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Crisis deferred Drug menace |
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Bangalore blues
Building around rural employment
The price of privileges
There is a definite change
in Kashmir: Mufti Sayeed Lung cells made in test tube may help transplants Chatterati
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Crisis deferred JHARKHAND Chief Minister Arjun Munda has got a reprieve. He must thank the BJP leadership for its brainwave to have two coordination committees – one between the government and the BJP and the other between the government and the National Democratic Alliance – to nip the rebellion in the state NDA. What is surprising is that there has been no such body to coordinate between the government and the constituent parties so far. This lapse is, in fact, a reflection of the BJP’s attitude to its allies. Its return to power in Jharkhand was more on account of the deft handling of the post-election situation than any mandate it got from the people. The Chief Minister is critically dependent on the support of the independent MLAs and he can afford to ignore them only at his government’s peril. It’s this realisation that emboldened seven ministers to give a jolt to the Chief Minister. What helped the BJP leadership to rein in the recalcitrant ministers is the fear the ruling combine nurses about the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Congress fishing in troubled waters. After all, the BJP-Janata Dal (U) government has only a wafer-thin majority in the House. A little push here or a little push there is all that is required to destabilise the government. This is all the more reason that the BJP should shed its big-brother attitude and take the coalition partners and the independent ministers into confidence on all decision-making. It is a different matter that many of the ministers are greenhorns in administration. However, the BJP cannot complain as their induction in the ministry was the price it had to pay for its lack of a clear majority. There are reasons to believe that the crisis was also fuelled by the dissidence in the BJP. There are sections in the BJP which have not reconciled themselves to Mr Munda’s ascension. Former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi has not yet given up hopes of staging a comeback to power. What helps him in his campaign against Mr Munda is the sense of neglect many BJP legislators feel because they cannot find a place in the ministry as the Chief Minister had to perforce accommodate all the Independents supporting him. All this suggests that Mr Arjun Munda will have to do considerable tightrope walking to keep himself in the saddle. |
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Drug menace TO say that the drug menace in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh has reached alarming levels is to state the obvious. There are no two opinions on this. Starting in 1997 from Amritsar’s notorious Maqboolpura, which is now dubbed the locality of widows, The Tribune has off and on highlighted the spread of narcotics in town after town. Yet, very limited and half-hearted efforts have been made to control the situation. That is largely because drug-peddlers and smugglers operate with the blessings of unscrupulous politicians and police officers. The media has often exposed the nexus, but to little avail. Tired of governmental inaction, concerned citizens are now actively coming forward to curb drug trafficking. This is a very healthy sign. Women and elders of Lutheri village in Ropar district took the lead recently by organising a protest, targeting the health authorities and chemists for the unchecked sale of narcotics. Although the mode of their protest — a road blockade leading to a police lathicharge and injuries to several women — was unjustifiable, it forced the administration to seal four chemist shops in their village. Equally commendable has been the action of certain women candidates in the recent civic elections at Hallomajra, a village on the Chandigarh-Ambala highway, who pledged to fight the drug peddlers to root out the evil from their area. While such spirited initiatives by women need to be appreciated, these must be accompanied by serious efforts on the part of the various departments and agencies of the government. The problem is too serious to be left to the police or the Health Department. Unrest among unemployed youth needs to be addressed. De-addiction centres equipped with trained staff and medicines must be opened within the easy reach of victims. Moreover, political will and commitment to the cause are required to break the politician-policeman-smuggler nexus, which has led to the easy
availability of banned drugs. |
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Bangalore
blues BANGALORED” means “layed-off” to workers in the West, but the infrastructure woes of India’s global cynosure are threatening to invest the neologism with a new meaning. For both citizen and visitors, Bangalore is the city where commuting is a daily torment, a leisure outing is a contradiction in terms, and where air and noise pollution levels would stagger the most inured of urban warriors. Small wonder that for the second year in a row, CEOs of many leading IT companies have threatened to boycott the state government’s annual IT love fest “IT.in” (earlier Bangalore.com). Their simple demand: do something to improve the city’s roads, public transport and power supply. Last year, a similar bunch of rebels were persuaded to withdraw their boycott call, by the newly installed coalition government. Their excuse: “We have just taken over, infrastructure can’t go bad overnight, you have to give us more time.” Fair enough. But that is no longer valid this time around. The roads are still pot-holed, the flyovers are going nowhere, and politicians continue to fight over whether the city needs a metro or a monorail. The Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project is struggling its way through innumerable hurdles, and Devanahalli international airport is forever on the verge of taking-off. As the New Delhi Metro has shown, exemplary leadership and political foresight can ensure that major projects are not held hostage to the tug and thrust of vested interests. There is an urgent need for such facilitation in cities across India, on not just roads and public transport, but also water, power, sanitation, and the environment. Urban renewal is an effort that needs to get out of bureaucratic brief cases and onto the streets. The pernicious and regressive urban vs rural (or IT vs the rest) framework must be rejected for the political construct that it is. It is not the “urban elite” that suffers most due to poor infrastructure. Ask the rickshawwalla about the value of a good piece of tarmac. |
