The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

US ultimatum to Pak
Hard approach on terrorism has its advantages

This is for the first time that the US has told Pakistan publicly that Islamabad must capture by July-end five top terrorists hiding in its tribal areas. The American approach appears to be an appropriate one as experience shows that the authorities in Pakistan take the trouble of producing the desired result only when intense pressure is brought to bear on them. Any other country would have acted on its own to arrest Mullah Omar, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ilyas Kashmiri, Sirajuddin Haqqani and Atiya Rahman soon after getting information that these dangerous terrorists were hiding in its territory. The Pakistan government has allowed these terrorists, who are on the US wanted list, to take shelter in its tribal areas clearly because it is not serious about eliminating the scourge of terrorism. There is enough evidence to prove that Pakistan is yet to abandon its policy of using terrorism for achieving its geopolitical objectives.

North Waziristan, where the five top terrorist masterminds are believed to be well entrenched, is not an impregnable area if the Pakistan military desires to penetrate it. After all, it launched an operation in the Swat valley and the surrounding tribal areas some time ago and destroyed the bases of the Tehrik-Taliban Pakistan. That was done after tremendous pressure from the US. Islamabad could have initiated a similar military drive in North Waziristan too on its own to clear the area of all kinds of terrorists hiding there. But it has been keeping quiet after the Swat operation. There is a great difference between what Pakistan claims and does on the issue of fighting terrorism.

Now the question arises: Is the US ready with a direct action programme in case Pakistan fails to deliver by July-end? Will Washington DC go ahead with an Abbottabad-type operation and catch hold of the five terrorists dead or alive? If the US shows leniency on any pretext, it will be dealing a grievous blow to the cause of fighting global terrorism.

Open loot
Unending misuse of Red Cross funds

According to the Indian Red Cross Society Act 1920, amended in 1992 by Parliament, the funds of the society have to be utilised for the relief of the sick or suffering and distress caused by the operations of war in India or any other country. By no stretch of imagination can expenditure on celebrating “important days”, buying computers and airconditioners for the offices of Deputy Commissioners and their juniors and refreshments and other expenses for the family of a Judge can come under this category of relief. But that is how the Karnal District Red Cross Society spent Red Cross money from 2005 onwards. It was not alone in doing so. The audit of 12 district Red Cross societies of Haryana reveals that funds amounting to Rs 2.86 crore were frittered away on items such as maintenance of government office buildings, purchase of gifts, furniture, mobile phones, telephone bills, purchase and repair of vehicles for the Deputy Commissioners and Subdivisional Officers.

What is shocking is that the open loot continued in spite of the objections raised by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and directions from the Haryana Government to Deputy Commissioners to reimburse the Red Cross funds. Ironically, some of the district societies did not even reply to the questions of the auditors. Things were no better in Punjab. An inquiry committee comprising two former High Court judges last year held that there were “patent cases” of misappropriation, misutilisation and misdirection of funds and recommended recovery of funds in certain cases. Yet, things have not changed much on the ground.

It is such blatant acts which exasperate the public and force some concerned citizens like Anna Hazare to demand a thorough overhaul of the system. Yet, instead of taking corrective measures, the government expends its energy on discrediting the protesters. Hazares and Ramdevs are not important. What is important is what they symbolize: the public disillusionment and frustration over the administrative machinery which is so rotten that all attempts to set it right have come to a nought. A beginning has to be made somewhere. Why not in the government’s own backyard?

Thought for the Day

Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army. — Edward Everett

ARTICLE

Plight of India’s slum-dwellers
Need for better-governed cities
by Jayshree Sengupta

Everyone living in or visiting India is aware of the huge income disparities which are more visible in the cities than in the villages. More than before, there is also a vulgar display of wealth by the Rich, and their houses and lifestyles are taken as a yardstick of their wealth. By contrast, in the sweltering heat, monsoon rains or intense cold, 93 million people are living in slums today, often without any regular power or water connections or a proper roof above their heads. Around 25 per cent of the population in any big city lives in slums, and in Greater Mumbai, more than half (54 per cent ) are slum-dwellers.

