Old game at LoC
SCENE I: Adherence to the Lahore Declaration promised. Scene II: The ISI moves closer to the Line of Control (LoC). This is the nature of the assessment of the proxy war in Kashmir.

High-flying designations!
IN pre-Independence days, it was routine for the maharajas to shower prizes and gifts on people who had rendered valuable service. Even at that time, there was a maharaja in Rajasthan who would give only titles but no monetary benefits to the honoured ones.

MANAGEMENT OF GURDWARAS
by Amrik Singh
PERHAPS not many people will agree with the statement that the outcome of the Gurdwara Reform Movement (1920-25) had done more disservice to the Sikh community than is generally realised. While getting rid of the mahants was a positive development, the consequential arrangements introduced a destructive element into the situation.

Wanted: consensus on economic policy
by Vinod Mehta
THE crisis created by the fall of the BJP-led government at the Centre could have serious implications for the economy if not properly handled. We are again in the throes of political instability which in turn has thrown away all the economic calculations.

Small dams prove a boon
By Patrick McCully
‘NOW that we have more water our lives are much better,’ says Sakarben, a strikingly dignified Rabari woman in her early forties. The Rabaris - traditionally cattle herders but now mostly farmers - live in the semi-arid plains of Saurashtra, the broad stump of a peninsula jutting from the northwestern coast of India.

Did Vajpayee have premonition of fall?
DID the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, have a premonition that his government would not last more than one year? It appears he had.

Bureau-crazy on the blink
by Anurag
THAT Arun Bhatia’s dogged determination to expose corruption and deal decisively with the corrupt should have earned him, among other things, a record 24 transfers thus far, bespeaks a surging sickness in the body-bureaucratic.

75 Years Ago

Mayor of Calcutta
IT is understood that a meeting of the Committee of the Congress Party dealing with the Calcutta Corporation affairs decided to nominate Mr C.R. Das as Mayor of Calcutta and Mr S. Suhrawardy as Deputy Mayor.

Old game at LoC

SCENE I: Adherence to the Lahore Declaration promised. Scene II: The ISI moves closer to the Line of Control (LoC). This is the nature of the assessment of the proxy war in Kashmir. Snow is melting at higher altitudes and there are opportunities for making Pakistani insurgents infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir. Military intelligence has issued a timely warning which should be heeded forthwith in New Delhi, the ongoing political squabbles notwithstanding. The Army has a different kind of job in respect of trans-border surveillance. Therefore, paramilitary forces are required in strength to keep a close watch on the infiltrators. It is a pity that such requests from the Army are receiving very slow responses. There are about 40 military training camps close to the LoC. The additional movement of the ISI has to be matched by the reinforcement of Indian peace-keepers. The Pakistani training camps are guided by regular army men chosen for the specific task of nurturing special subversive skills in new recruits and mercenaries. The road network has been upgraded near the LoC, particularly in areas like Kahuta, Haji Pir and Muzaffarabad. What better proof of the presence of Paksitani regulars can be asked for than the shooting down the other day of two soldiers who were escorting infiltrators. There are at least three large bases at Kothibagh, Hazira and Samani. These are depots of arms and ammunition meant for infiltrators.

As summer will progress, infiltration by militants will increase. It is necessary to see to it that all vulnerable points near the LoC are guarded properly. Efforts in this regard deserve greater attention. There is little that the state government can do. The recruitment of young men for sabotage in Jammu and Kashmir on the Indian side of the LoC has been largely contained and nobody should invoke the Lahore Declaration. It is an instrument of gaining political mileage. Eternal vigilance and the habit of keeping the powder dry are two unforgettable preventive measures. The ways of insurgents and militants are strange indeed! Look at the North-East. NSCN and ULFA activists have launched a computerised blitzkrieg against the Army in Nagaland. Their demand is the creation of a "greater province" to be ruled according to their wishes. The cyber war has been intensified and it has an immense capacity for upgrading the present disinformation campaign. So, insurgency and militancy are adopting high-tech methods. The Army and the Union Home Ministry have to be relentlessly cautious and alert. However, needless worry should not demoralise the defenders of our territory. Pakistan cannot be trusted in security matters. It is losing no opportunity to disinform the Indian people about its actual intentions. Pakistani gurdwaras, so far managed by wakf boards, have been brought under the government's control and every Indian pilgrim to the shrines in that country is made to carry Khalistani and anti-India propaganda material. According to the Secretary-General of the Chandigarh Ramgarhia Sabha, Mr Satpaul Singh Matharu, participants in the jatha were offered a large quantity of anti-India calendars, pamphlets and posters. Most of such stuff was thrown away by the pilgrims after they arrived at the Wagah border. To an intelligent Indian, Pakistani malice is like a game of poker or tennis; you do not play it with anyone who is manifestly inferior to you.

