O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Voter has won
Time to banish campaign bitterness
When the rain came with a vengeance, everyone insisted that the polling in Punjab will be a washout. But the voters enjoy proving predictions wrong. They came out in droves posting an exceptionally high percentage.

Nuclear wisdom
North Korea sees reason at last
The six-nation process that began over three years ago to get North Korea’s nuclear weapon programme dismantled is ultimately on the way to achieving success.

Cup of hope
Good to take self-belief along
When the 15-member squad departs Indian shores for the cricket world cup in the West Indies, it will be with a feeling that this is the best we have got.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Afghanistan can go out of control
Three options before the US
by Sushant Sareen
Five years after having ousted the Taliban regime from Afghanistan, the US-led international coalition is facing a real prospect of making an ignominious exit in not too distant a future from that hapless country.

MIDDLE

We haven’t come a long way
by Roopinder Singh
America’s oldest university, Harvard, has been prominent in the headlines with its appointment of Drew Gilpin Faust as its first woman President, what we call Vice-Chancellor in India. It’s a pity that Ms Faust’s selection has become news because of her gender and not her capabilities.

OPED

Centre must shore up state finances
by Janak Raj Gupta
IN a fast growing federal country like ours states have to share the major burden for achieving economic prosperity and improving the quality of life. Most of the social infrastructure, and a significant part of the physical infrastructure, lies in the domain of the States.

Taliban command, control strong in Pak
by Ann Scott Tyson
WASHINGTON – The outgoing top US commander in Afghanistan has urged Pakistan to crack down on an entrenched network of senior Taliban and al-Qaida leaders, training camps and recruiting grounds – a sanctuary from which fighters have tripled cross-border attacks since September and are preparing an anticipated major spring offensive in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Legal notes
by S.S. Negi
Apex court Secretary General
In recent times it was found that every Chief Justice of India makes certain administrative changes on assuming office. CJI K.G. Balakrishnan is no exception and he recently issued orders for renaming the post of Registrar General of the Supreme Court as Secretary General. It virtually makes the Registry as the Supreme Court Secretariat for all administrative purposes.

EDITORIALS

Voter has won
Time to banish campaign bitterness

When the rain came with a vengeance, everyone insisted that the polling in Punjab will be a washout. But the voters enjoy proving predictions wrong. They came out in droves posting an exceptionally high percentage. All that goes on to prove that the democratic tradition is alive and kicking in the country and voters -- rural or urban, men or women, educated or illiterate -- have high stakes in the functioning of democracy. In fact, the enthusiasm was greater among the voters in villages. The way they braved the unusual winter chill and downpour is a testimony to their earthy political awareness. What is even more remarkable, a few of them even marked their presence without voting. It was their way of ensuring that nobody else cast their vote. This was a symbolic gesture at a few places but goes on to show that the politicians can no longer treat the voters as dumb cattle.

Just as nobody had any inkling about the large turnout, the voters’ mood is also a mystery. Both the Akali Dal and the Congress are claiming that the healthy voting is going to favour them. The fact is that nobody is too sure. That is why those conducting exit polls are hedging their bets. With most of the people keeping their preferences close to their chests, specialists are only saying that it is going to be a close race. No wonder, the contestants will have many sleepless nights till the votes are counted.

While the voters have covered themselves with glory, the politicians have done exactly the opposite. They raved and ranted in disgraceful language, indulged in violence at places during the campaign, tried to buy votes and plied voters with liquor and opium. One just hopes that the public has seen through their nefarious designs and has gotten even with them by still voting for only those who were worthy of being elected. The countdown has begun. On February 27, the electronic voting machines will reveal it all. One man’s gain is going to be another man’s loss.

Nuclear wisdom
North Korea sees reason at last

The six-nation process that began over three years ago to get North Korea’s nuclear weapon programme dismantled is ultimately on the way to achieving success. The US, China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and North Korea finally reached an agreement in Beijing on Tuesday that Pyongyang would close down all its nuclear facilities in exchange for security guarantees and financial and energy aid. Only four months ago North Korea had tested a nuclear bomb to demonstrate its capability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction. The decision to renounce the nuclear path is bound to evoke appreciation from all over the world, particularly from the people of Northeast Asia. The North Korean crisis had led to tension and an atmosphere of uncertainty in the region.

