EDITORIAL
Have no pity
No mercy should be shown to those who are
exposed to the charge of swindling relief meant for
people affected by "Operation Sarp Vinash" in
2003. Full contours of the fraud are well known by now.
Only 34 of 283 families that have been extended
assistance are genuine. An overwhelming majority of them
thus either don't exist or have been lured to act as
touts for a price. To perpetuate the scam there has been
planned bungling at every step. Middlemen were brought
into play to build false claims. Blank cheques were
issued instead of for specified account payees only to
facilitate easy withdrawals. In some cases some
tricksters opened savings bank accounts to pocket the
booty. Is it not sheer audacity? Financial dimensions of
the scandal are mind-boggling. The total amount at the
disposal of the authorities was Rs 2.75 crores. Of this
only Rs 29 lakhs went to real claimants. A whopping sum
of Rs 2.46 crores was embezzled. In six cases the payment
was made twice. As many as 26 persons were given an
excess compensation of Rs 18.20 lakhs. On the whole the
unauthorised beneficiaries were asked not only to
camouflage their identities but also made to inflate
figures of their domestic animals that had suffered on
account of the Army's mission to chase the terrorists out
of the picturesque Poonch hills. It may be recalled that
the Union Government had placed more than Rs 7 crores at
the disposal of the State to compensate the inhabitants
of Hill Kaka. The laudable objective was to repay all
those who had suffered on any count including temporary
suspension of grazing facilities for their cattle. A
formula was prescribed for distribution of relief. It
seems no irregularity was spotted in the first two phases
of the exercise. The present scandal pertains to the
third stage. Is there not the necessity of having a quick
review of the entire scheme?
For its part the State Vigilance Organisation (SVO) is
stated to have recommended action against three officials
including an assistant commissioner. The SVO per force
has to focus on cogs in the government apparatus. How
can, however, other dubious characters be permitted to go
scot-free? An example must be made of them also so that
there is a deterrent for all those who willingly feed the
corrupt administrative machinery. Justice must be met
across the board regardless of whether a person is an
official or an unscrupulous citizen. The bigger
responsibility is, of course, of the administrators at
the helm but those who have danced to their tune are no
less guilty. If required a wider probe should be
initiated to unmask the culprits at all levels.
The case is a typical example of how a purposeful
activity is defeated by a dishonest group of people. The
Army has done the best it can do in the circumstances. It
has on the one hand knocked down militant hideouts. On
the other hand it has ensured that innocent citizens
don't come to any harm. No way is it responsible for the
manner of arranging monetary assistance. The concerned
local officials have done a great disservice to the
country and people at large. Their misdeeds have to be
judged in that light and deserve no pity at all.
Call of the wild
How
convincing is the theory that extremely heavy snowfall
has driven wild animals out of their dens? According to a
news agency report, a leopard has been captured in the
south of the Valley in the prevailing chilly conditions.
It was caught alive and handed over to wild life
department officials in Bijbehara town in Anantnag
district. Five more such instances have been cited. Three
of them involve leopards --- two of them were not
fortunate and were beaten to death in Bugdam and Handwara
in opposite directions while one of them barely three
months of age was caught in north Kashmir. In two other
happenings an injured porcupine was caught in Pattan and
a boar in Handwara. Most of these occurrences have taken
place during the current month. Hence, the conclusion
that they have everything to with what is believed to be
the heaviest snowfall in nearly two decades. Any such
inference seems to be hasty and is not convincingly
backed by available information. The fact is that
leopards in particular have been sighted at regular
intervals not only on the other side of the Pir Panjal
but also in this region. They have hunted for human
population while desperately being in search of food.
Their ferocity has been the same during summer as it is
being seen during winter. The same report, for instance,
mentions more than 30 persons having been killed and
scores of others injured after being attacked by leopards
and foxes in the Kashmir region alone during the last one
year. None of these casualties has taken place so far
this year. This reality is self-explanatory. One does not
have exact details but it is only too well known that
Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu division too have
been exposed to the wrath of protected species. These
events are not a seasonal phenomenon. This point is
clearly underlined if one looks back on 2007. Wild
animals are often stirring out because their own natural
habitats have shrunk. Their existence has become uneasy
mainly because of deforestation and poaching by smugglers
of animal skins. Their operational area has been
considerably reduced and their sources of food have
become scarce. More than climatic changes it is the urge
for survival that is forcing them towards human
settlements. In the process they do kill the unsuspecting
people and also get killed as and when cornered by a
determined group of tormented persons to settle a score.