High-flying designations!

IN pre-Independence days, it was routine for the maharajas to shower prizes and gifts on people who had rendered valuable service. Even at that time, there was a maharaja in Rajasthan who would give only titles but no monetary benefits to the honoured ones. If at all, Air-India has inherited the maharaja culture along with the logo, it is by way of taking a leaf out of this particular dignitary’s book. In a novel way to boost morale and enrich work culture, it has redesignated all the subordinate staff as “officers” and “service engineers” without enhancing their salary in any way. The 5000-plus technical and non-technical staff has thus been kicked upstairs at one stroke of pen. Carpenters, tailors and painters have become Service Engineers. Telephone operators are now Telecom Officers. Next time you have any complaints about an Air-India peon, remember that you are talking of a Chief Office Assistant. Ditto in the case of a liftman. He is now Chief Lift Assistant. This, hopes the airline, is the best innovative idea which will “bring about an improvement in the attitude of employees due to improved status and dignity and also enhance productivity and responsibility”.

One would like to say amen to that but the trouble is that like many other great ideas of Air-India, this one has also encountered tremendous turbulence. And the opposition has come from within. The “real” engineers and officers are livid that the decision has denigrated the positions they had obtained after acquiring rigorous academic qualifications and years of experience. In a tersely worded memorandum to company chairman P.V. Jayakrishnan, the Air India Aircraft Engineers Association (AIAEA) has warned that the move will lead to “frequent altercations, acts of indiscipline and industrial unrest and a near-total breakdown in the understanding and harmony” between engineers and redesignated technicians. Will it be right to call a laboratory assistant a doctor, they ask. If the violent reaction of the engineers is any indication, their warning may very well come true. When Air-India took the decision at the behest of the Air India Employees Guild, it was pleased as punch because the revision of designations was to carry no financial burden. It may now realise that the cost of appeasing the enraged engineers may be tremendous.

MANAGEMENT OF GURDWARAS
Election must give way to selection
by Amrik Singh

PERHAPS not many people will agree with the statement that the outcome of the Gurdwara Reform Movement (1920-25) had done more disservice to the Sikh community than is generally realised. While getting rid of the mahants was a positive development, the consequential arrangements introduced a destructive element into the situation.

The traditional Indian method is selection. What the British did was to introduce the system of election to which they had been accustomed in their own country as far as political representation was concerned. The introduction of adult franchise in India in 1925 for the first time was a notable achievement no doubt. But was it such an unmixed blessing as it was made out to be? The psyche of the two people is fundamentally different, and so are their perceptions. The system of elections introduced in respect of gurdwaras has, in my judgement, done incalculable harm to the Sikh community.

Today, the election to any gurdwara body is no different from the election to an assembly or Parliament. The same kind of partisan atmosphere is generated and the same tactics of bribery, corruption, manipulation, etc, are used. The outcome too is, therefore, about the same. Those who get elected are keen to feather their own nests rather than render any service. And yet when it comes to the management of gurdwaras, nothing could be more injurious to their survival as an institution than the election of these people to positions of power and patronage.

What is to be done in this situation? Most people, even while they agree with the diagnosis of the problem, do not find it feasible to propose an alternative system. For my part, I would like to propose something which will take the sting out of what happens today.

The problem did not arise so much in 1925 as it did after 1947. In the original Gurdwara Act of 1925, the SGPC was the top body without question. But that was only in a notional sense. Real power lay with the local gurdwaras. All historic gurdwaras, including Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib and Darbar Sahib, belonged to this category. The SGPC was so dependent upon the 10 per cent contribution received from these gurdwaras that sometimes the SGPC could not even pay its monthly salary bill till the amount had actually been received.

