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Poor man’s burden Sphinx-like Chancellor |
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Maya’s move
In the interest of farmers
Hail Ganga
From the fields Raise productivity in other states for food security Chatterati
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Poor man’s burden THE sudden spurt in inflation from 8.75 per cent to 11.05 per cent — a 13-year high — has exceeded expectations. After the recent fuel price hike, inflation was supposed to turn double digit, but not so high. In real terms, the inflation rate is still higher than what is reported on a week-to-week basis. This has shaken ordinary people as much as policymakers. The poor, with no regular sources of income, are the worst hit as they have no dearness allowances to fall back upon. Retirees who survive on interest income may be at a loss to know what to do as inflation has moved past the interest rates their bank deposits earn. The Reserve Bank of India, which has failed to foresee inflation more than doubling from its comfort level of 5 per cent, has no option but to further hike the CRR and repo rate. This, in turn, will make banks raise the interest rates, which will further accelerate the slowdown and may cause a hard-landing for the economy. It will take months to recover unless the global oil prices fall sharply. Anticipating the trouble ahead, the stock markets plunged on Friday. The Sensex has hit a new low and the worst is not over yet. All the positive factors — a good monsoon, a bumper wheat crop, falling food prices, higher advance corporate tax payments and good order books of companies — stand ignored. The BJP and the Left are quick to demand the Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s head. The minister has been busy making false promises and he can be faulted for not taking the people into confidence on fighting inflation. In the days to come, the UPA will face more political heat and price rise is bound to be an election issue. The government need not appear as helpless as it does on the nuclear deal. To combat inflation, it can (a) allow the rupee to appreciate to soften the blow of oil imports (b) abolish the import duty on edible oil to cool its prices and (c) plug the leakages in the public distribution system. Post-harvest fruit, vegetable and foodgrain losses are huge, which can be minimised. A multi-pronged approach is required to meet the challenge of price rise. Just waiting for prices to fall is not enough.
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Sphinx-like Chancellor THE sacredness of autonomy to a university is unquestionable. Any dilution of it will have a disastrous impact on the university’s functioning. What is happening in Guru Nank Dev University in Amritsar is a case in point. It is known all over the country as a bastion of sports and extracurricular activities. Today, it is in the news for the wrong reasons. Its Vice-Chancellor, Dr Jai Rup Singh, has impeccable credentials as a scientist. A stickler for rules, he has been managing the affairs of the university in a professional manner. As is only to be expected, he has antagonised some people who have not taken kindly to his style of functioning. One of them, a ruling party MLA, has prevailed upon the Akali Dal-BJP government to order an inquiry into his own complaints against the VC. In a commendable response, the VC has refused to appear before the Principal Secretary (Home), who is inquiring into the complaint, on the ground that he is answerable only to the Chancellor. It is precisely to protect the autonomy of a university and to stand guard against any governmental encroachment on its territory that the Chancellorship is entrusted with the Governor. It is not this newspaper’s stand that the charges, if there are any, against the VC should not be inquired into. The Governor was within his rights to take a preemptive action against letting the government order an inquiry. Like Nero who fiddled while Rome was burning, the Governor allowed the situation to go out of his control, creating an embarrassment for the entire academic community of a VC having to appear before a government official. The Governor has failed in his role as the custodian of the academic and administrative autonomy of the university. The manner in which the Parkash Singh Badal government has moved against the Vice-Chancellor suggests that it does not bother about university autonomy. It has been whittling down university autonomy in every possible way. It cannot tolerate any VC, however eminent he may be, appointed by the previous government. Dr K.S. Aulakh of Punjab Agricultural University was the first to go to fulfil Mr Badal’s pre-poll promise “to open a closed university gate”. Enormous pressure was put on Punjabi University Vice-Chancellor S.S. Boparai to quit. Now, it is the turn of Dr Jai Rup Singh. In all this, the person who should have guarded the interests of the universities — the Chancellor —remained like a sphinx.
