|
Round The States
Andhra’s Never Ending Woes
COMMUNAL CLASHES HIT HYDERABAD
By Insaf
New Delhi, April 03, 2010
Andhra Pradesh’s woes seem never ending. Just as the
southern State was limping back to normalcy after months of
agitation over Telangana, its capital city, Hyderabad, was
rocked by mindless communal violence. Trouble started on
Saturday last when a Hindu group sought to replace Muslim
flags with its own on the streets of the old city during a
Hanuman Jayanthi rally. All hell broke loose, leaving two
persons killed and 150 injured. Protestors from both sides
indulged in stone-pelting, targeting and burning places of
worship, residential areas, shops and vehicles. While the
State government had to extend curfew in 35 police station
areas and issue shoot-at-sight orders, the Centre rushed
1800-odd paramilitary personnel to the State. Though peace
returned in riot-hit areas on Wednesday last, curfew
continued, forcing the Osmania University to postpone its
degree exams. Intriguingly, suspicion is that the violence was
orchestrated to destabilise Chief Minister K Rosaiah. The
State intelligence wing said that it is looking at various
angles, including politicians and right wing organizations,
but it has stopped short of saying who was behind this
madness.
* * * *
Haryana Shows The Way
Haryana has shown the way to dismantle medieval justice in
modern India. In a landmark judgement in an honour killing
case, a sessions court in Karnal on Tuesday last sentenced to
death five persons for murdering a couple on the diktats of a
khap panchayat (caste-based council) in 2007. Manoj (23) and
Babli (19), who hailed from Karora village in Kaithal
district, had defied the khap panchayat’s decree and got
married despite belonging to the same gotra (sub caste) and
being termed as “brother and sister,” by the elders. Those
sentenced to death are the girl's relatives. This apart, the
leader of the panchayat was awarded life imprisonment and a
driver given a seven year jail term. It is the first case in
which the boy's family had moved court against the honour
killing. Soon after the judgment, Manoj’s courageous mother
Chanderpati said: “I want all killers to be hanged in public,
so that nobody dares to take innocent lives in future.” The
verdict, it is hoped will deter khaps from extra-judicial
actions and empower the people against the suffocating
orthodoxy that tends to govern societal norms in Haryana
villages --- and elsewhere.
* * * *
DMK On The Roll
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK supremo M Karunanidhi has
reason to be upbeat. The party is on the roll. It continued
its winning streak last week, by once again trouncing a
divided opposition, the AIADMK and PMK, in the byelection to
the Pennagaram Assembly constituency, in Dharmapuri district.
Its candidate, PNP Inbasekaran pulled off a massive triumph by
beating rival PMK contender by a remarkable margin of 36,384
votes in its Vanniyar stronghold. The AIADMK not only ended up
a distant third but its candidate, R Anbalagan, polled less
than one-sixth of the valid votes and forfeited his deposit,
notwithstanding party chief Jayalalitha campaigning in the
drought-hit constituency for two sweltering evenings! For the
DMK, which swept the 2009 Lok Sabha elections with its ally,
the Congress, Pennagaram marks the 11th successive victory in
byelections in the last four years and comes just a year
before the party faces the crucial Assembly polls in 2011.
* * * *
Farmers’ Suicide In Vidarbha
Untold misery continues to haunt farmers in the Vidarbha
region of Maharashtra. In the past one week, 19 farmers have
committed suicide taking this year’s toll already to 194. And,
while over 15,000 villages in the region have been declared
drought-affected by the State government, no special measures
have been undertaken to tackle the situation so far. The
farmers are victims of the State’s flawed policies, such as
growing Bt cotton on 95 per cent of land, says the Jan Andolan
Samiti, an NGO keeping track of the suicides since 1997. This
has not only caused heavy financial loss to the farmers but
has also resulted in a serious water crisis. Faced with the
loss of crop, the region says the Samiti is in dire need of
financial aid and an interest waiver on last year’s crop loan.
Sadly, the State budget does not provide any such relief. The
farmers who were eagerly expecting some sops have now their
eyes on the Centre for help.
* * * *
Undrinkable Groundwater
The Centre’s promise of providing drinking water to all
habitations by 2012 looks unmistakably unattainable. The
reason: Groundwater, one of the key sources of drinking water,
in over one third of the districts in the country is not fit
for drinking! While iron levels in the groundwater are higher
than those prescribed in 254 districts, the fluoride levels
have breached the safe-level in 224 districts, reveal
government statistics. Three States -- Rajasthan, Karnataka
and Gujarat --- seem to be worst-affected. Twentyone of the 26
districts in Gujarat were found to have dangerous salinity
levels and 18 had beached safe fluoride levels; in Karnataka
of the 31 districts, 21 were said to be contaminated with iron
and 20 with high levels of fluoride. In Rajasthan, the
groundwater in 27 districts was found to be too saline, 30
districts had higher level of fluoride and 28 others suffered
from iron contamination. The country’s capital, Delhi, fares
no better. Five of its nine districts show fluoride
contamination and two show salinity, whereas pockets of all
nine districts had high iron content!
* * * *
Gorkhaland On Hold
The West Bengal government and the Centre can heave a sigh of
relief. The demand for a separate Gorkhaland has for the time
been put on hold. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM)
spearheading the movement for a separate State has officially
submitted a blueprint for an “interim regional authority” to
be constituted for Darjeeling and some areas around it. In the
fifth round of tripartite talks held with the State government
and the Centre recently, the GJM spelt out the interim
arrangement. It sought that the regional authority, which
could be named Gorkhaland Regional Authority or the Darjeeling
and Dooars Regional Authority, should have no interference
from the State government. It should be vested with powers on
law and order, have a body like a State Assembly, a High
Court, a Supreme Court bench and a Schedule Caste status for
the Gorkhas. The GJM has also demanded that the interim
arrangement should be till December 31, 2011 so as to pave the
way for the creation of Gorkhaland. The State government’s
response is: “We need time.”
* * * *
Punjab’s Illegal Migrants
Europe is a popular destination not just for Indian tourists
but for the youth of Punjab. However, the latter prefers to go
offshore illegally. Records have revealed that over 20,000
youth from Punjab attempt illegal migration every year to 57
different countries. The revelation comes out in a report
“Smuggling of Migrants from India to Europe and in particular
to UK from Punjab and Haryana” released by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). It states that over 1 lakh
Punjabi youth in jails in foreign countries face deportation;
in the last one year 20 countries have approached India to
deport 1,195 Punjabi youth, with Ukraine topping the list with
282 persons and that forged visas of 41 countries, including
Italy, Greece France, Spain and the UK are being used.
Obviously, the grass is greener on the other side for these
youth. And the reasons vary from high unemployment rate to the
general attitude of the youth who have successful migrants as
their role models. ---INFA
(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)
E-Mail :
newseditor@sarkaritel.com
|
