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Tuesday,
July 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Relief for farmers BBC under pressure Maligning mujra |
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The quest for parity
The mill at Okara
Panchayats to monitor health care centres
Complaints go unattended
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Relief for farmers THERE is cheerful news from the farm front: a good monsoon, a rise in the foodgrain prices, a Rs 600-crore package for sugarcane growers, a reduction in interest rates on farm loans and an increased offtake of wheat stocks from Punjab. The government had earlier reduced the interest rates on loans for seasonal agricultural operations from 15-16 per cent to 9 per cent. But the limit was only Rs 50,000. The Prime Minister, addressing a farmers’ gathering at his residence on Sunday, announced that the Centre had asked the banks not to charge more than the PLR (prime lending rate) on agricultural loans up to Rs 2 lakh. He promised more such “unprecedented” steps for farmers. That the election season is round the corner is no coincidence. Punjab has wheat stocks of some128 lakh tonnes. Foodgrain surpluses had created a crisis situation, the storage capacity being limited and inadequate. Wheat stocks worth Rs 750 crore have been damaged and have become unfit for human consumption. The government would not make foodgrains, rotting in godowns, available to the needy in the country at affordable prices. Instead, year after year the Centre would spend crores of rupees on storing foodgrains. Because of their low quality, foodgrains have limited export potential. Some countries which buy Indian wheat use it as cattlefeed. Of late, the exports too have started picking up. The government has export orders for 29.5 lakh tonnes in hand. Within the country also the demand for wheat has picked up in deficit states like Rajasthan, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Uttaranchal. If the present trend of wheat movement from Punjab continues, the state will be left with only 42.62 lakh tonnes by the end of this fiscal. The central issue that needs to be addressed is: how to cut production and handling costs so that foodgrains become competitive in the global and domestic markets. The mechanised handling and storage of wheat and paddy can considerably reduce the costs. This calls for the setting up of silos. In these days of plenty, where is the need to have large mountains of foodgrains? To avoid the national shame of starvation deaths in a situation of plenty, the food-for-work programme and the public distribution system need to be re-invigorated. |
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BBC under pressure THE
legendary British Broadcasting Corporation, better known as the BBC, is faced with the worst crisis in its 80 years’ glorious history. It is in trouble for resisting the Tony Blair government’s pressure to toe the official line on the Iraq war. However, with BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies accusing certain Cabinet ministers of threatening to destroy the public broadcaster’s envied independence on Sunday, the corporation may get tremendous support from the Britons for defying the government’s disguised diktats during and after the war. The British Prime Minister and his colleagues wanted the BBC to function as the Fox News network of the US — dancing to the tunes of the government — over the Iraq war. Obviously, this was unacceptable to the bosses of the BBC, which prides itself on its autonomy and world-wide credibility. What has led to a row between the BBC and the Blair government is the latest well-documented expose that 10 Downing Street had “sexed up” its dossier on Saddam Hussein’s alleged collection of weapons of mass destruction. This showed the hollowness of Mr Blair’s much-publicised claim that the discredited Baghdad regime could be ready to threaten the world peace within 45 minutes with its feared WMDs. The war of words between the BBC and the Blair government led to the British Defence Ministry’s highly respected weapons expert, David Kelly, committing suicide. Kelley took the extreme step not because he got scared of the BBC disclosing his name as its “intelligence source” for the explosive broadcast. In fact, the news corporation did everything it could to protect its source, proving true to its reputation. The weapons expert could not tolerate the humiliation heaped on him by the Blair government because of his suspected connection with the rigged report. The BBC disclosed the name of its source, Kelley, when he was no more. And that too when it knew that during the course of the inquiry ordered into his death it would, in any case, have to come out with the identity of its source. The government side has accused the BBC of pursuing an agenda which does not fit in with its image of being independent and objective in its news coverage. Hence the threat to deprive it of its major source of funding — the licence fee charged from the owners of TV and radio sets. Who ultimately wins remains to be seen. But there is a significant message for India’s public broadcaster, Prasar Bharati. Doordarshan and All India Radio can improve their credibility considerably by resisting pressures from the government of the day, which is always prone to
plugging in its official line. |
