Privatization can Save Electric Supply in Uttar Pradesh, but Extremely Difficult in Election Year

 Privatization can Save Electric Supply in Uttar Pradesh, but Extremely Difficult in Election Year

The writer of this post has spent many weeks of June in his home village of Azamgarh district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. He was pleasantly surprised to see that all houses have been electrified and the piped drinking water is supplied to almost all houses. In addition to it, most of the households have not submersible tube wells to back up a twenty-four-hour water supply. LPG cylinders have replaced the smoke-emitting chulhas. Every person in the village holds a mobile phone in his /her hand and the world has shrunk either in their hands or pockets.

While these are welcome indices of developments, many evil habits have also set in as their concomitants. There is hardly any family which does not have one or two drinkers of liquors. Cycles have been replaced by bikes causing more pollution. Many families have also got four-wheelers, thanks mainly due to the easement of paved roads connecting every village. Land-cost has got skyrocketed. Small-sized cane crushers have disappeared. A new breed of wheelers and dealers has emerged, who make easy money by duping and fleecing both sellers and buyers. Brahmins and Rajputs are the sellers of the land and intermediary castes purchase them.

Though electricity is available for at least 12 to 15 hours yet most of the consumers do not pay any bills. A hook is thrown at the main wire to get the electric connection bypassing the meter. This is done in connivance and complicity with the hydel employees. The graft is openly given and accepted, which suits both employees and consumers. But the ultimate loss is to the state exchequer. Possibly, this was the reason, the state government of Uttar Pradesh had mooted the idea to privatize the distribution of electricity on the pattern of Delhi and Mumbai. It was due to the firm resolve of the late Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dixit that the electric distribution was given to many private companies. There was huge resentment among the DESU employees because they had become habitual of not doing any work and making bribes. However, Ms Dixit did not budge from her decision making it possible to supply uninterrupted electricity in Delhi.

The idea of privatization of electric distribution had to be given up in Uttar Pradesh because of the strong opposition from the Hydel employees, who got open support from opposition parties. The only agenda of the Opposition in Uttar Pradesh is to oppose any move of the government regardless of its being right or wrong. In fact, privatization is the only way out to improve electricity supply, but it is easier said than done. It will be extremely difficult for any government to go for privatization especially in the year when the general election is around the corner in the state.

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Government Schemes in Villages must be Monitored to Stem the Corruption

The disease of corruption has become chronic and has taken such deep roots as to cause nausea. It was expected that the Panchayati Raj system will stem the rot of corruption to a great extent but, unfortunately, on the other hand, it has grown on a bigger scale. Even for an election to the post of Gram Pradhan and BDC member, millions of rupees have been spent. Those who have won the elections of BDC members are being offered a huge amount of money to vote for any particular candidate. This means that black money has played a big role in these elections.

 Obviously, those who are investing an enormous amount of money to get elected must have some ideas or plans to recover and more money through corrupt means. At present, there are many schemes of the government(s), which are being carried out. 

However, this is an undeniable fact that there is no scheme, which can be implemented without giving cuts to Pradhans and Village Secretaries. Only a naïve can ask, how the cuts can be offered when the money is directly transferred to their bank accounts? There is no doubt that direct transfer of benefits has reduced the harassment of beneficiaries, but its extent scale has helped grow the corruption to an unimaginable scale.

The housing scheme of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna has immensely helped the poor people to have roofs of their own but those who are assigned to implement it at the ground level openly make money from beneficiaries by recommending their names and also through the suppliers of building materials. Money earmarked for the paving of the village roads are not spent in the prescribed manners leading to loopholes for making money. It is very difficult to prevent it when the public representatives and the government employees are found to be hand in gloves.

There is no doubt that Goondaism has been largely controlled due to the strictness of the Yogi government, but it has to work really very hard to root out or at least bring down the corruption due to the complicity of the government employees village level Panchayati Raj office bearers are brought down.  To achieve it will be no less than corruption and if this miracle happens then only those having the burning desire for social service will jump into the electoral fray, otherwise only such persons whose aim is to make more money and enjoy the leverages of power by the sheer dint of their electoral offices as it is prevalent at present.

