The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Back to court
Reconciliation was a long shot

The “one per cent” chance of reconciliation due to which the Supreme Court had deferred the verdict of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute has proved to be a non-starter and the apex court has finally paved the way for the High Court to announce its decision on September 30. The highest court’s decision to give one last chance to a negotiated settlement was well-meaning but was also inconsequential considering that the contesting parties had flatly refused to reach any agreement and had left the matter in the hands of the court. As a result, the Bench of Chief Justice S. H. Kapadia, Justice Aftab Alam and Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan on Tuesday dismissed the petition of former bureaucrat Ramesh Chandra Tripathi through a brief order.

This will at least bring an end to the uncertainty, which has hurt the residents of the twin towns of Ayodhya-Faizabad the most. It is they who have to live under curfew-like situations whenever a crucial court date approaches. Things are equally bad in the rest of the country where the security forces have to be on high alert to tackle the likely repercussions. The argument that the judgement should be withheld because the consequences could be bad for the law and order situation was not only dangerous but could have also set a bad precedent.

The Centre has studiously avoided taking any stand, leaving everything to the court. The local representatives of the two communities say they will abide by the judgement of the High Court, without going in appeal to the Supreme Court. But it is unlikely that others fighting the case for the past more than half a century will show similar sagacity. If the judgement is in favour of one of the parties, the other side is almost certain to move the Supreme Court against the verdict. Both communities need to guard against those trying to arouse passions unnecessarily.

Supping with rogues
ISI’s true mission is unmasked

Ever since the Mumbai terror attacks India, indeed as well as most of the world, has been quite clear about the link between Pakistan’s ISI and those who massacred innocent Indians and caused wanton destruction of property in Mumbai. There has been some debate on just how strong the connection was, but that too has been settled with the latest revelations by investigative American journalist Bob Woodward. In his book ‘Obama’s War’, he says that ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha told the CIA that the terror strikes were carried out by “rogue” ISI elements and were not an “authorised” operation.

No one expects any intelligence agency chief to admit to complicity in terrorist acts, and thus the device of categorising this act as a “rogue” operation is a fig leaf that reveals much more than it portends to cover. The book also has many revelations about how the blurry world of real politik is allowing the ISI to run operations inimical to the Indian and American governments. The Americans have learnt that supping with the ISI is fraught with danger, especially when they have seen how the Talibanese are provided sanctuaries in Pakistan and allowed to slip back to Afghanistan, where they fight the American coalition forces. Now they too admit that the LeT had been created and funded by the ISI to commit terrorist acts in India. It has training camps in Pakistan and the army provides these militants cover to smuggle them across the Indian border.

Even thought President George Bush realised the dubious role of the ISI, he continued a policy of appeasement of the Pakistani government and the military, which ultimately controls the ISI. President Obama, has made a few minor adjustments, but that’s all. It is high time that the world realises that the ISI itself has gone rogue. India, till now, has shown remarkable restraint in the face of terrorist attacks, but as in the case of the US, the nation is at the edge of its patience. Realising the true face of the ISI is one thing, but taking action and neutralising the activities that aid and abet terrorism is another. The world is waiting to see how the US tackles this challenge.

Thought for the Day

I write to make people anxious and miserable and to worsen their indigestion. — Wendy Cope

ARTICLE

Tough time for Obama
Woes at home and abroad
by Inder Malhotra

TO arrive in Washington at this point of time is to be struck by the slew of troubles that are crowding in on President Barack Obama. The more worrisome of them are, of course, at home. But the problems he faces abroad, especially in relation to China, are also serious enough. It is well known that the US President and his Democratic Party are in the throes of a very hard mid-term election to the House of Representatives and to a third of the Senate seats. Nor is it a secret that almost from the word go the widespread belief in the country is that the Democrats would lose control of at least one House or probably of both.

