CAG pulls up Jharkhand Police

The comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of India has pulled up Jharkhand Police for unlawful deployment of huge number of police forces as personal security guards to non-entitled persons like ex-ministers, ex-MPs, ex-MLAs, political workers and businessmen.

The CAG, in its latest report, has also assailed superintendents of police (SPs) of 11 districts including Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Bokaro, Hazaribag, Deoghar, Lohardaga, Palamu and Koderma, for non-realizing the cost of deployment from these non-entitled persons.

The cost of deployment amounted to a whopping Rs. 4.51 crore. A total of 187 police personnel were deployed as personal
security guards in 11 districts in contravention of existing rules.

"The test check of records of office of SSP and SPs of 11 districts revealed that two ASI, seven havildars and 178 constables were deployed as personal security guards to ex-ministers, ex-MPs, ex-MLAs, ex-MLCs, political workers, businessmen and other non-entitled persons in between November 2000 and March 2005 without obtaining sanction of the district level committee constituted for the purpose," the CAG report said. 

The report further revealed that the SPs of 11 districts didn't take steps to recover the cost of deployment from these non-entitled persons.

Under the provisions of the Police Act, 1861, police force can be deployed by the superintendent of police (SP) as security guard to individuals on demand and on payment of cost in advance.

By an order issued in May 1995, the unified Bihar Government prescribed the designation of persons such as CM, ministers, MPs, MLAs and judges of High Court to whom guards in prescribed numbers were to be provided.
The order also prohibited deployment of bodyguards from Bihar Military Police (BMP) or Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) under any circumstance.

"But, test check of records of the JAP, Deoghar, revealed that one JAP personnel was deputed as bodyguard to a non-entitled person (ex-MLA) in violation of government order in between November 2000 to March 2005. The cost of single deployment amounted to Rs. 4.50 lakh," the report said.

The CAG has also asked the state government to fix responsibility for violation of its orders and ensure recovery of the deployment costs.   

Further in March 2003, the Jharkhand Government prescribed guidelines and scales for providing bodyguards. It says the SP can provide police force as security guards to other than entitled persons for a period not exceeding one month on approval of district level committee and on payment of cost in advance.

"But in most of the cases, security guards were provided to non-entitled persons without approval of the committee and advance payment," the report said.

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Police-Naxals exchange fire in Garwah

 

GARWAH: Police Saturday claimed to have shot four extremists in a 2-hour encounter in the jungles of Nawadih in Jharkhand's Garwha district.

"The extremists took them away as they retreated from the encounter spot at Ramkanda outpost. There is no injury on the police side who were well positioned" Superintendent of Polic Mohammad Nehal told reporters here.

Police fired about 200 rounds while the ultras used some 250 bullets in the encounter, Nehal said adding the police arrested one Samlim wearing an extremist outfit uniform..

An SLR, which was looted from the police some time ago, and 54 live cartridges were recovered from the the encounter site, he said.

 

 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Police-Naxals_exchange_fire_in_Garwah/articleshow/1872319.cms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CAG unhappy over elementary education in Jharkhand

Ranchi, April 9 (PTI): The number of 'out of school' children in Jharkhand was 3.66 lakh even after five years of the implementation of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India said.

With its present pace of implementation in Jharkhand, the SSA's objective of providing universal elementary education by 2010 was a distant possibility, the report ending March 2006 said.

The dropout rate of children from class one to eight in the state as a whole was 68.39 per cent as of September 2005, the report, which was placed in the just-concluded budget session of the assembly, said.

Pulling up the state government for its inability to utilise funds granted under SSA, the report rued the government could not utilise the grant in 2001-02 session while the utilisation in the next four years (2002/2006) was between 18.88 per cent and 60.16 per cent.

Stating that there was a shortage of 4,996 teachers in primary and upper primary schools, the report found the student-teacher ratio at 51:1 in 2004/05 as against the norms of 40:1.

The CAG also indicted the govenrment for urban bias in posting of teachers and shortfall in the training of untrained teachers, resulting in deployment of under-qualified teachers and untrained teachers affecting the quality of education.

 http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200704090342.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jharkhand to invest 151cr to upgrade sericulture production

 

To upgrade silk production in Jharkhand, Central Silk Board (CSB) and state industry department initiated a joint venture project of 'perspective plan for sericulture development' with an investment of Rs151 crore.

Jharkhand at the moment produces 100 tons of raw silk and targets to reach 350 tons within next six years.

Regions of West Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan and Santhal Pargana serve as breeding grounds for cocoon cultivators. The state produces tasar, mulberry and eri silk.

In this venture, government plans to undertake infrastructure development, plantation activities, training and value addition of raw silk projects in the current fiscal year.

Ranchi-based Central Tasar Research and Training Institute would help in the project by providing services of training, research and development and technology transfer to farmers.

At the moment sericulture is being done in plant species like arjuna, saal, asan and mulberry tree but the Government's focus would be on non-mulberry production of silk.

 

http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=33459

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dark road to temple - Streetlights not important to tourism department

Madhuban (Giridih): Tourism opportunities are aplenty in Jharkhand. But the state tourism department doesn't seem to be serious to cash in on them.

Religious sites and scenic beauty attracts a large number of pilgrims and tourists to the Parasnath hills and Madhuban throughout the year.

Two years ago, India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) installed at least 110 streetlights on the 5-km-long Madhuban Road that leads to Shikharji — a Jain temple located on the Parasnath hills. The arrangement cost the government about Rs 30 lakh.

To facilitate power supply, the state electricity board installed a 100-KVA transformer at Jharkhand Bhavan.

Even as everything was arranged, the street has plunged into darkness again. Thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the state tourism department.

"The installation work was completed two years ago but the local officials were not interested in taking up the responsibility," said an ITDC official.

All the state tourism department needs to do is appointing a caretaker to look after the maintenance of lights and pay the power bill on time.

In September 2006, the ITDC handed over the responsibility to the tourism department. But the area remained lit up for only three months. The department didn't bother to clear the dues of the electricity department and the supply was discontinued.

"The department neither appointed a caretaker nor paid the three-month bill of Rs 38,000. On March 1, the supply has been snapped," said the sub-divisional officer (electricity) D.P. Bhagat.

The absence of a maintenance official has resulted in many lights going missing, possibly stolen, and getting damaged as well.

Despite efforts, officials of the state tourism department could not be contacted.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070406/asp/jamshedpur/story_7613305.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IITs ask JEE candidates to mention OBC status

 

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court may have stayed the implementation of OBC quota in Central educational institutions, but HRD ministry is clearly in no mood to put off the decision this year. To pave the way for smooth implementation of OBC quota in this academic session itself, the seven IITs asked candidates at the joint entrance exam on Sunday to mention if they were from the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes or other backward classes.

The attendance sheet passed around before the exam required aspirants to mention if they belonged to the general category or any of the other three.

Usually, IITs ask only SC/ST students to list their caste category on the attendance sheet. The institutes then release separate merit lists for SC, ST and physically challenged students. The decision to mention the OBC category on the attendance sheet was finalised after a review ahead of this year's entrance exam.

After the top court's stay on the implementation of the OBC quota, IITs were unsure on how to proceed for the entrance test. With IIMs receiving last-minute faxes to freeze admissions till further notice on Friday, sources in IIT-Chennai said they didn't want to take any chances with data on OBC candidates.

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Students_OBC_status_sought_in_IIT_exam/articleshow/1876323.cms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maoists kill two RPF personnel in Bihar

 

In a stepped up extremist activities, CPI (Maoist) gunned down two Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel and injured three others between Ghorparan and Narganjo railway stations under Asansol railway division of Eastern railway on Sunday morning. They also looted two carbines, two SLRs and one 9 mm pistol from the policemen. However, no passenger was harmed by the extremists.

This is the second incident of Naxal attack in Bihar within a fortnight. Barely a few days ago, about 300 extremists stormed Righa police station and a bank in Sitamarhi district and killed a Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) jawan and wounded an assistant manager of the bank and a homeguard jawan.

Reports reaching the State police headquarters said that around 100 strong-armed squad of the CPI (Maoist), including women members, boarded Howrah-Mokama passenger (213 Up) in different groups at Simultala and Ghorparan railway stations. When the train left Ghorparan railway station at around 7.30 am, women activists entered a sleeper coach (83209) in which RPF personnel were also travelling. First they befriend them and after some time they threw chilly powder in their eyes.

The RPF jawans, said to be five in number, were caught off guard and started protecting their eyes. Taking advantage of the situation, the Maoists tried to snatch their firearms. When they offered resistance, one of the women activists fired from close range, killing one of the jawans on the spot and causing injuries to four others. Soon other Maoists, travelling in other compartments joined them.

The Maoists alighted from the train after pulling alarm chain before Narganjo Block hut. They also shouted anti-government slogans before they disembarked.

The railway and GRP officials came to know about the incident only when the train reached Jhajha railway station at around 9.03 am. The GRP lodged a case against unidentified extremists on the basis of the statement of an injured constable, Jayant Biswas. Biswas informed the senior officials that over 40 Maoists were travelling in the sleeper coach.

Jamui Superintendent of Police A K Ambedkar, who rushed to the spot with district magistrate, Ram Shobhit Paswan, said that Arijit Bag died on the spot while another RPF constable, Palash Ghosh, succumbed to his injuries on way to Jhajha hospital. "We have launched a massive combing operation in the area to nab the extremists involved in the attack," he said.

DIG, Munger Sunil Kumar did not rule out the possibility of involvement of the same extremist group that had carried out operations on a BMP camp at Khaira village on February 26. 

Additional Division Railway Manager (Asansol), Anil Kumar told HT over telephone that an assistant sub inspector, S N P Srivastava, who sustained four bullet wounds in the attack, had been shifted to Kolkata railway hospital and havildar B Sardar and J Biswas were undergoing treatment at Asansol divisional hospital. "The condition of Srivastava is stated to be critical while the two other injured constables are out of danger," he said. Srivastava was leading the escort party.  

He lamented that the police failed to make any headway in the Naxalites' attack on Narganjo railway station in April last year. "Had the police taken the matter seriously and launched operation against extremists, the attack between Narganjo and Ghorparan would have been averted," he said, adding that senior security commandant Nurul Hoda and assistant security commandant R K Singh had been camping at the site of occurrence. "The attack has not affected the movement of train on Asansol-Patna main line," he added. The train guard was so terrified that he fainted and was subsequently admitted to Jhajha hospital.

Inspector General (Railway) A S Nimbran said that the borders of Bihar and Jharkhand had been sealed and all the railway stations under the division put on high alert. "Raids are on to arrest the Maoists," he added.

It may be recalled here that about a year ago the underground Maoists had blasted the building of Narganjo railway station.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=f19a3dd9-582d-4256-99f8-796e847225c6&Mat

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NGOs in Bihar: Voluntary Sector and its Credibility

 

This commentary is based on my field visits, and interaction with over four hundred NGO's representatives, staff and functionaries in Bihar. I also got an opportunity to see some of their work in the field and interact with their staff and communities. There is lot to share and I know many of NGOs and readers of this article may not agree with my views and the way I see NGOs and its emergence in Bihar and their work. The observations, comments and examples mentioned in the paper are my own views and perception, and not against any particular organisation or individual.    There are several issues and concerns which questions the credibility of NGOs in Bihar. In last ten years and particularly after nineties, the number of NGOs registered in Bihar has outnumbered the other states. Although we do not have exact numbers, according to estimates, presently there are more than thirty thousands NGOs in Bihar. According to official sources nearly 10,000 NGOs exist only on paper . There are several reasons for the increase in this number. Registration of trusts and societies have become hotbeds of corruption. It is interesting to note that many people are registering or have registered NGOs as property value which gives good return after three years or even before that. One can buy an NGO in Bihar in ten to fifteen thousand and if the NGO is more than three years old with FCRA one has to pay even more (Fifteen to thirteen thousand). NGOs complain that officials in Bihar charge up to Rs 10,000 for registering a society or trust; clearance under section 80G of the Income Tax Act can cost Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000; acceptance of audited accounts can cost even more . There are families, who have more than five NGOs within the family  and all the family members are part of it. So with time, these NGOs have also emerged as family business. In fact, some of the families with their sister organisations have emerged as very influential in lobbying with donors and bilateral agencies. However, in most of the NGOs in Bihar, it is difficult to find second line of leadership and even if it exists, it is confined within the close family members. Besides the family, caste has also played a very important role in the emergence of NGOs in Bihar. Although there is no data available, it is believed that before nineties most of these NGOs were headed by upper caste and especially the Bhumihars, Rajputs and Brahmins or caste elites. After the nineties, there was change and it also spread to other caste groups. Primarily there are two reasons for this spread. First, by that time lot of funding agencies were approaching the state and secondly because of change in government which was pro-poor in principle. The other caste groups also became aware of the NGOs (easy money making business with no accountability towards people) with political, bureaucratic connections and patronage. In the beginning, many NGOs were established in Bihar in late seventies and early eighties by sarvodayis or socialists or youth who had been a part of the J. P. movement. It may be noted that it is not uncommon for activists from emergency days (part of J P movement) to be part of NGOs in bihar. A large section of youth was mobilized during this movement, lot of them had left their studies and jobs, later, a number of these activists, became part of NGOs . Most of these people were political activists and believed in socialist ideology guided by Jay Prakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. They believed in social change and some of them really did good work and were able to mobilise people for volunteerism and community development. Initially there were no outside funding support and resources were mobilised locally from the community and there was full community support and participation. It was during this period that many of Ashrams were established for social development. At the same time, many of caste elites also opened voluntary organisations and NGOs in their villages but they were not able to succeed because of the ownership and hierarchy. Later they moved to cities like Patna, Ranchi and other urban centres because it was easy to lobby with government departments and donors. In fact many bureaucrats and politicians also associated themselves with these NGOs. This nexus has in fact further facilitated the spread of corruption. The functioning of a large number of fake non-government organisations (NGOs) in different parts of the state has proved beyond doubt that it has a well-knit group of highly-placed officials for running it smoothly. Investigations have revealed that close relatives of a large number of politicians, bureaucrats and academics are engaged in running such NGOs, each one of them claiming to change the face of the society . In many of these NGOS, most of the chief functionaries are family members, no matter whether they have an understanding of NGO or development or not. There are couples, who have separate NGOs, where husband has a mother NGO for RCH programme and field activities are run by the wife's organisation. In principle there is nothing wrong in it but the dynamics and inter-relationship is important because the work done by both the organisations is in question and they are ultimately accountable to the people for whom they are working. During the last fifteen years, NGOs in Bihar have increased in number, size, and scope and have established themselves to be perceived in pivotal positions capable of bringing about social, economic, and political change. In this context, it is imperative to understand the dynamics, work and political economy of NGOs and to evaluate their social roles. A study led by Elmer H Lighid, of the International Council on Management of Population Programmes (ICOMP), Malaysia reports that though the number of voluntary organisations working in a district varies, out of every 1,000 such organisations, there are only 20 "real" ones. It stresses that the voluntary organisations in Bihar are fragmented and work in isolation due to caste, religious and ideological factors. It maintains that the voluntary organisations lack the requisite technical skills, qualified staff and exposure . Credibility Question: The question is "what is credibility" and what constitutes credibility for an NGO. One can define credibility as quality of being trustworthy which means, whether or not the NGO (the aims and vision with which it is established) is to be believed or trusted. We know that many a times, NGOs are not considered credible because they have a personal, monetary, political or other interest which is often in contradiction with the interest of the community or people whom they claim to serve.. Credibility is one of the most critical factors, which has affected the peoples perception of NGOs in Bihar. Now people and communities have started demanding money for participation in NGOs programme as they believe that NGOs are getting money in their name. The question here is, 'how can an NGO build its credibility?' Before answering this question, however it is important to focus on why NGOs have lost their credibility. NGOs have lost their credibility in people because they are not consistent, transparent, honest and accountable to their work being done. Despite the recent cancellation of the registration of hundreds of "fake" non-government organisations (NGOs) in Bihar, a large number of people, including those belonging to Naxalite outfits, have made a beeline for getting their new organisations registered. Interestingly, people belonging to various Naxalite outfits and women activists top the list of those who have set up their NGOs in different parts of the state . Transparency and sharing information and knowledge is a best way to build credibility which helps in building the intellectual base of the NGO, and its ability to articulate the views of the people it is speaking for. There is no fix set of guidelines for NGOs, which we have for other sectors like government, corporate and other institutions. Although several activists, networks and Alliances (Like credibility alliance) are raising theses issues and have developed norms and good practices for governance and public disclosure, we have not achieved and provided rights to people working in development sectors (Its not true for all organizations but applies to many voluntary organizations and NGOs). There is need to debate, raise and discuss the issues which hampers NGOs credibility directly besides other factors. The author (Dr. Anant Kumar) is a member of Jharkhand Network and faculty in Department of Rural Development at Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Ranchi, Jharkhand.

Right View

'Industrialisation' is the bogeyman

The opposition's portrayal of the unfortunate violence at Nandigram is a futile attempt to wrongly politicise the issue as anti-farmer.

Incendiary violence has erupted in Nandigram in West Bengal. Eleven deaths have been reported so far. Eighteen policemen with severe injuries are hospitalised, alongwith 24 others, some critical.

The blockade of five gram panchayats started by the Trinamul Congress, the Naxalites, Maoists and others in an unholy nexus on January 3 under the pretext of not permitting any land acquisition has now taken this condemnable turn.

In the first place, the issue that land was being acquired was based on fabricated rumours. Since then, the state government and the ruling Left Front in West Bengal has categorically stated that no land would be acquired for any industrialisation purposes or for establishing Special Economic Zones in Nandigram. Despite this declaration being made public many weeks ago, the blockade of the area continued. The blockade was enforced by disrupting communications, cutting off roads and bridges—this has been the source of immense hardship for the local populace.

During these two-and-a-half months, those who refused to cooperate with the so-called agitators were subjected to merciless terror. Over 2,500 people have been driven out of their homes and forced to eke out a miserable livelihood elsewhere. More than 1,000 people continue to live today in relief camps.

At an all-party meeting, boycotted by the Trinamul Congress, held a few days ago, it was unanimously decided that civic rule must be restored in that area. On the basis of this decision, the state government sent the police to assist others in repairing the roads and restoring communications.

The police was prevented from entering the area, and when they proceeded to implement the law of the land, they were fired upon. The so-called protestors were armed with countrymade bombs and other incendiary materials, including pipe guns. Consequently, a large number of policemen were critically injured and in the crossfire that ensued, as always, innocent people became victims.

What is the meaning of provoking and instigating such senseless violence? It is such tactics that the Trinamul Congress and the Maoists elements have perfected over the years in West Bengal. Some years ago, in Keshpur in Midnapur district, these elements created similar mayhem and terror in order to establish their political presence.

Many lives were lost even then, but once peace and order was restored and elections held, the Left Front scored resounding victories. The Keshpur model is now being sought to be repeated in Nandigram. This, thus, constitutes a frontal political assault through the use of violence and terror by Trinamul Congress and company. Following the electoral drubbing they received in the state Assembly elections last year, these sections have embarked on such a diabolic strategy.

Their desperation also arises from the fact that, for decades, they had been campaigning that no industrialisation was ever possible in West Bengal under Left Front rule. Now, if industrialisation were to progress under the Left Front rule in West Bengal, the very foundations of their political existence gets eroded. Therefore, these very sections who had opposed the land reforms undertaken by the Left Front government are today seeking to portray themselves as the protectors of the peasantry and their land. Such duplicity cannot and will not survive.

This is a political challenge that has been thrown at the CPI(M) and the government in West Bengal. It shall be met politically. The Left Front government in West Bengal is a product of many glorious movements advancing people's interests. Many valuable lives were lost, but the reactionaries were never allowed to succeed.

http://www.realpolitik.in/April%2007/L-R%0view%20April%2007.htm

 

 Six killed in Naxal attack in Jharkhand

 

 

RANCHI: Six persons, including two CISF personnel, were killed and six others injured when Naxals launched attacks on a CISF picket at Khasmahal coal project in Bokaro district and a police station, a senior police official said on Saturday.

The two CISF personnel received fatal bullet wounds in the attack on Friday night on the picket near the project under Gandhi Nagar police station of the district, Superintendent of Police Priya Dubey said.

Four civilians died when the Maoists fired at Kurpania Bazaar nearby, the SP said.

Two other CISF jawans and four other civilians were injured in the attack.

The Maoists, who exploded landmines at several places to create panic in the area, also tried to storm the Gandhi Nagar police station but the police repulsed their move.

Both the security personnel and the Maoists traded several rounds of bullets.

A cleaner of a dumper was injured when a separate group of extremists exploded a landmine in an attempt to blow up a bridge leading to Khasmahal to stop police movement.

Soon after the attack, the Bokaro SP rushed to the spot with reinforcements. The encounter lasted till the early hours.

The injured were being treated at a nearby hospital.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Six_killed_in_naxal_attack_in_Jharkhand/articleshow/1868668.cms

 

 

 

 

We need quacks

By the time Bijola reached the house where Savitri was groaning with labour pains, the village 'doctor' had already reached. Savitri had sent a neighbour to call Bijola, whereas Savitri's husband had called the 'doctor'.

The 'doctor' came on his mobike, Bijola came on her feet. He had pulled out his needle and syringe and was about to load the magic medicine to hasten the birth. Bijola — an empowered (and trained) 'dai' — told the family members, "If you allow this doctor to give her injections i will leave this house".

Bijola has been working in the villages of Chandankiari, in the Bokaro district of Jharkhand, for more than 30 years. She knew Savitri well.

She had helped deliver her first three children and had referred the fourth one to a hospital for a caesarean, since she had a crooked foetus. She already knew that this fifth one was crooked too.

She quickly wore her gloves and examined her, and found what she was expecting: the cervix was hardly dilated, and the head was nowhere to be felt from below. But Savitri was having very strong, regular contractions.

Bijola told the family to get her to a hospital fast if they wanted to save the mother and the baby.

The village 'doctor', however, offered no such advice. His role during delivery is only to administer 'hot' injections.

These are usually oxytocin, a drug that stimulates the uterus and produces stronger contractions. It should never be administered intra-muscularly before a baby is born, and never, ever, to a mother that has already undergone a caesarean section.

It can cause birth asphyxia and death in the newborn, and can lead to a ruptured uterus and death of the mother. Bijola understood this, the doctor did not. Fortunately, the family listened to Bijola and took Savitri to the hospital.

It wasn't easy to get the system to work in a government hospital, but Bijola prevailed upon the doctor to operate on Savitri. The mother and baby survived.

However, Savitri's husband was not a happy man. His sister-in-law had a caesarean section in her first pregnancy, and had a normal, home delivery in the second, so why couldn't his wife?