 

 

India must extend all possible support to Israel

The current war that is raging in Israel and Palestine is possibly the longest one between the two. Israel has already smashed the ribs and bones of Hamas, the terrorist outfit of Palestinians and supported by 57 other Muslim countries. Hamas was the first to launch attacks on Israel with 3000 rockets, but instead of unequivocally condemning the terrorist attacks, the Muslim countries have started blaming, in unison, that Israel has been killing innocent civilians of Palestine. There is no doubt that a large number of civilian casualties have occurred in the retaliatory action of Israel but there was no way out for her to avoid it because Hamas’ terrorists have been holding civilians to ransom and use them as shields. One Saumya Santosh of India has also been killed in the rocket attacks of Hamas These are the tactics that are adopted by terrorists in India also, be it Kashmir or Chhattisgarh.

There are many puzzling questions that have given rise to this war. Israel has been a time-tested friend of India. She has not only supported India at all forums, including the UNO, the biggest talk shop of the world but has immensely helped India in all the wars waged by China and Pakistan, then why the government of India has failed to reciprocate it to Israel with the same alacrity and unambiguity? There is a groundswell of support for Israel in India and yet the silence and diffidence of GOI in helping Israel to crush terrorism are not understandable. Requesting for peace and ceasefire at a time, when the friendly country, Israel, is bombarded by Hamas terrorists is a classic example of India’s timidity. Is it not bizarre that a country attacked is blamed as the aggressor and the real aggressors and terrorists are playing the victimhood card?

Israel has always been on the side of India on the issue of Kashmir, although India has always been ditched by that hypocrite freebooter Yasser Arafat, who took all benefits from India and never hesitated to become the sidekick of Pakistan. The Muslim world must realise that the concept of Islamic brotherhood has been paled into insignificance before the modern concept of nationhood. How can they stand before a country, where every person is a dedicated soldier of the country and has the resolve to stand like a rock in the time of any crisis?

The entire Muslim world is known to be intellectually bankrupt and devoid of scientific tempers, militarily parasitic and coward, mentally profligate and lecherous, regressive, rogue and arrogant in attitude. They all are frozen in the time zone of the 8th-century feudal era. When the whole world says that terrorism has no religion why the Muslim countries are supporting Hamas in the name of religion is another enigma of their double-speak and deception.

This is the time when GOI must join with Israel to crush the terrorism of all manifestations from the world. This is also the time for India to adopt the policy realpolitik in the face of the challenges of our enemies. People of India will also have a proud feeling to stand with a friend in the time of her need.

Mamata must avoid becoming the Chief Minister

 Mamata must avoid becoming the Chief Minister

It is expected that in all likelihoods Mamata Banerjee will again be elected the leader of the TMC Vidhayak Dal to become the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third time in a row because itis she who has steered cleared the party to a thumping win, although she herself has been defeated by her rival Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP from the Nandigram assembly constituency. If she is elected as the leader of the Vidhayak Dal, she herself would not be the Vidhayak. Now the question is whether it is morally and constitutionally right for her to be sworn as the Chief Minister. Opinions may differ on this issue, but the undeniable fact is that her swearing-in will be wrong on both counts. Firstly, let us consider it from the angle of morality. If she had not contested the election, it would have been an entirely different matter to elect her as the leader. But here is the unique case of a sitting Chief Minister, who has lost her election. It has never happened in history when any Chief Minister, rejected by the people of the constituency in the hustings, had been chosen to be the leader of the Legislative assembly. So, her election as the leader of the Vidhayak Dal would set a very bad precedent in parliamentary history as it would amount to throwing morality to the wind. In fact, there are two Articles in the constitution, one is Article 75(5) and the other is Article 164(4), which speak about the Council of ministers at the State and the Union level. But both articles speak about the appointment of ministers and not of the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister. Article 164 (4) says that ' a minister, who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall at the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister’. Thus, the constitution speaks of the Minister and not of the Chief Minister. Similarly, Article 75(5) speaks of a Minister at the centre and not the Prime Minister. It would be sheer injustice to say that the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister is ‘primus inter pares’ i.e. first among equals. A Prime Minister or a Chief Minister is not first among equals because he/she has no equals. When a Chief Minister or a Prime Minister resigns or vacates his/ her office, the entire council of minister ceases to exist, which is not the case with a minister. Ministers may come and go but the council of minister will remain undisturbed till the Chief Minister or the Prime Minister holds office. The President or the Governor may be the official head of the State but the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister is the actual head of the state. Although the Supreme Court has in ‘S P Anandvs HD Devegowda’ ( 1996 SCC(6) and HS Verma vs TN Singh (1971 SCC(1) has held that a person can be appointed as the Prime Minister or the chief minister even without being a member of the Legislature yet many jurists have held, and rightly so, that the views of the Supreme Court were inconsistent with the letter and spirit of the constitution. There is only one instance of Devegowda in history, who was appointed the Prime Minister without being a member of any house of the parliament but that was in the pre-Parliament time, so the case of his council of ministers was altogether different from Deve Gowda. As far as the appointment of Chief Ministers concerned, there are many examples, cutting across the party lines, where they have appointed without being the member of the Legislatures. However, if Mamata becomes the Chief Minister again, it will be the first of its type in history. Even Tribhuwan Narain Singh had resigned as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh after he was defeated by Ram Krishna Dwivedi of the Congress from the Maniram constituency. Hopefully, Mamata Banerjee will be cautious of the constitutional and ethical propriety and will have any protégé as the Chief Minister for the time being till she is not elected as the MLA from any other constituency of West Bengal. After all, morality cannot be thrown overboard to set a bad example for the coming generations.

