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Round The States
New Delhi, 1 April 2010
Andhra’s Never
Ending Woes
COMMUNAL CLASHES
HIT HYDERABAD
By Insaf
Andhra Pradesh’s woes seem never ending. Just as the southern
State was limping back to normalcy after months of agitation over Telangana, its
capital city, Hyderabad,
was rocked by mindless communal violence. Trouble started on Saturday last when
a Hindu group sought to replace Muslim flags with its own on the streets of the
old city during a Hanuman Jayanthi rally. All hell broke loose, leaving two
persons killed and 150 injured. Protestors from both sides indulged in stone-pelting,
targeting and burning places of worship, residential areas, shops and vehicles.
While the State government had to extend curfew in 35 police station areas and issue
shoot-at-sight orders, the Centre rushed 1800-odd paramilitary personnel to the
State. Though peace returned in riot-hit areas on Wednesday last, curfew
continued, forcing the Osmania
University to postpone
its degree exams. Intriguingly, suspicion is that the violence was orchestrated
to destabilise Chief Minister K Rosaiah. The State intelligence wing said that
it is looking at various angles, including politicians and right wing
organizations, but it has stopped short of saying who was behind this madness.
* * * *
Haryana Shows The
Way
Haryana has shown the way to dismantle medieval justice in
modern India.
In a landmark judgement in an honour killing case, a sessions court in Karnal on
Tuesday last sentenced to death five persons for murdering a couple on the
diktats of a khap panchayat (caste-based council) in 2007. Manoj (23) and Babli
(19), who hailed from Karora village in Kaithal district, had defied the khap panchayat’s
decree and got married despite belonging to the same gotra (sub caste) and being termed as “brother and sister,” by the
elders. Those sentenced to death are the girl's relatives. This apart, the
leader of the panchayat was awarded life imprisonment and a driver given a seven
year jail term. It is the first case in which the boy's family had moved court
against the honour killing. Soon after the judgment, Manoj’s courageous mother
Chanderpati said: “I want all killers to be hanged in public, so that nobody
dares to take innocent lives in future.” The verdict, it is hoped will deter
khaps from extra-judicial actions and empower the people against the
suffocating orthodoxy that tends to govern societal norms in Haryana villages
--- and elsewhere.
* * * *
DMK On The Roll
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi has
reason to be upbeat. The party is on the roll. It continued its winning streak
last week, by once again trouncing a divided opposition, the AIADMK and PMK, in
the byelection to the Pennagaram Assembly constituency, in Dharmapuri district.
Its candidate, PNP Inbasekaran pulled off a massive triumph by beating rival
PMK contender by a remarkable margin of 36,384 votes in its Vanniyar
stronghold. The AIADMK not only ended up a distant third but its candidate, R
Anbalagan, polled less than one-sixth of the valid votes and forfeited his
deposit, notwithstanding party chief Jayalalitha campaigning in the drought-hit
constituency for two sweltering evenings! For the DMK, which swept the 2009 Lok
Sabha elections with its ally, the Congress, Pennagaram marks the 11th
successive victory in byelections in the last four years and comes just a year
before the party faces the crucial Assembly polls in 2011.
* * * *
Farmers’ Suicide In
Vidarbha
Untold misery continues to haunt farmers in the Vidarbha
region of Maharashtra. In the past one week,
19 farmers have committed suicide taking this year’s toll already to 194. And,
while over 15,000 villages in the region have been declared drought-affected by
the State government, no special measures have been undertaken to tackle the
situation so far. The farmers are victims of the State’s flawed policies, such
as growing Bt cotton on 95 per cent of land, says the Jan Andolan Samiti, an
NGO keeping track of the suicides since 1997. This has not only caused heavy financial
loss to the farmers but has also resulted in a serious water crisis. Faced with
the loss of crop, the region says the Samiti is in dire need of financial aid and
an interest waiver on last year’s crop loan. Sadly, the State budget does not
provide any such relief. The farmers who were eagerly expecting some sops have
now their eyes on the Centre for help.
* * * *
Undrinkable
Groundwater
The Centre’s promise of providing drinking water to all
habitations by 2012 looks unmistakably unattainable. The reason: Groundwater,
one of the key sources of drinking water, in over one third of the districts in
the country is not fit for drinking! While iron levels in the groundwater are
higher than those prescribed in 254 districts, the fluoride levels have
breached the safe-level in 224 districts, reveal government statistics. Three
States -- Rajasthan, Karnataka and Gujarat ---
seem to be worst-affected. Twentyone of the 26 districts in Gujarat
were found to have dangerous salinity levels and 18 had beached safe fluoride
levels; in Karnataka of the 31 districts, 21 were said to be contaminated with
iron and 20 with high levels of fluoride. In Rajasthan, the groundwater in 27
districts was found to be too saline, 30 districts had higher level of fluoride
and 28 others suffered from iron contamination. The country’s capital, Delhi, fares no better. Five
of its nine districts show fluoride contamination and two show salinity,
whereas pockets of all nine districts had high iron content!
* * * *
Gorkhaland On Hold
The West Bengal government
and the Centre can heave a sigh of relief. The demand for a separate Gorkhaland
has for the time been put on hold. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)
spearheading the movement for a separate State has officially submitted a
blueprint for an “interim regional authority” to be constituted for Darjeeling and some areas
around it. In the fifth round of tripartite talks held with the State
government and the Centre recently, the GJM spelt out the interim arrangement.
It sought that the regional authority, which could be named Gorkhaland Regional
Authority or the Darjeeling
and Dooars Regional Authority, should have no interference from the State
government. It should be vested with powers on law and order, have a body like
a State Assembly, a High Court, a Supreme Court bench and a Schedule Caste
status for the Gorkhas. The GJM has also demanded that the interim arrangement should
be till December 31, 2011 so as to pave the way for the creation of Gorkhaland.
The State government’s response is: “We need time.”
* * * *
Punjab’s Illegal
Migrants
Europe is a popular destination not just for Indian tourists
but for the youth of Punjab. However, the latter prefers to go offshore
illegally. Records have revealed that over 20,000 youth from Punjab
attempt illegal migration every year to 57 different countries. The revelation
comes out in a report “Smuggling of Migrants from India
to Europe and in particular to UK
from Punjab and Haryana” released by the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It states that over 1 lakh
Punjabi youth in jails in foreign countries face deportation; in the last one
year 20 countries have approached India to deport 1,195 Punjabi youth, with
Ukraine topping the list with 282 persons and that forged visas of 41 countries,
including Italy, Greece France, Spain and the UK are being used. Obviously, the
grass is greener on the other side for these youth. And the reasons vary from high
unemployment rate to the general attitude of the youth who have successful
migrants as their role models. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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