Round The States

New Delhi, 1 August 2012

India Gridlocked

20 STATES SANS POWER

By Insaf

Mid-Tuesday at 1.30PM half of India encompassing 22 States and Union Territories went without electricity. Thanks to three grids, Northern, Eastern and North-Eastern collapsing. In fact, the Northern grid which supplies electricity to Union Capital Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh failed for the second straight day. In a cascading effect, the Eastern grid supplying power to six States, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Sikkim along-with the North Eastern grid generating power to Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura too got grid-locked. This in turn, crippled essential services to hospitals, public transport systems and water supply. Worse, this not only left nearly 684 million people sweltering in late July’s heat but also brought 300 trains to a grinding halt. Adding to all-round mayhem, traffic lights went on the blink leading to innumerable traffic jams. This is not all. Over 200 miners were trapped in W Bengal’s Eastern Coalfields due to the power crisis.

Sadly, instead of getting their act together and pushing through reforms in the power sector, various State Governments and the Centre were busy accusing each other for overdrawing electricity and trading charges. As it stands, the State Electricity Boards are already bleeding by over Rs. 1 lakh crore losses due to mismanagement, political interference, delaying in reforms and subsidies.  Add to this 30 per cent decreased power due to theft and politics has painted a grim power scenario. Thereby, not only highlighting the precarious state of the power sector in the country but also earning the nation the ignominy of having the world’s worst and wide-spread power failure. It is a moot point if our leaders at the Centre and State read this catastrophe as a wake-up call to get their act together and give undivided attention to impending power and infrastructure reforms.

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Mulayam rap Akhilesh

It is common for a father to admonish his son for wrong doings. But rarely does one hear of a father as the leader of a regional party publically criticizing his Chief Minister son. Clearly, Samajwadi Chief Mulayam Singh underscored that paternal love is all very well but administrative and political performance comes first when it comes to his State Government. At a meeting of Party MLAs, Mulayam minced no words that he was ‘dissatisfied’ by son Akhilesh Yadav and Ministers’ output. Asserting that he had earmarked six months for Akhilesh to show results but found that even after four months the ground reality in the State remained static, showing no improvement. Cautioning that the next Lok Sabha election would be the real test for the Party, Mulayam highlighted the need for the Ministers to pull up their socks and work for the aam aadmi. Will Akhilesh heed?

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Fuel Subsidy For States

With ten States, including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana facing acute drought, the Union Agriculture Minister has painted a rainbow by granting assistance of Rs. 2000 crores to 322 districts in these States. This largesse is towards subsidizing diesel by 50 per cent to enable farmers to use generators to pump water to their fields, buy seeds as also fund other drought control programmes. The Central bounty would also go towards crop protection measures alongwith drinking water schemes as nearly 16 States including Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal are facing a severe water crisis. Questionably, the country has been facing drought year after year and every year various schemes and money is doled out, yet an end to the farmers misery remains elusive.

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Union Minister Lambast AP Governor

The mining scam in Andhra Pradesh has taken a totally unimaginable turn. Whereby, the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Kishore Chandra Deo sharply criticized the Congress-appointed State Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan for his inaction to stop Bauxite mining in Vishakhapatnam. In his letter, Minister Deo requested the Governor to invoke his Special Powers for Schedule Areas and cancel the mining leases pertaining to 2005-09 as they were affecting the tribals livelihood. Shockingly, instead of acting on the Union Minister’s complaint, Governor Narasimhan sent his demand to the State Government for examination. Under Schedule V of the Constitution Governors are empowered to veto the implementation of any law on the grounds of land alienation of tribals, regulation of land allotment and money-lending activities. Coming on the heels of Congress’ Assam Chief Minister criticism of the Centre for delay in security deployment during the recent violence along-with Congress Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda showering praise on BJP’s Gujarat Chief Minister Modi clearly shows that all is not well in the Congress fold.

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Centre Condemns Karnataka

Last week Karnataka came a full circle with a 2009 replay of a pro-Hindu organization Hindu Vedike Jagran assaulting six girls and seven boys partying in a Mangalore house in the name of moral policing. Most scandalously, the activists not only dragged the girls by their hair but tried to molest and beat them. Recall, in 2009 the Shri Ram Sene activists too had enacted a similar incident in Mangalore: Attacked girls in a pub ostensible on the grounds that they were violating “traditional values”. A horrified India and a shocked Centre has slammed the State Government for failing to stop attacks by Hindu outfits on young boys and girls in the State in name of morality. Further, it has asked the State to take immediate action against the Vedike hooligans. Arguably, even as the BJP Government distances itself from this rabid Hindutva brigade, one fails to understand the delay in taking action against the miscreants.

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Gujarat Governor Nails Minister

Adding to the BJP woes, the Gujarat Governor Dr. Kamla Beniwal has sanctioned prosecution against Minister of State for Fisheries Parshottam Solanki in a Rs. 400 crore fishing scam of 2008. Significantly, this is the first case in the State’s political history that the Governor has overruled her Cabinet to allow criminal proceedings against a Minister. It is an open secret that Chief Minister Modi and the Governor are at loggerheads. Besides, with Assembly elections due in December, the State Government was going soft on Solanki as he has substantial influence over Koli voters, crucial to the BJP’s fortunes.  All eyes are riveted on Solanki next move. Will he resign before a case of fraud is filed under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)