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The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. — Steve Biko
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Building around rural employment
The passage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill could mark a decisive step towards poverty alleviation with the assurance of 100 days of employment to every rural household at a wage of Rs 60 per day spread over 200 districts for a start. According to rough estimates, the anticipated expenditure could be around Rs 40,000 crore per annum. However, critics place this at double, triple or more than this figure. They apprehend false muster rolls and considerable leakage, leading to inflation and an opportunity cost that slows overall growth thereby hurting the poorest the most. The caution is well taken but possibly exaggerated. In the first place, several existing schemes to assist the poor may be expected to be streamlined or merged into the new NREG so that the net outgo will be less than gross calculations suggest. Nor should there be any loss of existing employment, because of better targeting. Secondly, given a greater degree of transparency and accountability with the new right to information regime in place, the massive, unaccounted leakages that currently take place are likely to be kept in check. This should entail a huge and progressively larger national saving with the passage of time. The danger if at all lies in the ability of the states and panchayats to provide a sufficiency of meaningful, productive jobs. Earlier drought and famine relief schemes came to grief for this very reason. People paid to break rocks for metalling prospective roads produced giant stone pyramids that would have sufficed to service all possible requirements for the next 100 years. Obviously, such make-work activity, like Joan Robinson’s famous example of digging holes in the ground only to fill them up again, is totally unproductive and unsustainable. But there is a great deal of useful work to be done and it is this that must be defined, located and organised under NREG works programmes. The operative word is “programme”. This implies an activity that results in a productive objective that itself stimulates further activity and income generation in a self-sustaining cycle. No doubt, some of this is being done, but not nearly enough. The real problem is not money but planning and organisation to create productive chains backed by budgetary funding combined with food-for-work as an essential protein- nutritional supplement. The Chinese geared such activity to the creation of “farm capital assets”, that is, land and water development that enhanced agricultural and forest productivity, including fisheries and livestock farming. Farm capital assets would cover a variety of earthworks from land levelling and shaping, consolidation or rectangularisation of fields (especially after computerised records of land rights have become available) to the construction and maintenance of roads, flood embankments and small irrigation and drainage works, desilting of water bodies, composting, and plantation and densification of degraded forest and other wastelands. This could lead on to education, health and sanitation-related activity, housing construction and the building and repair of village schools and panchayat ghars, the creation of e-chaupals, soakage pits, public latrines, bio-gas plants, godowns, water mills, solar units and so forth as circumstances warrant. A few percentage points increase in farm productivity or water use efficiency would itself constitute a hefty payoff while every improvement in education and health would bring in additional dividends. The whole area of khadi and village industries calls for reconceptualisation and modernisation. With a fast growing rural market for simple consumption goods gaining salience, the 40,000 or so KVIC outlets countrywide offer immense possibilities as multipurpose retail outlets. Likewise, with better connectivity and management through backward and forward linkages to larger corporate houses, herbiculture, sericulture, apiculture and floriculture could flourish under contract farming. Oil-bearing jetropha and aloe, with its medicinal properties, are among the many plants that could be cultivated cooperatively on an industrial scale. Every region has its own potential of plant varieties and tree plantations could be nurtured though seed and sapling banks. The possibilities are endless, given organisation. Experimentation with regard to land armies and national service, as now constitutionally enjoined, have been scuttled in the past by being caricatured. The exemplary performance of the few eco-battalions shows that such formations with a core professional component have great potential. What this suggests therefore is the need to build permanent, professional core teams around which the mass NREG programme can be more productively put to work. A National Youth Volunteer Corps composed of student cadres between school and college or between or after a degree is another idea that has great promise. A year’s supervised national service should earn merit in relation to future employment or entitlement. The “moral incentive”, the social levelling, the creation of a sense of community and participation and the wider learning, responsibility and commitment these engender would go towards building national character and a whole new ethos of adventure and sharing. The National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme needs therefore to be seen as no more than a beginning — a means to a larger goal of national mobilisation and regeneration. The growing social divide and new inegalitarianism that is abroad need to be effectively countered. This should now be seen as a time of preparation prior to the formal launching of the new NREG programme. Widespread consultations would be in order at various levels to situate it in the wider context indicated. Coordination and synergy must be ensured. As Oliver Goldsmith said a long time ago, “Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay”.
