Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

Road safety-Accountability is the key

By Basant Kumar Rath

India is probably the only country in the world where one encroaches upon the Government land adjacent to a National Highway, constructs a shop there, runs a business and demands compensation ...more

India-Norway ties

By V Mohan Narayan

One of the influential members of the European Union, Nor-way holds a special place for India for a variety of reasons.

Norway is a member of the United Nations, NATO, Nordic Council, Asian Development Bank and actively associated with over 100 multilateral and regional organisations including UNICEF, UNCTAD, WHO and WTO, and hence seen by India as an important partner.... .......more

Agriculture extension work

Dr Narinder Paul

Today the whole world has become a single market as a result of "global village" concept. More over, when India became a global partner through WTO, new challenges automatically engulfed the Indian economy in general and Indian agriculture in particular. Consequently we have to ensure both quality and quantity of agriculture produce so as to compete in the international market. Some intellectuals had suggested staying away from WTO regime keeping in view the unsuitable socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions prevailing in the country but many believed that shying away or maintaining i......more

EDITORIAL

Strike hard

Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's disclosure that nearly 13 lakh kanals of government land has been encroached upon in the State has to be taken with utmost seriousness. It is important to know how and why it has happened. But what is more significant is that the Government should spare no effort to get back what is rightfully its own. Clearly the State exchequer has been put to enormous financial loss. Property these days is considered a goldmine. To that end Mr Azad's assertion that the guilty civilians and officials will not be spared is reassuring. He has indicated that the Government has already done some homework. The Revenue Department has collected and computerised the entire data and an inventory has been prepared. He has left little doubt that there is a well-entrenched land mafia active in the State especially in Jammu and Srinagar districts. According to him the problem is acute in this city and its vicinity. There are "white-collar" criminals who have usurped the State property. He has made a rather sweeping observation that these plunderers have camouflaged their ugly deeds by joining politics, media and other noble professions. From his utterances it is evident that he is determined to unmask them. He has said in as many words that they will not be let off whether they are in his Congress Party, People's Democratic Party (PDP), National Conference or any other organisation. Apparently on the basis of his information Mr Azad is convinced that land grabbers have become "more powerful and dangerous" and are not hesitant to threaten the authorities to retain their illegal occupancy. Using the word goondas for them he has described their actions as "alarming" as those of the militants. Indeed, he has brought into sharp focus an issue of tremendous magnitude. Ordinary citizens perhaps would have applauded him all the more had he parted with some of ammunition which he has stated is ready.

We should, however, take on face value his promise that he would hit the nail on the head rather soon. It is better to proceed in these matters by tying up all legal ends in particular. It hardly bears any elaboration that the State apparatus is bigger and more influential than any unscrupulous individual or group. It can brook no hindrance if it chooses to strike hard against dishonest elements. In fact, it will enjoy much public support and goodwill if it does so. If the land mafias care a pin for the Government one can only realise the sort of terror they hold for the people at large. The difficulty arises when the State is seen to be not only helpless but also acting n collusion with the forces it should be striving to tame. Not very long there was an uncomfortable newspaper report about how leading politicians had taken over prized buildings in posh localities in Srinagar for a pittance of rent.

By all means Mr Azad should go ahead and take exemplary action. Actually by the time of the next darbar move he ought to have done enough to draw satisfaction that he has lived up to the first word on reopening of offices in this city. An effective deed will contain the growing public cynicism that the rich and the mighty are above law.

