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EDITORIAL Comptroller and Auditor General which is apolitical carries out audit of all the funds provided by the Centre to various State Governments under several heads. This is an annual feature and wherever irregularities are committed or there is non-compliance of laid down rules and regulations these are duly pointed out in the report. The State in turn is bound to place the same in the House. But the million dollar question is what happens after that. Assembly has peoples representatives. ......more Prime Minister A B Vajpayee has assured the visiting delegation of Kargil people who stand largely dislocated due to Pak invasion and random firing that instructions are being issued to the State Government for giving them rations/relief for the next 5 to 6 months so that extreme weather vagaries do not come in the way of timely relief. There have been complaints that affected people find it difficult to collect monthly rations. It may be ....more |
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Inter-basin
transfer of water Impact
of sliding inflation Television first choice State
of economy will be a crucial test for coalition Will
India become the most populous country? |
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EDITORIAL Comptroller and Auditor General which is apolitical carries out audit of all the funds provided by the Centre to various State Governments under several heads. This is an annual feature and wherever irregularities are committed or there is non-compliance of laid down rules and regulations these are duly pointed out in the report. The State in turn is bound to place the same in the House. But the million dollar question is what happens after that. Assembly has peoples representatives. They are in turn accountable to the electorate for all the acts of omission and commission. Within the House, they obey the Chair. Likewise ministers are no different clan because they also have the privilege to be in the House, courtesy electorate. Any report which is tabled in the House must automatically have the follow up action besides discussion. If Finance Bill after presentation is debated extensively and becomes law only after the House approves it, there is no reason why financial irregularities committed in utilisation of funds should not be debated likewise and those responsible for such lapses punished. As things stand, CAG report is treated with sarcasm even when specific instances are quoted for various irregularities. It now transpires that even election funds put at the disposal of the State Government have not been accounted for properly since 1974-75. This is height of irresponsibility and unaccountability. These funds are given only when the State is unable to bear election expenses but subsequently must be adjusted. Not so with this State. One really does not know how CAG reports are treated in other States or by the Central Government itself which comes under the purview of CAG as well. But as far as J&K State is concerned, adverse comments of the CAG about irregularities galore do call for some specific measures and mechanism to have some sort of financial discipline with full accountability. It may be apt to point out that CAG has no authority to take action against defaulting departments or ministries of this State. It only submits reports and action has to be taken by the State Government. This is exactly the problem where action has always been elusive and there is total unconcern about the financial defaults and non-keeping of records or non-submission of accounts for years. You can't keep on attributing financial mess to insurgency because such irregularities as pointed out in CAG reports year after year have been there all along. That explains why corruption has assumed insurmoutable heights. That is also is the reason for such financial lapses to gain momentum instead of showing any sign of abatement. CAG is quite specific how amount spent is overstated when the records speak otherwise. If only there was proper accountability and remedial action taken whenever CAG report was presented, the State would not have faced present financial crunch. This also explains why benefits of large funds funnelled into the State ever since dawn of independence have failed to reach the targeted population. It is precisely the lack of accountability. Some time back during Deve Gowda's, Government there was mention of putting in place appropriate monitoring mechanism so that each and every rupee is duly accounted for and benefits of various schemes and development percolate to the people. While exact figures of such amounts that have reached the State are not readily available, the rags in the corridors of power do put it above 100,000 crores. The figure cannot be very much off the mark when CAG in the current report itself points out non-submission of utilisation certificates amounting to over 13,000 crores. It is also worth mentioning that successive rulers in J&K have chosen to divert plan funds to reckless spending on non-plan pursuits. Such diversion itself calls for corrective measures. It is the considered view that to restore financial health of the State the first pre-requisite is accountability at all levels. Proper guidelines have to be followed; same is true of the procedures. There is no room for short-cuts. Proper lessons have to be learnt from past lapses. It is wrong to blame centre for not sending sufficient funds when there is lack of accountability for the finds sent earlier. CAG report must be the starting point for not only self-introspection but also devising suitable mechanism for follow up action on all the irregularities committed by the departments/ministeries over the