North Korea has agreed to “shut down and seal” its Yongbyon nuclear facility within 60 days and allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into the country for the necessary verification. Pyongyong will provide complete details of its nuclear programme, including an inventory of its plutonium stockpile. By way of compensation, North Korea will get 50,000 tonnes of oil and its equivalent in economic and humanitarian aid from the countries involved in the negotiations. The US, as the accord says, is committed to normalising relations with the communist state. It will immediately begin a process of removing North Korea’s name from the list of “terror-sponsoring states” and lifting trade and financial sanctions.

The North Korean crisis could have been resolved much before it conducted the nuclear test if the US had realised the gravity of the situation and accepted Pyongyang’s demand that it would launch a process of capping its nuclear programme only with the arrival of the promised aid. Anyway, it is better late than never. It is a major achievement for the Bush administration. Nothing should be allowed to nullify the success achieved with marathon negotiations. Efforts must be made to plug the loopholes so that tensions and uncertainties do not nag north-eastern Asia. This is in the interest of the poverty-stricken people of that country, too, as they need enough employment avenues and better health care and education facilities to lead a reasonably comfortable life. 

Cup of hope
Good to take self-belief along

When the 15-member squad departs Indian shores for the cricket world cup in the West Indies, it will be with a feeling that this is the best we have got. Sceptics tend to believe that Virendra Sehwag has been picked on past record, Irfan Pathan’s return to form is questionable, more than one player has niggling injuries, and both the bowling and batting do not have that settled feel that marks a team that is playing well. But self-belief is important in any game; there is enough talent in this team to warrant it.

Virendra Sehwag’s selection was in a sense inevitable, considering his tremendous past performances and the almost compulsive need for a big name on the big stage. He failed again in the last game with the Sri Lankans, and he is capable of springing a surprise on his critics by unleashing his inherent batting skill. The same goes for young Irfan Pathan as well, who has shown the right attitude and hard work in making a comeback. The opportunity is there now for Robin Uthappa to show that the big stage suits him. As for Dinesh Karthik, it is to the credit of the selectors and the team management that the wicket keeper is being deployed essentially as a batsman. It is not only how many runs he got in South Africa, but the manner in which he got them still lingers in the mind and points to his great potential.

With some imagination, hard work and sheer mental strength, this team can provide its fans with some genuine cricketing moments to relish and talk about. Both the seniors, for many of whom it may well be the last world cup, and the eager youngsters have everything to play for. Good luck, boys. It is worth bringing the world cup back home and reviving the spirit of 1983.

Thought for the day

The frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind.
— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

ARTICLE

Afghanistan can go out of control
Three options before the US
by Sushant Sareen

Five years after having ousted the Taliban regime from Afghanistan, the US-led international coalition is facing a real prospect of making an ignominious exit in not too distant a future from that hapless country. Partly because of the folly of the Americans — their inability to restore peace and order, their loss of focus on Afghanistan after their involvement in Iraq, their hamhanded anti-insurgency operations and their failure to usher in rapid reconstruction of the country and rehabilitation of the war-affected people — and partly on account of the growing fear of the resurgent Taliban, the support for the radical Islamic movement is growing among the Pashtun tribes in the south and east of Afghanistan. With the US efforts to crush the Taliban militarily and isolate it politically having come a cropper, the sole super-power faces very difficult choices in a country that could once again emerge as an epicentre of international Islamic terrorism.

Broadly, there are three options that the Americans can exercise. The first is that the US outsources Afghanistan to Pakistan. The Pakistanis have proved that they have the military ability, political linkages, and the economic and strategic commitment to run Afghanistan even if imperfectly. The Taliban is after all Pakistan's creation. Even today, the support of Pakistan — much of it surreptitious -- is critical for the survival and, indeed, success of the Taliban insurgency against the coalition troops.

The Pakistanis have always been in favour of the Pashtun dominance over Afghanistan and have been trying to impress upon the Americans to consider the option of handing over power to the “moderate” Taliban. What is more, in order to make the Taliban more palatable for the Americans, the Pakistanis have tried hard to sever the links of the Taliban with the Jihad International of the Al-Qaida variety and give the Taliban insurgency the veneer of an indigenous Pashtun nationalist movement.

