Events & Issues

New Delhi, 10 February 2022

Battle For States

BJP FACES DISCONTENT?

By Sagarneel Sinha

After being in power at the Centre for over seven years, the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to be showing signs of feeling the heat. For the saffron party, the Covid pandemic, which refuses to ebb and reappears in phases, has been making the going difficult, as it has hit people’s livelihood, particularly the poor. Add to this, there is a rising discontent over soaring prices of essential commodities and unemployment, the latter being a burning issue even before the pandemic.

Battling under these pressures, the BJP gears up to face the voter in the five States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa. Barring Punjab, the BJP is ruling inall the others. After failing to gain power in West Bengal, where it went whole hog, it can ill-afford to lose the biggest State, Uttar Pradesh, where there have been rumblings within the party. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that retaining Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur isn’t equally important for it, even though these are much smaller States. If the BJP fails to retain at least two of these, if not all, the message that the party’s dominance is weakening would gain more prominence. In fact, the setback the party got in West Bengal, there is a growing perception that Narendra Modi-led BJP is under challenge now.

In politics, perceptions matter and the saffron party knows it too. To turn this perception into a myth, the BJP has to retain Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur along with the most crucial Uttar Pradesh. Not only this, but the BJP also faces the challenge to increase its presence in Punjab, a State where the party has always been a negligible player and was dependent on the Akali Dal, which has severed its ties with it in 2020.

That the BJP was never a dominant force in this north Indian State was one of the main reasons that the three farmer laws passed by the Modi government utterly failed to convince the farmers, who were stoutly against these. As a result, this anger finally resulted in the withdrawal of the laws. That’s why the BJP, which lacks a credible face in the State, is now banking on former Congress leader and Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, who now leads a new party called Punjab Lok Congress, to help make inroads.

Coming to Uttar Pradesh, the most crucial state, the BJP is facing discontent, particularly for the lapses of the Yogi Adityanath-led government during the second Covid wave. In the Jat-Muslim dominated Western region of the State, where voting would be held in the initial phases, the alliance of Jayant Choudhury-led Rashtriya Lok Dal that has a presence within the Jat community with Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, which has a stronghold among Muslims, has, undoubtedly, emerged as the strong opposition against the BJP. 

In this region, the discontent is particularly due to Jat farmers’ dissatisfaction with Yogi government’s sugarcane support prices. In the eastern region of the state, where the voting would be held in the ending phases, the new look of the SP under Akhilesh trying to penetrate into the non-Yadav OBCs by allying with smaller parties is now threatening the prospects of the Yogi government. As a result of the SP’s resurgence under Akhilesh, the BJP, apart from relying on the Modi-Yogi combination, is also hoping that Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party would at least help to divide the anti-BJP votes, particularly the Muslim votes.

Notably, BSP, which in this election has been relegated to a third player in its earlier stronghold, has as of now given tickets to Muslims, more than the SP. Congress is also trying to get back the votes of the Muslims, who were once its loyal voters, by giving as many tickets as possible to the candidates from the community.

True that the BJP is still ahead in the race of Uttar Pradesh, as in recent years, the State has turned into its stronghold, where it even fetched a 50%vote share in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections against the arithmetically strong SP-BSP-RLD alliance. The question is why now the BJP is facing a challenge from the SP, whereas the battle should be easier. The BJP can’t deny this bitter truth. Otherwise Union Home Minister Amit Shah, also the NDA chairman, wouldn’t have clearly said that the doors of NDA are open for the RLD. In fact, BJP is avoiding attacking Jayant and his party directly.

In Uttar Pradesh, one of the main reasons for discontent is said to be the centralisation of power by Yogi. If at the Centre, the BJP is completely dependent on Modi, in Uttar Pradesh, the party is mostly banking on Yogi. This dependence on the two leaders by the party in the State also has its limits. Often MLAs and ministers too, due to the myth that Modi and Yogi wave would help them sail through the elections, haven’t done justice to their constituenciesor the people.As a result, the BJP appears to be facing anti-incumbency at local levels. Almost the same situation is being seen in other States, whether Goa, Uttarakhand or Manipur, where the ruling party,failing to deliver, expects Modi to sail it through these elections.

