Financial mess in Punjab

MR Gurdev Singh Badal, Agriculture Minister of Punjab, has informed the people that the total debt of Punjab farmers comes to Rs 5,700 crore, and the interest on each acre of land is Rs 1200 per annum.

He, further, explains that the cause of this heavy debt is the addiction of people to alcohol and drugs. In that very statement he boasts that this year the state government has earned one and a half times more revenue from the auction of liquor vends.

I do not know whether one should be proud or ashamed of the facts stated by the minister. He has at least suggested no remedy for the financial crisis in the state. Perhaps, the government has neither the will nor the inclination to find solution of the self-created financial mess. We may only witness some more suicide of farmers in the near future. Where the government is helpless, it is time for religion to play some constructive role to help the farmers with proper appeal from the religious stages a social climate can be created against drug addiction, etc.

If Christians can improve the financial and social status of the poorest of the poor, through religious influence, why can’t the Sikhs?

G. S. GREWAL
former Advocate-General, Punjab
Chandigarh

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Mysterious

The news of April 12 and 13 about two women — a lecturer and a student — complaining of harassment at the hands of some boys appears to be rather mysterious. No woman of character is expected to visit discos at odd hours of 1-3 A.M., accept the offer of coffee from unknown boys and then roam about in the city with those boys. Is it not an open invitation to the boys to spend some voluptuous moments with them? If one sows wind one cannot expect anything else but whirlwind.

It may be possible that these women may not be lecturer and student but may be merely posing as such to appear respectable.

DEWAN CHAND GULARIA
Chandigarh

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Gender equality

This refers to Manmohan Kaur’s article, “Status of Women in India: a depressing scenario” (April 15). It is not caste, class or community which distinguishes women as a group but their lack of education and lack of access to power. The BJP was first to go off the mark with free education for women up to graduation, promising the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, raising the voice for death penalty for rapists and severe sentences for all crimes committed against women.

We can’t expect to change the circumstances in a few years which have been prevailing for centuries. But the positive change is coming at a much faster rate than it was earlier. Indeed every help is provided through laws, judiciary and women group but up to the time all women do not themselves pledge to be liberated, no outside help will do. Gandhiji said: “They cannot take away our self-respect, if we do not give it to them”. One can hurt you physically and financially but being hurt emotionally is a very personal question w"d the genie is out of the bottle and cannot be forced back in. The answer is to dare, and again dare and forever dare.

VIVEK SINH MAR GIRAN
Kurukshetra

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Panchayati raj on firmer footing

Apropos of S. Sahay’s “Significant signals: Panchayati raj on firmer footing” (April 7) it goes without saying that for rural development to be effective and fruitful, panchayat and panchayat organisations should be the most effective instrument.

The author is perfectly correct in his observation that bureaucrats and politicians have been the bane of panchayat institutions. These factors could be obviated by emphasising social accountability and voluntary action of grassroot levels.

Village reconstruction, with self-reliance and self-sufficiency as the two principal goals to be achieved, is the most effective way to meet the challenge of poverty and unemployment. It is only through utilising the available manpower resources in the best manner possible that we can achieve a breakthrough from the present stagnation.

There is one major distortion in the approach of all political parties so far as the issue of giving actual powers to the panchayats is concerned. It is erroneously described as the third tier in the system of governance. But since there is no dispute or difference over the panchayats being the true representatives of the people at the grassroots level they should logically be given the status of the first tier. And by that token the country has thus far been governed by the second two tiers, namely the states and the Centre, with the panchayats playing little or no role at all. And no one will dispute the point that the people at the top (both in bureaucracy and in the government) have thus far failed to satisfactorily resolve the problems of rural India.

There is an urgent need to bring forth proper legislation on the panchayati raj system in which the powers of the grassroots institutions should be substantially increased. To ensure timely and regular elections to the panchayats and similar other institutions a Constitutional provision should be incorporated. The Central Government may even give incentives to states by substantially increasing the grants-in-aid for these institutions. This is as it should be because the most common complaint of most panchayats is paucity of funds for the implementation of various development projects. Another area which needs close scrutiny is the bureaucratic interference in the independent functioning of democracy at the grassroots level.

There is no gainsaying the fact that in the absence of basic socio-economic reforms and structure of popular institutions at district level and below, which are accountable and responsive to the people, the decentralised planning as discussed above is bound to be perverted by the vested interests in collusion with the bureaucratic machine to strengthen their social influence, economic power and political clout and deprive the mass of the people of their minimum rights and intensify their exploitation.

K. M. VASHISHT
Mansa

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ICBMs a must

Indian security has once again come under great threat with the redeployment of missiles targeting all big Indian cities and major defence installations by China. After Pakistan’s Ghauri missile (North Korean M-11) test firing, security balance has changed in South Asia. China has been also using all its international sources to isolate India on the recently held nuclear tests etc.

India should not ignore such developments. It is a matter of great concern. So India must develop ICBMs, which can target Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong as early as possible. This is the lone way by which we can counter China’s threat.

NAVEEN SHARMA
Ambala City