A fanatical Sunni option like the Taliban will come in very handy for the Americans in their efforts to encircle Iran. It is important not to forget that the Americans were quite open to the idea of dealing with the Taliban in the mid-1990s until the uproar back home over the medieval practices of the Taliban, especially their treatment of women and minorities. The subsequent sanctuary provided by the Taliban to Al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden burned the bridges between the US and the Taliban because this one step signalled that the Taliban would not take orders from the Americans. But if tomorrow a Taliban regime is there and is willing to play ball according to American rules, then there is no reason for the US to oppose such a dispensation. After all, if the Americans can deal with a medieval Saudi Arabia why can it not deal with a medieval Afghanistan?

Although tempting in the short run, the outsourcing option will have serious repercussions in the long term. While the Americans will most certainly set out a list of rules that the Taliban must follow, and make the Pakistanis as guarantors of “good behaviour” of the Taliban, the chances are that these rules will be observed more in their violation than in their adherence by both the Pakistanis (who after the bloody nose they have received in Waziristan will have a limited hold over their proxies in Afghanistan) and the Taliban (who having forced the Americans out will be aware of the limitations of US power to intervene directly once again in the affairs of the country). The end result, therefore, will be a radicalised Afghanistan and destabilised Pakistan.

The second option before the Americans is to balkanise Afghanistan along ethnic lines and then economically and militarily prop up the non-Pashtun areas to act as a bulwark against the radicalised Taliban-dominated Pashtun region. While this would be a relatively easy exit option for the Americans and would, in a rather cynical way, exact a heavy revenge from the Afghans, it will at the same time end up destabilising the entire region. The country worst affected, of course, would be Pakistan.

The Pakistani Pashtuns outnumber the Afghan Pashtuns and are well-adjusted in the Pakistani power structure. The problem will be that the Afghan Pashtuns tend to acquire a natural leadership over the Pakistani Pashtuns and, given the support and sympathy they will enjoy in the Pashtun belt of Pakistan, they will gravitate towards Pakistan. This will severely destabilise Pakistan and increase the chances of Pakistan sliding into the arms of the radical Islamists. While this will be just desserts for the Pakistani establishment that has patronised and propped up the Taliban for achieving its political and strategic aims in the region, for the Americans the cure will be worse than the disease if a nuclear-armed Pakistan slides into the hands of the Islamists.

The third and only real option for the US is to continue to pursue the aim of transforming Afghanistan into a modern and moderate country. This will require increasing the level of economic and military commitment in Afghanistan to a new high, something that a tiring US would not be too keen on, especially given its disastrous foray into Iraq and its involvement in other hot-spots around the world. This option would also require a re-evaluation of its political strategy in not just Afghanistan but also in the region, particularly in relation to Iran, the Central Asian republics and, last but not the least, Pakistan.

Within Afghanistan, the US will have to let go of its obsession for ushering in democracy in a tribal society and will have to forge political instruments and strengthen political institutions that suit the native Afghan genius. Most important, it will have to spread its financial commitments in Afghanistan in a way that not only is vital physical infrastructure created but also money (or subsidies — a word preferred by the British during the Raj period) is provided to local tribes and warlords as an incentive to behave in a responsible manner.

What is more, the US will have to increase its foot-soldiers in Afghanistan so that they can wield the big stick as and when required to bring recalcitrant tribes into line. Use of the army must be discreet and precise and air power needs to be severely restricted. But all this will be a long haul, and after five barren years it is not clear whether the Americans have the gumption to do what it takes to bring Afghanistan back into civilization.

Historically, events in Afghanistan have always had a cataclysmic impact on the subcontinent’s politics. If for once Pakistan were to take off its strategic blinkers, it would realise that it is in both India’s and Pakistan’s interest to cooperate with each other in stabilising Afghanistan. But even if Pakistan wants to continue playing spoiler in Afghanistan, there is no reason why India should not use its strategic relationship with the US to convince it to re-evaluate and reorder its current failed policy. At the same time, India must be prepared to put its money (and its army) where its mouth is.

