Lawless lawmakers

India has immense resources ( mineral, water) but we are not able to grow fast because of the fact we have inefficient government. Why? At the Indian Parliament today, there were many incidents which shows lawlessness. One Minister of Parliament had used pepper spray and irritated others. One smashed the glass table; mikes were uprooted and used as weapon. Fist fights started. Before the bill for separate statehood for Telangana began, 16 MPs were suspended. If lawmakers themselves behave in inappropriate manner, how can people live peacefully. It is very shameful. When the brief budget session of Parliament was expected to pass several bills, the entire time is wasted in the bifurcation of a state. As elections are around the corner, different parties are trying to make political capital out of the Telangana issue.  This exposes their ulterior motives clearly......This trend is most harmful for democracy in India....What is good for the people, what do the people of the state want, these are important in bifurcation of the state. But now the Congress Party thinks only about the number of MPs it can get from which part of the country. And BJP party thinks about how many seats it can get and how to thwart Congress party's gains. These legislators are not concerned about what is good for the people. This is a very sad scene. 

Rapid Industrialization in India

India  is industrializing very fast. Along with industrialization comes urbanization. As fields are yielding better results with increased use of fertilizers and use of modern machines, there is no need of farm hands. So persons are migrating to cities in search of work. And as cheap labour is available, industries are coming up faster and faster. Industries like the textile industry is booming. Indian government also encourages development of industries.
Migration to urban area is taking place fast. Piped water and availability of electricity is also attractive to people as they search for work in urban areas. Migration is inevitable and nor can we stop it. We are not making spaces for the migrating population. Poor people live on the pavements while earning daily wages for their daily bread. The industrial poverty is open, visible and saddening. Inefficient government cannot manage this crowd. Making of industrial corridors and longlong PPP (Public Private Partnerships) plans is in their agenda and not the plight of the people. People are central to industrialization. Industrialization is for development of India; and "development" is for whom? The people. Government makes partnerships with industrialists and people's rights are ignored.
Making of labour laws is insufficient, as they are not followed. And addressing the urgent needs of people is very very important. But government argues over election issues on where the  "poverty line" is. But the impoverished people are ignored. So quality of life the poor people of India is very very poor. Poor hygienic conditions, poor health, no proper health services and minimum food are the exigencies faced by migrating population of rapidly industrializing India.

Future of Indian Forests

Future of forests(native plant and animal species) is very bleak. India is richly endowed with fertile lands(used as fields) and dense forests. Forests have hidden in their soils valuable minerals like gold, bauxite iron, aluminium, and many more. Forest dwellers are communities of people who are isolated and live in the brink of civilization; they are the tribal people. They depend on the produce of the forest, honey, timber(fuel), fruits and wildlife(food) But they do not have land rights as they are unlettered people. Their land is acquired for creating mining industry. Taking land away from these people is easy as they are not aware of their rights. Forests will disappear as India develops. The native species of forest animals also disappear with it. Native herbal species of plants and their knowledge will also disappear. These are biggest losses as India industrializes. Recently the tribal people's struggle in the state of odisha ended when their land was acquired by POSCO. Whatever the monetary compensation be, their heritage, culture and way of life cannot be re-created in an industrial environment. By denying rights as partners in the industry in their land, we have denied them dignity which they deserve as forest people of India. At some future time, we would regret this. When an auto industry is created while destroying the tribal land, what job can it offer to to the unlettered tribal?None. Iron ore is extracted from the forest areas in Chhattisgarh to supply industrial steel plant (Bhilai) Needs of industries are unlimited. Forests are limited. We are destroying all forests for the rich minerals they have in their soil. In the state of Karnataka, iron ore is dug out of forest lands and exported away for development of industries outside India. We are finishing our forest lands for someone else's industrial development. Our country's resources must be preserved and not made into a commodity to be traded.
Several dams were made while harnessing the Himalayan rivers. Forests are cut down in the making of the dams. But new trees are not planted. This means that the topsoil would be eroded or washed away by wind and water. Forests when tampered with illogically lead to desertification. Ecologically speaking, industrialization will result in desertification.
For creation of tea-gardens in the North-east, forests are destroyed. Tribal population there were subsistence farmers who had no "idea" of what land is. They practised slash and burn cultivation in their forests; they cultivated in a small piece of land by "slash and burn" method and left the land and practiced cultivation on another area. But now their forest land has been converted into tea gardens. Tea industry has replaced the forests. Such ecological takeovers result in eco disasters like the flooding. Forests form integral part of ecological cycles, climate and environment in India. Destroying of forests will result in desertification, flooding and drastic climatic change which will change India's destiny.We have 36% less forests than ten years ago. Because forest have rich minerals, mining industry is eager to get to it and government helps these industries. True treasures of the India are its forests-- the rich flora and fauna it supports. Forests are invaluable. The eco-catastrophe which the loss of forests will cause will be much greater than the mineral yields of the mines. By destroying forests, we are interfering with mighty nature; and our plans to plunder the Earth of its minerals would result in vast floods with which we cannot deal with. We can recycle for minerals; and not play havoc with sensitive ecology of our subcontinent. For if we loose nature's balance, we cannot we cannot undo the damage.   

