Round The States

New Delhi, 5 July 2007

India Battered By Rain

NEED FOR FRESH URBAN PLANNING

By Insaf

Unprecedented havoc caused by this year’s monsoon in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal and elsewhere has compelled almost all the State Governments to sit up as never before and decide in principle to take a fresh look at urban planning, development and governance in their respective capitals, cities and towns. The heavy downpour brought normal life to a standstill and resulted in untold misery for the people, leaving over 400 dead across the country. Worse affected was Maharashtra’s capital Mumbai, which witnessed large-scale cancellations of suburban trains, air flights, water-logged roads, traffic snarls, flooding of the airport and disruption of power supply. Once prided as the financial hub of the country, Mumbai saw all its grandiose dreams of becoming a global financial centre washed away and the metropolis reduced to a provincial town.

Shockingly, the rains have once again exposed the ineptness of the civic administration and the inadequate infrastructure to deal with the annual phenomenon of incessant rains year after year in various states. Thanks mainly to a corrupt polity, supine bureaucracy and   powerful land mafia which has resulted in illegal structures coming up randomly and haphazardly at the whims and fancies of the powers-that-be. This has resulted in unplanned growth with a scandalous lack of sewage and drainage facilities leading to water-logging and flooding of low-lying areas and washing away of slums and crumbling buildings. Notwithstanding, the tall claims made by all and sundry in the various State capitals of their ability to tackle disasters. Take Delhi and Mumbai. Incredibly enough, neither has one single civic authority to deal with the chaos faced by the two metros in the past fortnight.

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No Ray Of Hope For Bhopal Gas Victims

Twenty-three years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, there is still no ray of hope for the 20,000 survivors. If the UPA Government at the Centre succeeds in pushing through an out-of-court settlement with the US multi-national Dow Chemical Company, which now owns the principal culprit, the Union Carbide Corporation, the latter will merrily walk away with its liabilities. Plainly, Dow Chemicals would get indemnified from compensating the victims of the ongoing contamination and cleaning up the soil and ground water. Not only that. Exclude it from having to pay compensation for the damage caused to the survivors’ health because of exposure to the toxic contaminants in their drinking water. Astonishingly, this largesse to let the Company off the hook, seems to have the approval of the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministries of Commerce and Finance and the Planning Commission.

These shocking facts have reportedly been obtained by the gas tragedy survivors’ organizations under the Right to Information Act. The bone of contention is an application moved by the Ministry of Chemicals in the Madhya Pradesh High Court appealing to the Court to order Dow to deposit Rs 100 crores against initial payment for costs of remediation. The Centre reportedly favours an out-of-court settlement as Dow Chemicals has made it clear that it will not invest in India unless the liability issue is cleared and the Ministry of Chemicals application withdrawn from the Court. Remember, 15,000 people died and over 5 lakh suffered health damages in the gas tragedy 23 years ago. Dow Chemicals is a $49 billion giant with 43,000 employees in 175 countries.

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Patil’s Clean Chit To Pak On Infiltration

The Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, has once again let Pakistan off the hook on infiltration from across the Line of Control in strife- torn Jammu and Kashmir which has increased substantially in the past few months. On a two-day visit to the State to review the security scenario, Patil is stated to have told reporters in Srinagar: “We should not blame Pakistan for every wrong thing …. Increase in infiltration and spurt in violence.” Notwithstanding, that barely a week ago, the Defence Minister A.K.Anthony had spoken of a rise in filtration and described it as a “matter of concern.” The Home Minster’s visit was against the backdrop of the Army’s assertion of a sudden spurt in violence juxtaposed with the renewed demand by the Congress coalition partner, People’s Democratic Front’s for troop reduction. Patil also reviewed the arrangements for the annual Amarnath pilgrimage and visited the hallowed Cave.

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YSR Government In Cleft Stick

A 30-year-old Andhra Pradesh Government Order (GO) has become the bane of Chief Minister YSR Reddy’s life. The GO MS No 610 issued on 30 December 1985 by the then NT Rama Rao Government had restricted the share of the “outsiders” in the State Government jobs to 20 per cent to safeguard the interests of the people of Telangana. The order was issued on the basis of a six-point formula aimed at safe-guarding the overall interests of the Telangana people, following the violent stir for a separate state in 1969. With the State Administration all set to identify and repatriate the non-local employees from Hyderabad (so far 4500 non-local employees have been identified), the Telangana Rashtra Samiti has raised the ante for implementation of the GO as over 70,000 Government jobs in the region had gone to the people from the coastal Andhra. Needless to say, the State Government is caught between a rock and a hard place: To back the Telangana dhoti or the coastal lungi!

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Karnataka MLAs Fail To Declare Assets

Even as UP Chief Minister Mayawati, has boldly declared her assets at Rs 52 crore, her Karnataka counterpart, H.D.Kumaraswamy and 31 MLAs  have fought shy of doing so. All of them have failed to declare their assets and liabilities, according to the State’s Lok Ayukta N. Santosh Hegde in his report to the Governor T.N.Chaturvedi. The last date for filing the returns was 30 June last. Under Section 22 of the Lok Ayukta Act it is mandatory for the legislators to submit details of their assets including those of their family members before 30 June every year. So much for upholding the tenets of honesty and transparency in governance, especially when the air is full of scams, big and small. Only last week, the Janata Dal (United) State President demanded an enquiry by a Supreme Court judge into all land deals in the State since 1991. Many among these were bogus.

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The travails of the Narmada oustees for “proper rehabilitation and resettlement” continue. The villagers affected by the Indira Sagar and Omkareshwar projects and led by the Narmada Bachao Andolan have been on nearly a month-long indefinite hunger strike demanding land for land or a special rehabilitation package for the adult sons and adult unmarried daughters of  the farmers being displaced by the two dams in Madhya Pradesh. They are also demanding land for the Omkareshwar oustees under the environmental clearance and also right over the draw-down land in the Indira Sagar reservoir. In the hope of some succour, the oustees have brought their struggle to the State capital Bhopal.

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No Salaries For Jharkhand Acting SPs

In Naxal-infested Jharkhand, 12 of the 22 districts are headed by acting superintendents of police, none of whom belong to the Indian Police Service (IPS) but are from the Jharkhand Police Service. The SPs all have air-conditioned chambers but get no salary as they do not belong to the IPS. According to Section 9 of the IPS Rules, the post of the SP is a cadre post, which shall not be filled by a person who is not a cadre officer. Thus no pay. Shockingly, the State has posted only 59 out of the 110 IPS officers sanctioned for the State. It is saddled with a shortfall of 43 IPS officer and with eight others being on deputation to the Centre. So much for combating Naxalism! ------ INFA

(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)