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Maya’s move UP Chief Minister and BSP spremo Mayawati’s withdrawal of support to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre has not come as a bolt from the blue. The Congress and the BSP had been distancing from each other for a long time. Two main factors appear to have made her say goodbye to the UPA. One, she had lost the hope of getting rescued by the UPA government in the disproportionate assets case, framed against her by the previous NDA regime, with the CBI ready with the chargesheet. Two, her bete noire Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav has reportedly reached an understanding with the Congress to fight the next Lok Sabha elections together in UP. The BSP’s departure with its 17 Lok Sabha members from the UPA will not affect the government at the Centre. The ruling coalition will continue to have a simple majority in Parliament so long as the support from the Left remains intact. The BSP leader seems to have prepared a strategy to exploit to her political advantage the price rise issue and her charge that the Centre has not been forthcoming in promoting the economic development of UP. She will now feel free to shift the blame to the Congress for most of the woes of the common man in her state. The Congress, too, in the company of the SP, may intensify its campaign against what it calls the “misrule” of Ms Mayawati. The Congress will now find itself in a better position to expose her failure to do anything substantial for the uplift of the downtrodden, contrary to her claims. It will be a daunting task for the Congress to regain some of its old support base comprising the Scheduled Castes and the Muslims. Sooner than later, it will realise that it is difficult to erode Ms Mayawati’s vote bank despite the allegation of the BSP being the B-team of the
BJP.
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Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought. — Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi
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In the interest of farmers
The
Government of India has raised the minimum support price of paddy by Rs105 per quintal, which is far below the prevailing international prices in terms of rice equivalence. As a consequence, the farmers are demanding higher minimum support prices. However, the international foodgrains prices being volatile and cyclical in their very nature, these cannot be ipso facto made a basis for determining the domestic prices. Yet, the international prices cannot be ignored completely as the reference prices. For instance, going by the admission of the Union Finance Minister, the government saved Rs 10,000 crore on the wheat procured this season, by paying domestic producers lower than the international reference prices. This is a sort of injustice, specially when electricity and water were subsidised for the farm sector and social costs of production were not counted in the cost of production. The government adopted trade restrictive measures such as banning of exports, disallowing futures trading in wheat and not allowing the corporate grain handlers operate in the major foodgrains markets of the country. The story is going to be repeated in the case of paddy procurement. For the next few months the farmers’ pressure groups will be demanding a higher MSP for paddy consistent with the international price scenario and the issue is going to be politicalised in view of the impending elections. Unfortunately, the political leadership and farm leaders do not comprehend the purpose and intricacies involved in determining the minimum support prices. The system and its details were evolved through long deliberations by about 100 economists, other professionals and administrators before it was introduced to protect the producers from market slumps in the post-harvest period. The commission is charged, by an Act of Parliament, with the responsibility of protecting the interests of farmers as well as consumers, and promote appropriate production patterns consistent with the changing demand patterns of society through recommending the price and non-price policies to be adopted by the government. Minimum support prices and procurement prices were only two of the vehicles of execution of this mandate. Unfortunately only the price recommendations catch the attention of the policy-makers, and almost no notice is taken of the non-price recommendations, which are in many cases more potent for the ending the plight of the producers as well the consumers. The MSP, in principle, is not supposed to cover all costs and include the profit margin. This price is meant to save the producer-seller from price slumps, buyers’ cartels and market-level natural and man-made depredations to keep the producer in business. For this purpose, the government stands in the market as a buyer of last resort. It is a statutory price, which is supposed to be announced before the planting time. Once announced, the government through its procurement agency is bound to lift the commodities offered in the market at these prices. The procurement price, on the other hand, is not a statutory price and the government may not purchase the commodity beyond its needs and may offer any level of higher prices. Through time the MSP and procurement prices lost their separate identity. Announcement of the MSP was invariably delayed and most of the time it was announced just before the commodity started arriving in the market, and it was taken to be the procurement price. The government announces the MSP for some 22 crops of economic importance in the country, but does not procure all the commodities covered under the MSP. In most cases, the MSP remains below the market price. It is primarily the foodgrains for which elaborate arrangements for procurement are made through the Food Corporation of India. For other foodgrains, NAFED is the nodal agency, which seldom enters the market in times of need. Cotton is procured by the Cotton Corporation of India, mostly for public sector mills. For foodgrains, in order to fulfil procurement targets, specially in times of scarcity, restrictions are imposed on the movement and stocking of the commodities, and financial accommodation to the private players in the market is denied. In times of abundance the government drags its feet. When the international prices are lower than domestic prices, the international grain handlers and organisations demand the linking of domestic prices to the border prices. When the international prices are higher, the farmers demand equivalent higher prices. Since the international prices are highly volatile and cyclical in nature, it is not possible to link the MSP to the border prices, because in a democratic set-up of our kind, the minimum prices once enhanced cannot be brought down to the level of the depressed international prices. The resolution of the problem lies in separating the MSP from the procurement prices. Whereas the MSP should be based on the formulae elaborately designed and followed so far, the procurement price should be determined keeping in mind the supply-demand situation and the international prices at the time just before the commodity starts arriving in the market. In times of glut and slump in the market, the government would stand there as the buyer of last resort at the MSP and otherwise enter into the market as one of the buyers to fulfil its targets of procurement. This will automatically take care of the supply and demand situation as well as the international prices and the availability. The remedy to the present situation is that the government should not fiddle with the minimum support price announced under any pressure. By the end of August or the middle of September get the prices, stocks, availability and the international supply-demand situation reviewed by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices and announce the procurement price of paddy as the situation may demand. The CACP uses the cost of production as one of the important factors for determining the MSP. This cost calculation is based on the cost of production of some eight thousand four hundred farms located in 19 districts, scientifically selected throughout the country. Data are collected day by day through the cost accounting method by permanently employed investigators. The data are compiled every season by the state universities and sent to the Economic and Statistical Adviser in the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, where it is finally compiled for the use of the CACP. It is totally unbiased data collected and compiled by autonomous bodies. It is suggested that farmer leaders and politicians should not press for parities, domestic or international. They should rather work for separating the minimum support prices from the procurement prices, which will give flexibility to adjust procurement prices keeping in view the supply-demand situations and the international prices. This will better serve the interests of farmers as well as consumers, and the government will be able to fulfil its procurement targets at the market price by entering the market as one of the buyers. This way, the government, through tenders and regular operations, can compete with other players in the market for the purchase of the required quantities of various commodities without distorting the minimum support
prices.
