ROUND THE STATES

2 July 2008, New Delhi

Call For Bharat Bandh

AMARNATH BECOMES A NATIONAL ISSUE

By Insaf

The Amarnath shrine land controversy is threatening to blow into a major national issue, following the call for a Bharat bandh by the Bharatiya Janata Party and its Sangh Parivar. The revocation of its order to transfer 39.88 hectares of forest land to the Amarnath Shrine Board, by the Congress-led government has created more trouble than resolved it. Though the Kashmir Valley has regained calm after 10 days of turmoil and parts of it rejoicing the withdrawal of the order, Jammu is burning with large-scale violence and protests, in which 79 people have been injured so far. The Congress-led government has been reduced to a minority, with its partner, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) withdrawing support. The separatists’ Kashmiris have called off their agitation, but the BJP and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad have stepped in. The Hindutva party has resolved to make the issue one of its main campaign planks for the ensuing general elections, beginning with the nationwide bandh on Thursday last.    

On Tuesday last, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad revoked the land allocation order of May 26 following consultations with the Congress High Command. This was done in the hope of restoring peace in the Valley and, more importantly, save his government. While, violence abated to some extent in the Valley, Azad has failed to win back the  PDP’s support, despite agreeing to its demand for withdrawal of order. He has now to prove his majority on the floor of the House on July 7. The BJP has termed this turn around as “surrender to communal and separatists forces” and was successful in bringing Jammu to a halt for two days. This apart, a committee comprising over 35 political, social and religious organizations has been formed to keep the pressure on the State government. In all this crisis, there is a deafening silence by Muslim leaders in the country, who swear by secularism. The next few weeks will be keenly watched as to how far the BJP and its parivar will take the issue to the people and evoke passions. More importantly, will the Azad government survive as claimed or will the State come under President’s rule yet again.

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Naxalite Havoc Growing

India’s Naxalites continue to play havoc. Sunday’s attack on the elite Greyhounds motorboat in Orissa’s Malkangrri district that resulted in the death of more than 30 security men demonstrates how Naxalite operations have spread over vast areas of the country and how emboldened the rebels have become. They strike with impunity, kill security personnel and even civilians in cold blood, bomb police stations, high tension towers and houses, destroy public infrastructure, raid jails to free hundreds of rebels and merrily return to the jungles, minus a few comrades at the most. Till the middle of June this year, more than 320 people had already been killed. There seems to be no way to stop them, especially with an upgrade in their fire power as reflected in the latest assault. The police personnel of the affected districts are a pathetically demoralised lot with neither the resources nor the will and weaponry to counter the crisis. Loud assertions by State leaders of fighting the growing menace are no more than so much of hot air.

All the States, including those not yet affected by Naxalite violence, are clear on one point. The Centre is not doing its job in fighting the menace. Initially, New Delhi blamed the Naxalite insurgency on socio-economic problems. Next it rechristened it as a law and order issue—a State subject. This suited the Centre no end as reducing the status of Naxalite violence to that of a mere law and order problem absolved the Centre of its own responsibility. New Delhi needs to realize that the Naxalites don’t respect State boundaries and battling them calls for joint inter-State operations as dramatically shown in the latest attack on a motorboat carrying elite Greyhound strike force of Andhra Pradesh. This is where the Centre has to play the role of coordinator and planner with required intelligence inputs. Sadly, this is precisely where it has continued to fail –and fail miserably. There seems to be no end to mounting agony of the long-suffering States.

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Haryana’s Bid For No 1

Haryana’s Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, has set himself the imaginative mission of making his State “number one” in the country by providing the Right to Education to every child. This, he believes, is the best way of ensuring rapid and inclusive growth in the long run. Consequently, the budget for education has been increased from Rs 1,600 crore in 2004-05 to Rs 3,200 crore in the current year and 2008 has been declared as the Year of Education. A multi-pronged strategy has been adopted and reforms launched in all the three tiers of education—primary, secondary and higher—to ensure quality education. Drop-out rate of students has been reduced significantly by giving girl students from Scheduled Castes a monthly stipend ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 400 and boys from Rs 100 to Rs 300. For meeting all school-related expenses, one-time allowance ranging from Rs 740 to Rs 1,450 was given. Simultaneously, the CM has been going all out to expand the State’s network of technical institutions to provide livelihood to the youth. Haryana now has 52,000 seats in such institutions from 33,000 three years back. He hopes to push this number to 1,00,000 by 2010!.

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It shall be a dream come true for the Sikh community in Punjab and elsewhere in the country, if all goes well. Decks have been cleared for a direct express link between the shrines of Dera Baba Nanak in India and Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan. Punjab’s Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal, who has been patiently pushing for such a link over the years, received such an assurance from the External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, on Saturday last. ( Mr Badal’s feelings on the subject were personally conveyed by Mr Mukherjee to the visiting Pakistani Minister for External Affairs, S M Qureshi.) A high-powered group of Indian experts and officials are to conduct a feasibility study for the construction of a barbed corridor between the Sikh shrines, which will then, be followed by strategic clearance by the Pakistan Government. The Union government has promised to speed up efforts through diplomatic channels. In return, the Badal government has pledged to modernize infrastructure in and around the Dera with a modern expressway connection with the Amritsar international airport. The proposed corridor will thus be another step towards fostering people-to-people contact cross border.      

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History At Sariska Tiger Reserve

Wildlife lovers have reason to celebrate. The tiger has made a comeback and with it history created in Sariska. After a gap of four long years, the Sariska Tiger Reserve in Alwar district, Rajasthan had a welcome guest on Saturday last. A 220-kg male tiger from Ranthombore National Park was airlifted in an IAF helicopter and released in the Reserve, which had lost all its tigers in 2004-05 due to criminal poaching. The ‘wild-to-wild relocation’ operation, which took about four hours was undertaken by the Wildlife Institute of India and is said to be the first of its kind. Next, a tigress is to be similarly translocated within a week, in the hope that they form the parent stock for the cubs-to-be! The authorities will study the response and behaviour of the tigers and accordingly work out its two-year plan of relocation of tigers in Sariska. In the meantime, they have to tread carefully because of heavy traffic towards Pandupole, an ancient temple, located in the heart of the core area, 22 kms from the main park entrance. Anticipating that the rush at the temple could affect its grand plans for the tiger, the Institute would need to do some hard thinking.  

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Delhi Greenest Capital

Delhi has created another record. This time for a good reason. It is now the greenest Capital city in the world. And, by October-end it can boast of 32 city forests, nine being added presently, another nine added last year and 14 already in existence. The Greening Delhi drive got a boost on Saturday last, with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit inaugurating a city forest at Chhawla on the banks of the Najafgarh drain in South-West Delhi.  Over the next few weeks, 12,000 saplings would be planted in the 12-hectare terrain, which belongs to the Irrigation and Flood Control Department and at the end of it all 18 lakh saplings would have been planted in city forests in different parts. The green cover would go beyond 20 per cent of its total area and the city forests, ‘lungs of the Capital’, would help in not only ensuring a clean environment, but maintaining ecological balance in view of various concrete jungles coming up in the city. It should make a difference, for let’s not forget Delhi, not too long ago, was judged as one the dirtiest cities in the world. –INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)