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Enough of pep talk
Strange treaty |
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Garbage forever
New definition of secularism
The height of forgetfulness
Paddy need not mean ground water loss
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Enough of pep talk
Addressing
industrialists on Wednesday in Delhi, Dr Manmohan Singh asked them to have faith in the government and "avoid getting swamped by a mood of negativism". He tried to cheer them up by holding out the hope for an 8 per cent growth. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is trying to woo investors in Japan. Both understand bottlenecks to growth as well as electoral and coalition compulsions. But a lot more can be done at the government level just by being a little more decisive and assertive. It is not enough for the Prime Minister to list problems that bedevil governance ("bureaucratic inertia"), the economy (high current account deficit) and the industry (inadequate gas and coal supplies to power projects). These are all known. What people in general and captains of industry in particular want to see is action. Agreed, the UPA does not have the required numbers in Parliament to push the insurance, pension and land acquisition Bills. The goods and services tax is also caught in political wrangling. The BJP is in no mood to help the government take measures needed to reverse the economic slide. Then there are populist, election-oriented programmes which require huge funding. The food security Bill, once passed, would need a lot of money. To buy political peace and brighten its poll prospects, the Congress plans to redefine "backwardness" and dole out additional funds to Nitish Kumar's Bihar and Mulayam Singh's Uttar Pradesh, among others. Money that can be spent better on education, health and infrastructure is being diverted for political goals. Still, there is scope for the leadership to show results. Taking on non-performing bureaucrats should not be a problem. Corruption can be minimised through transparent allocation of natural resources and elimination of ministerial and bureaucratic discretion. According to Chidambaram, 215 projects with a total investment of Rs 7 lakh crore are held up due to lack of environmental and forest clearances, land disputes and fuel problems. The ban on mining has hit coal supplies to power plants. The UPA government needs to get its act together and deliver before the general election.
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Strange treaty
The
UN General Assembly at its session in Geneva on Tuesday cleared an arms trade treaty which can be used by conventional arms producers to do business according to their whims. India was among the 23 countries which expressed their reservations while abstaining from voting. The objections raised by the opponents of the global treaty call for its immediate review, though it was voted overwhelmingly by 154 nations. The viewpoints of the treaty’s opponents cannot be ignored if these are similar to those of rogue nations like North Korea, Iran and Syria, which openly opposed the resolution on the treaty. The problem of being bracketed with these countries did influence India’s decision as New Delhi initially wanted to cast its vote against the discriminatory document. The treaty suits international arms exporters as it allows them to terminate an agreement unilaterally. This means any defence-related agreement that India as a leading importer of arms signs with a supplier-country will have a major element of unpredictability. Any exporter can ditch India at a crucial time. The treaty can also be used to arm non-state actors or groups like terrorist outfits. It can be easily used for causing destabilisation in any country. The Western nations which have voted in favour of the treaty will be free to do arms business with groups fighting against governments in West Asia and elsewhere in the world. Terrorist groups can also take advantage of the weaknesses in the treaty. The countries which have abstained from voting are mostly those which are not only arms importers but also have insurgent groups fighting against the ruling establishments on different pretexts. Among them are Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Indonesia besides India. What happens to the concerns of these countries remains to be seen. But the West has shown that it continues to view terrorism from an angle different from that of India and other victims of this scourge.
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Garbage forever
They
are flexible, strong, waterproof, light, and can cheaply substitute for many scarce natural materials such as wood and metals. Unfortunately, these amazing properties have made plastics so popular and omnipresent that they have become a menace by themselves. Taking note of non-biodegradable (essentially plastic) garbage overwhelming our cities, the Supreme Court has sought a report from major civic bodies across the country to help it take a view on its management. Such is the involvement of plastic products in our lives that to go back to the non-plastic era is virtually impossible, but we can work to minimise its use and also be more efficient in the management of disposed plastics. The Supreme Court initiative is towards the management aspect. While cities generate dramatic quantities of plastic waste (Delhi 690 tonnes a day), it is a problem that is showing up in villages no less, especially in regions of greater consumption such as Punjab, where use of manure in the fields has become a hazard because of the plastic bags from household garbage mixed in it. One step required before plastic management can become effective is basic garbage management, as opposed to unplanned disposal all over the town. This has been undertaken in many Indian cities and even small towns, where garbage is being collected door-to-door. Building on this, we need to educate — and then force — our masses to segregate non-biodegradable from degradable garbage. The ideal solution, of course, lies in reducing our consumption of plastics. We have to distinguish between essential and non-essential use — plastic to package tea leaves is essential (more eco-friendly than wax paper and paper carton), but plastic bags to carry potatoes are not. Herein comes our culture of disposables that needs correction through both education and coercion. We have to realise life without plastic carry bags is possible. Shimla has demonstrated that. It is among the least plastic-garbage producing cities. The reason is a ban on plastic bags unless they are of a certain thickness — which makes them expensive. What makes the law work in Shimla is that the ban is also enforced, unlike certain other states and cities, including Chandigarh.