To overcome the heat, it is being seen that a section of party leaders are bankingmore on polarisation of votes, the hindutava agenda and catchy communal slogans. One such slogan is 80% vs 20%, used by UP Chief Minister Yogi. The Muslim population in the State is around 19% and it is widely believed they vote, generally, against the BJP. Clearly, the 80% vs 20% is aimed at Hindu vs Muslim polarisation. Such slogans may help reach out to the Hindu vote bank, but overshadow the so-called development work being claimed to have been done through  welfare schemes for needy sections, irrespective of caste and religion. The BJP has to ponder on this. Although it would be wrong to say the communal card is being played out only by the BJP. Recall, Akhilesh and SP, which has a sizeable Muslim vote bank, raised the issue of Jinnah in these upcoming elections.

Despite the odds, the BJP exuberates confidence that the voter would re-elect its governments and so also in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This confidence is mostly due to the lack of a credible alternative against the BJP with the Opposition unable to come together and the Congress failing to get back its fortunes. However, burning issues such as growing unemployment and rising prices need to be addressed. The brewing discontent cannot be over looked and over confidence can be fatal. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

New Delhi

9 February 2022 

Open Forum

New Delhi, 9 February 2022

Affordable Housing

OPTIMISM ON DECENT SHELTER

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

The recent thrust to affordable housing in the Union Budget 2022 is a welcome move for the real estate sector and developers engaged in this area. More so, as the sector is seeking to recover from the pandemic and the government’s realisation for need to provide proper shelter to a major section of the population, would aid in this direction.

Those living in metros and cities and even in sub-divisional towns need proper and affordable shelter with basic facilities like sanitation and water, which are virtually non-existent to the poor and the economically weaker sections in most parts of the country.

Way back in 2015, the ambitious ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban’ was launched and PMAY-Gramin in 2016 to address housing shortages among the EWS, LIG and also MIG category people. It envisioned a pucca(concrete) house to eligible urban and rural households by 2022 with all basic amenities like tap water, sanitation and electricity to all rural households. As per available data from the Ministry of Urban Development till January 3 this year, 91.47 lakh houses were grounded for construction and 53.42 lakh were completed or delivered. 

In this Budget, the Finance Minister stated that 80 lakh houses will be completed for the identified eligible beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana, both in urban and rural areas by 2023. A sum of Rs 48,000 crore has been allotted for this purpose. A single-window environmental approval will also help to grow affordable housing more in the times to come.The move is expected to provide a long felt boom to this sector and transform dilapidated cities into habitable centres.

Delving into the problem, this journey is representative of the thousands who are moving out of slums and slummish type settlements into proper shelters that are equipped with basic amenities. In fact, many State governments as also real estate players have latched on the opportunity of developing subsidised housing units, bringing them within the grasp of economically weaker sections and low income groups.

Even a few years back, there was not much activity in this sector due to high costs of construction and no incentive to go in for affordable housing. In 2018, the Union budget declared several schemes and incentives to promote this growth. These include new Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS); grant of much needed infrastructure status to affordable housing, giving developers access to low cost funds; and revision of the qualifying criteria for affordable housing to 30 sq. m and 60 sq. m on carpet area, rather than the saleable area for metros and non-metros respectively.

All this and other such measures have witnessed a spurt in housing activity with a price tag around Rs 35-40 lakh and even less in metros and in Tier 2 and 3 cities. The CLSS, as a component of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana PMAY, has had a transformative impact on the industry by scaling up the number of homes available for the common man. But obviously more incentives are needed to cover the country’s poor.

In this connection, a part of the recognised slums need to be transformed by providing good shelter with basic amenities to those residing there while making available 45 to 50 percent of the land for commercial purposes. In such types of projects, it would be better if the State governments or its housing development agency should take up such programmes to rehabilitate the poor and the EWS groups for better living.    

It also needs to be mentioned that shelter is a big problem for those living in coastal regions as there is constant threat of cyclones, not to speak of flooding. A related problem of our understanding of shelter is the lack of potable water, not just in rural areas but also in cities. As is well known, there is acute crisis of water in some regions while in many other locations, people consume highly polluted water and this is manifest from the increase in non-communicable diseases during the past three years. There is need to ensure supply of potable water and emphasise recycling and reuse of water for needs other than drinking purposes.  