In other words, if required, India must be prepared to send its armed forces as part of the stabilising force in Afghanistan. This India must do simply to protect itself rather than in the pursuit of some grandiose imperial game-plan. Of course, if the US continues on the disastrous path it is currently treading in Afghanistan, India must use its energies to prepare itself for the fallout of a severely destabilised western border.

MIDDLE

We haven’t come a long way
by Roopinder Singh

America’s oldest university, Harvard, has been prominent in the headlines with its appointment of Drew Gilpin Faust as its first woman President, what we call Vice-Chancellor in India. It’s a pity that Ms Faust’s selection has become news because of her gender and not her capabilities.

Harvard is located in Boston and the city was the venue of an international conference of the executive heads of universities, held back in 1975.

It was winter, quite a cold winter. Many of the Vice-Chancellors were there with their spouses, and elaborate measures had been taken to take care of and entertain them while the conference was in session.

There was sightseeing, a visit to Harvard University, various kinds of luncheons to introduce them to American culinary delights and so on.

The ladies loved it. They would meet and plan out the day in advance, see if they could include something they particularly wanted to do. The American planners had done their bit, and given the prominence of many of the attendees, even the US State Department was involved in ensuring that everything went off smoothly.

It did. The delegates at the conference came off with the feeling of having had a meaningful dialogue and a level of exposure that would help them in their own universities. Contiguity brought about friendships, and some bonding too.

Every day, gaily clad women would board buses and go off to another adventure. There was just one incongruity. Among them would be a tall, turbaned gentleman with a flowing beard and a white kurta-pyjama. He seemed quite comfortable to be among these ladies, even though he spoke hesitantly in English, with a foreign accent. He mimicked well and often had those around him giggling.

The gentleman was obviously not one of the American officials. Who was he? He was Giani Gurdit Singh, my father. He was quite at ease waiting for the evenings when my mother would be with him. Some ladies told him they would rather be there as delegates than as spouses. He just smiled. That’s where his wife, Inderjit Kaur Sandhu, the then Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, was.

There were only three lady Vice-Chancellors in the world at that time. Unfortunately, 32 years later, there still are too few, and though Ms Faust’s appointment is a cause of celebration, to mutilate a Virginia Slims slogan: “We haven’t come a long (enough) way, baby.”.

OPED

Centre must shore up state finances
by Janak Raj Gupta

IN a fast growing federal country like ours states have to share the major burden for achieving economic prosperity and improving the quality of life. Most of the social infrastructure, and a significant part of the physical infrastructure, lies in the domain of the States.

To quote Mr. Y.V. Reddy, RBI Governor, “economic reforms are not sustainable if expenditure of State Governments is not buoyant in desired directions.” However, the revenue of States from their own resources suffices only for about 50 to 60 per cent of States’ current expenditure.

The Union budgets always have grave implications for the States’ financial health. But the Union budget for the fiscal year 2007-08 is likely to carry more such proposals and these would have long-term effects on States’ finances.

Take for example the adoption of a fully integrated Goods and Service Tax (GST). Mr. P. Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, has promised to lay down the roadmap for the implementation of GST in the forthcoming budget. Now GST, as propounded by Dr. Vijay Kelkar, former Union Finance Secretary, expects too much from the States.

The States will have to abolish many taxes and levies, namely taxes on transportation of goods and passenger, stamp duty for registration of property apart from general sales tax (now called VAT), octroi, entry fee, etc., in order to get the right to tax certain goods and services.

Already many States are feeling the pinch of shifting from general sales tax to State-VAT, though the Centre would compensate them to the extent of 75 per cent in the current and 50 per cent in the next fiscal. But would be the position thereafter? Then the proposal of the Centre to phase out CST and convert tax on imported goods into VAT would further accentuate the problems of many States.

One is not denying the crucial importance of these fiscal reforms. What is being emphasised is the fact that the Centre must go on compensating the States for the inadvertent loss in their revenue till the entire issue is examined afresh by some expert body involving all the stakeholders. It goes to the credit of Dr. Manmohan Singh that, as Union Finance Minister in early 90’s, he always weighed in his mind the probable implications of his budget’s proposals for the States’ finances.

Another daunting task before Mr. P. Chidambram is to sustain an inflation free 8-9 per cent growth rate. Presently the spectacular growth of the Indian economy is both consumption as well as investment induced. Since the former is likely to have adverse effect on the poverty ridden masses, more emphasis therefore should be on investment induced growth.

