Round The States
New Delhi, 16 August 2013
Soaring Onion
Prices
WILL STATES, CENTRE
WIPE TEARS?
By Insaf
Prices of onions have raised a stink in many States, sending
Governments into a tizzy. Cities
including the national capital, Delhi, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Patna,
Chennai, Bhubneswar are reeling under an unprecedented hike with onions costing
anything between Rs 60-80 a kg! While Odisha and Delhi Chief Ministers have
asked the Centre to temporarily ban exports of the important ingredient, the
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution claims no export is
taking place because prices in India
are higher than those outside. The reasons cited vary from shortage of supply
due to heavy rains in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which account
for 40 per cent of the production, to disruption of supply line thanks to
holidays, including Eid and Independence Day (the latter particularly in Delhi
in view of heavy restriction on trucks’ movement and Inter-State borders’
checking), to alleged hoarding by local suppliers.
No one in the UPA-II is willing to admit that inflation has sadly
become a staple diet for the people. While reasons cited are aplenty, a
solution is nowhere in sight. The only balm the Centre can offer to the aam admi is to ask States to impose
stock holding limits, intensify drive against hoarders, shortlist States with
potential for onion production to ensure rotational crop and import onions.
Will it suffice? Unlikely and certainly not for the present. Worried about the strong
implications onion prices have on voters, (remember 1998 elections), Delhi, in poll mode, has
commissioned 175 mobile vans to sell onions at a ‘reasonable’ rate, till the
time prices stabilize – by October when the new crop arrives! Odisha, can’t wait
like others and has started selling onions in Government fair price shops at
Rs. 46 per kg. As for households, onions would need to be rationed or simply
given up. The big question is: Will the tears of the common man make incumbent
governments, in States and the Centre cry too?
* * * *
“Wiser” J&K
Jammu & Kashmir has a lesson or two to offer in building
national integration. Its Chief Minister Omar Abdullah appears to have become
‘wiser’, thanks to the aftermath of communal violence in Kishtwar district. Don’t
treat us separately, was the bottom line of his I-Day speech at Bakshi Stadium.
In fact, he chose to touch on the sore point of why Kashmiris consider themselves
separate from the country's mainstream? The problem was not with the State and
its people, but with the rest outside, read those who slammed his government
over the riots. In his defense, the exasperated young CM said he had figures of
communal violence in other States including Maharashtra, UP, Bihar, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and asked whether any big
leader went to those places to express solidarity or raise the issue in
Parliament? He also made it amply known that scrapping of Article 370 was no
solution to integrate Kashmir fully with the
rest of the country. “It will not happen by changing clauses of the Constitution…
It will happen when you change your attitude.” Whether he touched a cord with
the rest of India
is uncertain, but his speech did make it to the national headlines. This, one
is sure he will have no complaints about. What New Delhi and the main Opposition make of it,
is worth a watch.
* * * *
Bihar Set For Special
Package
Bihar Chief Minister could soon be laughing all the way to the
bank with the Centre virtually deciding to accede to Nitish Kumar’s demand and declare
the State along with other BIMARU areas as ‘backward’. Thereby ending months of
suspense. This has been brought about by the UPA expert committee re-jigging the
parameters of backwardness to a new composite development index. Pertinently,
the new basis of backwardness would be judged by the distance from the National
Average on Parameters including poverty rate, consumption, education, health,
female literacy, urbanization, household amenities, connectivity, financial
inclusion and share of SCs/STs in the total population. Undeniably, not only
would it lead to a new found bonhomie between the Congress and JD (U) but set
the stage for re-alignment of UPA coalition partners, wherein Nitish may be in
and RJD’s Lalu out of the Congress’ loop.
* * * *
Gorkhaland Stir
Darjeeling is aflame again, thanks to the
Gorkha Janmukti Morcha raising the ante for the creation of Gorkhaland, a
tragic fallout of the Centre’s decision to create a new State Telangana.
Predictably, the salubrious hills of Darjeeling are now reverberating to
increasing violence with no end in sight (barring a break for 4 days from 15
August), to the indefinite bandh (janata curfew) called by the GJM for
over 10 days notwithstanding the curfew imposed by the State Administration
even as the Police cracked down and arrested some leaders. Meanwhile, an angry
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata has bluntly rubbished the demand for a new
State and invited Morcha Chief Bimal Gurang for talks to Kolkata. Reportedly,
the backroom talks between the Centre and the GJM leaders have failed to break
the logjam. Notably, unlike the earlier demand for creation of a new State led
by the then GNLF Chief Subhas Ghishing in the late 80s and early 90s which
resulted in the setting up of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Autonomous Council to
end the strife, this time round the GJM refuses to be conned in to submission
by crumbs of “more autonomy”. In this eye ball confrontation it remains to be
seen whether Gurung or Mamata will blink first.
* * * *
UP Tops Illegal
Arrests
Uttar Pradesh is indeed the nation’s bad land -- there can
be no two opinions. The National Human Rights Commission will be more than
willing to certify it, in case of any doubts. According to its statistics, the
largest State accounts for over 80 per cent of the illegal arrests in the
entire country. Records of NHRC in the past three years-- April 2010 to July
2013 reveal that of the 3,950 illegal arrest cases across the country, UP had a
tally of 3,397! The rest (27 States and 7 Union
Territories) all put together only had
553 cases, of which Delhi
and Uttarakhand had 14 each. The shocking figures should make the leadership of
both the BSP, supremo Mayawati, and the ruling SP Chief Minister, Akhilesh
Yadav, hang their heads in shame as last year the State accounted for 589 of
the 703 such cases, whereas this year so far it has 161 of the 192 cases.
Passing on the blame to the State police or questioning the figures would be
naïve. It would be wise to put one’s house in order. Sooner the better.---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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