E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Paddy politics & economics
THE Centre’s decision to keep the minimum support price for paddy at last year’s levels of Rs 530 a quintal ( Rs 560 for grade A variety) has disappointed the agitating farmers and their well-wishers. They include the Punjab Chief Minister, who along with his colleagues and party men, staged a dharna outside the Prime Minister’s residence on Thursday. He became the country’s first CM to resort to such protest.

Little violence, thank heavens!
A collective sigh of relief has risen heavenwards from India following the relatively peaceful conclusion of the bandh on Thursday, the call for which was given by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in protest against Tuesday’s terrorist attack on Gandhinagar’s Swaminarayan temple in which 37 persons were killed. The apprehension was that this nationwide bandh might see a repeat of a similar VHP bandh in February following the Godhra incident, in which nearly 150 people lost their lives.

OPINION

Clearing the judicial backlog
More work, not more judges, is the answer
B. R. Lall
JUSTICE delivery system in India is under tremendous strain. Cases are piling up in courts of law soaring astronomically year after year. More and more cases are instituted every year, but the beleaguered judiciary is not able to measure up to the task and backlog has mounted to a whopping three crores almost. However, 1999 was an exceptional year when disposal in district/subordinate courts in the country was higher than the filings as per the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Justice. Exceptions apart, the fact remains that it is an explosive situation.

MIDDLE

Comic relief
S. Raghunath
I was interested to read a boxed news item that an American comics publisher was on the lookout for suitable Indian themes. I wonder if I could muscle in on the act and suggest a few themes whose “Indian-ness” can’t be improved upon. Theme No.1: The peaceful law-abiding citizens of a large Indian city are put to untold hardship and misery by a 72-hour “bandh” called by a few opportunistic political parties and anti-social elements.

ON RECORD

‘Rail accident rate not alarming’
Tripti Nath
MR IIMS Rana took over as Chairman of the Railway Board on March 31 this year. A former Member (Engineering) in the Railway Board, Mr Rana has introduced a message board on the official website of Indian Railways to encourage passengers to send suggestions. During his career spanning nearly four decades, Mr Rana has handled several challenging assignments such as construction of the rail coach factory at Kapurthala.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Tea reduces risk of cancer
SOLID evidence is mounting that drinking tea can prevent cell damage that leads to cancer, heart disease and perhaps other ills. It may soon be time to add tea to the list of fruits and vegetables that experts urge Americans to eat as often as possible to reduce their risk of disease, researchers told a meeting sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture, the Tea Council, the American Cancer Society and other groups.

• Transferred for keeping long hair
• Learn to listen, doctors told

Crises on the media
Amita Malik
IN the past few months, it has been a crisis a week in India. The rail crash, the confrontations between militants and the police and Army in Kashmir and now the militant attack on one of the most sacred temples in Gujarat. And this time, it was the added complication of the second phase of the Kashmir elections taking place on the same day as the attack on the temple.

Insect stings can be deadly
STINGS of bees and wasps can be more than just painful — they can be deadly for people who suffer allergic reactions to bug bites. Therefore, it is important to avoid these insects, if possible, and even if they have stung you, treating the sting is equally important. People who are sensitive to insect stings may have an immediate or a delayed reaction. An immediate reaction happens within four hours of a sting and includes localised pain, swelling and skin redness that lasts several hours at the sting site.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

EDITORIALS

Paddy politics & economics

THE Centre’s decision to keep the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy at last year’s levels of Rs 530 a quintal ( Rs 560 for grade A variety) has disappointed the agitating farmers and their well-wishers. They include the Punjab Chief Minister, who along with his colleagues and party men, staged a dharna outside the Prime Minister’s residence on Thursday. He became the country’s first CM to resort to such protest. The Centre’s indecision on the MSP, partly due to dirty politics played at the state and central levels to turn the heat of the farmers’ anger against the Congress government in Punjab, had forced the farmers to resort to protest. Their resentment is understandable. Distress sale of paddy has been reported from several mandis in Punjab. Drought had already inflated their production costs. The procurement process by the FCI, which used to start on September 21, has been postponed to October1 this season for no apparent reason. The state agencies could have been asked to enter the market to buy paddy tentatively at last year’s rates and check the loot by arhtiyas and sheller-owners, but they too, like the state government, kept on waiting for the MSP announcement. Expectations were raised and everyone hoped for an MSP hike, particularly after the Union Agriculture Minister had asked the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) to reconsider its previous recommendation in view of the drought. But the Centre’s decision came as a big let-down. Incidentally, why has the political leadership in Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and other paddy-growing states maintained silence on the sensitive issue? One reason is that paddy harvest in these states starts late compared to Punjab.