It must be Bijola's fault, he told her. The village doctor had told him that a couple of injections would get the baby out in no time at all. And now he was stuck in the city for a week, arranging food and medicines for his wife.

Not only is Savitri's husband unhappy with Bijola, but the government is too. The current thinking in India, with
perhaps feedback from beyond the seas, is that the only way to bring down maternal mortality is to ensure insti-
tutional delivery for all.

The traditional birth attendants, so the argument goes, cannot help reduce maternal mortality. In Savitri's case, as we have seen, it was the big doctor of the big hospital that saved her life, wasn't it?

Officially, traditional birth attendants are out of favour. In Jharkhand, the Janani Suraksha Yojana, a scheme to give financial inducements to push poor women to deliver in ill-equipped and inaccessible hospitals, has not been a great success.

In Bijola's district, one of the better performing ones, the scheme is more successful in the town — where services are nearby — but has hardly made an impact in remote villages, where women continue to die during childbirth.

Most women who have received the first instalment of the scheme, during pregnancy, still go on to deliver at home.

The Rs 700 given for an institutional birth is hardly enough for transportation costs. The expenses for a normal delivery in a private nursing home in Bokaro is not less than Rs 2,000.

In any case the government health centres are hardly equipped to deal with institutional delivery for all.

And since all women are supposed to have safe deliveries in hospitals (when they have been built) the government need not waste valuable resources training traditional birth attendants any more.

The focus is on training government nurses, or ANMs, to become skilled birth attendants. It matters not that ANMs do not conduct deliveries, that they do not reside in the villages, and more than 90 per cent of deliveries in Jharkhand take place at home.

As for Bijola and the village doctor, they will, and should stay, as long as hospitals remain inaccessible and ANMs stay in towns and cities.

The writer is a village health worker.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/OPINION/Editorial/We_need_quacks/articleshow/1867485.cms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Metro model for two cities

Ranchi and Jamshedpur would soon turn into cities of malls, multiplexes and residential complexes.

The Jharkhand housing board, in a joint venture with private players, will soon build over 2,700 reasonably-priced flats in Ranchi and Jamshedpur. Besides, the board has also given the go ahead to build malls, multiplexes, hotels and shopping complexes in the two cities.

Superintending engineer Diwakar Singh said the board has given its approval to enter into an agreement with private players to develop 17 plots of land in Ranchi and Jamshedpur into multi-storied residential complexes.

Of the total plots, nine are in Harmu, two in Argora, three in Bariatu, Ranchi, while the remaining three at Adityapur, Jamshedpur, he said.

The board would sign the agreement with the successful bidders shortly. The interested private players include Nagarjuna Constructions, Orbit and Simplex.

According to Singh, the construction is likely to be completed within two years.

Though the board had advertised for 71 acres, it could not find any takers for 20 acres in Daltonganj, 12 acres in Bokaro and 2.5 acres in Hazaribagh, said Singh.

The board has fixed a rate of Rs 800 per square feet for lower income group (LIG), Rs 900 for middle income group (MIG) and Rs 1300-1400 for high income group (MIG) flats.

A mall and a multiplex at Harmu Chowk, two shopping complexes and a community hall at Sahjanand Chowk, Harmu, and a hotel and malls at Argora are on the cards.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070406/asp/jamshedpur/story_7613258.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Kidnappings continue in Bihar

Patna, April 7 (IANS) Two people were killed after being kidnapped and six other abductions were also reported within a span of two days in Bihar, indicating that little has changed since a new government came to power last year.

The kidnapping industry is still thriving in the state, say residents.

Armed criminals abducted Umesh Jha, a 51-year-old farmer, and his nephew Rajaram Singh, 25, from Rampur Thuthi village in Khagaria district late Thursday night and later killed them.

Police recovered their decapitated bodies from a field and sent them for autopsy.

Four people were also reported to have been abducted in separate incidents in Siwan district. Police said they were abducted for ransom.

Of these, two victims were a father-son duo. Lalan Pandey was abducted along his son Pappu when he was returning after a marriage negotiation for hiss daughter.

An 11-year-old school student, Pitamber, was abducted in Samastipur district. His father Ravishankar Pandey is a rich farmer who also owns a business. Police suspect that the abduction is for ransom.

A bus owner, Shalendra Singh, was also kidnapped Friday in Danapur near Patna.

Last week, police recovered the body of an abducted 10-year-old student in Munger district. The same week, a youth was reported kidnapped in Patna and another in Nalanda district. Later both were released.

The Patna High Court had early this year directed the state government to trace 144 children and 581 women who had been reported missing since 2001. The court also took note of reports that 44 of the abducted children had been killed.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1288331.php/Kidnappings_continue_in_Bihar

 

 

 

 

 

 

Father poisons daughter to death in Bengal

BURDWAN (WB): Driven by poverty, a daily farm labourer in West Bengal's Burdwan district poisoned one of his daughters to death and was himself in a critical condition after consuming poison, police said on Saturday.

Sanatan Majhi of Ketugram was not getting any work as he was ill and was finding it difficult to run his family of two daughters, wife and himself.

According to an FIR lodged by Sanatan's wife Jyotsna with the police on Friday evening he took his elder author Jaya (4) with him and went to a sweet shop. After purchasing some rasogollas he mixed poison with it and asked his daughter to eat it and also himself consumed them.

Jyotsna found both of them in a critical condition. They were rushed to Katwa Sub-Divisional Hospital where Jaya was pronounced brought dead while Sanatan was admitted to hospital in a critical condition.

Jyotsna said here husband had become sullen and dejected as he was finding it very difficult to find work due to his ill health and was always short of money

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Father_poisons_daughter_to_death_in_Bengal/articleshow/1869984.cms

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solar power boon for villagers

BOLPUR, April 6: Switching on electric lamps or watching television was some sort of a dream for them until a few days ago, but today the dream has come true, illuminating their lives.
The villages like Mohuli and Geatgram, situated on the bank of the river Ajoy along the border of Birbhum are regarded as the most underdeveloped villages in the district.
The floods in 1995 wreaked havoc in the area, wiping out these two villages completely. Thereafter, it had been a long and bleak battle for the villagers to earn their livelihoods.
At a time when the villagers cannot afford electricity, they have got it because of a novel project taken up by Santiniketan Sriniketan Development Authority.
With the help of the West-Bengal Renewal Energy Development Agency, the SSDA arranged for solar electricity in these villages. The project, funded by the ministry of renewable energy, the state government and the SSDA, has provided about 127 families with a solar panels connected with two lamp sets and a plug point.
The chief executive officer of SSDA, Mr Ashoke Das, said: "The development authority has been working in these villages for the last two years. We found out that the villagers were so poor that they could not bear the cost of electricity.
"So we were in search of an alternative way. The WBREDA helped us to implement this project. And now we are looking forward to carry on this project smoothly in these villages." "Villagers have been trained in maintenance work by the experts of the the WBREDA and a distilled water plant has also been set up near Dhannosara village so that villagers would not have to face any difficulty in using the distilled water for the maintenance process", said Mr Das.
"Under this project, the villagers will have to pay Rs 20 per month for five years to the agency and that agency would be responsible to run the project smoothly for around 20 years", said Mr Das.
The project was inaugurated by the Lok Sobha speaker and MP of Bolpur, Mr Somnath Chatterjee and Mr Santi Pado Gon Chowdhury, director of the WBREDA in presence of other dignitaries.
In his address Mr Chatterjee also assured the villagers that in the near future the SSDA would help the villagers by providing solar lights in the streets free of cost.

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=23&theme=&usrsess=1&id=152355

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Invest for a healthy HRD'

BHUBANESWAR: Investment in industries, mines, IT hubs and infrastructure development has taken the centre stage in the current time of globalisation, but human resources development (HRD), which needs the basic input of a healthy workforce, still remains neglected as investment in health sector has taken a backseat.

While the slogan of World Health Day this year as coined by World Health Organisation is 'Invest in health, build a safer future', it is time for introspection to see what is on agenda to address threats to health security including emerging and rapidly spreading diseases like AIDS, cardio vascular ailments, humanitarian emergencies caused by natural calamities and man-made disasters like road accidents, bio-terrorism and pollution.

Given the health landscape in our State the continuing inadequacies of both public health and causative health is almost threatening the stability of the community.

With Orissa being the leading state in India with highest road accidents and oral cancer cases, a lot has to be done at planning stage, says Major General (Retd) Bikash Kumar Mohanti, Medical Superintendent with Kalinga Hospital here.

Rising threats to public health could place our development plan and economic growth in peril. The communities are yet to adopt an appropriate health response to disease outbreaks and other concerns.

The State Government and all the stake-holders must build a common capacity to prevent, detect, report and respond to health threats, he adds.

Admitting that the acute shortage of trained and committed health workers from primary to tertiary level of care is a cause of concern in the State, the expert says public-private partnership, non-government organisation and corporate houses must focus on various aspects as the State sees a surge in industrial sector.

Emphasising mutual support to enable people protect their health standards, Dr Mohanti also advocates setting standards in public health strategies and providing technical co-operation and financial support for health-care related research in the State at the national and regional research laboratories.

'The need for more continuing medical education (CME) on various specialisations and intra-specialisation topics are important with emerging health emergencies', says Dr SC Dash, Professor and HOD, Nephrology and Principal, Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences here.

With fast lifestyle, natural calamity and other man-made conditions giving rise to complex diseases, doctors need to adopt a holistic approach on the treatment process and update their knowledge base through CMEs, he adds.

Role of telemedicine, public lectures, awareness rallies, health camps and talk shows by experts should be tried to popularise health topics, the former Nephrology HOD with AIIMS, feels.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070407025859&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0

 

 

 

 

 

 

Impunity for gang-rape in India

Victims of gang-rape and other violence against Christians and other minorities in India shared their testimony with an independent tribunal. The media were denounced for inciting anti-minority violence.

For the first time an all-India picture has emerged of anti-Christian violence from a people's tribunal.

 

Victims of Christian persecution from across India shared their horrific stories and highlighted the denial of justice to them before an independent people's jury.

According to International Christian Concern (ICC), the depositions were part of "The Independent People's Tribunal against the Rise of Fascist Forces in India and the Attack on the Secular State," a three-day program which concluded here on March 22.

 

In its report, ICC said the independent jury was organized by non-profit organizations Anhad and Human Rights Law Network, and supported and attended by a plethora of rights groups, including Christian organizations, like the All India Christian Council (AICC) and the Christian Legal Association.

 

Of the 100 victims who submitted their statements, about 40 were Christian. The rest were mainly were from Gujarat state, which witnessed a wide-scale killing of members of the Muslim minority community in 2002.

 

Impunity of perpetrators of gang-rape

 

"I was gang-raped by my fellow tribal villagers, including the brother and father of the local legislator in January 2004, and I named everyone in my police complaint, but no one has been arrested till today," lamented Taramani, a school teacher from Madhya Pradesh state's Jhabua district.

 

Taramani's village, Alirajpur, was one of the worst affected villages during the spate of anti-Christian violence that followed the infamous January 11 incident, in which a young girl was found dead in the compound of a Catholic school in Jhabua district. Hindu fundamentalist Hindu Jagran Manch (Forum for Revival of Hindus) blamed the murder on the church, and instigated a series of attacks on Christian individuals and their institutions. This was despite the fact that a non-Christian admitted to the crime.

 

"A crowd of about 250 people first launched an attack on my house and set it on fire and then some of them took me to a jungle and outraged my modesty," said, Taramani, a widow.

 

With tears in her eyes, she added that when she returned she found the house completely gutted. "Even the police initially refused to register my complaint which they did only later and reluctantly.

 

"All that I have received from the government is Rs.30,000 ($700 USD), but no arrests. The perpetrators still tell me that nothing will happen to them, as they are very powerful," she said.

 

Attackers remain at large

 

Another victim, Shobha Onkar, also from Alirajpur, could not help crying as she narrated how she was attacked by a mob in the aftermath of the January 11 incident. "About 300 people surrounded our house in the presence of the local police inspector and started breaking in. I thought I should open the door before they vandalized my house, but when they entered into the house, one of them hit me with a stick on my head. I started bleeding profusely," she said.

 

"My son ran to the police and bent on his knees to plead them to rescue me, saying, 'They will kill my mother,' but they did not budge," she added.

 

Onkar also said that relatives of the local legislator belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were among the crowd.

 

Onkar's house was badly damaged and completely looted. "The government gave me only Rs.6,000 ($140 USD) as compensation. And justice, which matters the most, was denied, as the perpetrators were not brought to justice," she added.

 

There were also victims from the states of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir.

 

Lessons for the church

 

Dr. John Dayal, secretary general of the AICC who was one of the jury members, told ICC, "From the Christian perspective, the hearings were memorable and important. Christians of all denominations, and both men and women, came forward to depose for the first time in a major way. In my experience this is also the first time that an all-India picture has emerged of anti-Christian violence from a people's tribunal."

 

The all-India pattern of violence has lessons for everyone, and particularly for the church whether it is Catholic, Protestant or Evangelical, he said, adding that urgent steps needed to be taken. "Clergy and church workers have to be trained in human rights and basic law."

 

Another memorable witness, said Dayal, was the compilation by the Rev. Madhu Chandra of AICC to prove the massive activity of Hindu extremists in the north-eastern Hindu majority states of Manipur and Assam.

 

"For me, the most heartening testimonies were of women -- Muslim and Christian."

 

Madhya Pradesh a daylight church

 

He also said it was obvious that "Hindutva pressure" was working. "The church in Madhya Pradesh is fast becoming a 'daylight church' with mission activity in the evening and after sun down -- which is how outreach programs can work in forest villages when people return home after sunset -- has stopped. Only in full daylight can some work be done. And yet, the church hierarchy seems not too worried."

 

In other areas, church activity is now confined to tribals alone, who constitute just a third of the population even in the so-called tribal belt of central India, he said. "This has serious ramifications."

 

Dayal thanked the civil society, including "well-meaning Hindu Activists," for their "unstinted support" to the Christian community.

 

No help from the State

 

Based on the statements of the victims and presentations by human rights activists, the tribunal noted that "demonization of minorities, both Muslims and Christians, and their consequent marginalization and physical attacks have been noticed all over the country, particularly in the states where the BJP is in power, like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Gujarat."

 

In these cases, the victims have failed to get any help from the State. The role of the police is particularly dubious, as in most cases, the victims were not even able to file an FIR (first information report). It is often noticed that the victims are turned into perpetrators of crime. As a result, there is a sense of helplessness that the minorities feel."

 

Rights activists also deplored the role of the media, mainly local newspapers in vernacular languages, in inciting anti-minority violence.

 

The tribunal was an initiative of Shabnam Hashmi of Anhad and attorney Colin Gonsalves of the Human Rights Law Network.

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=8809

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep It Skimmed

Before the quotas, identify the OBC. That is the new wisdom

Not Backward

The National OBC Commission set up in 1993 had refused backward status to 456 castes and subcastes. Here are some prominent ones which were not put on the list:

Caste	State
Kayasthas, Jats	Delhi
Kammas, Reddys	Karnataka
*Lingayats	Karnataka
*Chettiars	Tamil Nadu
Chettiars, Chettis	Kerala
Vaishyas, Banias	Uttar Pradesh
Jats, Jat Sikhs	Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan (Dholpur, Bharatpur), Haryana
*Some subcastes allowed OBC status

The Cream Of The OBCs

As per the National Backward Classes Commission, children whose parents fall in these 7 categories are ineligible for job reservations...

• Those who hold constitutional posts like the President of India, Vice President, Supreme Court and high court judges, chairman and members of the UPSC and state public service commissions.
  
• Class I officers of central and state services; international organisations like the UN, IMF or World Bank
  
• Group B/Class II officers of the central and state services
  
• Class I and II public sector employees;
  
• armed forces and paramilitary personnel of colonel and above rank.
  
• Professionals like doctors, lawyers, CAs, income tax consultants etc.
  
• Agricultural land owners whose holdings put them in the higher income bracket.

***

Every time the government pays obeisance at the altar of social justice and invokes reservations, it's the same old demons that return to haunt.

Who are the actual beneficiaries of reservations? Is it the really deserving among the Other Backward Classes, or a 'creamy layer' that skims all the benefit from the reservations bucket? Has the government, ever eager to pull the reservations rabbit out of the hat, made any attempt to identify those who have already availed of quota benefits, and moved on to balance the social stakes at the lowest rung? How desirable are reservations anyway in this era of equal opportunities? Even as the nation continues to get exercised over the issue, and emotions run high within both the pro- and anti-reservation camps, there is still little reflection on which castes need reservations and which don't.

It was precisely for this task that the National Commission for Backward Classes was set up in 1993. Its mandate was to identify socially and economically backward castes/communities, and delist those which had already made use of reservations and moved up. Though guided by the political compulsions of the government of the day, the commission attempted to correct the anomalies of the Mandal Commission report, mainly its exclusion of several subcastes. It has periodically conducted social audits to determine the status of various castes. Not every caste that has staked a claim on reservations has made it to the national OBC list; as many as 456 castes have failed to convince the commission of their social/ educational backwardness.

Of course, the commission's work is far from complete. Some of the dominant backward castes, like the Nadars of Tamil Nadu, remain on the list. Good old politics keeps them there: no political party wants to upset powerful OBC lobbies; those in power would rather that the commission maintain status quo instead of dislodging the government. However, if the commission is given a free hand, it has the infrastructure to provide a comprehensive status report on OBCs.

And the conclusion it arrives at on the basis of various studies and public hearings is that reservations are necessary. The commission's current chairperson, Justice S.R. Pandian, has noted: "That a few of the seats and posts reserved for backward classes are snatched away by the more fortunate among them is not to say that reservation is not necessary. This is bound to happen in a competitive society like ours. Aren't unreserved slots snatched away by the creamy layer among forwards?"

And so the debate has moved to the next level: should reservations be made without ascertaining the extent of backwardness among the beneficiaries? The OBC groups weren't too happy with the Supreme Court stay on the government's attempt to implement the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006. Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu led the pro-reservationist charge: both states witnessed bandhs for the quota cause. But the apex court in its interim stay order sought a more realistic basis for reservations and asked for a headcount of OBCs and identification of the creamy layer.

The ball is therefore back in the commission's court, with the government seeking its help in answering the apex court's questions. On its part, the commission has already spelt out the parameters to identify the creamy layer; it is now up to the government to zero in on the already-benefited and ensure they are derecognised. Says constitutional lawyer Rajeev Dhawan: "The creamy layer mechanism, which provides the guidelines for disentitlement, should be followed to ensure that those not deserving are kept out." It is the only way to make reservations more credible, and ensure its benefits accrue to the truly deserving. It should also go some way in appeasing the anti-reservationists who cite the example of individuals who have benefited unduly to point out the lacuna of reservations.

But reservations for politics' sake is something even staunch votaries of reservations like D.L.Sheth caution against. Says the former member of the OBC commission: "If the Mandal policy has prevented a huge turmoil in checking subaltern marginalisation, the time has now come for a relook." However, he realises the enormity of the task when he asks: "But who will bell the cat?" He is referring to the hard decision that will have to be taken to "put out of the benefit system" communities with political and economic clout.

But whether for or against the reservations motion, the opposing sides are agreed on one thing: that the issue has to be sorted out, one way or another. Collating real data would be a first step in that direction as that alone will help one put a finger on the extent of backwardness in the country. Such an exercise may exclude the forward minority among the backwards. But that would not dilute the 27 per cent reservation fixed for OBCs in IITs, IIMs and other institutes of higher learning. As P.S. Krishnan, advisor to Union HRD minister Arjun Singh, puts it: "There can be no doubt on the 27 per cent. If a real headcount is done, you know who will be having the last laugh..."

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070416&fname=OBC+%28F%29&sid=1&pn=2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Multiple Entrance Examinations Work As "Entry Barriers"

It appears that our Honorable HRD Ministry and its even more Honorable Minister Mr. Arjun Singh are hell bent on providing justice to the real needy, poor and socio-economically marginalized sections of the society. However because all his noteworthy efforts towards OBC reservation have come to a temporary halt due to the unfavorable Supreme Court verdict passed recently, as responsible citizens we must help our Ministry to find alternate means to achieving its broader goals.

Here is a suggestion that the Ministry should look at to keep itself busy, one which should receive no confrontation from most of the students or guardians, or the broad society in general.

The daughter of one of my colleagues is in the final year of +2 this year. The board exams now being over, what awaits her now is a run of competitive exams like IIT-JEE, AIEEE, various state level JEEs, few private engineering and medical college exams, the AIIMS test, ISI ... the list can be indeed long.

The picture is no different after graduation when most young students aspire for an MBA degree. There are CAT, JMET, XAT, MAT ... no difference here either - the list is equally long.

If one wants to apply for even a few of them, it may cost one tens of thousands of rupees in terms of application fees alone. Add to that the process of application and lack of infrastructure in rural areas, one immediately understands how difficult it is for good rural students to compete with their urban counterparts. For MBA admission, there are interviews again.

Irrespective of the justifications on costs incurred by respective institutes and specific knowledge/aptitude they seek from their entrant students, when one examines how a student from rural or semi-urban place faces the economic and other burdens, one can easily concur that these separate multiple exams are nothing but an effective "entry barriers" that favor students from metros and relatively well-off families.

We know that people in Mumbai or in any major metros won't like distant relatives from rural places to come and stay with them for a few nights - because space is too precious. As most of these exams have centers in major metros/state capitals, any student from smaller towns or villages needs to take on the additional burden of travel - which adds to physical exhaustion along with the economic costs. Many even may not have relatives at these exam centers, and as most of them can't afford hotel-stay multiple times; they therefore may have to directly come to the exam centers without even having the opportunity to arrive fresh for the exams. The urban students at least don't face these additional traumas.

Irrespective of the USPs these exams offer (or as claimed by the organizers), one simply can't ignore the basic obvious monetary benefits they accrue to the different institutes. The costs are multiple for the end-consumer, the stress is multiplied to students and guardians and in the name of uniqueness, this has indeed been taken too far stressing all students in general and, particularly, economically marginalized students from remote areas.

In the name of freedom and competition, many of us mostly forget the basic infrastructure, policies, systems that the U.S. offers through standardization. Irrespective of boards or school, there is one SAT, one GRE, one GMAT. And true, in case a good student accidentally badly performs in any of these critical exams, s/he can take that again without even losing a year.

