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Disaster management |
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This
above all Khushwant Singh The unseen hand AN artist presented me with a beautiful portrait he had made of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708). I hung it in my bedroom. I tried to recollect appropriate lines by him to put under the painting. I had translated a few of his verses but was too lazy to search for them in my four-room library. Every time I sat in my cushioned arm chair, I tried to recall the lines and ask Harjeet Charanjit Singh to get them reproduced on a slab of wood which could be attached to the painting.
TOUCHSTONE
On the record by
PROFILE
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Disaster management The country is yet in the process of setting up a regular disaster response system, with states paying only lip service. The lack of cohesion in rescue efforts and equipment — as seen in the Jalandhar tragedy — lets slip through many lives Jangveer Singh THE National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) acted as a life saviour in the industrial building collapse at Jalandhar, which crushed or trapped many labourers under tonnes of debris. The NDRF is trained to move fast. As soon as the unit based in Bathinda was informed of the tragedy at 12.45 am that night, it set out for Jalandhar within 15 minutes. However, it took five hours to reach the site. The crucial gap probably proved fatal for many. The only sure way to address such a situation would be a response team located in each district, which is missing at present. A local team would not only know more about the geographical lay of the affected area or an industrial unit’s location, but also be able to gather the equipment required from local sources quicker. Things would hopefully move in that direction once the National Disaster Management Act (2005) is fully implemented in all states, including Punjab. The Act has led to the creation of a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), headed by the Prime Minister, under which function 10 National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) units, based in various parts of the country. The NDMA itself was founded following the realisation of the importance of disaster management in the wake of the Gujarat earthquake in 2001. The Disaster Management Act also envisages State Disaster Management Authorities headed by the respective chief minister to ensure a holistic and integrated approach to disaster management. The NDMA has laid down policies for disaster management, including guidelines for drawing up state plans. It has also laid down guidelines to be followed by various Union ministries in their development plans and projects to ensure an integrated strategy for prevention of disasters or the mitigation of effects. Each of the 10 response units of the NDRF has 18 teams of 45 men, half of whom are “on wheels” at all moments. It is a task force that can offer specialised response to natural and manmade disasters. These units function under the NDMA, vested with its control, direction and general superintendence. However, at the local level, the units react to emergencies in coordination with the state governments. The units have engineers, technicians, dog squads and medical personnel on rolls, and are trained in combating chemical disasters, and a few of them even nuclear and biological disasters.
An awakening For Punjab, which has thus far limited itself to flood control under the disaster management programme, the Jalandhar disaster came as a wake-up call for the need to develop capability to deal with industrial calamities too. NDRF personnel faced several handicaps in the Jalandhar effort. Lack of cohesion and non-availability of crucial equipment, including heavy-duty gas cutters, delayed the rescue attempt by hours. Responding to the hue and cry raised over the past few days, the state government has ordered a safety audit of all industrial buildings, besides checking of factories by relevant agencies, including Powercom and the Labour Department. Industrial buildings need a stability certificate before occupation. This was not being done thus far. Punjab Industries Secretary A.R. Talwar says since the state does not have in-house capability to give this certification, it plans to empanel structural engineers and architects. The government has also decided to request the Centre to post an NDRF unit permanently at a central location in the Jalandhar-Ludhiana-Moga triangle. Talwar says the 13th finance commission has allocated Rs 5 crore per annum for the state for disaster management. According to him, disaster management plans have been prepared only for 11 out of the 22 districts of Punjab, which would be sent to the Centre for approval. As part of the plans, the state has appointed 11 persons as district-level coordinators, who would be responsible for raising a 50-member rescue team in each district. But there have been hiccups in recruiting the teams, such as most candidates not meeting the physical and other norms laid down. Revised norms are being re-advertised. The tragedy has got the government going on many of the measures that were in the pipeline earlier, including training school and college students and villagers on disaster management, as often it is neighbourhood residents or volunteers who reach a disaster site first. Funds earmarked for this purpose by the Revenue Department for 2011-12 were allowed to lapse. The state hopes to implement the scheme this year. Punjab has also created a Disaster Relief Fund on the pattern of the NDRF. Part of the emphasis is on training and acquiring equipment to manage disasters. Two firms have been engaged for giving training on disaster management in schools and colleges. Training will also be imparted from next month to youths in villages repeatedly affected by floods. Police personnel have been involved in this. Training to the trainers was earlier provided at Hyderabad. On the equipment front, the state is acquiring inflatable lighting towers and motorcycles equipped with fire extinguishers. The police has also put out tenders for gas cutters.