What should be done to stop the Centre-Punjab Government-farmer stand-off? One immediate step the Centre can take to soothe the farmers’ ruffled feelings is to announce a reasonable paddy bonus. The CACP, it is reported, has recommended a bonus of Rs 20 per quintal, but the Centre has chosen to keep silent on this. Second, drought relief must be disbursed immediately. Third, the farmers’ arrears with sugar mills must be cleared without further delay. Fourth, the Central and state agencies should start paddy procurement without wasting any more time. Fifth, as a long-term measure, the MSP of a crop should be worked out tentatively and announced before the sowing starts so that the farmer knows in advance whether growing a particular crop is useful. Finally, the logic behind keeping the MSP unchanged should be explained to the farming community, which has got the feeling that the Centre is against its interests. This can be done during the BJP’s “back-to-village” programme. It is obvious the government does not want to encourage the production of paddy and wheat with a higher MSP every year when there is no space to store foodgrains and the high production costs do not make their exports viable. By increasing the minimum support prices of all oilseeds, except soyabean, the government has sent a signal in favour of the diversification from the wheat-paddy cycle.

Little violence, thank heavens!

A collective sigh of relief has risen heavenwards from India following the relatively peaceful conclusion of the bandh on Thursday, the call for which was given by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in protest against Tuesday’s terrorist attack on Gandhinagar’s Swaminarayan temple in which 37 persons were killed. The apprehension was that this nationwide bandh might see a repeat of a similar VHP bandh in February following the Godhra incident, in which nearly 150 people lost their lives. What is remarkable is that nothing happened beyond stray incidents even in the powder-keg Gujarat. All that goes on to show that if a government has the will and the inclination to rein in trouble makers, it can easily do so. On the other hand, if the unstated intention is to lend them a helping hand in a clandestine manner, the streets can turn into battlegrounds. The overall impact of the agitation was also lukewarm, except in Gujarat and Maharashtra. There too, many establishments downed shutters only in apprehension of violence. This time not only the opposition parties were opposed to the bandh, but even the BJP was wary of providing open support. In fact, the VHP has sharply criticised its “pusillanimity”. It perhaps does not fully appreciate the responsibilities of the ruling party. After having faced world-wide criticism for what happened in Gujarat after the Godhra massacre, it could not have withstood a similar attack.

Even otherwise, raising the communal temperature would have only amounted to playing into the hands of the terrorists, who are hell-bent on engineering communal clashes. A maverick like Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray may spew venom, but a responsible government is not expected to be on the side of hooligans. It has become a cliché to say so, but the fact remains that terrorism has no religion. The only creed of such killers is destruction of civilised order. Their nefarious plans can be defeated only by ending their game, not by joining it. As a mature nation, India is expected to display the moral strength to remain unruffled even in the face of such grave provocations, and use these instead to steel its resolve to strengthen its credo of non-violence. For that to happen, a pre-requisite is that an eternal vigil is maintained. The only argument that deters people beyond rational thinking is that launching an attack on the symbols of India’s catholicity would be counter-productive. An independent nation has to be strong enough to repulse such cowardly assaults even when these are on the soft targets. The cost of daring to inflict a thousand cuts on the body politic on the sly has to be made sky high for the terrorists.

Bombing Basra

IT is difficult to decide what is of more concern, the attack by US aircraft on Basra airport in Iraq or the statement by the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington in which he said that "the right to resort to pre-emptive or preventive strikes is inherent in the sovereignty of a nation to protect itself." According to Iraq, coalition forces attacked the civilian airport and damaged its radar and main building. Basra falls in the so called "no-fly" zone which is patrolled by the USA and the UK since 1991. The strikes are seen as a continuing effort to soften up Iraq for a war that looks increasingly likely as the USA builds its case. At the Senate committee, Mr Powel further said: "The concept of pre-emptive strikes has been included in this year's Strategy Report to alert the public to the fact that the terrorist threat is different from other threats. It could be applied to terrorists or to a country." Such logic is strange, coming as it does from a nation that has been asking other states not to take any pre-emptive action. In fact, the USA and the world community have visibly appreciated India's restraint in not taking action against such state-sponsored terrorism from across the border on more than one occasion.