What is new, however, is the intensity of the voters’ feelings of resentment and even anger against the Democrats in general and Mr. Obama in particular, accompanied by a palpable fear about the future. Another fresh element in the “Battle for the Hill” is the unexpectedly impressive showing by an outfit of ultra-Conservatives among the Republicans that calls itself the Tea Party, evidently deriving inspiration from the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

Although a string of local grassroots groups, lacking a central organisation and leadership, the raucously noisy Tea Party that has no dearth of funds has won quite a few Republican nominations for the impending poll. On the day of my arrival the great sensation across America was the triumph in the Delaware primary of Christine O’Donnell to the consternation of almost everyone except herself and her cohorts. What an improbable candidate she is for the role she seeks is best illustrated by her demand for declaring masturbation a crime because, according to her, it is akin to adultery born of “lust in the heart”.

During the jubilation over her success in the primary she also admitted that in the past she had “dabbled in witchcraft”. Despite such tomfoolery, a Washington Post headline says: “Tea Party Has Nation’s Attention. What Next?” Evidently, those hurt by the catastrophic economic crisis, which means a vast majority of the population, disregard the Tea Party’s absurdities but are lapping up its extreme demands for downsizing the government, perpetuation of the Bush tax cuts due to expire in two years, repeal of Mr. Obama’s healthcare reforms, massive cuts in government spending and so on.

Even so, the Tea Party surge could turn out to be a double-edged sword. For its outlandish electioneering might drive moderate supporters of the Republican Party to stay at home on the voting day. Indeed, Democratic Party strategists believe that might enable them to win. Nothing can be said with certainty until the votes are counted on November 2. However, there is no denying huge economic discontent. While 72 per cent of the GDP loss during the recession has been recovered, thanks largely to the generous government stimulus, of the jobs lost only 9 per cent have been restored. The unemployment rate remains dangerously high. Millions have lost their homes. The young people anxious to start a career are unable to find an opening. Those in their fifties who were laid off might never work again.

That might explain what happened a day after Ms. O’Donnell became something of a celebrity. President Obama held what in American parlance is called a town hall meeting. It turned out to be an inquisition of sorts. In fact, it was a discussion organised by a TV channel at which most of the participants were his supporters at the time of his election and even later. Their questions and comments showed that almost all of them are now deeply disillusioned and totally sceptical about his ability to reverse the situation. Surprisingly, no one seemed willing to heed the President’s understandable plea that the economic disaster was not his creation but the consequence of what had gone on for decades. Nor were there any takers for his appeal for patience “for ameliorating measures would take time to bear fruit”.

As for the main foreign source of America’s worries the message was loud and clear at the opening of the UN General Assembly session in New York. Not in the main hall but on the fringes where Mr. Obama met an array of world leaders. But no meeting was even remotely as important as that with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao that lasted full two hours. And it got the US President nowhere on his main demand that China should act faster on its promise to revalue gradually its currency. Mr. Wen would not budge. Earlier in the day, he had told a meeting of US businessmen that a 20 per cent increase in the value of renminbi would lead to a loss of jobs and bankruptcies in China without adding anything to the American job market. Some American commentators have called it China’s usual “diversionary tactic”. But quite a few others say that there is merit in the Chinese point of view. There would be no immediate gain from a speedy revaluation of the Chinese currency just as there was none in the eighties when the US compelled Japan to revalue the yen.

This, interestingly, runs counter to what US sources have been impressing on their interlocutors. One of them said to me that Mr. Obama’s view of China had changed since he went to Beijing in November last year and included in the joint statement remarks about China’s role in South Asia that evoked protests from India. Since then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he added, had issued a strong warning against China’s “bullying” of its Southeast Asian neighbours over its maritime claims in South China Sea. That is doubtless so. But the point is that during the Obama-Wen talks neither this issue nor even the China-Japan spat over the arrest of the Captain of a Chinese vessel in disputed waters, then at its height, was taken up.