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The price of privileges
I was travelling from Kathgodam to Delhi. I had barely seated myself when a battery of jawans entered the compartment. They were dressed in immaculate uniforms. They set about arranging the luggage underneath the berth in a methodical manner. Soon afterwards a lady dressed in starched white cotton suit entered the compartment along with her two sons. She settled comfortably on the seat. The two boys sat by the window. Then an army officer, supposedly the lady’s husband, came and asked if everything was in order. She nodded her head. One soldier was sent to buy some magazines post haste. No sooner had he returned that the train started. The lady bid her husband a tearful farewell. Her husband disembarked after kissing his two sons. Another woman who had been watching the spectacle asked the lady if she was an army wife. The lady said that her husband was a Colonel in the army. The woman said: “I suppose your husband enjoys many freebies.” The lady said to her, “What do you mean?” The woman said, “You must be having a batman, getting free rations, and goods at concessional rates from defence canteens.” The lady did not try to hide her annoyance. She said, “Have you ever lived without your husband because your husband is posted at the front?” The woman said, “My husband serves in a bank. He was also posted out once but he pulled some strings and the posting was deferred.” The lady said, “You are given the allowance to voice your protest but an army man has to follow orders unquestioningly. He may be posted in the western sector and out of the blue he may receive orders to immediately move to any godforsaken place. The army wife has to be prepared to even send her husband to the front without so much as a whimper.” “That must be difficult,” the woman said, but the lady proceeded with her tirade, “Do you know what it is like to see a bullet whiz past your ear or hair?” The woman had no answer. The lady continued, “Have your kids ever had to study Marathi for two years followed by Punjabi for two years because their father was posted at Pune for two years followed by a stint of two years at Bhatinda? Do we not deserve certain concessions?” She opined, “I firmly believe that every child should undergo two years of military service after Class XII so that he returns something back to the nation, a feeling that is found lacking in quite a few.” The woman sat in stunned silence and then took out a book and started reading it with great attention. |
There is a definite change
in Kashmir: Mufti Sayeed Q. What about shifting of power to the Congress? We have a clear position on that in accordance with the agreement between the main parties. We will abide by that. Q. What were the reasons for you to constitute the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) after quitting the Congress? The National Conference symbolised the identity of whatever Kashmiriyat is all about. “Unki zaban bandh ho gayi”. That time it was a painful atmosphere. There was a need to change that. We presented the case of the peoples’ sufferings and regional aspirations and went to the people wherever possible. We could feel the pain of the people and made our programme. When we came to power, we implemented that programme in letter and in spirit. Even the Congress, the CPM, the Panthers Party and others became part of the common minimum programme with the coordination of Dr Manmohan Singh. About one and a half years after constituting the PDP, I met the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who sought to know the problem here. I conveyed to him that there was need to honour the peoples’ aspirations and give way to the democratic process in true spirit. So Mr Vajpayee later announced to hold the “free and fair” elections in the state. The feeling that decisions about Kashmir were being taken in Delhi was nullified due to the elections. And if I do not come up to the expectations of the people, I will definitely step down. Q. How do you look at the performance of your government so far? There is a change in the security scenario with a transparent administration and good governance. The security forces have been made accountable to avoid human rights violations and harassment. Those not found guilty are being released. Separatist Hurriyat leaders are free. A few incidents of violence do take place, but that does not affect the normalisation process. I think we have been able, to a great extent, to end the alienation of the people and we are trying to win their hearts. There is definitely a change, which has to be taken forward. By and large, things are quite different and whatever elections we had even under the threat of militants there was a good response of the people with 60 to 70 per cent participation. Q. What have been the priorities of your government? The Government of India gave a reconstruction programme and an economic package with the thrust on education, power and communication. About 10,000 primary schools have been opened and 200 others upgraded. In case of power we have allocated Rs 18,000 crore for developing our hydel potential of 16000 MW. There is distribution, transmission and modernisation, taking electricity to every village. The super highway north to south corridor will reduce a distance of 70 km between Jammu and Srinagar, and it