Road rage

One has reasons to rejoice over increase in the number of vehicles in the State. It indicates enhanced prosperity coupled with the success of a loan economy. The ecstasy on this count, however, evaporates when one notices that there has been a corresponding fillip in accidents. An article in the last Sunday magazine of this newspaper tells this tale in figures related to the Jammu region. On an average about 2500 new vehicles are being added in Jammu alone every month and their present total is about 3.5 lakhs. Nearly same is the scenario in other districts including Doda on one side and Poonch on the other. As a result there are more than five lakh cars, buses and other means of transport on this side of the Pir Panjal. This represents a massive increase compared to 1990-91when their total was 1.36 lakhs in the entire State. There has been an almost double jump during the last five years. More or less every mode of travel has witnessed a boom. Taxis, matadors and mini buses are honking horns all over this city. Gone are the days when one could walk without having to watch one's back from Panjtirthi to Gummat Chowk. Even to think of doing so these days is enough to send a shiver or two down one's spine. Jain Bazaar, Lakhdata Bazaar, Kanak Mandi, Purani Mandi, Parade Ground, Raghunath Bazaar, Jewel Chowk and New-Plot-Janipura main road, among this city's other arteries, are a pedestrian's nightmare. Lanes and by-lanes echo with screaming cars leave alone two-wheelers. The non-availability of proper parking space has made matters worse. The other side of the story is equally grim. It is rather bitter as it directly involves human lives. Street mishaps are on the rise. With each passing year more accidents are taking place than ever before. As a consequence there is step-up in figures of those getting killed and maimed. There have been 2124 road catastrophes till August this year. These have taken a toll of 435 lives and left more than 3000 nursing their wounds of varying nature. At this rate there is little doubt that at the end of 2006 the situation will be the same if not poorer as it was in 2005: 517 killed and 4546 hurt. It needs to be said that the data of deaths and injuries shoots up whenever there is a tragedy in mountainous areas which are many in this region. There is no chance of survival after a bus skids off the road and falls into either Chinab in Doda district or a gorge in Poonch and Rajouri districts.

Any conclusion, however, that there is a direct relation between the number of vehicles and calamities will be wrong. It can become a factor only if the vehicular movement is not properly regulated and the policing is not enough or is of inferior quality. There are other causes like pot-holed roads, dilapidated buses, overcrowding and negligent driving. In urban territories like Jammu city haphazard parking is another hazard. Some people revel in stopping their cars or commercial vehicles at free will. There is need for behavioural correction on their part. The traffic police should be strengthened. Eventually, however, its size will not matter but the authority it is able to command and exercise.

Road safety-Accountability is the key

Basant Kumar Rath

India is probably the only country in the world where one encroaches upon the Government land adjacent to a National Highway, constructs a shop there, runs a business and demands compensation from the Government when the latter plans to make the Highway four-lane. And he or she ultimately gets a fat cheque hands down!

My argument in this article is that road crashes are no accidents. We have been extremely competent in ensuring that they take place at regular intervals! Both in terms of time and space.

I prefer the term "crash" to "accident," because accident implies a random event while crash emphasizes that the event has a cause that could be avoided. Crashes can have a cause - or multiple causes - and still be random. The term accident carries an element of human helplessness. That is the rub.

Let's count the figures first.

India's share in the world vehicle population is only 1 per cent whereas its share in fatality is 13 percent. National Highways comprise only 1.5 percent of the country's entire road network, but account for 25 per cent of all road crashes, and a staggering 34 per cent of fatalities. Somebody dies on an Indian road every seven minutes, and another is seriously injured every two minutes. Apart from the human and social loss, just the economic loss arising out of road crashes in India is estimated at Rs 5000 crore per year. A total of 80,000 people are killed every year in India in road crashes, the highest in the world. Another 350,000 are seriously injured. 29.49 lakh cases pending in district and subordinate courts in the country - over 12 percent of the total pending cases- pertain to traffic challans and motor vehicle claims. In Jammu and Kashmir more people die in road crashes than in terrorist-related incidents. Here the traffic police face understaffing by more than 50 percent. The Government of India spends Rs 800 crore a year to maintain the 300 kilometer long Jammu-Srinagar National Highway.

Though these abstract figures do not tell the human stories of death and disability caused by road crashes, they are a pointer to the carnage we have created for ourselves on the roads. I'll focus on road crashes involving buses because they are the main killers in this part of the world.

In Jammu and Kashmir, careless drivers, unsafe vehicles, spineless law enforcers and bad roads kill or injure hundreds of passengers every year. Hardly a week goes by when an angry mob does not attempt to lynch a driver or burn a vehicle involved in a crash. On their own, people have constructed speed humps to slow down vehicles speeding through their neighbourhoods.