The Wild Life Department is understaffed and is
invariably late in reacting to the appearance or
disappearance of wild life in least expected territories.
As a consequence the issue of man-animal conflict has
assumed serious dimensions in the last couple of years.
The problem can be resolved only by strengthening green
cover regardless of whether or not it is part of reserved
sanctuaries. In the State we have to be all the more
vigilant. As of today we are not adequately guarding even
those areas that we have earmarked as safe havens for
wild life. We are thus guilty of showing scant respect
for the nature's rare bounties. Why should we then be
surprised if we find wild life going berserk off and on?
We must respond to their needs if we want to earn their
respect.
 Faulty power
planning
By Dr Bharat Jhunjhunwala
Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde
has declared the objective of adding 80,000 MW
(Megawatt) electricity generation in the 11th
Plan. He is confident that electricity
consumption will increase in this measure. But
investors are, thankfully, not entirely
convinced. At the time of writing, shares of
Reliance Power had declined below their offer
price. Part of the reason is the global meltdown.
Other part of the reason is that projected
increases in electricity consumption may not
materialize.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA)
established by Ministry of Power has estimated
that demand for electricity will increase from
94,000 MW in 2007 to 153,000 MW in 2012. The
projected increase is 60,000 MW. Mr. Shinde has
whimsically increased this to 80,000 MW. Truly,
the increase of 60,000 MW forecast by CEA is
equally bloated. This becomes clear when we look
at the trend in power consumption during the last
ten years. According to Ministry of Finance the
generation of electricity in the country
increased at an average annual rate of 5.8
percent in 1997-2001 and at a rate of 4.7 percent
in 2001-06. On this basis the increase in
generation in 2007-12 is likely to be only 4.0
percent. The generation in 2006 was 94,000 MW.
This will increase only by about 20,000 MW. CEA
is forecasting an increase of 60,000 MW without
taking the declining trend into consideration.
It must be noted that this decline in generation
has come along with an increase in rate of
economic growth from 5.9 percent in 1997-01 to
6.9 percent in 2001-06. Just as a car running at
the speed of 40 km per hour consumes less petrol
than one running at 10 km per hour, likewise our
economy is consuming less electricity as the rate
of growth is increasing. The reason for this
happy situation is that most economic growth is
coming from the service sector where the
consumption of electricity is less. According to
this trend, an increase in growth rate from 6.9
percent to 8 percent will yet see a decline in
growth of consumption of electricity.
But wise men of the CEA are determined to
forecast huge increase in electricity
consumption. After all, only then commissions for
new power projects will be got. Thu the CEA uses
fuzzy logic to forecast increase in consumption
of electricity by 10% or 60,000 MW. It says,
"Electricity consumption in India grew by
6.87% in the last thirty years and the
corresponding GDP growth had been 5.4%. Taking
clue form the foregoing, the electricity
consumption has been assumed to increase at a
rate of 10% up to 2012. This growth in
electricity consumption is expected to support an
average GDP growth of 9-11% over the
period." On this basis CEA has forecast
growth of 60,000 MW in the next five years. Take
a close look at the logic. The forecast has been
made on the basis of average rate of growth in
the last 30 years which is high; not on the basis
of last five years which is low. This crookedness
can be understood by an example. Say a 50-year
old person is driving car at a speed of 40 km per
hour. He drove car at 80 km when he was 20 year
old. His average speed during the last thirty
years was 60 km. It is common sense that his
speed in the next five years will decline from 40
to, say, 35 km per hour. But mandarins of the CEA
say he will drive at speed of 70 km because his
average speed in 30 years was 60 km and due to
better roads he will now drive faster! Thus the
old man is forecast to drive at a speed of 70 km
when he actually drives at 35 km. In this way the
CEA is making high forecast of electricity
consumption of 60,000 MW while the actual
increase is likely to be only 17,000 to 20,000
MW. The Minister of Power has to add his bit
hence he has increased the forecast to 80,000 MW!