Lokpal for the capital is finalised

Delhi Lokpal Bill 2014 has been passed yesterday by the chief minister and his council of ministers as draft has been finalised . This will bring all under the anti-corruption watchdog . Its panel will include two politicians--chief minister and leader of the opposition, two judges (nominated by the High Court) and two eminent citizens. This anti corruption Bureau will serve as the investigation section. Lokpal will protect honest officials and whistleblowers and witnesses. There cases will be time-bound. The punishment will act as deterrent to corrupt officials; minimum of six months jail term or maximum of life-term could be given, Rs. 25000 will be deducted from the pay of the convicted official. This will go a long way to solve rampant corruption in the capital of India. Perhaps this will act as a guiding light for other states of India and resolve the problem of corruption. It will be tabled in the Assembly soon. 

Poverty line--used as an ammunition

Now political parties are showing each other as having wrong notion of "poverty line". The poverty line has been defined differently by states so that that can limit the number of free entitlements for those below the line. For whole of India, the Planning commission has said that Rs. 32 per day expenditure for urban and Rs. 28 for rural applies as poverty line. But as per the state's website, its government itself has given Rs. 11 for rural and Rs. 17 for urban areas. This is so that the number of families earning less that Rs. 11 is very small; and state has to provide for food for only fewer persons only. This was tricky. But the claims of the dominant party of the state of Gujarat is that it is the most developed state and that it is a model for others to follow. One cannot change poverty lines as one wants.  And it is very very sad that we try to reduce human needs to mere figures. Needs like clean water, sanitation, homes, clothes, education and health are as important as food, but it is not considered in making of the statistics of "poverty lines" What will political parties do to get rid of poverty? Let us forget the statistics and see what can be done at ground level. Nobody wants to do that. Each party uses this figure as a weapon against the other, "this is what your state has" or "this poverty figure of yours is useless" Arguments go on and on. Should we use poverty line as an ammunition?

Is politics spoiling the economy?

When the ruling party tries a policy flip-flop to acquire votes, we can see it clearly. This is spoiling the self-sufficiency of the people and it is making the people more and more dependent on the government. Government has announced twelve cylinders of cooking gas per household on subsidized rates. We thought we are moving towards more and more self-reliance and not towards dependency. But it seems we are moving towards subsidy model. Why? So that vote banks could be kept. The poor people who are dependent on this subsidy will vote for the party which has announced it. This is a political move which will spoil our economy. Government has to foot the gas bill now. And our deficit will increase we will be burdened with providing this subsidy. Subsidy is bad for our fragile economy. By de-regulation of fuels, we were trying to move on. But this will be a set-back. The play of politics on policy flip-flop cannot be stopped now. Inconsistent policy will give us less and less confidence. to invest. This leads to greater instability. If there is consistency, it would be good for all. But with inconsistency, we have to live in fear of what will happen when government cannot subsidize any more or if it changes its policies again.
This will benefit urban Poor but the rural poor are still dependent on wood for fuel, what subsidy is offered to them? Are they not going to benefit with policies?

Ghosts of riots arise

When the vice-president of a dominant Indian political party gave an interview yesterday, he had admitted that his party members were involved in the killing of 3000 Sikhs in the capital in 1984 when Mrs. Indira Gandhi was shot. The police themselves shot 200 men. Police did not stop rioters and were given orders not to leave the police station. No court trials were held for the killings and no accused were not punished; if even 30 years after it had happened no justice has been done, then when will it be?  He had also said that he is not apologising for it. This is enough to make us us all very very angry. Cries of those whose kin had died mercilessly in 1984 in New Delhi, of wailing women and children, still echoing in the memories of families  living here. This is going to be very difficult for his fellow members of the dominant party to talk themselves out of the controversy created by the interview.
He was willing to align with a party whose head has been sent to jail for scams.
Not only this, he was not aware of the phenomenal increase in rise of basic food items (vegetables by as much as 520%.) He would evade answers on key issues. This interview is enough to send the future of his party swirling downwards.