EDITORIAL
Symbol of Shiva
Clearly the Shri
Amarnathji Shrine Board does not want to take any chances
this year. It has deputed a team much in advance to
protect the holy ice-lingam in the Amarnath cave till the
formal commencement of the pilgrimage on June 18. Its
squad is already on the job. Primarily it is a measure to
prevent any erosion of the grand natural formation of the
phallus because of human activity. According to a report
in this newspaper, the Board is disturbed that some
devotees have already undertaken a trip to the shrine and
a few more are planning to follow suit. Apparently it
apprehends that any such premature movement may cause the
sort of embarrassment it has faced in the preceding
years. Last year the Lingam had melted before the
official beginning of the yatra. In 2006 there was
a lot of acrimony. Allegations were then made that the
faithful had been deceived by artificially creating
Shivling after the disappearance of its divine shape. So
much fuss was made at that time that the Board ordered an
inquiry by a former High Court judge. It was a right move
as it helped the Board to establish its innocence besides
proving that all its precautionary steps were genuine and
in the interest of all. There is no doubt that these
controversies accounted for a decline in pilgrims' rush
from 4 lakhs in 2006 to 2.5 lakhs in 2007. Lest this
steep fall becomes a trend it has to be checked and
reversed. Anything that can be done with this objective
in view is to be welcomed. The Board has done well by
seeking to timely address its concerns. It must be aware
as much as anybody else that the people travel long
distances to have a darshan of the deity engraved
on their minds from times immemorial. In this case they
undertake one of the most arduous treks to pay obesaince
to Shiva in its hoary figure in an idyllic backdrop.
Their dismay can only be
understood when they find that their search has proved
futile and the sacred ice-lingam is not there. For the
disciples of Shiva the fear may take over that God is
angry with them and has, therefore, not offered His
blessings. From their viewpoint it is strictly a matter
of faith --- nothing more and nothing less. It is high
time, therefore, that a full-fledged study was carried
out of the surroundings in which the ice-lingam is formed
with the objective of preserving it for a longer period.
This task is onerous in view of a large crowd of pilgrims
entering the cave every day. The Board has fixed a
ceiling of 10000 devotees each day. Surely the heat
generated from their bodies will have an adverse
fall-out. Likewise the global warming must be having a
hostile impact on the overall milieu. Does it too have
unfavourable consequences for the Lingam?
Lesser mortals like us
have to make a concerted effort to add to the glory of
the ice-lingam, one of our most spectacular features.
What can we do to please the Almighty without causing
offence to Him and His abode on the one hand and ardent
followers on the other? The answer to this question is
not simple at this juncture. But it has to be found
sooner rather than later. For its part the Board is
seized of the task which, it needs to be said, needs the
cooperation of all.
To kill oneself
Off and on we come across
the reports of people terminating their own lives or
making attempts to do so in the State. In addition there
are mysterious deaths which appear to be suicides but may
in the end turn out to be planned murders. This region
alone has witnessed four unexplained fatalities and five
attempted suicides in the first five days of this month.
Actually there is hardly any fortnight when we are not
exposed to such dastardly happenings. It is to be noted
that of the nine instances referred above the women
including a minor girl figure in five and the men in
four. In the country as a whole the men outnumber women
in this regard. According to the National Crime Records
Bureau (NCRB), the male:female ratio of suicide victims
in the country has been 64:36 in 2006. However, the
proportion of boys:girls is 48:52 which is almost equal.
Dowry disputes, illegitimate pregnancy, physical abuse,
not having children, cancellation/ non-settlement of
marriage, divorce and suspected illicit relations account
for the majority of female victims. The NCRB has
observed: "Social and economic causes have led most
of the males to commit suicides whereas emotional and
personal causes have mainly driven females to end their
lives." Every year more than one lakh persons lose
their lives in this country by committing suicide.
Unfortunately the vicious trend is upward. There has been
an increase of 3.7 per cent in suicides in 2006 compared
to 2005 and 33.9 per cent compared to 1996 (118112 in
2006 from 88241 in 1996). Our State has a rate of 2.2
suicides per one lakh of population which is very low
compared to the national average of 10.5 Puducherry
(known earlier as Pondicherry), Andaman and Nicobar
Islands, Kerala, Sikkim, Tripura, Karnataka,
Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Goa top this
dubious list in that order. All of them surpass the
all-India average in a big way.