The USA's case for linking Iraq and Al Qaeda has not been able to garner much support internationally. Of course, Iraq's belligerence in not allowing UN inspectors to check its facilities that allegedly produce and store weapons of mass destruction has definitely not won it sympathy. That stance has now changed and efforts are on to work out the modalities for resuming such inspections. The USA and Britain have completed a new resolution on Iraq which gives about two months to President Saddam Hussein to comply with the 16 resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council since the 1991Gulf War. Domestically, too, the USA and the UK are facing problems in convincing skeptics about their dossier on Iraq's alleged crimes. Individual efforts to provide essential medicines, defying the US ban on travel to Iraq, have been made in recent years. The Committee on International Security Affairs of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York maintains that the US President would violate his nation's constitution if he goes to war on his own, without approval from the Senate, which is far from unanimous on the issue. There has been strong opposition in the UK to Prime Minister Tony Blair not taking Parliament into confidence about his plans on Iraq. The USA and the UK should present their case to the United Nations. Any action on Iraq should be under the aegis of the UN, and no nation, not even the world's only superpower, should short-circuit the process.

OPINION

Clearing the judicial backlog
More work, not more judges, is the answer
B. R. Lall

JUSTICE delivery system in India is under tremendous strain. Cases are piling up in courts of law soaring astronomically year after year. More and more cases are instituted every year, but the beleaguered judiciary is not able to measure up to the task and backlog has mounted to a whopping three crores almost. However, 1999 was an exceptional year when disposal in district/subordinate courts in the country was higher than the filings as per the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Justice. Exceptions apart, the fact remains that it is an explosive situation. The delays are killing the system and rendering all efforts at investigations/prosecution futile. In civil cases also the genuine people suffer, others thrive, and in the field of criminal law it is the criminal who is the gainer at the cost of the victim and society.

The problem has agitated the legal minds for decades. In July, 1987, in its 120th report, the Law Commission expressed its deep concern and suggested to augment the number of judges. It compared the number of judges in some other countries and concluded that per million of population the number of judges was the lowest in India at 10.5 against 41.6 in Australia, 75.2 in Canada, 50.9 in England and 107.0 in the USA.

Prima facie it may appear that our judges are overloaded and overworked as compared to their counterparts in other countries. If we delve a little deeper into the statistics, the analysis does not support this superficial view. Serious crime per million of population is 81210 in Canada, 60970 in France, 17728 in Japan and 42668 in the USA as compared to 1790 in India. Even the total crime in India is only 6710 as against 302670 per million people in the USA. Similar is the trend of civil cases. Proportionate to the number of filings, the strength of judges per million of population in Canada as compared to India should be 45 times, whereas it was only seven times, as quoted by the Law Commission (75.2:10.5). Assuming that civil cases would also be in that proportion, the Canadian judiciary was highly under-staffed as compared to ours.

During last three years, it has become a fashion to draw superficial comparison with the USA. In the USA at present there are 29000 judges, including the part time judges, which makes it approximately 111.5 judges per million of population as compared to India which has 13000 judges for a population of 1050 million — 12.4 judges per million of population. No doubt number of judges per million of population is nine times in the USA but the crime is 29 times as compared to India and so are also the total filings.

In 1999 as many as 93.81 million cases, both criminal and civil, were instituted in various US courts against 12.84 million in this country. Per judge filings in US courts were as high as 3235 as compared to 987 in India. Prima facie the statistics indicate that efficiency of US judges is 327 per cent as compared to Indian judges. Actual workload of American judges will be much higher when adjustment is to be made for part time judges. However, there is also a statistical trap. Statistic can be a very dangerous weapon if not used very carefully and after thorough analysis. In the USA 55.11 million are minor matters and only 38.71 million are the proper cases. Nevertheless, even that will give a load of 1335 cases per judge per year against 987 in India, which incidentally includes the figures of minor offences. The actual number will fall much below and comparison of workload will worsen against India when number of part time judges is also adjusted in the USA.

The Hon’ble Members of Law Commission erred in correlating the population with the number of judges. There is no logical relation between their number and the population of the country. Visualise the situation where there are no civil or criminal cases, even if the population of a country rises to two billion, not even a single judge will be required. The number of judges should be correlated with the number of cases instituted in various courts and not the population, which has no bearing whatsoever on the number of courts.