Since then Japan has virtually surrendered to China. In the US media this is described as “humiliating retreat in the first test of wills”. It is also seen here as a “symbol” of China’s great and growing might and clout.

When asked why was the US so “squeamish” in its dealings with China, one of the best informed sources, who did want to be quoted by name, said: “We are dependent for our economic survival on China. There are severe limits on what we can do about it”.

MIDDLE

Where customer is the king
by P. Lal

There is a postman here with a parcel from Australia,” my wife informed me on the telephone, from the residence, as I sat in the office, waiting for the clock to strike the lunch hours.

“Is he asking for charges?” I asked her.

“None,” she assured me and waited for instructions.

“Take delivery, I am coming,” I said to her.

I had been to Australia and New Zealand on an official trip. While in Sydney (Australia), I visited the Sydney Tower, the tourists’ delight, soaring 305 metres above the ground.

A glass replica of the tower showcased in a souvenir shop at the observation deck (250 metres) caught my fancy and I ordered one for Aus $ 61.50. The saleswoman at the counter handed over to me a packed piece; I accepted the same without insistence on opening the case and showing the content.

I brought the packet to the hotel and threw it in, among the other purchases.

From Sydney, I flew to Auckland, thence to Kuala Lumpur, and finally to New Delhi. The next day, I travelled to Chandigarh by road.

As I unpacked the luggage and opened the velvet lined plywood box containing the replica, my face fell, for the piece de resistance was lying therein broken in two.

I surmised that there was a possibility, though a meagre one, that the piece might have been broken even before I took delivery.

I called the Souvenir World Australia, the shop from where I had made the purchase and asked for a replacement. Within 10 minutes, Jenny Armstrong, their administration manager, sent an e-mail at my office ID, advising me to provide the receipt number, the code, description and the price of the item. I gave the details to the computer operator of my office who e-mailed the information to Jenny on my behalf, I emphasised in the complaint the fact that I had accepted the sealed packet without actually checking the content.

The receipt of the e-mail complaint was received almost in no time.

Four days later I sent a reminder. Prompt came the reply on February 7: “I have forwarded your enquiry to the relevant department. I will chase them up immediately.”

Then some days later, when I reached home on my wife’s call, I found that she had already opened the packet; there lay on the table a new replica of Sydney Tower glistening in the light of the chandelier above. There was a letter too, from the Souvenir World Australia: “Sorry for the inconvenience. Sending new Crystal Tower. Thanks.”

They had paid Aus $ 19.50 for postage too. No questions were asked before providing the replacement. They even didn’t ask for the return of the original broken piece.

Meanwhile, I had joined the broken pieces with quickfix and put the repaired replica on the mantel in the drawing room; from a distance one could not make out the defect. With the arrival of the replacement, I had now two (I still have)!

OPED URBAN AFFAIRS

Though the National Highways Development Project represents the first real effort at creating a modern highway network in the country, the highways, being a basic infrastructure facility, generate economic activity and, therefore, need to be planned properly and provided in a manner that they give impetus to economic growth. A close look
National highways
Engines of growth
Deepak Dasgupta

The Gurgaon -New Delhi National Highway. Tribune Photo: Syeed Ali Ahmed

According to a recent report, the travel time between Delhi and Jaipur now extends to over seven hours on account of the widening work on the Delhi- Jaipur highway. A personal experience when it took six hours to get to Jaipur from Gurgaon bears this out.

The widening work on this highway from two lanes to four lanes and now to six lanes and eight lanes has been on going ever since 1995 or so with very little periods in between for a hassle-free drive. The same is true of Delhi to Chandigarh and Delhi to Amritsar highways where widening has been going on from perhaps even earlier.

This reflects, in this writer’s view, the paradigm governing the development of infrastructure in India, where by virtue of being a poor country, the provision of infrastructure was limited to a perceived demand projected from existing usage. Since the existing usage was itself highly suppressed, this has resulted in infrastructure acting as a constraint on development rather than its availability providing the impetus for economic growth.