All this, however, underwent a total change in 1949 when the Gurdwara Act was amended and power was taken away from the local committees and concentrated in the SGPC. This model of governance has continued without any change since then and even further strengthened. In 1985, for instance, the Barnala government, through an Ordinance, transferred 140 gurdwaras directly to the control of the SGPC. With the growth of inflation, the income of these gurdwaras had gone up beyond the limits laid down in the Act. Therefore, transferring them to the SGPC control was more or less unavoidable.

While the Shiromani Akali Dal grumbles against overcentralisation by the Central government and wants power to be delegated to the states, in its dealings with the local gurdwaras, it does precisely what it objects to otherwise. Is that in consonant with its overall approach to things?

This change in the role and authority of the SGPC was made in 1949 in pursuit of the ambition to exercise political power. In the political field, power was not within the reach of the Akalis. They, therefore, decided to push in this direction; or almost so. The Congress party which was in power found this proposition acceptable because at that time the SGPC was controlled by Jathedar Nagoke who was with the Congress, and not with the Akali Dal. Everyone played a shortsighted game, if one may put it that way. In the bargain, a kind of a “state within a state” was set up, and this led to the undeniable degeneration of gurdwara management.

With its budget of about Rs 100 crore and other statutory provisions, the SGPC has come to exercise so much power that every political party, including the Congress and the Left parties, has been wanting to capture it. They tried to do so on more than one occasion. That they did not succeed in this game is another thing and need not be dilated upon here.

Different groups of Akalis have controlled the SGPC for over three quarters of a century. Out of this period, Jathedar Tohra managed to run the show for a whole quarter century. He may be out of power today. But the over-centralised system, as it has got evolved over the years, is a political plum that can always be captured and misused. What is required is to decentralise the system on the principle of checks and balances which the British had adopted in 1925. What was done in 1949, and even subsequently, was a planned act of perversion of the original intention.

It can be argued that this shift will transfer the problem from one point to another. To a substantial extent, this is precisely what will happen. In order to deal with the problem squarely, therefore, we have to re-examine the electoral system as it is in force at present. According to the current system, voters have to be enrolled, constituencies demarcated and elections conducted. Above all, it is for the government when, if at all, to hold the elections. Over the years it has become abundantly clear that the existing system, if it continues to be followed, will completely destroy the inner ethos of Sikhism.

If the Sikhs have to survive as a community, perhaps the most important thing that they have to do is to evolve a different system of the management of gurdwaras which is in consonant with their tradition and their ethos of service and self-reliance. Let it be recalled here that the Tenth Guru disbanded the system of masands. If, instead of hereditary masands, we have the elected category now, that cannot invalidate the categorical disapproval expressed by him who, when faced with corruption and mismanagement, acted in a decisive and progressive manner.

Once the management of gurdwaras becomes the responsibility of the local gurdwara people, step by step, the situation will start changing. Selection rather than election should be made the main mechanism and prop of the management of gurdwaras. This would ensure that the people present at a particular meeting (convened for the purpose) will agree on a particular person and a consensus evolved in his favour. Such a person will be elected through voice vote and not by the casting of votes. He need not have a specified term. As long as he performs , he is retained. Once he becomes unacceptable, he goes. The whole idea is to project and prefer those who are service-minded and not power-hungry.

It will be argued that this is too utopian a scheme. Utopian it certainly is. But let it be emphasised that, over a stretch of time, it is precisely this approach to things which will bring about a change in the thinking and outlook of the community. The community has got so used to the current mode of elective functioning that, as reported, some of the Sikhs who migrated to Canada suggested a similar provision to be introduced by the Canadian government. It should not be necessary to say that the matter was laughed out of court by the Canadians!

What has been done during the past half a century or so is not in line with the Sikh tradition which is democratic as well as participatory. The historic precedent of Sarbat Khalsa exemplifies what has been stated above. By resorting to election and all that goes with it, we have turned our back upon the Sikh tradition. How to restore that tradition is the question now.