A panic has been created in the country that the number of judges is very small in India and that their number requires to be raised five-fold. The mist requires to be cleared and things put in the right perspective that the judiciary has to put in more work rather than clamouring for flooding the country with courts and judges.

Grappling with the problem is not difficult. In 1999 it appears the judiciary took pains and cleared part of the backlog as its disposal exceeded the institution by 1% i.e. against 12.84 million cases instituted, the disposal was 12097 million. By itself, this proves that strength of judiciary in India is not inadequate, some minor additions here and there apart. They need to concentrate on reorganising their own house and set things right. They have to look into their systems of adjournment, bails, stays on which they spend lots of time. They have to discipline both the parties in the court and discipline themselves also. They need to curtail their holidays and vacations and raise their hours of work. Judge is the leader as also the umpire in the court and running the court efficiently is his responsibility. There is nothing basically wrong with the law; only procedures need be set right. The point was successfully proved by CBI special court at Jabalpur. With cooperation of judiciary and the CBI, the disposal could be raised there from an average of 1.5 to 35 cases a year, in just a matter of one year.

Since pendency in trial disposal has always been a very big problem in the CBI, in 1995 the author made a detailed analysis and identified the factors responsible for delays. These pertained to the investigation, the prosecution, the defence and also to the court. The problems with investigation and prosecution were:

(a) Copies of documents were supplied with long delays (b) copies supplied were not legible (c) entire documents were being copied instead of relevant portion which not only required long time in preparing documents, but also gave a handle to defence counsel to get frequent adjournments on the ground of examination of lengthy documents (d) summons were not served regularly and (e) no notice was taken if a witness failed to turn up.

The problems arising from the courts and the defence counsel were identified as under:

(a) Only one or two witnesses in a case were called for a day and if one witness did not turn up, the time of all i.e. the court, the prosecutor and the investigator was lost.

(b) Only one case was fixed for a day and next day another, with the result that every time everybody had to brush up afresh.

(c) Even for giving dates each time, court took about 15 minutes for each case adding up to the loss of quite substantial time.

(d) It was found that in allowing another date only, it wasted at least two hours of the IO and the prosecutors even for the ineffective hearing.

(e) Accused would not turn up and courts would not utilize their coercive powers to compel his presence.

(f) Court was very liberal in matters of adjournments.

Measures that were adopted in Jabalpur were that the SPs were made responsible for ensuring that when a case was chargesheeted, the legible copies accompanied it and would personally look into the service of the summons. The public prosecutors of the CBI were asked to liaise with the court and request for calling 4-6 witnesses a day and fixing the hearing of a case in continuity, so that in a normal case the prosecution in normal course concluded in a period of 3-4 days in a single week when about 20 witnesses could be examined in quick succession. Since the examination will be on continuous days, the prosecutor could determine to drop the repetitive witnesses, which would again cut down the number of witnesses and hence time. On every adjournment, the prosecutor should put forth his point of view and contest unless it was thought to be genuine and absolutely necessary. When it was resorted to, the court stopped giving frequent adjournments.

Fines were to be levied if the counsel of either side or the witnesses absented without sufficient reason. When approached, the judge agreed readily and felt happy that the CBI had proposed some steps to activate itself and the system. The disposal improved immediately. In 1995 itself it rose from 1.5 to 13 and soared as high as 35 in 1996. Momentum had gathered, which carried it to the new heights in the subsequent years, touching a high of 46 cases in the millennium year of 2000.

Besides the number of cases, the quality of disposal saw tremendous improvement, with conviction percentage rising as high as over 85 and the punishment also became deterrent rising as high as 11 years in prison in a particular case, something unheard in the CBI. It is natural as the judge remembers the demeanor of the accused as also the witnesses if the case concludes early.

Jabalpur has shown the way that within the given resources and the infrastructure, there is enough room for improvement. The judiciary has to exert and make others also work. There is no reason that it cannot catch up with the disposal of annual filings.

The re-organised judicial working may take care of the present institutions, but for whatever reasons, the backlog collected is heavy. Of course, there is no need of doubling or tripling the number of courts as has often been advocated. However, the number of judges can be increased for five years by recruiting new persons against future retirements during the five years. In these years, the additional judges so provided, should clear the backlog.

However, the position of pendency in High Courts requires special measures. The working of the courts needs be analysed and the time spent on miscellaneous matters, bails, stays, adjournments needs to be curtailed, besides doing away with the system of vacations. To make a beginning, the courts can also work for six days a week and add one more hour to their everyday schedule, besides foregoing their vacations.