Why is road safety an urgent issue that needs our attention? It is pretty simple. Road safety is both a social equity issue and a public health issue. One, road crashes disproportionately affect the poor, making road safety an economic development imperative. Most of the deaths caused by road crashes take way the earning members of the affected families. That is, most of the victims of road crashes happen to be the breadearners of their families. The reason is simple - the male members of working class families are the ones who travel most in order to earn a livelihood. The World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention published by the WorId Health Organization in 2004 highlights the fact that working age people are more likely to suffer hospitalization, permanent disability and death due to road traffic injuries than most other diseases. Official statistics regarding serious injuries are not reliable as they underestimate the actual number, but it is estimated that the number of people hospitalized may be 15-20 times the number killed.

Two, road crashes are an economic burden, and pose a major challenge to the health care system. In India, the total annual cost of road crashes is in the region of Rs 55,000 crores. Road crash cases consume critical and often scarce health care resources. This hurts a country's ability to respond to other urgent health care needs. Road crashes cause several physical damages to those who survive. Road casualties occupy a large number of hospital beds, representing high social security costs for often tiny budgets. The personal and social costs of these injuries are enormous. The lack of proper social security support to most of the poor people affected by the problem aggravates the situation.

Why do road crashes take place in Jammu and Kashmir? What are the causes? How can we prevent them?

The main causes behind road crashes are: the drivers, the buses, the roads and the law enforcers. Most of the bus drivers have inadequate or no formal training. They usually start as helpers or conductors collecting fares. They learn by watching the driver and end up becoming drivers themselves. The political economy of bus transport business needs a mention here. Private operators run most of the buses in Jammu and Kashmir. They are driven by profit. They usually try to increase revenue by linking daily salary of the drivers to passenger volume and fare income. This mindset induces dangerous driver practices like over-speeding, overloading, overtaking of other vehicles and driving longer shifts. It makes the drivers get afflicted with alcohol dependence, sleep deprivation and road rage. The bus owners have enough political clout to create an artificial supply demand situation. This explains why the route permit system does not meet people's requirements.

The buses are unsafe because they are not well maintained. Maintenance needs expenditure. This cuts into the daily profit. So this aspect is neglected. Substandard tyres, damaged spare parts and missing mirrors are common features. The trick of the trade is to keep them going as long as possible. Ever-bending narrow hilly roads without sufficient guard-rails are another cause. Nobody wastes an opportunity to encroach upon the land close to these hilly roads. Since the villagers living near the roads think that they have a right to earn their livelihood on this land, nobody questions this illegal act.

The law enforcers are the most powerful, yet invisible, players in the picture. They are everywhere, yet nowhere. Right from registration of the buses and issuing of driving license to vehicle inspection and traffic challans, bureaucratic corruption is rampant at all places. Understaffed and compromised law enforcement agencies - transport authorities, traffic police, police stations, and National Highway authorities - have made things more complicated.

What is to be done then? We need to see road crashes as a man-made problem and no longer as a question of fate. The point is road crashes are not only preventable. They are predictable as well. The problem is that we South Asians are too fatalistic in our approach to human lives to sit up and take notice of the carnage on the roads. Let alone taking responsibility on ourselves. One thing we must drill in our national psyche is that human lives are not dispensable. This deteriorating scenario demands changes at three levels: behavioural, institutional and engineering.

Behavioural changes involve drivers, road-users and law enforcers. Institutional changes involve the policy making bodies, the traffic police and the judiciary. The engineering aspect involves technological changes related to quality of the roads.If you think reading this article is a waste of your time, please remember the faces of the children who lost their parents in a road crash, not accident, in Rajouri district last month.

India-Norway ties

By V Mohan Narayan

One of the influential members of the European Union, Nor-way holds a special place for India for a variety of reasons. Norway is a member of the United Nations, NATO, Nordic Council, Asian Development Bank and actively associated with over 100 multilateral and regional organisations including UNICEF, UNCTAD, WHO and WTO, and hence seen by India as an important partner.

To reinforce the warm and traditional bilateral ties, Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit visited India and met President APJ Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders. The underlying message was that there was tremendous scope for deepening and broadening bilateral cooperation in diversified areas.

Realising the immense opportunities that exist, the focus during his discussions was on stepping up Indo-Norwegian economic cooperation in sectors such as energy, maritime, trade and services as well as tourism and culture. Hydro-power development, operation of the power system and small-scale hydropower production were some of the areas that came under intense spotlight. At about 400 kwh per year, the per capita electricity consumption in India is rated very low. The corresponding figure for Norway is about 26,000 kwh.