We saw some developments on this front from government in regulating and controlling number of exams - limiting to two or three for MBAs couple of years back. The proposal eventually had a natural death as there was opposition from vested bodies. One isn't ruling out possibilities of genuine oppositions; however with adequate representatives from these various institutes in an apex body like the formal Educational Testing Service (ETS) or its present form the GMAC (Graduate Management Admission Council) adopted through ACT Inc. and Pearson Vue, most of the genuine grievances against retaining only one admission test in India should get addressed.

Otherwise it's a criminal offence we are practicing by stressing all students and guardians unnecessarily, and putting an enormous economic and physical burden to students who come from rural backgrounds, who are the worst sufferers.

A true reservation was to be meant for them - wasn't it? Well, till our government works out the basis for controversial reservation, one can always expect a speedy action from our Honorable Minister and his Ministry so that these types of effective "entry barriers" that act against these bright rural students from economically poorer families are removed.

http://desicritics.org/2007/04/04/041245.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

news@... Jharkhand News Network www.jharkhand.org.uk 

 

 

 Jharkhand Video - www.jharkhandi.org 

 

 

 

 

 

 Jharkhand women gain self-reliance with poultry farming

Seelam (Jharkhand), Apr 6: Women of Seelam village in Jharkhand's Gumla District have set an example for their rural counterparts by becoming self-reliant.

This has happened with the support of Mahila Mandal, a self-help motivating group.

Established in 2000, the group initiated poultry farming in the village. It mobilised a group 16 enterprising women who have now become a household name in the village.

On identifying their potential, Pradhan, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) collaborated and helped them with loans from banks to go ahead with lucrative projects.

Apart from incentives, each woman was provided with a loan of rupees 10,000. And since then, the quality of life index of the villagers has changed.

Unemployed youth of the village today have a job. They no more need to worry about migrating elsewhere in search of greener pastures.

"Financial condition has improved. We are sending our children to good schools with an aim to provide them good education. Our standard of living has also changed. We are very happy. Earlier, we had to go to Delhi and Himachal Pradesh to work but now we stay in the village and are engaged in poultry farming," said Sunita Devi, member of Mahila Mandal.

Women have set up poultry farms where each of them has at least 300 birds. The Mahila Mandal has installed machines and engrossed even the men folk who prepare feed for chicken.

"We prepare good quality feed for the chicken," said Vandna Bilung, Co-ordinator of Mahila Mandal.

The village women earn about rupees 3,000 to 4,000 per month from poultry farming products. And, almost every household engaged in poultry farming have a television set and life insurances in their names.

"One woman earns at least rupees 2,000 to 3,000 in a month. Even when one works hard, there is earning up to rupees 4, 000," said Dr. Pankaj Das, Advisor of Pradhan.

These women also visit various poultry farms where they demonstrate the usage of vaccine and healthy breeding procedures.

The chickens and eggs are sent to Ranchi, Jamshedpur and many other places. Beyond Jharkhand, these poultry products have a ready market in Chhattisgarh and often as far as Nepal.

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/131435.php/Jharkhand-women-gain-self-reliance-with
-poultry-farming











Training to bolster tribal youth bombs

Ranchi, April 5: Unbelievable, but true. Only 10 youths qualified in the state civil services examination and 12 became clerks after the Jharkhand government drained around Rs 70 lakh for over five years to train Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) aspirants!

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reveals that of the 320 students enrolled in the pre-examination training centre run by the government at the Tribal Welfare Research Institute (TWRI) between 2002 and 2005, only 27 qualified for various jobs. Worse, the centre could not fill up all the seats every year. In 2004, it had only 14 students against 25 seats.

The report shows that huge funds available for the tribal students were either being frittered away or not being used fruitfully.

Out of the Rs 2.08 crore available during 2001-06 for pre-examination coaching, the government spent Rs 66.29 lakh (32 per cent only). The funds were tripled from Rs 22.48 lakh in 2002 to Rs 64.33 lakh in 2005-06, but the utilisation declined from 68 per cent to 22 per cent. The reason for the under-utilisation of funds was due to poor performance in meeting the target, the report stated.

Under the scheme, enrolment of ST girl students was 30 per cent during 2002-05 but the percentage of successful ST girl students in 2003-04 was 19 per cent.

The state government's poor execution of various schemes aimed at improving the representation of SC/STs in government jobs, and thereafter perpetuating the reservation policy, might aptly justify the Supreme Court's remarks that the Constitutional privilege was being used as vote bank.

Ironically, TWRI director Prakash Oraon attributed the poor performance of the centre to the attitude of tribal students.

Beni Ekka, the director of Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), pointed out the difference of attitude between general and SC/ST students as one of the reasons behind the dismal performance of the centre. The lecture method of teaching could also be blamed for the students not coming out in flying colours, he added.

The state government, two years after the scheme bombed, has decided to hand over the pre-examination coaching centres to private agencies and non-governmental organisations.

Welfare secretary N.N. Sinha said the centre performed poorly owing to lack of experts and irrelevant courses.

Seven other schemes launched to enable the SC/ST students to pursue their education and get jobs were also far from effective. Pre-matric scholarship scheme, post-matric scholarship scheme, book bank scheme, coaching facilities, hostels, cycles, computers and uniforms have failed to enthuse the SC/ST students, the report stated.

A sample scrutiny said that no student succeeded in secondary examination during 2001-02 from the ST Residential School, Dumka.

In Dhanbad, Dumka and Ranchi districts, five hostels for 450 students were occupied by lady constables and police pickets evens as a few hostels were overcrowded.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070406/asp/jamshedpur/story_7613255.asp












Woman dies in BSF firing

RAIGANJ, April 5: Tension prevailed in Goalpokhar block of North Dinajpur district over the death of a tribal housewife allegedly in BSF firing at Kokradaha border out post last night.

The victim was identified as Manika Soren (35), a resident of Pokharia village of Goalpokhar. It is alleged that Manika Soren was returning home with her husband Palus Hemran around 9.30 p.m. through the border road at Kokradaha BOP after attending a function at her relative's place. Two BSF jawans of the 47 battalion allegedly intercepted them near the BOP and started to beat Palus Hemran. When Manika tried to dissuade them the BSF jawans shot her from close range and she died on the spot. BSF officials thereafter brought the body to the MGM Medical College and Lions' Hospital in Kishanganj, Bihar, where the lifeless body of the woman lay the whole night.

When news of the incident that led to the death of a tribal housewife spread in Goalpokhar, numerous residents from different villages of Goalpokhar armed with bows and arrows turned up at Pokharia vilage. The irate villagers gheraoed the Kokradaha BOP demanding that the BSF handed over Manika's body to the family members without delay.

The villagers also demanded that the BSF authorities hand over the alleged culprits who killed the woman to them.

The BSF took immediate action to save the situation from worsening. Arriving at the spot BSF DIG, Panjipara range, Mr Rabi Kumar Panth issued temporary suspension orders against the jawans who were on duty when the woman was shot to death. Congress MLA from Goalpokhar Mrs Dipa Dasmunshi said from Kolkata over telephone that the victim had alleged been raped before she was shot.

The villagers are also angry with the fact that the crime was committed in West Bengal and the woman's body had been taken to Bihar where it lay unattended throughout the night. The victim's body was shifted to Islampur sub-division following the BSF DIG's intervention today.

Mr SB Purnapatra, SP, North Dinajpur, said police reached the spot before the agitated villagers could converge at the Kukradaha BOP and saved the situation from turning seriously unpleasant

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&theme=&usrsess=1&id=152254










Keeping the creamy layer out

Caste-based census was given up after 1931 even though caste-based discrimination is a fact of life even today. Hence, the government has to depend on those projections to prove that OBCs form 54%.

THE recent Supreme Court's order staying the operation of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006 has triggered a variety of reactions. The political leadership in Tamil Nadu, for instance, registered its protest against the judicial decision by calling for a statewide bandh, leaders of the 'national' parties seem to be in a state of shock. And the reaction has been characteristically knee-jerk and calling for a legislative intervention.

The non-political class too has articulated its view. They are all out there celebrating the injunction. Justices Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta, in their eyes are noble men who will be remembered for their no-nonsense approach. Rather than seeing it as merely an injunction, the intelligentsia seems to perceive the apex court's stay as a final verdict against caste-based reservations. And in this they see a judicial endorsement of their opposition to the idea of reservation for OBCs and the obsession for 'merit.' Well. The truth or the real story is something else.

The two-judge bench of the apex court has stayed the operation of the Act on two grounds: That the quantum of reservation for OBCs (27% in this case), the judges felt, was based on some arbitrary consideration; the premise that the OBCs constitute 54% of the population is based on projections made from the census of 1931, could be faulty according to the judges. In their view, this figure was arrived at without accounting for the demographic changes over the years.

The stay was granted on another ground and this indeed is substantive. The two-judge bench observed that the non-exclusion of the 'creamy layer' from the reservation bracket in the Act is against the Constitution. The Act, in this sense, seeks to determine social and educational backwardness only on the basis of caste; and hence violates the law as upheld in the Indira Sawhney versus Union of India and others case in 1992.

The nine-judge bench, in 1992, had gone into the rational of excluding the creamy layer and established a clear case, both in the legal and ethical sense in its favour. It is worth citing the relevant portion from the judgment: "After excluding them alone, would the class be a compact class. In fact, such exclusion benefits the truly backward."

The judges had underscored, in that instance (and later in 1999 while dismissing an Act passed by the Kerala Legislative Assembly that sought to negate the concept of creamy layer in that State) that the Constitution provides for positive discrimination in favour of backward classes and not castes; hence, the bench ordered, the exclusion of the creamy layer from among the castes identified as backward and that it will constitute a class only then.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/Keeping_the_creamy_layer_out/
articleshow/1867941.cms











Minority loan plan on track

NEW DELHI: Despite Reserve Bank of India's reservations, the government has not given up on its plans to increase the flow of loans to minority communities.

In a fresh plan being drawn up by the finance ministry, the government intends to ask state-owned banks to concentrate on districts where minorities formed a significant part of the population.

Sources said that districts where non-Hindu population was less than 50% would automatically be taken up for the special drive.

Based on the last Census numbers, there are 85 districts where Hindus accounted for less than half the population.

In addition, there are more districts that are proposed to be taken up, whose number is yet to be finalised.

While the finance ministry wanted the coverage to be extended to an additional 44 districts, the minorities affairs ministry has suggested that the number should be enhanced to 104.

The focus of the programme is going to be on Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians, Jains and Buddhists.

According to the Census data, 46 districts in the North-East, 14 in Punjab, 12 in Jammu & Kashmir, four in Jharkhand, three in Kerala, two in West Bengal and one each in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar islands had minorities accounting for over half the population.

While the government had earlier hoped to implement the scheme, based on Sachar Committee recommendations, ahead of the elections in Uttar Pradesh, RBI and the Indian Banks' Association threw a spanner of sorts saying the proposal was difficult to implement.

RBI had cited lack of sufficient data as the prime reason for its reluctance, an official said. "They have now asked banks to submit data while the government is also working on a plan," an official said.

Though sources said the government was keen to implement most of the recommendations of the high-level panel, the move on enhancing credit is being seen as a fresh initiative to woo Muslim voters, who have in the recent past moved to vote for parties other than the Congress.

Through the package, which is still in the works, state-run banks will be asked to set up special cells to deal with loans for minorities besides an increased drive to get them on the list of borrowers and ensure that they get a certain share of the priority sector lending by banks.

But there are already concerns that with a special scheme for minorities along with the existing ones for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, there will be a demand from the backward classes too to get a slice of the pie.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Minority_loan_plan_on_track/articleshow/
1862975.cms











What's good for Bihar is good for India

A Stanford-India Mirror Conference took place in Patna this week. It was part of the state government's programme of confronting the state's challenges with an open mind to best practices from around the world. The conference brought together a team from the Stanford Center for International Development, members of the state government, researchers from area universities and thinktanks, members of the global and local Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and other members of civil society, to discuss policy challenges for Bihar.



The focus was not so different than the kinds of general questions that policymakers in India have on their minds: what policies would accelerate inclusive growth? Nick Hope (Stanford) made a presentation on lessons from China, Anjini Kochar (Stanford) on education policies, Ward Hanson (Stanford) on IT and growth, TN Srinivasan (Stanford) on employment generation as well as centre-state relations and AN Sharma and Pinaki Joddar on povert. We spoke on public private partnerships and investment climate.

The Chief Minister of Bihar summarised the reform and legislative initiatives over the last 15 months, and laid out his vision for the coming years. The deputy CM, ministers of HRD, RCD, energy, rural development, science and technology, apart from the chief secretary and commissioners of HRD and finance, among others, provided insights into Bihar's current strategies. Ramesh Yadava, a charter member of Silicon Valley TiE, also brought out the importance of accelerating the pace of implementation of the multiple commitments made in its recently launched Approach Paper to the XIth Plan. The theme running through all sessions: given the pressing needs, administrative challenges, and constrained financial and human resources in comparison with the task at hand, what steps deserve priority?

Some consensus did emerge:

Learn from others' experience. There's no need to re-invent the wheel in all cases. The world is full of relevant experiences, both successes and failures, to learn from. On SEZs, for example, much of the debate has focused on comparing India and China's fiscal policies. Nick Hope brought out the importance of an exit policy to wind up any special preferences once their purpose is over.

Given the many pressing needs, administrative challenges, and constrained financial and human resources in comparison with the task at hand, what steps deserve priority?

But tailor this experience to local conditions. Nick Hope's presentation on China's development strategy raised a number of suggestions that would need to be tempered to suit India's democratic setting. China's differential treatment of coastal and interior provinces, for example, would not be feasible here as a way to focus resources. Our session on mobilising investment discussed an adaptation of the strategy focus on enabling 'infrastructure clusters' like office parks, small-store retail malls, or time-share equipment shops that any citizen with an entrepreneurial bent could access, no matter how small the enterprise. These could balance the benefits of focus with the need to avoid shutting any group out of development at first.

And take advantage of India's conditions. Democracy might look like a 'constraint' when policies fail to reach consensus, vested interests block reforms, or people occupy land intended for a power plant. But it is actually an advantage in other ways. The freedom to protest provides information about preferences and needs. Confidence in challenging government policies also lets citizens act as monitors of service quality better than if they were subdued by authority. Active community groups, a byproduct of an open society, could complement governments in providing infrastructure and services.

Take unintended consequences into account. Anjini Kochar's presentation on education pointed out that education policies' focus on creating access to education by localising the school system seems to also have affected the level and variance in quality. Schools designed to serve small localities effectively become segregated when there is residential clustering. Localisation also means that school size is determined by population density more than efficiency. In the end, Professor Kochar recommended an adjustment of the policy to take these multiple dimensions into account: place pre-schools in localities to draw people into the system, but then aggregate students to the efficient scale for higher grades.

Leverage technologies to create change. India's development efforts, especially its rural policies, are taking place in an era where ICT can (in theory) mean the 'death of distance'. The challenge: to develop the content to be diffused through this network and ensure greater access. We discussed in our session the need to create an open-access rural Internet backbone to support government programmes (like agricultural extension) as well as any other applications and services that private entrepreneurs can dream up.

Rework institutions to enable change. Sessions looked at not only the state's institutions, but also the state's institutional context. TN Srinivasan emphasised the importance of rationalising intergovernmental transfers, reconsidering the role of the Planning Commission and restructuring the mechanism for Centre-state relations.

In the end, implement. Policy pronouncements are just words and aims. Changing outcomes takes concerted actions, coordinated by pragmatic strategies. In all of these areas, Bihar is not alone or unique in India. What is good for Bihar could also be good for India.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=160321












Bengal commercial bank disbursals set to exceed target

Commercial banks in West Bengal are expecting to disburse around Rs 10,581 crore against the annual credit plan of Rs 10,925 crore for the state in 2006-07.

During April to December 2006, the banks disbursed Rs 6,373 crore, which marks an increase of 24 per cent over the disbursement of Rs 5,154 crore during the corresponding period of the last year, said P K Gupta, chairman, United Bank of India and State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) said.

The banks sanctioned 1,00,168 cases under different self employment schemes registering a growth of 19 per cent over the 83,836 cases sanctioned during April to December 2005.

The banks also made savings linkage to 87,407 self help groups and credit linkages to 70,639 groups during April to December 2006.

The state government had expressed increase in credit deposit ratio up to 65 per cent. The credit-deposit ratio in the state for priority sector has improved against 61 per cent of the previous year.

The state wants the banks to raise the CD ratio of rural, semi urban, and urban areas by five percentage points during the next financial year.

State finance minister Asim Dasgupta has also advised the bankers to extend credit to two lakh unemployed youths through employment guarantee schemes during 2007-08.

Dasgupta had suggested for setting higher targets for agriculture, and small scale industries for 2007-08 with special emphasis on financing to small and marginal farmers, oral lessees, patta holders and small entrepreneurs keeping in view the requirement of the state.

The SLBC members also formed a sub-committee to look into the feasibility targets set by the state finance minister for lending exposure in agriculture and industry.

Gupta would head the committee. The other members of the committee were Allahabad Bank chairman A C Mahajan and Uco Bank chairman V Sridar.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) would also guide the committee. The committee would submit its report within a month.

In the recent state budget Dasgupta had raised the lending targets for banks significantly.

For the agriculture sector, the target was fixed at Rs 5,500 crore in 2007-08 as against Rs 3,800 crore in 2006-07. For the SME and SSI sectors the target had been raised to Rs 3,000 crore from Rs 1,500 crore.

http://www.business-standard.com/banking/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=280318 &
subLeft=1&leftnm=2













Reliance agri-retail seeks Bengal licence

KOLKATA: Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries' Rs 2,000-crore agri-retail venture in West Bengal may hit an air pocket. Reliance, with the go-ahead from the West Bengal government, has in recent weeks privately-acquired close to 270 acres from farmers for its mega agri-retail rollout.

But such land acquisition may be of little consequence since the West Bengal agri-marketing department has thrown a spanner in RIL's works by holding back the all-important APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) licence. Without an APMC licence, Reliance will be unable to re-sell any agricultural produce in West Bengal that it originally purchases from state farmers from designated APMC yards.

Reliance officials declined to divulge the transaction details of the 270-odd acres acquired from the state farmers in blocks of 10 acres each. But when contacted, senior company executives told ET: "RIL had applied for APMC licences in 16 state locations from the West Bengal State Marketing Board, in step with the provisions of Sections 13 & 17 of the West Bengal Agriculture Produce Marketing (Regulations) Act, 1972.

We have not heard from the state government since October 2006 when we had put in the licence application. We did point out that without an APMC licence, the entire feasibility of Reliance's Rs 2,000-crore agri-retail venture in West Bengal was uncertain."

Elaborating, they said: "Though we have privately acquired 270-odd acres from farmers in multiple state locations, the agri-retail venture cannot get off the ground if we do not get the APMC licence which is necessary to re-sell agricultural produce purchased from farmers."

The West Bengal government confirmed that it has received an APMC licence (for 16 locations) application from Reliance. But it has a very different take on the issue. For starters, it claims that the board, which is under the state agri-marketing department, is not the competent authority to issue an APMC licence.

Here's what Mr Bimal Pandey, principal secretary in the state agri-marketing department, had to say: "I am aware Reliance has put in an application for an APMC licence to re-sell agricultural produce procured from farmers.

Let me confirm that the West Bengal State Marketing Board is not the appropriate authority to issue such a licence. All APMC licences in West Bengal are issued by some 46-odd regulated market committees (RMCs) in the respective service areas."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Agriculture/Reliance_agri-retail_seeks_Bengal_licence/articleshow/1862922.cms











Hyd-based firm plans Rs 6,000cr port in Orissa

Navayuga Engineering Company, a Hyderabad-based company, has proposed to construct a Rs 6,000 crore port at Astaranga, a fishing jetty between Paradip and Puri in Orissa.

The company would also build a 50-km railway line linking Astaranga with the Howrah-Chennai main line on Khurda Road with an investment of Rs 400 crore on public-private-partnership mode.

C V Rao, chairman, Navayuga Engineering Company, discussed the proposal with Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday.

Jayanarayan Mishra, Orissa minister of state for commerce and transport, said the company would develop the port in the Devi river mouth in three phases on a build- own-operate-share-transfer basis with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore in the first phase.

The second and third phase of the project will comprise Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore, respectively.

Mishra said the company would require 5,000 acre at Astaranga where it has also proposed to set up a 1320 MW (660 x 2) captive power plant besides a fly-ash brick unit and desalination plant separately.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag
=IN&autono=22155












Lost in transit

Over the last 55 years India has spent around Rs 3.5 million crore in implementing its 10 five-year plans and several annual plans. This period also saw an explosive growth in population, dissipating developmental efforts over ever-increasing numbers. Until the end of the 1980s, growth was not even visible amongst the poor, making Rajiv Gandhi lament that not even a quarter of development expenditure reached the people for whom it was intended. No economist dare calculate as to what incremental output this massive outlay should be producing now.

It is only since the 1990s that there has been a notable change in the lifestyles and living standards of people, with a perceptible decline in poverty levels. This is in great measure due to the heroic efforts of our maturing youth and the sudden burst of successful entrepreneurship, helped by policies that favour competition.

While the percentage of population living below the poverty line has declined, the acuteness of poverty has increased. The unchecked suicides by farmers, the brutal attacks by Naxalites, the increase in the number of pavement shops, and the lack of state control in almost 100 districts of the country either dominated by militant separatist outfits or Naxalites, show that there is something fundamentally lacking in our delivery systems of public goods and the reach of welfare programmes intended for rural India, particularly the poor.

Poverty in India now is more an outcome of the lack of responsiveness, accountability, inefficiency and corruption of the state institutions at the field level, rather than due to lack of resources. This is compounded by ineffectual supervision by senior bureaucrats who are content to issue directions, satisfied with paper figures that are out of sync with reality.

It is not sufficient to say that growth reduces poverty. How does this growth percolate to the poor and in how much time? The current type of economic growth makes a billionaire out of a millionaire within a few days, as he is able to buy up an ailing foreign company with the support of the banks that add to his assets. It takes decades, if at all, for this growth in wealth to percolate to the poor in a district like Kalahandi or Jhabua. They are not even assured of daily bread and shelter. The administration in the country is more concerned with the Ambanis and Mittals getting their clearances in double-quick time but not so much with the fruits of government expenditure getting delivered at the right place, to the right people, at the right time.

Planning Commission statistics show an impressive growth in the number of schools, with a corresponding number of teachers and thousands of kilometres of rural roads built in all these years. Yet, literacy is nowhere near the levels of other south-east Asian countries, even after half a century of planning.