State structure When a disaster strikes, the Deputy Commissioner in the district, or the Chief Secretary at the state headquarters, can inform the Home Ministry, NDMA, the NDRF headquarters or the NDRF unit concerned, as they deem fit. Nityanand Gupta, Assistant Commandant of the NDRF unit in Bathinda, said since time was of essence, the unit could move even on receiving a phone call, without waiting for formal requisitions. Despite moving out immediately, there was a five-hour gap before the team could reach Jalandhar, which is an issue that needs to be addressed. He said state response teams — when constituted — could respond to such situations immediately, and conduct initial rescue efforts till the NDRF unit arrived at the spot.
Politics of disaster People aware of the workings of the system also point to the political aspect of disaster management. While rules exist on ground to ensure relative safety of industrial structures, those are flouted with impunity by those who are politically connected. In fact, source say political leaders in power often insist on industrialists being left alone and their premises not checked for violations. The recent safety audit ordered by the government for all industrial buildings would be meaningful only if the government makes it clear there would be zero tolerance for violations that have the potential of impacting human lives. In fact, the present disaster management strategy of Punjab — oriented only towards flood control — has also come in for criticism. Despite floods happening at the same sites every year, stress is not laid on flood prevention, but on distribution of relief to affected people. This has the scope for favouritism in the allocation of relief. The state spent as much as Rs 325 crore in the last financial year to help people stricken by calamities, of which more than 90 per cent went to flood victims.
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This above all Before she could do it, the current issue of The Sikh Review, edited by Saran Singh and published from Kolkata, had them on its first page with my translation as well as that of Professor Harnam Singh Shan, who died a few months ago. The coincidence has baffled me. How on earth could Saran Singh get to know what was in my mind? Mitr pyaarey noon haal mureedan da kahna/ Tudh bin rog rajaayan tha odhan, naag nivaasan da rehna/ Sool, surahi, khanjar, pyala, bing kasaayaan da sahna/ Yaar rog da sanoo satthar changa, bhatt khereyan da rehna (Beloved friend, beloved God,/ You must hear Thy servant's plight/ When thou are not near,/ The comforts cloak is a pall of pest;/ The home is like a serpent's nest;/ The wine chokes like a hangman's noose/ The rim of the goblet is an assassin's knife/ With Thee shall I in adversity dwell/ Without Thee, life of ease is life in hell.) Can anyone explain how such miracles happen? THANEDAR POET Ghar jo bharna hai to rishvant say bhee bhar jaata hai/ Haan magar iss say duaaon ka asar jaata hai (If you wish to fill your house, you can do so by corrupt means,/ But by doing so deprive it of all blessings.) Every time I took a sip of my Single Malt, I asked him "Thanedar Sahib, kis duniya mein rahtey ho — what world do you live in?" Then one evening I thought I was being very unfair to him. There must be a few homes built by honest people. So I dipped into his collection. It reads well. IRANIAN GIFT We depend heavily on Iran to sell us enough oil for our industries, trains and road transport going. Apparently, Iranians have more than oil to sell. I take the liberty for quoting this from the latest issue of Private Eye of London: "We do not recommend penile tattooing," doctors from the University of Medical Sciences in Karmanshah (Iran) told a press conference, "and his case clearly demonstrates why not. On arrival, the twenty-one-year old patient told us that he had wanted to impress his girl friend, so he had asked a tattoo artist to tattoo the phrase 'borow be salaamat' (good luck with your journeys) onto his penis, along with his girlfriend's initial, M. Unfortunately, the handheld needle penetrated the penis too deeply, creating an arteriovenous fistula between an artery and a vein, and for eight days after, the penis was painful and there were no erections. But after that period, the patient noticed longer-than usual sleep-related erections, which progressed within a week to a constantly half-rigid penis, day and night. At that point he came to us. "We diagnosed a nonischemic priapism, with blood filling the penis faster than it could leave, meaning that the pressure remained constant and the penis permanently erect. In 62 per cent of cases, the problem resolves itself naturally after a few days, but when it doesn't, we recommend selective arterial embolism to block the offending artery. However, the patient chose to have a shunt implanted, to drain excess blood. This procedure was unsuccessful, but because of the painless nature of erections, and good preservation of erectile function during intercourse, the patient has since declined to undergo further treatment, and says he has no regrets about the tattooing, despite his permanent erection". |
