Earthquake in NZ

Photo Courtsey: NZHERALD

NewZealand face immediate crisis today from the devastating earthquake, with loss of life and property. This is not time to make a judgement. But a time for the nations like India to learn from the response the authorities are giving to this disaster. We would like to monitor for our interests, though our condolences with those who lost their family members in the earthquake.

www.outlookindia.com | A Nation Consumed By The State

This is an another masterpiece by Ramchandra Guha, This opens again the desire of nation towards reaching the goal destined by the constitution makers of India. So much passion and rage this article generates that is bound to have everlasting effect on the right Indian minds. One must see in the light of rationalist thinking, a threadbare account of India past 60.

Thank to outlook in publishing this brave analysis.

www.outlookindia.com | A Nation Consumed By The State

Dalit groups make presentation before planning commission

Source: Article on 27th January 2011 (www.twocircles.net)

New Delhi: Several groups working for the uplift of the Dalit community in the country have made a joint presentation before the Planning Commission, seeking fundamental change in the government thinking about the development of the deprived, backward community. The presentation was part of the ongoing consultation of the Commission with groups and communities in the process of finalization of 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017).

They demanded innovations in schemes for SCs and STs. They stressed on land reform. In place of schemes like one to subsidize funeral rites of Dalits and another to give mangal-sutra to dalit bride on her marriage, the Dalit groups demanded a separate IIM, a medical college and an engineering college in every state for SCs and STs. “Piece-meal allocation will not bring peace. We need something actual in this virtual-age,” Rajesh Solanki of Council for Social Justice (CSJ) said at the consultation meet.

The Dalit consultation with planning commission was jointly organized by NACDOR, NCDHR, and other NGOs in New Delhi on 9th Dec. 2010. Mr. Narendra Jadhav and Mr. Arun Mira, members of the commission, attended the consultation.

Rajesh Solanki presented a paper on the Dalit situation at the consultation. He raised various issues related to Dalits in the country specially in Gujarat.

“I am from Gujarat, a state which is called vibrant by some people, I call it migrant. It is sucking blood and toil of migrant workers. Here, more than one lakh tribal children are being exploited and sexploited in fields of BT cotton,” Solanki said. Recently, the state government has decided to keep records of migrant workers, not to implement inter-state migrant labour Act, but to identify so-called naxal elements among migrant labourers, he added.

He demanded innovations in schemes. “We have seen archaic, outdated schemes like ‘training women in tailoring’ continue since decades. In my state social welfare department is ridiculously, spending crores of rupees in a survey, just to know, which kind of work SCs and STs. want to do. In this century of networking do we, still need a research to emphasize that we want to learn state-of-the-art technologies?”

He also stressed on people-oriented planning while raising the issue of fund diversion. “Six decades of independence have taught us that change can only be materialized by people-oriented Planning…The nodal department, which is given the pious duty of allocating and monitoring funds for SCs and STs, is diverting the funds to other purposes.”

He alleged that critical sectors are being ignored and important sub-sectors are being deprived of finance. The sector being ignored most, he said, is Land reform. The failure of state government to implement Agriculture Land Ceiling Act (ALCA) is being reflected in non-allocation in area of land reforms. The lack of any preventive acts curbing land alienation of dalits is another major concern, which needs to be addressed, he pointed out.

Other major issue of the community is drop-out among SCs. It is seriously affecting skill-based development. “Meaningless schemes by state governments have aggravated this problem. In Gujarat crores of rupees have been diverted to a scheme like sponsoring SC student for foreign studies, when thousands of local poor SC students are craving for quality education,” Solanki said.

“We do not want schemes like Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra Maranottar Sahay Yojana (a scheme to subsidize funeral rites of dalits), Kunvarbai nu mameru (giving mangal-sutra to dalit bride on her marriage). We want a separate IIM, a medical college and an engineering college in every state for SCs and STs. Piece-meal allocation will not bring peace. We need something actual in this virtual-age.”

Egypt shows the new path...

As the story unfolded two days ago, the Egyptian president H. Mubarak had submitted to the popular pressure by people to step aside. The non violent protests on the streets of country is an example of the power people hold in changing the system as strong as visible in Egypt. The patience of people and army (who did not shoot at protestors) allowed the movement started from Facebook (women protestor calling for assembly at Tahir Square) acheived the impossible. The lessons for the those who indulge in violence and also for unruly administrators who incite violence by acting impartially. The life of people might change for good after exit of repressive government, on would appreciate Mr. Mubarak to accept the people's verdict.

Its difficult for the powerful person to relieve its hold on the nation, though encircled by the circumstance they may be made to submit for the larger interests of the society. The individuals who attain power to serve the society should not cling on given the opportunity to pave way for the new thoughts. Similarly the politicians from the developing countries like India, China should also learn to leave when the time allows them gracefully. The change makers should not impose his/her thought on the generations to come rather allow the flourishing ideas and methods to take the nation or state forward. We have set to big names in India attached to power centers and no matter what the people feel they keep on imposing their idea on the generations to come.

Its right to time to celebrate the victory of people which has happened in every decade in one nation or other which have removed the powerful by sheer persuasion. Kudos and regards to all those people who contributed towards achieving this collective goal.

Off Track Development: Where is it?