Apart from the grounds
already mentioned the following causes have been
identified as leading to suicides: bankruptcy or sudden
change in economic status, illness (AIDS, cancer,
paralysis, insanity/mental illness, other prolonged
illness), death of dear person, dowry dispute, drug
abuse/addiction, failure in examination, fall in social
reputation, family problems, ideological causes/hero
worshipping, love affairs, poverty, professional/career
problem, property dispute and unemployment. Family
problems are the biggest destroyers. At times the
suicides are shrouded in a mystery. It is a disease that
afflicts every strata of society and all age-groups.
Those bewitched by it go in the self-destructive
direction through the following routes: alcoholism,
drowning, fire/self immolation, fire arms, hanging,
poisoning, consumption of insecticides, other poisons,
self-infliction of injury, jumping from buildings and
other sites as well as moving vehicles/trains, machine,
overdose of sleeping pill, self electrocution and coming
under running vehicles/train.. How do we overturn this
inclination? Why should a human being give up the desire
to live?
.
Impact of
Green Revolution in the state
By
Dr.M.P. Gupta
Thanks to the
technological breakthrough in
agriculture especially during the
period 1966-84, this has caused
rapid strides in production
leading to "Green
Revolution" particularly in
cereal crops. As a result,
instead of importing grains,
India is in a position to export
agricultural products to other
countries. Then the question
arises why there is hike in
prices of food items? The
inflation in prices of food items
in our country is due to the
cumulative effect of expansion in
demand, hoarding, export policy,
more purchasing power,
mismanagement, etc.
In the Non-aligned
Summit held at Cancun, Late Rajiv
Gandhi, Prime Minister of India
elucidated that India has made an
excellent achievement on
agricultural front and he was
proud of agricultural scientists.
This remarkable change in
agriculture, in fact, to a
varying degree has influenced the
whole country starting from
Kashmir to Kanayakumari. The
State of Jammu &
Kashmir-crown of India lies in
the lap of Himalayan Mountains
with an average height of 300
meters to above 8400 meters. The
indirect influence of green
revolution can be witnessed in
all walks of life i.e., economic,
social, cultural and political
life of the inhabitants in all
the five zones of Jammu
&Kashmir ranging from low
altitude to high altitude areas
of inner Himalayas. In order to
have the appraisal of impact,
inequalities and social tension
due to green revolution in the
State, data was collected both on
qualitative and quantitative
aspects.
The State having two
divisions Jammu, Kashmir
including Ladakh comprises 22
newly created districts (14
undivided districts) with an area
of 222236 sq. kilometers and
total population of 10143700
(2001census) showing thereby
density of population 100@per sq.
km. Agriculture is the mainstay
of economy of the State and eight
out of every ten persons work in
the fields. As a matter of fact,
farming has been modernized
during the recent years. In the
past, farmers used the wooden
plough and other indigenous
implements. Besides, thrashers,
shellers, chaff cutters, 937
tractors were registered during
2005-06, raising the cumulative
total to 12,818 are an indicative
of mechanized farming by some
farmers. Sowing, harvesting and
thrashing are no longer done by
hand alone, with the result that
the farmer has to exert less and
he gets better crops. He uses
more manure, chemical
fertilizers, insecticides/
pesticides now than he did
before. Some efforts have been
made to set up production units
in the State to produce
agriculture inputs/ implements.
The farmers do not sow the same
crops in a field every season;
rather follow rotation of crops.
The farmer use better seeds
obtained from co-operative
societies or Government go downs.
The Government has done much to
improve the means of irrigation
through canals, tube wells,
water-sheds, etc., as a result,
net area irrigated was projected
as 300 (000 ha) in 2002-03.
Agriculture experts invariably go
to far flung villages and advise
the farmers about scientific
farming; farmers take loan from
banks for purchase of implements,
fertilizers, insecticides/
pesticides, etc for getting
better yield in field crops.
As evident from
statistical records, J&K
State registered 15027 (000 Qtls)
food grain production in 2004-05
and thereby showing 34.21 per
cent increase over past five
years in food production. The
farmers in Valley invariably have
shifted from mono to multiple
cropping systems. Further, the
State has witnessed substantial
increase in rice production
during the last decade. The
production which stood at 39.15
lakh qtls. in 1999-2000 has
increased to 49.28 lakh qtls. in
2004-05 registering compound
growth rate of 10.13 per cent. As
regard agricultural holdings, the
number of operational holdings
has increased from 10.35 lakh
1988 to 13.35 lakh (1995). It is
evidently clear that majority of
the farmers (about 80%) are
small/ marginal farmers and
average size of holding was
reported as 0.66 ha in 2005.
