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Sunday,
August 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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ON RECORD CAG isn’t a lap-dog or a hound, but a watchdog of public accounts |
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Protecting the elephant and its habitat
Beenamol crosses the milestone with ease
Speaking up for the aging guardians
Alarming increase in the number of drug addicts
Should we call them roads or ruthless stretches?
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ON RECORD Excerpts of the interview: Q: How would you choose to react to the decision to introduce the Bill to make Delhi a state? Are you happy now that the elected government would finally be able to formulate policies and administer land and other civic agencies on its own? A:
I would say I am sceptical. I wonder if this is only a poll gimmick. In fact, I do not have a clue about what the draft Bill contains. I can say for sure that we were not consulted. The Government of NCT of Delhi was neither informed nor consulted. I learnt of it only from the newspapers. And from what I gather, the views of the Government of NCT of Delhi have not been considered. How can the wishes of 1.3 crore people whom my government represents be ignored? I doubt if they are serious at all. Q: What specific provisions in the draft Bill are you objecting to ? A: I can only base my comment on the reports that have appeared in the media. I have neither been intimated nor informed. In fact, I have asked the Chief Secretary to get a copy of the draft Bill. I fail to understand how statehood is going to alter the ground situation if, as has been reported in the media, the Centre will reserve the right to issue directives that will be binding on the Government of NCT of Delhi in the event of differences cropping up between the two. This is retrograde. This is precisely the problem I have been facing... an elected government should have the requisite powers. You cannot have multiplicity of authorities. We sent them two models which we, the BJP and Congress, thought would best suit NCT of Delhi. We also sent them the consensus document detailing the delegation of powers. The document was prepared after due discussions with the BJP. The draft Bill in its present form seems to have been thrust upon us. Is this how democracy works? Q: Do you think the Bill will be passed by Parliament before NCT of Delhi goes to poll? A: It is unlikely the Bill will be passed anytime soon...unless of course the BJP wants to dispel the notion that the Bill was introduced to hoodwink the voters ahead of the elections. In any case, the Standing Committee will have to discuss the draft Bill after it is introduced in the monsoon session. The opinion of the Opposition will have to be sought. Again, it is unlikely the Bill will be passed in the winter session for that would be too late... the elections would be due in November. Q: Do you think the Bill should be passed in its present format? A: Look...they cannot get the Bill passed in Parliament on their own which is why they have sought our support. I spoke with Mr Pranab Mukherjee, who is the chairman of the Standing Committee that will discuss the draft Bill. It is difficult for him or the party to offer any comment without knowing what the draft Bill holds out for NCT of Delhi ... Q: Is that why the party has chosen to react cautiously? A: Let us first get hold of the draft Bill. Come to think of it we do not know whether the draft Bill is ready or whether the Centre has only agreed in principle to the idea of making NCT of Delhi a State of the Union. Then again, I am wondering if the provisions of the Bill as have appeared in the media would only spell doom for NCT of Delhi ... Q: Why do you say that?. How would you have liked the Bill to be drafted? A: You have to appreciate one thing...Delhi is also the Capital of the country and therefore it is peculiar. It requires a dispensation that can plan, draft, co-ordinate and implement policies that best suits its character. For one, multiplicity of authority has to be removed. We cannot have a situation where the New Delhi Municipal Council is administered by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and Delhi Development Authority by the Union Ministry of Urban Development. Two, the administration has to be made more accountable and equipped with the requisite powers to expedite development works. Three, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi needs to be unbundled into smaller entities because it has become unwieldy. After all, you cannot make the Government of NCT of Delhi accountable to its people without delegating powers to it. These parameters should be kept in mind. Now whether the NCT of Delhi becomes a “full” State or a “half” State is not as relevant as is the type of dispensation. Q: So what you are saying is Delhi should get a suitable dispensation. A:
Full statehood is a misnomer... It was the BJP that was crying hoarse demanding full statehood. Look what they have got from their own government at the Centre. Law and order will remain with the Union Government. The fate of the New Delhi Municipal Council is uncertain. If nomenclature is everything then I do not have any reason to complain but like me if you value substance then there is reason to be disappointed. What do they mean by full or half anyway? If the draft Bill is anything to go by, the NCT of Delhi will neither be in the same league as Rajasthan nor Pondicherry. How can the BJP even claim to have made the NCT of Delhi into a “full” State when the Delhi Police will continue to remain with the Union Government? Q: Then why don’t you call their bluff... A: See, this is an issue that concerns 1.3-odd crore people. It is not about the Congress or the BJP. It is to do with the people and the future of NCT of Delhi. I would instead tell the BJP quit playing games with the future of Delhi...do what is best for Delhi, not what suits this party or that party. |