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Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting. — William Arthur Ward
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New definition of secularism In medieval times the church called the shot in Europe and the state was subservient to it. With the emergence of capitalist forces, there ensued a fight between the two and ultimately the state emerged victorious and the concept of secularism, separating religion from politics, got evolved. This struggle continued for about two centuries. The term secularism was first used by British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851. It stressed replacing laws based on scriptures with civil laws, and eliminating discrimination on the basis of religion. It is associated with the Age of Enlightenment — a cultural movement in 17th and 18th centuries in Europe to emancipate the human consciousness from an immature state of ignorance. According to German philosopher Immanuel Kant, Enlightenment is man's leaving his self-inflicted immaturity-incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of others. Enlightenment stresses pluralistic culture and tolerant conduct and privileges reason and rationality over superstition and blind faith. Voltaire's famous dictum, "My views are different from yours, but I am prepared to die to uphold your right to independence of opinion", sums up the culture of tolerance which, coupled with free inquiry and critical analysis, laid the basis of secular and democratic polity in Europe. His ideas and those of Rousseau led to the French Revolution in France in 1789 with its ringing slogans of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. This was the major landmark in Europe to shift society from the stranglehold of the medieval worldview to the modernist thought process. However, in India there was no such contestation between the two, and the Western style of secular state was hammered into existence after Independence while its soil still had feudal and semi-feudal remnants. As correctly observed by Dr B.R. Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution: "Democracy is only a top dressing on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic." This contradiction explains the coexistence of fundamentalists, obscurantists, revanchists and all kinds of bigots in society along with secular ideals of catholicity, tolerance and pluralistic culture. Often demand is raised by some community to ban a book or a film after it has been duly passed by the Censor Board and exhibitions of paintings are vandalised — the world-renowned painter MF Hussain had to flee his country under threat from some Hindu fundamentalists and breathed his last abroad. The Grand Mufti of Kashmir issues a fatwa to ban an all-girl band in Kashmir and khap zealots prescribe a dress code for girls, ban the use of mobile phones by them and suggest lowering their marriageable age to check rapes and so on. A crippling culture of intolerance is being fostered in India these days, and if the present trend continues India would be worth living only for extremists and such other elements. Those who differ with them would have to live as second class citizens, with their mouths shut, their minds closed, and their feelings suppressed, Narendra Modi, the Guarat Chief Minister, has given a new definition of secularism, "India First". However, there is not one India but several. On the one hand, India tops in the number of dollar billionaires in Asia. On the other, according to the findings of the Commission on Unorganised Enterprises set up by the Central government under the chairmanship of the late Arjun Sengupta, 77 per cent of the Indian population lives on less than Rs 20 a day. Examples can be multiplied. Modi wants to advance his concept of secularism through development. However, development has to be inclusive, which is not the case of his model of development being implemented in his state. Modi's claim of development in his state is highly exaggerated. Gujarat has a poor record in important indicators like infant mortality, the maternal mortality, malnutrition, the highly poor condition of tribals and other weaker sections, falling education standards and increasing environmental degradation. A careful look at the performance figures in terms of employment, wages, consumption, poverty, inequality, health and other such parameters belie Modi's tall claim. Modi's imagae is being constantly built by the corporate sector which has been given land and electricity on cheap rates through the media controlled by it. Even if his claim is true, is it worth much if it is accompanied by the systematic suppression of a section of the population? The cult of developmentalism as being propounded by the likes of Modi by raising emotive issues of narrow and parochial identities is a new threat to our democratic system, and must be fought tooth and nail by promoting true secularism based on sound values of humanism. There seems to be competitive contestation between the two major parties of India — the Congress and the BJP— to establish their patriotic credentials. The Congress wants to reaffirm its professed faith in secularism. The BJP cannot absolve its government of the taint of the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. It is inconceivable that the then Chief Minister was unaware of what went on in his state and was powerless to stem the mayhem. It is high time the RSS and the BJP gave up the clamour of building a Ram temple at Ayodhya and come to power with the sadhus of the Sant Samaj. There is enough space for a right-wing party in Indian politics and they should concentrate on secular issues of development, corruption, rising prices and escalating mass discontent and so on. Similarly, the Congress's penchant to use the soft Hindutva card against its hard version is counterproductive. It has been proved many times in the past ranging from unlocking the gates of Babri Masjid and the Shah Bano case It should, at least, try to revive the Nehruian legacy of scientific culture, rationalism, secularism, pluralism and tolerance . India has a long distance to traverse before it emerges as a truly secular state. There is now a powerful churning of the mythical ocean to separate elixir from poison and hopefully better days would
come.
