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Round The States
New Delhi, 21 February 2013
States Boo To Centre
NATIONAL BANDH CRIPPLES LIFE
By Insaf
Trade Unions in States across the country have said a big
boo to the Centre’s plea not to strike as it would cause undue hardship to the aam aadmi. Ignoring the Prime Minister’s
appeal, 11 trade organisations paralysed States due to their two day bandh earlier this week in support of
the Government’s failure to check price rise and enforce labour laws. Never
mind that these 11 are affiliated to either the ruling Congress or BJP. All collectively ensured that not only
private buses, taxis and scooters but also banking services were crippled with
only ATMs functioning which too fast ran out of cash. The worst hit was UP’s
Noida district which witnessed violence with private and public vehicles being
burnt by miscreants. In the Union Capital, flash mobs attacked garment
factories, yet the Delhi Administration was able to contain the damage.
In other States, the strike was peaceful with workers from
transport to banking keeping away from their work-places. The silver lining in
this dismal bandh week was salubrious
North East’s Assam
wherein the strike evoked lukewarm response. Ditto the case in Odisha and
Karnataka where closed shops, markets, business establishments and petrol pumps
served as announcement of a hartal. India’s ‘renowned’ trade union
Capital West Bengal surprisingly was trouble free. Kudos to Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee who urged the Election Commission to ban Parties calling for
shutdowns. Predictably, her bête noir
the Left Parties denounced her. In India’s financial Capital, Mumbai,
its life-line, suburban railways, functioned normally and road traffic remained
unaffected, though there were fewer passengers using public transport. In
Andhra, public sector bank employees took out protest rallies. According to
estimates, the total business loss is pegged at over Rs.26,000 crores. Time for
the States to do a serious rethink on what purpose strikes help the Unions
getting their demands met!
* * * *
TN Water Woes Over?
Curtains have hopefully come down on the Tamil
Nadu-Karnataka water wars. On Wednesday last, the Centre notified the Cauvery
Water Disputes Tribunal’s final award which spells out sharing of the Cauvery
system among Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Puducherry. While Chennai is
jubilant that its six-year-long wait is thankfully over, Bangalore is keeping its fingers crossed the
implementation process gets delayed! As per the award, Karnataka will have to
release 192 thousand million cubic (tmc) feet in 10 monthly instalments to
Tamil Nadu, which will be monitored by a Cauvery Water Regulation Committee for
next five years. However, the panel will come into existence only after the
Centre as per the award sets up a Cauvery Management Board/Authority. There is
ambiguity on this as a Cauvery River Authority and a Monitoring Committee
already exist. Thus, while TN Chief Minister Jayalalitha has hailed the award
as the “best birthday gift”, celebrations may have to wait till New Delhi gets its act
together.
* * * *
Bihar’s Growth, Media
Record
Bihar makes both good and bad
news. The State has recorded an impressive 11.95 per cent growth during the 11th
Plan, according to the Economic Survey 2012-13 tabled in the Assembly on
Tuesday last. The record is particularly good news for Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar as it is the ‘highest’ among all States, beating even Narendra Modi’s
Gujarat, which he could use to block the latter’s Prime Ministerial ambition!
The survey spells out a big jump from previous year on various fronts—highest
revenue (Rs 6,316 crore), agriculture production (174 lakh tonnes compared to
104 lakh tonne), rice production (8.2 m tonnes against 3.1 m tonnes), tax
revenue (Rs 12,612 cr from Rs 5,086 cr) etc. However, all is not well. A
fact-finding committee report of the Press Council has accused the State of
“press censorship” and of dictating news to media houses. While Nitish has
rubbished the report as “biased”, he may not deny that it has dampened the
upbeat mood.
* * * *
Orissa Maoists
Recent Maoist-related developments in Orissa are a puzzle to
the Centre. Apparently in the past one month over 400-odd members of a frontal
organisation of the CPI(Maoists), the Chasi Muliya Adivasi Sangh (CMAS) have
gradually surrendered to the police in Koraput district. While one would expect
security agencies to be happy or at least relieved, it doesn’t seem to be the
case. Instead there is anxiety as to why this sudden spurt in surrenders. The
question doing the rounds is whether the members of the Sangh are really
disillusioned or is there an ulterior motive behind the move? New Delhi suspects that as the State shall go
to the polls next year, perhaps the Sangh has plans to put its own men in the
mainstream for bigger gains. In this lingering uncertainty, there is little
else that both the State and Centre can do other than wait and watch.
* * * *
UP Eyes LS Polls
Uttar Pradesh is aggressively gearing up for the General
elections in 2014, if not earlier. The State budget presented on Tuesday last,
is a clear pointer. A perusal shows that the Samajwadi Party government has not
levied any major taxes but proposes to spend lavishly on ‘populist’ schemes, in
the Rs 2.21 lakh crore Budget, the biggest in the State’s history. The allocations include: Rs 20,292 crore for
social welfare schemes for SC, ST, BCs, handicapped and minorities, Rs 1,200
crore for unemployment allowance, Rs 750 crore for loan waiver for farmers, Rs
32,886 crore for education, Rs 26,141 crore for infrastructure and
value-addition on roads, expressways, flyovers, et al. In the process, it has
upset the industry which sees the expenditure going into “unproductive”
activities. For example it points out that that while Rs 400 crore has been
earmarked for Solar Energy Rickshaw Scheme, there is no provision for
incentives for setting up solar energy power plants! Will Chief Minister
Akhilesh Yadav prove the industry wrong, time will tell.
* * * *
MP Tribe On Brink Of
Extinction
Madhya Pradesh has raised the ante of the Khairwar tribe
being on the verge of extinction in remote Harrai village. The reason is due to
the tribal women inability to conceive. Shockingly, in the last five decades
there has been only one birth in the tribe that too two years ago but the child
died within a year. According to locals the failure of women to procreate is
due to ‘black magic’ practiced by other tribal groups in the area. However, a
study by Jabalpur’s
Regional Medical Research Centre 20 years ago attributes the villagers
infertility to syphilis which they might have contracted from migrant labours
in the sixties. As no follow-up treatment reached the village, the tribals
continue to suffer resulting in the situation becoming alarming whereby there
are only about 30 families left --- all childless couples who are passed their
reproductive age. A worried State Government along-with the tribals are in despair
and are appealing to Mother Goddess to deliver children. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)
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