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Maligning mujra A dash of masala and some clever re-mix spells musical success in the global village. The Lakhnavis were feeling left out because their "pahle aap" upbringing saw the more rumbustious Punjabis steal the global musical thunder. They may have something to smile about. The mujra is said to be dead in Lucknow, but according to reports it has surfaced in London, not in the form that would make Umrao jump with joy. Umrao Jaan, the story of a Lakhnavi courtesan, was turned into a magnificent film by Muzaffar Ali. The film received rave reviews but did little to revive the mujra as an acceptable dance form. It is now being performed in the dark alleys of London. In the "good old days" the kotha was meant to help boys from aristocratic families grow up into cultured young men. Most tawaifs used to sing their own compositions. Every age produces its own culture, that is reflected in its poetry, music and dance. This is the age of instant junk. So the best poets do not write like the courtesans of Lucknow, whose claim to fame was their mujra and not their romantic poetry. Many poets these days produce instant poetry that is set to disposable music. And when the two combine they produce forgetable dance forms. The London mujra is a mix of all three and is not likely to set the Thames on fire. Instead, it has whipped up a storm of protest. The police is investigating complaints of girls from the subcontinent being forced into prostitution under the garb of mujra. It is evident that the exquisite dance form perfected by the courtesans of Lucknow does not have a future in the "bare" new world. Thought for the day I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. — Abraham Lincoln
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The quest for parity CHINA
and Pakistan have been India’s two specially difficult and noisy neighbours. China and India, the two neighbours roughly having the same demographic size, have similar weight internationally. The world sees them as two competing Asian giants and emerging economies, which merit hyphenation. However, the name mostly hyphenated with India’s is Pakistan’s, a country roughly one-eighth to one-sixth our size in most respects. This hyphenation has become a habit. We ourselves and the world have got used to mentioning Hindu-Muslim communalism; the Congress versus the Muslim League ideological differences; Jinnah-Nehru debates, etc. After Independence once Pakistan got its separate identity, India and Pakistan became more firmly hyphenated. Discussions in their respective Constituent Assemblies, commitment or otherwise to democracy and secularism, economic and developmental trajectories, adherence to or rejection of the Cold War era, defence pacts like CENTO or SEATO, the UN Security Council’s debates on Jammu and Kashmir, philosophical and ideological differences projected at international fora, adherence or otherwise to the non-aligned movement, all these made the hyphen between them larger, more prominent and repetitive. Often one finds this a little tiresome, sometimes even boring. China and India, on the other hand, a few years after their brief war in 1962, were able to resurrect their dialogue in the diplomatic, trade and economic, cultural, technological and scientific areas. After the Rajiv Gandhi visit to China in 1988 they actively re-commensed the exercise for resolving the border dispute, and defining the status of Tibet, their two principal issues of difference. In a mature fashion they have been adjusting their mutual differences. They even signed in 1993 a bilateral agreement committing themselves to maintaining peace and tranquillity on their not-so-fully-delineated border. Hence the world has not been conscious of considerations of either parity, or animosity, and no hyphen has got inflicted on their relationship. No such luck with Pakistan. Domestically, Pakistan has failed to sustain any democratic, civilian governance for any significant period. Such democratic interludes in that country have all along been punctuated by long periods of military rule. The basic reason for this has been the Pakistani military building itself as an assertive, respected and constantly expanding institution controlling the nation. Their objective has been explained away as their commitment to maintain the capacity to contain a much larger neighbour which, in economic, technological, demographic and industrial terms, has always been several times their size. In the process of pandering to the theories and theses of their military Pakistanis even lost half of their country’s territory. The Pakistani military has forever tried to convince the nation that civilian rule has always been and shall ever remain corrupt and irresponsible and, therefore, incapable of protecting the people’s interests against a larger, implacable, egoistic, aggressive and arrogant neighbour. Their endeavour has been to make the Pakistanis see this neighbour as the eternal other, the eternal enemy. Occasionally, whenever India had had a feeble leadership it too have succumbed to the temptation of painting Pakistan as an adversary against whom all preventive action, including propaganda, must be taken. While he was in Washington DC recently General Musharraf called upon the Pakistanis to think of recognising Israel. The debate, he said, should be serious without emotionalism of the extremists. The implication is that Pakistan has no dispute with Israel, and can move towards recognising it. In a strange way this too is tied up with our hyphenation. India has diplomatic, trade and cultural relations with