MIDDLE

Comic relief
S. Raghunath

I was interested to read a boxed news item that an American comics publisher was on the lookout for suitable Indian themes.

I wonder if I could muscle in on the act and suggest a few themes whose “Indian-ness” can’t be improved upon.

Theme No.1: The peaceful law-abiding citizens of a large Indian city are put to untold hardship and misery by a 72-hour “bandh” called by a few opportunistic political parties and anti-social elements. Young children, senior citizens and hospitals have to go without milk and bread. Office-goers have to trudge long distances because buses are off the road. Passengers arriving at the railway station and the airport are stranded because taxis aren’t plying. Even pharmacies selling life-saving drugs have downed their shutters fearing mob violence.

Seeing innocent people being held to ransom, Superman swoops down from the sky, his gaiters flying and takes masterful charge of the situation. He escorts milk delivery vans to their booths. He hops into an autorickshaw and drives like mad to the railway station to rescue stranded passengers. He takes a crowbar and breaks down the shutters of closed shops and distributes foodgrains to the people.

His mission accomplished, Superman takes off, without even waiting for a “thank you”, with grateful people looking skyward and crying out “Bravo, Superman!”

Theme No 2: A prominent Indian politician breaks down on the floor on the state legislature and emotionally vows that if charges of corruption, nepotism and amassing wealth disproportionate to known sources of his income are proved true, he will retire from public life, take “sanyas” and retreat into the forests. Eventually, the allegations are proved to the hilt and incredibly enough, he keeps to his word and goes into primeval forests where he meets Tarzan and the two go through many exciting adventures.

Theme No 3: The nation is rocked by a sensational daylight robbery in which a whopping Rs 71 lakh is taken out from the strong room of a nationalised bank on the basis of a single anonymous telephone call purporting to emanate from the household of the country’s highest political officer. An urgent call goes out to Roy Rogers who, accompanied by his faithful dog Trigger, gallops after the robbers, single-handedly fighting off desperate attempts to hush up the case. Rogers eventually runs the robbers to the ground and after extracting a false confession absolving the political officer, he rides away into the sunset over the Yamuna river.

Theme No 4: The country goes on a mad spending spree hosting one Heads of Government summit after another and sports and cultural extravaganzas. Faced by the imminent possibility of economic collapse and bankruptcy, the Indian Finance Minister flies to Disneyland on a desperate pan-handling mission and to meet Uncle Scrooge and arrange for soft loans. Scrooges drives a hard bargain and deducts an advance interest of $ 2 billion. The Beagle Boys, however, are keeping a sharp look-out on Scrooge’s money bin and as the Indian Finance Minister comes out, they grab him and the sack containing the money.

Theme No 5: The nation is in a turmoil because the heir apparent is rudely challenged by his politically ambitious sister-in-law and little nephew. A desperate call goes out to Lone Ranger who makes a sudden and dramatic appearance and after knocking a few skulls and breaking a couple of jaws, restores order and he then rides away shouting “Hi-Ho, Silver Away!”

ON RECORD

‘Rail accident rate not alarming’
Tripti Nath
Tribune News Service

MR IIMS Rana took over as Chairman of the Railway Board on March 31 this year. A former Member (Engineering) in the Railway Board, Mr Rana has introduced a message board on the official website of Indian Railways to encourage passengers to send suggestions.

During his career spanning nearly four decades, Mr Rana has handled several challenging assignments such as construction of the rail coach factory at Kapurthala. In an interview in his office in New Delhi, Mr Rana said he has a special association with Chandigarh where he studied at Punjab Engineering College.

Excerpts of the interview:

Q: Despite all the loud talk of safety being accorded priority, accidents are on the rise and of late involving the most prestigious trains like Rajdhani. Any comments?

This is unfortunate. The Indian railway system is so huge. There are 14,000 trains which carry 13 million passengers everyday. In such a large system, we are doing our best to reduce accidents and our target is zero accident. You know, 50,000 people die in road accidents every year and about 500 people die in train accidents every year.

Expectations from the Railways are very high and we welcome it. Over the years and decades, the safety performance of the Railways has been gradually improving. In the year 1960-61, there were 2131 accidents and in 2001-02, there were 415 accidents. This is despite the fact that there has been a five time increase in passenger and freight traffic. Let us compare with international standards.