will be a four-hour journey only. The Mughal road connecting Rajouri-Poonch in the Jammu region with the Kashmir valley is being completed in two years. The Srinagar-Leh road is to be a national highway. There are also 122 model villages to be set up at a cost of Rs 1.20 crore each with an improvement of lanes, drains, information centres, and allied departments like electricity, healthcare water supplies. Q. What is the progress in the tourism sector? A large number of tourists are coming into the valley, the Vaishnodevi shrine and the Amarnath cave shrine in Kashmir. To overcome the accommodation problem, additional space is being built up at tourist spots and tourist villages are coming up where tourists can stay on minimum expenses. Gulmarg is becoming a good destination for international tourists and Kashmir is a destination throughout the year. Q. How do you assess Mr A.B. Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Ministers? I do not think Dr Manmohan Singh is so much Kashmir-focused. But for him every penny is accounted for. Mr Vajpayee should have been a visionary. When Dr Manmohan Singh announced Rs 24,000 crore package, it was not enough to meet our requirements. Our problem is how to utilise our resources properly. So Dr Singh has seen the opportunity in Kashmir, which is clear from the mind-boggling package to overcome unemployment and difficulties of the people and build infrastructure. But the dialogue has also to be there because you have to address the political issue. Q. What about the Indo-Pak dialogue and Centre-APHC talks? The Prime Minister has often made an unconditional offer of talks. I think talks will be held. There is no other way out. It has to be an evolutionary process like it has been in Sri Lanka and Palestine. Gen Parvez Musharraf has made it clear that the solution should be acceptable to the people of India, Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan. |
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Lung cells made in test tube may help transplants The prospect of growing a set of human lungs in the laboratory for transplant surgery has come a step closer with the successful growth of mature lung cells from embryonic tissue. Scientists announced yesterday that they have been able to stimulate stem cells from a human embryo to develop in a test tube into some of the highly specialised cells of the lungs. Being able successfully to direct the development of embryonic stem cells into the mature cells of the body is considered essential if these cells are to fulfil the ambition of repairing damaged tissues and organs. Scientists from Imperial College London said they converted the human embryonic stem cells into specialised cells of the lungs that are involved in the exchange of oxygen and waste carbon dioxide. Professor Julia Polak, the scientist who led the research team, said the study represented an important development towards the eventual goal of building human organs from stem cells cultured in the laboratory. “This is a very exciting development, and could be a huge step towards being able to build human lungs for transplantation or to repair lungs severely damaged by incurable diseases such as cancer,” said Professor Polak, who has herself undergone a heart-and-lung transplant. There is a huge shortage of organs for transplant medicine and some operations ultimately fail because the body’s immune system rejects “foreign” tissues from an unrelated donor. However, stem cells offer the prospect of repairing damaged tissues in situ without the need for organ transplants and if the stem cells can be cloned from the same patient there will be no need to take tissue-rejection drugs. Another possibility is to use embryonic stem cells to build artificial organs in the laboratory using biological “scaffolds”. Although this is far more complex than repairing damaged tissue, some scientists believe it may be a realistic possibility for some of the simpler organs of the body. Anne Bishop, one of the scientists who led the study, which is published in the journal Tissue Engineering, said that repairing damaged lungs would probably be possible before scientists were capable of building them artificially in the laboratory. “Although it will be some years before we are able to build actual human lungs for transplantation, this is a major step towards deriving cells that could be used to repair damaged lungs,” Dr Bishop said. The scientists hope to develop the technique to treat patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, a condition where the cells lining the lungs fall off. By injecting fresh cells into the lung the scientists may be able to repopulate the vital lining of the organ. Professor Stephen Spiro, professor of respiratory medicine at University College London and a spokesman for the British Lung Foundation, warned that although the work was very important it was still in its early stages. People suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome had damaged air sacks, the tiny, air-filled ends of the lungs where gas exchange between the blood and the atmosphere took place, Professor Spiro said. —
The Independent |
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Chatterati Yesteryear’s Bollywood girl, Tina Munim, now runs an old age support system and homes in Mumbai, besides a magazine called Harmony for senior citizens.
