Round The States

New Delhi, 16 May 2007

Caste-Mix Rule In U.P.

WILL MAYAWATI END GOONDA RAJ?

 By Insaf

The people of Uttar Pradesh who have given Mayawati a historic mandate are now eagerly waiting to see her fulfil her heart-warming poll promises in her fourth stint as the CM.  She is firmly committed to ending what she described as “goonda raj” and give the people what they are yearning for: a good, clean and responsive governance. Importantly, she has carried forward her social engineering one stage further in the composition of her 49-member Council of Ministers. She has taken recourse to the Narasimha Rao formula in determining the strength of her Ministry---10 per cent of the membership of both the Houses of the legislature. U.P. Assembly has 403 members and the Council 100 members. Her team comprises 11 OBCs, 19 Dalits, seven Brahmins, five Muslims, five Thakurs and one Banias and Bhumihars each.

Mayawati’s commitment to end “mafia raj” that flourished under her predecessor’s Government is also on test, given the fact that as many as six of her Ministers are allegedly facing criminal charges ranging from murder to extraction. One of them who reportedly tops the notoriety charge is a new entrant to the BSP. He has his own “Insaf Sena” in Bundelkhand region. More galling is her decision to induct in her Ministry Anand Sen Yadav who allegedly faces some serious criminal charges. Yadav, who is currently lodged in Faizabad jail has already managed to get himself shifted to a hospital after the results were declared.  His name was in the list of Ministers but he is yet to be sworn-in. With such people in the Ministry, doubts have arisen already whether Mayawati will be able to give a clean government now that she has publicly set her sight on the Delhi “gaddi”.

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“Political Earthquake” In DMK

A succession controversy in Tamil Nadu’s most powerful Dravidian party, the ruling DMK, has caused a “political earthquake” not only in Chennai but also in New Delhi. The UPA Government’s most competent and successful Information Technology and Communication Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, grandnephew of Chief Minister Karunanidhi, was forced to resign from the Union Cabinet on instructions from the DMK supremo. The reason? Dayanidhi is charged by the DMK’s 140-member Administration Committee of having connived in the publication of a highly controversial opinion poll in a Tamil newspaper Dinakaran, owned by the Maran family. The poll voted for M.K. Stalin as Karunidhi’s political successor in preference to former’s elder brother M.K. Azhagiri. This led to a violent attack on the newspaper office in Madurai. Three workers of the newspaper were killed. This annoyed the boss no end, leading to Dayanidhi’s recall from Delhi where he was the DMK’s main voice, like his father Murasoli Maran. Dayanidhi, on his part, is, lying low at present and has reaffirmed his loyalty to the DMK and its leader.

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Assam Towards Progress

Assam’s Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi has reason to feel elated at the end of one year of his governance on May 15 in his second stint as the CM. Despite the problem of continued ULFA insurgency in the State, Gogoi has been able to usher in success in various spheres. His Government’s performance during the year is a step towards his vision of making Assam a front-ranking State in the country. The Government has taken measures to make the State self-sufficient in power, a requisite for industrial development. The foundation stone has been laid of the much-awaited Gas Cracker Project and an independent 100 MW Karbi Langpi hydro-electric project commissioned. Additionally, massive investment has. been made in sectors like health, education and hotel industry, leading to opening up of vistas of employment opportunities.

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Poll-Eve Jolt To Goa Congress

Nearly a week after the exit of one of its top leaders in Goa, Churchill Alemao, the State Congress has got another serious jolt on the eve of the Assembly elections on June 2. Another party leader, Atanasio Monserrate quit the party and joined hands with the United Goan Democratic Party (UGDP), a regional outfit. Worse, Monserrate, a Minister in the present Pratapsinh Rana Ministry representing the Talegad constituency, announced his resignation only an hour before the closing of nominations for the upcoming poll.  This caught the Congress napping, and without a candidate in the Talegad constituency. Incidentally, Monserrate has a history of changing parties.  He had first won the 2002 Assembly poll on the UGDP ticket, but later defected to the BJP alongwith two UGDP MLAs.  He again resigned from the BJP alongwith four MLAs and propelled the present Pratapsinh Rane-led Congress Government.

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Punjab’s Massive Plan

Punjab can look forward to massive development within the next three years, if the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) is able to implement its imaginative economic plan. The plan has been unveiled by the party’s working President, Sukhbir Singh Badal, MP son of Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal. The party’s “Vision”, as Sukhbir Singh describes it, focuses on three areas: 24-hour electricity supply to all, development of three airports and promotion of medical tourism to boost finance and provide career opportunities for the youth. The target is to add as much as 6,000 MW of power by setting up coal-based plants. The State Government would liberalise its policy to allow industrial units to install captive power plants. He expects the State to become power surplus by 2010. Three new airports are proposed to be set up in the private sector, venue for which would be finalised shortly.

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J&K Assembly Expansion Plan

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s plan to increase the strength of the State Assembly by 25 per cent, undertake fresh delimitation of the constituencies and give specific rights to the refugees from Pakistan and Pak-occupied Kashmir, has run into difficulty. An all-party meeting to thrash out the proposal failed to win the favour of the State’s top political parties, National Conference and People’s Democratic Party. Both Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, Chiefs of the two parties, stayed away from the meeting. Azad, on his part, has made it clear that his Government will not take any decision on these crucial issues. The State, he told the meeting, was passing through a critical phase and time demanded that all political parties behaved in a responsible manner. There are sharp differences among the main parties over the fresh delimitation of constituencies in the Jammu region and the rights that should be accorded to the refugees.

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Raje’s Nahar Yatra

Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has added yet another feather to her cap. She has taken adequate steps to resolve the prolonged water problem of the desert districts of Jaisalmer, Sriganganagar, Hanumangarh and Barmer. She undertook recently a four-day 1200-km “Nahar Yatra”, along the volatile Indira Gandhi Nahar Project (IGNP) in these districts which were earlier rocked by the farmers’ agitation. During her extensive trip she addressed 25 well-attended rallies and announced scores of welfare schemes estimated to involve an expenditure of Rs.900 crore. These schemes include repairs of the Canal, its tributaries and water channels and several other problems pertaining to agriculture, animal husbandry and education.

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Orissa Refinery Plan In Difficulty

Orissa’s massive industrial development plan is now facing another roadblock.  Even as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik struggles hard to push the controversial Rs.51,000-crore steel plant at Jagatsinghpur by the South Korean major POSCO, another similar problem has cropped up: political opposition to the proposed refinery project by the Vedanta group. The Opposition Congress and the Left parties have announced their decision to launch a satyagraha against the Vedanta project in Kalahandi district from June 16. The project is opposed on the ground that the use of forest land in an ecologically sensitive area like Niyamgiri hill should not be permitted. The POSCO project, for which construction for the first phase was to start last month, faces a new threat. The company has told the Government that if the plans do not take off soon, the project cost would escalate beyond their estimate.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)