years. Not only that. Mechanism also implies punishing those responsible for serious financial lapses that tantamount to swindling of public funds. One can as well mention non-submission of returns by MLAs/MLCs regarding their assets to the Speaker of the House as required under J&K Public Men and Public Servants Declaration of Assets and other provisions of the Act of 1983. Why Speaker/Chairman has not initiated action against those who have failed to submit such assets returns. This means all laws of the land are treated shabbily. If such is the example set by those who are supposed to preside or sit over the destiny of the people, one can imagine how it would be like at the bureaucratic and lower rungs. Obviously, a way out has to be found and the only route to financial discipline and for improving health of the State economy lies in total accountability at all rungs. This can best be started with the CAG report by taking action under the law of the land against all those indicted. Otherwise, these CAG reports serve no purpose if they are to be consigned to the cupboards or wrapped up under the carpet year after year. Prime Minister A B Vajpayee has assured the visiting delegation of Kargil people who stand largely dislocated due to Pak invasion and random firing that instructions are being issued to the State Government for giving them rations/relief for the next 5 to 6 months so that extreme weather vagaries do not come in the way of timely relief. There have been complaints that affected people find it difficult to collect monthly rations. It may be mentioned that there are a total of 20,000 displaced families in Jammu region, 3574 in Kargil and 540 in Leh who have been the victims of Pak incessant firing. The Central Government has already released Rs 12 crore to provide relief at the laid down scale to all dislocatees. While refugees from other areas can collect relief as per scale on monthly basis, in Kargil heavy snows pose logistic problem because Srinagar-Leh highway remains open only for 4 months in a year. It thus calls for giving the relief for the winter months in single lot to obviate any possibility of disruption. Some areas are totally inaccessible during winter months. Prime Minister also informs that additional Rs 4 crore have been provided for construction of 2500 bunkers to safeguard the population from random firing from across the border. It is strange that these bunkers have not yet been constructed by the State Government even though funds are given by the Centre. The State administration must ensure not only timely relief but also immediate construction of bunker-like houses. |
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Inter-basin
transfer of water If north-east India has abundance of rainfall, many other states have either scanty or too much of it. The rain god has never been evenhanded in his generosity, leading to the Cauvery water type discards among riparian states. The euphoria generated in August last year when the four basin States of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Pondichery agreed on setting up of the Cauvery River Authority presided over by the Prime Minister and the Monitoring Committee set up to provide technical support to the Authority, was to vanish 13 months later, but for the fortuitous blessings form the rain god. But will nature always bring in rains at critical periods of paddy growing every time there is a shortage of flow in the Cauvery? When so much water is going waste to the Bay of Bengal even today because of surplus flows in the Mahandi, the Godavari and even the Krishna rivers, why not take through canals just a portion of these flows to the Cauvery Delta and banish the yearly agony of paddy growers of the Cauvery Delta? The allusion is to the proposal for inter-linking of rivers made about 30 years ago by an eminent engineer named Dr. K. L. Rao who was also the Irrigation Minister of India for about a decade in the Sixties. He had, towards the end of the Sixties, made a proposal to transfer certain amount of surplus water from the Ganga during the monsoons by a series of canals taking off from somewhere a little west of Patna, to the Cauvery. The proposal had an emotional content too because both the Ganga and the Cauvery are considered holy rivers by the Hindus. However, after Dr. Rao left the Government and after the Ministry of Irrigation (later named the Ministry of Water Resources) undertook a detailed study of the Ganga-Cauvery link proposal, they found it somewhat impracticable, expensive, and requiring enormous amount of electricity to lift the water from the Ganga across the Vindhyas. They gave up the proposal and instead developed a National Perspective for Water Resources Development with two components: Peninsular River Development Programme and Himalayan River Development Programme. An Autonomous organisation called the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) was set up in 1981 which first prepared the perspective for the Peninsular rivers from the Mahandi and the Narmada in the north to the Vaiappar and the Tambraparni in the South. Under this, the NWDA suggested a large number of links for transfer of waters from the surplus to the deficit areas. We will deal only with the Cauvery related links here. The Mahandi, originating from the Bastar region of Madhya Pradesh enters Orissa near Sambalpur close to where the Hirakud dam has been constructed to store water for irrigation, power-generation and flood control. Even after this, the river has sufficient water, particularly during the monsoon, and the city of Cuttack is often threatened by the Mahandi when it rains heavily in the catchment areas. The NWDA proposal consists of first constructing a dam across