India is going to have more slums in the future if nothing is done about affordable housing for the poor right now. Around 590 million people or half of the population will be living in cities by 2030. There has to be a big investment in low cost housing for the urban poor from now itself in order to improve their living conditions in the future.

There have been two recent reports on the future of urban infrastructure in India — one by the McKinsey Global Institute (India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities, Sustaining Economic Growth) and the other by an expert committee on urban infrastructure headed by Isher Judge Ahluwalia. Both have asked for the government to step up the per capita expenditure on urban infrastructure of the government.

According to the McKinsey report, currently the government is spending $7 per capita per year on urban infrastructure; it should be spending $134 per capita in the future and a total $1.2 trillion is required over the next 20 years. The expert committee has recommended an investment of Rs 39.2 lakh crore over 20 years. It seems a monumental task and whether the huge amounts will be properly spent, given the current level of corruption, is something worth pondering about. Yet the task is urgent.

Looking at the existing condition, there is little evidence of any planned thinking about the growth of urban slums except the JNNURM ( the National Urban Renewal Mission) appointed in December 2005. But apathy for the urban poor was amply displayed during the recent Commonwealth Games, when slums were arbitrarily and summarily moved from near the banks of the Yamuna to far off places in a beautification drive of the city. Transportation costs are escalating every year and the urban poor who now have to live on the city fringes will be poorer in terms of real spending power, especially with the high food inflation during the last two years.

Slums are growing because rural people are migrating to the cities in droves from everyday. In Delhi alone, thousands arrive daily looking for jobs. Though India is growing at 8.5 per cent, there is pervasive rural poverty in some states and few jobs are there except those under the MGNREGA which has, in fact, stemmed the migration flow slightly. Slum-dwellers neither have basic amenities like toilets in their houses nor regular access to clean drinking water. Around 128 million people do not have access to clean water all over India. As for health care, most of the urban poor have to go to private clinics as government dispensaries are hardly adequate, if at all available. Public hospitals can be a nightmare in case of emergency. One big illness can throw the slum-dwellers into extreme poverty and they can get indebted for life.

Many of the slum children do not go to school as there are few teachers and the classes are big (the average is 40, the highest in the world) and if the child is absent for a while, it is very difficult for him or her to rejoin because catching up is impossible. They naturally drop out because parents cannot help them with studies and they end up as helpers at home or as child labour. India has the highest number of child labour in the world and it is not surprising that 8 to 9 million children are out of school. You can see many on the roads of Delhi, begging, performing painful acrobatics or selling cheap tidbits.

There is going to be a huge problem of solid waste disposal and sewage also with an increase in urbanization, and the McKinsey report paints a grim picture of cities being dry, stinking hell-holes. Many urban rich today do not want to see the slums and are opting for gated communities with their own parks, schools, hospitals, malls, security, water and power supply. If the rich think they can wish away the poor in this manner, they won’t be successful because the poor are not only aware of their lifestyles through the spread of visual media and mobile phones, but are also very envious and hateful (as Aravind Adiga’s novel, “White Tiger”, amply shows) of the rich which manifests itself in increasing crime, sporadic and organised violence against civil society.

The government, as a recent news report says, is going ahead with cheap housing in a big way, keeping in mind the huge shortfall in supply, and is also going to give preference to women in allotments. This is a laudatory move otherwise the male head of the household can sell, rent or mortgage it for cash for his own consumption purposes. Unless the millions living in the slums are given proper housing and amenities, the glaring rich-poor divide will increase. It is not going to be good for the country’s image even as a tourist spot or as a foreign investment destination.

Another trend that is surfacing in India (though there are 69 dollar billionaires and 127000 dollar millionaires) is the lack of generosity and philanthropy of the rich. According to the Lagatum Institute’s report, a small percentage of Indians (19 per cent) donate for charity.