Besides, it has been observed
that while few small, marginal
farmers have disposed off their
holdings due to increasing prices
of agril. Inputs and less income
from farming, however, a few big
farmers have acquired more land
reflecting inequalities caused by
green revolution. Further, a good
number of farmers due to high
returns from agriculture have put
more area under cereal crops,
leaving few fields under forests,
pasture/ fruit production and
ultimately threaten the whole
farming system. No doubt, in the
wake of green revolution,
inhabitants of this State, to
some extent, are financially well
off and not more than 30 per cent
population is under poverty line.
In villages of Jammu &
Kashmir, the people invariably
have all requisites of life.
60-70 per cent is pucca houses,
drinking water facility 50-55 per
cent, connecting roads almost in
all villages, school near homes.
With few exceptions, people in
Valley can afford to have meat
and rice as cherished daily food,
besides meeting their other
family needs. It is worth
mentioning that beggary in the
State is almost negligible or
otherwise by the outsiders who
have thronged the State.
Increased means and
more income enable the people to
have all assets in their homes
& farms. In rural/ urban
areas of Jammu & Kashmir,
radio sets are readily available.
50-55 per cent of the people have
television sets also in urban
areas and 45-50 per cent of the
people read newspapers/ dailies
indicating thereby that people in
the State are, to a considerable
extent exposed to communication
media and keep themselves
up-to-date with the events going
on in the State vis-à-vis
country. The people in rural are
not much orthodox, superstitious;
rather they are cosmopolite
having frequent visits/ outside
contacts and take active part in
self-improvement activities.
In nutshell, no
doubt, "Harit Kranti"
has ushered self-sufficiency in
food production in our country
but at the same time it has
widened the gap between haves and
have-nots and thereby promoting
inequalities. During the post
period of green revolution,
farmers of J&K State adopt
either "Intensification or
Diversification of farming".
On irrigated areas, stress is
laid on increasing cropping
intensities whereas in rain fed
areas of the State, mostly
farmers are bent upon to practice
diversified or mixed farming to
cover risk & get higher
returns. Besides, in order to
sustain increase in production,
market -led extension may be
employed and agri. Inputs,
credit, marketing of produce need
to be ensured both under ATMA and
non-ATMA districts of the State.
|
|
|
Inflation
management
By S.
Sethuraman
Inflation has been an
unwelcome intrusion for Finance Minister
P Chidambaram, who continues to revel in
his growth story. For a few weeks, the 7
per cent plus rise seemed to unnerve him
to the extent he was even prepared for
sacrifice of growth and some revenue - no
doubt to impress, if he could, the
belligerent Left with Government's
seriousness in fighting inflation.
From the confident tone with
which he replied to the Finance bill
debates in Parliament, he seems to see
the problem more as a temporary blip on
the radar screen. Why? Wheat procurement
is getting closer to the 15 million tonne
target, enough food stocks on hand, a
normal monsoon on the horizon, and the
Agriculture Ministry puts out a record
crop at 227.32 million tonnes, to be
exact, for 2007-08. And he settled with
the bankers that interest rates are not
pushed up.
But inflation has come to
stay at a high level for an extended
duration, especially in the context of
the global upsurge in food, fuel and
metal prices, in particular, and
apparently, the fiscal and monetary
responses so far have not impacted,
though monetary measures take longer to
work. Therefore, any optimism that what
has gone up will come down within a
reasonable time has to be tempered in the
light of emerging developments.
There is now a flare-up in
wholesale price index building up from
February-March and after hitting a
three-year peak of 7.41 per cent in the
last week of March has, far from
slackening as expected, galloped to 7.57
per cent in the week ended April 19. RBI
policy for the year announced on April 29
has mainly focussed on liquidity
management but it would have become
ineffective if inflation is not tamed
within the next few weeks. The consumer
price index for industrial workers had
shot up to 7.87 per cent in March, also
on rising trend from February, mainly
reflecting the rise in prices of food
articles including rice, pulses, edible
oils etc.
The Finance Minister's
revenue-led growth strategy has always
assumed a highly favourable interest rate
environment and this has been the refrain
in his regular meetings with bankers.
While RBI lays down the monetary and
credit policy, Government which owns the
banks can set its own directions for
them, as has been happening in recent
years. As the price index crossed the 7
per cent, Mr Chidambaram was even
reconciled to RBI taking any harsh steps
to control inflation -though RBI says
price stabilisation depends to a greater
extent on supply-side management.
