Round The States

New Delhi, 26 July 2012

Assam In Violence Crosshair

EXPOSES CENTRE-N.East DISCONNECT

By Insaf

Assam today is caught in the crosshairs of violence between the Bodos and the Muslim immigrants in four districts of the State. Significantly, even after a week of clashes there is no end in sight to the hostilities. Already, nearly 50 people have been killed in the ethnic strife in lower Assam's Kokrajhar, Dhubri, Chirang and Bongaigaon districts and lakhs rendered homeless. It all started with the murder of two Muslims followed by two more. In retaliation, the minority community killed four Bodo Liberation Tigers members thereby fueling tempers all around. Worse, the fury of the clashes targeted women, children and the infirm. Till date over two lakh people have sought refuge in relief camps around the conflict zone, the largest exodus in Assam’s history. Trains were disrupted to the State and for two days the entire North-east was virtually cut off 

Caught unawares, the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi called in the Army to restore some semblance of peace and normalcy. Despite imposing indefinite curfew and issuing shoot-at-sight orders across the troubled areas, 13 columns of the security forces are finding it difficult to bring the ugly situation under control. Even as the State Government continues its fire-fighting operations monitoring the situation on an hourly basis, the Centre continues to administer more of the same: rush para-military forces to the ravaged areas. Thereby, exposing the growing disconnect between New Delhi and Assam which needs to be rectified post haste.  

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Militancy Returns In J&K

Barely was the J&K Government patting its back for the record number of tourist influx, the news of militancy rearing its ugly head again through cold water on its hard work. The revival of terror activities came to the fore when security forces identified two bodies of teenaged boys killed in last month’s encounter in Patan. Undeniably, this underscores the rise of a new breed of local teenage militants, born after 1990. In fact, Sopore in the North and Pulwama and Tral in the South have emerged as the militants new hot beds. Worse, these youth are being grabbed by the dreaded Hijbul Mujahidin and Lashar-e-Taiba. According to State sources, the triggers for the local boys joining the terrorist outfits were the 2008 and 2010 uprisings wherein many civilian protesters were killed in by police and paramilitary firings. Till date, over 40 youth have picked up the gun. Needless to say the authorities are keeping their fingers crossed that this will be a passing phase.

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Gujarat Cars To Run On Gas 

In a sign of the coming times, all cars in Gujarat will switch to natural gas within a year. In a far-reaching order, the State High Court concerned over the rise in pollution levels directed the State Government to pass necessary law to make it compulsory for all four-wheelers, public and private vehicles to convert to gas. In addition, it asked the State Transport Authority to issue stringent restrictions to reduce pollution by fixing emission levels on par with international norms. Further, the Court ordered the Centre to allocate natural gas for Ahmadabad at the same price as Delhi and Mumbai. It remains to be seen if other States follow suit?  

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Tourists Banned In Tiger Parks

Over twelve States including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Kerala etc boasting of India’s 43 famed tiger reserves are up in arms over the Supreme Court interim order banning tourist activities in core areas of the tiger parks across the country last week. Primarily, because it was hurting the habitat and breeding grounds of the endangered species.  This comes on the heels of last April’s ruling,  directing all States to identify core and buffer zones of their tiger reserves as part of a rolling effort to regulate where tourist attractions can be located. That the Court was serious was made plain when it imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on six States which failed to comply with its earlier order. Thereby, putting the future of tiger tourism in jeopardy. It is a moot point if the States, home to the world's largest population of 1,706 tigers comply?

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Mayawati’s Statue Vandalised

Four miscreants paid put to UP Chief Minister’s Akhilesh Yadav’s much-touted promise that he would not remove his predecessor BSP’s Mayawati’s statues dotting the four corners of the State. Shockingly, yesterday the unidentified youth vandalized Mayawati’s life size statue in Capital Lucknow’s famed Ambedkar Park. Predictably, an angry Mayawati has threatened “dire consequences” if the statue are not repaired. Notwithstanding, Akhilesh’s assertion of bringing the culprits to book and restoring the statue to its original glory. This comes on the heels of the State Government re-christening eight districts named after Dalit icons by the erstwhile Mayawati Government. Namely, Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar has reverted back to being called Amethi, Ramabai Nagar to Kanpur Dehat, Bheem Nagar, Prabudh Nagar and Pancheel Nagar will now be called Sambhal, Shamli and Hapur. Predictably, all eyes are focused on a new round of tu-tu-main-main between Mayawati and Akhilesh.

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Two Tier Cities Killers

After India’s Capital New Delhi, roads in the Hindu heartland’s two tier cities have earned the ignominy of becoming dead-ly. Wherein the chances of dying in a road accident in Punjab’s car-crazy Ludhiana is 30 times higher than densely populated Mumbai and twice more than the National Capital. What comes as a shocker is that West Bengal’s Durgapur-Asansol belt accounts for over 62.5 per cent people dying in every 100 accidents followed by the Dhanbad in Jharkhand and UP’s Varanasi, Agra, Ghaziabad and Meerut. On the contrary, fatal accidents are much less in big metros like Bangalore and Kolkata. More shocking, last year alone there were over 1.42 lakh fatalities in these small towns. Raising a big question on whether people are abiding by traffic and road rules? ------ INFA

(Copyright, India News and  Feature Alliance)