Israel and despite this, its relations with Arab countries have not been affected adversely. So, there is a lesson in this for Pakistan. Pakistan has been promised $ 3 billion, spread over five years, half and half as economic and military aid, subject to certain conditionalities. The Pakistan Government feels that all this could run into trouble in the US Congress as they anticipate that India’s friends in the Congress could well insist that disbursement of this aid should follow only after Pakistan has satisfied all the conditionalities, including providing proof that Islamabad no longer exports terrorism across the LoC into the Indian side of Kashmir. The General feels that by recognising Israel he can provide some comfort to the U.S. Congress and thus weaken the opposition to their securing the promised cash. Questions about how democratic Pakistani society is under the present military dictatorship, and whether it is logical for Pakistan to seek parity with a neighbour eight times its size, and about the need for Islamabad to pay the heavy cost for its perennial competition with India, etc, are surely going to be raised in the Congress. Certain Pakistanis like Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who visited India recently, and various intellectuals and commentators are raising doubts about the present Pakistani regime’s ability to live in peace with its immediate neighbours, which include not merely India but also Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The growing feeling in Pakistan during the last several years appeared to be that as long as it insisted on competing with India, or seeking parity with it in every aspect of international functioning, Islamabad would continue to spend its resources illogically and unprofitably and damage itself ultimately. It has often been seen as an almost failed state, not a country of substance and weight. Three of India’s former Foreign Ministers — MC Chagla, Dinesh Singh and Swaran Singh — refused to be provoked by Pakistani needling whenever they attended a UN General Assembly or Security Council session. Once Pakistan Foreign Minister ZA Bhutto permitted himself to become really unparliamentary and abusive against India while addressing the UN General Assembly. He arranged that the Albanian and Saudi representatives should take the floor immediately after himself so as to echo the substance, if not the language, of his allegations. Swaran Singh, then India’s External Affairs Minister, decided that India’s right of reply should not be exercised by anyone senior, and asked the junior-most First Secretary in the delegation — the present writer to do so. Even tactics such as this have not succeeded in erasing the hyphen between the two neighbours. President Clinton’s advisers recognised that common interests and mutual interdependence between India and Pakistan should have been there in the normal course, but Pakistan continued to make heavy expenditure to prepare all the time for a conflict. Their military has not permitted the Pakistanis to remember the lesson Sophocles tried to teach “Hate your enemy only as far as someone may hate one who could one day be a friend.” The writer is a former Foreign Secretary of India |
The mill at Okara OKARA town in Pakistan is in the news these days because of the killing of peasants there by the Pakistan Army. That takes one back to 1947 when it was a scene of many atrocities on Hindus and Sikhs. Okara is 100 km from Lahore and it was in 1908 that the British Government seriously started developing this town and its surrounding areas by creating 25 agricultural farms there. Each farm had 17013 acres (6805 hectares) of land. Peasants from all over Punjab were given chunks of agricultural land and slowly and gradually the Okara town starting developing. It was a part of Montgomery district of pre-partition Punjab. The late Ghanshyam Dass Birla, one of India’s greatest business entrepreneurs and philanthropists, had only one mill in present-day Pakistan and that was at Okara. The name of the mill was Sutlej Cotton Mill. Sutlej Cotton Mill had a net worth of Rs 3 crore in 1947 out of which Rs 2 crore was in stocks and Rs 1 crore was the investment in plant and machinery etc. The mill employed about 4000 workers which included Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians. In the month of August in 1947 the communal situation had worsened in Okara and the non-Muslim workers were seriously worried about their lives and property. Ultimately the Redcliffe Award was announced on August 17, 1947 and Okara, as expected was given to Pakistan. On the morning of August 19 the Senior General Manager of the mill, Mr S.N. Bhoomia and General Manager, Mr L.N. Joshi, told the non-Muslim mill employees in the presence of officiating Deputy Commissioner of Montgomery that they all must leave immediately before sunset as there were rumours of a attack by certain antisocial elements on August 20. The non-Muslim employees and workers with their family members immediately started leaving for Ferozepur via Raiwind. The attack and subsequent successful capture of the mill was efficaciously done by a Muslim League Leader, who had migrated from Delhi (Golan Farid Latif), of course with the help of local goons and League workers. The newly formed Pakistan Government gave the Satluj Cotton Mill as compensation to Golan Farid Latif because he was already in physical possession of the mill and he being dexterous and well connected in the new setup had to be