Malnutrition, curable blindness and communicable diseases still haunt rural India. Mass migration of poor tribals during summer from the districts of Jhabua, Banswara and Kalahandi (to cite a few examples) in search of employment — with children tagging along having abandoned schools and old people left behind to fend for themselves — is a heart-rending sight. How many times has the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission or its members visited a village in the remote tribal districts to study at firsthand what their plans for inclusive growth have achieved? They seem more content to discuss the theoretical aspects of inclusive growth rather than waste their time listening to a bhil from Banswara in Rajasthan or a Maria from Dantewada in Chhattisgarh who does not know who will look after her old parents when she migrates to Punjab in search of labour.

TN Seshan, when he was secretary in the ministry of environment, toured the interior villages of Bastar that were affected by a proposed hydroelectric project on which a large sum of money had already been spent. After patiently listening to the views of the tribals as to how their daily lives would be affected by the project, he refused to grant approval to the project. The dam was never built.

Urban India has also not treated its poor well. Growing numbers of the poor now occupy pedestrian pathways in metropolitan cities, eking out a miserable living. Land is acquired in no time, even with the use of force, for an industry or an SEZ — but not for constructing shops to accommodate the footpath merchants. There is a commission on the informal sector, with an erstwhile economist bureaucrat as its head. After three years of existence, what has it done for these footpath merchants?

What the finance minister fails to report in his action-taken report, which comes along with the budget documents, is physical achievements in terms of benefits delivered and quality of work executed in the field. His report does not throw any light on where the thousands of crores of agricultural credit have been used and, consequently, how much production has actually increased.

How does the budget delivery system in India actually work? The amounts allocated in the central and state budgets first go to the HODs (heads of departments). They, in turn, are dependent on their underlings — including the financial administrators (FAs) and accounts officers (AOs) — who, in the absence of anything else to exercise their authority over, raise every objection in the world before sending the allocated amounts to the states or field officers.

In the states, things are even more arduous. Allocations are placed at the disposal of the HODs sometime in May…if things go well, that is. This money now has to go to the divisional level officers and then, on to the implementing officers in the districts. If the expenditure has been approved, they can continue and spend it. Else, they have to go through another protracted process of administrative and financial sanctions. In such cases, by the time the procedures are over, the year is usually coming to a close.

In March there is a mayhem in the offices of the HODs, where all the field officers and grant-in-aid institutions line up for release of funds. Where the funds go, when they are released at the close of the financial year, is usually anybody's guess. Sometimes, they get spent on the purchase of goods. If the allocation is for roadwork, bitumen is purchased and orders for the supply of metal are placed. Work itself will probably start months later, by which time the metal and the bitumen have deteriorated, or been partly damaged, or even stolen. The result is incomplete roads of poor quality, without side berms.

Irrigation and other construction projects are no exception. Lack of supervision by senior officers — of the quality of the roads, maintenance of buildings and irrigation works — results in the wastage of public expenditure and offers scope for corruption. If the quality of the works is bad, action has to be initiated. The supervisors do not want to do this as they themselves may be partial beneficiaries of any commissions paid by the contractors. So they avoid taking action in cases of poor delivery of benefits.

In the case of an ashram school providing free education for the benefit of the tribals in Kathiwada, a remote forest village in Jhabua district, teachers' salaries could not be paid for one whole year because the commissioner did not release the grant till this author intervened with the chief secretary. The author also reported to the chief minister on the deficiencies observed in a major project during his walks along the canal banks, as requested of him by the irrigation minister. The result was that he was never asked again to continue the work —even though the minister appeared to be aghast at the deficiencies.

The recent controversies about the Rs 35,000 crore expenditure on irrigation projects not producing desired results — increase in areas under irrigation — is an example of the shoddy delivery and supervisory system in India in every department.

Teachers are appointed to work in remote rural areas with no basic amenities for their stay. Soon, with the help of powerful politicians, they get attached to schools in urban and semi-urban areas. The rural schools' rolls show a higher number of teachers than those actually available to teach. In Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh, where the population is 83 per cent tribal, about 35 per cent of the population of over a million migrate with their children, starting March, every year. Consequently, the retention rate of children, even in elementary classes, is very low.

The hospitals in Jhabua also show far more doctors on their rolls than are actually available to work. Many are attached to other city hospitals. A private cancer foundation that does yeoman service in this region, has more than once pointed out the growing incidence of certain types of cancer due to lack of hygiene, malnutrition and a host of other preventable causes. The collector laments that he cannot do anything about this as nobody listens to his complaints. The field officers, including the collector, get transferred within a year or at the most, 18 months.

The system of delivery at the field level and supervision of the activities by senior officers have all but failed. No one is held responsible except in some high-profile cases. The author, who had the privilege of working with the prime minister, had brought to his notice the miserable situation in Jhabua, and suggested solutions. But these too have gone unheeded, despite the fact that a former collector of Jhabua sits in the prime minister's office (PMO). If nothing is done before long, Naxalism will spread to this area.

Justifying regression In order to improve the public delivery systems it is necessary to:

n Prepare a district-wise plan for delivery of health, education, water supply and sanitation services, with specific targets.

n Identify the officers responsible, train them adequately and assign responsibilities, as per capacity, to deliver. Assigned officers should not be transferred till the goals are achieved. If they need to be promoted, the promotions should be in situ.

n Allot funds for programmes at the beginning of the financial year.

n Have an independent monitoring unit that will continuously appraise implementation and give feedback to supervisory authorities.

n Have an expert agency evaluate the accomplishments at the end of each year.

n Based on evaluation and monitoring, take corrective action in programmes.

n Establish a chain of communication among all levels of government and amongst professionals and institutions.

n Set up separate maintenance organisations to ensure proper maintenance of all buildings, roads, water supply schemes, irrigation works and equipments, with adequate resources.

n Reward and punish implementing and maintenance staff, on the basis of transparent objective criteria of achievements.

This will require reorganisation of the existing district administrative setup and would include the elected bodies – for purposes of assigning roles and responsibilities. At the state level, the delivery system – with respect to issuing all kinds of licences, registration of documents, granting of permission for construction of buildings, electricity connections, etc., should be brought under e-governance.

The government's administrative reforms commission (ARC) is involved with high profile issues rather than public delivery systems that affect the common man. India is unique in being the only country that has not reformed its civil service and delivery systems in order to make them more responsive, responsible and transparent.

http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/book/export/html/905

news@... Jharkhand News Network www.jharkhand.org.uk

 

 

 

 

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Jharkhand woman develops mosquito repellent with lemon grass!

Nagri (Jharkhand) April 4: A septuagenarian woman in Jharkhand has developed a unique lemon-grass-based mosquito repellent to keep mosquitoes at bay.

Neelika Lal took to gardening after her husband's death, and in the process developed repellent by cultivating lemon grass.

She now wants villagers to take up such cultivation with the larger objective of commercialising the indigenously made repellent.

"The villages are in a pathetic condition due to lack of measures to clear off stagnant water, which proves a breeding ground for mosquitoes. If the repellent is burned in all villages, it would help to ward off mosquitoes and curb malaria," claimed Neelika Lal.

After trying her hands at different things, Neelika took to lemon grass cultivation to keep herself busy and set up an oil extraction unit at her place in Nagri, a small hamlet near Ranchi, the State capital.

The strong and distinctive smell of lemon grass prompted her to use it to keep mosquitoes at bay.

During initial trials, Neelika tried burning the whole grass and found the results satisfactory. Thereafter, she went on to prepare repellent cakes out of it.

She claims that if it is properly used and marketed, the repellent can be effective in curbing mosquitoes in Jharkhand, where malaria is endemic and claims hundreds of lives every year.Neelika is, presently, distributing these repellent cakes free of cost to villagers to popularise and develop a wide scale acceptance.

Lemon grass is a main ingredient in Thai and Caribbean cuisine, but here it is mixed with rice husk and cow dung to make the mosquito repellent.

"Lemon grass is mixed with cow dung and rice husk and made into small roundels. It is then dried in the sun. After the cakes are dry, we burn them to keep off mosquitoes," said Savita, a villager who helps Neelika in making the mosquito repellents.

Apart from using lemon grass for mosquito repellent, Neelika is also making pain-relieving balm from it by mixing it with vaseline and coconut oil, which she claims, is also very effective.

In 2006, India reported around 1.04 million malaria cases and 890 deaths from the disease.

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/130796.php/70-year-old-Jharkhand-woman-develops-mosquito-repellent-with-lemon-grass

 

 

 

 

 

 

BCCL, SAIL to join hands for mining project

Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) will soon launch a joint venture with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) for underground mining at Moonidih mines in Jharkhand.

'We have already identified a patch at Moonidih XV seam and decided to go for a Rs.5 billion joint venture project of which SAIL will invest Rs.3 billion. The project will shortly be signed between BBCL and SAIL,' said BCCL chairman and managing director A.K. Paul here Wednesday.

He said BCCL will guarantee equipment and production and SAIL will chip in with money.

BCCL is a subsidiary unit of Coal India Limited (CIL). The company operates 70 mines - 68 in the Jharia Coalfield and two in the Ranigunj Coalfield.

It has 36 underground, 12 open cast and 22 mixed mines. Besides these, BCCL operates several coking and non-coking coal washeries and various other units.

To achieve a turnaround, BCCL is gearing up to augment one million tonnes of coking production annually to generate Rs.3 billion profit.

'To meet the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) target, we are trying to achieve 25 mt of production in 2007-08 and also trying to achieve Rs.5.26 billion profit, including the backlogs which we could not fulfil in last two years, in the current financial year,' said Paul, adding the company has several other projects like modernisation and upgradation of washeries in the pipeline.

'In next five years we are going to invest Rs.13.5 billion for undergoing development and upgradation works in all BCCL coking coal mines,' Paul added.

http://www.indiaprwire.com/businessnews/20070405/21821.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silk trade to get a boost

Ranchi, April 3: Jharkhand could regain its lost glory in silk production if plans undertaken by Central Silk Board (CSB) and state industry department materialise in the next 10 years.

A Rs 151 crore "perspective plan for sericulture development in Jharkhand" is being incepted from this year through a joint venture of CSB, state industry department and beneficiaries (farmers).

"We are targeting an annual raw silk production of 350 metric tonnes (MT) in six years from the existing 100 MT. The first instalment of Rs 12.67 crore has been requisitioned from CSB, a unit under the Union ministry of textiles," said joint director (sericulture) of state industry department B.C. Prasad.

The state (under unified Bihar) used to register an annual production of about 450 MT of raw silk during the 80's. West Singhbhum, Seraikela-Kharsawan (famous for Kuchai silk) and Santhal Pargana region serve as hotbeds for cultivators who are largely dependent on sale of raw silk (in cocoon form) to the middlemen at meagre prices. The state produces tasar, mulberry and eri silk.

Through the ambitious project, the government plans to undertake infrastructure development, plantation activities, training and value addition of raw silk projects from 2007-08 fiscal.

According to the agreement, the state would have to contribute 50 per cent whereas CSB is supposed to shell out over 22 per cent.

The remaining 27 per cent would be the beneficiaries' share.

Recently, the state government has taken some bold initiatives to provide a good platform to farmers as far as value addition to the product is concerned.

Ranchi-based Central Tasar Research and Training Institute would play a pivotal role in the project while extending services of training, research and development and technology transfer to farmers, said institute's director Suryanarayana.

"We have also requested RU to extend affiliation for a 15-month postgraduate diploma in sericulture. Plans are also on to rope in about 60 scientists of our institute, who would act as supervisors to Ph.D work in this sector," said Suryanarayana.

RU vice-chancellor A.A. Khan, who visited CTR and TI on March 28, said the university is keen to extend affiliation provided the syndicate clears the proposals.

Sericulture is being done in the plant species like arjuna, saal, asan and mulberry trees. The state's focus would be on non-mulberry production of silk.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070404/asp/jamshedpur/story_7604522.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

IFAD farm projects likely to be rolled out

 

 

New Delhi, Apr 1   Three projects of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) may be implemented in the country, this year, if the government sets up necessary infrastructure for its implementation.

 

Tejaswini rural women's empowerment project for select districts in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, approved by IFAD in December 2005, is in pipeline for implementation. IFAD has assured to extend a loan of $ 39.5 million for implementation of this project which involves a total investment of $ 208.7 million. This 8-year project intends to strengthen women's self-help groups (SHGs) by fostering links with banks and micro-finance institutions, improving livelihood opportunities by developing skills and fostering market linkages.

 

IFAD has also approved a similar project in December 2006 for empowering women in the mid-Gangetic plains (4 districts in UP and 2 districts in Bihar). This 8-year project entails an investment of $ 52.5 million against which IFAD has agreed to extend a loan of $ 30.2 million.

 

Another project for developing post-Tsunami sustainable livelihood opportunities in coastal Tamil Nadu was approved by IFAD in April 2005. This project entails an investment of $ 68.8 million and IFAD has agreed to extend a loan of $ 30 million. "We have been assisting projects in India since 1979 and have so far approved loans amounting to $ 564.4 million for 21 projects. Every year we approve to support one new project in India by extending loan within the range of $ 35 million. Our loan component may be small compared to the total investment but we arrange co-financing from different global agencies for the project," IFAD president, Lennart Bage told FE. IFAD also provides a small amount of grant for projects. Last year it gave a grant of $ one million to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and this year it has supported Uttaranchal Grameen Vikas Samiti with a grant of $ one million for innovation for reducing drudgery in women.

 

Bage further said that agreements for the projects are signed with the Union government which decides whether it should be implemented as a central government project or as a state government project by creating necessary infrastructure. Grants are mainly for research and innovations.

 

Thirteen IFAD-assisted projects have been completed so far which includes livelihood security project for earthquake-affected rural households in Gujarat, Mewat area development project, two Andhra Pradesh participatory tribal development projects, rural women's empowerment in select districts in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, Maharahstra rural credit project, Orissa tribal development project, Uttar Pradesh public tubewell project, Madhya Pradesh medium irrigation project, Sunderban development project, Rajasthan command area development project and Bhima command area development project.

 

"Our evaluations show that these completed projects benefited thousands of rural households. Basing on our past experiences we are eager to assist more projects in India," said Bage. There still 5 on-going projects in different parts of the country like livelihood improvement projects in the Himalayas and in the Orissa tribal belt, national micro-finance support programme being implemented by SIDBI,

 

Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh tribal development programme and northeastern region community resource management project for upland areas.

 

Bage outlined IFAD's India strategy for 2005-09 which includes providing access to micro-finance which he says has been very effective in women's self-help groups. Other aspects of IFAD's policy are to improve livelihood opportunities for communities in semi-arid tropicial regions with better water management and new farm technologies, introducing development activities in the densely populated and impoverished mid-gangetic plains, improving productivity for coastal fishing communities through sustainable means, developing partnerships with NGOs and corporate sector to re-inforce community-based approach and promoting policy change through project activities.

 

Bage said with Indian economy growing at a fast rate, the farmers need to link up with the markets for ensuring better living conditions. He also suggested that farmers should come together a set up processing units so that they can directly stand to benefit from the sales of their value-added products. Micro-finance institutions should attract deposits from the local people to encourage savings and their own viability.

  

 

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=159772

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NHRC serves notice to Bihar Chief Secretary on bonded labour

 

 

New Delhi, Apr 4: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Wednesday sent a notice to the Chief Secretary of Bihar, Ashok kumar Choudhary, over media reports which said that one farm worker had been repaying 40 kgs of rice with 27 years of bonded labour in a village about 60 km from Patna.

 

Observing that it raises serious issue of violation of human rights of the bonded labourers, the Commission has given two weeks time for reply from Choudhary.

According to media reports at least couple of farm workers at Paipura Barki village in Bihar have not been able to throw off bondage even though they have worked for nearly three decades for their "masters".

The report said that one Jawahar Manjhi, now 45-year-old, had taken rice as loan from the local moneylender for a wedding 27 years back, when he was a teenager. At that time, it was decided that Manjhi would work in the lender's field and repay with his labour. He would be given one kg of rice, which is one-third of the normal payment of three kgs for a day's work.

Since then, he has been working six days a week, eight hours a day but the loan remains to be repaid. However, he does not know how much he has repaid and how much he owes to the lender.

Manjhi cannot get away and his wife fears that her sons would also become bonded labourers as there is no money in the house.

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/130940.php/NHRC-serves-notice-to-Bihar-Chief-Secretary-on-bonded-labour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stanford University to hold mirror conference in Bihar

A leading American university is keen to help Bihar with its expertise, beginning with a 'Mirror Conference' Thursday where experts will suggest ways for development of the state.

Stanford University, one of the world's leading research and teaching institutions, was invited by the state government to hold the two-day conference here.

'The conference will prove immensely beneficial for the process of development in Bihar,' said N.K. Singh, state planning board vice-chairman.

Experts from around the world will attend the conference and come up with suggestions for the much-needed development of the state.

Singh, a former member of the Planning Commission of India, said the conference would also serve as a prelude to the eighth annual conference of Indian Economic Reforms at Stanford in June 2007.

Stanford Centre for International Development has been fostering a policy dialogue with the Indian government over the years and four years ago it started mirror conferences to involve the state governments in pursuance of new generation policy reforms.

'The conference will discuss issues like employment, poverty and public-private partnership, lessons from Chinese economic growth and challenges to the federal model of growth in the context of Bihar,' Singh said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will inaugurate the conference.

Leading experts like T.N. Srinivasan, Nicholas Hope, Anjini Kochar, Ward Hanson and Jessica Wallack will present papers on Bihar's economic strategy.

Standford University has held similar state level dialogues in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Kerala.

http://www.indiaenews.com/education/20070404/45897.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bihar school shut after Naxal threat

 

Aurangabad/Patna: The children at Amba in Bihar's Aurangabad district play on. They are oblivious of the fact that their chance of getting a formal education is in jeopardy.

Their school has been closed for two months, after Naxals threatened to blow it up, if school authorities did not pay a levy.

Their classrooms have been locked and their teachers are nowhere in sight.

"We haven't had teachers for a month. We usually come to school for a few hours, play and go home," says a student, Gulshan.

School authorities initially tried to negotiate with the Naxals, so that the functioning of the school wouldn't be affected, but talks fell through, and the school had to close down.

"The Maoists have demanded five per cent levy through a letter," says principal, Govt School, Amba, Vishwanath Singh.

Two other schools in the area are facing a similar fate, depriving over 1000 children of their right to a formal education.

However, the district administration claims there is nothing to fear.

"We are looking into the absence of teachers. There is nothing to worry about," says DM, Aurangabad, Birendra Bahadur Pandey.

The Naxals in Bihar are fighting a war of supremacy with the government. But the victims in this battle are the children whose future is being affected.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/bihar-school-shut-after-naxal-threat/37702-3.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bengal leads hunger list, poor land-man ratio blamed

 

Kolkata, Apr 3  West Bengal tops the hunger list of India, with at least 71.6 lakh suffering from food shortage and over 8.8 lakh of these not getting two square meals a day, all through the year.

 

According to the latest report of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), at least 10.6% of the rural population and 0.7% of the urban population in West Bengal do not get adequate food in some months of the year.

 

For the NSSO, 'getting enough food every day', means that the person concerned gets, by and large, sufficient food to eat. According to the 2001 census, the state had a total population of over 802 lakh, with 577 lakh in rural areas and 225 lakh in urban areas.

 

Economists say the poor land-man ratio in the state has caused pseudo-employment or disguised employment in the rural sector pushing up the poverty level.

 

The only way out, they say, is a higher level of industrialisation, which will ease the pressure on land. Industrialisation would also reduce urban poverty and migration to urban centres.

 

Abhirup Sarkar, professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, said, "though the land-productivity of the state is at the third position (after Punjab and Haryana), man-land ratio in Bengal is three times the all India average."

 

Among the states, West Bengal reported the highest percentage (9.1%) of households that did not get sufficient food for 1-3 months. Assam had about 3.6% households who reported half-fed through out the year.

 

Assam reported the highest percentage of households ( 3.6%) 'not getting enough food every day in all months of the year' followed by Orissa and West Bengal ( 1.3%). In the urban area the highest percentage was reported by Assam (2.1%), followed by Bihar (1.1%).

 

Sarkar said the increasing pressure on land, especially caused by post-Independence migration, is not commensurate with its productivity.

 

Of the population suffering from food shortage, agricultural (1.8%) and other labour (3.7%) at the rural sector account for the major portion.

 

Surprisingly, at least 29.9% of the 'Antyodaya' and 20.3% of those who hold below-poverty-line (BPL) cards have reported food shortage during the survey.

 

Dipankar Dasgupta, noted economist, who does not feel there is much of food shortage in West Bengal, said, creation of jobs would help in reducing pressure on land and cutting down the level of poverty thereby.

 

For the NSSO report 512, 61 st round, the survey year was 2004-05.

 

   

  http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=160023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orissa orders morning classes for schools

 

BHUBANESWAR: Anticipating a "scorching" summer ahead, the Orissa government on Tuesday asked all district collectors to ensure that schools and colleges remained open only during the morning hours.

"We have asked all the collectors to initiate strong actions against the principals and headmasters who disobey the government order in this regard," said Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal, adding the government has been warned of a severe heat wave this summer.

He also said that the government has been contemplating to provide free-of-cost umbrellas and water bottles to each school student in the state.

Similarly, the government has also set time frame for engaging labourers in private and government jobs.

"The employer can engage any worker from six in the morning to 11 am and 3.30 pm till 6 pm," an official release said, adding enough water should be kept where workers undertake jobs.

The government also directed for no power-cuts during the peak summers.

 

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Orissa_orders_morning_classes_for_schools/articleshow/1853464.cms

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Indian corporate responsibility – Asian giant on an ethical crash course

 

Only a few forward-looking companies have so far flown the corporate responsibility flag in India. But the rest will soon have to follow

 

Last year was a landmark year for Indian business. It began with the "India Everywhere" campaign at the World Economic Forum, where Indian business magnates, bureaucrats and economic pundits thronged the Davos platform. They pushed Indian investment in a big way. The rest of the year was spent putting their words into action.

 

Corporate takeovers by Indian multinationals reached new heights in 2006. The economy grew at 8.5% and is poised to overtake the UK, France and Italy within a decade, according to Goldman Sachs. By 2050, it will be second only to China. The high-profile Tata acquisition of Anglo-Dutch steel giant Corus appears to be only a sign of things to come.

 

Corporate responsibility has traditionally been the domain of a few enlightened companies in India. "The corporate brethren tend to leave it to the usual token CSR icons – Tata and Infosys – to provide stirring stories of social heroism, rather than come out with a compelling new story of corporate excellence," says Malini Mehra, director and founder of the Centre for Social Markets, an Indian non-governmental organisation.

 

The notion of corporate responsibility in India has traditionally been tied up with philanthropy and community development.