Agartala DM needs psychiatric treatment

 

Agartala District Magistrate Shailesh Kumar Yadav deserves to be pitied and needs to be sent to a mental asylum. What he has done, on the night of the day before yesterday, to spoil the joyous wedding celebrations at two places can be done only by an insane person and not by the one who is in his or her senses. To say that it was unbecoming on the part of an IAS officer is a gross understatement. Firstly, it was difficult to believe that any official could behave in such a vulgar manner. He along with his team and policemen behaved like a third-rate goonda. The people could have retaliated to bring him to senses, but the occasion of the marriage seemed to have kept them on hold.

The video of the Agartala DM has now become viral worldwide. Everybody is aghast to see an IAS officer slapping and abusing people including the priest, the groom, and the bride like a constable handling with an unruly crowd. Needless to say, that most of the government employees, right from the IAS officer down to a chaprasi are essentially corrupt. Corruption has become the hallmark of the government job. The police department is the synonym of corruption in India. Engineers and Doctors do not lag behind them. Contractors, in different departments belong to the despicable new breed of infection, who are the past masters of evil deeds.

Most of the IAS and IPS officers are found to be corrupt, haughty, drunk with power, reckless, and generally ride roughshod but some of them are also found to be very conscientious with impeccable perspicacity and integrity. This corrupt breed grins before the powerful politicians but misbehaves with the general public. Therefore, even if they are power-drunk, they become very meek in front of their masters. Some of them, who try to show themselves to be courageous, often behave abnormally for cheap publicity.

As a matter of fact, the selection, the training, and the orientation programmes of these officers must be drastically changed. They must be firmly told and professionally trained that they are meant for the service of the people and not to overlord them. Otherwise, how come an IAS or IPS considers himself or herself to be many shades above the Aam Adami and has got the license to accumulate the ill-gotten wealth?

Rooting out the corruption is an uphill task, and it can be done only by the dedicated band of political leadership with the help of technology by bringing the human interface to the minimum level. Seeing by the conduct of the officers in different departments it appears to be imperative to go for their psychological tests and if they are as mentally derailed as this Shailesh Kumar Yadav is, then they should be rendered proper mental treatment or even their services can be dispensed with.

The people must also be aware of the fact that this the time of the pandemic and any violation of the Standard Operating Procedures will be detrimental not only for them but for others as well. Therefore, its violation should not be brooked but in the case of the Agartala incident, the police should firstly have not allowed the number of people to have gone up more than fifty and secondly, the proper warning must have been given to vacate the place by a certain time. Of course, some concession could have been given to four or five persons to solemnise the marriage ceremony. However, there is no point in now crying over the split milk or suggesting what should have been done or not done. Hopefully, this incident, howsoever condemnable it is, should serve as a lesson to the officials, leaders, and the public as well.

 

Modi’s Address on Combating Covid is Re-assuring

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s twenty minutes address to the nation the last night was highly reassuring. The forces that have been busy spreading negativity, lies and canards about Covid -19 must have got tight slaps on their face after Modi’s address. These were the people, who were cursing the government last year for foisting lockdown in the country and now they are criticising and castigating the government for not declaring the lockdown.

During the last year, the country has made tremendous progress, expertise, and confidence in fighting with Covid-19. There were not many testing labs, masks, and PPE kits a year ago. Even basic medicines like Hydroxychloroquine were in short supply. But now they are available in plenty because the country got geared up mainly due to the encouraging leadership of Narendra Modi. India has not only become self-sufficient in having the kits and medicines to fight Corona, but she has achieved enough of them to export to scores of countries of the world including many developed ones.