While India has large hydropower potential, this has been developed only to a limited extent. India's total hydropower potential is estimated to be 660 TWh/year but only 15 per cent of this has been developed. Norway sees the Himalayan region as rich in hydropower reserves and in many ways similar to Norway in terms of hydropower production: there are waterfalls with a large head but a relatively small water volume, and systems are located in the mountains. Also, there are several similarities in weather conditions and communications. As a result, Norwegian expertise is viewed as being well suited to conditions prevailing in India.

Statkraft Norfund Power Invest, the Norwegian state-owned company known as SN Power has entered into a joint venture with the LNJ Bhilwara Group. This is SN Power's first entry into the country. They will jointly operate the 86 mw Malana hydropower plant. Currently, the Norwegian company is building 192 mw Allain Duhangan hydropower project in Himachal Pradesh.

The transmission and distribution of electricity and inter-regional power cooperation are other fields where there are opportunities for bilateral cooperation. Last year, bilateral trade between India and Norway touched 413 million US dollars, representing a 30 per cent increase as compared to 2004. Norway is keen to promote a free-trade agreement between EFTA (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland) and India.

A comprehensive FTA between the EFTA countries and India will open up increased bilateral trade between India and Norway by decreasing and eliminating customs duties and other barriers to trade, said Norwegian Minister of Trade and Industry, Dag Terje Andersen.

Keen to assist India in reducing its child morality by five lakh annually over the next five years, Norway has promised to initiate special efforts under a joint initiative focussing on Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. These five states are home to over 40 per cent of India's population and account for 60 per cent of its child deaths.

Norway shares India's approach on the need to engage in peace and reconciliation in a globalising world. Reflecting this view, the Crown Prince said ‘‘We believe that your security, and mine, are closely intertwined’’.

A key area of interest to India is Norwegian role as a facilitator in the Sri Lankan peace process. Norway has said it is prepared to continue reconciliation efforts between Colombo and the LTTE aimed at ending the ethnic conflict in the island nation. But, well aware of the complexities in the task, Norway feels that the situation on the ground has to be gauged before it can make a fresh assessment.

Norway has kept India briefed on the developments in the peace talks brokered by it. It feels the two countries can work together in Sri Lanka as also in the UN and other international fora.

India is viewed as an important market for Norwegian shipping. More than 4,000 India seafarers, a majority of them officers, serve on Norwegian ships. The two countries are currently working towards a bilateral maritime agreement that will provide better commercial conditions in the Indian market for Norwegian ship owners. Norwegian companies have placed orders for more than 50 ships with Indian manufacturers like Bharti Shipyard, ABG Shipyards and others.

Among the major projects underway are one by Reliance Industries Limited which has awarded a contract to Norwegian firm Aker Kvaerner to deliver an 18 well subsea production system for a deepwater block gas development located offsore in India's east coast. The contract is one of the world's largest subsea contracts. The initial contract value is approximately 400 million USD.

ONGC Videsh Limited and Norway's Norsk Hydro have joined hands with Spanish petrochemical group Repsol to explore Cuban waters. With Norway having one of the world's highest per capita income, India can exploit its expertise in knowledge industries. Information Technology can be one area where outsourcing can be stepped. Some of the sectors identified in this respect are oil and gas, shipping, hydropower, banking as also accoutancy.

In the last 10 years, more than 40 joint research projects between Indian and Norwegian institutions have been completed or are under various stages of completion. These are in the fields of environment, hydrocarbons, healthcare, bio-technology, hydropower and geology, forestry and fisheries. More than 60 Norwegian companies have been introduced to Indian market through partnership searches. Clearly, Norway acknowledges India's growing political and economic clout in the international arena and sees in it a market with enormous opportunities. It is for India to work these prospects to its advantage.