 

Advertisement"Philanthropy has been important in India since the middle of the 19th century, largely due to a strong heritage of community influence and paternalism among traders-turned-entrepreneurs," say authors Atul Sood and Bimal Arora in "Political Economy of Corporate Responsibility in India", a 2006 paper for the UN Research Institute for Social Development.

 

Philanthropy has now taken the form of foundations within companies that follow the Gandhian ideology of "giving back to society". Such giving is the sole manifestation of corporate responsibility for many firms.

 

Modes of thinking

 

Shefali Chaturvedi, head of the Social Development Initiative at the Confederation of Indian Industry, says there are three kinds of Indian companies when it comes to corporate responsibility: big Indian multinational corporations that have proper corporate responsibility mechanisms in place; large national companies that appreciate the value of corporate responsibility but have no inherent structures to show for it; and, the many small and medium-sized enterprises that are doing only piecemeal work at best.

 

"Most companies do not take society and the environment into consideration when planning their business activities; [they do this] only at the time of implementation, and sometimes they pay a huge price for it," says Dinesh Agrawal, general manager of corporate social responsibility at the state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation.

 

Vishakha Das, CSR manager at IT services company WeP Peripherals, adds: "There are two CR myths with regard to smaller companies [in India] – they think it's something for bigger companies with huge profits and they think it's mainly a philanthropic exercise."

 

There are forward-thinking chief executives and companies that have made corporate responsibility a solid pillar of the way they do business. But the greater number of Indian companies has failed to internalise corporate responsibility.

 

A lax regulatory environment and the absence of a joined-up civil society movement have not helped.

 

Foreign firms

 

While a community-friendly ethos has existed in India for a long time, large foreign companies have historically been responsible for bringing business ethics talk to India, under pressure from NGOs, consumers and investor groups back home.

 

But foreign companies are in fact often accused of operating to lower ethical standards in India than they do elsewhere, amid a lenient compliance and enforcement regime.

 

Take clinical trials, many of which are conducted in India by foreign pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline. A huge patient population, speciality hospitals with modern facilities, 221 medical colleges and research costs about two thirds lower than those in the US make India an attractive destination for trials.

 

Clinical trials in India, however, have been mired in controversies over unethical recruitment of patients, exaggeration of results and the underplaying of risks associated with drugs being tested. A major BBC World Service investigation last year found global pharmaceutical companies doing little to improve such perceptions, while Indian hospital ethics committees and the national legal framework have proved ineffective in tightening procedures.

 

General Electric, for example, has been accused of not controlling the use of its ultrasound equipment in pre-natal sex determination across parts of India, which is allegedly contributing to cases of female foeticide, a serious problem in the country. Cheap credit offered by GE Capital to buyers has increased sales of the ultrasound machines in the north-west of India , alleges Sabu George, consultant with the Delhi-based Business and Community Foundation.

 

GE told Ethical Corporation it was committed to preventing the misuse of its technology and fully informed customers on the issues through terms and conditions of sale, product manuals and labelling on equipment. It says a customer must have a Pre-Natal Diagnostics Techniques certificate to buy GE's ultrasound machine.

 

The multinational leaders

 

Other sectors have also been under close scrutiny in India. Big brands in the clothing sector, for instance, have been working with Indian civil society groups to raise workplace standards at their suppliers' factories.

 

There are reasonably sturdy labour laws in India but enforcement has been left wanting. The informal sector that constitutes the larger share of the labour market has suffered the most.

 

Homeworkers, for instance, have very little rights. For several years now, the UK's Ethical Trading Initiative has tried to address this with the co-operation of member companies such as Monsoon, Next and Gap. They are part of a National Homeworkers' Group consisting of suppliers, retailers and NGOs. This organisation is running a pilot project on improving working conditions in the fabric embellishment industry of Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh state, having drafted guidelines in July last year.

 

Child labour in India is prohibited in certain hazardous industries, but the government has been unwilling to apply a blanket ban on the employment of children. Among other companies, home furnishings firm Ikea is proactively addressing the issue through the economic empowerment of women in villages around its factories in north India. Ikea is also providing educational facilities for children employed previously at its suppliers' factories.

 

Caste discrimination remains an important issue that has not received much attention from companies in India. In the informal labour sector, Dalits, the lowest caste group in India, are paid at least 25% less than their upper caste counterparts. Discrimination within the educational sector against Dalits mean they remain unskilled and their opportunities are limited.

 

Referring to the furore raised over health and safety standards in India's ship-breaking industry in 2005, Coen Kompier of the International Labour Organization says the issue was not brought to attention earlier because the workers were Dalit migrant workers from the state of Orissa.

 

When it comes to freedom of association, with the exception of the growing "business process outsourcing" industry, which remains mainly union-free, most Indian industries have vocal worker communities. The right to raise a collective voice for workers' rights, however, often goes unused or is stifled, an example being the authorities' use of force in the workers' strike over layoffs at Honda's Gurgaon factory in 2005.

 

Touchy issues

 

Community groups have used their voices to send shudders through the political system. In West Bengal's Nandigram village, residents protested in early January over news that the state government had approved land acquisition for a Special Economic Zone to be set up by Indonesia's Salim Group. Seven people were reported killed in ensuing violence.

 

There was a similar violent dispute over alleged farmland grabbing by the state administration to make way for Tata Motors factory in West Bengal 's Singur village. The state's left-leaning administration, keen on attracting investment back into the state, claimed farmers had been paid adequate compensation for their land, but it appeared not all farmers had agreed to part with their property. Tata Motors remained tight-lipped throughout the episode and started construction at the site under heavy security.

 

This followed a land acquisition dispute in Kalinganagar, Orissa, in early 2005, involving Tata Steel, which led to the deaths of 12 tribal people in clashes with local police. In this case, too, Tata refrained from making any public statement, except to say it was a matter for the state government.

 

While HLL vice-chairman M K Sharma defends Tata as having been unfortunate in these episodes, Indian corporate responsibility commentators describe Tata's conduct in both these episodes as "disappointing".

 

The cases are examples of poor stakeholder engagement in India, says Viraf Mehta, chief executive of Indian NGO Partners in Change. He notes that in matters of rehabilitation, there should be consensus and the company involved should engage with the communities. This can be done by offering shares in the new enterprise, assuring them jobs or an equivalent amount of cultivable land elsewhere. All information, says Mehta, about the rehabilitation packages and the land acquired should be publicly disclosed. Amita Joseph, director of the Business and Community Foundation, adds that companies need not always involve the state when acquiring land from local people; they can transact directly.

 

Some solutions

 

According to domestic corporate responsibility managers, Indian companies need to stop looking at local communities through the prism of charity and see them as allies in the development process. Multinational corporations, meanwhile, have to become culturally sensitive to the needs of Indian society, they say.

 

This can be done through the adoption of country-specific policies and the recruitment of Indian professionals for the execution of these. Winning the trust of local communities and identifying the right partners to implement corporate responsibility initiatives on the ground will be among the challenges.

 

Joseph is of the opinion that corporate responsibility should now be legally mandated for all firms in India, imposing requirements such as a dedicated corporate responsibility department, fixed funding, and formal corporate responsibility policies and planning, with company size determining the requirements.

 

At present only five companies based in India produce CR reports aligned to the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines. While Indian firms say there is little demand for these reports from Indian stakeholder groups, Yashashree Gurjar, head of corporate social responsibility at paper company Ballarpur Industries, says the reluctance to produce responsibility reports also owes a lot to political wrangling and civil society pressure in India.

 

"Transparency is perceived as a risk. It is thought if you are too transparent, it may not be good for you," Gurjar says, suggesting that warring political parties and the activist NGO community can use publicly disclosed information to damaging ends. Gurjar thinks there is a need to produce India-specific reporting guidelines if the gamut of India's complex social and environmental issues is to be fully covered.

 

Gerard Oonk, director of the India Committee of the Netherlands, says corporate responsibility needs to become much more "political" in India for it to attract companies' attention. Notions of responsible business need greater recognition from the central and state administrations, he says.

 

Greater transparency and disclosure are also required if companies are to maintain their credibility. There are now mandatory corporate governance standards for listed companies in India, but in a study conducted earlier this year by the World Bank, the quality of disclosure was found to be very low.

 

Drivers of change

 

But this appears set to change. With more and more Indian companies launching operations overseas, they are bound to come under the global media spotlight. Ethically aware consumer groups in the west will be keen to know that the goods they buy from India are produced in a socially and environmentally friendly way. International corporate responsibility promoting coalitions and NGOs will raise the heat too. And although investor groups in India are not very active on corporate responsibility yet, socially responsible investors from abroad may step up the pressure.

 

In India, where basic compliance is still a big challenge, going beyond compliance will soon become essential. The biggest Indian companies have always been revered and considered almost untouchable by society and regulators but they will now find themselves increasingly scrutinised in the international marketplace where every company wears its ethical credentials on its sleeve.

 

On home turf as well, with the local NGO community rapidly organising itself and consumers frequently using the new Right to Information Act, it will be very difficult for Indian companies to hide. Awareness is on the rise.

 

So, as India's economic growth reaches new heights, corporate responsibility awareness will have to reach company boardrooms. The Indian government will have to exchange its laidback and sometimes protectionist attitude for a more proactive stance.

 

 

 

India and the environment: baby steps

 

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, India will become a major contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions if it does not take immediate corrective action.

India has so far refrained from joining any global greenhouse gas emissions reduction agreements. But recognising the need to respond to climate change, some Indian companies have started to think about carbon trading.

 

Nicholas Stern, economic adviser to the UK government, who has been touring the world to promote the findings of his climate change review, says he is optimistic. India is discussing the need to set up a carbon trading market where energy-efficient companies can sell their carbon reductions to firms in richer nations. He says companies are also adopting new efficient technologies as they begin to see the profitability in doing so.

 

Some proactive companies have been trying to address increasing water shortages by engaging in conservation and harvesting programmes. Protection of water supplies is a very sensitive issue in India. Coca-Cola's plant in the southern state of Kerala was shut down when it was found using a lot of water for making its soft drinks, leading to depletion in groundwater levels in the state. Groundwater pollution is a serious environmental concern in India.

 

Emerging retail sector – possible impacts

 

The retail sector boom has become a favourite talking point these days in Indian business circles. India's retail market is worth more than $200 billion and a market of such potential is hard to ignore. Reliance Industries, the first to jump on the bandwagon, now has 11 stores in the city of Hyderabad, having opened its first in September, and hopes to target at least 800 cities by 2011.

 

While national companies have been scampering to announce retail ventures, international giants have been lobbying the government hard to relax foreign direct investment laws in the multi-brand retail sector. Wal-Mart, however, was not prepared to wait. Exploiting a legal loophole, the company entered into a joint venture with Indian telecommunications leader Bharti Enterprises to launch a supermarket chain in India. The Indian left objected to Wal-Mart's "backdoor entry" but their protests found little favour with the foreign-investment-hungry administration.

 

Organised retail is expected to bring efficiency to food and agricultural supply chains in a country where poor distribution channels mean 40% of produce is wasted. It will also eliminate a lot of middlemen in the business and bring farmers closer to the end consumers.

 

There are, however, concerns. The US-based Association of Community Organisations for Reform Now has warned: "In the US, we used to get oranges from California and pineapples from Hawaii. Today, we get our pineapples from Malaysia and the Philippines because labour costs there are much cheaper. In the same way, once [Wal-Mart] enters the Indian market, if it finds Vietnamese tea is cheaper then it will flood the Indian markets with tea from that country. If, in the bargain, the Indian tea market gets destroyed then little can be done about it."

 

The Indian government will have to balance the advantages in cheaper food and efficient food distribution with strictly monitored corporate power and expansion, if it wants to avoid public outcry.

 

India – facts

 

Population: 1.095 billion (July 2006)

Population below poverty line: 25% (2002)

GDP: $875.9 billion (2006)

GDP growth rate: 8.5% (2006)

Inflation rate: 5.3% (2006)

Labour force: 509.3 million (2006)

Labour force – by occupation (2003):

agriculture (60%)

industry (12%)

services (28%)

Main industries: textiles, chemicals, food processing, steel, transportation equipment, cement, mining, petroleum, machinery, software

 

Sources: CIA World Factbook, Economist Intelligence Unit

 

Levering better business practices

 

Hindustan Lever Ltd, the Indian division of the global food and consumer goods giant Unilever, is among the few Indian national companies that have progressively incorporated corporate responsibility policies and practices in their business ethos.

 

But while HLL has adopted the same set of business principles and code of conduct as Unilever's other global subsidiaries, it has established an individual identity for itself in the Indian corporate responsibility field.

 

M K Sharma, HLL vice-chairman, says the company's corporate responsibility policies and practices are integral to the business.

 

Besides its flagship project, Shakti, HLL is involved in many other rural social and economic development projects, including India's largest private sector initiative to increase health and hygiene awareness among children.

 

Sharma highlights the potential of public-private partnerships in India. "PPPs are hugely important but grossly under-exploited," he says. Sharma believes inefficiencies in the Indian administration, which partly result from corruption, mean much potential funding goes unutilised, and he advocates the setting up of PPPs to counter the bureaucratic hurdles. For this, he says, companies and NGOs should shed their "individualistic" attitudes and build a relationship of trust and collaboration.

 

The Shakti project is based on company board member C K Prahalad's "bottom of the pyramid" theory, which encourages businesses to target the entrepreneurs and consumers among the world's poor. Shakti gives HLL brand retailing rights to rural women from self-help groups. But critics are concerned the project unduly favours women who have collateral to back them up when taking micro-finance loans for their business. Sharma denies this.

 

Referring to HLL's tea business, Sharma rejects allegations made in ActionAid's 2005 "Tea break" report that workers on the company's tea plantations in India were exploited. He says the tea sector is very well regulated and HLL pays its workers more than the legal minimum wage and respects all their rights. He claims discussions with ActionAid had made clear the report was based on the experience of a temporary worker for whose livelihood HLL cannot be held responsible after the termination of his contract.

 

Sharma is confident that with rising consumer awareness and increasing foreign direct investment, corporate responsibility as a trend will pick up. For that, he says, the Indian government, which has done a lot on the policy side, will now have to work on the implementation of those policies.

 

 http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content_print.asp?ContentID=4992

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mittal, Tata, Posco splurge on CSR

After protests and deaths at Nandigram and Kalinga Nagar, steel companies are working on big-ticket corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in areas where their investments have or will result in the displacement of a large number of people.

LN Mittal, who is a frontrunner for acquiring a 51 per cent stake in Sesa Goa from Mitsui and has announced plans for projects in Jharkhand and Orissa worth Rs 40,000 crore each, is planning a $2 billion (Rs 8,600 crore) foundation.

Tentatively called LN Mittal Global Foundation, it will focus on education, health and sports in Goa, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh. Its executives are working out details with the central government, sources said.

A sports academy in particular is targeted at identifying talent among tribal communities in the areas where Mittal Steel will be operating.

Tata Steel, which continues to face problems over land acquisition for its small car project in West Bengal, its greenfield steel plant at Kalinga Nagar in Orissa, and now for its $2.3 billion project at Bailadila in Chhattisgarh, will unveil a Rs 100-crore CSR project this month.

The country's largest private manufacturer of steel has discussed the package with VANI, a pan-India network of 2,200 NGOs. A final round of talks is expected in Chhattisgarh this month.

Besides the CSR package, the Tata Steel Parivar, an outfit formed recently to formulate rehabilitation strategies for the Tatas, has come out with a policy at Kalinga Nagar. The idea is to persuade people to vacate the 2,000-acre site.

At Gopalpur where a SEZ has been proposed, the Tatas have already unveiled a CSR package.

The company has also started a significant amount of capacity-building at Singur, the location of its small car project, in collaboration with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. Technical training is being imparted to local people ahead of a job selection process.

Posco, the Korean steel firm which has entered Orissa, has also chalked out a detailed CSR action plan. Its deputy director in Delhi, however, declined comment

http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/apr/04csr.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Check out the web version of J-News only at  jharkhand.org.in  

 

 

 

Topchanchi, the century-old artificial lake surrounded by hills and forests and situated 36 km (north) of Dhanbad district headquarters, has been the only escape for many Dhanbad citizens from urban drudgery. Developed during the British period (around 1918), the site was once an artist's paradise.

Topchanchi at a glance:

Area: 18,625.99 hectare  Population: 1,40,378 residing in 126 villages under 28 panchayats

Brief: It is the largest forest reserve of the district and has a forestland spread over 8,135.19 acres. It has a wildlife sanctuary, at present comprising six deer and 116 wild boars. Former prime minister late Indira Gandhi, in the memory of her father Pt Jawaharlal Nehru had inaugurated the sanctuary in the mid seventies. The sanctuary is spread over 8.75 km and falls under Hazaribagh wildlife division

Unfortunately, like many other places in the state, Topchanchi represents a tale of paradise lost with red scare holding its fans to ransom. Now, it has turned into a no man's land with the Naxalites stalking the site from the mid-90s.

However, hopes of former glory being restored to this century-old site was revived of late when the district administration approved a proposal to beautify Topchanchi. The mega project comprises mending two small bridges over Lalki Nala and Dholkatta Nala — culverts that were damaged by a heavy flood some 15 years ago — construction of a road, a pavilion, putting up gates, the installation of swings and slips for children at a park and finally electrification in some areas.

The tourism department has sanctioned a total of Rs 1 crore for the work, deputy development commissioner -cum-managing director of the Mineral Area Development Authority (Mada), J.P. Singh said

As much as Rs 26,72,250 has been released to the road construction division of the public works department (PWD) for the construction of the bridges and the road, while Rs 3,7500 has been given for electrical work to the executive engineer of Dhanbad electric supply division. Meanwhile, Mada has also received a Rs 20-lakh package for the construction of a pavilion in the middle of the lake.

Mada holds a special place in the area. It runs a successful water filter plant at Topchanchi (installed at the time of the British Raj), which has a capacity of filtering 40 lakh gallons of water per day.

To begin with, the proposal for reviving Topchanchi was sent to the tourism department by Mada a couple of years ago. Officials claim the project was not flagged off, thanks to a number of "impediments". The revised estimate was again sent early last year and was cleared in August. The work began a month ago, but was stalled just before Holi and never resumed.

Reason: Maoists reportedly "tormented" labourers and local contractors for "levy", a common spanner that intercepts a government's developmental programme. The workers were threatened to stay away from work. Being informed of the situation, police superintendent Sheetal Oraon and district administration officials inspected the site and asked the workers to resume work, pledging them complete security.

But it seems almost impossible to wish away the red glare. The problem lingers and scared labourers are not turning up at the site anymore.

On being told about the quandary, director of tourism department Deepak Singh acknowledged that they have received reports from the executing agencies in this respect. Drawing a parallel with Madhuban in Giridih district, Singh said the Naxalites had also targeted the area because of its importance as a tourist destination. The Indian Tourism Development Corporation's (ITDC) development work there had to be discontinued after Naxalites blew up a guesthouse there.

"We are identifying more such sites under Maoist threats at present. After this, we shall take a decision about the modus operandi to undertake tourism development work at those problematic sites," Singh added.

According to South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR), the levy from contractors vary between five and 10 per cent of the revenue. It depends upon the work-order and amount. Any kind of government or private work, small or big, is subject to the levy.

Unofficial figures peg the annual revenue from extortion in the Bihar-Jharkhand region alone at Rs 3.2 billion. The levy is the outcome of the "rate cards" distributed by the Maoists in 2006 for extortion, the SAIR states.

According to the card, Rs 8,000 is the annual charge from manual crushers, Rs 15,000 from brick-kiln owners, Rs 17,000 from mechanised crushers, Rs 25,000 from petrol pump owners and Rs 70,000 from coal sidings. The SAIR claims that the money is collected to maintain a team of experts employed in the technical wings of the banned outfit, which, according to police reports, cost the Naxalites more than Rs 2 million

 http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070403/asp/jamshedpur/story_7600521.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ST/SC students among IIM-C graduates

 

 

Out of 247 management graduates passing out of the IIM-Kolkata, around 50 belong to the SC/ST category.

These students have come a long way. Many have gotten jobs at multinational companies with an average salary of Rs 15 lakh per annum. And what helped them realize their dream of coming this far is the quota allotted for the SC's/ST's.

"I am really feeling proud of myself that I had the caliber to pass out of this esteemed institute," said Swapnil Khandekar, IIM-C graduate.

"The SC/ST reservation quota has made a hell of a lot of difference in the lives of people deprived of such opportunities in education and employment for a long time," said Jayant Ramtikae, another IIM-C graduate.

But there is one regret. While most of these students are happy with their placements there are a few who feel they have lost out on job offers from companies abroad because they lacked the requisite communication skills.

Sky is the limit

Still they have gone further than their parents could ever have hoped.

"Just because of reservation, one cannot get away in the admission process if he has got one or two marks less. It is due to their sheer hard work that these children have succeeded," said Paravati Khandekar, a parent.

"I had this thought that when Dr Ambedkar could work hard and go abroad and be successful, then why not my kids," said Suryawant Ramtikae, another parent.

A management degree from IIM-C gives them a sense of achievement they have always desired.

And having got jobs with multi national companies and plum salary packages too, for these young managers now, the sky is the limit.

 

 http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070007472

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Biometric cash machines bring joy

 

Vaishali, Bihar: These days Mahendra Sahni, a daily wage worker in India's most backward state of Bihar,

struts up to a gleaming new cash machine in his village to withdraw his hard earned money.

The middle-aged, illiterate fish farmer from Vaishali district makes about 2,000 rupees a month ($44).

For years he used to waste nearly a day getting to the bank and queuing up to get his wages.

Now, when he inserts a cash card into the machine, he is greeted with an voice instruction in Hindi: "Please put your thumb on the specified space."

When he does that, crisp currency notes roll out of the machine with the voice saying, "Your cash is ready. Please accept it."

Sahni and 14 other poor daily wage workers from Vaishaligarh and neighbouring areas are among the first villagers in Bihar to have access to biometric cash machines to withdraw their money.

"This shows how science has made progress and can be used for poor village people like us," says Sahni.

The biometric cash machines are custom-made for people who cannot read or write and use features like fingerprint verification and voice guided animated screens and easy navigation.

The federal government has now announced that everybody in Vaishali employed under its ambitious new National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme will get their wages through these new cash machines.

The scheme promises some 60 million households in India a level of financial protection through guaranteed work or unemployment benefit.

Banking made easy

For the moment, the cash machine run by the state-run Central Bank of India, is targeting some 210 daily wage workers in the area.

"It is basically for poor workers like Sahni who cannot read or write their names. Banking for them will become easy with these cash machines," says the bank's local manager Pranay Kumar.

Biometric cash machines promise to change banking in rural India

The biometric cash machines work through a series of processes.