That RBI did not tinker with
interest rates must have come as relief
for the Finance Minister. Bankers
initially wondered whether lending rates
would have to rise, with Rs.27,000 crores
to be impounded under RBI's reserve ratio
hike from 7.50 to 8.25 per cent from May
24, but came out with a statement after
meeting Mr Chidambaram on May 1 that
there would be no increase in interest
rates in the near future. One or two
bankers even talked of a cut in the
current deposit rates which are already
at the lowest in real terms given the
7.57 per cent inflation.
In the liberalised (and
globalised) era, Mr Chidambaram, the most
friendly administrator the apex chambers
of industry could have, could not bring
round the latter to help in moderating
pricing pressures, given the fact that
manufactured products, let alone food
prices, constitute a significant segment
with steel and cement being the single
largest contributor to inflation. Times
have changed and now industry barons call
the shots. The hard-line cement
producers, who held out for a whole year
against a duty adjustment in the last
budget, were joined by the steel
industry, both blaming input costs for
their otherwise "marginal"
price increases in recent weeks.
Much as the Finance Minister
devoutly wished for, Government will not
end the current fiscal year with budgeted
fiscal targets on the dot, especially
revenue deficit, as mandated in FRBM Act,
unless there is a strong growth revival
in the latter half of the year. A new
fiscal consolidation exercise will
hopefully emerge from the 13th Finance
Commission, which will report some time
next year. Mr Chidambaram knows the art
of widening the tax base by not merely
plugging loopholes but by bringing more
and more services under the tax net
covering various stages and also
collecting education cess along with
service tax.
Yet, the current fiscal year
would see a greater addition to
Government's off-budget liabilities with
the increasing under-recoveries of oil
companies as Government cannot pass on a
little more of the rising fuel costs to
the consumer. Oil prices will stay at
elevated levels in 2008 and OPEC
audaciously hints at even 200 dollars a
barrel if the US dollar keeps falling.
But the current global emergency is in
regard to food prices, which has hurt
many poorer countries, and is galvanising
the United Nations and the World Bank.
India's food price inflation
is more a home-made crisis unanticipated
by the powers-that-be. It has to be
tackled, by effectively managing
available supplies ensuring they reach
the poor consumer, in the interim, and by
organising the campaign of boosting
agricultural output and productivity per
hectare with all the support needed for
the farmers, over the medium term. The
tendency would be to take it easy with a
normal monsoon thus subjecting
agriculture again to vagaries of weather
as has been happening over decades.
Production and equitable
distribution is as much the
responsibility of the States as the
Centre. There has not been much evidence
of coordinated actions and many states do
not even realise it is as much their
responsibility to maintain price level
instead of passing the buck to the
Centre. (IPA Service)
|
|
Tracing
roots of corruption
By
Ramesh Kanitkar
The UPA regime looks set for
another round of trouble over the T.R.
Baalu issue. The opposition is set to
rake up the latest revelation that the
Petroleum Ministry had restored the gas
supply in January to King India Chemicals
Corp, the firm owned by the DMK
minister's son, but the order was quietly
withdrawn on April 28 when the
controversy rocked Parliament. These
details have hit at the very bottom of
the defence Mr. Baalu and the UPA
Government have been putting up in the
face of the opposition offensive over the
matter.
On May 5 the BJP used these
details to target the ruling
establishment in Parliament. For the
Government side, which sought to put end
to the whole controversy after the
Petroleum Minister made a statement in
the Rajya Sabha on April 30; this
revelation poses fresh challenges, if not
embarrassment.
Throughout the controversy,
neither Mr. Baalu nor Petroleum Minister
Murli Deora had revealed the fact that
the order had been indeed issued in
January to restore the gas supply to the
DMK minister's family. The latest reports
said as the controversy raged in
Parliament, a senior official of the
Petroleum Ministry wrote the GAIL,
informing the withdrawal of the January 4
letter ordering the gas supply to the
firm. The letter simply pointed out the
February 19 order by the Madras High
Court which set aside the earlier
single-judge order reinstating the gas
supply to the minister's son's firm. In
its order that the High Court had said
the firms will have to submit afresh
their request for gas allocation. The
Petroleum Ministry's latest letter to the
GAIL, cancelling its January direction to
restore the gas supply, simply said the
whole issue would be reviewed afresh.
This revelation, according
to opposition camp, means neither Mr.
Baalu nor Mr. Deora was revealing the
whole truth while defending the gas case
in Parliament. Mr. Baalu has been all
through projecting his son's firm as a
'victim' of the erstwhile NDA regime's
political vendetta, while arguing that no
amount of gas was ever released to the
firm. On his part, Mr. Deora was trying
to defend the PMO sending seven reminders
to the Petroleum Ministry on Mr. Baalu's
son request for restoring gas supply. Mr.