The application of this principle to the road sector was compounded further by the application of a stage construction methodology, whereby a road was developed in stages, layer by layer or lane by lane. While this allowed the available funds to be applied over a larger number of roads and thus served a political purpose, it also meant that the full benefits flowing from the construction of these roads were postponed.
Clearly, the economic benefits that follow the development of a road network were not realised and instead we have had sub-standard and sub-optimal roads. This is in the face of India having over three million kilometres of roads, second only to the United States, but with a substantial length of this comprising poorly maintained and unpaved dirty roads.

The length of national highways is only 70,000 km though more than 40 per cent of the total traffic, particularly the heavy goods traffic, moves on these. Even here, nearly 30,000 km of state roads have been designated as national highways in the last ten years only and are, therefore, far from national highway standards.

Apart from around 14,000 km recently made four-lane, under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP), the remaining national highways are two lanes with a length of 17,900 km being single or intermediate lane only.

The NHDP represents the first real effort at creating a modern highway network in India. Under this programme, it is proposed to build 1000 km of expressways, around 28,000 km of four/six-lane highways and 20,000 km of improved two lane with paved shoulders.

Nearly 15,000 km have since been completed with work going on in another 6,000 km. It is expected for the balance length to be awarded by the end of 2012.

The rebuilding of the national highways under the NHDP has already begun to have an impact by making road transport easier and more efficient. The period 2000 to 2009 has seen an increase in the number of registered cars from 6.14 million to 15.78 million and increase in the number of registered commercial vehicles from 3.28 million to nearly 7 million.

Furthermore, unlike in the past, when only single axle trucks were suitable for narrow Indian roads, the new national highways can easily accommodate large multi axle trucks and trailers. As a direct corollary of this growth, the auto component industry has seen its revenue grow from US $ 5 billion in 2002-03 to US $ 20 billion in 2008-09.

Despite one of the most extensive rail network in the world, the bulk of commercial goods movement in India is by road and clearly the recent growth trajectory of the Indian economy bears the impact of the improved road network under the NHDP.

Notwithstanding the obvious achievement under the programme, there is a general impression that in view of the large deficit in the country’s highway network, the rate of implementation needs to be increased. At the same time, some critics have observed that wasteful expenditure is being incurred on building over designed roads with excess capacity.

Clearly, there is an inherent contradiction in these observations. Empirical evidence shows that in quite a few cases, the capacity created is already under strain requiring further capacity augmentation. Furthermore, the capacity of a road cannot be judged on the basis of the existing traffic and its design should cater to traffic at least 15 to 20 years in the future.

This is especially so when 15 to 20 year concessions are being granted. In no way also can the highways being developed under the NHDP be described as being overdesigned when compared to highway systems in developed countries or in other Asian countries such as China, South Korea, Malaysia etc.

In fact, the highways being developed under the NHDP lack in a number of features, such as access control, grade separated intersections, provision of safety barriers, provision of bypasses around habitations, etc. which are common elsewhere on major highway networks.

Finally, highways being a basic infrastructure generate economic activity and, therefore, need to be planned and provided in a manner that they give an impetus to economic growth. Thus if the NHDP does create some excess capacity, it will surely generate economic activity in the area along with related traffic and we should proceed with its implementation as rapidly as feasible.

The writer, a 1966 batch IAS officer of Haryana cadre, is a former Chairman, National Highways Authority of India

Time to ease congestion
Ram Niwas Malik

Urban blight has become endemic in all the towns and cities of India. Even Chandigarh, Bhubaneswar and Gandhinagar are no exception. The bigger the town, the more the urban blight.

Chandigarh was a thoroughly planned city but its beauty is marred by haphazard growth of local colonies in the north and the south. Secondly, a green belt of 2-km width was not carved out to separate Mohali and Panchkula which could not bloom as full-fledged cities because of the dwarfing effect of Chandigarh.