To ensure inflation-free investment expenditure, savings rate must be pushed up. It is here again that the States would be adversely affected. The recent hike in interest rates on bank deposits has already affected their access to small savings adversely. Almost all the States have experienced a sharp fall in the receipts from small savings ranging from 30 per cent in Punjab to 50 per cent in Rajasthan.

The coming Union budget should, therefore, raise the rate of interest a little higher on non-tax-saving instruments whose entire proceeds go to the States as soft loans. This will not only push up the savings rate to match the ever increasing investment rate, without causing any adverse effect on tax revenue, but will also act as an anti-inflationary measure.

Another area in which the States are greatly concerned is agriculture. Though agriculture is a State subject, yet it requires urgent attention of the Union government because its stagnation and even neglect is playing havoc with our growth momentum. Public investment, particularly in rural infrastructure like roads and irrigation systems, has to be stepped up.

To solve the problem of debt-ridden farmers, instead of the requirement of sureties or securities for getting bank loans, the scheme of collective borrowing as suggested by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus needs to be extended. This will not only generate self-esteem among the farmers but will also be a great check on the potential source of corruption in sanctioning bank loans.

The budget should also make provision for universal crop insurance schemes so as to ensure at least a minimum level of farm income in case of drought or other natural calamities.

Public health care and the educational system in rural India also need urgent support in qualitative terms. Until and unless the delivery system in this area is improved substantially, there can never be a stable movement up the economic ladder.

Another related area of concern for the States is the allocation of funds to local bodies, are Panchayat Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies. The direct funding to these local institutions was started by the Tenth Finance Commission (1995-2000) and carried forward by the Eleventh Finance Commission (2000-05) which incorporated the index of decentralization to determine the inter-se allocation of grants-in-aid among the States.

But the Twelfth Finance Commission (2005-10) abandoned this index, thereby making the States reluctant to strengthen the local bodies. Therefore, to reverse the process, there is an urgent need to devise some more innovative ways to speed up the process of decentralisation.

In the budget 2007-08 the Union government may create a special ‘Core Fund’ and earmark a small proportion of revenue from newly imposed service taxes from which the Centre is expected to raise a whopping amount of nearly Rs. 40-50 thousand crores in the current fiscal.

The creation of the ‘Core Fund’ is all the more necessary because as per the recommendations of the Twelfth Finance Commission these local bodies will get only Rs. five thousand crores per annum – Rs. four thousand crores for PRIs and Rs. one thousand crores for ULBs.

The writer is UGC Emeritus Fellow, at the Department of Economics, Punjabi University, Patiala

Taliban command, control strong in Pak
by Ann Scott Tyson

WASHINGTON – The outgoing top US commander in Afghanistan has urged Pakistan to crack down on an entrenched network of senior Taliban and al-Qaida leaders, training camps and recruiting grounds – a sanctuary from which fighters have tripled cross-border attacks since September and are preparing an anticipated major spring offensive in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry also warned that an even greater threat than the resurgent Taliban is the possibility that the government of President Hamid Karzai will suffer an irreversible loss of legitimacy among the Afghan population.

In response to the rising security threats, the Pentagon is expected to announce soon that it will keep US troop levels in Afghanistan at least 27,000 into 2008, extending a temporary increase of 3,200 combat troops ordered last month.

“Al-Qaida and Taliban leadership presence inside of Pakistan remains a very significant problem,” Eikenberry testified before the House Armed Services Committee, warning of the “growing threat of Taliban-ization” inside Pakistan.

“A steady, direct attack against the command and control in Pakistan in sanctuary areas is essential for us to achieve success,” Eikenberry said, joining other US officials in publicly pressuring the Islamabad government to crack down on the safe havens in its frontier regions.

Taliban forces in Pakistan’s North Waziristan have staged mass attacks on US border camps, including a strike in recent days that saw the US military respond with artillery fire into Pakistan.

Eikenberry, who has spent two of the past four years in Afghanistan, offered a forthright assessment not only of the progress in the Central Asian nation but also of the stark challenges ahead.

“The long-term threat to campaign success ... is the potential irretrievable loss of legitimacy of the government of Afghanistan,” he said.