What is suggested here is not the final answer but a move in that direction. Today whatever, discussion takes place on this subject is in terms of the existing Gurdwara Act. The Institute of Sikh Studies, Chandigarh, convened a seminar on this subject a year or so ago. The published proceedings of that seminar indicate clearly that the parameters of discussion were determined by what is currently laid down in the Gurdwara Act. Instead, the focus should have been on the fact that government legislation on elections to gurdwara bodies is pure poison and is destroying the Sikh ethos. Without a total break with the existing system, it will not be possible to bring about a change in our thinking.

This system of govermental regulation has to be abandoned. It would be perfectly in order for the new SGPC to set up a kind of unofficial body which may go into any dispute that might arise. Not only that, rules and procedures regarding appointments to jobs, priorities of expenditure, the control of funds and several other things may be laid down by the SGPC. But they will not have the force of law. If disputes arise, as perhaps will happen, it would be a comment on the new method of selection adopted and, by implication, a hangover of the earlier system which, though discarded, will continue to influence our thinking for quite some time.

As long as people are elected, for the most part, the wrong kind of persons are likely to get entry. It is only when people are selected for their capability, actual or potential, and commitment to serve the cause of gurdwara management that the atmosphere will begin to change. That this will take time is so obvious and does not have to be laboured.

Once the new system is introduced, those people who are keen to exercise political power will be discouraged from opting for gurdwara management. This is precisely what should happen. Such people it need not be added, have no role in gurdwara affairs. In plain words once the system of election is given up, the character of gurdwara management will undergo a change within a few years. Whether the system of election can be abolished or not will, however, depend upon a couple of factors.

First of all, the government must agree to give up its hold over the gurdwaras and scrap the different gurdwara Acts now in force. If necessary, some kind of financial control may be exercised by the government as it happens in the case of temples like Tirupati, etc. Secondly, those who manage the gurdwaras at present must agree to lay off and seek other channels of self-promotion rather than continue to play a role in the gurdwaras. In any case, if they do not withdraw voluntarily, they will have to be driven out.

All such issues need to be discussed at various levels, and a kind of consensus evolved. There would be nothing wrong, for instance, in electing a firm of chartered accountants to audit the accounts and lay down a system of financial control, etc. It should not be necessary to have a President, a secretary and a whole battery of elected officials. Only one or two individuals who enjoy wide acceptance may be elected.

All these matters can be gone into at the local level. If, for instance, it is found that it is difficult to manage large numbers, there is nothing to prevent the management from having local sangats meeting in small units and nominating someone to represent them in the bigger body. But all these things must be done not through the instrumentality of the government but through the public initiative and on a voluntary basis. The source of all mismanagement and corruption in the gurdwaras is that the concept of public responsibility has been rejected and government control preferred. It is this distortion in Sikh affairs which needs to be corrected.

Wanted: consensus on economic policy
by Vinod Mehta

THE crisis created by the fall of the BJP-led government at the Centre could have serious implications for the economy if not properly handled. We are again in the throes of political instability which in turn has thrown away all the economic calculations. It is only in India that any change in the government at the Centre creates apprehensions of drastic changes in economic policies because of the diametrically opposite views on economic issues held by various political parties.

This would not happen in developed countries, even in countries which have politically unstable governments. The reason is that all the political parties there have a consensus on economic policies. Therefore, any change in government will not affect the economy.

The need of the hour in the country is to have a broad consensus among political parties on economic policy so that there is some continuity which is so vital for the uninterrupted growth of the economy. There is an urgent need to educate our politicians on economic issues, the policy options available to them and the consequences of those policies. The politicians must understand that good intentions do not make good economic policies.

It must be understood that the political parties can either facilitate or obstruct certain developments in the economic sphere but they cannot change the economic logic. For investment to increase, in a nation professing any ideology — capitalist, socialist, social democratic, totalitarian, mixed economy, or religion-based —domestic savings will have to be pushed up, and if they are not enough these can be supplemented by foreign savings in any form, either through borrowing or direct foreign investment. Political parties can choose either of these options or a mixture of the two.