In context of the roads providing ample scope of development fits well with the changes being observed along the road in most of the states. In fact people would like to associate with various class of roads in order to be seen as living in progressive regions. Its natural to see cities and town growing along the major nodes. But all may not be lucky enough. The settlements have been coming closer to the roads, whether its rural village road or national highways. But given this scenario what would be scope of development beyond the road influence areas. May be the services would be poor

and people would not like to stay there for long.

Some how we have just connected the roads but not connected the economies of the human settlements, the understanding of the settlement growth as given by the popular theories like Christaller or Losch the linkages are not comparable. The pattern across the developed and undeveloped regions varies and there is little explanation for the resource-economy based development path. The governments would be wise enough to provide the connectivity leading to exchange of economies but most of the time its one-way traffic between the settlements. The larger the settlements the greater would be dependency on the hinterland, but would there be scope for returning the benefits to the hinterland. Ideally some value added good

s and services should flow back, but restricted by the economic and social backwardness of the hinterlands.

Beyond the influence zone of the roads, the settlements suffers from the consequential backwardness and keeps on stagnating till the large urban conglomerations are formed to erase the settlements identity. Those settlements far off from the development track often stagnates or becomes uncompetitive resulting shifting of the population further aggravating the problem.

Whether the technological progress in Geomatics - GIS or remote sensing can be used for assessing or addressing these issues? Specific Growth Centers or Poles to boost the regional development calls for serious spatial analysis, which we are missing from the econo- centric planning approach to national, state and district plans. Can we start revisiting some old regional development concepts?

Water v industry: where is the question? (by Sunita Narain)

Some hundred people, men and women, were gathered on the hill. Many more, I could see, were trudging up. Their faces were resolute. I asked why they were opposing the cement plant. Their answer was simple: “We cannot eat cement.” “But the plant will bring you employment and prosperity,” I said. The reply this time, with a touchof irritation, was: “We have our fields and now with the water in the tank we have good produce. We are not rich like you but we have food to eat.” I persisted, “But your land is not being taken away to build the plant. The government says it has only allocated village grazingland and wasteland to build the factory.” Their anger spilled out.

“Can you see the water in front of you?” I looked at the vast body of

water stretching as far as the eye could see. “This Samadhiyala bhandara (reservoir) was built a few years ago by the government. It changed our lives as our fields, which gave us one crop, now give us two, even three. Now government has given this water body to the factory.We will not allow this.” Soon cries filled the air: “We will give up our lives but this factory cannot be built.”

>From the hill, I could see the factory foundations being laid. It was in the middle of the lake, its boundary walls stretching into the water. How could this happen?

The 1.91-million-tonne-per annum cement factory with coke over and captive power plants, being built by detergent major Nirma, is in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat. The land allocated to the factory by the state government is categorised as grazing and wasteland in revenue records. It is for this reason, when the Gujarat High Court was hearing the petition of the farmers, government argued that since the land was not listed as a water body it had the right to allocate it to industry. No protection was needed because technically there was no water body on this land.

Why? Some 10 years ago, this region at the edge of the Arabian Sea was in trouble; agriculture was in distress and farmers impoverished. Each year as farmers drilled into the ground for water the seawater would enter the water below the land. Soon wells turned saline. Crops withered and even the size of coconut shrunk. The then state government came up with a big idea. Why not embank the rivers that bring freshwater into the sea, creating reservoirs, which would check advance of salinity and also provide irrigation for crops.

In 1999, the district collector of Bhavnagar allotted the land classified as grazing and wasteland to the executive engineer of the salinity control division of the district to build the Samadhiyala bandhara on the Shensuri river. In 2000, the earthen dam of 1,630 metres was built. It submerged 319 hectares (ha). A reservoir was built but its land use in government records was not changed.

The reservoir changed lives. After it three more such water bodies—Kalsar, Nikol and Malan—have been built. The water stretches some 40 km along the coast, providing a barrier between the land and the sea.

The structures are so important to people that they have invested personal funds in their repair and strengthening. Earlier this year people paid voluntarily to lay a pipeline over a kilometre to connect the water bodies so that the overflow of one lake can be channelised to another. They protect the catchment and have also built check dams
on streams that bring water to the reservoir. The result is for all to see. During my visit in mid- December, well after the monsoons, the reservoir was brimming. Now battle lines have been drawn to protect this source.

First the state government and industry denied the very presence of the water body. The environmental impact assessment, used to grant clearance to the project, says the plant is on barren land. It does not mention the rivers that surround the site, bringing water to the reservoir. It does not even acknowledge the check dams, which the
company has vandalised.

Later, when the truth of the water body was established using satellite imagery, the push was to find a compromise solution. In the High Court the farmers were told their water body would remain but only if they agreed to a partition—some 100 ha of the lake would be returned for irrigation. But they would have to agree to give away the rest, where the factory would be built.

Now farmers are running from pillar to post, explaining that a water body is a structure with a head in its catchment and body in the water. It will die if it is taken apart. Farmers also say the cement factory will get its raw material of limestone from the catchment of the same water bodies. Nobody asked for an impact assessment of this mining when giving permission to the factory.

Who will listen to their call? Will we allow the desecration of water and the life it gives? Will we allow the right to a common water body to be abused? This is a fight for life. Be clear.

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