the Mahandi at a place called Manibhandra. From there, about 8,000 million cubic metres (mcm) of the estimated 11500 mcm of surplus waters of the river is to be diverted to the Godavari through a gravity canal, which does not require pumping en route to be delivered near the Dowlaishwaram barrage. Upstream of the existing Dowlaishwaram Barrage, another barrage is proposed to be built across the Godavari Polavaram (this project is hanging fire for over four decades) for diverting a total of 21,550 mcm to the Krishna river. This includes the estimated 15000 mcm of surplus water of the Godavari and 6500 mcm which is expected to reach Dowlaishwaram from the Mahandi, about 1500 mcm being utilised for en route irrigation in the Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam districts of Andhra Pradesh. Three links are proposed for diverting the surplus flow from the Godavari to the Krishna: First, the Polavaram Vijaiwada link for delivery of 1200 mcm near the Prakasham barrage; the second is the Inchampalli Pulichintala link carrying 4370 mcm. Pulichintala is east of the Nagarjunsagar reservoir across the Krishna and the Inchampalli barrage across the Godavari was proposed several decades ago; the third is the Inchampalli Nagarjunsagar link which is proposed to carry about 14,000 mcm into the Nagarjunsager reservoir. >From Nagarjunsagar, 12,000 mcm can be transferred to the Somasila reservoir (existing) across the Pennar. Actually, 9800 mcm is likely to be carried into the Somasila. From the Pennar, 9500 mcm is proposed to the carried to the Cauvery to be delivered at the Grand Anicut on this river. Actual delivery will be of the order of 5000 mcm, taking into account irrigation en route and supply of drinking water to Chennai city. Out of this, 300 mcm is likely to be utilised in the Cauvery Basin and 200 mcm to be taken further south to the Vaigai, on the banks of which lies the holy city of Madurai. Based on the pre-feasibility reports, the Peninsular component (certain links have not been mentioned in this narration) is estimated to irrigate five million hectares of additional land in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and the cost, at 1994-85, prices, is Rs. 30,000 crore. Since it is going to be a project which will require several decades to be completed (if at all taken up), the cost is not something that should deter the Central and the State governments concerned for undertaking it. However, in order that the farmers of the Cauvery Delta do not have to look to the skies and the State of Karnataka for saving their paddy crops at times of distress, this inter-basin transfer of water has to be taken up on a war footing by everyone concerned. The initiative has to come from the Centre. It is a welcome development that the manifesto of the National Democratic Alliance has mentioned inter-basin transfer of river waters as a priority item. However, they still have not updated their information on this aspect and continue to refer to be proposed as the Ganga-Cauvery link. Second, the outgoing Government did not have a full time Minister of Water Resources. Not only the Cauvery Delta issue but there are other urgent water resources related problems that have to be tackled by the Government in the very near future and this requires the attention of a full-time Minister. Finally, the Centre and all the States must arrive at a consensus for amending the Constitution in order to give water the status of a concurrent subject and not a State subject which it is today. Water resources have to be given a high priority in the scheme of things in the new century. INAV |
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Television first choice for
news Television is slowly, but surely emerging as the "primary source" of information on politics and business and the media has higher credibility after the recent elections. Pre-poll and exit-poll surveys on the eve of recent elections are viewed as a useful and essential part of the electoral process. That pre-poll surveys do influence voters, marginally or otherwise, comes out once again from a CMS survey. Two-thirds of the voter public now depend on television as their primary source of information on politics and business or commerce. The survey brings out that television is depriving newspapers of their "agenda setting" role. This study also brings out that television viewership, in fact, is marginally increasing newspaper readership, not reducing, as is popularly believed. About one-third of those who thought that there was nothing wrong in media coverage of opinion polls, felt pre-poll surveys increase voter's knowledge and information about parties and issues. They also make voters realise the value of vote and help crystallise campaign issues. There are hardly any differences between the rural - urban public in this regard. The CMS survey also assessed "media credibility" in general with focus on newspapers and television. Even when it comes to "media credibility", three-fourth of the respondents believed in television against less than 40 percent who had similar faith in newspapers. Both television and newspapers were found more objective in their reporting of poll campaigns - unlike two years ago when CMS did a similar survey. All India Radio and Doordarshan too have improved their credibility now. In fact, Doordarshan is considered better in terms of credibility than other private television channels. "From being primarily an entertainment medium hitherto, television in India is now competing with newspapers as a news source. "Political uncertainties, frequent elections and economic turbulence have all been contributing to television's transformation as a news media", according to the chairman of the CMS, who