The future of Indian cities will be good if planning starts now in all earnest. Every big city in the world has gone through the phases that Indian cities are currently experiencing but each managed to come out of that stage and eschewed stark human deprivation, though many still have ghettos. They have done so with good city governance and municipal bodies which are accountable to the public. They have been able to garner enough tax revenue for improving low cost housing and increasing the quantity and quality of social services for the poor. City management can be better if bureaucratic red tape is reduced and there is greater autonomy given to mayors, municipal councilors and other administrators. Only with better governed cities can there be less sharp inequalities.

MIDDLE

Prophets of doom
by Ashok Kumar Yadav

THREE CHEERS for yet another fiasco! And a mouthful of jeers for a self-styled doomster! Lo, an ominous encounter with planetary extinction on May 21, as predicted by Harrold Camping, a religious radio preacher from California, too fizzled out, without tossing Mother Earth. He now acquires notoriety to roll into a select band of prophets of doom, who truly deserve to be christened as merchants of catastrophe!

Foretelling a looming celestial calamity, they issue unsolicited fatwa, with meticulous specifics, as if they could radar the upcoming events with utmost precision, making the world tremble in fear.

Though flourishing all over, India continues to be their most preferred harbour. Their weird predictions, which provide insatiable fodder to the media, generally go haywire. Like the deceptive weather forecast! Nevertheless, these omniscient fortune-tellers keep trapping new innocent victims, to make their own fortune.

During my visit to Mexico two months ago, my friend gifted me a memento on Maya calendar on my farewell. The calendar predicts 12th December, 2012, as the day when the entire civilisation would perish. Beware, mankind! We are now inching towards another portentous mayhem, nay, another fiasco, surely. Who wants to die, after all!

Interestingly, the Mayan calendar has become a harbinger of love also in my friend’s house, though its real “maya” would unfold only when the D-day comes. Suresh admitted that his wife had become more loving ever since she was introduced to the Mexican calendar, deciding why to fritter away the little time left before the final sunset.

While the soothsayers, astrologers and tarot card readers tend to unpeel the hidden layers of fortune of others, they themselves are caught gasping for breath when ill-fortune confronts them.

It was indeed ironical to recall TS Eliot’s “Waste Land”, how Madame Sosostris, a prolific clairvoyant, presumed to commune with the dead and considered to be the wisest in Europe, was not even aware about her own bad cold.

Returning from school in Bawal one afternoon, I was tempted to join an indulgent crowd, where a parrot was picking cards of destiny. Suddenly, a wild cat crouched, dived and pounced, like a flash, on the parrot and killed it instantly, before vanishing with the prey. What were left were just colourful feathers, fluttering in the breeze, telling their own story.

The poor card-reader had no option but to refund the money he had collected. He was never seen again.

It was indeed amusing to meet a renowned fortune-teller, who frequently appears on the television, while I was in Prasanthi Nilayam for maha samadhi of Sathya Sai Baba in April. He said he comes there for guidance, ever since the Baba revealed about cancerous growth in his pancreas, some 20 years ago.

My mantra to all the gullible is to shun soothsayers and live in the present, to rejoice in what Robert Browning said in Pippa Passes: “God’s in his heaven; all’s right with the world”!

OPED DEVELOPMENT

It is not a coincidence that most violent protests are related to the acquisition of land for private companies. It is widely believed that the nexus of companies and decision-makers is misusing the acquisition laws to serve its own interests
Law & land: Farmer is the loser
Ram Singh

Undoubtedly, land acquisition is one of the most contentious issues in the political economy of India today. Farmers are ready to brave the bullet rather than part with their land. The support of farmers and agriculture workers galvanised against land acquisition is the main factor behind the Trinamool Congress’ recent triumph over the 34-year-old Left regime in West Bengal. Indeed, the future of several state governments, including those of UP and Haryana, will depend on how they deal with this political hot potato.

Why do farmers refuse to part with their land even when the profitability of agriculture is at an all-time low level?