Last year when the lockdown was declared some journalists, allergic to Modi, had made it their motto to malign his government by showing and writing about the suffering of migrant workers. These are the people who have always been anti-workers. These journalists have been notorious strikebreakers and always worked for the money from the managements to crush the working class but suddenly they have become the champions of the workers. These Johnnies never stood by the working class in their struggle for their rights. Last year when the lockdown was declared there were some mentally perverted journalists were shouting from the housetops that more people would be killed due to hunger than Covid but when the Prime Minister declared that every person of the BPL family numbering more than 800 million would get free ration besides some cash money, they were left with ashen-faced. It is a matter of huge satisfaction that not even a single death was reported due to hunger and starvation.

  As far as the vaccination is concerned, all efforts were made by some journalists to create an atmosphere of confusion for vaccine hesitancy. There were many who said the vaccines were still not thoroughly tested and tried, some said their efficacy was doubtful, some went to the extent of saying that these vaccine vials were no better than distilled water. Some foolish and hair-brained leaders were on record that they would not go for the BJP developed vaccines.  Look now they are the same people who are complaining about the shortage of vaccines and begging for more supply.

There is no doubt when a crisis of such magnitude engulfs any country, the initial arrangements start bursting at the seams and collapsing but this is the time when the patience and planning of the leadership is tested and there is hardly any doubt that the Modi government has been handling this humongous crisis very deftly and effectively.  

India has reported lesser deaths per million than even the developed countries of the world, where all their medical arrangements went berserk and collapsed. In comparison to them, the performance of India has been much better. The crisis of oxygen and beds are being blown out of proportions by the vested interests, but it will be over within a few days. This sudden surge in the Covid cases now has largely been because of the general carelessness and the complacency of the public. Proper compliance of the Covid appropriate behaviour of the people will be more effective than anything else.

It is very heartening that different Mahamandleshwars have agreed to perform only the symbolic snans (bathing) at the Haridwar Kumbha on the appeal of the Prime Minister. Hopefully, other religionists will also rise to the occasion and heed the advice of the experts to maintain distance by wearing masks. Universalisation of vaccination after the age of 18 years is again a welcome step as it will soon make the country Covid free.

 

  

 

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Excavation of Gyanvapi will unearth reality: a Welcome Order

Think for a moment that if Rakhal Das Banerji and John Marshall of Archaeological Survey of India had not undertaken the excavations of Harappa in 1922, would it have been possible for the whole world to know about Mohen jo-Daro and the Indus Valley Civilisation that existed thousands of years ago? The world would have remained poorer about the ancient Indian civilisation. So, there is no logic in opposing the excavation with the help of modern technology to know the factual position of the Gyanvapi mosque, which has been ordered by Asutosh Tiwari, the Senior Fast-Track Court Civil Judge of Varanasi on April 8

The Judge directed the Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a physical survey of the Gyanvapi mosque compound abutting the Kashi Vishwanath temple to find out whether it was a 'superimposition, alteration or addition or there is structural overlapping of any kind, with or over, any other religious structure'.  In his order, he also asked the committee to be constituted for the purpose, to trace as to whether any Hindu temple ever existed before the mosque in question. The civil Judge said that a committee formed by the ASI as per its directions would be entitled to enter every portion of the religious structure situated at the disputed site but shall first resort to only Ground Penetrating Radar or Geo-Radiology System or both to satisfy itself on whether any excavation or extraction work is needed at any portion of the religious structure. If excavation or extraction was to be done at any portion of the structure, it should be first done by trial trench method vertically and that too on a very small scale and not more than four square feet at a time.

Unfortunately, the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board has, without losing any time, approached the Allahabad High Court to set aside the order of the Varanasi judge.  This order has stirred and shaken the Muslim community. One fails to understand why the Muslims in India, whose DNA is the same as those of Hindus and other religionists do not want to know the historical reality?

It is so strange that when the world wants to know the origin of the human race and Neanderthals or when the scientists across the globe are vying with others to send their spacecraft on the Moon and Mars, we do not want to know our history of even a few hundred years. Needless to mention that the love and affection cannot grow in darkness and ignorance, but it grows in the light when the knowledge dawns.

Hopefully, Allahabad High Court will not adopt the myopic view and will allow the excavation to be carried on to know the reality.  Any attempt to put the lid on the truth must be deprecated. Those who want to stop the excavation work are the enemies of knowledge and truth but unfortunately, a section of the society in our country unabashedly tries to stop it in the name of bogus communal harmony.

  

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