First, the fingerprint of an account holder is captured through a scanner at the time of the opening of the account.

A template is created for each fingerprint and stored in the cash card given to the customer.

When Sahni goes to the cash machine and inserts the cash card, his fingerprint is captured using an inbuilt scanner and it is matched with the impression stored in the cash card.

Central Bank's executive director K Subramanyam says biometric devices will go a long way in offering banking services in India's villages where 70% of its people live.

Payment through cash machines will also protect the workers from local contractors who routinely extract a cut from their wages in return of getting them on the list of government employment schemes.

For the moment, Sahni and his neighbours are happy to have discovered a hassle-free way of withdrawing their meagre savings.

The entire procedure of cycling to the branch and going through the paperwork with help from others and waiting in the queue for the money took up valuable work time.

The other day, he picked up 1,000 rupees in five minutes flat from the cash machine and cycled back home to begin work again.

"Withdrawing money couldn't be a better experience," he says.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6478627.stm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Family ties hope for renal patients

 

- Mass awareness can help curb kidney smuggling rackets; all can donate and live healthy life

Ranchi, April 2: Lack of awareness about transplantation led a mother to refuse to donate one of her kidneys to save her child who suffered from renal failure.

This is not an exception. Many well-educated families react negatively when it comes to donating a kidney for their loved ones, even though it is a well-known fact that we are born with an additional kidney.

Strange as it may sound, but a 30-year-old married woman from Hazaribagh with damaged kidneys has been left to die as both her Bihar-based parents — the mother is a police officer while the father, a high court lawyer — have refused to help. Moreover, the woman's brother has also refused.

Married to a businessman, the mother of a two-year-old is hoping to find a donor, as her husband's blood group does not match hers (A+). Having already spent over Rs 4 lakh in treatment all over the country, the family was finally approached by a young boy from Gaya, Bihar, who was ready to donate a kidney for a price, but they refused. "My father was against taking a kidney from a young boy. Besides, it could have been a trap," the husband of the ailing woman said.

Nephrologists believe refusal from blood relations has given rise to kidney smuggling. "If parents and siblings refuse, who will donate? Won't people look for paid donors?" a city-based nephrologist asked. After refusal from relatives of the same blood group one can only opt for lifelong dialysis that costs between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000 monthly, which all cannot afford.

Nephrologist Ghanshyam Singh, who was instrumental in starting kidney transplantation at Ranchi-based Apollo Hospital, points out that there is a shortage of organs and the only solution is donation. "People should be made to realise that God has given them two kidneys and they can lead a healthy life even without one," said Singh.

Another nephrologist, Ashok Kumar Vaidya, cites examples where both the donor and the patient are leading a healthy life. "There is a student of DAV, Shyamali, whose mother donated her kidney about two years ago. Three years ago, a Chutia-based boy also went through a transplant. All the four are happy and healthy," said Vaidya.

A good example of donation can be found in the family of businessman R.P. Singh, closely related to Ranchi district transport officer (DTO) Shivendra Kumar Singh. The DTO says with pride that Singh's daughter-in-law volunteered to donate her kidney. "They family has gone to Chandigarh and the operation is scheduled for April 7. She is one looking after the aged man the most," he said. She has set an example, added Singh.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070403/asp/jamshedpur/story_7600523.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

650 goats sacrificed in Orissa to appease deity

 

Bhadrak (Orissa), April 2 (IANS) Around 650 goats were sacrificed at a Kali temple in Orissa as part of an annual ritual despite a ban by the local administration, an official said Monday.

 

 

The sacrifice was made at the Rakshya Kali temple at Rameswarpur village in Bhadrak district, about 170 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, Saturday night. The incident came to light Monday after some officials and villagers reported it.

 

 

The mass sacrifice is held once a year in the Hindu month of Chaitra. 'Our village is always guarded by Rakshya Kali. It is a 72-year-old tradition,' villager Dibakar Barik told IANS.

 

 

'Earlier, devotees used to offer buffaloes as sacrifice. Now we sacrifice goats,' he said.

 

 

According to local police, who witnessed the event, the area around the temple's sacrificial altar was soaked in blood. The animals were first garlanded before being led to the altar and their cries got drowned by the beating of drums.

 

 

Some devotees even scrambled to touch the blood of the sacrificed animals, believed to be auspicious and a good omen, while some even smeared it on their forehead, an official said on condition of anonymity.

 

 

Last year, animal rights activists had launched protests when hundreds of goats were sacrificed at the same temple in the presence of Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal. The activists had also burnt an effigy of the minister.

 

 

A week ago, the district administration made an attempt to stop the practice. Top district and police officials had held a meeting with temple committee members and villagers.

 

 

It was decided that only one animal would be sacrificed, but the devotees flouted the agreement, the official said.

 

 

According to him, a 15-year-old girl of the village rushed to the temple with a group of villagers and claimed she was the personification of the deity. She threatened to kill anyone who stopped the sacrifice. The frightened devotees continued the practice, he said.

 

 

'We are helpless,' district collector N.K. Burma said. 'It can only be stopped when the people want and for that we are creating awareness.'

 

 

http://www.andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=21086

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Tribe defends 'hill god' from foreign miner

LANJIGARH: Their thick, ancient forests shelter leopards, elephants and even the odd tiger, their slopes are home to an isolated tribe, but the "curse" of eastern India's Niyamgiri hills lies beneath the soil.

Massive deposits of bauxite have brought Britain's Vedanta Resources to this remote corner of the state of Orissa, where they have already built a $900 million alumina refinery.

Just a stone's throw from its gleaming new facility, a few hundred people gathered in the shade of mango trees in Lanjigarh in mid-March for the latest protest against the company.

Among them, Dickcha Majhi, who walked for five hours from her remote village to the small town, a member of the 8000-strong Dongria Kondh tribe, who worship an Earth Goddess and revere the hills as their protector Niyam Raja.

"She is our mother and he is our beloved lord," said the small 30-year-old woman, rows of colourful beads around her neck, golden rings through her nose and through her ears, her frizzy hair held down firmly with a dozen metal hair clips.

"If you hand the hill over, the hill god will eat us."

As eastern India engages in a headlong but increasingly controversial rush to industrialise and exploit its vast mineral resources, Vedanta's plans to turn the top of the Niyamgiri range into open-cast mines has emerged as a key battleground.

It is a battle not about whether to industrialise, but how to do it, and how to compensate the losers. And it is being waged in the courts and in the streets at the same time.

Conservationists say the miners could and should have chosen other hills, instead of risking the rich biodiversity of Niyamgiri, and have taken the issue to the Supreme Court.

On the ground, tribal farmers worry their traditional lands and livelihoods will disappear once mining begins. They are being coralled by local Congress party politician Bhakta Charan Das, who promises to stage a mass march on the site in mid-April.

"By the time they reach here, the site will be gheraoed (encircled) by 50,000 people and the administration will be paralysed," he threatened.

"BLATANT VIOLATION"

An elephant corridor, and the only known home of the rare golden gecko in Orissa, the hills were proposed as a wildlife sanctuary in the 1990s.

The Wildlife Society of Orissa dismisses Vedanta's pledge to spend millions of dollars protecting wildlife.

"How will they manage the wildlife? Take them out and keep them in five-star hotels?" asked Biswajit Mohanty.

"Seventy-three million tonnes of bauxite will be taken out. You can't mitigate the effects of that."

The Vamsadhara river rises from the range and more than 30 streams from the mining site, providing water which sustains hundreds of thousands of people, conservationists say. Mining will destroy those sources, they argue.

In September 2005, a Supreme Court committee recommended that "the use of forest land in an ecologically sensitive area like the Niyamgiri Hills should not be permitted."

It also condemned the Ministry of Environment and Forests for a "blatant violation" of its own guidelines for the refinery to be built without getting clearance to mine in the hills, much of which is protected forest under Indian law.

But Vedanta, along with the state and central governments, have fought back hard. The company says the bauxite lies in the top 25-30 metres of the 1,000 metre-high hills, and promises to protect water sources lower down from contamination.

It will fill up pits with residues as it goes along, and plant new trees, said refinery head Sanjeev Zutshi.

The Supreme Court will now refer the case to the Forest Advisory Committee, an expert panel. But that will only happen when the court and the government resolve a separate row about who should sit on that committee.

FORGING AHEAD

In the meantime, Vedanta is forging ahead. The refinery carried out a test run in March. Some of the pillars to carry a conveyor belt from the mine to the plant have already been built.

Zutshi says 17 locals are working in the refinery and 50 more are being trained. Hundreds might get jobs from local contractors as shovel men, to sweep out spillage and drain slurry. But employment for all is simply not possible in an industry which requires small numbers of skilled workers.

"There is one big issue which is difficult to address, and that is the issue of employment," he said. "These people unfortunately are not educated at all, most of them are illiterate."

Instead Vedanta says it has sponsored health and education in local villages as well as alternative income-generating projects.

But the company's claim to popular support was belied by February's local elections, where Congress-backed candidates running on anti-Vedanta tickets dominated, Das said.

Two hours drive away on a rocky, dirt road, a few Dongria Kondh tribesmen and women sat outside their thatched roof huts, their filthy and malnourished children dressed in rags beside them, berries fermenting in the sun to make homemade liquor.

Vedanta says the mines will not affect the slopes on which these people live, only the summits and ridges which they worship. But already people here fear the worst.

"The earth is our mother," said 26-year-old Verang Majhi, rejecting any talk of compensation to leave ancestral lands. "Would you leave your mother for money?."

Later, as dusk drew in and the lights of the refinery dominated the night sky, Reuters visited the village of Bandhaguda, right up against the wall of the plant.

Daka Majhi said all 32 men of his village were arrested by police and jailed for seven days last year, with scarcely any food and water, for staging a peaceful protest outside the refinery.

Their women were threatened by police while Vedanta completed the wall around the plant, cutting the people off from their pond, cremation grounds and much of their fields, he said.

Zutshi contested that version of events, and said repeated efforts had been made to reach out to the villagers, even offering them resettlement at one point, only to be obstructed by a handful of people who wanted "heaps of money."

Vedanta, he insisted, was not the bully that politician Das made it out to be. Nor could it afford to be.

"The days are gone when you can impose yourself, surround yourself with goons and policemen, and browbeat every Tom, Dick and Harry," he said. "It's not going to work, it's not a long-term solution at all."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4012813a7693.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women cadres call the shots

KOLKATA: Woman power is on the rise among Maoist extremists in West Bengal. Since the appointment of 23-year-old Sabita Kumari as commander-in-chief of the Maoists, more women are being put in charge of action squads than ever before.

The Intelligence Branch (IB) of the West Bengal police reports that women are being deployed in larger numbers as they are more efficient in avoiding police dragnets, following inputs from central agencies that mega industrial projects may be the next target of the extremists.

Investigating officials are of the opinion that this new trend has evolved after 23-year old Sabita Kumari was unanimously elected as the commander-in-chief of the Maoist action squad of West Bengal.

Kumari was earlier in charge of the Maoist guerrilla outfit in Dantewada, Chattisgarh and has been given a new assignment in West Bengal, at a secret meeting of the Maoists at Bangriposi in Orissa.

According to IB intelligence, Kumari set about organising and strengthening action squads, in the three stronghold districts of Bankura, Puruliya and West Midnapore, immediately after being handed over charge. As a part of this strategy, she recruited female comrades from other states, all of whom received training in sophisticated weapons and explosives at a secret Maoist training centre in Jharkhand.

Most of them are sharp-shooters and are also trained in firing at moving targets. As per police records, Kumari too received her training at the same centre. 

High level IB sources told DNA that the basic advantage of inducting women guerrillas from other states is that at the initial stage the police do not have adequate information about their details and movements.

Born in Prabira village of Jharkhand and a science graduate from Dultongunj College, Kumari joined the Maoists in 2000. She is on the Chattisgarh most-wanted list and several cases are registered against her, which include killing of police officers, political leaders and helping fellow Maoists escape from police lock

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1088710

 

 

 

 

 

MEANS AND ENDS   The east Asian model for development will not work in Bengal

The author is professor of economics, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta

Raskolnikov, theoretically the murderer in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, had resolved to kill an old woman who was greedy, malicious, charged interest and was so sick that she was likely to die on her own in a month or so. By murdering and robbing her, Raskolnikov intended to make his mother happy, deliver his sister from her bondage, finish his university education, go abroad, and then for the rest of his life be honest, firm and unswerving in fulfilling his duties to humanity. Could his noble end justify his means? It was an ethical question and Dostoevsky took the moral stand that it could not.

Moral stands are not fashionable these days. In these troubled times, when dozens and scores are getting murdered in the name of industrialization, in feuds over land acquisition, no one seems to bother about ethical questions. But quite apart from morality and ethics, there are practical issues too. Can we go ahead with our plans of industrialization in an awful mess like this?

No doubt Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has taken his drive for industrialization seriously. He and his party associates are Marxists seeking to achieve capitalist ends. To accomplish these ends, they are using private incentives and market forces along with coercion and brute muscle power. Being brought up in the Stalinist tradition of thinking, they are not too scrupulous about the methods they take to achieve their goals. For them, ends do justify the means.

The drive for industrialization entailed wooing investors on the one hand, and acquiring land for industries and infrastructure on the other. Bhattacharjee and his deputies decided to woo the investors by giving them subsidies, incentives, tax breaks and low-interest loans. They have even gone to the extent of raising money from the market at the going rate of interest to finance these huge industrial subsidies, expecting future economic activities in the state to go up and yield so much tax revenue that the debt can be easily repaid. Quite expectedly, the endeavour had a favourable effect on potential investors and on those who were sympathetic to market-oriented reforms. As entrepreneurs gradually changed their perception about the state and seriously started considering West Bengal as their next investment destination, Bhattacharjee was hailed by a wide spectrum of people, cutting across party lines, industry houses and the different strata of society.

The other part of the endeavour, the more important part in our opinion, was related to acquiring land for industrialization. Unfortunately, very little thought, energy and effort went into the planning of this part. Compensation and rehabilitation questions were largely ignored. Perhaps it was decided that the formidable political machinery of the party would take care of resentments arising out of eviction, and if verbal persuasion failed, brute force would be applied. In other words, when it came to the question of land acquisition, the Stalinist selves of Bhattacharjee and his party raised their ugly heads.

The practice of using brute force to achieve economic ends was not confined to Stalin's Soviet Russia alone. In the Britain of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, prospects of selling woollen manufactures in the European markets suddenly came up in a big way. Consequently, the village commons, which were cultivated till then on a communal basis, were enclosed for sheep-grazing. The peasant farmer was evicted from his traditional livelihood and the gentlemen sheepgrowers, armed with royal support, prospered along with the merchants and manufacturers. According to some estimates, 2.76 per cent of the total land was enclosed and 50,000 persons were forcefully evicted.

This was no small number in a country whose total population around the year 1600 was about four million. Most historians agree that the enclosure movement, and the consequent eviction of tillers from land, led to large-scale conversion of farmers into a mass of vagrant and unemployable labour force gradually turning into beggars and thieves. The onslaught continues even today. According to the National Research Centre for Resettlement in China, forty five million people were displaced by development projects in that country between 1950 and 2000. The eviction, of course, involved a lot of brute force. There are, however, a couple of fundamental differences between 17th-century Britain, Stalinist Russia and the People's Republic of China on the one hand and West Bengal on the other.

Unlike the former set of countries, we do have a functioning democracy, however faulty it might appear to be. Moreover, our state is not even a country, it is only a small part of a larger nation. These differences have important bearings on the strategies we can possibly adopt for industrialization.

Bhattacharjee's government is trying to apply the east Asian model of development for the economic betterment of West Bengal. According to this model, the investor is treated like a king as long as he performs. He gets all possible benefits, subsidies and incentives from the government on the condition that he has to deliver. If he fails to do so, he is kicked out of the market because subsidies are often time-bound and short-lived. On the other hand, humanitarian considerations are largely kept aside if they hinder the investors' interests. Land is taken away from the farmers for industrial use without much compensation and by force if necessary. Savage labour laws are imposed upon the workers. The buzzword is growth. Growth, and only growth, sanctifies all possible wrongdoing.

The model has produced miracles in east Asia, certainly in terms of growth, though not always in terms of human development. But it can hardly work for West Bengal even to raise the rate of growth. For one thing, being a part of a larger country, West Bengal has to compete with other states to attract investment. But if we indulge ourselves in the expensive game of attracting investments by bidding up subsidies, we cannot punish the non-performer, for if subsidies are withdrawn the investor can threaten to pack up and move to some other region. A slower but much surer way is to attract the investors by building up good infrastructure and ensuring labour-market harmony.

In the latter case, market forces can take care of non-performance and inefficiency. More important, the recent incidents in Nandigram and Singur, and the ensuing anger and protest they have generated all over the state and the country, clearly point to the fact that in a functioning democracy like ours, the coercive method of land acquisition is untenable, not only from a moral standpoint, but also as a matter of practical policy.

Coercion worked only in countries where governments were authoritarian enough to suppress voices of protest, as in east Asia. Over the last few years, Bhattacharjee and his associates have been talking a lot about investors' perception about West Bengal, about how it has improved over the years and how it ought to improve further in the near future. The Nandigram incident has sent a clear message to them. It has demonstrated that like the investors' perception, the people's perception about the process of industrialization is also important, probably more important in a functioning democracy.

If the majority, or even a sizeable minority, perceives that industrialization is going to hurt, then it will be impossible to carry out. Bhattacharjee should read and understand this message. If he fails to do so, it will be a disaster for the state, because it is industrialization alone that can lift West Bengal from the depths of poverty and destitution. The Nandigram carnage should also teach the policy-makers that the means are as important as the ends.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070403/asp/opinion/story_7597169.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

RRSS prevails, C'garh too bans sex course

AIPUR, APRIL 2 : The Chhattisgarh government has decided to end its Adolescence Education Programme. Days after similar steps were initiated by neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and two years after it introduced the programme in Classes IX and XI, the Raman Singh government asked the Chhattisgarh State Council for Educational Research and Training to immediately stop sex education in state schools, while instructing the SCERT to find ways "compatible with Indian culture" to create AIDS awareness among students.

The decision to abandon sex education in schools was taken after senior RSS functionaries objected to the "explicit material" being used in the Adolescent Education Programme, forcing the Chief Minister to direct SCERT to remove "objectionable" material and photographs which "do not have a place in Indian culture".

Senior SCERT officials involved in the development and implementation of the programme had tried to convince the Chief Minister about the merits of the programme, urging him not to abandon it. But Raman bowed to the RSS's demands. "The SCERT has been told to remove graphic anatomical pictures from the kit meant for teachers," an official, baffled by the government's decision, said.

Incidentally the step to remove sex education from school curriculum comes even as the RSS lobby, which has been keen to remodel the education system, managed to include yoga in the state school curriculum recently.

Speaking to The Indian Express, SCERT Director Nand Kumar confirmed that the government had sought "remodelling" of the Adolescence Education Programme. "We have been asked to remove photographs which were deemed too explicit and replace these with sketches and find other ways to create AIDS awareness," he said.

The Chief Minister has also asked the SCERT to make a presentation of the remodelled programme, after which a decision on the future of the programme would be taken.

The programme was introduced in the state two years back and under it, Classes IX, X and XI students were to be imparted sex education and told about AIDS. About 725 teachers were provided training by the National AIDS Control Organisation and Unicef for making children aware about AIDS, in a project which cost Rs 25 lakh and had been implemented in a majority of districts in the state.

The government's move has been severely criticised by people behind the project. "Scrapping the programme is not the solution. We need to find ways in which a student can be taught about AIDS and given sex education that does not affect the cultural sensitivity prevalent in an area," Joint Secretary, Council Of Boards of Secondary Education (COBSE), Puran Chand said.

He pointed out that a few months ago COBSE, a consultative and apex body of education boards in the country, had launched a package on adolescent education and requested each state government to implement it. "However, due to non-cooperation from various states we have not been able to integrate sex education in the syllabus," he added, stating that only 17 of the member 41 boards had replied positively to COBSE's initiative.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/27352.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Check out the Jharkhand Video only at  jharkhandi.org  

 

 

 

 



Green beauty reels from red glare

It has claimed many victims, who succumbed to the spell of its lush hills and peaceful waters over the years. For many people, Topchanchi is a slice of peaceful green paradise on earth, which even Bengal's biggest cine star Uttam Kumar could not resist. He wanted a bungalow near it.

Topchanchi, the century-old artificial lake surrounded by hills and forests and situated 36 km (north) of Dhanbad district headquarters, has been the only escape for many Dhanbad citizens from urban drudgery. Developed during the British period (around 1918), the site was once an artist's paradise.

Topchanchi at a glance:

Area: 18,625.99 hectare Population: 1,40,378 residing in 126 villages under 28 panchayats

Brief: It is the largest forest reserve of the district and has a forestland spread over 8, 135.19 acres. It has a wildlife sanctuary, at present comprising six deer and 116 wild boars. Former prime minister late Indira Gandhi, in the memory of her father Pt Jawaharlal Nehru had inaugurated the sanctuary in the mid seventies. The sanctuary is spread over 8.75 km and falls under Hazaribagh wildlife division

Unfortunately, like many other places in the state, Topchanchi represents a tale of paradise lost with red scare holding its fans to ransom. Now, it has turned into a no man's land with the Naxalites stalking the site from the mid-90s.

However, hopes of former glory being restored to this century-old site was revived of late when the district administration approved a proposal to beautify Topchanchi. The mega project comprises mending two small bridges over Lalki Nala and Dholkatta Nala â€" culverts that were damaged by a heavy flood some 15 years ago â€" construction of a road, a pavilion, putting up gates, the installation of swings and slips for children at a park and finally electrification in some areas.

The tourism department has sanctioned a total of Rs 1 crore for the work, deputy development commissioner -cum-managing director of the Mineral Area Development Authority (Mada), J.P. Singh said

As much as Rs 26,72,250 has been released to the road construction division of the public works department (PWD) for the construction of the bridges and the road, while Rs 3,7500 has been given for electrical work to the executive engineer of Dhanbad electric supply division. Meanwhile, Mada has also received a Rs 20-lakh package for the construction of a pavilion in the middle of the lake.

Mada holds a special place in the area. It runs a successful water filter plant at Topchanchi (installed at the time of the British Raj), which has a capacity of filtering 40 lakh gallons of water per day.

To begin with, the proposal for reviving Topchanchi was sent to the tourism department by Mada a couple of years ago. Officials claim the project was not flagged off, thanks to a number of "impediments". The revised estimate was again sent early last year and was cleared in August. The work began a month ago, but was stalled just before Holi and never resumed.

