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| Wednesday, February
14, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Ayodhya
will not go away Sonia's
working committee |
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Attack on Ghising INTERNECINE rivalry between various Gorkha groups in the Darjeeling- Kurseong-Kalimpong region of West Bengal is going to turn even more violent following the murderous attack on Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) Chairman Subhas Ghising on Saturday. The well-planned ambush almost killed him. No group has claimed responsibility but the police as well as Mr Ghising's supporters seem convinced that it was the handiwork of the Gorkha Liberation Organisation (GLO).
Question
of food security-II Blood transfusion and
disaster management
What
was that again?
Is
Bollywood losing appeal? “Gram
Swaraj” becomes reality in MP
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AYODHYA has come back to haunt the BJP-led alliance government. A seemingly favourable High Court directive has revived the eight-year old controversy, giving the opposition in Parliament much ammunition. The single-Judge Bench has squashed a state government notification setting up a special court to try eight high-profile leaders on a charge of instigating communal passion and violence. The court has regretted the long delay and said that the government can get over the technical flaw by seeking its permission. Here is the rub. If the BJP-ruled UP government reinstates the case, it will be recognising the validity of the complaint against Home Minister Advani and others. If it does not, there will be an uproar inside and outside Parliament which is starting its budget session in a few days. What is particularly awkward for the Prime Minister and the Home Minister is that they have to take a stand which will hurt either the BJP or the delicate relations with such allies as the TDP, DMK and the Trinamool Congress. In one scenario the BJP has to agree to the CBI filing an appeal or quietly give the nod to the UP government to set right the procedural infirmity. It will then mean that it is distancing itself from its old stand that there is actually no case against Mr Advani and others and that it was politically motivated prosecution. That will not only annoy the VHP but also antagonise the Hindutva constituency. If, on the other hand, it stonewalls the attempt to restart the trial, the three allies from the South and East will feel aggrieved and openly sulk. The DMK and the Trinamool Congress are fighting an Assembly election in a few weeks and Muslim votes are vital, both to win and blunt rival accusations. It is all a mess and it can only get worse. It is wrong to conclude that the Lucknow High Court has either got the eight leaders off the hook or given them a reprieve. So far they have not even been charged with any crime although the case was filed in 1993. Also, the other case involving 40 individuals has been sustained since it was registered separately and the government had the gumption to seek High Court approval. Somebody obviously goofed up, thinking that since the two cases related to the same incident — demolition of the Babri Masjid — a second sanction was not necessary. This is not all. The Liberhan Commission is also conducting a parallel investigation into the demolition. Ms Uma Bharti’s testimony has raised more questions than answering any. Mr Advani is yet to appear before it. If the commission were to make adverse remarks — and there are strong reasons to believe that it would — there will be a first rate crisis. But more importantly, the opposition has been gifted an explosive cause to agitate. The Prime Minister wrote his now famous musings to end the controversy he had himself started by justifying the Ayodhya movement and the pulling down of the masjid. The Ayodhya ghost has not been exorcised but has come back to trouble the government. And just days before Parliament meets for its longest session! |
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MRS Sonia Gandhi's recasting of the Congress Working Committee has once again proved that one can inherit the mantle of political responsibility through marriage, but not the family's genes which made Indira Gandhi an exceptionally successful leader. In a manner of speaking Indira Gandhi is responsible for the problems which Mrs Sonia Gandhi is facing in keeping alive the Congress as a political force. The Congress as a cohesive political unit ceased to exist after the first post-Independence split in the party in 1969. Thereafter it was only a matter of time for the Congress to become Indira and Indira to become
Congress. Only Indira Gandhi had the political understanding to make such a situation work to her advantage. But Mrs Sonia Gandhi cannot rise above being Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and that is bad news for the Congress. As President of the oldest political party her biggest failure has been the inability to attract fresh talent to the Congress fold. This is reflected in the lacklustre exercise of reconstituting the CWC. The young faces she has inducted in the highest decision-making forum of the Congress would appear to be political non-entities in relation to the Young Turks who had helped Indira Gandhi in the task of getting rid of the deadwood the party was carrying since the days of Jawaharlal Nehru. The tragedy with the Congress is that it is woefully short of leaders who can claim to have a mass base. Rajesh Pilot was, perhaps, the only Congressman who had good political communication skills and excellent grassroot contact. Mrs Sonia Gandhi as Congress President too has shown that she can win elections for