But changing the economic policies too frequently without allowing the earlier policies to bear fruit not only damages the long-term prospects of the economy, but also sends wrong signals to foreign investors. Any investment, whether in the private sector or public sector, is based on the existing assumptions, including fiscal and interest rate policies, direct foreign investment and so on, and if these policies are changed midway most of the units would go sick, as the assumptions and economic policies on which the investment decisions were based no longer hold true. Thus a good investment can turn bad and become a social problem.

As for foreign investors, those who have already invested may have second thoughts or may reduce their involvement, and those who were planning to invest may change their mind and divert their investment to other countries. It may also scare away other potential investors.

In a country like India where democratic institutions are now relatively well established and the system of changing the Government through the ballot has taken roots, the so-called political uncertainty is no uncertainty at all; like the domestic investors the foreign investors are also afraid, if at all, of any drastic reversal in economic policies which may upset their investment plans and their potential earnings; they are not afraid of changes in the government.

The politicians also need to understand that every political decision on economic issues involves economic costs which individuals as well as the country as a whole have to pay. It should be the duty of political parties to explain to the public as to what economic costs they will have to pay for the implementation of their economic programme.

Now the people are sensing that no coalition government will work in the present situation and that a new round of elections cannot be wished away and that it is now necessary to initiate the process of achieving consensus on economic policies so that if there is another unstable coalition, the economy will not suffer. It is in this context that a broad understanding has to be reached among all the political parties.

First of all, there has to be some broad understanding in the area of fiscal policy. Secondly, there must be some broad understanding on disinvestment policy towards public sector undertakings. There must be a broad agreement on the method of disinvestment, mergers, de-mergers and whether the government would hold majority shares or will have minority stakes.

In an interdependent world, blind opposition to foreign investment will not make much sense. If we do not want foreign investment because we feel that it will lead to some kind of colonisation then we should be prepared to raise enough resources to make the necessary investments in infrastructure and other industries like steel, cement, computer hardware, etc. We should also be prepared to bridge the technological gap between India and other countries in the shortest possible time. We should take all citizens into confidence and tell them that there are economic costs which the country will have to pay if we are to disallow foreign investment. And if the public were to calculate these costs it would find that it would run into billions of rupees.

Every party knows that the country, at the current stage of development, cannot do without foreign investment. Therefore, it would be in the interest of the country to have a broad political consensus on foreign investment in India.

Bureau-crazy on the blink
by Anurag

THAT Arun Bhatia’s dogged determination to expose corruption and deal decisively with the corrupt should have earned him, among other things, a record 24 transfers thus far, bespeaks a surging sickness in the body-bureaucratic. And lo, this being mercilessly matched by those public-spirited Uttar Pradesh cadre civil servants’ decision to go global by setting up a veritable “hall of shame” on the website to name and shame their “extra-liberal” colleagues. Phew, a unique experiment in liberalisation and globalisation! May the former’s tribe increase.

Recall the anti-smuggling drive launched in the wake of the declaration of internal emergency by a besieged Indira Gandhi in June, 1975. The then Chief Minister of Maharashtra was at his wit’s end, not knowing how to go about the task and make the grade. With a palpable sincerity of purpose, so goes the not-so-apocryphal story, he went into parleys with pals and professionals. But to no avail. In a tete-a-tete with Haji Mastan, a top smuggler of his times, the perturbed politician broached the subject. Pat came a query: “What is your government’s annual budget for the Maharashtra police?”

“X crores of rupees,” was the matter of fact reply. “Mine is X plus hundred crores”, the don declared and posed: “Tell me where shall their loyalty lie?”

A metaphor of our times indeed!

At no point of time, the bureaucracy was entirely free of corruption. Besides a minuscule minority of the corrupt, the great majority maintained high standards of probity, lived within their means and had a holy horror of misusing their official position. Today it is pandemic. Being a low risk, high profit business, it has become a way of life. May our well meaning Vittal, CVC, survive and succeed!

It is in keeping with the times we live in that a progressive state government, having failed to find the “most honest officer” after a year long search dolefully decided to abandon both the search and the award of Rs 1 lakh for the most endangered species. The more “catholic” among the cousins reasoned that such an award to any one of them would impugn the honour of the rest and diminish their standing in the public eye!