TOUCHSTONE
Mind you, all of us love to crack jokes about other communities, but when it comes to our own region, our smiles dry up. I am sure that many of you also regularly receive mails from friends that feature Bengalis, Malayalis, Tamils, Gujjus, UP bhaiyyas and Biharis, and some of them are truly funny. So we laugh heartily and send them on to other friends. But I wonder if I would laugh as loudly if any of them featured a Pahari (as we Uttarakhandis call ourselves). Perhaps not. A recent cartoon, poking fun at a certain Chief Minister, became the subject of a heated national debate, and rightly so. When we cannot take a joke in the spirit that it is presented, something is obviously wrong with our perception of our own worth. We have all grown up with RK Laxman’s cartoons and identified with his Common Man. But Laxman was equally known for his pitiless barbs at political leaders, such as Indira Gandhi (particularly in her later imperious avatar, when she shamelessly promoted her younger son, Sanjay). Cartoonists have never spared any one of the political leaders (including Gandhiji), whose Mickey Mouse ears were a cartoonist’s delight. Yet did any cartoonist get jailed for his swipe? I think not. Political cartoons were first published in Punch and quickly became a sort of shorthand for pointing out blunders and eccentricities that may sound tasteless in print. They were lightly handled and hugely popular for that reason. Shankar's Weekly, popular in the Fifties and Sixties, was largely bought for its excellent cartoons and rivalled the famous Punch magazine. National newspapers vied with each other to attract the best cartoonists to their stable: Abu Abraham, Unny, Mario Miranda…. Who can ever forget the brilliant characters they created? Those who read the New Yorker or Private Eye do so for the wonderful cartoons that are carried in their pages. No one is spared, not even the Queen of England, and everyone takes the daily dose of cartoons with a sporting shrug. Bill Clinton, with his Pinocchio-like nose, George Bush, with his foolish expression and large jug-ears, Barack Obama and his huge grin, Osama bin Laden and his sinister beard, our own Prime Minister with his hangdog expression: these are the pictures that cheer us as does the morning cuppa when we open our newspapers. It will be a sad day indeed if we start to target the hands that draw them. Political cartoons fill a vital hole that often political correctness cannot touch. This is the private life of our prominent men and women. It may seem tasteless and wrong to lampoon a person’s personal features and comment upon his personal life, but a cartoon frees a commentator from all such considerations. From noses, ears and bald pates to mistresses and lovers: all are grist to the cartoonist’s mill. Our press is singularly circumspect about the personal lives and involvements of public figures (and rightly so), yet when sly references to them are made (often in cartoons), they bring a soft focus to these aberrations without causing offence or delivering moral censure. One of the most entertaining TV shows is Cyrus Broacha’s “The Week that Wasn’t”, which lampoons public figures and political events to hilarious effect. It is a perfect counterpoint to those heated discussions that have panellists shouting their lungs out in an attempt to place their point of view. Similarly, another TV show has puppets that speak, look and behave like known political players and bring a smile to the viewer’s face each time. They poke fun at eccentricities of speech and behaviour to show that beneath the starch and PC (political correctness), lies a heart that is Hindustani in the best sense.
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On the record by Leela Samson, renowned Bharatnatyam dancer, choreographer, instructor and writer, now chairs the Central Board of Film Certification and the Sangeet Natak Akademi. She learnt Bharatnayam at Kalakshetra, under the tutelage of Rukmini Devi Arundale, founder of Kalakshetra. Samson is now director of this prestigious institution of dance. She has written her guru's biography, "Rukmini Devi: A Life". A recipient of several honours, including the Padma Shri, Samson is busy overhauling the censor board.