herself if not for the party, but her poor communication skills are a big handicap for both. If she is not able to attract grassroots level leaders, she has only herself to blame. It may not be wrong to say that the new CWC is packed with new faces whose political track record is not very exciting, and old faithfuls, most of whom are well past their political prime. The only interesting appointment is that of Mr Jaipal Reddy as the Congress spokesperson. He is a skilful orator. In his new role he will have a lot of speaking to do on important national issues on behalf of the Congress essentially to cover up the lack of articulate speakers in the party. |
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INTERNECINE
rivalry between various Gorkha groups in the Darjeeling- Kurseong-Kalimpong region of West Bengal is going to turn even more violent following the murderous attack on Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) Chairman Subhas Ghising on Saturday. The well-planned ambush almost killed him. No group has claimed responsibility but the police as well as Mr Ghising's supporters seem convinced that it was the handiwork of the Gorkha Liberation Organisation (GLO). The chief of the pro-Gorkhaland GLO, Mr Chhatra Subba, had recently threatened DGHC councillors with dire consequences if they did not resign from their seats by December 31. Meticulous planning for the attack as well as the sophisticated weapons used to execute it also indicates that the GLO indeed might be behind it. As is customary in West Bengal, there was an indefinite bandh in the area after the attack in which supporters of the GNLF leader systematically torched the offices of the All-Gorkha Students Union (AGSU) and the All-India Gorkha League. There are reasons to suspect that more such violence may erupt in the days to come. The sufferers will be the residents of the area who are already reeling under the never-ending cycle of violence and bandhs. The GNLF is suspecting a mole in its ranks who might have been informing the militants on the movement of Mr Ghising. The GNLF leader was on his way to Darjeeling from New Delhi after holding tripartite talks on the future of the DGHC and had changed his travel plans at the last minute. This could have become known to the assailants only if there was a spy with Mr Ghising, it is reasoned. The alarming thing is that one of the assailants who was gunned down by the escorts of Mr Ghising was from a Naga insurgent group which is believed to be training the GLO activists. Mr Ghising has been heading the DHGC for nearly a decade and his style of functioning has left much to be desired. In fact, the lack of development under his command is one of the contributory factors in the growth of insurgency. Mr Ghising himself has been advocating secession. Home Minister L.K. Advani was not keen to hold talks with him but was persuaded by Ms Mamata Banerjee to do so. Now that the attack has changed the scenario, the Bengal-centric Railway Minister has changed tack. She has tried to project it as the result of utter breakdown of law and order machinery in her parent state. The message is clear: sack the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government somehow and make her the Chief Minister! |
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Question of food security-II IN the last over five decades, India’s PDS has emerged as the largest food security network in the world, covering 177.8 million households, 981.3 million people, 195.9 million ration cards and 0.46 million fair price shops. With the growing size of the PDS, its problems have also increased. Beside, the PDS was universal in nature with the entire attendant malpractices and misdeeds. The ultimate solution was to reform the PDS by changing its universal character and targeting it to the really poor and deserving. Accordingly, a Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) to directly and effectively benefit those below poverty line (BPL) was set in motion in June, 1997. This new system was lauded on two counts: (i) with the introduction of TPDS, for the first time, an attempt was made to target the really poor, and provide them an assured supply of foodgrains; and (ii) the price at which the foodgrains were supplied to the BPL families was within the affordable range of the really poor. But an informal evaluation carried out by two officials of the Agricultural Prices Commission reveal that these reforms have not worked and there are several lacunae and shortcomings in the TPDC. Firstly, the quota of 10 kg of foodgrains per month per family, irrespective of the household size, was grossly inadequate and meagre in proportion to the quantity required for consumption. For instance, in the chronically food-deficit North-East, when the TPDS was introduced, the retail open market price of rice was in the range of Rs 8.50-10 per kg. Rice being the staple food of this area and given the family size and per capita consumption, the household requirement of this grain in this region was anything between 70 kg and 80 kg per month. By slashing the ration scale drastically to 10 kg per family per month, the TPDS not only nullified the impact of reducing the issue price but also forced the poor to buy the rest of their cereal requirements from the open market at a much higher price. This negated the fundamental principle of food access and security. Secondly, identification of the BPL families was itself based on questionable grounds. There were also various other problems indicating the ineffectiveness of the TDPS implemented through an impersonal and faceless bureaucracy loaded with high levels of corruption and political rent seeking. At the behest of the World Bank, concerned with the efficacy of India’s PDS as safety net for the poor in the context of the ongoing economic reforms, a comprehensive study was undertaken recently by a team of researchers. A summary of their findings:
Based on these findings authors of the study made three major recommendations: (1) The PDS should be disbanded. The ration shops may be converted into normal grain retail outlets like other private retail shops. In any case, it should not continue with the role of a subsidised foodgrains distribution channel. (2) Government control on the foodgrains market should be phased out. The Food Corporation of India (FCI), which undertakes procurement, stock keeping and allocations to state governments, should stop all these activities. However, it may be assigned a minimal role of purchasing foodgrains from the open market in competition with the private trade for the purpose of price stabilisation through open market releases. (3) The subsidy saved due to the phasing out of the FCI and the PDS may be utilised for distributing food stamps to the poor, linking it with the existing rural development schemes. These are similar to the views, opinions and conclusions contained in the Report of the High Powered Committee on Agricultural Policies and Programmes submitted to the Government of India way back in 1990. Obviously, this report was not available to the researchers. According to recent estimates, approximately 36 per cent of the Indian population lives below the poverty line. This means their income is not sufficient to buy enough food. About 80 per cent of these poor people live in rural areas. In the course of the years, the Government of India as well as most state governments have formulated and implemented various schemes to alleviate poverty or improve the social security of these most deprived people. These schemes aim to enhance self-employment, generate wage employment, or transfer income to the poor. The PDS, which is the largest among these schemes, is a massive food-rationing programme meant to reduce food insecurity and improve the welfare of the poor. On this programme the 1998-99 budget allocation was Rs 9,000 crore. By January, 1999, the actual expenditure was around Rs 10,500 crore compelling the Government of India to announce a price hike on commodities supplied to BPL consumers, thereby nullifying a cardinal principle of food security and poverty alleviation. This price increase was withdrawn in the face of protests and PDS expenditure is continuously spiralling. In the recent past, this amount was about 50 per cent of government spending on anti-poverty programmes and 2.5 per cent of the overall Central government expenditure. Despite such a huge cost to the exchequer and burden to the taxpayer, the PDS and, by extension, the FCI have not achieved any of the primary requirements of food security and poverty alleviation. Most of the intended effects of the PDS — universal or targeted — just did not materialise. The PDS did not become less costly; in several states, the governments took no serious steps to identify the real beneficiaries; and many of the poor in states like Bihar and Orissa did not even have access to PDS foodgrains. For instance, PDS allotment to Bihar in 1995-96 was 10,87,000 tonnes whereas the state lifted only 2,51,000 tonnes — barely 25 per cent. This is the unanimous contention of the ministry-level evaluation, APC officials’ assessment and World Bank researchers’ study. The recent drought and starvation deaths in Gujarat and Rajasthan as well as the looming famine in several parts of Orissa and Chattisgarh while the FCI godowns are overflowing, is a bitter testimony to the failure of the PDS as a national food security mechanism. None of the assumptions made by government mandarins while formulating policies for food security have come true. This is primarily because of the vast spasm that exist between policy formulation and implementation. Food policies are shaped in a centralised manner by Central politicians and senior civil servants who are not well aware of the practical and political difficulties at the local level resulting from their policies. The implementation scenario at the state and local level is very different. The bureaucratic and corrupt delivery mechanism in cohort with middlemen would see to it that the PDS, however, reformed it may be, does not work for the benefit of those targeted. In a situation of severe maladministration and non-governance prevailing in the country, most of the PDS grains do not reach the targeted card holders/beneficiaries but instead find their way to the open market. In fact, the taxpayer is subsidising the corrupt and inefficient “PDS bureaucracy-middlemen nexus” and not the poor and famished who are struggling for reasonable access to food and nutrition. Unless the present moth-eaten administrative system is drastically overhauled, this pathetic malady would continue thereby accelerating the severe socio-economic convulsions that have surfaced in many parts of India. With the kind of weak and meek political leadership that we have, revamping, leave alone overhauling, the administrative mechanism is a distant dream. So, what is the alternative? Given the liberalised atmosphere and comfortable foodgrain situation, it is better to rely on the personal involvement of the stakeholders (farmers), who are the producers, and the open market mechanism that