As expected, political parties are busy blaming one another for the current state of affairs. In the process, however, they have reduced a set of substantive issues to that of a dispute over compensation only. Vying with each other, the governments of Haryana and UP have increased compensation rates. Nonetheless, land acquisition in both states continues to face stiff resistance. Why?

Several other questions also warrant a sincere discussion. Why is there a dramatic rise in the number of violent protests by farmers in the recent years? Is the inadequate compensation or something else also to be blamed for it? Why are farmers refusing to part with their land even when the profitability of agriculture is at an all-time low level?

Public purpose? Hardly

Traditionally, compulsory acquisition of land used to be for public purpose — for provisions of roads, railways, schools, dams, mega-plants, etc. Therefore, the intention behind acquisition was generally not questioned.

However, the last decade has experienced a phenomenal rise in the number of compulsory acquisitions for private companies. Many a time states have acquired agriculture land citing public purpose, but subsequently transferred it to private companies.

More recently, they have started using the emergency clause to acquire land for all sorts of activities of companies, including ones that even remotely cannot serve any public purpose. The states have been able to do all this by exploiting ambiguities in the archaic Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

The judicial apathy on a crucial issue has also facilitated a ruthless trampling of farmers’ rights. Unlike its generous approach on the issue of compensation, the question whether acquisitions are in public interest or not has been left by the judiciary to the discretion of the states. Courts have annulled a few acquisitions but largely on procedural grounds; for the most part, they have not questioned the legitimacy of the acquisition per se.

In such a scenario private interest, rather than public purpose, has come to dictate the decision-making of state governments. This phenomenon has become especially pronounced during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The plan has made special economic zones and other public-private partnerships the mainstay for making provisions of public goods. Purportedly, the partnerships are formed to tap private funds for infrastructure and public services like education, health, etc.

Long-term lease

On its part, the government concerned acquires land and transfers the control rights over it to the partner companies on the basis of a long-term and renewable lease. Invariably, excess land is acquired to be used by companies for real estate and other commercial purposes. Post-acquisition, companies make huge fortunes by leasing out the developed land. At times, they charge as much as 100-150 times the price they pay for the land, making the compensation received by farmers look pittance.

Several states and Central government departments have formed such “partnerships”. Delhi airport, the Posco project in Orissa, the Yamuna and Ganga expressways development projects in UP are a few of the many examples. Yet, while making recommendations for the new land acquisition Bill, the influential National Advisory Council (NAC) has completely failed to take note of this devious tool for transferring land to companies.

The compensation paid to the affected owners is invariably less than the market value of the land regardless of whether the acquisition is for companies or not. There are several underlying reasons. First, due to unreasonable restrictions imposed by the change-in-land-use (CLU) regulations for agricultural land, the market price itself is acutely suppressed. On top of it, the very basis and process of determining compensation is flawed.

Section 23 of the Land Acquisition Act entitles the affected owners to market value of the property plus a solatium of 30 per cent. However, compensation is required to be determined on the basis of the floor price fixed by the state, or the average of registered sale deeds of similar land. State governments tend to choose circle rates below the market value. Moreover, the market in agricultural land is very thin. Generally, it is very difficult to find sale deeds of similar land. The result is that the owners are under-compensated.

NAC misses the point

The NAC has proposed to rectify the problem by suggesting that the compensation be six times the registered value of the land. However, it has ignored the fact that in many cases — forget the registered value of the land in question — even the registered sale deeds of ‘similar’ land don’t exist. Therefore, this recommendation of the council is pointless.

When compensation is less than the market value, excessive acquisition for companies causes substantial and extensive redistribution of income and wealth. This is especially true in case of agricultural land. The acquisition means significant wealth gains for companies which get to own or use the land at an extremely low price.

There are income gains for the educated and skilled workers who get hired by companies using the land. Also, there are benefits for users of the service for which land is acquired. On the contrary, the acquisition results in a loss of wealth as well as income for farmers since they are inadequately compensated for their assets and lose their primary source of income. It also reduces employment opportunities and, therefore, income for farm workers.

