Round The States

Drought Situation “Serious”

CENTRE ASSURES AID TO STATES

By Insaf

New Delhi, July 25, 2009

Acknowledging that the monsoon situation was “very serious” in the food bowl of the country, the Centre has finally assured financial help to drought-hit States. While the Finance Ministry is preparing a back-up plan, affected States would need to start identifying pockets of distress and declare “drought conditions” to get assistance. So far Punjab has had a 60 per cent rain shortfall, with 40 of the 71 districts close to drought. Bihar has had only one-third normal rainfall with 38 districts mostly going dry. The other States hit badly include Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Orissa, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh. There has been a critical delay in sowing of the Kharif crops like rice, groundnut, soyabean and cereals and the power shortage has added to the farmers’ woes.

Chances of monsoon revival look bleak and the rain clouds may well pass through July too. In fact, even the North East has had a record rainfall deficiency in three decades. Nagaland has had 67 per cent less rainfall, Assam 34 per cent and Arunachal Pradesh 29 per cent. Incredibly, enough, Cherapunji, the wettest place on earth, has had less than half its share of rainfall! While the Government has already put a ban on export of foodgrains, it has assured the States of raising their respective allocations under the National Food Security Mission and the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. Affected States have been advised to be flexible with the utilization of the funds depending upon their plans.
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Poor Show of NREGS In States

It’s now official. The much-touted National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) of the UPA Government is not delivering. A large number of States have not been able to provide the near full employment for a full 100 days. Figures given to the Lok Sabha by Minister for Rural Development CP Joshi reveal that only nine districts in the North East provided the requisite employment. Worse, States, including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Kerala and Manipur were defaulters and had to pay compensation. Interestingly, the Left-ruled Bengal, which swears by its pro-poor image, shows a dismal rating of an average 14 days of employment in 2006-07, 25 in 2007-08 and 26 in 2008-09. Adjoining Bihar’s report card is similar with the average number of days being 35, 22, and 26 for the same period. Has poverty declined or is it that figures are fudged? Time for the States to answer.
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Modi Gets A Drubbing

Gujarat’s Narendra Modi has reason to worry. The BJP has suffered a major upset in the Junagadh Municipal Corporation election, with its rival, the Congress winning 26 of the 51 seats. Its own strength has slumped from 35 seats to 21. Modi had made the elections, the first since his party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha, a prestige issue. Party Ministers, MPs and MLAs all camped there for the campaign. The BJP even distributed booklets of the Sachar Committee report --- which is otherwise criticized --- to highlight how the Muslims were doing well in Gujarat. The party even went in for its first-ever experiment in Gujarat of fielding five Muslims with an eye on the 15 per cent Muslim vote bank.

Apparently, Modi’s experiment of discarding the hardliner hindutva image has failed to work. He even removed 29 of the 35 sitting BJP councillors and put up new faces. Of these all the five Muslim candidates lost badly. Nor did the fresh faces muster a majority. In fact, his calculated move to woo the “nationalist Muslims” boomeranged and Junagadh with a traditional hindutva votebank deserted the BJP. On hindsight, Modi also failed to see the writing on the wall, after his party lost the Rajkot parliamentary seat, for the first time in two decades. Is it the beginning of the end of the Modi era, as claimed by Congress leaders. Guess, Modi will have to concentrate on State politics rather than eye the national platform.
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New Incumbents In Raj Bhavans

Last week saw a change of guard in five Raj Bhavans. Some well-thought out planning appears to have gone into the appointments of the new Governors. Retired civil servant B L Joshi, who was initially handpicked by 10 Janpath as Delhi’s Lt Governor, was moved from Uttarakhand to politically-sensitive Uttar Pradesh. Veteran Congress leader and a Constitutional lawyer Devendra Nath Dwivedi has been sent to BJP-ruled Gujarat. Margaret Alva, who lost the recent parliamentary elections, has been accommodated in Uttarakhand.

Congress veteran and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Jagannath Pahadia, is the new governor of Haryana. Yet another Congress old hand Sibtey Razi has been shifted from Jharkhand to Assam and likewise, K Shankarnarayanan from Nagaland to Ranchi. With these posts taken, all eyes are now on the prized Governorships of Maharashtra and Goa.
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BSP-Cong War In UP Hots Up

The turf war in Uttar Pradesh between the Congress and Mayawati’s BSP continues to get uglier. Back in her ransacked and burnt house in Lucknow, State Congress Chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who is out on bail has warned of launching a statewide agitation against the “high-handedness” of the UP Government. Her and Rahul Gandhi’s regret over the comment “Will Mayawati settle for a compensation of Rs 1 crore if she were raped,” appears to be best forgotten. Importantly, she has lodged a fresh petition in the Allahabad High Court seeking a CBI inquiry into the arson at her residence. The move is obviously aimed at exposing Mayawati’s wayward ways-- of rewarding a trusted worker, Lucknow BSP chief Intezar Abidi Hussain, accused in the same case. On Sunday last, Behenji appointed him as Chairman of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Ganna Kisan Sansthan, which entitles him to a Minister of State rank, a monthly salary of 30,000, an official car with a red beacon and security guards! Who will have the last laugh?
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Batla House Lie Nailed

The communally-motivated controversy over the Batla House encounter in Delhi a week after the serial blasts in the Union Capital last September has mercifully been laid to rest. The National Human Rights Commission has given a clean chit to the Delhi Police, stating that “the police party engaged in the encounter had fired at the alleged terrorists in self-defence.” Remember, two Muslim youth, Ameen and Saijid, occupants of a flat in Batla House, were killed in the encounter. The Commission conducted the probe on a complaint of NGO Real Cause questioning the police vision and asserting that it was a plot to malign the Muslim youth. The Commission has also held that Inspector Mohan Sharma, who died leading the encounter, was killed by the terrorists’ bullets and not as a result of inter-departmental rivalry. A mischievous lie has been nailed. ---INFA
 

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

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