influence consumption for India’s food security. At the same time the farmer and the consumer need to be protected against the vagaries of production and the market forces in order to enhance agricultural productivity and ensure fair prices. This can be done by vesting effective interventionary powers in the hands of the government in times of need to protect the interests of producers or consumers as the case may be. The concept and the recommendations of the High Powered Committee on Agricultural Policies and Programmes with respect to an “Alternative Food Security System” were dealt with in my article in The Tribune on January 30. Adopting this policy would result in substantial reduction in the cost of foodgrain procurement, storage, transportation and distribution. The delivery system would also be efficient since it has to be competitive and competent. The huge saving thus accruing to the government could be utilised to step up public investments in rural and urban infrastructure and services thereby generating employment and income opportunities both directly and indirectly. Poverty thus reduced itself would provide access to food for the poor. For the other genuinely needy poor, food vouchers/stamps could be given through the panchayati raj system or the local government machinery that could be strengthened, equipped and empowered for the purpose. BPL consumers could use these food stamps/coupons to draw their entitlement of foodgrains from any of the retail grain shops or outlets in their locality. This would be a far better way of providing food security to India’s poor and alleviate the pangs of poverty. (Concluded) |
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Blood transfusion and disaster management THERE has been total absence of transfusion preparedness during the course of national disasters resulting in innumerable loss of life during these national emergencies. This has been evident during the Indo-Chinese war in 1962, the Indo-Pak wars in 1965, 1971 and 1999, the earthquakes in Latur, Tehri Garhwal and Gujarat, the cyclone in Orissa and numerous other occasions. Whenever a national emergency occurs the health authorities start mobilising resources to tackle the situation and completely forget about it after the event. Such a situation results in utter chaos in establishing any coordinated effort for handling these happenings. Efforts for mobilising resources are started only when there is a desperate need for blood and blood components, and come to a complete halt immediately at the end of a disaster. This invariably results in a highly unsatisfactory standard of services, extremely poor quality control, transfusion mishaps and invariably wastage of blood. In the absence of any monitoring, all the untoward effects of the entire programme are never brought to light by all those involved in these services because a great majority of the medical and para-medical workers are totally untrained and unqualified for the jobs assigned to them. In addition to the large number of workers in official institutions, a large majority belongs to the class of non-governmental organisations who invariably find an easy channel to take advantage of emergency contacts in promoting trading and commercialisation of blood after the emergency is over. Such a situation is further exploited by traders and commercial houses entrusted with the responsibility of supplying equipment, reagents and other essentials for collection, storage and trans-shipment of blood. Since there is no coordination among various wings of the service, the entire programme is handled by untrained and inexperienced ad hoc workers. This invariably results in grave transfusion reactions and wastage of blood. In view of the fact that the blood transfusion services come to a sudden halt on the cessation of casualties, no effort is ever made to take advantage of the experience gained during a particular emergency in establishing an effective network of regular services for an organised transfusion programme. Thus it is of paramount importance for the custodians of health to give a serious thought to the entire problem on the basis of the experience gained, and ensure the establishment of a well-organised blood transfusion service for tackling disasters and utilising the experience gained for the smooth functioning of these services, for making available safe blood to everyone in need. It would be pertinent to state that even the routine blood transfusion services in most parts of the country continue to be deplorable, and no serious effort is made to ensure the availability of safe blood. Keeping in view the above fact and certain other things, it is believed that the essentials of a coordinated programme will ensure the desired quantity of blood and blood components by adhering to the following. 1. The entire programme should be entrusted to actively functioning organised blood centres after assessing the potential for operating an exclusively voluntary programme and capable of undertaking collection, processing, storage, preparation of blood components and efficient means for transportation. 2. Ensuring quality control and good manufacturing practice at all stages. Transfusion experts should not compromise on technological procedures to satisfy the dictates of the leaders from various sections of society and non-technical administrators. 3. Coordination between the blood collection and transfusion agencies is of paramount importance, and before deciding the quantum of collection it must be ensured that there is an adequate arrangement for processing, screening, trans-shipment and storage at both ends. Perfection of storage containers during transit requires constant vigilance. 