Be that as it may, such award do remind us that honesty is a virtue which the society still values and venerates. A social service organisation has done well to bestow the “Honest man of the Year” award on Manmohan Singh, TN Seshan and Atal Behari Vajpayee in the preceding years. Crusaders like Arun Bhatia provide a glimmer of hope and do deserve such recognition and rewards.

Institution of awards is a constitutional method to promote excellence. And to strive towards excellence in all spheres of individual and collective activity so that the nation constantly rises to higher levels of endeavour and achievement is one of the fundamental duties enshrined in the Constitution of India.

Small dams prove a boon
By Patrick McCully

‘NOW that we have more water our lives are much better,’ says Sakarben, a strikingly dignified Rabari woman in her early forties. The Rabaris - traditionally cattle herders but now mostly farmers - live in the semi-arid plains of Saurashtra, the broad stump of a peninsula jutting from the northwestern coast of India.

Before three small dams were built across a nearby nullah or seasonal stream, Sakarben and the other women in her family had been forced to sell their gold jewelry, then leave Saurashtra to work as diamond polishers in Surat, one of the industrial centres of Gujarat state. But now, although there is still plenty of hardship in their lives, Sakarben’s family can make a living from their own crops and animals, which can be supplemented as necessary with income from working on neighbouring farms.

The technology that improved Sakarben’s life is very simple, relatively cheap to build, and easy to maintain. It consists of a well and three small earth embankments, the longest roughly 50 feet across and 5 feet high. Each of these so-called ‘nala plugs’ impounds a small pond during the monsoon, which in Saurashtra occurs from June to September. After the monsoon, the pond gradually recedes in 1998 there was a lot of late-monsoon rain so Sakarben and her husband Nanabhai think the water may last until March.

The main benefit from the nullah plugs, however, is not the surface water in which women can wash clothes, children can splash and water buffalo can swallow, but the water that seeps into the ground. Saurashtra, like much of the rest of India, is suffering from a groundwater crisis. Throughout the region, groundwater levels are plummeting, putting well water out of reach of those who cannot afford electric or diesel pumps.

In the worst-affected areas, farmland and even whole villages are being abandoned. Two-thirds of the villages in Gujarat now have no permanent, reliable source of water, mainly because of the over-exploitation of groundwater. In coastal areas, sinking water tables allow salt water to seep into aquifers. Nearly half the hand pumps in coastal areas of Gujarat were reported in 1986 to be yielding salty water.

Modern electrical or diesel-powered tubewells can draw water far faster and from far deeper than traditional dug wells. All over India, better-off farmers have taken advantage of government subsidies to install and operate tubewells, which raises their crop yields but has catastrophic impacts on groundwater levels and the livelihoods of their poorer dug-well-dependent neighbours. Eventually even tubewells become useless as aquifers are pumped dry or become saline.

Before the nullah plugs were built, Sakarben had to walk to nearby villages to fetch water, and her crops were dependent on the always unreliable monsoon. A failed monsoon would mean a failed crop and destitution for her family. Today, the newly built well near her home provides easy access to water year round for her crops of corn, sorghum, lentils, tomatoes and chilies, her three precious cattle and the sheep and goats she somewhat dismissively refers to as ‘smaller stuff’.

Until a few decades ago Rabari families would often have owned hundreds of cattle, but the enclosure of common grazing lands and soil erosion have largely destroyed this basis of the region’s pastoral economy.) Five other families also benefit from the groundwater recharge provided by the three nullah plugs.

Sakarben lives near the market town of Savarkundla, which is the home base of the Kundla Taluka Gram Seva Mandal, a Gandhian non-governmental organisation whose work in the area dates back to the thirties. The mandal started working on water issues in 1995 in response to the crisis caused by the over-exploitation of groundwater in the area. Since then they have built more than 1,000 nullah plugs, and a number of check dams (slightly larger concrete versions of nullah plugs) and percolation tanks (larger again) in around 35 villages.

Manubhai Mehta, a 60-year-old Gandhian dressed in the all-white cotton Jodhpuris and long tunics typically worn by Saurashtrian men, heads the Centre’s Water Resources Development Project. “When we started work,” he says, ‘water tables had dropped to around 50 or 60 feet, and in one village to 300 feet. Some of the wells were totally dry. The villages were suffering very bad shortages of water for drinking and irrigation in the winter and people were walking long distances to fetch water.’