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Hail Ganga IT was prayer time at a number of ghats along the banks of the Ganga at Rishikesh. And I was seated on one of the steps of one such ghat amongst a sizeable congregation of devotees. The river flowed past right in front, just a few steps down from me, the last glow of sunset getting reflected off its rapids across its entire width. The proceedings started with a few soul-stirring devotional songs accompanied by a small orchestra. They were rendered in chorus, dedicated to different deities, one after another. It went on for half an hour or so, the dusk settling down gradually. And then came the occasion for the entire congregation to stand up. The stage was all set for singing ‘Ganga arti’, a specific prayer to invoke the grace of the sacred river. Midway through the upbeat, full-throated chorus, a quaint thought quietly slunk into my mind. And, lo, it got rooted there, not letting go of me! What triggered it was perhaps a sudden — I must say untimely — waking up of a dormant geologist in me at that moment. My mind soared over to Gangotri and other feeder glaciers of the Ganga, which have been bearing the brunt of global warming, unabated. Some scientists opine, given the ongoing accelerated rate of recession of glaciers, they may almost completely melt away within 50 years or so. Even allowing for a bit of exaggeration of the doomsayers, warming does project a dismal scenario for this river. It may be reduced to an almost seasonal channel finding its course amidst the parched boulders, pebbles and sands! If the river shrinks and sheds its present glory, what would remain of Rishikesh, Haridwar and other age-old pilgrim centres? Hail to you, O river goddess; whosoever comes to worship you will overcome all obstacles and will be liberated from the Karmic cycle of birth and death… But how on earth can the Ganga liberate the lesser mortals if the river itself was going to meet its end? I argued to myself. The prayer continued, but I got stuck into the hideous thought, howsoever hard I tried to get rid of it. Will the Ganga survive or…? I remained with this nagging query for quite some time thereafter. My faith in Ganga worship was a bit shaken. I looked for an answer to my ardent query which was not there. One evening I suddenly seemed to have at last caught on a straw. The clue came to me from the Gita: “Of all the rivers on earth, I am Bhagirathi (Ganga); and again, from yet another one: Never was there a time when I did not exist, or you, or rulers of yours; nor shall I cease to be hereafter, and yes, death pertains to only physical body.” It enabled me to see for myself a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel in which I had got trapped. True, everything on the physical plane is prone to change, decay and death. The Ganga as an icon of water course, a geographic entity, may disappear, but as divine consciousness it will survive. It will not die, though it may change its form; it may don the garb of ocean, fly as clouds in the sky, or as well resurrect as river once again on earth through the endless cycle of glacial and interglacial periods. The Ganga is for
ever!