4. A well-equipped mobile unit, with an adequate staff and materials, should always be kept in readiness. A reserve quota of equipment, software and reagents would ensure their availability to meet the requirement during a crisis period. A replenishment policy for such materials earmarked for disaster management would be necessary to ensure the avoidance of outdating. This is important because the procurement of expandable and non-expandable materials during an emergency in a haphazard manner invariably results in the supply of substandard quality materials. 5. Monitoring the supplies to various centres and the feedback for transfusion hazards should be followed meticulously to evaluate the overall performance of supplies. In the end, it would be necessary to observe that efficient handling of the donors during such emergencies is the best opportunity for motivation because these volunteers constitute the backbone for establishing any powerful blood transfusion organisation. Thus, a follow-up programme for keeping active contact with each donor will be of great importance in setting up or developing a blood transfusion network. The writer is Emeritus Professor, Transfusion Medicine, PGI, Chandigarh. |
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HERE are a few interpretations of nature from actual junior high, high school, and college test papers and essays submitted to science and health teachers in the USA (spelling errors preserved).... When you breath, you inspire. When you do not breath, you expire. H2O is hot water, and CO2 is cold water To collect fumes of sulphur, hold a deacon over a flame in a test tube When you smell an oderless gas, it is probably carbon monoxide Water is composed of two gins, Oxygin and Hydrogin. Oxygin is pure gin. Hydrogin is gin and water. Three kinds of blood vessels are arteries, vanes and caterpillars. Blood flows down one leg and up the other. Respiration is composed of two acts, first inspiration, and then expectoration. The moon is a planet just like the earth, only it is even deader. Artificial
insemination is when the farmer does it to the cow instead of the bull. Dew is formed on leaves when the sun shines down on them and makes them perspire. A super-saturated solution is one that holds more than it can hold. Mushrooms always grow in damp places and so they look like umbrellas. The body consists of three parts - the brainium, the borax and the abominable cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs, and the abominable cavity contains the bowls, of which there are five - a, e, i, o, and u. The pistol of a flower is its only protections
against insects. The alimentary canal is located in the northern part of Indiana. The skeleton is what is left after the insides have been taken out and the outsides have
been taken off. The purpose of the skeleton is something to hitch meat to. A permanent set of teeth consists of eight canines, eight cuspids, two molars, and eight cuspidors. The tides are a fight between the Earth and moon. All water tends towards the moon, because there is no water in the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins in this fight. A fossil is an extinct animal. The older it is, the more extinct it is. Germinate: To become a naturalised German. Liter: A nest of young puppies. Magnet: Something you find crawling all over a dead cat. Momentum: What you give a person when they are going away. Planet: A body of earth surrounded by sky. Rhubarb: A kind of celery gone bloodshot. Vacuum: A large, empty space where the pope lives. Before giving a blood transfusion, find out if the blood is affirmative or negative. To remove dust from the eye, pull the eye down over the nose. For a nosebleed: Put the nose much lower then the body until the heart stops. For drowning: Climb on top of the person and move up and down to make
artificial perspiration. For fainting: Rub the person's chest or, if a lady, rub her arm above the hand instead. Or put the head between the knees of the nearest medical doctor. For dog bite: put the dog away for
several days. If he has not recovered, then kill it. For asphyxiation: Apply artificial respiration until the patient is dead. For head cold: use an agonizer to spray the nose untill it drops in your throat. Blondes earn less? Taller people with light brown hair earn higher salaries than shorter co-workers with other hair colours and blondes receive the smallest pay checks of all, an Icelandic study shows. The Reykjavik Commercial Workers Union surveyed its members in October and the findings, based on 3,400 answers, were released on Friday. Blonde employees earned 10 per cent less than their light brown haired colleagues, whose monthly pay averaged 232,000 Icelandic crowns ($2,700). People with very dark hair came second, followed by red and grey-haired individuals. All these were ahead of blondes, whose salaries averaged 208,000 crowns. Women earned on average 18 per cent less than men. Men above the height of 179 cm were paid on average 260,000 crowns a month, 16.5 per cent more than men 10-15 cm shorter. Women taller than 179 cm took home 213,000 crowns compared with 195,000 crowns for females below 165 cm. The study also suggested that salaries were not influenced by whether employees smiled on the job or not. "Stop dyeing your hair (blonde) and be satisfied with the mousy colour, as it seems to be working. Buy shoes with higher heels, and above all, start frowning on the job," Icelandic investment bank Kaupthing said in a comment on the study.