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CAG isn’t a lap-dog or a hound, but a watchdog of public accounts
However, these instructions or suggestions are flawed. The CAG subscribes to an oath or affirmation which is the same for the Judges of the Supreme Court. He, like the Supreme Court Judges, is mandated by the Constitution “to uphold the Constitution of India”. The Constitution adopted the British designation rather that what was under the Government of India Act,1935 to emphasise his high status. The Constitution grants him a secure tenure; his expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund. His reports relating to the accounts must be placed for legislative scrutiny. As the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Bihar, I had the painful opportunity to see the constraints under which the officers under the CAG worked. The bureaucrats and the political executive made them to a large extent ineffective and effete. This situation emanated from the nexus between the superior bureaucrats and the wielders of political power. Justice J.C. Shah rightly called this nexus, in the famous Shah Commission Report, “the root of all evil”. The abuse of the Indo-Mauritius Double Taxation Avoidance Convention would have been detected long before if the revenue audit would have allowed to play an effective role. It is time the institution of the CAG was made effective by making appropriate constitutional or statutory provisions. The CAG is not a Chartered Accountant. It is surprising that those who reviewed our Constitution missed to suggest measures to make this institution well equipped to carry out constitutional mandate. The constitutional duty of the CAG is not to help provide a level-playing field between the government department and the private enterprise. Scrutiny of accounts does not involve the exercise of balancing of competing or conflicting interests. The prime duty of the CAG is to examine receipts and expenditure. Outcomes or outputs are considered from the observation-post of a constitutional watchdog. They are revealed through transactions audit also. The teleology of the CAG is shaped by the white heat of his constitutional commitments. Over more than three decades of experience of dealing with the officers of the CAG, I never found anything was offending in their style of work. Highlighting legal or accounting remissness is integral to his role. The reasons which discourage our senior officers in taking decisions are rooted in the very ethos of decision-making. The CAG should not be counselled to ignore procedural lapses unless these are merely venial or technical. Procedural propriety is designed to ensure fair play. We know that one of the four grounds for judicial review in our country is the ground of procedural impropriety. In my assessment, the real roadblock to a quick and effective decision-making is never audit psychosis. Ironically, an institution which cannot even prevent an executive malfunction is held responsible for the executive’s remissness in deciding what is in order. If they would have been taken seriously, Bihar would have been saved from the ignominy of the fodder scam. I never experienced, or had occasions even to notice, during the 35 years I spent as a member of the Indian Revenue Service, that right decisions were ever delayed or frustrated on account of the revenue audit. We should be charitable to the key constitutional institutions otherwise the system of democratic governance would fail. The idea that system should empower and trust the executive could excusably be found only in the edicts of the Stuarts, or in Bismarck’s harangue to the German Diet. In a democracy, all public power and resources are under trust. The executive and the CAG have distinct constitutional roles. Not friendship, but clear role perception should govern the interactions between the executive and the CAG. Any contrary view is a constitutional solecism. In a democracy, every institution must remain under vigilance. The CAG is neither an appraiser nor an adversary. He provides Parliament an opportunity to weigh the executive which is accountable and responsible to it. It is common knowledge that the departmental committees are not capable of taking long-term and short-term remedial measures because of their constraints. And the Public Accounts Committee too, on being weighed, has been found wanting, especially in all testing moments. If Parliament would have imposed the constitutional discipline on the executive, the institution of the CAG would not have become, perish the thought, a constitutional orphan; and the executive an aggressive trouncer. The CAG is also a sentinel on the qui vive. As a watchdog it watches and reports on the counts of illegality, procedural impropriety, irrationality, and lack of proportionality noticed within the sphere of its operation. This institution is a watchdog, it is neither a lap-dog nor a hound. In fine, by variating on what Lord Nelson’s call to the fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar, we must say: India expects that every man will do his duty. This call is timely when globalisation is spawning a powerful breed of lobbyists and persuaders peddling all sorts of dreams. Holders of constitutional assignments can ill afford to be lily-livered or timorous souls as they have to respond to the challenges of the day. The writer, a former member of the Indian Revenue Service, is presently an Advocate of the Supreme Court |