has been conducting these studies on media credibility and on primary source of news over the years. Nearly 60 percent of respondents have either read or heard or seen about pre-poll surveys conducted on the eve of November 25 election to the four State Assemblies. Of them nearly 40 per cent watched discussions on exit-poll on television against nearly 35 percent who red about them in the newspapers. The survey also revealed that more people know of pre-poll and exit-poll surveys now than during the February 1998 general election. A majority of those who have been these surveys found them "useful". However, respondents were divided on the "influence" of pre-poll surveys. Only 15 per cent of the voters feel pre-poll and exit-poll surveys should not be covered in the media and nearly a quarter of the respondents were not sure of the objectivity of these surveys. - CNF |
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State of economy will be
a crucial test for coalition Vedict'99 is for performance, not for non-performance, not for the antics of the type we have become familiar with in the political arena in the recent years. It is tempting to extend the prognosis a little further and conclude that the market idiom - perform or perish - has begun to find its echo at the political nukkad as well. With the Congress busy introspecting, and the MPs under electoral fatigue, the Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) can be expected to have a smooth sail, and a longer honeymoon. The incredible swings of the sensex and the exuberance amongst the foreign investors indicates that the market place has already reached such a conclusion. Since the Cyber Naidu has demonstrated that one need not be populist to survive in the hurly-burly world of politics, the Finance Minister of the third Vajpayee Government will be tempted to go full hog with the prescriptions coming by the dozen from the market gurus. A more responsible fiscal management is bound to be the order of the day. Not just trimming of subsidies and unproductive current expenditure. North Block would wait for a more propitious time to tackle the subsidy menace to the Indian economy. With Assembly elections in Bihar slated for early March, and Kalyan Singh itching to test his own popularity in Uttar Pradesh afresh to get rid of his 18-odd clutches, Delhi will have to tread its path rather carefully on the economic front. More so, when it has 25 allies, some of whom refuse to see byond the immediate. The dangers of unbridled enthusiasm for fiscal management along the text-book route were obvious even as the last results of the 13th Lok Sabha election were coming in. After the deregulation of the administered price regime in the petroleum sector, the highs and lows of the international market get automatically reflected on the Indian market. Any effort at artificially holding back the priceline would have undermined the finances of the oil companies unless the Oil Pool Account is allowed to go into red. Since the OPA is an administrative exercise, the ultimate burden is on the central treasury. Be that as it may, the Moody's Investor Service decision to push up the India rating a notch above the stable grade is welcome news. It indicates that like the Indian business community, the Moody's too are confident of a stable and positive Government in New Delhi. May be, the Moody's were tempted to act in confidence after Yashwant Sinha promised in his Washington interaction with the leaders of global finance that he would get the insurance reforms on the track immediately, if his BJP returned to power. Opening of the insurance sector for foreign players is one of the talking points of successive finance ministers since 1991. Somehow they failed even as insurance joined the long list of items that have become political football in this country. The formation of new Government coincides with signs of imminent recovery on the economic front. Full-fledged recovery demands firm action on the part of the Government, undoubtedly. Some real action is also long overdue inthe state capitals, not merely in Delhi. The state finances are in a real bad shape with no elasticity in sight. Privatisation of sectors like road transport and electricity distribution have not gone beyond the drawing board. Unless state finances are allowed to be restructured, overall competitiveness of Indian economy is unlikely to increase. That the North Block under Yashwant Sinha was duly conscious of this pressing need was evident for a long while. The Congress, which holds the key for the success of any legislative move in the Upper House, is also committed to promises to the electorate. Suffice to say that as the country gets ready to enter the new millennium, Indian leadership appears to be focusing its energies on realising the dreams of the founding fathers of the Indian Constitution, of securing food, shelter and cloth to every one of the teeming millions steeped in poverty. The task is a gigantic one. Collective effort alone can redeem the pledge taken in 1947. Happily, the country is eager to display the collective effort, which was sadly missing for most of the past fifty years. Split verdicts, needless to say, have their utility, going by the Indian experience. PAK Scenario In contrast, India's neighbour, Pakistan, will be entering the new age with its back tied to the past. The recent misadventure on the Kargil heights has finally led to the ouster of the Sharif Government by the military. Even as Gen. Parvez Musharraf sets about the consolidate his position, the economy inches towards the brink. Foreign exchange reserves are dwindling to precarious levels. The suspension of the IMF's crucial $280 million loan has only complicated matters. The