Though the two years of the pandemic has had an effect on the housing sector with demand being low due to lack of resources among the target groups, it is hoped the situation would change in the coming months. The trend towards urbanisation has necessitated the need for affordable homes and builders are also interested to take advantage of this opportunity.

However, it needs to be pointed out that banks have a crucial role to play in this regard. Some experts have suggested that there should be variable rates of interest say for those whose yearly income is below Rs 5 lakh and taking loans of around Rs 15-Rs 20 lakh and those who are above this income and taking loans of above Rs 40 lakhs or even more.

A big challenge is the wide disparity in household income and increasing real estate prices in prime locations as a deterrent for buyers. Whether it would be possible for the government to subsidise land and some vital materials such as cement and stone chips to builders who are interested in constructing low-cost shelters or redeveloping slums and squatter settlements, should be seriously considered and an experts committee may be set up to examine this issue.

While the government has shown seriousness in tackling the shelter problem, it is vital it translates into concrete action. It is envisaged that between 2016 and 2022, the scheme is about to deliver 1.71 crore housing units. It has been extended up to 2024 with a target of 2.95 crore pucca houses in rural areas and around 1.40 crore houses in urban centres. Though the catchy slogan of 2015 of ‘Housing For All’ may take some time to be accomplished, the government’s positive attitude in this sector is quite evident.

Finally, achieving the target has to be accomplished this year for which serious efforts and a well-coordinated action plan need to be formulated. While the State governments have a crucial role to play, the panchayats and civil society organisations too need to be involved in the construction work for the shelterless beneficiaries. The government may also urge the private sector to set up more dwelling units near the areas of their project sites as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR). Only then can decent shelter be given to the bottom sections of population so they have a decent roof over their heads. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

New Delhi

7 February 2022

REWIND

New Delhi, 12 February 2022

WILL THE POLL PROVE A TIME-BOMB

By Inderjit

(Released on 13 February 1990)

Today’s poll to the Assemblies in eight States and one Union Territory is certain to prove crucial in more ways than one. It could well end up in recasting the horoscopes of the principal actors on the political stage and in redrawing the political map of India. Various credible crystal gazers, currently in great demand, are agreed on one point: the mini-general election is certain to throw the country’s politics into the melting pot. Many questions are, therefore, being asked: Will the outcome give greater strength to Mr. V.P. Singh and further erode Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s position? Or, will it enable Mr. Gandhi to survive as the unrivalled leader of the Congress-I … and fight back? Will the Congress-I and the Janata Dal continue in their present forms or will they split? Will Congressmen in both camps choose to bury the hatchet out of “historic necessity” and come together as a minority Government? Or, will there be a coalition Government?

If Manipur is any indication, the Congress-I is in for bigger trouble. Manipur was widely regarded as a “sure win” for the party. The Congress-I triumph in the State was expected to give it a much-needed shot in the arm. It was intended to induce its traditional supporters and the fence sitters to pause and ponder. This seems unlikely. In fact, most crystal gazers are now inclined to go along more than ever before with the National Front and the BJP in regard to their poll claims. The Janata Dal talks confidently of forming the Government on its own in Orissa and Bihar and the BJP in Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. Further, the Janata Dal expects to head a coalition Government in Gujarat with the help of the BJP. The BJP hopes to head a coalition Government in Rajasthan with the aid of the Janata Dal. Both the parties concede primacy to the Congress-I only in Maharashtra. Here, too, they now expect to do much better. The two gave the ruling Congress-I good chance two months ago. They now give it only a slight edge over the Opposition.

