataka, 30 tmc ft to Kerala and 7 tmc ft to Pondicherry. This means that Karnataka, from where the Cauvery originates would be required to release 192 tmc ft annually. While TN is upbeat with the award, Karnataka is upset and tense.

Karnataka’s Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has discussed the award at an all-party meeting which has unanimously decided to ask the Tribunal for a review of the award, failing which the matter will be taken to the Supreme Court. The States have three months to appeal against the decision to the Tribunal and, according to the Union Minister for Water Resources Saifuddin Soz, the matter cannot be referred to the Apex Court. The whole trouble is that Cauvery, known as “Dakshin Ganga” is a water deficit river, while both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have expanded their cultivable areas since 1974. The latter needs water in June for its short-term Kuruvai crop but Karnataka has repeatedly refused to oblige, citing poor storage on its side. Thus the long political battle between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu continues.

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Tribal Welfare Plan In M.P.

The Tribals in Madhya Pradesh have reason to rejoice. They are to get settlement rights on forest land, thanks to an initiative by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The formalities to legalise possession of land in forest areas would be completed soon after the Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition Of Forest Rights) Bill is passed. The CM disclosed this at a recent “Adivasi Panchayat” organized by the State Government. Besides the move for granting settlement rights, the State Government would also complete its task of converting all the forest villages in the State into revenue villages on priority basis. The Adivasi Panchayat, where the CM made these announcements was attended by elected representatives, MLAs, MPs and State Ministers. It was called to invite suggestions from the people at the grassroots to frame policies and programmes for the welfare of the Scheduled Tribes.

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Singur’s Troubles Continue

Singur’s troubles and the problems of the controversial Tatas car project in West Bengal are far from over. After the Tatas conducted the Bhoomipujan at Singur last week to start construction work on schedule, the Trinamool Congress activists have attempted to set on fire several posts demarcating the land acquired by the State Government for the small car project. There have been several scuffles between the police and the villagers, led by the Trinamool cadres, when the cops tried to prevent them from setting the posts on fire.  Meanwhile, Trinamool suspremo Mamata Banerjee has warned the Government “not to play with fire”.  She has stated: “I have requested both the Centre and the State Government not to acquire multi-crop land and even residential plots…. The Government will have to face the consequences for this.”

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Delhi Escapes Serial Blasts

The Union Capital Delhi narrowly escaped another set of deadly serial blasts on Monday last, thanks to the strong police vigil. Four Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists, three Kashmiris and a Pakistani national were nabbed by the cops. They disclosed on interrogation that they were in the capital to carry out multiple explosions in crowded market places before escaping to Kolkata, possibly en route to Bangladesh. According to the police, the strikes were planned at three market places with the help of 3 kg of RDX, timer device and other ammunition recovered from them. The Jehadis have been remanded to ten days of police custody. The interrogations have so far brought out terror links in Kolkata, where the Kashmiri militants were required to pass on some US dollars to a contact, whose name is yet to be disclosed. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and  Feature Alliance)