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The height of forgetfulness The other day while going out with a friend in his car, I accidentally picked up his file when he dropped me home. The file had important documents, including his income tax papers and a cheque that he was to deposit in the bank. If that was not enough, back home, I kept the file on a pile of newspapers that were sold the very next day along with some books, magazines and that file. Hesitatingly, my friend enquired about the file but I made him shut up. With difficulty, he managed to get a cheque re-issued. It was only after a month or so when the same ‘raddiwala’ came to collect old newspapers and returned the old file that I realised my folly! It is not an isolated instance as I often forget birthdays, anniversaries and appointments. On many occasions, I tasted the bitterness of my better-half when I forget important dates like the anniversaries. However, a recent case would demonstrate the height of my forgetfulness. I sold my old Maruti car to a friend and brought a Swift car. When I went to meet him, I wrongly picked up the keys of my sold car from the table, leaving my new car at their doorstep. It was only when I reached home and my daughter enquired from me if I had brought the old car back that I realised the Shakespearean comedy of errors. I used to laugh at such instances of mistaken identities till I heard the lead investigator and Head of the Department of Neurology, PGI, Chandigarh, Dr Sudesh Prabhakar, whose five-year study along with Dr Akshay Anand has been published in an international journal, "Neuroscience and Behavioral Brain Research". He suggested that often mistaken as part of normal ageing, loss of memory may be the earliest sign of a dementia, which, if detected early and properly investigated, may be treatable. The Union Health Ministry’s projections have also suggested that Chandigarh and Delhi will see a mammoth 226 per cent increase in dementia cases among those aged 60 and above by 2026. Punjab with 93 per cent and Himachal Pradesh with 94 per cent projected increase are among the other states affected by life style. The World Health Organisation recently warned that India, which is experiencing an ageing population, will face serious problems in tackling the disease. It is one of the major causes of disability at an advanced age. It accounts for 11.9 per cent of the years lived with disability due to a non-communicable disease and the leading cause of dependency (need for care) and disability among older persons. By 2050, people aged 60 and above will account for 22 per cent of the world's population. The WHO said nearly 3.7 million people in India are suffering from dementia. Worryingly, this figure is set to double over the next 20 years, the WHO warned. Smoking "rots" the brain by damaging memory, learning and reasoning, according to researchers at King's College, London. A study of 8,800 people over 50 showed high blood pressure and being overweight also seemed to affect the brain, but to a lesser extent. The scientists involved said people needed to be aware that lifestyles could damage the mind as well as the body. Thanks to the fear of dementia, I have shunned multi-tasking like discussing important issues with friends, taking up mobile calls, listening to music and staring at pretty faces, all at the same time while driving. Are you
following?