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From the fields On
the outskirts of Ghukanwali village in Sirsa district in Haryana, arid, uneven land stretches out as far as the eye can see. There is a kucha village road leading to what seems like nowhere, beyond carnivores feeding on dead animals and Men and women of all ages are going back and forth carrying mud from the hillock to a depression nearby. No clang of machines at work, no roar of engines, only the quiet sound of work in progress while the sun rays beat down. The labour is absorbed in earning its Rs 135 a day under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). A tent propped up at a stone’s throw from the work site shelters their children from the heat and the dust. Eighty-year-old Gurdev Kaur, the oldest woman in the lot who had reported to work that day, keeps vigil over them. She earns her share of daily wages by ensuring the children are taken care of while their mothers toil to earn the bread and butter for the family. “This is a boon for us. The additional money has meant better food for our families. It’s better than sitting around with village women, pouring out your woes and, then, going back to empty food containers,” she quips. The women at the site of work are upbeat about “earning their living”. While some would work at home, there were others who went to work in fields of zamindars to earn a pittance. “We used to get Rs 60 to Rs 80 after a whole day in the field. Now, we get the full payment without having to argue or haggle,” remarks Kesho Devi while Manjit Kaur adds that labouring at such sites is more respectable than working in the fields. “I wish this would go on instead of limiting work to 100 days a year,” she says. After the work of levelling of land is complete, the labour will be again out of job and will have to wait for another project to begin. However, that does not mean that they can slow down the work for there are special appointees to keep tab on everybody’s efforts. Among the first districts to roll out NREGA over a year back, Sirsa has a number of works to its credit under the scheme, being overseen by Deputy Commissioner V. Umashanker. At Ambala, relatively new to the scheme, hectic planning is on to prepare projects while work is simultaneously on in the villages on a number of projects. Most of these are to do with flood protection, irrigation, water conservation, laying of roads within the village and revival of silted village ponds or those encroached upon by villagers or taken over by the hyacinth. In Kamabasi where a village pond has been “renovated” under NREGA to create separate clean water and dirty water ponds, the labour is very enthused about the “achievement”. “It gives a sense of pride that I have worked in a project that will benefit my village. For me, personally, it has meant a cut on borrowing since income from labour has made up for the shortfall,” explains Risho Devi. Job cards in hand, the labour is certain that it will not be cheated and get its day’s due. These works are primarily dominated by the fairer sex since most of the men go out of the village to work or are committed to work for zamindars. Though slow to catch on, the registration of labour under NREGA is now receiving over-whelming response. Kambasi has 170 registrations while 12000 plus job cards have been issued in the district so far and more are joining the bandwagon. Sarpanch Kuldesh Rani says it has revived the sagging strength of the Panchayati Raj Institutions which are central to this scheme. All projects of the village are first identified at gram sabha meetings. Despite the bright side, NREGA is having its share of teething problems also. In Sherpur, where de-silting of a pond is in progress, the Gram Rozgar Sahayak (GRS) supervising the work, Shukla Devi, a post-graduate, says, “We are an exploited lot, getting only Rs 2000 for the entire project. Not only are we expected to supervise the works but are expected to maintain 11 registers which is a lot of paper work. The labour gets more than us and it is very disheartening. They should give a thought to our plight as well.” Since all costs of the project cannot be covered under the scheme, the panchayat, too, has to pull out money. Renovation of a pond requires pumping out of the water in it though no funds are provided under NREGA. Dug out silt has to be transported to a depression in the village and the panchayat is expected to pay. These examples show that funds for related activity should also be provided. According to revised guidelines, the payments are to be made through bank accounts and no hard cash is to be given. The panchayats and the villagers are opposed to the move. While the panchayat is keen on making payments itself, the labour feels that it would be troublesome to get the money. The banks too are not keen on opening zero-balance accounts. |
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Raise productivity in other states for food security On
the food front, India had been lulled into complacency since the Green Revolution. Before the current food crisis, 7 million tonnes of wheat had to be imported in two tranches. There was no shortfall in production, but influenced by the World Bank, the local procurement of grains was curtailed. The system of maintaining buffer stocks was on the way to be abandoned on the assumption that when food grains are easily available in the world market, it is futile to maintain stocks in the country, incurring “unnecessary” expenditure on storage and transportation. This has now been proved wrong in view of the global food crises. Our government was again preparing for imports of wheat, but fortunately, there is record production of wheat in Punjab and Haryana – they have given100 lakh and 50 lakh tonnes of wheat to the central pool. Other states like UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat also gave 60 lakh tonnes of wheat to the central pool, raising it to 210 lakh tones. But there is no room for complacency. There is plenty of scope to increase food grain production. There are 140 million hectares of irrigated area in the country, out of which 86 million hectares are already tapped. The remaining 54 million hectares are in the three states of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. They also produce wheat but the