Manubhai says that villagers first decide where a water-harvesting structure should be built, then an engineer from the mandal visits to discuss their plans and decide which type of structure would be most appropriate for their site and needs. The engineer then prepares design plans and a cost estimate. The villagers themselves provide the materials and build the structure with supervision from the engineer. Seventy-five to 80 percent of the cost of the structures is paid for by the mandal (which is government-funded), with the remainder and all costs of upkeep borne by the beneficiary villagers.

The villagers are encouraged by the mandal to set up user groups to deal with maintenance and other management issues. Every full moon Service Centre staff and farmers meet in a different village to discuss issues related to water-harvesting, an important forum for passing on the idea to new villages.

According to Manubhai, the success of the mandal’s project contrasts sharply with government-built water-harvesting structures in the region - almost all of which have been washed out and abandoned. The small nullah plugs are simple structures which can easily be eroded away if they are overtopped during floods. But where user groups are formed and have responsibility for maintaining the structures which benefit them, washed-out plugs are soon repaired.

“Our dams are built by the people and for the people, not for the state,’ Manubhai says, ‘so the people maintain them.’ Manubhai says that when they reported the results of the first three years of their project, government officials refused to believe that so many structures could have been built with the Rs 35 million spent to date.

The mandal claims that this investment has resulted in an annual increase in income for farmers in the beneficiary villages of around Rs 73.5 million. While most of Saurashtra suffered acute drinking-water shortages in the summer months before this year’s monsoon, Manubhai says that only one of the villages where the Water Resources Development Project is working required water to be brought in by tanker.

Twenty-one earthern nullah plugs and two concrete check dams have been built across nullahs on land belonging to the village of Vartoda. One of these nalas had not contained water for around 10 years. This year the water collected during the monsoon to expected to last until January. Well recharge has enabled one local farmer to increase his irrigated land from less than two to eight acre. In one nearby well the water level has risen from 65 feet below the ground to just 5 feet.

In Bhagada village, wells are being recharged by 61 nala plugs and 17 check dams. A village committee decides where the next structure should be built and a user group is then established for each structure.

Nathabhai Lavabhai Kolathia, head of the Bhagada committee, grows cotton, groundnuts, millet and oilseeds on his 8 acre. He says that his yields have doubled in the three years since a 6-foot-high concrete check dam was built near by. The dam has recharged eight nearby wells, and has also helped vegetation grow along the side of the nala which will provide villagers with fuelwood and fodder. The dam cost Rs 105,000, a quarter of which was provided by the user group in materials and labour.

“The increased production has lifted the need for labour in the village and daily wages have risen from Rs 25 to Rs 60” says Nathabhai. ‘Another improvement is that there is now farm work outside the monsoon.’

The mandal works to prevent the benefits of the structures from being monopolised by wealthier farmers by discouraging direct withdrawals from the impoundments. The water is only supposed to be used to recharge groundwater from wells, thereby ensuring that the beneficiaries are decided more by local geology and topography than by wealth.

“Equal distribution and no privatisation” is one of our slogans,’ says Manubhai Mehta. Another is “water in the farm should in the farm, soil from the farm should stay in the farm,’ which means that topsoil which would otherwise be carried off by monsoon floods is trapped behind the small dams and then spread out over fields during the dry season, a practice which helps maintain the storage capacity of the ponds and provides rich soil for the farmers.

The nullah plugs and check dams being built by the Savarkundla Service Centre are a new technology to nearby villages, but are based on ancient practices that are now undergoing a revival as villagers all over India grow disenchanted with large-scale government water projects. In state after state, NGOs are trying to resuscitate traditional water-harvesting systems which have been almost totally neglected by India’s water managers, who favour tubewells and big dams.

A 1997 report from the New Delhi-based Centre for Science And Environment, Dying Wisdom: Rise, Fall and Potential of India’s Traditional Water Harvesting Systems”, documents the incredible diversity of these systems around the Indian sub-continent. The report reveals that water-harvesting is nothing new to Saurashtra - ancient rubble dams found in the same district as Savarkundla are thought to have been used for trapping water and silt 5,000 years ago. — (Third World Network Features)

(Patrick McCully is with the International Rivers Network.)