The result of these excessive forecasts is that
the whole country is in a stupor of electricity
generation. We are willing to make an agreement
with the United States to open our nuclear
establishments to foreign inspections because we
need uranium to meet our growing needs of power.
We are willing to build dams on every possible
river despite huge opposition from local people
because we need huge amounts of power. We are
willing to grow jatropa on our fertile lands and
deprive our people of food grains and our
livestock of straw because we need to make more
power. We are willing to incur all these costs
because the CEA has projected an increase of
60,000 MW!
Investors beware. Officials of CEA will not loose
their jobs if demand for electricity does not
increase as forecast. Not one Secretary of the
Finance Ministry has been penalized for huge
projections of increase in exports. Now our
export industry is begging for sops. But the
investor will loose his money if he invests in
the power sector just as he did in exports. The
collapse of the Reliance Power IPO is just the
trailer.
Ministries of Power are notorious for such
excessive forecasts world over. Patrick McCully
writes in Silenced Rivers that this is a regular
pattern: "Electricity demand forecasts
consistently overestimate future needs for
electricity. In more than 100 national demand
forecasts used by the World Bank, actual demand
seven years after the forecasts were made was on
the average one-fifth lower than that had been
projected. The economic justification of Yacyreta
Dam used assumption that Argentinean electricity
demand will grow at a rate of 8-10 percent during
the 1980s. In fact demand grew by an annual
average of just over 2 percent so that when the
first turbines of the $11.5 billion mega project
came on-line in 1994, the country already had a
sizable surplus of generating capacity. Between
1970 and the mid-1908s, the World Bank and
Inter-American Development Bank together lent
Colombia a total of $3.8 billion for 12 large
hydro dams. Yet when these dams had mostly been
completed, electricity demand in Colombia was
one-third lower than forecast when the dams were
planned."
CEA bureaucrats appear to be leading India at a
similar breakneck speed into excessive generation
of electricity far more than the demand with
attendant loss of our sovereignty, environment
and investor wealth.
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Nepal
cause for concern
By Krishna Pradhan
The million-dollar question that is
engaging India's Nepal policy-makers is: what if
the Maoists gain controls in Nepal? It is a
nightmarish scenario that New Delhi does not rule
out. Jane's Intelligence Review reported in its
January 2007 issue that time was coming for the
Maoists for waging a "do-or-die"
battle. It said: "In orthodox Maoism, there
are three phases of protracted war: the strategic
defensive, the strategic offensive. According to
this model, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist
[CPN-M] has, in its battle with the government,
reached a strategic stalemate: it is not as
powerful as the government in terms of troop
strength and military equipment, but is almost
equal in terms of actions, initiatives and
control of the countryside. The Maoists appear to
have decided that the time is ripe for their
do-or-die moment.
The ever-increasing activities of Nepal's Maoists
have not gone unnoticed by the United States,
which has branded them "terrorists".
The annual US report "Patterns of Global
Terrorism-2006" released recently, included
the Nepalese Maoists in the list of 38
"foreign terrorist organisations".
The Maoists have links with Indian extreme Left
groups like the Communist Party Marxist-Leninist
(People's War) (CPML-PW) and the Maoist Communist
Centre (MCC). These groups aim to establish a
Compact Revolutionary Zone (CRZ) stretching from
Nepal to Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh,
Dandakarnya and Telangana regions in Orissa and
Andhra Pradesh respectively. There has been
consolidation of Naxalite influence in areas
contiguous to the CRZ in eastern Uttar Pradesh,
north Orissa and West Bengal, thereby leading to
a Naxalite buffer zone around the CRZ that may
ultimately facilitate its lateral expansion. The
Nepalese Maoist also played a role in setting up
of the Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties
and Organisations of South Asia (CCOM-POSA),
which aims to spread radical leftist views in the
region and comprises 10 ultra leftist parties of
India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Besides,
'Porattam', a confederation of Maoist forces in
Kerala, has also expressed solidarity with the
Nepalese Maoists.