Reason: Maoists reportedly "tormented" labourers and local contractors for "levy", a common spanner that intercepts a government's developmental programme. The workers were threatened to stay away from work. Being informed of the situation, police superintendent Sheetal Oraon and district administration officials inspected the site and asked the workers to resume work, pledging them complete security.

But it seems almost impossible to wish away the red glare. The problem lingers and scared labourers are not turning up at the site anymore.

On being told about the quandary, director of tourism department Deepak Singh acknowledged that they have received reports from the executing agencies in this respect. Drawing a parallel with Madhuban in Giridih district, Singh said the Naxalites had also targeted the area because of its importance as a tourist destination. The Indian Tourism Development Corporation's (ITDC) development work there had to be discontinued after Naxalites blew up a guesthouse there.

"We are identifying more such sites under Maoist threats at present. After this, we shall take a decision about the modus operandi to undertake tourism development work at those problematic sites," Singh added.

According to South Asia Intelligence Review (SAIR), the levy from contractors vary between five and 10 per cent of the revenue. It depends upon the work-order and amount. Any kind of government or private work, small or big, is subject to the levy.

Unofficial figures peg the annual revenue from extortion in the Bihar-Jharkhand region alone at Rs 3.2 billion. The levy is the outcome of the "rate cards" distributed by the Maoists in 2006 for extortion, the SAIR states.

According to the card, Rs 8,000 is the annual charge from manual crushers, Rs 15,000 from brick-kiln owners, Rs 17,000 from mechanised crushers, Rs 25,000 from petrol pump owners and Rs 70,000 from coal sidings. The SAIR claims that the money is collected to maintain a team of experts employed in the technical wings of the banned outfit, which, according to police reports, cost the Naxalites more than Rs 2 million

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070403/asp/jamshedpur/story_7600521.asp














ST/SC students among IIM-C graduates

Out of 247 management graduates passing out of the IIM-Kolkata, around 50 belong to the SC/ST category.

These students have come a long way. Many have gotten jobs at multinational companies with an average salary of Rs 15 lakh per annum. And what helped them realize their dream of coming this far is the quota allotted for the SC's/ST's.

"I am really feeling proud of myself that I had the caliber to pass out of this esteemed institute," said Swapnil Khandekar, IIM-C graduate.

"The SC/ST reservation quota has made a hell of a lot of difference in the lives of people deprived of such opportunities in education and employment for a long time," said Jayant Ramtikae, another IIM-C graduate.

But there is one regret. While most of these students are happy with their placements there are a few who feel they have lost out on job offers from companies abroad because they lacked the requisite communication skills.

Sky is the limit

Still they have gone further than their parents could ever have hoped.

"Just because of reservation, one cannot get away in the admission process if he has got one or two marks less. It is due to their sheer hard work that these children have succeeded," said Paravati Khandekar, a parent.

"I had this thought that when Dr Ambedkar could work hard and go abroad and be successful, then why not my kids," said Suryawant Ramtikae, another parent.

A management degree from IIM-C gives them a sense of achievement they have always desired.

And having got jobs with multi national companies and plum salary packages too, for these young managers now, the sky is the limit.

http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070007472












Biometric cash machines bring joy

Vaishali, Bihar: These days Mahendra Sahni, a daily wage worker in India's most backward state of Bihar,

struts up to a gleaming new cash machine in his village to withdraw his hard earned money.

The middle-aged, illiterate fish farmer from Vaishali district makes about 2,000 rupees a month ($44).

For years he used to waste nearly a day getting to the bank and queuing up to get his wages.

Now, when he inserts a cash card into the machine, he is greeted with an voice instruction in Hindi: "Please put your thumb on the specified space."

When he does that, crisp currency notes roll out of the machine with the voice saying, "Your cash is ready. Please accept it."

Sahni and 14 other poor daily wage workers from Vaishaligarh and neighbouring areas are among the first villagers in Bihar to have access to biometric cash machines to withdraw their money.

"This shows how science has made progress and can be used for poor village people like us," says Sahni.

The biometric cash machines are custom-made for people who cannot read or write and use features like fingerprint verification and voice guided animated screens and easy navigation.

The federal government has now announced that everybody in Vaishali employed under its ambitious new National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme will get their wages through these new cash machines.

The scheme promises some 60 million households in India a level of financial protection through guaranteed work or unemployment benefit.


Banking made easy

For the moment, the cash machine run by the state-run Central Bank of India, is targeting some 210 daily wage workers in the area.

"It is basically for poor workers like Sahni who cannot read or write their names. Banking for them will become easy with these cash machines," says the bank's local manager Pranay Kumar.
Biometric cash machines promise to change banking in rural India. The biometric cash machines work through a series of processes.

First, the fingerprint of an account holder is captured through a scanner at the time of the opening of the account.

A template is created for each fingerprint and stored in the cash card given to the customer.

When Sahni goes to the cash machine and inserts the cash card, his fingerprint is captured using an inbuilt scanner and it is matched with the impression stored in the cash card.

Central Bank's executive director K Subramanyam says biometric devices will go a long way in offering banking services in India's villages where 70% of its people live.

Payment through cash machines will also protect the workers from local contractors who routinely extract a cut from their wages in return of getting them on the list of government employment schemes.

For the moment, Sahni and his neighbours are happy to have discovered a hassle-free way of withdrawing their meagre savings.

The entire procedure of cycling to the branch and going through the paperwork with help from others and waiting in the queue for the money took up valuable work time.

The other day, he picked up 1,000 rupees in five minutes flat from the cash machine and cycled back home to begin work again.

"Withdrawing money couldn't be a better experience," he says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6478627.stm













Family ties hope for renal patients

- Mass awareness can help curb kidney smuggling rackets; all can donate and live healthy life

Ranchi, April 2: Lack of awareness about transplantation led a mother to refuse to donate one of her kidneys to save her child who suffered from renal failure.

This is not an exception. Many well-educated families react negatively when it comes to donating a kidney for their loved ones, even though it is a well-known fact that we are born with an additional kidney.

Strange as it may sound, but a 30-year-old married woman from Hazaribagh with damaged kidneys has been left to die as both her Bihar-based parents â€" the mother is a police officer while the father, a high court lawyer â€" have refused to help. Moreover, the woman's brother has also refused.

Married to a businessman, the mother of a two-year-old is hoping to find a donor, as her husband's blood group does not match hers (A+). Having already spent over Rs 4 lakh in treatment all over the country, the family was finally approached by a young boy from Gaya, Bihar, who was ready to donate a kidney for a price, but they refused. "My father was against taking a kidney from a young boy. Besides, it could have been a trap," the husband of the ailing woman said.

Nephrologists believe refusal from blood relations has given rise to kidney smuggling. "If parents and siblings refuse, who will donate? Won't people look for paid donors?" a city-based nephrologist asked. After refusal from relatives of the same blood group one can only opt for lifelong dialysis that costs between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000 monthly, which all cannot afford.

Nephrologist Ghanshyam Singh, who was instrumental in starting kidney transplantation at Ranchi-based Apollo Hospital, points out that there is a shortage of organs and the only solution is donation. "People should be made to realise that God has given them two kidneys and they can lead a healthy life even without one," said Singh.

Another nephrologist, Ashok Kumar Vaidya, cites examples where both the donor and the patient are leading a healthy life. "There is a student of DAV, Shyamali, whose mother donated her kidney about two years ago. Three years ago, a Chutia-based boy also went through a transplant. All the four are happy and healthy," said Vaidya.

A good example of donation can be found in the family of businessman R.P. Singh, closely related to Ranchi district transport officer (DTO) Shivendra Kumar Singh. The DTO says with pride that Singh's daughter-in-law volunteered to donate her kidney. "They family has gone to Chandigarh and the operation is scheduled for April 7. She is one looking after the aged man the most," he said. She has set an example, added Singh.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070403/asp/jamshedpur/story_7600523.asp












650 goats sacrificed in Orissa to appease deity

Bhadrak (Orissa), April 2 (IANS) Around 650 goats were sacrificed at a Kali temple in Orissa as part of an annual ritual despite a ban by the local administration, an official said Monday.

The sacrifice was made at the Rakshya Kali temple at Rameswarpur village in Bhadrak district, about 170 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, Saturday night. The incident came to light Monday after some officials and villagers reported it.

The mass sacrifice is held once a year in the Hindu month of Chaitra. 'Our village is always guarded by Rakshya Kali. It is a 72-year-old tradition,' villager Dibakar Barik told IANS.

'Earlier, devotees used to offer buffaloes as sacrifice. Now we sacrifice goats,' he said.

According to local police, who witnessed the event, the area around the temple's sacrificial altar was soaked in blood. The animals were first garlanded before being led to the altar and their cries got drowned by the beating of drums.

Some devotees even scrambled to touch the blood of the sacrificed animals, believed to be auspicious and a good omen, while some even smeared it on their forehead, an official said on condition of anonymity.

Last year, animal rights activists had launched protests when hundreds of goats were sacrificed at the same temple in the presence of Revenue Minister Manmohan Samal. The activists had also burnt an effigy of the minister.

A week ago, the district administration made an attempt to stop the practice. Top district and police officials had held a meeting with temple committee members and villagers.

It was decided that only one animal would be sacrificed, but the devotees flouted the agreement, the official said.

According to him, a 15-year-old girl of the village rushed to the temple with a group of villagers and claimed she was the personification of the deity. She threatened to kill anyone who stopped the sacrifice. The frightened devotees continued the practice, he said.

'We are helpless,' district collector N.K. Burma said. 'It can only be stopped when the people want and for that we are creating awareness.'

http://www.andhracafe.com/index.php?m=show&id=21086

Tribe defends 'hill god' from foreign miner

LANJIGARH: Their thick, ancient forests shelter leopards, elephants and even the odd tiger, their slopes are home to an isolated tribe, but the "curse" of eastern India's Niyamgiri hills lies beneath the soil.

Massive deposits of bauxite have brought Britain's Vedanta Resources to this remote corner of the state of Orissa, where they have already built a $900 million alumina refinery.

Just a stone's throw from its gleaming new facility, a few hundred people gathered in the shade of mango trees in Lanjigarh in mid-March for the latest protest against the company.

Among them, Dickcha Majhi, who walked for five hours from her remote village to the small town, a member of the 8000-strong Dongria Kondh tribe, who worship an Earth Goddess and revere the hills as their protector Niyam Raja.

"She is our mother and he is our beloved lord," said the small 30-year-old woman, rows of colourful beads around her neck, golden rings through her nose and through her ears, her frizzy hair held down firmly with a dozen metal hair clips.

"If you hand the hill over, the hill god will eat us."

As eastern India engages in a headlong but increasingly controversial rush to industrialise and exploit its vast mineral resources, Vedanta's plans to turn the top of the Niyamgiri range into open-cast mines has emerged as a key battleground.

It is a battle not about whether to industrialise, but how to do it, and how to compensate the losers. And it is being waged in the courts and in the streets at the same time.

Conservationists say the miners could and should have chosen other hills, instead of risking the rich biodiversity of Niyamgiri, and have taken the issue to the Supreme Court.

On the ground, tribal farmers worry their traditional lands and livelihoods will disappear once mining begins. They are being coralled by local Congress party politician Bhakta Charan Das, who promises to stage a mass march on the site in mid-April.

"By the time they reach here, the site will be gheraoed (encircled) by 50,000 people and the administration will be paralysed," he threatened.

"BLATANT VIOLATION"

An elephant corridor, and the only known home of the rare golden gecko in Orissa, the hills were proposed as a wildlife sanctuary in the 1990s.

The Wildlife Society of Orissa dismisses Vedanta's pledge to spend millions of dollars protecting wildlife.

"How will they manage the wildlife? Take them out and keep them in five-star hotels?" asked Biswajit Mohanty.

"Seventy-three million tonnes of bauxite will be taken out. You can't mitigate the effects of that."

The Vamsadhara river rises from the range and more than 30 streams from the mining site, providing water which sustains hundreds of thousands of people, conservationists say. Mining will destroy those sources, they argue.

In September 2005, a Supreme Court committee recommended that "the use of forest land in an ecologically sensitive area like the Niyamgiri Hills should not be permitted."

It also condemned the Ministry of Environment and Forests for a "blatant violation" of its own guidelines for the refinery to be built without getting clearance to mine in the hills, much of which is protected forest under Indian law.

But Vedanta, along with the state and central governments, have fought back hard. The company says the bauxite lies in the top 25-30 metres of the 1,000 metre-high hills, and promises to protect water sources lower down from contamination.

It will fill up pits with residues as it goes along, and plant new trees, said refinery head Sanjeev Zutshi.

The Supreme Court will now refer the case to the Forest Advisory Committee, an expert panel. But that will only happen when the court and the government resolve a separate row about who should sit on that committee.

FORGING AHEAD

In the meantime, Vedanta is forging ahead. The refinery carried out a test run in March. Some of the pillars to carry a conveyor belt from the mine to the plant have already been built.

Zutshi says 17 locals are working in the refinery and 50 more are being trained. Hundreds might get jobs from local contractors as shovel men, to sweep out spillage and drain slurry. But employment for all is simply not possible in an industry which requires small numbers of skilled workers.

"There is one big issue which is difficult to address, and that is the issue of employment," he said. "These people unfortunately are not educated at all, most of them are illiterate."

Instead Vedanta says it has sponsored health and education in local villages as well as alternative income-generating projects.

But the company's claim to popular support was belied by February's local elections, where Congress-backed candidates running on anti-Vedanta tickets dominated, Das said.

Two hours drive away on a rocky, dirt road, a few Dongria Kondh tribesmen and women sat outside their thatched roof huts, their filthy and malnourished children dressed in rags beside them, berries fermenting in the sun to make homemade liquor.

Vedanta says the mines will not affect the slopes on which these people live, only the summits and ridges which they worship. But already people here fear the worst.

"The earth is our mother," said 26-year-old Verang Majhi, rejecting any talk of compensation to leave ancestral lands. "Would you leave your mother for money?."

Later, as dusk drew in and the lights of the refinery dominated the night sky, Reuters visited the village of Bandhaguda, right up against the wall of the plant.

Daka Majhi said all 32 men of his village were arrested by police and jailed for seven days last year, with scarcely any food and water, for staging a peaceful protest outside the refinery.

Their women were threatened by police while Vedanta completed the wall around the plant, cutting the people off from their pond, cremation grounds and much of their fields, he said.

Zutshi contested that version of events, and said repeated efforts had been made to reach out to the villagers, even offering them resettlement at one point, only to be obstructed by a handful of people who wanted "heaps of money."

Vedanta, he insisted, was not the bully that politician Das made it out to be. Nor could it afford to be.

"The days are gone when you can impose yourself, surround yourself with goons and policemen, and browbeat every Tom, Dick and Harry," he said. "It's not going to work, it's not a long-term solution at all."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4012813a7693.html

Women cadres call the shots

KOLKATA: Woman power is on the rise among Maoist extremists in West Bengal. Since the appointment of 23-year-old Sabita Kumari as commander-in-chief of the Maoists, more women are being put in charge of action squads than ever before.

The Intelligence Branch (IB) of the West Bengal police reports that women are being deployed in larger numbers as they are more efficient in avoiding police dragnets, following inputs from central agencies that mega industrial projects may be the next target of the extremists.

Investigating officials are of the opinion that this new trend has evolved after 23-year old Sabita Kumari was unanimously elected as the commander-in-chief of the Maoist action squad of West Bengal.

Kumari was earlier in charge of the Maoist guerrilla outfit in Dantewada, Chattisgarh and has been given a new assignment in West Bengal, at a secret meeting of the Maoists at Bangriposi in Orissa.

According to IB intelligence, Kumari set about organising and strengthening action squads, in the three stronghold districts of Bankura, Puruliya and West Midnapore, immediately after being handed over charge. As a part of this strategy, she recruited female comrades from other states, all of whom received training in sophisticated weapons and explosives at a secret Maoist training centre in Jharkhand.

Most of them are sharp-shooters and are also trained in firing at moving targets. As per police records, Kumari too received her training at the same centre.

High level IB sources told DNA that the basic advantage of inducting women guerrillas from other states is that at the initial stage the police do not have adequate information about their details and movements.

Born in Prabira village of Jharkhand and a science graduate from Dultongunj College, Kumari joined the Maoists in 2000. She is on the Chattisgarh most-wanted list and several cases are registered against her, which include killing of police officers, political leaders and helping fellow Maoists escape from police lock

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1088710












MEANS AND ENDS

The east Asian model for development will not work in Bengal

The author is professor of economics, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta


Raskolnikov, theoretically the murderer in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, had resolved to kill an old woman who was greedy, malicious, charged interest and was so sick that she was likely to die on her own in a month or so. By murdering and robbing her, Raskolnikov intended to make his mother happy, deliver his sister from her bondage, finish his university education, go abroad, and then for the rest of his life be honest, firm and unswerving in fulfilling his duties to humanity. Could his noble end justify his means? It was an ethical question and Dostoevsky took the moral stand that it could not.

Moral stands are not fashionable these days. In these troubled times, when dozens and scores are getting murdered in the name of industrialization, in feuds over land acquisition, no one seems to bother about ethical questions. But quite apart from morality and ethics, there are practical issues too. Can we go ahead with our plans of industrialization in an awful mess like this?

No doubt Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has taken his drive for industrialization seriously. He and his party associates are Marxists seeking to achieve capitalist ends. To accomplish these ends, they are using private incentives and market forces along with coercion and brute muscle power. Being brought up in the Stalinist tradition of thinking, they are not too scrupulous about the methods they take to achieve their goals. For them, ends do justify the means.

The drive for industrialization entailed wooing investors on the one hand, and acquiring land for industries and infrastructure on the other. Bhattacharjee and his deputies decided to woo the investors by giving them subsidies, incentives, tax breaks and low-interest loans. They have even gone to the extent of raising money from the market at the going rate of interest to finance these huge industrial subsidies, expecting future economic activities in the state to go up and yield so much tax revenue that the debt can be easily repaid. Quite expectedly, the endeavour had a favourable effect on potential investors and on those who were sympathetic to market-oriented reforms. As entrepreneurs gradually changed their perception about the state and seriously started considering West Bengal as their next investment destination, Bhattacharjee was hailed by a wide spectrum of people, cutting across party lines, industry houses and the different strata of society.

The other part of the endeavour, the more important part in our opinion, was related to acquiring land for industrialization. Unfortunately, very little thought, energy and effort went into the planning of this part. Compensation and rehabilitation questions were largely ignored. Perhaps it was decided that the formidable political machinery of the party would take care of resentments arising out of eviction, and if verbal persuasion failed, brute force would be applied. In other words, when it came to the question of land acquisition, the Stalinist selves of Bhattacharjee and his party raised their ugly heads.

The practice of using brute force to achieve economic ends was not confined to Stalin's Soviet Russia alone. In the Britain of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, prospects of selling woollen manufactures in the European markets suddenly came up in a big way. Consequently, the village commons, which were cultivated till then on a communal basis, were enclosed for sheep-grazing. The peasant farmer was evicted from his traditional livelihood and the gentlemen sheepgrowers, armed with royal support, prospered along with the merchants and manufacturers. According to some estimates, 2.76 per cent of the total land was enclosed and 50,000 persons were forcefully evicted.

This was no small number in a country whose total population around the year 1600 was about four million. Most historians agree that the enclosure movement, and the consequent eviction of tillers from land, led to large-scale conversion of farmers into a mass of vagrant and unemployable labour force gradually turning into beggars and thieves. The onslaught continues even today. According to the National Research Centre for Resettlement in China, forty five million people were displaced by development projects in that country between 1950 and 2000. The eviction, of course, involved a lot of brute force. There are, however, a couple of fundamental differences between 17th-century Britain, Stalinist Russia and the People's Republic of China on the one hand and West Bengal on the other.

Unlike the former set of countries, we do have a functioning democracy, however faulty it might appear to be. Moreover, our state is not even a country, it is only a small part of a larger nation. These differences have important bearings on the strategies we can possibly adopt for industrialization.

Bhattacharjee's government is trying to apply the east Asian model of development for the economic betterment of West Bengal. According to this model, the investor is treated like a king as long as he performs. He gets all possible benefits, subsidies and incentives from the government on the condition that he has to deliver. If he fails to do so, he is kicked out of the market because subsidies are often time-bound and short-lived. On the other hand, humanitarian considerations are largely kept aside if they hinder the investors' interests. Land is taken away from the farmers for industrial use without much compensation and by force if necessary. Savage labour laws are imposed upon the workers. The buzzword is growth. Growth, and only growth, sanctifies all possible wrongdoing.

The model has produced miracles in east Asia, certainly in terms of growth, though not always in terms of human development. But it can hardly work for West Bengal even to raise the rate of growth. For one thing, being a part of a larger country, West Bengal has to compete with other states to attract investment. But if we indulge ourselves in the expensive game of attracting investments by bidding up subsidies, we cannot punish the non-performer, for if subsidies are withdrawn the investor can threaten to pack up and move to some other region. A slower but much surer way is to attract the investors by building up good infrastructure and ensuring labour-market harmony.

In the latter case, market forces can take care of non-performance and inefficiency. More important, the recent incidents in Nandigram and Singur, and the ensuing anger and protest they have generated all over the state and the country, clearly point to the fact that in a functioning democracy like ours, the coercive method of land acquisition is untenable, not only from a moral standpoint, but also as a matter of practical policy.

Coercion worked only in countries where governments were authoritarian enough to suppress voices of protest, as in east Asia. Over the last few years, Bhattacharjee and his associates have been talking a lot about investors' perception about West Bengal, about how it has improved over the years and how it ought to improve further in the near future. The Nandigram incident has sent a clear message to them. It has demonstrated that like the investors' perception, the people's perception about the process of industrialization is also important, probably more important in a functioning democracy.

If the majority, or even a sizeable minority, perceives that industrialization is going to hurt, then it will be impossible to carry out. Bhattacharjee should read and understand this message. If he fails to do so, it will be a disaster for the state, because it is industrialization alone that can lift West Bengal from the depths of poverty and destitution. The Nandigram carnage should also teach the policy-makers that the means are as important as the ends.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070403/asp/opinion/story_7597169.asp












RRSS prevails, C'garh too bans sex course

AIPUR, APRIL 2 : The Chhattisgarh government has decided to end its Adolescence Education Programme. Days after similar steps were initiated by neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra and two years after it introduced the programme in Classes IX and XI, the Raman Singh government asked the Chhattisgarh State Council for Educational Research and Training to immediately stop sex education in state schools, while instructing the SCERT to find ways "compatible with Indian culture" to create AIDS awareness among students.