Reuters |
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Is Bollywood losing appeal? NEW
DELHI: BOLLYWOOD may have been the centre of the Indian film industry, but with an acute lack of hit films, distributors countrywide doubt the Hindi film industry’s all-India appeal, especially in places where regional cinema is very strong. Distributors complain that the Hindi film market has been dwindling. With Hindi films bombing at the box-office, there are fewer takers for Bollywood fare, especially in centres like Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu where regional cinema is strong. Trade observers say cinegoers, especially in south India, don’t find Mumbai films any better than the regional fare — in terms of content or technique — leading to the market for Mumbai films floundering for almost a year now. What’s worse, with video CDs and digital video discs (DVDs) available aplenty anywhere in the country almost as soon as they hit the Mumbai market, people tend to think more than twice about shelling out extra money to watch a Hindi movie, a leading trade magazine reasons. Hindi films are heavily taxed. For instance, in Karnataka, viewers are taxed 80 per cent for Hindi films, while Kannada films are exempt from entertainment tax. The same goes for Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Hindi film distributors from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala have burnt their fingers over films with a huge star cast that have flopped miserably, analysts say, adding that the distributors in Bangalore are sore over the manner in which films they bought bombed at the box-office. On the other hand, south Indian films have been making fantastic inroads into the Hindi film market. Nowadays, it has become more of a norm to remake hit south Indian films with an all-star Bollywood cast. Films like “Velu Nayakan,” “Roja,” “Bombay,” “Hindustani” and “Sazaa-e-Kaalapani” were a huge success throughout India even though they are not mainstream in the traditional Bollywood sense. While most south Indian films do have the violence and the conventional song and dance routine, they are different because these elements are incorporated within a strict storyline. In fact increasing emphasis is on the story and not the film stars or songs. The south has always contributed to Indian cinema but in the recent years, it has initiated changes in the nature of Indian cinema with excellent films and music. And at a time when big budget Hindi films are crashing right, left and centre, Bollywood has some lessons to learn. Foreign films dubbed in Hindi have also hit Bollywood adversely and led the All-India Film Producers Council to appeal to the government to ban such films. Pahlaj Nihalani, president of the apex body, says foreign films attract larger audiences and eat into the Hindi film market with distribution rights for each territory sold for as cheap as Rs 1.8 million. Indian producers are not against import of foreign films, but against their dubbing in Hindi, Nihalani says, adding the local audience prefers the dubbed films over Hindi films as they are technically far superior. Separatist movements have also affected Bollywood dearly in states like Jammu and Kashmir and the seven north-eastern states. Last year, movie halls and cable operators in insurgency-hit Manipur stopped telecasting Hindi films and programmes after tribal guerrillas banned the language. Guerrillas allegedly burnt 6,000 to 8,000 Hindi video, audiocassettes and compact discs collected from outlets in the state since the ban on September 12. While problems continue to plague Bollywood, Hindi films have done roaring business overseas during 1999 and 2000. Apart from hit films like “Sarfarosh,” “Taal,” “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,” “Kaho Naa... Pyar Hai,” films like “Humara Dil Aapke Pass Hai,” “Fiza,” Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega” that did not send cash registers ringing at the box-office here, have done well abroad. Not just overseas Indians, but locals also throng to see dreamy romances with Indian stars, observers say. Apart from the USA and Britain, these films have done excellent business in the West Indies, many African countries, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Mauritius, where star-crazy fans not only see films but also rush to buy exorbitantly priced tickets to see stage shows presented by Indian stars and musicians each year. — India Abroad News Service |
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“Gram