Both the National Front and the BJP base their claims on their record of the past three months --- and the overall image. Most people, including erstwhile critics and Doubting Thomases, are generally satisfied with Mr. V.P. Singh’s performance. True, the Punjab and Kashmir problems are nowhere near a desired solution. True also, Mr. V.P. Singh Government handled the Governors issue clumsily and is carrying forward the discredited spoils system. Not a few ask: “How is the new Government better or different?” Nevertheless, most voters are prepared to give the V.P. Singh Government time. They also underline one basic fact: Mr. V.P. Singh is not the master of all he surveys. At one stage, the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid issue had pushed up a big question mark over the popular support for the two parties. The postponement of the Ramshilanyas by four months has helped both the Janata Dal and the BJP. One is assured the continued support of the Muslim voters, as reflected in the public appeal by the Shahi Imam of Delhi, and the other of the Hindu voters.

The Congress-I, for its part, is down but not out. First and foremost, it is still confident of forming the Government in Maharashtra. Some prominent Congress-I men, such as Mr. N.K. Tripude, Dr. Rafiq Zakaria and Mrs Shalini Tai, have no doubt quit. However, all these persons are only big names in the media. They have hardly any base. Second, the Opposition, too, is riven with dissension and rebellion. This is expected to prompt the voters to choose Mr. Sharad Pawar, a man they know. The Congress-I concedes defeat in Orissa and Gujarat, notwithstanding the bold front tactically put up by Mr. J.B. Patnaik, MrMadhavasinh Solanki and others. At the same time, it hopes to do a lot better than expected in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. The reason? Multi-corner contests. In addition, Dr. Jagannath Mishra is said to have mobilized greater muscle power in Bihar, a State where brawn still counts. In Himachal, the considerable Rajput vote is said to have swung in favour of Mr. Virbhadra Singh.

Mr. Gandhi is certain to be in big trouble of Congress-I expectations go awry. Discontent within the party has mounted in the last three months as seldom before. Most members unhesitatingly express their resentment against him. They feel that their leader has neither learnt any lesson from the recent debacle nor forgotten anything. The party has not met even once for an agonizing appraisal of the Lok Sabha poll. He continues to be largely unavailable to partymen (an old and bitter complaint) and, what is more, is seen as being surrounded by “his coterie of cronies”, to quote a senior Congress-I leader. A Congress-I Chief Minister was unable to meet Mr. Gandhi for even five minutes during an extended two-day stay in Delhi. Further, he and his hand-picked spokesmen have not helped his image by their astonishing obsession with petty politics and “Government bashing”. With what result? One hears for the first time open talk in the Central Hall for Parliament of “changing Rajiv” and of bringing in a new party president.

Not just that. Some Congress-I leaders devoted to Nehru and Indira Gandhi are today stridently talking of the need to clean up the Congress-I through shudhikaran. In fact, they have been busy for some time now in mobilizing opinion against Mr. Rajiv Gandhi. Some 5000 copies of Mr. Kamlapathi Tripathi’s “anti-Rajiv letter” in Hindi and another 2000 in English have been circulated to prominent Congress-I men all over the country. The veteran leader recently advocated in this letter the need to enforce the rule of one person one post. These leaders would, therefore, like Mr. Rajiv Gandhi to give up the office of the Congress-I President and concentrate on his job as the Leader of the Opposition. Importantly, the Bangalore conclave of the Congress-I leaders in the south has not daunted them --- nor their renewed commitment to Mr. Gandhi. Said one leader from the north: “The conclave call is only a desperate bid to revamp Rajiv’s image as a vote catcher. We are going to lose in all the States, except perhaps Maharashtra. Either, the Congress wants to survive or it does not…”

Significantly, the anti-Rajiv talk does not stop at shudhikaran. It is presented as a package deal” first shudhikaran, then ekikaran. (“The Congress-I should not only be cleansed but true Congressmen must also be brought together as the Indian National Congress”, explained one leader. “Remember, the Indira Congress was declared by the country’s highest court to be the Indian National Congress. Yet it still continues to call itself Congress-I.”) The new Congress-I President, it is proposed, should be chosen by some 500 to 550 members of the existing AICC, elected last in 1973, since the entire process from the grassroots would take many months to complete. (Normally the AICC has some 700 to 750 members, who are chosen by the PCCs which, in turn, are elected by the DCCs.) It is further suggested that the AICC should then elect half the Working Committee (the other half is nominated by the President) as also the 7-member Parliamentary Board.Meanwhile,the coterie around Mr. Gandhi is not sitting pretty. It is formulating its counter strategy, which is expected to be announced soon.