Deora told the Rajya Sabha that these PMO
reminders were just 'routine letters' and
there was no order from the Prime
Minister on the matter.
In the middle of an
uneventful week in Parliament, on April
23, AIADMK MP V. Maitreyan raised the
matter in the Rajya Sabha. Armed with
copies of Tamil newspapers, he accused
Baalu of misusing his position as a
minister to pressurise GAIL and ONGC into
providing gas to his family's companies,
Maitreyan said the Minister had
"arm-twisted" ONGC and GAIL for
favouring the companies-Kings India
Chemicals, King Chemicals and Kings High
Power. He claimed that Kings India was on
the 2004 list of Tamil Nadu bank
defaulters. As voices of protest came
from the treasury benches saying the
matter could not be raised as it was
sub-judice, Maitreyan urged the minister
and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to come
clean on the issue.
Baalu, who was present in
the House, explained: "In 1999,
Kings High Power had entered into an
agreement with GAIL for the supply of
10,000 cubic metres of gas to it. But the
gas company went back on its word as part
of 'revenge' taken by the NDA Government
and the BJP as I quit the alliance in
2003… The employees and shareholders
approached me with the problem. I then
put in a word with the Petroleum Minister
for supplying gas to an ailing company. I
was trying to save the company. What is
wrong in it?"
The opposition saw in it a
perfect opportunity to nail the
government on charges of nepotism. The
issue was simple: a sitting Cabinet
Minister admitting on the floor of the
House that he did ask for a favour. And
then there was the expose. The Prime
Minister's Office (PMO), it turned out,
had intervened and forwarded as many as
eight letters of request for help in the
matter. As the Government desperately
tried to downplay the issue as a
"routine matter", the
opposition was in no mood to relent and
stalled the House proceedings for five
consecutive sittings forcing the
Government to promise a statement.
The Congress tried to
dissociate itself from the issue. It
refused to take a stand and was more
bothered about the PMO getting dragged in
the controversy. While not commenting on
Mr. Baalu, the Congress maintained that
the PMO had done what had been always the
practice: forwarding letters of request.
As spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said,
"Forwarding letters does not mean
endorsing their contents. It has always
been the practice that any letter the PMO
receives from anyone; the office forwards
it, saying that whatever is the lawful
course of action should be
followed."
The Congress was obviously
embarrassed by this upfront admission
from Mr. Baalu. It is now depending on
the DMK, Baalu's party and a key ally in
the UPA coalition, to bail it out of the
mess. As a senior Congress Minister said,
"It is not for us to sack Baalu. It
is the DMK's decision who it wants at the
Centre as its minister. So what happens
to Baalu depends on the DMK. But we don't
see it as an issue that would mean the
axe for Baalu."
The Congress is meanwhile
more worried about the charges against
the PMO. In off-the-record conversations,
Congress leaders admit that
"eight" (letters) is indeed a
big number, and somebody in the PMO
should have realised that forwarding so
many letters was not appropriate. As a
minister explained: "It is an
administrative issue here. No wrong
intentions. After all, it does not mean
that he would be deprived of his basic
rights as a human being. He should not be
prevented from doing his duty as a
father… of requesting that his son's
case be looked into. So, as such, Mr.
Baalu has done nothing wrong. But what
the opposition is latching on to is not
Baalu but the PMO."
Even though party insiders
feel the charges against the PMO won't
stick, the Government is facing the
opposition's ire in Parliament. Petroleum
Minister, Mr. Murli Deora, gave a
statement in the Rajya Sabha last week
but the opposition had filed a Breach of
Privilege notice against him. Just a day
before his statement, Mr. Deora had
spoken on the issue on television
channels. Right after Mr. Deora's speech
in the Rajya Sabha, Dr. Manmohan Singh
too gave a statement on the sidelines of
a public function. So the opposition now
has yet another issue: If the Prime
Minister could speak in public, what
prevented him from coming out clean in
Parliament?
In the erstwhile NDA
Government, Mr. Ram Naik got into
controversy for helping facilitate petrol
pump allotments to many political
workers. There was no suggestion that he
personally benefited from this
disbursement of largesse. Compared to the
Congress which built its party machinery
on the strength of political patronage of
the public sector, Naik's sins were
trivial. Yet, in the eyes of the urban
electorate he was damned. The so-called
petrol pump scandal probably contributed
to his defeat in Mumbai in 2004.
Baalu's conduct is
inexcusable to a minority of Indians who
feel that the Indian state is bloated and
that at the root of corruption are the
discretionary powers enjoyed by
ministers. INAV
|
|
|