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Protecting the elephant and its habitat
Elephants moving out of their disturbed habitat into human habitation are turning into an ominous trend. Incidents of trampling and crop raiding across the country are increasing. This is certainly not what villagers or farmers want. Nor is this what the elephant intended. But this is what is happening across the country. Says Anirban Roy Dutta of the Wildlife Institute of Dehradun, “walk the length of the road from Bagdora, Siliguri, towards the Nepal border and you shall see forest patches sandwiched in between tea gardens with their attendant labour lines. Historically these areas are recorded as elephant habitat.” Elephants can convey the herd's memory of the routes down generations. This means they are forced to walk through human habitation that has invaded forest patches. For them it is home — fractured though it may be. Ajay Desai, a scientist involved in studying elephant, says, “Crop raiding is a result of habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation.” PE’s main objectives were to ensure — each elephant state maintains one or two natural populations that will be viable in the long term; rural communities are not affected by such conservation; efforts to conserve elephants are not diluted by efforts to save individual problem elephants and manage smaller populations that are problematic. The short-term measures it proposed were erecting elephant-proof energised fences and digging fences and trenches. Long-term management efforts were to include consolidating habitats and manage the elephants falling outside the demarcated habitats. A survey of the state of fences across the elephant ranges shows that the ideas of PE are still to percolate to the state forest departments. Explaining the situation, S.S. Bist, Director, PE, says, “Electric fences, besides having their technical specifications, also have design specifications which are very location specific.” Energised fences consist of wires connected to a powered energiser. A current of 5000 volts is passed in pulses of 1/3000 of a second; thus elephants receive shock but are never in danger of their lives. The problem with fences is that elephants adapt to them, says Arun Venkatraman of Asian Elephant Research Centre (AERC). They also suffer because they are poorly designed and no one owns them. Experiments in social fencing in Karnataka and Kerala have worked. Bist points to the importance of strategic fencing, arguing that it is sufficient to just fence labour lines in most cases. It is important, he says, to secure one area at a time. “Each extra day that elephant is kept away is a battle won.” PE has demarcated 11 elephant ranges as good habitats holding populations of elephants that would be viable over long periods. Within these, the PE has decided to set up the so-called elephant reserves that would include forest and non-forest area and would not displace people but rather allow them to manage them. Securing the region by enriching the habitat and concentrating conservation efforts in the reserves was seen to be the way ahead. But neither the creation of reserves nor the purchase of corridors has fully happened. PE has secured one corridor despite a plethora of studies on the subject. A way to maintain genetic viability is translocation but India has not shown the initiative. Experts suggest domestication and creating laws and capacity for using elephants.
— CSE/Down to Earth Feature Service |
Beenamol crosses the milestone with ease There was reason for celebration in Idukki district and the people of Beenamol’s tiny village — Kombodinjal — were overjoyed for their dream has come true. They have been longing that the glory that once belong to Payyoli (Kerala town), which produced one of the finest Indian athletes, P.T. Usha, will come to them too. It came sooner than expected. Now it’s time for the “Idukki Express” to whistle pass the Indian athletic tracks, once dominated by “Payyoli Express” (Usha). Beenamol's younger brother, K.M. Binu too is a sports genius in his own right. He won two silver medals at Asian Games. Proud as they are at their children's achievement, parents of Beenamol and Binu look for the day when two middle distance runners make a mark at the Olympics. Beenamol's elder brother too was a sportsman but later in life he settled down as a businessman. She and her younger brother, Binu, took to sports at a very tender age. It was at High School stage that Beenamool’s talents were first spotted by a local coach. From then on, it has been a march of untiring training and success through the likes of coach Purushothaman at G.V. Raja Sports School at Thiruvananthapuram from 1990 to 1996. She made a mark at the National School Meet in 1991 and Asian Juniors Meet in 1992, then national records and international meets up to Sydney Olympics, where she entered the semi-final leg. At Jakarta, she broke sprint queen P.T. Usha's record in the 400 metres. Binu was, however, a bit late in demonstrating his talents. Once he was spotted by the same coach — Purushothaman — he grew fast to win a gold in the 800 metres in the World Railway Meet in 2001. Both sister and brother were given intensive training by a Russian coach, taken in high esteem by the Binu family. The coach has also high expectation from the duo. Tiny Kombodinjal village is little known place in high ranges inhabited by farmers most of whom migrated from the plains a few decades back. The family of Beenamool and Binu too came from Kottayam district about three decades back to this area, dotted by thick forests, where peasants fought with elephants and wild beasts to cultivate pepper, coffee