Did Vajpayee have premonition of fall?

DID the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, have a premonition that his government would not last more than one year? It appears he had.

The occasion was the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Confederation of Indian Industry in the Capital last year. Mr Vajpayee, who addressed the captains of Indian industry barely a few days after he became Prime Minister, confessed at the meeting that he had reservations in accepting the CII’s invitation.

The reason the earlier two AGMs of the chamber had been inaugurated by two different Prime Ministers. While in 1995, it was the turn of Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao to address the prestigious meeting, his successor, Mr Deve Gowda, never got a chance to do so as he was defeated on the floor of the Lok Sabha a few days before the AGM of the CII in 1997. It was Mr Inder Kumar Gujral who inaugurated the conference. Now again when the CII’s meeting is scheduled for April 28, there is a strong possibility that a new Prime Minister might inaugurate it.

Uncanny coincidence

Whatever be the result of the present political situation, there is an uncanny coincidence in the timing of the strike that felled two coalition governments in a three-year span.

It was on March 30, 1997 that the then Congress President Mr Sitaram Kesri withdrew support to the H.D. Deve Gowda’s United Front Government. It was in April that the former Prime Minister lost the vote of confidence in the Lok Sabha. That year too the decision to topple the government was taken when Parliament was in recess.

This time around, events gathered pace after the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi decided to attend a tea party hosted by the Janata Party chief, Dr Subramaniam Swamy in honour of the AIADMK leader, Ms J. Jayalalitha on March 29.

The AIADMK decision to withdraw support to the BJP-led coalition was conveyed to the President on April 14. Once again the decision was taken during the period the House was in recess. It seems political acts are running according to certain scripts.

Surjeet explains slowness

The CPM General Secretary, Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet, admits that he has a problem living up to the media’s expectations of giving quick reactions to rapid political developments.

The reason he has not read all those books that teach public relations and he has to think before he speaks. “Unlike you I have not read all those books and for that matter, have not even been to a school,” he told scribes recently.

He was explaining the reason for his not talking to the press immediately after a meeting the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan. The veteran leader went on to explain that whatever he had learnt had been in jails, where he spent nearly 10 years. There is nothing else to do in the jail and one has all the time to read and write.

SP under scribes’ siege

In the present round of political crisis which has engulfed the country following the fall of the Vajpayee Government, political loyalties seem to have rubbed off on journalists covering various political parties.

This was clearly evident at the briefing of the Samajwadi Party on Friday when the party general secretaries, Mr Amar Singh and Mr Mohd Azam Khan announced their decision in not supporting the Congress. The decision not only created a flutter among the large number of journalists present at the party office but also had some of them very agitated.

The angry lot of journalists surrounding the two party general secretaries, literally took them to task with their barrage of angry questions, some of them even hinting that the Samajwadi Party would be responsible for a snap poll in the country. Some of the journalists from this lot of self-proclaimed “third force” sympathisers even went to the extent of alleging to Mr Amar Singh that he had taken money from the BJP and that he was a “gaddar”. All this from the journalists who are supposed to be unbiased!

They prefer stealing shoes

While the leaders of the Samajwadi Party were busy preparing the strategy to steal the show from the Congress, there were some stealing something else from their party office.

At the meeting of its leaders, including district and zone heads, several of them found that some one had made good with their shoes. As many as three pairs of shoes of Samajwadi Party leaders were found to be missing after the meeting. Who was trying to steal them?

(Contributed by T.V. Lakshminarayan, K.V. Prasad, Girija Shanker Kaura and P.N. Andley.)

75 YEARS AGO

Mayor of Calcutta

IT is understood that a meeting of the Committee of the Congress Party dealing with the Calcutta Corporation affairs decided to nominate Mr C.R. Das as Mayor of Calcutta and Mr S. Suhrawardy as Deputy Mayor.

Nothing has yet been settled regarding the appointment of the Chief Executive Officer. The following have been chosen to be created Aldermen: — Messrs C.R. Das, S.C. Nasker and S.C. Bose.