You proposed changes in the Cinematograph Bill, which demand that films be certified according to the content, rather than censoring or cutting scenes. Will this work better, and why? We are already following the approach of just certifying films, as opposed to censoring them. Censoring or cutting happens only when the filmmaker wants a 'U' or 'UA' certification for a film that has visuals/dialogues unsuitable for children. However, the proposed Bill will make our job of certification easier since there will be one more category, the "15+". Having this category would automatically reduce the need for cutting. How is the board going to frame rules for an increasingly intolerant society, as more and more politically motivated objections are raised on caste and community references? The board does not need new rules to deal with that. The Cinematograph Act has already given enormous powers to the board. It is up to the board to take a stand against motivated objections. The board did exactly that in the case of "Aarakshan", and our stand was vindicated by the Supreme Court, which established the board had the final word on all issues related to certification. What needs to be censored — a kissing scene, or blatantly regressive or uncalled for violence in the cinema of 21st century? None. As an artiste, I am against any form of censorship. In my capacity as Chairperson of the CBFC, I am working on bringing about a change in the mindset of officers and panel members. My colleagues in the board share my views on this, and we are working towards making the board a classification body. In fact, kissing scenes have been cleared in 'U'-rated films too if the context so demands. But we do ensure that films with excessive gore and violence get an 'A' rating. We do not waste our time cutting down regressive scenes. People can choose not to watch what they think is regressive. You proposed to producers to apply online for film classification certificates. Is it working? The first phase of online certification is already on. A producer can send in the application online. The content is still submitted physically. The second phase in a few months will allow a producer to submit the content online too. You said the board would be reviewed soon. What can we expect? I hope a certain change in attitude is already visible. This is my biggest challenge. How do you plan to tackle the onscreen smoking issue? What about the old films? This issue is being resolved through discussions between the ministries of I&B, health and family welfare, and the Ministry of Law and Justice. At present, we are asking filmmakers to put up a statutory warning of 15 seconds before the beginning of the two halves of the film. The old films are shown on television, and are regulated by TV content regulation norms. CBFC is considering a new fee structure and guidelines for documentary films, which touch many volatile issues. Guidelines for certification of documentaries will be the same as those for feature films. However, we are training panel members to interpret the guidelines differently in the case of documentaries. Some members have very kindly offered to train fellow members and officers through a course on documentary appreciation. A different fee structure for documentary films is what I would like to have, though there are some practical problems in implementing that. Do we need censorship at all? We take our viewers seriously, that's why we certify films so that young viewers are not forced to watch unsuitable material. We hardly make any cuts in 'A'-rated film, since those are meant to be watched only by adult audience.  |
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PROFILE THEY
call him by many names-Medicine Man, Medicine Bank, Messiah of Medicine, Robinhood of Healthcare; children call him Medicine Baba. Omkar Nath Sharma has made a vocation of collecting medicines and distributing those among the needy. In his unusual mission, he goes door to door, collecting unused medicines, requesting people to donate for the poor who cannot afford them. Having spent 27 years as a medical assistant at Kailash Hospital, Noida, Sharma began his labour of love over three years ago. "It isn't an easy job", he says. "Some people are cynical and unmoved by the cause. Many even think I am a cheat." What inspired him? It was witnessing an accident and the death of two labourers. A construction accident in Delhi in 2008 in which a concrete pillar that was part of the city's Metro collapsed, killing two and injuring many. The injured were taken to hospital but given only basic treatment. The hospital did not have enough medicines. "It struck me if I could obtain medicines, those could be distributed free of charge." Now 77, Sharma was physically affected in a road accident in childhood. He cannot run, but can walk. His married son, who is now 41, met with an accident a few years ago, and became mentally unsound. Sharma lives in a one-room tenement in Delhi's Palam village with his wife and the son. Initially, his wife thought he had lost his mind, begging for others. But subsequently she was able to see merit in his work and now supports him wholeheartedly. What does he do for a living? "People are kind; some help me financially on a regular basis, and I am able to concentrate on social work." Sharma is able to collect drugs worth more than Rs 1 lakh every month. Aware of his mission, many people approach him directly, or through doctors who know him. "The best places for collecting medicines," Sharma says, are middle-class and lower middle-class neighbourhoods. He rarely receives donations in wealthy areas. One morning he received a strip of anti-cancer medicine worth Rs 35,000. The unassuming medicine man makes no claims to fame. "The work gives me satisfaction," he says. Sharma's aim is to establish a free medical bank, properly catalogued and available to NGOs and charities. |
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When a tragedy like the one in the blanket factory strikes, Punjab has the option of calling for the NDRF, of which the only unit in the state is temporarily situated in Bathinda, before it moves to Shimla, as Punjab refused to allocate it land required to set up base. The state also has the option of calling upon the Army or its own agencies such as the Fire Service and municipal staff. However, amidst the range of agencies available, a lack of cohesiveness in the rescue effort comes through, besides lack of adequate equipment to handle industrial disasters.