and cardamom. Beenamol's father, Mathew and mother Kunjamma, groomed their children with dedication and encouraged them to take part in sport activities. Mathew organised a special prayer meeting with all the neighbours at their home to thank the almighty for bestowing on their daughter the highest sports honour of the land. Beenamol was formally selected for India’s most prestigious sports award after a high-level official meeting in Delhi. Beenamol edged out ace shooter Anjali Bhagwat who was initially in the running after the committee recommended that the award be shared between the two top women performers of 2002. The decision also puts at rest the confusion over whether there would be two Khel Ratna awardees this year. With this Beenamol takes top spot in the list of Indian sportspersons. Not many after P.T. Usha have shown as much professionalism as she on the Indian sports scene. Though she has crossed that milestone with effortless ease, she is not completely satisfied with her performance and, as ever, aspiring for more glory. In October last year, she with experienced Bahadur Singh led an Indian resurgence by picking up a gold each at the Asian Games. |
Speaking up for the aging guardians I broke a record this time. I returned home after a longest spell in my life. I had never stayed away from home, for this long, despite all my travels. Including internationals. From wherever, as soon as the purpose of my visit was over I would leave. I recall I was in Atlanta (USA) for fewer hours than the number of days I spent on the flight to and fro from home (India). Well all this is not for any personal adulation but to state what kind of a home-attached person basically I was and still am. And I have broken the ‘spell’ by coming home this time after four months i.e. 120 days. And I survived; at least this is what I thought, till I arrived. And it is not I who survived. But it is my father who did. In just these four months he has become bed-ridden. Till the evening I left, for my UN services, he was on his daily evening walks. Now he barely walks inches and yards that too with the help of a walker for support. For all his basic needs he now needs someone strong enough to support him all 24 hours of the day. This is the reality of old age. An age when one is drained of vitality and is compelled to become dependent on others or on children one had raised, with all one had. It is not a repayment time but an opportunity to fulfill a caring responsibility that nature entrusts. If the siblings or society really care for their elders they will do all that is possible to reduce the suffering, which comes with old age. But in the eventuality they do not, then living through for these ageing guardians, life can be one living hell. This scenario, unless one experiences personally with a sense of reflection can perhaps, not look into the future. And this is exactly what has happened to me. I can visualise myself one day in the same need of dependence one day. Who does one go to for the situation each of us sooner or later will be face-to-face with? What is the fall back system? Where does this helpless/ dependent/ person go? Who can s/he call? Who will help her/him? Can the aging call for help from the social systems and get it as a right? To the best of my knowledge there is nothing as a system. Barring a few old age care homes, those too, in a few metropolitan cities, managed by some committed non-government organisations. Basically there is no comprehensive state infrastructure response system to take care of these fragile aging persons/population. So what happens then? These aged persons probably suffer and yearn to die. The uncared are bound to be in agony till the final end comes. They have no energy to ask for any help. If they have money and are fortunately still left in control of, they might get attended in anticipation of some rewards. Of course we have honest and caring siblings but that number is decreasing day by day, for a host of reasons. Absence of reliable social systems for the care of the aged ought to be a serious concern and an equal priority. One day sooner or later we will all be victims of this neglect. It’s equally shocking to see why we have not agitated enough on the whole issue of care for the aged with a sense of anxiety and attention it deserves? This is certainly an unattended concern of humanity as whole too. Developed countries have attempted some programmes of care, which I am aware of. But these too are far from meeting the needs of this very large segment of society. It’s time for a blueprint of action-oriented time-bound plan. Namely, a concept of neighbourhood old age care centers with doctor/ nurse/ attendants/ on call with access to an ambulance service. Also a plan for regular home visits by social workers and students as a part of value-based education. Also why not consider a cost provision for such a service while one is young and can pay for in anticipation? How about some insurance policy schemes to meet such needs? There can be all the right ideas if there is a determination to address this issue. Perhaps and ironically, this dire necessity may be waiting for a UN declaration or a mandate…I for one, like innumerable others, would have been grateful for an option to enroll in a home for the aged and contribute in anticipation, from the day I had started to earn for myself. Alongside be asked to serve in such homes, as my/our share of social responsibility when I/we, still have vitality, youth and energy. This is what can be integrated into the concept of practicing value-based education. Could this be a part of August 15th promises…Mr President or Mr Prime Minister Sir? And perhaps demanded by the voters in the coming
elections?