Understandably, the adversely affected people find the redistribution of land in favour of companies totally unacceptable. It is not a coincidence that most of violent protests are related to the acquisition of land for private companies. The perception of corruption among decision-makers makes things even worse. It is widely believed that the nexus of companies and decision-makers is misusing the acquisition laws and CLU regulations to serve their own interests. These days, people suspect official intentions even when land is needed for a genuine public purpose.

Besides, lack of alternative employment opportunities for farmers and agri-workers is also a contributory factor behind their resistance. Being unskilled, they have nowhere to go. The above factors explain why people are ready to face the bullet to save land, even though agricultural profitability and real wages are at an all-time low level and declining by the day. At least, agriculture spares them a subsistence existence. Of course, manipulation of the distressed people by the opposition parties has its own role to play, at times resulting in a huge loss of life and property.

The reality of the protests notwithstanding, the UP and Haryana governments claim to offer excellent land acquisition policies. For obvious reasons, the Centre endorses Haryana’s policy as an example of “good” policy. These claims, however, are totally untenable.

UP, Haryana schemes

It must be granted that the comparable compensation schemes launched by UP and Haryana have some desirable features. Both states offer annuity payments for 33 years. The starting rates are Rs 20,000 and Rs 21,000 per acre per annum for UP and Haryana, respectively, with a corresponding annual increment of Rs 600 and Rs 750.

Moreover, in some cases, the affected owners are offered stakes in the benefits following from land acquisition. UP reserves 17.5 per cent plots for the land-owners when acquisition is for a residential scheme. If acquisition is for developmental purposes, 7 per cent of the developed land is reserved for them. Families rendered landless are offered a one-time payment of Rs 1.85 lakh, besides the promise of employment to one person per family. When acquisition is for a company, the owners have the option of buying up to 25 per cent of the company’s shares.

Similarly, Haryana offers residential and commercial plots to the land-owners when acquisition is done for housing and industrial projects, respectively. Further, if acquisition is for infrastructure projects, the government promises one job each to the affected families. These benefits are available only to the owners who lose at least 75 per cent of their land.

However, farmers from both states allege that most of the stated benefits have not reached them. Moreover, in both states the principal compensation rates are far below the market value of the land.

In the case of Haryana the compensation appears deceptively high due to ingenious clauses like the no-litigation bonus. An ongoing study undertaken by this writer shows that this seemingly innocuous scheme is actually detrimental to farmers’ interests. The study covers the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgements delivered during 2009-10. It shows that in 96 per cent of the cases, the judiciary has increased compensation, over and above what was paid by the government. The average increase is 342 per cent!

In contrast, the no-litigation bonus is ridiculously low. It offers a 20 per cent increase in compensation if the farmer waives his/her right to judicial recourse against low compensation. Nonetheless, given that litigation is a costly and prolonged process, the distressed farmers may still fall for this official trap.

When it comes to misusing the acquisition law, both states seem to “outperform” each other. UP has an excessive proclivity for misusing the emergency clause. On this ground itself, since April 2011 courts have struck down the acquisition of 603 hectares in Greater Noida alone. In several instances the state has acquired land citing public purpose, but subsequently diverted it toward private ends.

Haryana’s performance is even worse. For instance, about 1,500 acres of high-value agriculture land in close vicinity of Gurgaon city was acquired quoting public-purpose. Later on, it was transferred to the Reliance SEZ, a project whose future is uncertain even after a lapse of five years. Courts have reprimanded the state for the blatant abuse of the law, including misuse of the emergency clause, the acquisition of cultivated agricultural land when barren land was available, de-notification of the acquired land and for the non-payment of due compensation. Recently, the Supreme Court rebuked it for adopting “pick-and-choose” methods of acquiring land to favour the powerful. Indeed, the state is an epitome of abusive practices that have come to plague the extant law.

The writer is a Professor, Delhi School of Economics. Email: ramsingh@econdse.org