Round The States

New Delhi, 16 August 2013   

Soaring Onion Prices

WILL STATES, CENTRE WIPE TEARS?

By Insaf

Prices of onions have raised a stink in many States, sending Governments into a tizzy.  Cities including the national capital, Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Patna, Chennai, Bhubneswar are reeling under an unprecedented hike with onions costing anything between Rs 60-80 a kg! While Odisha and Delhi Chief Ministers have asked the Centre to temporarily ban exports of the important ingredient, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution claims no export is taking place because prices in India are higher than those outside. The reasons cited vary from shortage of supply due to heavy rains in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which account for 40 per cent of the production, to disruption of supply line thanks to holidays, including Eid and Independence Day (the latter particularly in Delhi in view of heavy restriction on trucks’ movement and Inter-State borders’ checking), to alleged hoarding by local suppliers.

No one in the UPA-II is willing to admit that inflation has sadly become a staple diet for the people. While reasons cited are aplenty, a solution is nowhere in sight. The only balm the Centre can offer to the aam admi is to ask States to impose stock holding limits, intensify drive against hoarders, shortlist States with potential for onion production to ensure rotational crop and import onions. Will it suffice? Unlikely and certainly not for the present. Worried about the strong implications onion prices have on voters, (remember 1998 elections), Delhi, in poll mode, has commissioned 175 mobile vans to sell onions at a ‘reasonable’ rate, till the time prices stabilize – by October when the new crop arrives! Odisha, can’t wait like others and has started selling onions in Government fair price shops at Rs. 46 per kg. As for households, onions would need to be rationed or simply given up. The big question is: Will the tears of the common man make incumbent governments, in States and the Centre cry too?       

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“Wiser” J&K

Jammu & Kashmir has a lesson or two to offer in building national integration. Its Chief Minister Omar Abdullah appears to have become ‘wiser’, thanks to the aftermath of communal violence in Kishtwar district. Don’t treat us separately, was the bottom line of his I-Day speech at Bakshi Stadium. In fact, he chose to touch on the sore point of why Kashmiris consider themselves separate from the country's mainstream? The problem was not with the State and its people, but with the rest outside, read those who slammed his government over the riots. In his defense, the exasperated young CM said he had figures of communal violence in other States including Maharashtra, UP, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and asked whether any big leader went to those places to express solidarity or raise the issue in Parliament? He also made it amply known that scrapping of Article 370 was no solution to integrate Kashmir fully with the rest of the country. “It will not happen by changing clauses of the Constitution… It will happen when you change your attitude.” Whether he touched a cord with the rest of India is uncertain, but his speech did make it to the national headlines. This, one is sure he will have no complaints about. What New Delhi and the main Opposition make of it, is worth a watch.    

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Bihar Set For Special Package

Bihar Chief Minister could soon be laughing all the way to the bank with the Centre virtually deciding to accede to Nitish Kumar’s demand and declare the State along with other BIMARU areas as ‘backward’. Thereby ending months of suspense. This has been brought about by the UPA expert committee re-jigging the parameters of backwardness to a new composite development index. Pertinently, the new basis of backwardness would be judged by the distance from the National Average on Parameters including poverty rate, consumption, education, health, female literacy, urbanization, household amenities, connectivity, financial inclusion and share of SCs/STs in the total population. Undeniably, not only would it lead to a new found bonhomie between the Congress and JD (U) but set the stage for re-alignment of UPA coalition partners, wherein Nitish may be in and RJD’s Lalu out of the Congress’ loop.

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Gorkhaland Stir

Darjeeling is aflame again, thanks to the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha raising the ante for the creation of Gorkhaland, a tragic fallout of the Centre’s decision to create a new State Telangana. Predictably, the salubrious hills of Darjeeling are now reverberating to increasing violence with no end in sight (barring a break for 4 days from 15 August), to the indefinite bandh (janata curfew) called by the GJM for over 10 days notwithstanding the curfew imposed by the State Administration even as the Police cracked down and arrested some leaders. Meanwhile, an angry West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata has bluntly rubbished the demand for a new State and invited Morcha Chief Bimal Gurang for talks to Kolkata. Reportedly, the backroom talks between the Centre and the GJM leaders have failed to break the logjam. Notably, unlike the earlier demand for creation of a new State led by the then GNLF Chief Subhas Ghishing in the late 80s and early 90s which resulted in the setting up of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Autonomous Council to end the strife, this time round the GJM refuses to be conned in to submission by crumbs of “more autonomy”. In this eye ball confrontation it remains to be seen whether Gurung or Mamata will blink first.

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UP Tops Illegal Arrests

Uttar Pradesh is indeed the nation’s bad land -- there can be no two opinions. The National Human Rights Commission will be more than willing to certify it, in case of any doubts. According to its statistics, the largest State accounts for over 80 per cent of the illegal arrests in the entire country. Records of NHRC in the past three years-- April 2010 to July 2013 reveal that of the 3,950 illegal arrest cases across the country, UP had a tally of 3,397! The rest (27 States and 7 Union Territories) all put together only had 553 cases, of which Delhi and Uttarakhand had 14 each. The shocking figures should make the leadership of both the BSP, supremo Mayawati, and the ruling SP Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav, hang their heads in shame as last year the State accounted for 589 of the 703 such cases, whereas this year so far it has 161 of the 192 cases. Passing on the blame to the State police or questioning the figures would be naïve. It would be wise to put one’s house in order. Sooner the better.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)