loan was tied to the sorting out of complications in the way of private power producers. But the army takeover has created fresh impediments. The Independent Power Producers (IPPs) entered Pakistan scene during Benazir days in office. Sharif was not happy with the deals struck by his predecessor, whom he tried to hound out from the political scene. This is not the only issue that has put a question mark over the health of Pak economy and polity. The sectarian violence is taking its toll too. Given the nature of Pakistan scene and the fact that India bashing is a part of Pakistani political mind-set, Sharif's failure in his mission shows that there was still room for optimism for an upturn in Indo-Pak ties. Geopolitics of the day decade ago has since undergone a seachange as is evident from the bitterness that has crept in between the US and Pakistan on the one hand, and Pakistan and Afghanistan on the other on account of Taliban's activities. For the present, interest will be centred on the takeover of the rule by the Army chief soon after coming together of the Grand Democatic Alliance (GDA) of opposition parties in Pakistan with the sole of aim of forcing Sharif out. - CNF |
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Will India become the
most populous country? India's population is about to touch the one billion mark and according to a World Bank projection it will end up as the most populous nation by the year 2050. A recent study by World Watch Institute, a Washington-based private think tank, points out that the Indian Sub-continent and Sub-Saharan Africa are two regions most affected by an inexorable rise in demographic growth. At present, every sixth person in the World is an Indian. With 2.4 per cent of the world's total land area, India is home to 16 per cent of the world population. In fact, way back in 1980s, the World Watch Institute had suggested that India could adopt the one child norm as practised in China to avert a serious ecological crisis and economic disaster associated with an unchecked population growth. The biggest fallout associated with a rising population would be the deceasing availability of water. According to projections of the Institute, India had an average of 2,244 cubic metres of water per head in 1955 and by 2025 when the population goes up to 1.3 billion, there will be only 1,567 cubic metres of water per person. The Parliament's Standing committee on Human Resources Development in its report has portrayed a grim population scenario in the Hindi speaking states of BIMARU - Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, According to Saroj Pachuria, a demographic expert associated with Population Council, these four states which account for 40 per cent of the country's population are most difficult in so far as tackling the population problem is concerned. In states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Goa, the population has either stabilised or is on its way to stabilisation. By early next century as many as ten Indian States are likely to stabilise their population growth. But then as many demographic experts point out, even though fertility rates continue to decline, the population will nevertheless, continue to increase because of the large number of young people. "The fact is that our basic population is high and when you look at the age distribution of the population, adolescents and youth form the bulk. "About 10 million are adolescents in the 10 to 19 age group. And if you tend to take youth in the 10-24 years age coup it is 230 million. That's where the numbers are. They will probably not want large families but they all want at least one or two children each which can make for a substantial population growth," notes Pachuria. India's population is currently growing at about 1.8 per annum- a drastic decline from 2.4 per annum in 1960s. But then even at this substantially reduced growth rate, the population will continue to increase for the simple reason that the built-in-momentum for future growth created by the young age structure is still in force. Prevailing political instability has inordinately delayed the enunciation of the national population policy. As it is, it has been hanging fire since the first preliminary draft for the policy was submitted way back in May 1994 by an expert group led by the eminent agricultural scientist Dr M S Swaminathan. Apparently, fertility transition is underway in India. However, the population growth trend in the country shows a zig-zag pattern. For there is no uniform pattern of demographic dynamics in the country as a whole. There is a gap between one state and the other between the rural and urban areas within a state in so far as the population growth trend is concerned. In the Hindi-speaking belt, Rajasthan shows the potential to come out of the grip of "BIMARU syndrome" particularly due to motivated bureaucracy and political will. Moreover, the primary health care system in the state is better than in other parts of the Hindi-speaking belt. West Bengal is all set to join the ranks of its Hindi-speaking neighbours, if the population growth rate and human density in the state are any indications. For sure, neighbouring Bangladesh is now far ahead of West Bengal in as far as curbing population is concerned. A target-free approach has now been announced in the drive for small family. To what extent this will help boost the family planning drive, demographers are not in a position to hazard even a guess. Sociologists are however clear in their perception that when illiteracy, health, hygiene and economic improvement get a high priority, family planning stands a better chance of succeeding. PTI Feature |
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