Swaraj” becomes reality in MP BHOPAL: “Gram Swaraj”, an innovative and bold experiment in Madhya Pradesh has come into force in the State from January 26, ushering in democracy and self-rule at the village level. The Chief Minister, Mr Digvijay Singh, has been toying with the idea of introducing “Gram Swaraj” to facilitate villagers’ participation in the process of governance. The State Cabinet expectedly finalised the shape of “Gram Swaraj” some time back and the new dispensation has come into force from Republic Day. Under the scheme, there will be a “Gram Sabha” for each village and adult villagers will be its members. Reservation has been given to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their strength. Women have also been given reservation. “Gram Sabha” will have limited administrative and financial powers. Government employees, including teachers, Veterinary Department employees, Public Health Engineering staff and employees pertaining to the executive who are posted in villagers will be accountable to the “Gram Sabha”. Village schools will function directly under the control of the “Gram Sabha”. Within the “Gram Sabha” also, committees will be constituted for joint forest management, forest protection, watershed management etc. The Village Development Committee will be responsible for preparing development schemes for the village. There is no doubt that “Gram Swaraj” is novel concept. But it remains to be seen whether the villagers rise to the occasion and function for the development of villages. It is well known that casteism has struck deep roots in Madhya Pradesh villages. Social prejudices may come in the way of effective functioning of “Gram Sabhas”. Also, the village elites who are mainly landlords will be nullifying the very purpose of village democracy. Implementation of radical land reforms alone will create enthusiasm among villagers to play a participatory role in governance. Interestingly, the village sarpanch will no longer be the centre of attention. Also, the three-tier panchayat system, which was implemented four years ago, will lose much of its delegated powers with effective functioning of the “Gram Sabhas”. The MP Government has also introduced village courts which is indeed a bold step. The State Government issued a notification on the eve of Republic Day enforcing the Madhya Pradesh Gram Nyayalaya Adhiniyam in the state, excluding scheduled areas, to facilitate setting up of village courts in the State from Republic Day. For the setting up of village courts, ten or more than ten Gram Panchayats will be declared a circle. The court will comprise seven members and one of the members should have knowledge of law. The members are chosen unanimously by the Gram Panchayats. In case there is no unanimity, the State Government would nominate the members. The village court member should be a matriculate and in case of SC-ST member, the qualification will be relaxed.
— IPA |
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Give up the ways that turn thee from God, Nanak, only that love is real which leadeth men to the Lord. —
Sri Guru Nanak Dev, Asa Di Var. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, page 565 ***** My eyes are wet with Lord's nectar; my soul is drenched in his love. He tested my heart with his touchstone: He found it pure Through the Guru my soul and body are dyed as with deep crimson. Nanak, the slave, has made himself fragrant with musk: My earthly life is blessed. ***** The hymn of the Lord's love is like a pointed arrow, That hath pierced deep in my heart: who feels love's pain knows it And he who dies to this life even while living Has obtained his deliverance even in this life.... — Guru Ram Das, Rag Asa. Sri Guru Granth Sahib, page 448 ***** Make thy mind the bed and agony of separation the bed-sheet. Thus should you live the painful life of agony, suffering for the beloved, telling your tale of woe to Him alone... —
Sheikh Farid (1200-1280) ***** Sarmad lies intoxicated with the love of the Beloved, Lost to everything, his cup is filled with the wine of love. No terror of the executioner's sword can make him forsake his love. Thus doth he reach the plane of unity. ***** How can the sensuous one hold the fire of love? Can the fly imitate the heart-consuming passion of the moth, It requires the ardour of ages, to experience the friend's embrace, Nor is this eternal wealth bestowed on everyone. — Sarmad (d. 1657) |
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