The decision to abandon sex education in schools was taken after senior RSS functionaries objected to the "explicit material" being used in the Adolescent Education Programme, forcing the Chief Minister to direct SCERT to remove "objectionable" material and photographs which "do not have a place in Indian culture".

Senior SCERT officials involved in the development and implementation of the programme had tried to convince the Chief Minister about the merits of the programme, urging him not to abandon it. But Raman bowed to the RSS's demands. "The SCERT has been told to remove graphic anatomical pictures from the kit meant for teachers," an official, baffled by the government's decision, said.

Incidentally the step to remove sex education from school curriculum comes even as the RSS lobby, which has been keen to remodel the education system, managed to include yoga in the state school curriculum recently.

Speaking to The Indian Express, SCERT Director Nand Kumar confirmed that the government had sought "remodelling" of the Adolescence Education Programme. "We have been asked to remove photographs which were deemed too explicit and replace these with sketches and find other ways to create AIDS awareness," he said.

The Chief Minister has also asked the SCERT to make a presentation of the remodelled programme, after which a decision on the future of the programme would be taken.

The programme was introduced in the state two years back and under it, Classes IX, X and XI students were to be imparted sex education and told about AIDS. About 725 teachers were provided training by the National AIDS Control Organisation and Unicef for making children aware about AIDS, in a project which cost Rs 25 lakh and had been implemented in a majority of districts in the state.

The government's move has been severely criticised by people behind the project. "Scrapping the programme is not the solution. We need to find ways in which a student can be taught about AIDS and given sex education that does not affect the cultural sensitivity prevalent in an area," Joint Secretary, Council Of Boards of Secondary Education (COBSE), Puran Chand said.

He pointed out that a few months ago COBSE, a consultative and apex body of education boards in the country, had launched a package on adolescent education and requested each state government to implement it. "However, due to non-cooperation from various states we have not been able to integrate sex education in the syllabus," he added, stating that only 17 of the member 41 boards had replied positively to COBSE's initiative.

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/27352.html

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Parents brave heat for exam

Ranchi, April 1: Parents of aspiring doctors had a tough time today as they waited for three hours outside the 22 centres in the city while their wards were taking the all India level preliminary examination organised by CBSE for taking admission in medical courses.

Over 14,000 candidates from different parts of Jharkhand and Bihar appeared at the centres located across the city. Sources said about 60 special buses had come from Patna with the examinees and their parents.

Shilpa Mishra, who has come from Jamshedpur to appear in the examination, said she would have missed her examination if she had not have started early.

"My centre was Ram Tahal Choudhary High School at Booty. I started at 8.30 from my relative's house in Harmu. But, due to traffic congestion at some stretches at Main Road, I could reach just 10 minutes before the examination," she said.

Some students were heard saying that they had spent the night at the railway station due to the non-availability of space.

"Of the 14,000 students, about 8,000 had come from other places. City hotels could not accommodate such a large numbers of students. In the situation, I had to spend the night at Ranchi railway station with my parents," said Nidhi Kumari.

Mahesh Bareja, a CBSE representative in Jharkhand and principal of Delhi Public School, said over 1,000 candidates appeared from his school while centres were at all big schools of the city.

About 1,600 of five lakh students will be shortlisted for medical courses in different colleges of the country. Main examination is scheduled to be held on May 13.

Deputy commissioner Kamal Kishore Soan said he had no information of any untoward incident from any part of the city during the examination.

Meanwhile, according to sources, 20 students were restrained from participating in the examination due to their late arrival at the centres. Bareja said he restrained one student at his centre when he reached the centre by 10.30 am.

   http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070402/asp/jamshedpur/story_7595629.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CCL apprehensive about new Jharkhand mines

 

RANCHI, April 1: Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), a major coal company under Coal India Limited, is yet to start any mining works at its five new proposed sites in Jharkhand, thanks to the lackadaisical attitude of the Jharkhand state government.

The projects at Magadh, Amrapali, NorthUrimari, Konar and Karo, most of which are in the Chatra district of the state, are yet to kicked off by CCL as the district administration is yet to hand over the requisite land to the company.

"We have been approaching the state government for quite sometime as all preparations to start mining from the proposed sites have been readied. But, the deputy commissioner of the respective district is yet to acquire the land from the residents, pay them adequate compensations as per the rules and vacate the land for us. The mandatory second level forest clearance has also been completed by the state government, which is again a major hindrance for us to start any mining works at the sites," said Mr RP Ritolia, chairman and managing director, CCL, in Ranchi today.

Informing about the performance of CCL during the last fiscal, Mr Ritolia said, the company has achieved a record production level of 41.35 million tons during 2006-07 fiscal. and has already set a target of 44 million tons.

However achieving a record production level has also posed problems for the company, as its pithead stock has gone up from eight million tons at the start of April last year, to 10.5 million tons, at the same time, this year.

CCL has decided to celebrate 2007-08 as the year of welfare, community development and environment.

"Focus on community development was always there and after registering a profit of Rs 1,028 crore against a budgeted profit of Rs 984 crore during the 2006-07 fiscal, our obligations have gone up manifold," Mr Ritolia said. The company has also paid Rs 391.97 crore to the Jharkhand state government as royalty amount for coal extractions

 

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=12&theme=&usrsess=1&id=151719

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rural roads scheme misses target by 54%

The ambitious rural road connectivity programme of the UPA government recorded a dismal performance in 2006-07, falling short of the target by nearly 54 per cent.

According to the targets under the Bharat Nirman programme, nearly 35,182 km roads were to be constructed during the year. The total sanctioned amount for the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) for 2006-07 was Rs 38,569 crore, of which the value of work done was less than half, at Rs 18,886 crore.

A look at the progress of the PMGSY reveals that only 16,328 km of new roads were laid till February 2007. In addition, work on the upgrade and renewal of the existing roads fell 34 per cent short of the target. As against the target of 54,669 km for 2006-07, only 36,590 km of roads were completed.  LOSING MOMENTUM New connectivity under Bharat Nirman in 2006-07 (in km) State Target Achievement Bihar 3929 236 Jharkhand 2594 225 West Bengal 2573 842 Madhya Pradesh 6162 2504 Arunachal Pradesh 637 95 Chhattisgarh 4368 2068 Assam 2864 1128 Total (of 28 states) 35182 16329

Under the PMGSY, the government initially plans to connect all habitations with a population of 1,000 or more in the plains, and 500 in the hill states and tribal and desert areas.

Subsequently, areas with a population of 500 (250 in the case of hill states, and tribal and desert areas ) are to be covered. About 3.68 lakh km of new roads are to be constructed. Another 3.70 lakh km of roads are to be upgraded or renewed.

Nearly 18 states, including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand were not able to achieve the target for 2006-07. In contrast, states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Punjab achieved the target.

According to the government data, Jharkhand was short of the target by 91 per cent, West Bengal by nearly 67 per cent and Madhya Pradesh by 60 per cent.

It seems that the companies implementing the PMGSY also failed to keep pace in 2005-06. The companies were short of the target by 19 per cent.

 

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?leftnm=lmnu2&subLeft=1&autono=279541&tab=r

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let The Cream Percolate

Growth gains meaning only with more jobs, less leakage of funds

 

Economic growth has had a good run in India for the last 25 years—especially so since 1994. At the same time, the growth story is every now and then punctuated by news of insurgencies, mass movements against the system, and farmer suicides. This surprises some people. But it ought not to. If you look at the statistics, you would realise that while the boom is genuine, it is largely concentrated at the top. This is not to deny that poverty has gone down. By the best estimates, the fraction of people living below the poverty line (BPL) is between 22-28 per cent.   

  

 India has as high as 45 per cent of its workers self-employed. We need to reach out to this segment.   But 220-275 million BPL people is an intolerably large number, especially when you realise that we are talking about abject poverty—people living on approximately Rs 500 or less a month.

 

It is not surprising then that this huge segment, which   sees the newspaper headlines celebrating India and watches the glitz and success of India, feels marginalised and left out of the great Indian transformation. This "other side" of India usually escapes attention. The poor with their mundane lives do not make news. So, it is easy for this segment to slip out from our attention, until something major happens, like a sudden string of farmer suicides. It will be wrong to dismiss these kinds of behaviour as misguided.

 

Having said this, it has to be pointed out that the connection between growth and poverty is an intricate and widely misunderstood one. Growth is essential to eradicate poverty. But growth is not sufficient. We need deliberate, complementary policies to distribute the spoils of growth wider.

 

Employment: So while the government continues to work on growth, there should be a whole set of parallel mechanisms that aims to draw people out from poverty. Measures like the NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) alone will not have sustainable impact. We need policies to ensure a rise in the demand for labour from the private sector. One thing that is happening in India is that employment is not keeping in step with growth. From 1993 to 1999, the rise in employment was substantially below overall growth. Fortunately, in the last three or four years, employment has started picking up, so that we are now back again to roughly the 1993 level. Another labour market phenomenon that is not widely noted is that an astonishingly high number of India's workers—around 45 per cent—are self-employed. India needs an original strategy to reach out to this segment of workforce.

 

One reason why the nation has so much self-employment is because of the defects in our laws guiding the employer-employee relation. These laws were inherited by India from the British and it is time to reappraise and reform them. This will facilitate the growth of the manufacturing sector, which can cause a surge in the demand for labour. And this will enable workers to bargain for themselves—for better wages, better working conditions, better severance conditionalities. We will not have to rely on the whimsies of our policymakers to dole these benefits out as they see fit.

 

Delivery Mechanism: There are two things required to improve the delivery of basic health and educational facilities. We need to allocate more money for this—all the same recognise that money is not enough as a lot of it can dissipate through leakages. So while stepping up allocations, we need to monitor that the services are actually being delivered. In the case of education, there are studies to show that in state-run primary schools, 25 per cent of the teachers are absent from school at any random point of time. On top of this, there are teachers who are physically there but not teaching. This means that over a quarter of allocations are literally being doled out for nothing.This is partly a matter of culture, which explains why there is performance gap between states—in Maharashtra, absenteeism is 14 per cent, in Jharkhand 42 per cent. Still, India's rise in literacy rate in the last decade has been the fastest since Independence. The reason is that the urge to educate has increased among households. It's time the government steps in with a better delivery of services. With the demand already there, it can get better returns on each rupee.

 

This has a general lesson for India. With the economy booming like never before, there's scope for reaching out to the poor of a kind we have never had. It will be a shame if we let this opportunity pass.

 

Author is the Professor And Director at Cornell University

 

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20070409&fname=DCol+Kaushik+Basu+(F)&sid=1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It can pay to be a beggar in India


NEW DELHI - In a country of myriad social and economic mixes, this is one more. Some say it pays to be a beggar in India. It represents an estimated Rs2 billion (about US$50 million) business in the commercial hub Mumbai. Begging is estimated to be a Rs1.5 billion industry in Delhi, employing 50,000 people.

Most beggars originate from the more than 200 million Indians who continue to live under impoverished conditions, surviving on less than $1 a day. Benefits of growth have trickled down, with more than 200 million crossing the poverty line in the past two decades, but there is a huge mass yet untouched.

Innumerable visitors to India, when they return home, carry back images of beggars knocking desperately on their car windows or pestering them at tourist locations.

Though there is a very dark side to begging in India, of exploitation of children and forced amputations, the organized aspects of the begging business have also come to the fore.

Some have been more than lucky. Recently, the media carried the story of a female beggar named Sarvatia Devi from the impoverished state of Bihar, who pays an annual insurance premium of Rs36,000 ($800), a princely sum for many. She has money stashed away in bank accounts. The report said Sarvatia has traveled across the country and has even been on a pilgrimage to many holy places.

"It's fun traveling on trains free of cost. I board any train and beg till I reach my destination," she said.

Sarvatia's case is similar to those of some Mumbai bargirls who have amassed huge wealth from the largesse extended by their very rich clients. The scale of earnings of some bargirls who inhabited the dance bars that have been banned now is, of course, much more.

But the begging business model is sound. Indians are known to be in a very generous mood during holy occasions such as festivals or temple visits, celebrations such as marriages or success in jobs or exams. Families have followed the tradition of giving away alms to the poor for generations. Beggars, like cows, are tolerated on Indian roads as many consider it their religious duty ( dharma) to give away alms.

Some beggars have had it better than others. There have been several instances of beggars fighting cases in courts by hiring lawyers to defend their right to beg after being picked up by the police. A beggar found dead on the roadside in Mumbai had hundreds of thousands of rupees stashed away under the mattress on which he died.

Film director Madhur Bhandrakar, known for entertaining yet meaningful cinema, spent more than a year researching the subject of begging in Mumbai that resulted in the recent movie Traffic Signal.

Bhandrakar portrays beggars as human beings with emotions and attachments, but ends up preaching the status quo rather than finding a way out the morass for the people involved. However, the film does illuminate quite a bit of the back-channel systems that run the show. It is a deep-rooted mafia, involving politicians, municipal authorities, police and the underworld, that charges protection money from each beggar and ensures that the business keeps running.

The film, however, only fleetingly looks at the several allegations of criminal gangs resorting to amputation of body parts of adults or crippling children so that they generate more sympathy and can make more money.

As with any other vocation, there are beggars who make it and others who don't. Thus the half-naked fakir watches movies in multiplexes with his girlfriend while not working as a beggar; the desperately pregnant woman's clothing is filled up with pillows; the seemingly dead person on the road is actually alive.

The basic principle on which the begging works is a very deep-seated belief among many Indians that their sorrow can end or happiness could continue if they help the poor. It's a very noble principle except that ideally the alms should be channeled via more organized forums rather than car windows or thrown at a poor soul on the sidewalk. It is in essence a wasteful industry centered on a parasitic existence and exploiting the poor.

Recently, noting the failure of the Delhi government and the police to curb begging in public, a court directed both to place beggars in detention houses and train them in vocational trades. The police also have to investigate whether "organized begging" is run by an inter-state mafia. Police officials say they are quite helpless against permanently rounding up beggars because of legal and cultural issues that look at begging as a social rather than criminal problem.

A recent study conducted by a prominent non-governmental organization and the Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences, one of India's leading mental hospitals, revealed that 77.6% of homeless women were 16-45 years old. While more than half of the women ( 52.2%) surveyed were selling small items on footpaths to earn a livelihood, 18.4% were doing odd jobs as construction workers and contract laborers. Another 18.5% were beggars. Significantly, 98% reported sexual harassment.

Indian social activists could perhaps follow the example of Bangladesh's 2006 Nobel Prize Laureate Mohammed Yunus, who has included the category of beggars in his massive microcredit program. Beggars are provided loans to procure items such as toys, food or stationary items, a process that allows them ultimately to move up the economic and social ladder. Many have managed to set up their own small businesses, such as retail shops.

Indeed, begging is only one aspect of dark elements trying to take advantage of the acute poverty in India. Despite a ban on the human-organ trade, there is a ruthless machinery that is involved in multimillion-dollar exercises that prey on the poor desperate for money. Many times organs are removed even without the knowledge of the victim, who might have been admitted to a hospital for some other ailment. As Indians are very reluctant voluntary donors, the southern state of Tamil Nadu has attained notoriety for scandals involving illegal removal of kidneys.

India continues to be a story of vast contrasts. According to government figures, a new category of the rural rich has emerged creating a divide within the rural economy, as opposed to just a rural-urban income disparity. Thus the rural rich are 1,000 times as likely as rural poor to own a motorcycle, 100 times as likely to own a color television, and 25 times as likely to own a pressure cooker.

The rural-rich market is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion. Investors looking at India as a market composed of 300 million middle-class households, many employed in the services sector that contributes more than 50% of the gross domestic product, could do well to add another 100 million, at least, residing (or with a base) in rural locations.

However, beggars on the streets of India are one more stark reminder of the distance that has yet to be covered.

 

 

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/ID03Df01.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minorities may get more in 5-year plan

 

 

NEW DELHI : Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured CPI(M) leaders that a sub plan for Muslims in the 11th Plan would be considered. CPI(M) leaders including Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury had  taken up the matter with the Prime Minister on March 23 when Singh assured them that the cabinet will discuss the matter shortly, sources revealed on Saturday.

 

In the wake of the Sachar Committee report which highlighted the pathetic socio-economic condition of Muslims in the country, the CPI(M) had set up an in-house committee to study and suggest affirmative steps to empower Muslims. The party had recently demanded that the Centre have a sub plan proportionate to the population of Muslims, and on the lines of the one for development of tribals in north-eastern states.

 

Observing that the West Bengal government was the first to seek a sub plan for the Muslims in the 11th Plan, Karat on Friday said the Prime Minister had told them that a decision would be taken on the matter. "We want the union cabinet to take a decision soon on having a sub-plan for minorities," he said.

 

As part of its efforts to create awareness on the Sachar Committee report on the socio-economic backwardness of Muslims, the CPI(M) on Friday organised a convention of Muslims to debate the issue. Addressing the convention Karat asked the ruling UPA coalition not to succumb to the BJP's accusations of a campaign on 'minority appeasement' and demanded that the government should go ahead full-steam to implement the recommendations to uplift the lot of Muslims.

 

Maintaining that the socio-economic status of Muslims was far behind other communities, Karat said justice must be done to the Muslims. He stated the convention would adopt a demand charter on the basis of the Sachar Committee recommendations and present it to the government for action.

 

Senior CPI(M) MP Mohd Salim explained the proposed demand charter to the gathering of mostly Muslim party leaders from different parts of the country.

 

Observing that the Sachar Committee had highlighted the deplorable socio-economic plight of the Muslims, he said issues of development, employment, income generation, education and security were part of the demand charter for the advancement of Muslim community. The charter details large number of issues and demands which the party would place before the government.

 

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1088520

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Centre blamed for poverty

Bhubaneswar, April 1: Finance minister Prafulla Ghadei blamed the Centre for the backwardness of the state and sought adequate central assistance to correct the imbalance. Speaking during the debate on the appropriation bill for 2007-08 in the Assembly last night, Ghadei said the flow of central funds to Orissa — which has been identified as the poorest state — was too meagre to tackle its backwardness. Alleging that the UPA government has been adopting a "step-motherly attitude" towards Orissa, he said the flow of special grants to the state was far lesser than those to states likes Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. "The economic development of this backward state would be possible if the Centre pumps in adequate funds," said the minister. During the debate on vote-on-account on Friday night Ghadei had claimed that the state had lost around Rs 88,600 crore due to "faulty recommendations" of the Finance Commission. The state had been incurring huge losses due to non-revision of coal royalty and fewer shares of central taxes, he said. Referring to the undivided Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi districts — a significant poverty zone in India — the minister said the Centre had from 2007-08 reduced central assistance from Rs 250 crore per annum to Rs 130 crore. Ghadei demanded more central funds for Orissa's overall and uniform development. Highlighting the achievements of the state government on the financial front, he claimed that the government was able to achieve revenue surplus after 22 years. The state's revenue had gone up from Rs 1,755 crore in 1995-96 to Rs 6,534 crore in 2005-06. Similarly, the plan expenditure had increased. Not only has the government been able to spend more plan funds, the submission of utilisation certificates has improved significantly. Utilisation certificates worth Rs 2,815 crore have been submitted by various departments during 2004-05, as against a meagre Rs 500 crore in 1999-2000, said the minister. Earlier, the Opposition members had ridiculed the government for its revenue surplus claim. "The state government is trying to take credit of achieving revenue surplus by reducing expenditure on developmental activities," said J.B. Patnaik.

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070402/asp/frontpage/story_7593849.asp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Orissa tribals stage daylong road blockade

Jajpur (Orissa), April 2 (IANS) Angry tribals of Orissa's Jajpur district blocked a road protesting the death of a person due to grievous injuries he sustained in police firing over a year ago, but lifted the daylong blockade late Monday after adequate compensation was promised.

'They lifted the blockade after we assured them that the state government would consider providing adequate compensation to the family of Kishan Uduli,' District Collector Arabinda Padhi told IANS.

Uduli, 26, was among 38 people injured when the police fired at them Jan 2, 2006, during a huge demonstration protesting construction of a boundary wall TATA Steel was erecting in Kalinganagar. Thirteen people were killed in that incident.

Although the government promised medical care to the injured, it failed to do so, as a result of which Uduli died, a tribal leader told IANS. The young man died Sunday night.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/india/news/article_1286035.php/Orissa_tribals_stage_daylong_road_blockade%0A_LEAD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will online courses serve the purpose?

 

The decision of the Distance Education Council (DCE) to virtually eliminate geographical barriers from education by offering IIT and IIM courses through distance education has elicited mixed reactions from the experts, teachers and students. While the students sing hosannas to this decision, many IT professionals express their doubts over the quality of knowledge acquired through such courses.

A former gold medallist from IIT-Kharagpur and senior vice president of a leading mobile manufacturer, Ashish Pachory, raises the first such doubt. "I don't understand the relevance of such technical courses being offered through correspondence. The IITs have a very different atmosphere which is replete with knowledge and that can't be replicated anywhere other than on campus. Although I believe these will not be regular courses, but still how does one get the practical hands-on training through distance education? Next, we will probably hear of doctors getting online degrees," he says.

A thought shared by Sudesh Dhanda, an IIM Lucknow alumnus and HR manager in a leading BPO in the city. He says, "I don't agree with this concept. For such professional and technical courses, one needs constant guidance and practical training, which will not be possible through correspondence. The way I used to study and got my degree was not easy. It will not be right to impart half-baked knowledge to these students."

In spite of all these arguments, there are a few who think this is a wise decision taken by the DCE which was constituted under statute 28 arising from Section 25 of the Indira Gandhi National Open University Act, 1985. Director of IIM Lucknow, Prof Devi Singh happens to be one of them. He says, "It will be a boon to online education. Also, what remains to be seen is what kind of courses are being offered for such programmes. Since it's going to be an audio-visual assisted programme, I don't think there should be anything lacking in this. In any case, they are not going to be the regular technical courses. They will be just focussed certificate and diploma courses."

And clearing the doubt over the course content of such programmes is Director of IIT Kanpur, Dr SG Dhande. "First of all, I'd like to clear this doubt that IITs and IIMs just don't offer undergraduate and PG technical courses. They offer so many courses and the ones that will be made online will not be the regular BTech courses. These courses are meant for teachers and professionals living out of the State and I don't see any harm in that. It is a step forward in continuing education which will benefit so many people." It is worth mentioning that IIT Kanpur is already offering online courses to Chhattisgarh University and has collaboration with Paris University for on-line courses. However, as Dr Dhande says, "It is an experiment which we have been trying for 2-3 years. So let's give it a chance and see how it goes."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City_Supplements/Lucknow_Times/Will_online_courses_serve

_the_purpose/articleshow/1847588.cms

 

 

 

 

 

 

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