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Alarming increase in the number of drug addicts JUST a year ago, Irshad (name changed) looked like a professional model. More than six feet tall, he had a broad chest and shoulders, a slim waist and sturdy legs. He used to glow as a warm grin shone under his richly shampooed brown locks. Over the last few months, however, he has begun to look like a ghost as he slouches around with tired eyes and parchment-like cheeks on a pinched face. He admits that he has become a drug addict. Although Irshad is just a Kashmiri village boy of about 22, his addictions range from cough syrups to a variety of pills. When he can, he also smokes and drinks. The most obvious explanation is his family’s strong opposition to Irshad’s desire to marry the girl from a nearby village who he loves, but the real cause probably lies deeper. His father had deserted Irshad’s mother some years ago and taken a younger woman into the house. His mother’s relatives then got a group of militants to beat the fellow up and that drove him to join one of the groups of militants that, in the mid-1990s, were operating in tandem with the Army. Irshad’s parents have got back together since then but his father has become a drunkard and, though he has given up the gun, his relatives live in constant terror that militants will kill him to avenge his earlier involvement with the Army. When that fear was at its height, Irshad at least had taken to sleeping almost daily at an aunt’s house. Irshad is not the only one in Kashmir to have taken refuge in drugs. A recent study conducted by doctors at Srinagar’s Psychiatric Deseases Hospital revealed that the “last five years have seen substantial increase in the number of patients diagnosed as substance use disorders.” Dr Abdul Majid of that hospital says that the first case of cocaine addiction came to light just last month but that “heroine is common,” as is the abuse of codeine and other medical “opiads”. A study published a decade ago by Dr Mushtaq Margoob, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, had noted the danger to Kashmir owing to heroin smuggling from Pakistan. It had expressed concern at the sharp increase in the number of heroin users in Kashmir at the end of the 1980s and the early 1990s, noting that heroin abuse had been unknown — at least to Kashmiri doctors — until as recently as 1984. By the late 1980s, it stated, heroin had become almost as major a problem in Kashmir as cannabis, which has been traditionally used in the valley for centuries, even to some extent socially accepted. Indeed, it grows wild in Kashmir and I have seen stalks of cannabis growing under a clump of walnut trees while I was walking by a river near Kangan. Ironically, the stalks were pointed out to me by a teenaged village boy, of just the age group that the study said often take to drugs, starting out quite often under peer pressure or in order to experiment with something new. It is quite possible that cannabis abuse may also have increased sharply but not have shown up in that study because relatively few cannabis addicts would go to a hospital for treatment, particular in such disturbed conditions. Either way, there can be little doubt that the use of various sorts of drugs has increased during these years of traumatic violence, albeit more covertly than before owing to fear of the puritanical principles that some militant groups impose. The recent study, conducted by the hospital's doctors from March to September last year, noted that substance abuse often coincides with psychiatric illness. That study focused on outpatients but it evidently is a problem among those admitted to the hospital too. While I quietly trailed Dr Margoob around one of the wards recently, I noticed two of the patients surreptitiously passing what looked suspiciously like cannabis. They were eagerly grabbing at it, their starry eyes speaking of a desperate addiction, right behind was going from bed to bed. Of course, one of the most common manifestations of psychiatric illness in contemporary Kashmir is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and no doubt many of the young men who have undergone far more severe trauma than Irshad also turn to drugs. Last year’s study indicated that the large majority of drug users were male. Almost half of them were between 16 and 25 years of age and 86 per cent between 16 and 35. Dr Majid reveals that the single case of cocaine abuse that turned up last month could be an aberration since, although the patient was a Kashmiri, he is married in South-east Asia and picked up the habit there. He adds that heroin abuse too is far more common among those involved in the tourism trade than the rest of the population. Obviously, availability determines patterns of drug abuse to a great
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Should we call them roads or ruthless stretches? I
