Round The States
New
Delhi, 17 January 2013
Corruption In High Places
HARYANA OFFERS HOPE
By Insaf
a
Political corruption in
high places may no longer remain unchecked, as Haryana has shown. After 12-long-years, its formidable Jat
leader, INLD’s former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his MLA-son Ajay and
53 others were convicted in the famous teachers’ recruitment case. Recall 3,206
junior basic trained (JBT) teachers were illegally recruited in the State
during 1999-2000. While Delhi’s
special CBI court is yet to pronounce the quantum of sentence, the duo are
cooling their heels in Tihar jail. Notwithstanding Abhay Chautala’s assertion
that the teachers were selected on merit and no money exchanged hands, the
Court found them guilty for cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and
corruption. Reportedly, each aspirant teacher paid Rs 3-4 lakhs bribe,
totalling a mind-boggling 90 crores pocketed by the Chautalas. Typical of
leaders, they have put the onus on the Department of Primary Education head for
the scam and are preparing to go in for an appeal. While it may take time, it remains to be seen
whether this case would be a lesson for our political leaders to follow.
* * * *
Karnataka In Fresh Trouble?
BJP-ruled Karnataka is
inviting fresh trouble. The State’s Textbook Society has come under a scathing
attack by the Committee for Resisting Saffronisation of Education, with the
latter accusing it of “saffronising” text books. In a memorandum to the NCERT
and the Human Resource Ministry, the panel has sought a detailed investigation
into “academically poor and saffronised textbooks with many a distortion and
misrepresentation.” The textbooks in question are for Class V and VII by the
Karnataka Textbook Society, which allegedly ‘contain lessons that are
anti-minorities and treat Dalits, women and adivasis as inferior beings’! The
panel has further noted that the textbooks for most part go against the spirit
of the National Curriculum Framework 2005, which clearly recommends that
curriculum should be culturally neutral. With reported aberrations abound in
these textbooks, it would be best for the KTS to oblige and offer these to the
NCERT for scrutiny. Amends should be made immediately lest lakhs of young minds
get corrupted.
* * * *
‘Greyhound’ For 4 States
Four Naxal-hit States of
Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar have
reason to be hopeful. Given the success rate of the special police unit
“Greyhounds” in Andhra Pradesh, the Centre has decided to provide Rs 280 crore
in the 12th Plan to these States to raise the specialised force. The
funds are to be utilised to create and upgrade infrastructure, equipment and
weaponry and train special units in guerrilla warfare. However, it is not
smooth sailing as the Centre has put riders before it doles out the funds. For
starters, the States would need to chip in Rs 56 crore each and ensure that the
special force is upgraded as per its approved guidelines of Greyhounds. State
Governments would need to give an undertaking, and only then would the Centre
consider releasing the funds. With no short-cuts allowed, Chief Ministers of
these States should ensure that New
Delhi’s offer does not go a begging. More so, as the
Centre has set all doubts to rest over the capability of the Greyhound to help
its war against the Naxals.
* * * *
J&K Changes
Twitter-savvy J&K
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is getting proactive offline. The young CM, seen
as being rather mellow in administration, has started planning for the next
Assembly elections due next year, like New
Delhi. On Tuesday last, he undertook a major reshuffle
in his Cabinet, the first since he took over the reins in January 2009 and
inducted 10 new faces (seven from National Conference and three from Congress).
The changes have interesting connotations. For starters, some MLAs who were
peeved over their areas not getting representation will now be mollified.
However, with the newcomers, father Farooq Abdullah may have a bigger role to
play in the State’s politics. At the same time, the NC may hope to have better
chances in the election as by re-inducting Congress MLA Ghulam Ahmed Mir,
involved in a sex racket but later exonerated, it seems to have hurt its
coalition partner’s prospects. State Congress leaders are visibly perturbed but
can do little as Omar has the backing of Party General Secretary, Rahul Gandhi.
All eyes, however, shall now be on how the young brigade fares in
governance.
* * * *
Kudos
For Madhya Pradesh
Three cheers to Madhya
Pradesh. The BJP State’s initiative for farmers’
upliftment and improving food grain production has yielded excellent results.
With an unprecedented 18 per cent agriculture growth rate to its credit, it
bagged the “Krishi Karman Award” ---
the best-performing State in overall total food grain production (Category I
over 10 million tonnes) for 2011-12, on Tuesday last. Tamil Nadu (in Category
-II with output between 1-10 million tonnes) and Manipur (Category-III with
below one million tonne output) followed suit. What did the trick? Apparently,
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s resolve to make agriculture profitable,
which saw the setting up of a first-ever
Krishi Cabinet, comprising ministries and departments related with
agriculture did wonders! As a result schemes such as offering low rate of
interest to farmers; a three-fold increase in irrigated land; transfer of cash
to bank accounts of wheat growers who sell their produce to Government; Kisan
Credit Cards to farmers; feeder separation to supply 24-hour power to farmers etc
were rolled out. With agriculture now being his USP, Chouhan is eyeing the
State’s food processing potential. While he has invited investors in the hope
of another success, other States could take a cue from Madhya Pradesh.
* * * *
Jolt To Tripura Cong
Tripura augurs bad news
for the Congress. Less than a month away from the 60-member Assembly elections
on February 14, the Party received a rude jolt with 32 leaders of the Pradesh
Congress Scheduled Tribe (ST) department, resigning and deciding to contest in
20 seats (17 in ST reserved seats and 3 in general constituencies) against the
official nominees. The tribal wing of the party is obviously peeved over the
Pradesh Congress’ decision to allocate 11 seats to the Indigenous Nationalist
Party of Tripura (INPT) without consulting it and leaving its prominent tribal
leaders out in the lurch. Perhaps, the Congress, which is in the Opposition,
seems to have got its calculations wrong to turn the tables around this
election. While seeking to appease its new found alliance partner, the INPT, it
has clearly rubbed the tribal leaders the wrong way. The big question is: Will
Party President Sonia Gandhi, manage to get the ST leaders to take back their
resignations? Let’s wait and watch.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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