PTI Feature

Agriculture extension work

Dr Narinder Paul

We have to prepare our-selves to meet out the existing challenges in agriculture sector. Not only quantity but also quality is the prime requirement. At this juncture of time, a serious thinking, rigorous planning and sincere execution of agriculture promotion and public extension schemes at all fronts is required. For the purpose of meeting the requirement to produce high quality agricultural commodities in large quantities, the capacity of extension personnel as well as farmers has to be built up in a short time. But prior to all it would be worthwhile to comprehend the meaning, dimensions, models and areas of building the capacity of extension personnel.

An efficient extension worker has to be good at communication skills and must possess sound motivational skills as well. As a professional leader, he has to communicate, motivate, guide and influence the work of farm families. He has to act on the "principle of persuasion" and the "doctrine of coercion" has no place in his work. In such a situation, effective communication of correct messages to the clients is of utmost importance. It is a well-known fact that the concept of extension work is a blend of principles from many other disciplines including those of psychology and sociology; and technological aspects of subject matter pertaining to the farming activities.

We have to think about the present requirements to decide upon the areas of capacity building of extension personnel. Broadly speaking, there are different areas/subjects in which capacity of the extension workers has to be built up. As capacity building includes knowledge and skills, the sub-areas for such capacity building can be those in which knowledge is required, areas in which skill is required and areas in which both knowledge and skill are required. The crucial step for the training institutes is to explore the different fields in which knowledge and skill are required either individually or collectively and extent of their utility on behalf of the concerned department. Technical subject, information technology, organizational skills, communication skills, group dynamism, decision making, conflict management, motivational skills, attitude development; knowledge about local, national and international markets, demand and supply are the various sub-fields in which periodic trainings should be imparted to the extension functionaries so as to initiate the capacity building process for enhancing the skills of the extension professionals.

The capacity building programme is not just one step flow of information and associated skills rather it involves two step and consequently multi-step flow of information and skills from instructors of the capacity building programme to the extension professionals, from extension professionals to contact farmers and from contact farmers to follow farmers. But presently, the Jammu and Kashmir Agriculture Production Department has no viable mandate for enhancing the capacity of its extension workers. No serious consideration is given for training programmes through reputed training institutions to the field staff deployed at various positions. There is an urgent need to evolve a comprehensive capacity building model to cater the needs of Junior Agriculture Assistants (JAAs), Agriculture Extension officers (AEOs) and other ranks of field staff of the State Department of Agriculture Production. Besides, this model would also be used for capacity building programmes of other officials at upper level of hierarchy and for the personnel of allied departments where fieldwork is required. There is a dire need for construction and standardization of tools for identification of thrust areas for capacity building of extension professionals in Jammu and Kashmir. The Directorate of Extension Education, Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology(SKUAST), Jammu as well as Srinagar should make efforts to assess training needs and design training modules for the field extension functionaries.

For initiating the capacity building programme firstly, the status and existing capacities of extension professionals should be assessed through scientifically designed Training Need Assessment (TNA) exercises. After that the personnel should be deputed to the concerned institutions/training centers to get their capacity built in the deficient areas or subject matter with in the pre-defined time frame. All this should be systemically planned and executed. Extension agency is often questioned and blamed for dereliction on part of their efforts to achieve the departmental objectives. This all happens because the impact of extension activities is often judged by the unsystematic human judgment, which is an impractical and illogical method. Extension work is a dynamic force, which results in the overt behavioural changes of the farmers through the inter-related set of different processes. It has been observed that 83.27 percent of the farmers presently know about improved cultivars, fertilizers, line sowing, use of various agro-chemicals and about various new methods of cropping. How such knowledge has been acquired? Not by magic. Rather slowly and steadily as a result of extension work. Then why is extension work termed inefficient? This is so because critics are not well versed with fundamentals of extension work. This all happens due to " attitude and action inconsistency" among the farmers. It occurs when there exists a discrepancy between what a farmer "thinks to do" and what actually "he does". This is a highly serious psychological aspect, which affects the out come of extension work. A well-equipped extension worker can very effectively work with the farmers for "attitude-action inconsistency" reduction, which ultimately results in the action adoption, the desired outcome of the extension activities. But this calls for specially acquired skills, which can be inculcated in the extension professional through appropriate capacity building exercises. There are many other relevant areas/fields in which the capacity of the extension worker needs to be built up so that they can provide a right direction to the farmers’ attitude thereby enabling them to stand firmly among their global counterparts.