Inputs received in the past indicate that the
Maoists have been receiving arms and ammunition
from the MCC and the PWG. These groups are learnt
to have provided training, logistics and shelter
to the Maoist cadres who infiltrate through the
porous border between Nepal and India.
There is a demand for the release of Maoist
politburo member C.P. Gajurel who is under
detention in India since August 20 last. The
World Leftists Organised a meeting in London on
November 2 last, which was attended by Communists
from various countries, including Nepal. Nearly
120 activists participated in the meeting titled
"End the Occupation of Iraq, Hands off
Nepal". It was alleged that the US, in
collaboration with India was suppressing the
Maoists in Nepal.
Meanwhile, New Delhi is well aware of the fact
that the unprecedented attack on Indian interests
in Nepal is fraught with dangerous portents. New
Delhi's assessment is that it has reasons to
believe that if such outrageous acts were to be
repeated in future, it would harm the interests
of the people of Nepal only-an anathema to any
insurgent group which thrives essentially on
grassroots support.
An important difference that has come about in
the Maoists' insurgency in Nepal is that while
earlier it was restricted to mid-hill areas of
the country it is now spread to the Terai region,
the economic heartland of the country. Nepal is
greatly dependent on India for virtually
everything from trade and commerce to the now
increasingly-felt needs in the security and
defence sectors. India has been giving Rs. 100
crore assistance to Nepal for the last several
years.
The Indian strategy to deal with the Maoists is
to address the root causes of the problem-poverty
and unemployment. So, New Delhi has begun to
flash the economic card to wean the common man
away from the Maoists. For this purpose, a
conscious effort is being made to integrate the
Indian and Nepalese economies.
The last couple of years have brought a
revolutionary change in mode and pattern of
Indian assistance to Nepal. Earlier, New Delhi
used to focus on implementing big projects in
Nepal, but now it has shifted the focus to small
projects which get completed fast. India is
currently executing more than one hundred small
development projects in Nepal, ranging from
boring tubewells to laying of railway lines to
construction of roads and highways. The
government of India is actively considering
multiplying its assistance to Nepal manifold from
the present Rs. 100 crore per annum and taking it
to Rs. 500 crore per annum at least for speedy
development of the mountain country. INAV
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The kidney scam
By Joginder Singh
Rackets of all types, including in health
sector have been surfacing from time to time in our
country. The latest kidney scam, came to light in the
last week of January, 2008. The Police raided a bungalow
cum clinic, and found a labyrinthine kidney bazaar run by
a group of men posing as doctors. They were reportedly
charging 25 to 30 lakhs per transplant and giving a
paltry sum running from Rs. 25000 to 75000, to the so
called donors. One of the so called doctors, who is
reported to be the kingpin did not even have a MBBS
degree, a basic qualification for becoming a medical
doctor.
Investigation in UP, and Haryana so far, apart from
similar rackets in Punjab and Karnataka in the past, has
revealed, literally robbery of the poor people of their
kidneys and sale of the same to the rich patients,
including foreigners from all over the world.
The trafficking network has been inducing buyers from
Canada, Greece, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, United Arab
Emirates, UK, and US, just to name a few countries. The
kidney ring had a waiting list of dozens of people from
India, the United States and Greece According to a
Government approximation, more than 100,000 kidney
transplants are required in India every year, but only
5,000 are performed legally. Illegal transplants of
kidneys in our country are neither exceptional nor
astonishing. Hospital facilities for preserving and
transporting of organs remain too little or non existent.
The poor are lured by the prospectus of huge amount of
cash. This temptation ensures the traffickers a
continuous supply of fresh kidneys. Says a top doctor in
a Government hospital, that "People think getting a
new kidney is like changing the car tire, after which the
car will run full-steam.
In much of the country, dialysis facilities are poorly
developed. It is a cheaper alternative to recurring
expenses for the family."
