Round The States

New Delhi, 8 August 2007

Unprecedented Flood Havoc

GOVERNMENT’S CAUGHT NAPPING AGAIN

By Insaf

Unprecedented floods are playing havoc in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Orissa and West Bengal. Worst ever in 30 years, this year’s floods across the country have already taken a toll of 1,258 lives. Three crores of people had been displaced across 20 States at the time of writing. Property worth 1.3 crore has been destroyed. More than 68,000 heads of cattle have perished.  Top leaders have been making their customary visits to the flood-hit States. The State Governments have set up shelters and have been air dropping food and medicines. However, these measures leave a great deal to be desired. They are hardly enough to meet the desperate need of the millions now suffering silently---and helplessly.

Most sadly, the annual floods are not receiving the attention they deserve from both the Central and State Governments even after 60 years of freedom. Floods across the country are an annual visitation, differing only in intensity. Yet little has been done so far either by the Centre or by the States to plan ahead proactively and not merely react to disasters year after year.  It is high time that India’s politicians and administrators start learning to live and even dance, with the floods, as once advocated by Assam’s late Chief Minister Sarat Chandra Sinha in his talk with Insaf in Guwahati years ago.  He added, “If the Europeans, Russians and others have learnt to play and dance with the snow, why can’t we with the floods?”

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Interestingly, floods have been playing havoc among our neighbours too. In Bangladesh, nearly 9 million people have either been displaced or marooned in 39 out of 64 affected districts. Over 3,00,000 flood-hit victims have so far taken shelter in 1412 flood centres and 156 lives were lost until August 6. In Nepal, death toll due to floods and landslides since June stands at 93. Floods have affected 33 districts and damaged property worth 12.5 million.  China, too, has been hit hard by the worst rains of the year. Ironically, however, the country is also facing widespread and prolonged drought in its northern North-Eastern and Southern region of the country.  By the last weekend it had left 7.5 million people and 5 million head of cattle short of drinking water. Sustained drought has affected 11 million hectares of arable land, 1.7 million more than the same period, last year.

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Freedom of Religion in Gujarat & MP? 

Freedom of religion has become a major issue in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The BJP governments’ bid to curb fraudulent religious conversions in their States has run into rough weather. While Gujarat Governor N K Sharma declined has declined to give his consent to the Freedom of Religion (Amendment) Bill 2006, his counterpart in MP, Balram Jakhar has sent a similar Bill to the President for consideration, after returning it to the State government. The two Congress veterans have justified their actions on ground that the amendments are unconstitutional.  In particular, Sharma has found classifying of Jains and Buddhists with Hindus objectionable, and Jhakhar considers provisions such as submitting prior notice for conversion as draconian. While President Pratibha Patil is to decide the fate of the MP Bill, Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, is trying to take forward his hindutva agenda through the backdoor. He proposes to revive a four-year-old law, with a similar aim, passed by the Assembly and approved by the then BJP Governor, S.S. Bhandari, but not implemented! Remember, he goes to the Assembly poll later this year.

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Bizarre Wooing In South

Kerala and Tamil Nadu are witnessing something at once incredible and bizarre. Chief Ministers of both the States, V.S. Achuthanandan of the Left and DMK’s Karunanidhi respectively are busy wooing the new poster boy of appeasement, Abdul Naseer Mahdani, leader of the Peoples Democratic Party. This follows the radical cleric’s release from prison following his acquittal in the sensational Coimbatore blast case in 1998 allegedly aimed at senior BJP leader L.K. Advani. Recall, Mahdani, a fiery orator, who founded the banned Islamic Sevak Sangh, reportedly played a decisive role in the minority vote calculus to garner Muslim votes in the 2001 and 2006 Assembly elections in Kerala and the 2004 polls in Tamil Nadu.  State leaders believe that Mahdani, still wanted in 22 other cases, can conjure up minority magic in the next poll for them.

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Jharkhand Honeymoon Over

Jharkhand, which was once touted as jewel in the crown of small States, has today earned the ignominious distinction of a land of rising crime, nervous officers, a paralysed State Government and an absentee Chief Minister. Over 700 people are estimated to have been murdered this year; 547 in just the first four months. More. The DGP has been given the marching orders and replaced by a new DGP. Making matter worse, SPs in 22 districts of the State are reportedly corrupt.  Not only that. Instead of a sanctioned strength of 143 officers, there are only 98 officers assigned to the State. Increasing political interference is now forcing a lot of officers to opt out the State. It is alleged that no file moves in a Government office without money changing hands.

Clearly, the honeymoon is over, leaving the State in a suspended limbo.

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Bangladeshi Infiltrators

Assam’s travail over the influx of migrants from Bangladesh continues. Two years after Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi promised to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) 1951, and weed out suspected infiltrators from across the border, it has still to become a reality. Recall, in 2005 the Supreme Court had struck down the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination Act by Tribunals) Act and directed that every person whose citizenship was under a cloud should be brought under the purview of the Foreigners Act, 1946. Gogoi set up a Cabinet sub-committee to study the issue in its entirety quite some time back. But nothing concrete has come out so far. Thus, providing fresh ammunition to the Opposition parties both in the State and at the Centre. An embattled Gogoi has given a new twist to the foreigners’ imbroglio. He accused neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland of having expelled 3000 “Indians”!

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Clean Land Deals A Pipedream

Clean realty deals continue to be a pipedream in Maharashtra. The Vilas Rao Deshmukh Congress Government continues to drag its feet on adopting the Housing Policy and repealing the Urban Land Ceiling (Regulation) Act (ULCRA) --- both crucial for making affordable housing a reality in the State. In India’s commercial capital Mumbai, where 60 per cent of the population lives in slums, the people will now have to wait a while before their dreams turn into realty. Also the grand plan to decongest Mumbai by turning the focus on satellite townships seems to have been put in cold storage. It is a moot point of how the State Government’s goal of providing affordable housing is met without boosting the supply of land or increasing the space index and making Mumbai slum free.

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Haryana’s New First

Haryana has a new first to its credit. It has launched a mobile court-- bringing the judiciary to the people’s doorstep. The court, set up in a bus, was inaugurated on Sunday last in the most backward district of the State, Mewat, having an abysmal literacy rate. Staffed like a regular court, it would move from one location to another as per a well-prepared schedule-- sit on four days a week at different centres and function as a regular court for the remaining next two days. Interestingly, the concept was the brainchild of former President APJ Kalam, who wanted to take civil and criminal justice closer to the people living in remote areas without their having to incur expenses of traveling. Pleased with the privilege extended to Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda hoped there would be more such advancements in the judiciary to take India forward. To Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan the mobile court was a “revolutionary occasion for the judiciary” and hoped that other States would too follow. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)