Round The States
New Delhi, 26 May 2011
Bloody May
Naxal Menace Bares
Fangs
By Insaf
It has been a bloody May in Naxal-prone States --
Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand. Shockingly, 50 lives have been lost since 5
May in Chhattisgarh alone. Thirty-three of those killed have been security
personnel and the rest civilians. Scattered across disparate districts, and
tucked away from the national limelight, these deaths are symptomatic of the persistent
insurgency engulfing Chhattisgarh from all four sides. In Dantewada district,
the Maoists most-intense battle ground, 17 CRPF jawans have been killed in
landmine blasts. Followed by violence ricocheting from the Chhattisgarh-Orissa
border district of Raipur in a dense forest. In Jharkhand, six trucks carrying
food grains from UP and Bihar for the tribal
areas in the State were ransacked by the Maoists in the naxal-affected Palamu
district on Thursday last. Around 40 Maoists armed with firearms intercepted
the vehicles, asked the drivers, cleaners and passengers to get off before
setting the vehicles ablaze.
In Orissa, 10 police personnel including an Additional SP
were killed on Wednesday last close to the inter-State border between
Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Another senior police officer has been abducted and
there is no clue of his whereabouts. Coming on the heels of the abduction and release
of a District Magistrate of Malkangiri, these incidents underscore that the
State Government has neither learnt any lessons in tackling the Maoists
insurgency nor has it come out with a policy to ensure the safety of its
people. In fact, Sunabeda sanctuary, spread over 600 sq km, is reported to have
become a safe heaven for the Maoists over the past several years. Bordering
Chhattisgarh, the sanctuary is used by the Maoists to train their cadres. Tragically,
the Centre continues to be clueless about how to tackle this problem, which has
become the numero uno issue in the country. A recent poll showcased that a
majority of Indians treat this as the biggest menace.
* * * *
Mamata’s Land New
Policy
West Bengal’s new Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee is all set to review land allotments made by the Left Government since
1991. The first on the block is returning 400 acres to farmers in Singur.
Recall, the Trinamool Chief’s campaign in Singur had not only got the Tata’s to
abandon their car project but had catapulted her to national fame resulting in
her recent historic win. Not only that. She has asked for a status paper on all
industrial projects approved and MoUs signed over the past decade, details of
land allotted in these cases viz investment data and employment potential. It
remains to be seen whether she will take the State back to its
pre-industrialisation era or carry forward the policy of her predecessor
Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who had notched up West Bengal as the fourth
industrialised State in the country following Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and
Delhi.
* * * *
Maharashtra Most Corrupt
With corruption being the flavour of the season, two States --
Maharashtra and Rajasthan have earned
notoriety. According to the National Crime Record Bureau, Maharashtra
registered 4,566 corruption cases followed by Rajasthan with 3,370 and Orissa
with 2957. Most scandalously, Maharashtra which
averaged 450 new complaints every year has an average conviction rate of a mere
27 per cent, one of the lowest in the country. Notwithstanding, that it has the
highest disposal rate. It comes as no surprise that bureaucrats top the
corruption list, yet their conviction rate leaves much to be desired. The value
of property seized from them is low—much less than the property value seized in
Orissa, Karnataka, Bihar and Andhra.
Astonishingly, the highest conviction rate is in Bihar
followed by UP. Indeed, corruption no longer seems to pay dividends.
* * * *
Punjab-Haryana
Fight
A battle royal is brewing between Punjab and Haryana over
the upcoming international airport at Chandigarh,
reminiscent of the cat fight over the Union Territory of Chandigarh, some years
back. At the heart of this latest friction are two issues: the naming of the
new airport, and the two new approach roads that are being constructed by the Punjab government. A worried Haryana top brass is arguing
that the manner in which both these issues are being handled will tilt the
balance, making the new airport seem a “Punjab airport”. Given that it holds an
equal 24.5 per cent stake in the project, this is not acceptable to Haryana
which wants it to be called simply as Chandigarh International Airport. Both
States seems to forget the famous Shakespeare adage: what’s in a name? A rose
would smell as sweet if called something else.
* * * *
Bihar’s Invoking
Bihar’s Pride
Bihar’s Chief Minister is now busy instilling a sense of
pride among his people. Specially, the Dalits in the 2,6000 Scheduled Caste
villages across the State, whereby it has become mandatory to hoist the
national flag on Independence Day, Republic Day and Bihar Divas. Asserted
Nitish Kumar: “We need to educate the people about our history and heritage.”
Needless to say the move is to consolidate his hold over the Dalit constituency
as well as to popularize the latest Right to Service Guarantee Act, under which
a Government servant has to provide his or her services within a time frame
viz-a-viz getting a BPL
card, I-card and driving licence. Clearly giving a leg up to empowering people
by giving them a new effective powerful tool in the hands of people!
* * * *
Mayawati Easy On
Acquisition
The UP Chief Minister Mayawati is busy grappling with the
land acquisition controversy, which caught her Government napping when Congress
General Secretary Rahul Gandhi took up the baton for the farmers of Bhatta
Parsaul village. Following the farmers of Greater Noida villages’ outright
rejection of the new land compensation rate, the Dalit Messiah has decided to
trespass on further land acquisition carefully. As a first measure, the State
Government has denotified about 500 acres of agriculture land out of a total 800
from the Maitraiya Buddha project in Kushinagar district, famous as a Buddhist
pilgrimage. The centre piece was supposed to be a giant 500 ft sitting Buddha
statue, the largest in the world. All eyes are now riveted on Mayawati’s next
move.
* * * *
Goa language Tussle
Sun-kissed Goa is in the throes of a language tussle. There
is a rising demand that English along with regional languages such as Konkani
or Marathi be permitted as the medium of instruction at the primary level for
aided schools. This has sharply divided the ruling Congress and its coalition
partners. While the MGP opposes any change in the policy of teaching in Konkani
and Marathi, the Congress wants English to be included as the medium of
instruction at the primary school level. Recall, the problem has its genesis in
the backdrop of the implementation of the Right to Education Act, which
envisions English as the medium of instruction.
ABC or Marathi, how does it matter? Education is education. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News and Feature
Alliance)
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