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Paddy need not mean ground water loss
The
UN General Assembly has declared 2013 as the International Year of Water Cooperation. Fresh groundwater is fast depleting in the food security zone of Punjab, Haryana and western UP. On March 1, 2013, the Central Groundwater Board issued notices to the Deputy Commissioners of Sangrur, Ludhiana, Barnala, Moga and Fatehgarh Sahib for blatant misuse of water in 38 blocks showing a steep fall in water table, under the Environmental Protection Act. Diversification of the monoculture of rice-wheat cropping system is being debated at all levels of scientific planning and implementation. The disastrous consequence of the rice-wheat cropping sequence is rapidly falling ground water table and degradation of soil and environment. Rice is considered a major culprit. Ground water decline is the most serious as it affects freshwater resource. In 1986, the Punjab Government appointed a Committee for Diversification of Agriculture. The committee recommended the area under rice be reduced by 20 per cent. The area under rice, which was 2.3 lakh ha in 1960-61, increased to 26.1 lakh ha in 2000-01, and thereafter plateaued with 28.3 lakh ha in 2011-12. During the last five decades of Green Revolution, the area under rice increased by 1250 per cent whereas that under wheat by 250 per cent. Thus, despite the recommendations of the committee for diversification, the area under rice further increased by 65 per cent.
Historical perspective
Rice crop was introduced in 1940s and 1950s as it grew under water-logging conditions and could reclaim saline alkali soils. Subsequently, during Green Revolution, rice was successfully grown by farmers and in due course it replaced maize, pulses, cotton and groundnut crops because of higher profitability. Sand dunes, which covered about 15 per cent of the area of the state during 1960s, have now virtually disappeared as a result of rice cultivation over large areas. Centrifugal pump technology was commonly used to draw ground water for irrigating the crop. Cost wise, installation of centrifugal pumps was generally within the reach of every farmer. By 1993, farmers advanced rice transplanting to May-end. May and June being hot and dry months with very high water evaporation rates led to higher irrigation demand and farmers resorted to irrigation even daily. This led to overexploitation of ground water and the consequence was drastic fall in water table, particularly in the central districts of Punjab.
Water conservation by law
As the time of rice transplanting advanced towards the end of May, the rate of water table fall (WTF) also increased rapidly. The effect was more in the central districts where rice was the main crop during kharif season. On an average, the WTF in the central districts was 18 cm per year during 1982-87. It increased to 74 cm per year during 1998-2005. This advancing of rice transplanting also led to increase in the relative humidity in air during the month of June. This brought the second and third generation pests, the attack of which was more severe on the timely sown rice due to the tender leaves of younger crop. Every farmer advanced the transplanting of rice to prevent yield losses induced by insect-pest attack. Based on the recommendations of the PAU from 2006 onwards, the Punjab Electricity Board (now Power Corporation) started supplying regular eight-hour supply of electricity to tube wells from June 10. During this period, the PAU educated farmers through mass campaign and posters. In 2008, the Punjab Government issued an Ordinance to disallow early rice transplanting and in 2009, it passed the Preservation of Subsoil Water Act.
Delaying transplantation
The impact of the aforementioned efforts in halting the decline in ground water table was assessed using the data of ground water observation wells gathered by the Directorate of Irrigation and Environment, Punjab. On an average, the WTF in Punjab prior to the efforts (1998-2005) was 54 cm per year and the WTF decreased to 32 cm per year during the period 2005-11. Delaying the rice transplanting to June 10 arrested the WTF by 22 cm per year, without reducing the area under rice. During 1998-2005, the WTF was observed in near-total (99 per cent) area of the Punjab and this area of falling water table decreased to 75 per cent during 2005-11. Thus, it is clear that these efforts have resulted in reducing pressure on ground water resource, thereby preserving fresh water. In the recent years, the GWT has started rising in 25 per cent area of Punjab, which earlier was only 1.5 per cent. Based on these, it can be projected that if rice transplanting starts from June 20, the GWT will rise in 53 per cent area of Punjab. This delay in rice transplanting is expected to further decrease the GWT decline by 25 cm every year. There are indications that the GWT is expected to start rising in 10 districts of Punjab. These are Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Ropar, Mohali, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Jalandhar, Muktsar, Faridkot and Ferozepur. Finally, if rice transplanting is further delayed and restricted to the monsoon period, the GWT will start rising in 67 per cent area of Punjab. On the other hand, if the presently enforced time of rice transplanting (June 10) is continued, it is projected that by the year 2025, the GWT in many areas of Barnala, Sangrur, Patiala, Moga and Fatehgarh Sahib would be lowered to 40-55 m. In these districts, the average WTF ranges from 59 to 98 cm per year. In three districts (Moga, Sangrur and Barnala) there are chances of reverse flow of saline ground water from the south-western parts, and of deterioration of tube well water quality. In large areas of Punjab, inclusive of the other districts, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Kapurthala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Tarn Taran — with the average WTF ranging from 20 to 51 cm per year — the farmers will have to replace the centrifugal pumps with submersible pumps. This is going to aggravate the electricity demand for tube wells and further burden the pockets of farmers. This will lead to an increase in the indebtedness of Punjab farmers, which at present stands at Rs 35,000 crore. Farmers must understand that free power to tube wells is a sweet poison because it is one of the reasons behind the rapid fall of water table and their indebtedness. Now is the time for farmers, high irrigated northern states of India, and the Central government to act to arrest the ground water table fall in Punjab, Haryana and western UP, or wait for the doom’s day to arrive, which is not far away.