Kidney transplant operations are complex, requiring the
recipients and donors to be matched. Otherwise, the body
of the recipients rejects the transplants. After
receiving a new kidney, the recipient requires intensive
care and long-term treatment with powerful anti-rejection
drugs. So far as the present scam in Gurgaon is
concerned, it is suspected that a dozen or more doctors,
assisted by the para medical staff are involved in the
kidney racket which has had, a waiting list of some 40
people hailing from, as many as at least five countries,
apart from the natives. The police suspect around 400 or
500 kidney transplants were done by these doctors over
the last nine years. This crime is such, in which the
only evidence is that of the victims of those whose
kidney removed or 'donated'.
Even at the time of police raid, several patients,
Joginder Singh is former Director, CBI were waiting for a
transplant at the facilities when police raided them on
25th January, 2007. The kidney transplant scam has many
basic requirements, and it needs to be done in totally
controlled conditions, for being successful. First of
all, the issue of the kidney should match that of the
patient. If it does not, then the body rejects the kidney
and the whole effort becomes wasteful. Apart from the
loss caused to the health of the kidney, donor even the
survival of the recipient is at stake.Investigations so
far have exposed that Dr Amit Kumar - the brain behind
the racket - was initially a tout in Mumbai. Going by the
previous cases, nothing much may be expected, from
outcome of the latest kidney racket. Amit Kumar's first
brush with the law was a police a raid twice on Kaushalya
Clinic Mumbai in 1993 in Maharashtra. The (Gurgaon Police
arrested him in 2001 after a case of illegal kidney
transplant was registered against him at the Nizamuddin
police station. Then his scene of operation was in
Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, where a similar case was
registered. He was back in Gurgaon, in 2006 transplanting
kidneys.
One thing is certain that due to its scale, some doctors
in Gurgaon and even in Delhi, would definitely have been
aware, of what was going on. Even the underworld had
demanded Rs. 25 Crores from the kingpin Dr. Amit Kumar,
alias Santosh Raut. In the aftermath of the Gurgaon
kidney scandal, questions are being raised whether the
Organs Transplant Act needs a change and how good or bad
has been its implementation and whether there are any
ways, which could have prevented the illegal kidney
racket. Kidney transplantation scams are nothing new in
our country. In Karnataka, it happened more than a decade
ago, with scams surfacing in 1995 and 2002. Illegal
transplants of kidneys has happened in hospitals in Tamil
Nadu, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, UP and Delhi.
On paper, the law appears perfect, but on ground it is
completely away from the realities. As you cannot
legislate morality, so you cannot change the social norms
and practices.
One way out, perhaps could be to make the sale and
purchase of kidney and other organs fully legal. The law
as it stands is toothless. There is an appropriate
authority, who issues licenses for hospitals eligible to
conduct organ transplant surgeries and revokes licences
when hospitals violate rules. It gives permission for
transplants. In India, conviction under the present law
means a paltry fine of Rs 10,000 and from two to five
years of imprisonment. It is reported that there have
been no convictions under the Act so far.
A total of twelve people have been arrested detained by
the different investigating agencies. Now the case has
been handed over to the CBI, which should have been done
long ago, as it has interstate ramifications. But it must
be remembered that CBI inquiry is not a panacea of our
social or economic or political ill in the country. The
CBI is only an investigating agency, which will bring to
light as to what has happened and charge sheet the
accused who might have violated the law. What punishment
should be awarded is a matter for the Court to decide and
what action should be taken to rectify the situation, is
in the domain of the Government.
The Prime Minister has quite often talked of the failure
of the system. Kidney scam has happened despite there
being a big health department, both at the Central and
State, apart from the Medical Council, consisting of the
Doctors, both at National and State level, who are
supposed to act as watch dogs. The ultimate sufferers are
the common people, who continue to remain at the mercy of
the quacks.
Here both law and will to govern are very week. Assuming
that all the accused are convicted, there is no law,
which can strip them of the medical degrees, if they have
one.They can still practice, after their term in the
jail. Greed of the money has no limits, which is the root
of all scams. There is enough in the world for everyone's
need, but not enough for everyone's greed.
It is time for the Government to wake up, before another
wake up call. But if the Government does, what it has
always, the country will get the same type of scams, what
it has always got.
PTI Feature.
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