The National Front and its principle partner, the Janata Dal, are not without their share of troubles. Mr. Chandra Shekhar continues to be embittered by the “dirty trick” played on him regarding the election of Mr.V.P. Singh. Not a few apprehend that he may try to do a Charan Singh. (Mr. Chandra Shekhar has chosen not to contradict a report of his meeting with Mr. Gandhi.) They, however, forget, that Mr. Chandra Shekhar is not Mr. Charan Singh. What is more, Mr. Rajiv Gandhi has shown that he is not Indira Gandhi. Mr. Arun Nehru,too, is reported to have met Mr. Gandhi and the two are stated to have decided that “the clan must stick together”. Mr.Nehru, I am told by a top Janata Dal leader, has dismissed the report as “baseless”. Nevertheless, life within the Janata Dal and the National Front is no longer flowing smoothly. Stress and strains are said to have developed among some members, thanks to feudal intrigue nd the BJP card played calculatedly by those determined to exploit the antipathy of the Socialists against the RSS and create fissures.

One thing, however, stands out in the scenario about to open. Mr. V.P. Singh continues to enjoy the goodwill of his Cabinet colleagues. For the first time in years, Ministers are functioning as they should. They have been given full freedom to manage their portfolios, barring policy issues. Even his critics in the top Congress-I echelons concede that the new Prime Minister has shown “unsuspected qualities as a politician and as a leader”. In fact, this has encouraged not a few among Congress-I MPs to take not of the increasing pressures being publicly mounted on the V.P. Singh Government by the Leftists and the BJP and say, “Why should we leave V.P. Singh to the mercies of the Left and of the BJP. After all we belong to the same Congress culture…..”  Some top Janata Dal leaders have consequently told me: “Wait for a while. The Congress-I will surely split in our favour.” This is stoutly denied by the Congress-I leaders. All in all, today’s poll could well prove to be a time-bomb ticking away for both parties and personalities.---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

New Delhi

11 February 2022

Round The States

New Delhi, 5 February 2022

Recall of Governors

BENGAL, TN RAISE DEMAND

By Insaf

The Raj Bhavans in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu are embroiled in a battle with the elected governments. The open fracas between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Jagdeep Dhankharhas got murkier. After a Cabinet meeting on Monday last, Didi blocked Dhankaron social media platform, saying: “I am sorry to say I was forced to do this. Every day, he (Governor) abuses me and our officers using unethical and unconstitutional words. He hands out instructions as if we are his servants or bonded labourers. The elected Government is bonded labour, but he, someone who is only nominated, is a super guard. Every day after seeing his tweet, I become irritated.” Besides, she accused him of“spying on everybody from Raj Bhavan… Pegasus is going on in Raj Bhavan!”Dhankarhit back with the tweet: “WB Guv: Under Article 167 it is Constitution ‘duty’ of the Chief Minister to furnish such information relating to the administration of the affairs of the State and proposals for legislation as the Governor may call for. Why ‘block’ information to Guv now for two years?” The war between the two which has been hitting headlines is said to have reached Parliament doorstep. TMC’s Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandhyopadhyaysaid he has told President Kovind ‘to remove him from the post for the sake of Parliamentary democracy.’Further, the party plans to move a substantial motion in the Rajya Sabha against him, if it manages to get support of non-BJP parties. It’s anybody’s guess what the climax will be in this high-pitched drama.

Likewise, Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan is embroiled in a row.  This after Governor Ravi returned to the Stalin government an Assembly bill which seeks exemption to the State from NEET. The justification being given is that it goes against ‘interests of rural and economically poor students.’ A livid DMK government is to plan future course of action with other political parties, following a Raj Bhavan release which said: “The Governor has returned the bill, adopted by the state Assembly in September 2021 and the report of a high level committee constituted by the Tamil Nadu government in this connection to the Assembly Speaker M. Appavu,” A determined government, which has been opposed to NEET, has “assured all steps for adopting the bill again in the Assembly”, and the Governor’s opinions will be studied and “truth about NEET explained.” Plus, DMK and Congress members staged a walk out in the Lok Sabha demanding recall of Ravi. How far this battle will go needs to be watched.