suitably rewarded. Ironically Latif was once a Personal Assistant to Mr Birla and at some later stage he had requested Mr Birla to help him start a small factory in Delhi. The great Mr Birla obliged his ex-PA and helped him financially so that he could start a small factory in early 1940s at Delhi. Latif joined the Delhi Muslim League and diligently participated in its activities. Latif had just taken the benefit of the circumstances and anarchy prevailing at that time as he had full knowledge about the mill and its working. After the Pakistan Government had handed over the mill to Latif, the news was broken to Mr Birla, who took it stoically and was not perturbed. Slowly he came to know of the actual facts of the case. Initially he tried to persuade Mr Liaqat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, to allow him to start the mill, even with Muslim workers. But since his efforts could not succeed, he one day rang up Latif knowing full well that his Ex-PA was in control of the mill, and told him: “Latif, do not ever mention to anyone that you were once my Personal Assistant in Delhi and that I ever helped you, because people would start losing faith in their employees in future and that is never desirable for a good society, especially for a newly created nation like yours”. The new owner of the Satluj Cotton Mill at Okara had no
answer. |
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Panchayats to monitor health care centres THE
Punjab Government’s decision to empower the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) by entrusting them with the responsibility of primary health care, elementary education and basic public health, including drinking water and sewage, is a bold step and its implementation will be a herculean task. The Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, announced at Amritsar on Sunday last that a major rally of elected representatives of local bodies would be convened soon to give a practical shape to the concept of empowerment of PRIs as was visualised by Mr Rajiv Gandhi. The Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, may be the chief guest at the rally where the transfer of primary education, primary health care and basic public health care to PRIs will be formalised. Though many states have already implemented the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution by empowering PRIs, Punjab is making a desperate bid to join this select band of states which have taken the democracy to the grassroots. Going by the statistics provided by the Health Department, as many as 4,800 primary health care centres employing about 3200 Medical Officers (MOs) are to be transferred to the panchayat raj institutions. It means that basic health care facilities provided to people at their village, patwar or block levels will be under the direct administrative control of the gram panchayats or block samitis. The technical control, however, will continue with the state government as before. Other than these centres to be transferred to the PRIs, Punjab has three medical colleges with attached hospitals, two private medical colleges with hospitals, 157 upgraded secondary health care centres. Besides, it has a flourishing ultra-modern health care network in semi-urban and urban areas in the private sector. The weaker and under-privileged sections of society, as the Chief Minister himself admits, are the ultimate sufferers of shortage of medical and paramedical staff and lack of infrastructure in the public sector. Though the recruitment, promotions and transfers, besides the provision of equipment, medicines and other technical support will continue to be with the state, yet day-to-day functioning of these centres and basic administrative control of the staff will go to the PRIs. The biggest challenge before the state has been “absenteeism”. Both in education and health care, no one is prepared to serve in the rural, remote and border areas. As such the basic health care and primary education have been in a shambles in rural Punjab. Against the massive administrative machinery of the state, which could discipline neither the teachers nor the health staff, the PRIs have far limited resources to make them “accountable”. The complaints that pharmacists and lab technicians substitute for doctors are too common to be ignored. Then how will the PRIs build up infrastructure? They have limited financial resources. The introduction of “user charges”, both in the urban and rural areas, has considerably reduced the paying capacity of an average man. “We will transfer both the staff and the budget of primary health care to the zila parishads and block samitis, not to the gram panchayats,” says Mr Rajan Kashyap, Punjab Chief Secretary, holding that all future vacant positions would be filled at the zila parishad level on a contract basis. “We propose to redesignate Civil Surgeon as Chief Medical Officer, who will be answerable to a Zila Parishad,” adds Mr Kashyap. “I have been advocating that each village should have a development committee which should meet once a month and decide its priorities. Its suggestions should go to the block samiti and then the zila parishad. The village development committee should monitor the attendance of teachers, medical staff and others and also requirement of school and health centre staff. Though the gram panchayat or the village development committee will have no executive powers, it will have a monitoring job to perform so that primary schools and health care centres