The traffic problem in Chandigarh’s Madhya Marg and Sector 22-21 dividing road has become chaotic. The situation in other towns is highly distressing principally due to insanitation, traffic snarls, air pollution and growth of slums.

The main cause of the urban blight is the silent permission for developing unauthorised colonies and their subsequent authorisation at the time of elections. The situation is like a pimple growing into a boil. In Punjab, the situation is worst in Ludhiana. Residents of Chandigarh are against its transfer to Punjab because the City Beautiful would become another Ludhiana in a few years.

In Gurgaon, some portions of the city (particularly along the Golf Course Road) resemble Dubai as a result of the beeline of grotesque corporate buildings. Unfortunately, however, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and the Municipal Corporation could not pace the infrastructure development commensurate with the growth of the population and the physical expansion of the city.

The traffic problem has become the biggest nuisance. Till now no urban authority has been able to solve this in any city. Ahmedabad made a slight dent by constructing some elevated and surface corridors for the buses. In Delhi, the separate bus corridors from Ambedkar Nagar Chowk to Mool Chand Hospital crossing has become an eyesore. The traffic moves at a snail’s pace even on the Ring Road (100 per cent signals free) during the evening rush hours. Staggering of office hours could have flattened the peak flow and made things easier for the drivers.

People had great expectations that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) would solve the traffic problem at least by half. However, they were in for a big disappointment because car users did not switch over to this new rapid mass transport system (MRTS) substantially.

The traffic problem of Delhi can be solved with an affordable investment. An elevated bus corridor with air-conditioned bus service costs one third the cost of elevated metro corridor (Rs 130 crore per km) and one seventh of the underground track (cost Rs 330 per km) almost with same benefits. An elevated car corridor of four lanes will cost only Rs 15 crore per km and would be ready in half the time.

Clearly, 50 per cent problem of traffic movement in Delhi will be solved if the administration takes the following seven steps:

n Stagger the office hours from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. except in the month of January.

n Start a massive campaign for car pools during the office hours. The Government of Delhi as well as all other Central government offices should direct its officials to take the lead.

During the 1974 oil crisis, even the judges of the Supreme Court had car pools. Running of odd-number cars on odd dates and even number cars on even dates during the rush hours will force people to use car pools.

n Do not allow parking of personal vehicles of traders/shopkeepers before their shops.

n Run special buses from busy public places for to and fro carriage of employee/passengers from selected places and stop the entry of cars in these busy complexes (Airport, railway stations, Nehru place). For example, introduction of AC bus services between Gurgaon and the Airport will deter people to use their personal cars to reach the airport.

n Add deluxe coaches in the metro train to attract executives to travel by this mode.

n Restrict the car entries in localities like Karol Bagh, Sadar Bazar and Chandni Chowk during select hours.

n Use the present ring railway service from Ashram to Shakoor Basti more intelligently to carry more passengers. These suggested measures do not require much of investment; they need to be enforced by the Government.

The remaining problem can be solved by the following measures:

n Construct flyovers for light vehicles at busy crossings of New Delhi, i.e. . Aurangzeb-Tughlak Road crossing. This step alone will solve 25 per cent of the problem as 85 per cent are light vehicles and the flyover does not require a massive structure.

n Provide elevated corridors for cars along the roads where the intensity of light vehicles is large, i.e. Delhi Gate to Anand Parbat or Mehrauli to AIIMS.

n Provide elevated bus corridors along the roads where car users are less and public transport users are more, i.e. Mehrauli to Badarpur or Ambedkar Nagar to Lodhi Estate.

n Construct new roads along the banks of the existing canals and drains of Delhi i.e. Najafgarh drain for the safe moment of light vehicles.

The cost of these four steps to cover the entire city of Delhi will be about Rs 22,500 crore. These measures can be replicated in other cities also to solve their traffic problems on permanent basis and save crores of manhours and litres of oil daily to justify the cost.

The writer is a former Engineer-in-Chief, Government of Haryana