There is a universal index of million accidents per million train kilometres. This was 5.5 in 1960s and it has come down to 0.65 in 2000-01 and .55 (provisional figure) this year. If you look at the accident frequency per one million train kilometres (East Japan Railway annual report 2002), Japanese Railways has .65 and in Germany 0.91. That means we are almost the lowest in the world and this, mind you, is despite the fact that we don’t have too many technological inputs.

We have a very extensive system of working. There are comprehensive rules and procedures to be followed to the last detail. Everyday lakhs of people, switchmen, station masters, drivers do hundreds of operations related to safety. We compare reasonably favourably with the international standards. Given the size of operations, our accident rate is not alarming.

Q: What is the overall situation on the renewal of direly needed tracks. What about replacement and rehabilitation of old bridges?

About Rs 3516.50 crore has been allocated for track renewal for 2002-03. The money allocated for rehabilitation of old bridges in this financial year is Rs 209.30 crore compared to Rs 111.53 crore in 2001-02. The budgetary allocation for rolling stock for this year is Rs 919.19 crore. Of the 1,19,984 railway bridges in India, 51,340 (44 per cent) are 100 years old. Till April 1 this year, 527 bridges were identified as distressed (which show signs of deterioration). Another 347 bridges are to be rehabilitated during 2002-03. Till July end, 61 such bridges had been rehabilitated. One thing that must be understood is that if some part of the railway infrastructure is weak, we introduce speed restrictions.

Q: The Railway Minister had asked the Railway Board to explore the possibility of revision of fares of Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains after Indian Airlines and Jet Airways announced fare cuts in nearly 40 sectors. Is the Railways working on a new fare structure as an inevitable reaction to the price war?

We did an elaborate exercise and did a routewise analysis of 16 pairs of Rajdhani trains to know the occupation. We found that reducing the rates was not worthwhile and there was no reason for panic. Cutting down rates would make negligible difference.

Q: The Railways is forced to pay three times more for electricity supplied by various state electricity boards. This has forced the Railways to think of setting up its own generation plants. What progress has been made in this direction?

We set up a committee with the NTPC to identify sites where plants can be set up. The first step was to see whether the existing plant could be expanded and whether they need a new plant. The first such project at Dadri near Delhi has been commissioned where we have taken power supply direct from NTPC and are saving huge amounts of money. After that, several state governments have realised that they are charging us irrationally high tariff. We had a meeting with the UP State Electricity Board MD and he is favourably inclined to reduce the tariff.

Q: What steps are you taking to rightsize the organisation to maximise work efficiency?

The Railways was the first to start rightsizing in the early 90s. We have a policy that against 3 per cent retirements which take place every year, we recruit only one per cent. From a workforce of 18.07 lakh in March end, 1991, our workforce has reduced to 15.4 lakh in 2001-02.

Q: What technical assistance and human resource has the Railway Ministry contributed to the ongoing Delhi Metro rail project?

All their clearances of running of the rolling stock, oscillation trials, technical schedule of dimensions, infringements — all these have been done by the Research Design and Standard Organisation. We have a large chunk of railway officers (about 250) on deputation there.

Q: What impact will the railway zonal reorganisation or territorial readjustment as the Railway Minister prefers to call it, have on railway finances and safety?

It will improve railway safety and efficiency. The creation of smaller zones will enable General Managers meet customers and will be able to solve their problems as well as those of the Divisional Railway Managers. And efficiency means improvement in safety, quality of service and financial health.

Q: What are the new projects for J& K and Punjab?

On the Jammu-Udhampur line, work is on in full swing and will be completed by December 2003. Doubling of the Jalandhar-Pathankot line (Rs 376 crore) has been sanctioned. Work on the Chandigarh-Ludhiana new line has begun. It is a Rs 248 crore project. The first phase will cover Chandigarh to Morinda. The Rs 210 crore Nangal Dam-Talwara new line project has started. Of this Rs 53 crore has been spent and Rs 10 crore will be spent this year. Delhi-Ambala-Ludhiana railway electrification has been completed. The target for the Ludhiana-Amritsar railway electrification (Rs 98 crore) is March 2004. Work is on.

Q: The Railway Minister has mooted the idea of another railway terminal for Delhi. How is the Railways carrying this proposal forward?