am writing this column at the crack of dawn and I must admit that in between writing I am peeping out of the window, distracted by the downpour. It has been raining non-stop and at the back of my mind there is this constant worry — what will be the condition of the already devastated roads. Should we continue calling them roads or ruthless stretches complete with pitfalls? Will my little Maruti be able to pull through deep puddles and water logged patches? In fact, two days back it took over an hour to commute a 2-km stretch in South Delhi because the rains had played havoc and even big bodied cars were seen stuck in the muck. At the cost of sounding cynical, I think it’s time we started building structures right up there. This brings me to write that come March 2004, India can boast of having a school at the highest level in Ladakh. Delhi Public School (DPS) Chairman Narendra Kumar told me that the latest branch of DPS is getting ready in Ladakh. With that the DPS schools seem well spread out — not just within the country but overseas too. In over 20 countries, DPS schools have been established. Untimely death The untimely death of 52-year-old Nisheet Katara is tragic. Son and son-in-law of senior civil servants of Uttar Pradesh (his father and his father-in-law retired as Chief Secretary and IGP respectively), he was himself in the Allied Services with a passion for photography. He would be remembered for the series of photo exhibitions he had held in the Capital (the last one was at the British Council) till one tragedy followed the next. Two years back, he was diagnosed to be suffering from a motor neurological disorder and then soon after that his young son, Nitish, was murdered. It was one of the most sensational murders of the Capital as the two accused in the case are the kin of politician D.P. Yadav. He could not cope with the loss of his son and the disease got aggravated till it took its toll. Katara died, leaving behind hundreds of photographs and, of course, a grieving family awaiting justice. Khushwant is 88 On August 15, Khushwant Singh turned 88 years. Born in 1915 in pre-Partition Punjab (Hadali village), he has been witness to most of the major events in modern Indian history and has come in contact with those who have taken part in those historical turns or events. In fact, his autobiography bares all. Even today his motto seems ongoing — that is never waste a minute of the day. Besides writing two columns a week, he does several book reviews and is completing yet another
novel.
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I have only one purpose: to make man free, to urge him towards freedom; to help him to break away from all limitations, for that alone will give him eternal happiness, will give him the unconditional realisation of Self. — J. Krishnamurti Oceans may dry, mountains may become flat, the Pole-Star may be displaced, the chords which bind planets may rent asunder, the universe may witness deluge and living in such a world, are we not like frogs in a dried well? — Chaitanya Mahaprabhu I am sure the movement has begun...How long it will take to arrive at a concrete, visible and organised reality, I don’t know. Something has begun... — The Mother If a man speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows him as his own shadow. — The Dhammapada As one acts, so is one rewarded. — Guru Nanak Numerous are the angels in the heavens; yet their intercession shall avail nothing until Allah gives leave to whom He accepts and chooses. — The Koran |
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ANY issue could prove potentially fatal for a government particularly in the run-up to the elections. Nobody knows this better than Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi. In the 1998 Assembly elections, it was the “onion” that stumped the BJP and swept the Congress to power. Barely three months before Delhi goes to poll, the BJP has thrown an election bait by clearing the proposal to make Delhi a State. The Chief Minister, though, remains unruffled. Substance, she says, will prevail over hype and performance over promises. 
INAUGURATING the Twenty- Second Conference of the Accountant Generals recently, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Union Finance Minister Jaswant Singh counselled the Comptroller and
Auditor General (CAG) and the officers working under him that the excessive stress on accounting audit prevented the creation of a level-playing field between the government enterprises and departments, and the private sectors. Mr Vajpayee said that the audit should not be a mere fault-finding exercise, but provide a mechanism for correction.
THERE is very little space for the 28,000 elephants in India. Brave attempts of Project Elephant (PE) (1991-92) to protect the elephant and its habitat by charting a roadmap for states to follow and dissipate human-elephant conflicts have failed.
YET another sports prodigy from Kerala has made it to one of the top awards of the land — Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. Hailing from a tiny village of Kerala’s Idukki district, K.M. Beenamol has broken the record of the sprint queen P.T. Usha in 400 metres. Beenamol was unanimously chosen by the Arjuna Awards selection committee for the most prestigious sports award. The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, instituted in 1991-92, is awarded to those who give out the “most spectacular and outstanding performance” in a year and carries Rs. 5 lakh besides a medal, a scroll of honour and a ceremonial uniform. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will present the awards on August 29. Beenamol has been a consistent performer at the Asian level in the 800 metres and 400 metres since early 1990s, when she was a junior athlete. Last year, she was on a high, winning the gold medal in the 800 metres, a silver in 400 metres and was a member of the women's 4x400 metres gold-winning relay squad at the Asian Games in Busan.