Round The States
New Delhi, 8 August 2007
Unprecedented Flood
Havoc
GOVERNMENT’S CAUGHT
NAPPING AGAIN
By Insaf
Unprecedented floods are playing havoc in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Orissa and West Bengal.
Worst ever in 30 years, this year’s floods across
the country have already taken a toll of 1,258 lives. Three crores of people
had been displaced across 20 States
at the time of writing. Property worth 1.3 crore has been destroyed. More than
68,000 heads of cattle have perished.
Top leaders have been making their customary visits to the flood-hit
States. The State Governments have set up shelters and have been air dropping
food and medicines. However, these measures leave a great deal to be desired.
They are hardly enough to meet the desperate need of the millions now suffering
silently---and helplessly.
Most sadly, the annual floods are not receiving the
attention they deserve from both the Central and State Governments even after
60 years of freedom. Floods across
the country are an annual visitation, differing only in intensity. Yet little
has been done so far either by the Centre or by the States to plan ahead
proactively and not merely react to disasters year after year. It is high time that India’s politicians and administrators start
learning to live and even dance, with the floods, as once advocated by Assam’s
late Chief Minister Sarat Chandra Sinha in his talk with Insaf in Guwahati years
ago. He added, “If the Europeans, Russians and others have learnt to play and dance with
the snow, why can’t we with the floods?”
* * * *
Interestingly, floods have been playing havoc among our
neighbours too. In Bangladesh,
nearly 9 million people have either been displaced or marooned in 39 out of 64
affected districts. Over 3,00,000 flood-hit victims have so far taken shelter
in 1412 flood centres and 156 lives were lost until August 6. In Nepal, death
toll due to floods and landslides since June stands at 93. Floods have affected
33 districts and damaged property worth 12.5 million. China, too, has been hit hard by
the worst rains of the year. Ironically, however, the country is also facing
widespread and prolonged drought in its northern North-Eastern and Southern
region of the country. By the last weekend
it had left 7.5 million people and 5 million head of cattle short of drinking
water. Sustained drought has affected 11 million hectares of arable land, 1.7
million more than the same period, last year.
* * * *
Freedom of Religion
in Gujarat & MP?
Freedom of religion has become a major issue in Gujarat and
Madhya Pradesh. The BJP governments’ bid to curb fraudulent religious
conversions in their States has run into rough weather. While Gujarat Governor
N K Sharma declined has declined to give his consent to the Freedom of Religion
(Amendment) Bill 2006, his counterpart in MP, Balram Jakhar has sent a similar
Bill to the President for consideration, after returning it to the State
government. The two Congress
veterans have justified their actions on ground that the amendments are
unconstitutional. In particular, Sharma
has found classifying of Jains and
Buddhists with Hindus objectionable, and Jhakhar considers provisions such as
submitting prior notice for conversion as draconian. While President Pratibha
Patil is to decide the fate of the MP Bill, Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra
Modi, is trying to take forward his hindutva agenda through the backdoor. He
proposes to revive a four-year-old law, with a similar aim, passed by the Assembly
and approved by the then BJP Governor, S.S. Bhandari, but not implemented!
Remember, he goes to the Assembly
poll later this year.
* * * *
Bizarre Wooing In
South
Kerala and Tamil Nadu are witnessing
something at once incredible and bizarre. Chief Ministers of both the States, V.S.
Achuthanandan of the Left and DMK’s Karunanidhi respectively are busy wooing
the new poster boy of appeasement, Abdul Naseer Mahdani, leader of the Peoples
Democratic Party. This follows the radical cleric’s release from prison
following his acquittal in the sensational Coimbatore blast case in 1998 allegedly aimed
at senior BJP leader L.K. Advani. Recall, Mahdani, a fiery orator, who founded
the banned Islamic Sevak Sangh, reportedly played a decisive role in the
minority vote calculus to garner Muslim votes in the 2001 and 2006 Assembly elections in Kerala and the 2004 polls in
Tamil Nadu. State leaders believe that Mahdani,
still wanted in 22 other cases, can conjure up minority magic in the next poll
for them.
* * * *
Jharkhand Honeymoon Over
Jharkhand, which was once touted as jewel in the crown of
small States, has today earned the ignominious distinction of a land of rising
crime, nervous officers, a paralysed State Government and an absentee Chief
Minister. Over 700 people are estimated to have been murdered this year; 547 in
just the first four months. More. The DGP has been given the marching orders
and replaced by a new DGP. Making matter worse, SPs in 22 districts of the
State are reportedly corrupt. Not only
that. Instead of a sanctioned strength of 143 officers, there are only 98
officers assigned to the State.
Increasing political interference is now forcing a lot of officers to opt out
the State. It is alleged that no file moves in a Government office without
money changing hands.
Clearly, the honeymoon is over, leaving the State in a suspended
limbo.
* * * *
Bangladeshi
Infiltrators
Assam’s travail over the influx of
migrants from Bangladesh
continues. Two years after Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi promised to update the
National Register of Citizens (NRC) 1951, and weed out suspected infiltrators
from across the border, it has still
to become a reality. Recall, in 2005 the Supreme Court had struck down the
controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination Act by Tribunals) Act and
directed that every person whose citizenship was under a cloud should be
brought under the purview of the Foreigners Act, 1946. Gogoi set up a Cabinet
sub-committee to study the issue in
its entirety quite some time back. But nothing concrete has come out so far.
Thus, providing fresh ammunition to the Opposition parties both in the State
and at the Centre. An embattled Gogoi has given a new twist to the foreigners’
imbroglio. He accused neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland of having
expelled 3000 “Indians”!
* * * *
Clean Land Deals A
Pipedream
Clean realty deals continue to be a pipedream in Maharashtra. The Vilas Rao Deshmukh Congress Government continues to drag its feet on adopting
the Housing Policy and repealing the Urban Land Ceiling (Regulation) Act
(ULCRA) --- both crucial for making affordable housing a reality in the State.
In India’s
commercial capital Mumbai, where 60 per cent of the population lives in slums, the
people will now have to wait a while before their dreams turn into realty. Also
the grand plan to decongest Mumbai by turning the focus on satellite townships
seems to have been put in cold storage. It is a moot point of how the State
Government’s goal of providing affordable housing is met without boosting the
supply of land or increasing the space index and making Mumbai slum free.
* * * *
Haryana’s New First
Haryana has a new first to its credit. It has launched a
mobile court-- bringing the judiciary to the people’s doorstep. The court, set
up in a bus, was inaugurated on Sunday last in the most backward district of
the State, Mewat, having an abysmal literacy rate. Staffed like a regular
court, it would move from one location to another as per a well-prepared
schedule-- sit on four days a week at different centres and function as a
regular court for the remaining next two days. Interestingly, the concept was
the brainchild of former President APJ Kalam, who wanted to take civil and
criminal justice closer to the people living in remote areas without their
having to incur expenses of traveling. Pleased with the privilege extended to
Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda hoped there would be more such
advancements in the judiciary to take India forward. To Chief Justice of
India K G Balakrishnan the mobile court was a “revolutionary occasion for the
judiciary” and hoped that other States would too follow. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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