The Ministry of Railways is moving towards the establishment of directional terminals in the Delhi area. Since the existing terminals are already congested, in future, trains bound for North, West, East and South will be touching Delhi on its directional terminal. Northern Railway has proposed the first such terminal at Anand Vihar for serving East-bound traffic (Bhubaneswar, Howrah, North East, Bihar and Eastern UP). The Railways had 14 hectares of land and have acquired 28 hectares of land from DDA. The plan for the Anand Vihar terminal has already been finalised and is being discussed.

TRENDS & POINTERS

Tea reduces risk of cancer

SOLID evidence is mounting that drinking tea can prevent cell damage that leads to cancer, heart disease and perhaps other ills.

It may soon be time to add tea to the list of fruits and vegetables that experts urge Americans to eat as often as possible to reduce their risk of disease, researchers told a meeting sponsored by the US Department of Agriculture, the Tea Council, the American Cancer Society and other groups.

Jeffrey Blumberg, a nutritionist at Tufts University in Boston, said tea is loaded with phytochemicals — a wide range of molecules that can act as antioxidants. Such compounds counteract the damage done to DNA cells by free radicals — charged particles produced by sunlight, chemicals, many foods and simply the stress of day-to-day living.

Damaged DNA is the first step to cancer, and is also associated with heart disease. Vitamins such as A and C are antioxidants, but so are compounds such as the catechins found in tea. Reuters

Transferred for keeping long hair

Does growing long hair and beard amount to indiscipline and warrant the transfer of persons sporting this style in the Fire Department?

This question came up in the Allahabad High Court on Thursday when judges rapped the Uttar Pradesh Director General (Fire Brigade) for rejecting the representation of an employee against an order transferring him on the ground that he had beard and long hair.

The transfer order was quashed by a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S. K. Sen and Justice R. K. Agarwal with a direction to the official to consider the representation on merit. The order was passed on a special appeal filed by Mr S. P. Srivastava, an employee of the Fire Brigade of Allahabad. The petitioner had moved the court challenging the dismissal of his representation against the transfer. PTI

Learn to listen, doctors told

Doctors should keep quiet and let patients explain their problems instead of interrupting them, Swiss scientists said on Friday. Most patients can explain what is wrong with them in less than two minutes and many may even be swifter. But US research has shown that doctors usually start talking after about 22 seconds. “Doctors do not risk being swamped by their patients’ complaints if they listen until a patient indicates that his or her list of complaints is complete,” said a report in the British Medical Journal.

“Even in a busy practice driven by time constraints and financial pressure, two minutes of listening should be possible and will be sufficient for nearly 80 per cent of patients,” it added. Reuters

SIGHT & SOUND

Crises on the media
Amita Malik

IN the past few months, it has been a crisis a week in India. The rail crash, the confrontations between militants and the police and Army in Kashmir and now the militant attack on one of the most sacred temples in Gujarat. And this time, it was the added complication of the second phase of the Kashmir elections taking place on the same day as the attack on the temple.

While covering these events, the pattern has been more or less the same. And one aspect which should come in for sharp criticism is the unhealthy desire on the part of TV channels, particularly Zee and Aaj Tak, to prove that they are the bestest and the mostest. This is sometimes carried to absurd lengths. For instance, Zee claimed that it was “the first channel in India to ever carry an attack of this kind live”. The anchor who made this statement does not seem to watch other channels to get his facts straight, including many events in Kashmir alone. Every week we see Barkha Dutt, in the lead-on to her weekly programme, cradling in her arms during an actual explosive attack, an injured Kashmiri colleague who has just been shot. Then there was live coverage of the attack on Parliament by militants. If Zee looks in its own archives, it will probably find instances of its own. Equally silly was the sight of some channels plastering the screen simultaneously with Live, Breaking News, Exclusive even when the first showing was long over and the same footage was being repeated throughout the day. The ridiculousness of these claims too was shown up when other channels frequently picked up the live footage from the Gujarati channel of ETV, which seems to have got the first visuals, sometimes with the Gujarati commentary obtruding on the Hindi or English commentary. Yet on one channel had the professional honesty to put a line on the screen saying ‘‘Courtesy ETV”. In fact, instead of claiming to be the first, channels should cooperate in supplementing each other during such crises, to give the nation full coverage without scoring points about “Me First”.