Myths on rice culture
It is generally held and propagated that rice is a water-guzzler crop. It must be known that the crop is water guzzler only if it is transplanted earlier than the onset of monsoon rains. Rice crop is certainly an energy guzzler (60 per cent of annual electricity is supplied to tube wells for rice cultivation), which could be reduced by technologies, namely laser land levelling, alternate wetting and drying (both fixed-day interval and tensiometer-based irrigation), zero tillage transplanting, direct dry seeding, aerobic rice, transplanted rice on fresh beds, etc. It has now been proved that these technologies have negligible effect on the rate of ground water decline. The technologies such as delayed transplanting coinciding with monsoon rains and short duration rice cultivars can only have large reductions in the rate of ground water decline. The other common myth is that the rice culture has degraded the soils, which is not true. The available information has shown that over the years organic carbon status of Punjab soils has increased from 0.29 to 0.40 per cent in soils under rice-wheat crop rotation. As regards the environmental degradation due to the burning of rice straw, it can be checked if wheat is sown with Happy Seeder machine, for which Central and state governments should provide large subsidies. The other options available for rice straw management include in situ incorporation, composting, use as bedding material under cattle, baling for transportation, use for biogas generation, use as substrate for mushroom growing, etc. Its burning needs to be curbed.
Crop diversification
Diversification of rice and wheat appears to be an uphill task unless high-yielding or high-value crops requiring less water along with their assured market returns are provided to farmers. To achieve this objective, the Centre and state government will have to invest heavily both on research and development of infrastructure for alternative crops, as research institutes are the backbone of overall development (a typical example is of the PAU and its role in Green Revolution). The process of diversification is time consuming. The short-term solution or immediate task should be to diversify the rice culture using improved technologies. We need to revert to the rice culture of the 1970s, i.e. growing rice only during the monsoon period. This will reduce excessive ground water withdrawals. This would be possible as the PAU has released high-yielding and short-duration varieties of non-basmati rice. These are PR 121 (140 days to mature), PR 122 (147 days to mature) and Punjab Basmati 3 and Pusa Punjab Basmati 1509. Reverting and restricting the rice culture to rainy season will gradually lead to diversification. To begin with, during their free time in May-June, farmers can apply farmyard manure (FYM) and undertake sowing of maize hybrids, which respond well to the FYM. Profitability of maize may approach that of rice crop as both maize grain and stalks are excellent dairy cattle feed. Thus, replacing rice with maize and wheat with ‘berseem’ fodder will help in encouraging two-way diversification as maize has multiple uses and ‘berseem’ is the most favoured fodder for dairy. Later, farmers themselves will gradually shift to the sowing of other high value crops such as vegetables, cash crops, pulses, etc. The diversification efforts can succeed if area-specific cropping pattern is planned and implemented depending on the needs of agro-climatic zones. The setting up of nutritional gardens in each of the 12,600 villages of Punjab will serve the purpose of nutritional security as well as diversification. Farmers need to be educated about alternative crops, along with their production, protection and marketing technologies.
Water-wise
— The writer is former Additional Director of Research (Agriculture), PAU, Ludhiana
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Rice is the most suitable crop during monsoon in areas receiving high and well-distributed rainfall. Initially, when rice was introduced in Punjab, farmers used to start its transplantation from the first of July so that it coincided with the onset of rains in the northwest part of India (Punjab, Haryana and western UP). The optimum time for transplanting rice as recommended by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) was the first fortnight of July (until 1985). Farmers gradually advanced rice transplanting to June because of the availability of good quality groundwater at shallower depths.