function efficiently.” Though the Chief Minister is keen on completing this transfer in the next three months, modalities remain to be worked out. The last meeting of the National Development Council, to be held on July 17, was postponed. It was at this meeting that Punjab was to unfold its plan of decentralisation. The Principal Secretary of Health and Family Welfare, Mr D.S. Jaspal, may soon go to Madhya Pradesh to see how the PRIs have been empowered there. “We want to frame guidelines before transferring these departments to the PRIs. The idea is to empower the community at the micro level and equip it effectively. So the rules will be so framed that the transfer is smooth and the experiment becomes a success,” adds Mr Jaspal maintaining that the entire concept of decentralisation has been explained to the visiting World Bank team. |
Complaints go unattended WHETHER it’s a public or private enterprise, a manufacturer or a service provider, very few bother to respond to consumer complaints with alacrity. In fact, most organisations do not even have a well laid-out policy on complaint handling and as a result, responses to consumer grievances are at best ad hoc and unsatisfactory. Take, for example, the health sector, which was so opposed to the consumer courts being empowered to resolve disputes pertaining to health services. A study of 81 hospitals in Delhi, Hyderabad and Lucknow, conducted a few years ago by a Delhi-based consumer group, Voluntary
Organisation in Interest of Consumer Education, found the existing arrangements totally inadequate to deal with consumer complaints. The study revealed that few of the hospitals surveyed had documented, standardised complaint procedures. And only 15 per cent of the hospitals had a written manual for receiving and processing complaints. Not every hospital had designated persons to handle complaints and even where there were such officials, they did not have any specific training in the area. Nor were they accountable to the complainants. Let’s look at another sector that’s very much in the news these days — the cable television industry. A survey conducted in Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Jaipur and Bangalore by a consumer organisation, Consumer Unity and Trust Society, showed a high level of consumer dissatisfaction with the way cable operators handled their complaints. Only 13 per cent of the consumers received a docket number voluntarily, acknowledging their complaint, the study said. One does not even need such surveys to pinpoint the absence of an effective system of complaint handling in various government organisations that deal with the public or provide essential services. A perusal of the complaints filed before consumer courts provide adequate proof of the way consumers are made to run from pillar to post for redress of their complaints. Well, there is hope yet. The Bureau of Indian Standards has come up with a standard that can help businesses put in place a competent and well thought-out plan of action for handling consumer complaints. The standard, first of its kind in the country, emphasises that successful complaint handling requires a firm commitment from the top management. Besides establishing an explicit customer-focused complaints handling policy, the management should plan and design an effective process to carry out the policy and provide the required resources. Based on the International Standards Organisation’s draft standards on “complaints handling guidelines for organisations”, the BIS helps organisations plan, design, execute and maintain an effective complaints-handling process. The standard focuses on several guiding principles for an effective resolution of consumer complaints: visibility, accessibility, responsiveness, objectivity, confidentiality, consumer focused approach , accountability and continual improvement. Keeping in mind the smaller businesses, the standard has provided separate guidelines for them. For a start, the government should make it mandatory for all service providers in the state sector, including hospitals and primary health centers, to implement the standard. And while introducing the Conditional Access System, it should also get the cable industry to adopt it so that consumers can have a satisfactory system of complaint redress. |
Carry good deeds for travelling expenses and leave not today’s task till tomorrow. Sorath, 595 If the strong smite the strong, we may not feel grieved over it. But when a fierce lion falls upon the helpless cattle, the master of the herd must answer for it. Asa,
360 He who is imbued with the love of power and wealth dances shamelessly to their tune. Majh
142 The Manmukh preaches piety, but does not himself practise it. Bailawal,
831 Reap the profit of the contemplation of God’s Name which indeed is the essence of all excellence. Avarice, covetousness and egotism are evil. Neither slander, nor incite, nor provoke anyone. The Manmukh who goes this way is blind, foolish and ignorant. Ramkali,
931 |
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Resentment brewing among the health staff over the issue of withdrawal of the non-practising allowance (NPA) has started culminating in a “silent revolt” with some of the doctors putting in their papers for premature retirement. Unless checked, this “silent revolt” can jeopardise the government’s move to transfer primary health care to the PRIs . The Health and Family Welfare Department is already plagued by staff shortages and inadequate infrastructure.