yield of their land is much less compared to Punjab. Against Punjab’s yield of 45 quintals per hectare, UP has 28 quintals, MP 18 quintals and Bihar 18 quintals. This is despite irrigation in UP being almost equal to Punjab. The reason for their low yield, agriculture experts say, is the lack of coordination among the parties engaged in, and responsible for, food production. The Pant Nagar Agriculture University claims their seeds and guidelines must bring a yield of 45 quintals per hectare but it is not happening in the field. There is in-coherence in the working of different agencies - for example, the power board may not release power in the period the University advises. There is a 16 million hectare area under wheat in these three states. If their output is increased 2 quintals per hectare it will give 8 million tonnes of additional wheat stocks. Agricultural research benefits should reach the farmer. The farmer has to be persuaded and guided towards the new techniques to be applied in the field. Similarly, there is a 9 million hectare area under rice cultivation in those states. Productivity of rice in Punjab is 36 quintals per hectare, while in these states it is only 22 quintals per hectare. If the yield is increased by a mere one quintal per hectare it will give an additional 8 million tonnes of rice. There can thus be no fear of food shortages in India. At the same time, Punjab should get the attention it deserves. Punjab’s soil has, for quite some time now, been giving signals of fatigue. Over-dozes of fertilizers, sub-soil water sinking deeper, and erratic power supply have all affected Punjab’s farming adversely. There is urgent need for revamping the sources of irrigation – the choking canals need cleansing and sub-soil water needs recharging. Due to free electricity and water there is reckless wastage of water and electricity. The freebie should be stopped and farmers suitably compensated in the M.S.P. In order to stall the visible deceleration in the Punjab farm sector a lot of financial input is required. The state government’s coffers are empty. The funds have to be arranged from international agencies, NABARD, banks etc. The initiative has to be taken by the state government and monitored by the Centre. The Punjab farmers’ commission has recently taken healthy steps for recharging and re-energising the soil. The sowing of paddy earlier than June 10 has been banned. It will help the soil to recoup. There is shortage of labour for paddy sowing. The commission has arranged machine transplanters imported from Korea, which, if successful, will ease the problem. Special agriculture development zones should be created across the country. Lands in each state should be demarcated for the crop conducive to its soil and climatic conditions. All the three parties, farmer, state government and Centre, should become entrepreneurs. As of now, the agriculture minister seems overwhelmed by cricket. The world food crisis is a wake-up call for India. The building of big shopping malls and residential complexes can wait but not the production of sufficient food. The situation should not arise where there is food for 50 people, but a 100 are clamouring for it.
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Chatterati Former
prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has no prominence on posters and other publicity material for the BJP’s Kanpur rally, which clearly shows the change of guard. But the BJP has now left it to Vajpayee to find a “suitable” candidate for the prestigious Lucknow seat, which has been his constituency since 1991. Party heavyweights are somehow reluctant to contest the Lucknow seat. The BJP has been losing its upper caste vote-bank from this particular Lok Sabha seat. The differences among the leaders over the Lok Sabha seats are also coming out in the open now. The BJP’s move to get Murli Manohar Joshi to fight from there did not work. Varun Gandhi, who virtually remained on the sidelines, will now be contesting from his mother’s Lok Sabha seat, Pilibhit, while Maneka Gandhi is expected to shift to the neighbouring Aonla Lok Sabha constituency. After the party’s success in Gujarat, Punjab, Himachal and Uttarakhand, the BJP heavyweights are all ready. Kalyan Singh is keen to retain his Etah constituency and the party’s Muslim face, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, would once again jump into the fray from the Rampur Lok Sabha berth. He will fight Samajwadi party MP Jayaprada. The party is also looking for “safe seats” for other senior leaders, including Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. The latter is eyeing a seat in Himachal. Birthday secrets Rahul’s turning 39 last week was celebrated with drum beats, slogans and the deafening noise of firecrackers outside the Congress headquarters. Hundreds of his supporters celebrated the day, distributing sweets, bursting crackers and cutting cakes, but Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was nowhere to be seen. Rahul’s Tughlak Lane residence was thronged by his supporters as they carried gifts for their leader. A crowd gathered at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters. Senior Congress leaders sent bouquets for Mr Gandhi. But no one got to meet Rahul himself. Perhaps he didn’t want to be seen accepting the loads of gifts that the supporters brought. The admirers came with mangoes, books, clothes, shawls and other gifts packed judiciously to keep the contents a secret. Blogosphere Blogging really seems to have caught on with politicians, film stars and socialites, to sell their image. And this includes L.K. Advani, Rahul Gandhi along with the entire babalog, Priya Dutt, Omar Adullah, Milind Deora, Mehbooba Mufti, Supriya Sule, Deepender Hooda, M.K. Stalin and Madhu Goud Yakshi. Even ministers P. Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal have launched their own websites. Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan are both regular bloggers. Few politicians have proved as media-savvy as railway minister Lalu Yadav, who is an active blogger too. Rahul Gandhi started his website a long time back. In fact, many leaders have taken to blogging after him. He is technology savvy. Hence the others have to prove their knowledge to impress him.
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