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Kerala Govt Relieved

Kerala’s LDF government can heave a sigh of relief. On Friday last, the State Lokayukta rejected a petition seeking investigation against Higher Education Minister R Bindu in the controversial re-appointment of Kannur University Vice-Chancellor (VC) Dr Gopinath Ravindran. Former Opposition leader Chennithala had in his plea accused the minister of ‘nepotism, misuse of power and corruption’ in the re-appointment. Lokayukta Justice Cyriac Joseph observed the minister had ‘only suggested’ the name of Gopinath for re-appointment and such a suggestion ‘did not amount to misuse of power or nepotism.’Besides, he said the governor is the sole authority of appointing a VC and there’s nothing illegal if a minister, who is pro-VC, makes such a proposal. The timing of the order is interesting as only last week the Cabinet had recommended to the Government to issue an ordinance to amend the Kerala Lokayukta Act, 1999, wherein it gives powers to the government to “either accept or reject the verdict of the Lokayukta, after giving an opportunity of being heard”. Will the Lokayukta wings be eventually clipped?

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Haryana Job Quota Setback

The BJP-JJP government in Haryana has suffered a major setback to fulfil its promise of providing job opportunities to the youth. On Wednesday last, Punjab & Haryana High Court granted an interim stay on the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, providing 75% reservation in private sector for those who have a “domicile in the State.” The law, which came into force on January 15, covers private companies, trusts, societiesand partnership firms and applies to jobs which offer a maximum gross monthly salary or wages of up to Rs 30,000. Industry associations have opposed it saying it would: affect their business and make them less competitive; the “sons of the soil” law was an infringement on the constitutional rights of employers; private sector jobs are purely based on the employees’ skills and analytical bent of mind and that citizens of India have the constitutional right to seek jobs in any part of the country.An adamant government knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court on Friday challenging the HC order. Chief Minister Khattar said the government “will firmly stand its ground and will fight in the court…” How long will the battle be, is anybody’s guess. 

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‘Criminal’ Legislators

The Supreme Court has good reason to be distraught. It’s directions of November 2017 asking State governments to setup Special Courts to try pending criminal cases against legislators, is not being adhered to. Only 12 such courts have been set up across the country, but what is worse is the warning that “more and more persons with criminal antecedents are occupying the seats in the Parliament and the State Legislative Assemblies.” This as per a report submitted on Thursday last by Amicus Curiae, who is assisting the apex court in the matter. As on 1 December 2021, 4,984 criminal cases involving legislators were pending in various courts of which “1,899 cases are more than 5 years old”. In December 2018, the number was 4,110; and on October 2020 it was 4,859. The report sought it was of “utmost necessity that urgent and stringent steps are taken for expeditious disposal of pending criminal cases”, and that the SC direct that “courts dealing with cases against MPs/MLAs will exclusively try these cases” and “other cases would be taken up only after trials of such cases are over” to avoid delay.The “trial would be conducted on a day to day basis…and necessary allocation of work would be made by the HC and/or Principal Sessions Judges of every district within two weeks”, said the report. The big question is will clean-up operation pick up steam.

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Ladakh Anguish

All is not well in Ladakh. A battle appears to be brewing between elected councillors and the bureaucracy. The latter is being accused of undermining Leh and Kargil Hill Councils in Ladakh since it was turned into a Union Territory in August 2019. In fact, councillors of Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council-Lehhad boycotted the Republic Day function as they were peeved over being denied entry into the event’s venue at Leh through the VIP gate. The bureaucracy, they claim has been getting ‘increasingly more powerful, encroaching into their jurisdiction and disempowering public representatives like them.’ The grievance, they add is  across the political and regional spectrum and instead of being empowered they are being undermined. What needs to be done is the question. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, some suggest needs to set the ‘warrant of precedence’, streamline it and strengthen the LAHDC Act. Clearly, the Centre needs to get its act together as the UT has its border with China and Pakistan. The demand of Statehood is also pending and residents have observed shutdowns since last August to press for it. Will the Centre yield?---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)