“The accumulated effects of violent terrorist insurgent attacks, corruption, insufficient social resources and growing income disparities, all overlaid by a major international presence, are taking their toll on Afghan government legitimacy,” he said. “A point could be reached at which the government of Afghanistan becomes irrelevant to its people, and the goal of establishing a democratic, moderate, self-sustaining state could be lost forever.”

A critical question, Eikenberry said, is whether the Afghan government is “winning.” “In several critical areas – corruption, justice, and law enforcement, and counter-narcotics – it is not,” he said, calling Afghan government institutions “extraordinarily weak.”

Greater US and international efforts are urgently needed to build a court and corrections system in Afghanistan, and to strengthen efforts to train an Afghanistan police force, which he said is “several years behind” compared to the development of the Afghan army. The Pentagon is seeking $5.9 billion this year and $2.7 billion in 2008 to build Afghan security forces, including police.

Eikenberry stressed that Taliban forces – while making gains in relatively lawless regions of southern Afghanistan, which had few coalition troops until last summer – have been unable to retake areas where the Afghan government and security forces have established a presence.

The decision to dispatch more US forces is intended to bolster NATO’s total contingent of 36,000 troops and allow NATO to go on the offensive against a resurgent Taliban, Eikenberry said. NATO, which now has military oversight over all of Afghanistan, has provided only 85 to 90 percent of promised troops and other resources, and faces shortages of infantry, military intelligence, helicopters, fixed wing aircraft, Eikenberry said.

The Taliban resurgence has been supported by a strengthened command-and-control structure that moved across the border into Pakistan from Afghanistan after US forces toppled the Taliban government in 2001. Today, Eikenberry said, senior Taliban leaders from the ousted regime are collaborating with al-Qaida leaders, as well as other groups led by the warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and the Haqqani clan of an ethnically Pashtun tribe.

The United States is “terribly concerned” about Taliban and al-Qaida leadership in Quetta, Pakistan, and other regions that direct attacks, conduct training in camps with the help of foreign fighters, and recruit from Islamic schools known as madrassas.

By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post

Legal notes
by S.S. Negi
Apex court Secretary General

In recent times it was found that every Chief Justice of India makes certain administrative changes on assuming office. CJI K.G. Balakrishnan is no exception and he recently issued orders for renaming the post of Registrar General of the Supreme Court as Secretary General. It virtually makes the Registry as the Supreme Court Secretariat for all administrative purposes.

This also brings a sort of parity between the Supreme Court Secretariat and the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariats as the administrative heads of the three autonomous institutions are now designated as Secretary General. With this order, Supreme Court Registrar General V.K. Jain became the first Secretary General of the Apex Court.

Discipline rules

The law of discipline at work places against errant employees has been further tightened by the Supreme Court. It has laid down that a worker, if dismissed by an organisation for insubordination, indiscipline and not performing his duty properly, would not be entitled to back wages even if his service is restored by the court of law for reasons that the termination order was a punishment far in excess to the charges proved against him.

A bench of Justices B.P. Singh and R.V. Raveendran held that in such circumstances, the award of back wages was neither automatic, nor consequential. If all the consequential benefits were allowed to be awarded to a person who had remained out of service for a longer period of time but reinstated only because the punishment was found to be too harsh by the court, it would have a ‘disastrous’ effect, particularly in granting promotions to him because he would lack the requisite experience to handle the duty with higher responsibilities.

The Court said in such cases where the continuity of service was ordered, it should only be accounted for the purpose of pensionary and retirement benefits not for any other benefits like increments and promotion.

Prasar Bharti

The Union Government has been reprimanded by the Supreme Court for not formulating rules to govern the services of public sector broadcaster Prasar Bharti, even after ten years of its establishment as an autonomous corporation.

Since the matter is still pending with a Group of Ministers despite the Prasar Bharti forwarding the draft of the rules to the Centre long ago, a bench of Justices S.B. Sinha and Markandeya Katju said it was difficult to comprehend why the Government has not exercised its statutory function for such a long time, though it was obliged to take a decision one way or the other.

Hence, it directed the Government to take a “firm decision” on the issue within six months and the Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training was asked to file an affidavit on action taken on the expiry of the deadline.