When it came to actual coverage, it was NDTV which first broke the news. But afterwards, as Zee and Aaj Tak were either reporting without visuals or repeating for hours the same limited footage of a man with blood on his shirt being led out by a boy in a printed bush-shirt and an old man being carried out on a stretcher, Star News was concentrating on reporting the end -of-the polling scene in Kashmir. But when it did get back to Gujarat, it did so with a bang. While Zee was busy stretching out an interminable, repetitive inter view with the Deputy Home Minister who was rushing to catch a plane and kept on saying he had nothing to say until he got to the spot, Aaj Tak was also doing long interviews with Home Minister Swami etc. This is when NDTV got into the act with some excellent reporting by Ajai Shukla, whom I consider the best reporter of the day, because he did first-rate spot recording together with expert analyses of the military situation and the equipment and methods of the commandos flown in from Delhi. His reporting was clear, specialised and of international standards. Sanjeev Singh got tired after a time, but kept on gallantly for what must have been almost 12 hours non-stop and then some more.

Both Aaj Tak and Zee also had solid, hard-working reporters on the spot and experienced anchors in the studio. Where NDTV failed was in the studios during the earlier part of the crisis. During the hijack crisis, I remember some sweet young thing from Star News interviewing the head of the Taliban in Afghanistan, merely because she was on duty. This time it was NDTV’s speed merchant, Anubha, who always speaks too fast, stumbles as a result and repeats her sentences, who simply could not cope, but went on reading and anchoring at reckless speed, while experienced commentators and anchors actually cut down their speed in such situations. She asked such a complicated question in such a complicated language of the OSD with the PM Ashok Tandon, that even Mr Tandon, a mediaman himself, ad to get her to repeat it. Even Swathi Thyagarajan lost her cool and went on racing. What NDTV should do on such occasions is instantly take off duty its junior anchors and bring in their best. Which is why they scored in the news, when Arun Jaitley, Jaipal Reddy and Muslim leader Farooq Jafri spoke soberly and constructively about the possible followup action to the crisis while other channels were still interviewing the same ministers.

In the middle of national crises, we must not forget the tragic premature death of Priya Tendulkar, to whom Amol Palekar paid such a touching tribute. On my part, I can recall being rung up and asked to tea by the Cultural First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy when Priya’s serial ‘‘Rajani’’ was at its height. He asked me how they could obtain the telecast rights for ‘‘Rajani’’ for Chinese TV, as he felt sure it would be very popular in China. I believe other Asian countries, including Japan, had similar queries. So farewell ‘‘Rajani’’, you will long be remembered and missed.

Insect stings can be deadly

STINGS of bees and wasps can be more than just painful — they can be deadly for people who suffer allergic reactions to bug bites. Therefore, it is important to avoid these insects, if possible, and even if they have stung you, treating the sting is equally important.

People who are sensitive to insect stings may have an immediate or a delayed reaction. An immediate reaction happens within four hours of a sting and includes localised pain, swelling and skin redness that lasts several hours at the sting site.

Some people experience a large, local reaction that includes swelling in a larger area around the sting area and may also include low-grade fever, mild nausea, tiredness and aches. A delayed reaction to a sting occurs more than four hours later — sometimes it can happen a week after the sting. Symptoms include hives, fever, joint pain and fatigue. People who suffer a delayed reaction may be at risk for anaphylaxis if they’re stung again.

Here are some safety tips: If you have no history of allergic reactions, take aspirin for pain and use ice to reduce swelling.

If you’ve had a previous reaction to a sting, take an oral antihistamine that doesn’t cause drowsiness.

If you have a history of severe reactions or anaphylaxis, wear a bracelet that identifies your sensitivity to insect stings. Learn to give yourself injections of epinephrine. Keep epinephrine and antihistamines with you. Consult a doctor after taking medications.

If you’ve had a delayed reaction to a sting, you might consider immunotherapy — a series of shots against allergies to insect venom that can protect you against future reactions to stings. Do your best to avoid stings by wearing pants and full-sleeved shirts. Wear gloves when you garden. Choose shoes instead of sandals.

Don’t wear dark clothes or clothing with flowery designs. They’re more likely to attract insects than white or light-coloured clothing.

Use unscented deodorant and avoid strong-scented perfume, cologne, hair products or lotions. Wash off sweat after you exercise and use insect repellant. And finally, if you have a picnic or barbecue, cover your food and garbage so they don’t attract insects. ANI

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

When I forsake Thee O God,

I am in immense pain

And howsoever I may strive,

I look a stranger amidst all that is.

— Sri Guru Granth Sahib

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— Sri Guru Granth Sahib