Round The States

New Delhi, 22 March 2007

Farm Versus Factories

STATES FOR CHANGE IN SEZ POLICY

By Insaf

West Bengal’s Nandigram, a little known village until recently, has cast a long shadow on the industrialization plans of various States through the establishments of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Even though the Centre has already cleared more than 400 SEZs across the country, the State Governments are increasingly under pressure from the farmers to reconsider their decisions to acquire farm lands for factories. In the light of the horrendous toll inflicted by police firing on farmers and their families protesting against the acquisition of agricultural land, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has announced not only his Government’s decision to shift the chemical SEZ project site from Nandigram but also to put on hold other projects.  In fact, the CPM partners in the Left Front, presently ruling in Kerala and Tripura and supporting the UPA Government at the Centre, are publicly pressing for a change in the land acquisition policy.

Farmers in Orissa, Maharashtra and Haryana have already taken up cudgels against the decision to acquire farm lands for setting up SEZs. In Orissa, confrontation between the villagers to be displaced and the State Government is growing what with the opposition taking cue from the violence in West Bengal.  They have taken a hard stance against the Tata Steel project to be set up at Gopalpur and also protested against the Aluminium project in Rayagada district. Up in the North, a farmers’ lobby, headed by former Chief Ministers Om Prakash Chautala and Bhajan Lal, has taken up cudgels against Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda for his Government’s decision to acquire farm lands for several SEZ proposals. Similar lobbies have also cropped up in Punjab and Maharashtra, even as trouble is brewing in the other States. Lending strong support is the statement of the IT Czar, Narayana Murthy, from Bangalore opposing farmland for SEZs.

*                  *                                               *                                     *

Rahul’s Road Show In U.P.

Poll activity is picking up feverishly in U.P. for the seven-phase Assembly poll from April 7 to May 8, with MPs from the State and their Central leaders anxiously moving in as Parliament recessed on Tuesday until April 26. While the Central Election Committees of the major parties in quest of power are busy finalizing their lists of candidates, the Congress High Command has finally deployed its “Crown Prince,” Rahul Gandhi to lead the party’s campaign and take charge of the overall strategy. He is all set to hold a series of road shows across the State, starting from the Delhi-UP border. On his first day, he covered the districts of Ghaziabad, Meerut, Muzzaffarnagar and Saharanpur. Many more are on his list as the tempo builds up and other youthful Congress MPs, notably Jyotiraditya Scindia, pitch in. Also on the cards is campaigning by Priyanka Wadra in Rae Bareli and Amethi, Parliamentary constituencies of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission is taking all possible steps to ensure a free and fair poll. Several senior officers, including the Chief Secretary, have been replaced and more transfers are expected to follow. Even district level officers, whose proximity to the ruling Samajwadi Party has been established, are in the Commission’s list for marching orders. According to the EC sources, the transfer list so far has been prepared only for regions which will go to the polls in the first two phases. The new Chief Secretary, Shambu Nath is touring different parts of the State extensively to review the poll arrangements. He has already held a meeting at the headquarters with all the Principal Secretaries. The Commission, on its part, is leaving nothing to chance and is monitoring the security situation in the State closely. It has also decided to appoint for the first time Special Observers, each of whom will be in charge of specified districts

*                                 *                                               *                                     *

J&K Crisis Averted

The crisis in the Congress-PDP coalition in Jammu and Kashmir seems to have blown off, at least for the time being, thanks to the Prime Minister’s intervention. Manmohan Singh’s painstaking efforts to convince the PDP supremo Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the futility of demanding at this stage reduction in troop deployment and withdrawal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act seem to have succeeded and the threat of a break-up of the coalition averted, thanks to some face-saving formulae. The PDP top leadership is due to consider the issue finally at its meeting in Srinagar on March 25. Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, on his part, has hardened his stand and ruled out troop reduction which, he believes, would jeopardize peace in the State and so also endanger the lives of its innocent people. Governor S.K. Sinha has trashed the PDP’s diabolical demand as “obnoxious”.

*                                  *                                               *                                     *

Naxalite Terror Again

The Naxalite terror is fast picking up again, after about a year’s relative lull, especially in the newly-carved out, tribal-dominated States of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Barely a week after the killing of Jharkhand MP Sunil Mahato and two others, the Naxals gave a deadly twist in Chhattisgarh last week to the ongoing battle between the rebels and the security forces, aided by a local tribal militia, Salva Judum. Surprisingly, they  slaughtered in sleep 55 police personnel in a pre-dawn operation in Dantewada district. The massacre took place in a region where the Government’s writ barely runs, a situation that prompted the Prime Minister to equate the Naxalite threat with terrorism. One wonders how the Naxals managed to enter Dantewada police headquarters, a heavily fortified camp.

*                                    *                                               *                                     *

Terror From The Sea

Growing terrorism in the country has taken a new turn. Defence Minister A.K. Antony apprised the Lok Sabha last week of the Jehadis using sea routes for infiltration into the southern States, starting from Kerala. He has identified that marine terrorism, gun-running, drug trafficking and piracy were major threats for the sea boarders. Earlier, the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Southern Command, had stressed the need for maintaining a strict vigil in the wake of the threat posed by the extremist elements, aided and abetted by the ISI of Pakistan. Intelligence agencies believe that the sealing of the land borders in the north and the west has forced the terrorists to search out new infiltration routes. Fortunately, the Coast Guard is up and about. It is said to have prepared a coastal security scheme to improve its effectiveness all along the coastal areas.

*                                     *                                               *                                     *

Cauvery Rocks Parliament

The Cauvery water dispute continues to bedevil relations between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Mounting bitterness between the two States even spilled over into Parliament earlier this week, constraining the Speaker to adjourn the Lok Sabha for the budgetary session one day ahead of the schedule.  Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy made a welcome move for a one-to-one talk with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Karunanidhi for hammering out an amicable solution. But the latter has refused to entertain the suggestion, asserting: There is no scope for thought. It may be recalled that the Tribunal’s final award last month had allocated 270 tmc ft of waters to Karnataka and asked the State, from where the Cauvery originates, to release 192 tmc ft of water annually to Tamil Nadu. This led to large-scale violent protests by farmers and several other groups in the Cauvery basin districts of Mandya and Mysore.

*                                   *                                               *                                     *

Delhi Civic Body Poll

The election for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on April 5 has attracted greater political interest than ever before. Traditionally, civic polls in the Union Capital have been seeing straights fight between the Congress and the BJP.  But this year’s poll has broken the tradition. Multi-corner contests in almost all the 272 Wards will be taking place. All major regional and other national parties have put up their candidates. Surprisingly even Sharad Pawar’s NCP, which did not send even one Councillor to the MCD House in the 2002 poll, has fielded candidates in 139 Wards and the BSP is contesting 230 Wards. Likewise, the Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh has fielded 28 candidates, Janata Dal (U) 17, Janata Dal (S) 7 and the CPI 16. Over 300 candidates from regional parties are also in the fray, which is a record according to the State Election Commission.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)