Punjab has constituted its own State Disaster Management Authority, with the Chief Minister as Chairman and the Revenue Minister Vice-Chairman. The Chief Minister has held one meeting regarding flood preparedness. District-level committees headed by the Deputy Commissioner have also been constituted. State Disaster Management Secretary Gurdev Singh Sidhu said the aim was to create a synergy, pool resources and put in a concerted effort.
AN artist presented me with a beautiful portrait he had made of Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708). I hung it in my bedroom. I tried to recollect appropriate lines by him to put under the painting. I had translated a few of his verses but was too lazy to search for them in my four-room library. Every time I sat in my cushioned arm chair, I tried to recall the lines and ask Harjeet Charanjit Singh to get them reproduced on a slab of wood which could be attached to the painting.
For some weeks a collection of poems by Fayyaz Farooqi, DIG Police, Punjab, has been on my working desk beside me entitled "Thora Sa Main" (A little bit of me), published by the Faiz Ahmed Faiz Literary Foundation. His picture on the jacket makes him out like a handsome, powerfully built man. I used it, put my glass of Scotch on it every evening. And every evening read the couplet composed by him.
WHY are we Indians so quick to take offence? An article written many years ago by the redoubtable Khushwant Singh bemoaned the fact that Indians (barring our sporting Sardarjis) just cannot laugh at themselves. I think he also mentioned that the best Sardar jokes are told by Sikhs, and he is probably right, considering that his own joke books (where Sardarjis feature prominently) outsell any other book written by him. Moreover, he practises what he preaches because he loves to have himself lampooned and laughs loudest at jibes aimed at him. Mario Miranda’s famous cartoon of him, sitting with a glass of whisky inside a bulb, has been his signature logo for decades.
So far, this had been an idle observation made by some of us, but lately, two or three events made me think how dangerous this kind of jingoism can be for a country like India where people of diverse cultures, languages and religions have lived together for centuries. Take the case of Maharashtra, where the Shiv Sena has whipped up such a visceral hatred against the Biharis and UP bhaiyaas that they are regularly thrashed and hounded out of Mumbai. As history shows us, racial jokes are often the result of a hatred that cannot be articulated openly. Often they stem from an envy of the success that ‘outsiders’ have achieved in another region. In the riots that followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi, Sikhs were mercilessly targeted and ruthlessly killed. Studies have shown that this had partly to do with the envy they evoked in certain regions for being successful entrepreneurs. The same thing had once happened in Europe, where Jews were the target of racial jokes for years. How deep this hatred actually went was revealed only by the horror of the holocaust.
Sharma usually wears a saffron kurta, bearing his two mobile numbers — 09250343298 and 09971926518 — and the words "Medicine Man" and "Raahat hi Raahar (Relief all round)". He walks 5 km every day, tirelessly making rounds of different localities across Delhi throughout the year. Maintaining a meticulous record of all he receives so no one questions his credentials, Sharma donates the drugs through a network of about 10 NGOs and hospitals, including Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Hospital.