Art curator Vikram got the best from Mumbai to Delhi for the Harmony art show. The show included some enchanting pieces like Tyeb Mehta’s Kali and Laila Khan Rajpal’s paintings. What really got noticed was none other than Tina herself. Lalit Suri ended up buying a couple of paintings here. How can art be appreciated one wonders now, which seems only for the richie rich? Prices range from lakhs to crores. Whew!
Award for Shamim The Sopori Academy of Music and Performing Arts had its award ceremony last week. Ms Shiela Dixit and the Lt Governor of Delhi were the chief guests. This academy is committed to preserving and popularising the diverse and ancient heritage of India. The award was given to Shamim Azad, wife of Union Minister Ghulam Nabi, for keeping alive folk songs of Kashmir. Ghulam Nabi walked in late while daughter Sophia sat through the function. Shamim is doing everything to keep the culture and heritage of her state alive. Right from serving scrumptious Kashmiri wazwan at home to do whatever she can for the people of her state who come calling upon this couple for all sorts of work.
Accommodating favourites Various Chief Ministers are still suffering the after-effects of the 91st Constitution amendment limiting the size of their ministries to 15 per cent of the total strength of the Assembly. Most of the CMs, to circumvent the amendment, appointed a host of parliamentary secretaries. This ensured that their flock was intact since the parliamentary secretaries got privileges almost equivalent to the ministers. The euphoria was short-lived as the Himachal Pradesh High Court declared these posts illegal. The Chief Minister’s headache will increase in finding ways to rehabilitate them otherwise they may become dissidents. While the Chief Minister has acted only under political compulsion, the view gaining ground is to put an end to such huge waste of public money. A number of CMs have accommodated their favourites as heads of PSUs with IAS officers as MDs. Most of them are loss-making ventures and are saddled with further financial debility with such heavyweights at the top. Hopefully, the Congress President will appreciate the bold judgement by the HP High Court. The appointments of MLAs as heads of PSUs may be the next target. I am sure Chief Ministers from across the parties would like to sit and find a solution to a problem which afflicts all of them without putting more burden on the exchequer and bankrupt states. |
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July 18, 1903 Whites’ burden on India
The decision of Lord Alverstone as arbitrator in the matter of apportionment between India and England of the increased charges due to the increase of pay of the British soldier, will be read with extreme regret by all friends of India. His Lordship’s award, as telegraphed by Reuter, is in favour of the Indian revenues being made to bear the whole additional pay issued in India from the 1st April, 1904, when the increase will begin to take effect. This means that the military expenditure of the country, instead of being reduced, will be still further increased. It is well known that the increase to the pay of the British soldier has become necessary for Imperial reasons and in order to get over difficulties of recruitment. The new Army Scheme under which the increased pay comes into operation has been framed to meet the requirements of such Imperial wars as we have lately had in South Africa, which in the interests of India as well as of other parts of the Empire had better not be undertaken at all. The imposition of this fresh burden upon India is only another reason why Imperialism is a thing that her children should abhor as a policy worthy only of cut-purse politicians and dunderheaded diplomats. All India must wait with anxiety to hear what Lord Curzon and Lord Kitchener have to say to Lord Alverstone’s decision. |
Life has taught me not to expect success to be the inevitable result of my endeavours. She taught me to seek sustenance from the endeavour itself, but to leave the result to God. — Book of quotations on Success Those who are avaricious, or make others avaricious, and conceal what God has given them of divine grace. And we have prepared a humiliating torment for the ungrateful. — Book of quotations on Islam I accept God with form when I am in the company of people who believe in that ideal, and I also agree with those who believe in the formless God. — Ramakrishna Those who know that the world will come to an end, cease quarreling at once. — The Buddha
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Mufti Mohammad Sayeed took over as Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister on November 2, 2002, as the head of a multi-party coalition government. His term completes on November 2 when the state will have a Congress Chief Minister. Here are excerpts from an interview with him: