Lee Kuan Yew: Founding Father and 1st Prime Minister of Singapore

Lee Kuan Yew dead at 91

• Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father and first Prime Minister of Singapore who transformed the tiny island into one of the wealthiest and least corrupt countries in Asia, died on Monday morning. He was 91. 

• “The Prime Minister is deeply grieved to announce the passing of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the  founding Prime Minister of Singapore,” a statement on the PM’s official website said. “Mr. Lee passed away peacefully at the Singapore General Hospital today at 3.18 am.” 

• Mr. Lee was Prime Minister from 1959, when Singapore gained full self-government from the British, until 1990, when he stepped down. Late into his life, he remained the dominant personality and driving force in what he called a First World oasis in a Third World region. The nation reflected the man: efficient, unsentimental, incorrupt, inventive, forward looking and pragmatic. “We are ideology free,” Mr. Lee said in an interview with The New York Times in 2007, stating what had become Singapore’s ideology. “Does it work? If it works, let’s try it. If it’s fine, let’s continue it. If it doesn’t work, toss it out, try another one.” 

• His leadership was criticised for suppressing freedom, but the formula succeeded. Singapore became a business and financial center admired for its efficiency and low level of corruption. 

Strongman who took Singapore to the First World
As an Indian, I wish Lee Kuan Yew had lived to be at least 97. He may then, in 2020, have taken a more positive view of India before finally signing off. In 2007, he endeared himself to Indians when he wrote admiringly about “India’s Peaceful Rise” in a column in Forbes. By 2012 he was writing India off as a “nation of unfulfilled greatness.”

Regrettably, those were his last recorded views on India before ill health slowed him down. He told Robert Blackwill, former United States Ambassador to India and the co-editor of a volume on Mr. Lee’s view of the world, ( Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World by Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill and Ali Wyne, 2013): “Look at the construction industries in India and China, and you will know the difference between one that gets things done and another that does not get things done, but talks about things…” — words that many believe still ring true about India.

Hot and cold on India

• Mr. Lee seems to have come to the conclusion that India, a great civilisation, would never be able to equal China as a modern nation. China was determined to regain its status as the world’s number one power. India, Mr. Lee felt, would do well if it managed to somehow get to number two. But, Mr. Lee wished India well because, as he wrote in Forbes , “Singapore and Southeast Asia, sandwiched between these two behemoths, need China and India to achieve a balanced relationship, one that allows both to grow and prosper, pulling up the rest of Asia-East, Southeast and South with them.”

• Mr. Lee always blew hot and cold about India. India was the country he first reached out to, in the mid-1960s, as he set about liberating Singapore and creating an island Republic. In his own country he was fighting the communists, so he couldn’t reach out to Mao’s China for help. Breaking off from Muslim majority Malaysia, and in an awkward relationship with most of his other neighbours, Mr. Lee saw India as his nation’s natural partner. He even retained the island’s Sanskrit origin name — Simhapura that became Singapore — and actively sought India’s diplomatic recognition and military assistance. 

• In his salad years, as the leader of a new nation, he admired Indira Gandhi’s tough personality. He went out of his way to make Mrs. Gandhi’s first official visit to Singapore a great success. He entered into a defence cooperation agreement with India that has only become stronger with  time. But India’s self-important political and diplomatic leadership, while initially helping him, ended up spurning his entreaties and even his suggestion that India become a founding member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). 

• Caught in the web of its own Cold War and post-colonial rhetoric, India seemed unable to see the wood for the trees in rising Asia. Rebuffed by an imperious India, Mr. Lee became its critic and shunned it, till Prime Minister Narasimha Rao launched his post-Cold war “Look East” Policy. It was left to Mr. Lee’s successor, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong, to revive the relationship with India. Where Mr. Lee and Mrs. Gandhi failed, Mr. Goh and Mr. Rao succeeded, and the credit for the new India-Singapore relationship ought to go to them. 

Rebuilding Singapore

• Mr. Lee was unique. Alone among the developing, post-colonial nations, Mr. Lee made bold to define his nation’s destiny as that of moving, within one generation, from being a Third World country to becoming a First World country. He achieved it. 

• Mr. Lee’s critics will draw attention to his dictatorial tactics and the stifling of dissent and the media. His admirers, however, view him a benign dictator who, in fact, actively sought democratic legitimacy and ensured that he secured it by running a welfare state, in which he sought to instil hope in the future for every citizen. 

• It is not just phenomenal economic growth and modernisation that marks Mr. Lee’s Singapore out. What truly set him apart was his obsessive social engineering. He rebuilt Singapore virtually brick by brick, tearing down the old, changing social behaviour and creating an ‘air-conditioned’ metropolis in the middle of a green, manicured garden island. As Singapore modernised, it also invested in the arts and in culture, always emphasising the diversity of its cultural roots. 

• Mr. Lee had strong views about how society ought to be organised and how governments ought to function. He had the opportunity and the space to put his thoughts into action and used social engineering to create a plural nation with four official languages and a housing policy that ensured the intermingling of races. 

Minister Mentor

• Having completed his work in Singapore, Mr. Lee straddled Asia and tried to shape China. His advice was not ignored. Inspired by Singapore’s economic success, China’s Great Moderniser, Deng Xiao Peng, invited Mr. Lee to help build a new China. Deng turned Shanghai into a “Manhattan of the East,” learning from Singapore. After he handed power to a new generation and appointed himself as Minister Mentor, Mr. Lee sought to become a teacher of sorts. He educated himself about world history and travelled its length and breadth educating world leaders. The only institution in Singapore that he willingly lent his name to was the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, underscoring the point that he saw good and active public policy as the key to progress and prosperity. 

• His intimate knowledge of China and its leadership made him an important link between a still opaque China and an increasingly curious world. Both Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh became his willing disciples in their own effort to understand and deal with China. Each time Mr. Lee visited New Delhi during Dr. Singh’s first term, the two would meet over lunch, where the Minister Mentor would tutor his pupil on how to deal with China’s leadership. 

• Because Singapore’s success has become so closely identified with his personality and politics, even its failures are now attributed to him. Rising income inequality has created an angry under class, and even a frustrated middle class, unable to afford the temptations of a prosperous economy. This anger is now reflected in increasing resentment of expatriates and minorities. 

• The political party Mr. Lee and his compatriots created is losing ground and his critics are finding a new voice. Perhaps, this was the best time for him to leave his paradise on Earth. 

• Given that Singapore was one of the Asian countries that extended its hospitality to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was still Chief Minister of Gujarat, and also given the special relationship between the two countries, it would be a fine gesture on Mr. Modi’s part if he were to attend Mr. Lee’s funeral later this week. 

• (Sanjaya Baru was Visiting Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore, and is presently Honorary Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi.) 

What truly set him apart was his obsessive social engineering. He rebuilt Singapore virtually brick by brick… 

For Lee the good of society took precedence over individual rights

• An election in 2011 marked the end of the Lee Kuan Yew era, with a voter revolt against the ruling People’s Action Party. Mr. Lee resigned from the specially created post of minister mentor and stepped into the background as the nation began exploring the possibilities of a more engaged and less autocratic government. 

• Since Singapore separated from Malaysia in 1965 — an event Mr. Lee called his “moment of anguish” — he had seen himself in a never- ending struggle to overcome the nation’s lack of natural resources, a potentially hostile international environment and a volatile ethnic mix of Chinese, Malays and Indians. 

• “To understand Singapore and why it is what it is, you’ve got to start off with the fact that it’s not supposed to exist and cannot exist,” he said in the 2007 interview. “To begin with, we don’t have the ingredients of a nation, the elementary factors: a homogeneous population, common language, common culture and common destiny. So, history is a long time. I’ve done my bit.” 

• His “Singapore model,” sometimes criticised as soft authoritarianism, included centralized power, clean government and economic liberalism along with suppression of political opposition and strict limits on free speech and public assembly, which created a climate of caution and self censorship. The model has been admired and studied by leaders in Asia, including in China, and beyond as well as being the subject of countless academic case studies. 

• The commentator Cherian George described Mr. Lee’s leadership as “a unique combination of charisma and fear.” 

• As Mr. Lee’s influence waned, the questions were how much and how fast his model might change in the hands of a new, possibly more liberal generation. Some even asked, as he often had, whether Singapore, a nation of 5.6 million, could survive in a turbulent future. 

• Mr. Lee was a master of “Asian values,” a concept in which the good of society took precedence over the rights of the individual and citizens ceded some autonomy in return for paternalistic rule. Generally passive in political affairs, Singaporeans sometimes chide themselves as being overly preoccupied with a comfortable lifestyle, which they sum up as the “Five C’s” — cash, condo, car, credit card, country club. 

• In recent years, though, a confrontational world of political websites and blogs has given new voice to critics of Mr. Lee and his system. Even among people who knew little of Singapore, Mr. Lee was famous for his national self-improvement campaigns, which urged people to do such things as smile, speak good English and flush the toilet, but never to spit, chew gum or throw garbage off balconies. 

• “They laughed, at us,” he said in the second volume of his memoirs, “From Third World to First: The Singapore Story 1965-2000.” “But I was confident that we would have the last laugh. We would have been a grosser, ruder, cruder society had we not made these efforts.” 

• Mr. Lee developed a distinctive Singaporean mechanism of political control, filing libel suits that sometimes drove his opponents into bankruptcy and doing battle with critics in the foreign press. 

• Several foreign publications, including The International Herald Tribune, which is now called The International New York Times, have apologized and paid fines to settle libel suits. 

• The lawsuits challenged accusations of nepotism — members of Mr. Lee’s family hold influential positions in Singapore — and questions about the independence of the judiciary, which critics have said follows the lead of the executive branch. 

• Mr. Lee denied that the suits had a political purpose, saying they were essential to clearing his name of false accusations. He seemed to genuinely believe that criticisms would gain currency if they were not vigorously disputed. But the lawsuits themselves did as much as anything to diminish his reputation. 

Lee was disappointed with India

• “Lee and Indira Gandhi shared a brutal commitment to power, an almost brutal pragmatism and a fascination with mystic predictions of the future. Both dominated the scene around them. So much so that though lacking the alliterative resonance of the loyalist chant during the Emergency, Indira is India, India is Indira, it might be more accurate to recite Kuan Yew is Singapore, Singapore is Kuan Yew,” said journalist Sunanda K. Datta-Ray. 

• In later years, Mr. Lee met with nearly every Prime Minister, particularly Narasimha Rao, and Manmohan Singh, whom he met frequently in New Delhi and Singapore, as he pushed India for the need to “look east” more. But while Mr. Lee had an easy and often warm relationship with Indian leaders, he was caustic in his criticism of how India had developed post-Independence. 

• His view that India was “ not a real country,” but “32 separate nations that happen to be arrayed along the British rail line,” and his scathing criticism of its leadership and bureaucracy that were in his words “feudal” made many see him as anti-India. 

On Indian bureaucrats

• His views on the world, published in a book last year authored among others by the former U.S. Ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill, included the following passage: “The average Indian civil servant still sees himself primarily as a regulator and not as a facilitator. The average Indian bureaucrat has not yet accepted that it is not a sin to make profits and become rich. The average Indian bureaucrat has little trust in India’s business community. They view Indian businesspeople as money-grabbing opportunists who do not have the welfare of the country at heart, and all the more so if they are foreign.” (Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World (Belfer Center Studies in International Security) by Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill, Ali Wyne) 

• “Mr. Lee didn’t dislike India, but he was disappointed with India,” former Confederation of Indian Industry chief Tarun Das told The Hindu . “He had seen the potential of India and seen it go what he thought was the wrong way, the socialist way.” 

• Mr. Das was among the first group of industry leaders invited to Singapore after the economy was liberalised in 1993, by Mr. Lee’s successor Goh Chok Tong. “Even then Mr. Lee didn’t think India would make it.” It wasn’t until a decade later that Mr. Lee began to see India realise the potential he had predicted it would have in the 1950s. In 2005, Mr. Lee was invited to deliver the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial lecture in New Delhi. It was here that he finally acknowledged India was on the path to progress, albeit a “slow and faltering” one. “India must make up for much time lost,” Mr. Lee told the Indian audience, “There is in fact already a strong political consensus between India’s two major parties that India needs to liberalise its economy and engage with the dynamic economies of the world...The time has come for India’s next tryst with destiny.” 

China’s rise

• Mr. Lee chose a role in interpreting China’s rise for the world. While he dismissed all comparisons between India and China, he often said that the two economies would “reshape the world order before the end of the 21st century.” 

• He also dismissed Indian concerns of a conflict with China, and the “string of pearls theory” that China seeks to contain India, saying, “China will not go to war with India. It is prepared to take risks; for example, it is in the Niger Delta, risking Chinese lives with Chinese money, but it has decided that it is worth it. This is free-market competition. I do not see it as being, “If you agree to sell to India, I will beat you up, but rather as, ‘Whatever India offers you, I will offer you more.’ It [China] is going to play by the rules of the game and is quite convinced that it can win that way.” 

• Mr. Lee made his peace with India’s style of growth towards the end of his life, and his belief in the “centrality of entrepreneurship and private sector as a driver for economic development in close harness with the government” is perhaps most admired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who called him “a far-sighted statesman & a lion among leaders” adding that “Mr. Lee’s life teaches valuable lessons to everyone.” 

• In his own words several years ago, Mr. Lee called India “a nation of unfulfilled greatness.” “Indians will go at a tempo which is decided by their constitution, by their ethnic mix, by their voting patterns, and the resulting coalition governments, which makes for very difficult decision making,” he conceded. 

Source: The Hindu

[Indian Economy] Indian Dairy Model – Problems, Challenges, Suggestions and China Dairy Model

The Indian dairy sector, largest milk producer in the world, is now facing challenges to meet the growing gap between the demand and supply. The sub-optimal milk yield thus has been a cause of concern of late.

Based on this some experts had suggested India follow the Chinese model of Milk and Dairy products. However, before going into details, we need to have an analysis regarding both the Chinese model and its Chinese counterpart.

The Chinese Model:

• Grew on a different set of problems and situations.
• A milk scandal erupted in China in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found in dairy products nationwide.
• Supported by township and country governments.
• Farmers are grouped into a farm model in which all the cows are milked by machine.
• A local investor/builder constructs the dairy facility, supplying all the capital. The village director settled the debt with the builder by identifying individual producers to purchase stall space within the barn.
• While the operation is run by a village committee, individuals own the stall space and assume full management of their cows, including feeding.
• Milking machines, however, are owned by the company, in the China case, the New Hope Dairy Cattle Company.
• A member of the collective supervises the milking and keeps records of the amount of milk produced by each cow.
• A local company collects the milk. Best example is provided by Dairy United, which is presently the biggest farm in China. This is also related to be sustained during the era of Chinese Milk Crisis, as discussed above.
• Dairy United is one of the fastest-growing and most innovative Chinese dairy producers. Unlike most corporate and cooperative dairies that purchase cows on the market, Dairy United leases dairy cows from local farmers, giving it access to its primary asset without a large up-front investment, and letting the firm grow its dairy herds with new borns. In return, farmers receive fixed payments biannually, but relinquish control rights and residual claims to the firm. Thus, Dairy United’s leasing is helping transform Chinese milk production from a backyard, labour-intensive activity to a more industrialized mode of farming.

Difficulties in the Model: One of the obvious constraints to extending this type of operation are geographical access to facilities.

The Indian Model:
In India the dairy cooperative model has been perceived to be central to the development of its dairy industry, the largest in the world and one that has been based on integrating small and marginal farmers into a business environment.
However, while successful in numerous states, in particular the Amul cooperative in Gujarat, not all have flourished.
In many other areas of India, the cooperative movement has been less successful in empowering farmers and transforming dairying into a means of development for rural people.

Thus the cause of concern for the Dairy industry in India is as follows:

• High cost of production and low productivity of animals
• Lack of Production; processing and marketing infrastructure
• Import of value-added products and export of lower value products
• Poor financing of small co-operatives
• Competition with the Private sector
• Delayed payments and dividends among other issues

In this situation, replicating the Chinese model in the India scenario has manifold cultural, socio-economic constraints. There lies the critical need of democratically selected model and in aprticular the need to avoid state managements. Unlike China, India does not have an equally strict regulatory authority in this sector, which can watch over the stability of prices and provision of regular salary to the farmers who will be leasing their cows.

What India needs to:
1. Expansion of co-operatives as they form the base of our dairy industry
2. Financing self-help groups to take up dairying
3. Also employing more female workers into the industry
4. Meeting the demand for fodder whose cost is raising
5. Focus on buffalo milk based specialty
6. Increasing the process of milk which is negligible right now.
7. Focus on better health services to the cows,
8. Adequate credit to the dairy farmers at easier terms, so that they can maintain more cows and giving education to dairy farmers to provide healthier food to cows, so as to increase their yield.

Also, comprehensive strategy for producing quality and safe dairy products should be formulated with suitable legal backup.

The 12th FYP also focuses on the dairy sector and there is a need to boost this sector through a “specific approach” rather than replicating the Chinese model.

Cricket World Cup 2015 - 7 High-Tech Technology

1) LED stumps and bails

• Stump cameras are passe. LED stumps are the latest additions to the game. The LED light flashes only when the bail is completely dislodged from the stumps which means the third umpire can get a clear view whether the bails are dislodged completely or not while making a decision.

2) Real-time Snicko

• Commonly known as Snicko, this is used in televised cricket to graphically analyse sound and video as a ball passes a bat. In use in various forms since 2008, it is one of the trusted go to technologies in the Decision Review System (DRS) in world cricket today.

3) Hawkeye ball-tracking

• Six strategically placed cameras around the field track the path of the ball from the time it is released from the bowler's hand till it comes to a standstill. A computer then turns the images of the camera into a 3D image in a virtual cricket pitch, taking into account the speed, the bounce and the swing of the ball.

4) PitchVision

• If you have seen television analysis pinpointing where each delivery landed on the pitch or your favourite batsman's performance on deliveries with different pace, line and length, thank PitchVision. It helps bowlers and batsmen statistically break down their performances.

5) Spider cam

• This is a new toy that cricket broadcasters set up for a bird's eye view of the game.It enables a camera to move both horizontally and vertically over its flying area connected by cables, along the cricket pitch and the ground.

6) Ball Spin RPM

• The Ball Spin RPM ( Revolution Per Minute) demonstrates how fast a ball is spinning after it is released from the hand of a spin bowler.

7) Hot Spot

• Hot Spot is an imaging system used to determine whether the ball has struck the batsman, bat or the pad. It uses two infra-red cameras at the opposite ends of the field through which it catches the image of the ball hitting bat or pad by means of the elevated temperature at the environment.Hot Spot was ruled out from World Cup 2 015 due to the cost and difficulty of getting the required equipment to all venues across the two host countries.

All you need to know about: IRNSS 1D [Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System 1D]

1. ISRO Launched New satellite IRNSS 1D: 

• Facilitating a GPS like navigation system centered towards India’s navigation needs, to be launched sometime in the first half of March this year. This Mission will be the fourth satellite sent off as a part of the ongoing plan to create a navigation system in India.

• IRNSS 1A [July 2013] --- IRNSS 1B [April 2014] -- IRNSS 1C [October 2014] -- IRNSS 1D [March 2015].

• The entire navigation system will be completed with seven such satellites sent off to space and functioning simultaneously. Two more named according to the series 1E and 1F are expected to be launched within this year. 

• According to ISRO’s plan to establish the navigation system, four of them are supposed to stay inclined in the geosynchronous orbit, while three stationed in the geostationary orbit.

International base of the Satellite system:

• USA has its own NAVSTAR Global positioning system (GPS) which was initially launched by the US for military purpose, which it started using for its general public with full capability not before 2000. 

• Russia is behind the Global Orbiting Navigational Satellite System (GLONASS) 

• China uses two similar types of its own. 

• India will soon be joining this coveted list with its IRNSS after the successful positioning of its seven satellites.

However according to the latest data available till April 2013, NAVSTAR and GLONASS have been operational.

China is in the process of expanding its regional Beidou navigation system into the global Compass navigation system by 2020. The European Union’s Galileo positioning system is a GNSS in initial deployment phase, scheduled to be fully operational by 2020 at the earliest. France (DORIS), India, and Japan are in the process of developing regional navigation systems.

2. Latest:

ISRO defers satellite launch and schedules it for March 9th. (that was not possbiel due to some technical anomalies in the telemetry transmitter) 

Aim of the project:

• This is an independent regional navigation satellite system being developed by India. 

• Main aim of the satellite is to provide accurate position information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.

IRNSS 1D will provide two types of services: Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users.

Expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the service area.

IRNSS comprises of a space segment and a ground segment.

The IRNSS space segment consists of seven satellites, with three satellites in geostationary orbit and four satellites in inclined geosynchronous orbit.

Ground segment is responsible for the navigation parameter generation and transmission, satellite control, ranging and integrity monitoring and time keeping.

3. Steps Ahead:

1. The national space agency has lined up many launches before March next year. A PSLV to launch a commercial satellite from the UK, two navigation satellites, a GSAT series satellite and three satellites in IRNSS series are among the planned launches. A reusable launch vehicle would also be tested this year as a technology demonstrator.
2. ISRO has also installed a Multi-Object Tracking Radar at a cost of Rs. 245 crore for which the trials would be conducted soon. The radar is capable of tracking 10 objects in real time simultaneously. 
3. Also a SAARC satellite is on the plans –which is set to be sued by the SAARC nations and it will be launched within 18 months after finalizing the deal with the other countries involved in the process.
4. Cartosat satellites would be used to monitor illegal mining in the country. “The Indian Bureau of Mines has been given the task to draw the boundary lines for the miness.

4.  Lates Updates till Dated: 29th March 

• Countdown begins for the launch of India’s latest navigation satellite IRNSS-1D onboard PSLV-C-27 on March 28 from Sriharikota that would take the country closer to setting up its own navigation system on par with the GPS of the US. 

• The launch of IRNSS-1D, originally scheduled for launch on March 9, was deferred after an anomaly was found in one of the telemetry transmitters.

• According to ISRO, while four satellites would be sufficient to start operations of the system, the remaining three would make it more accurate and efficient.

• The IRNSS system was targeted to be completed by this year at a total cost of Rs. 1,420 crore.

• Onboard workhorse PSLV-C27 that would pave the way for the country’s own navigation system on par with the GPS of U.S. However, while the ambit of the U.S. GPS was global, the IRNSS was meant for regional coverage.

• This will be will be targeted at South Asia and is designed to provide accurate position information services to users in the country as well as the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary.

• IRNSS applications include terrestrial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, navigation aide for hikers and travellers, visual and voice navigation for drivers.

• Similar to the previous three launches, ISRO would use the “XL” version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), its most reliable rocket, for IRNSS-1D which will have a mission life of 10 years.

• This is the eighth time XL version is being used after Chandrayaan-I, GSAT-12, RISAT-1, IRNSS-1A, Mars Orbiter Spacecraft, IRNSS-1B and IRNSS-1C.

• The 44.4 metre tall PSLV-C27 which has a lift off mass of 1,425 kg PSLV-C27 will put the satellite in Geosynchronous orbit at 111.75 degree east longitude with 30.5 degree inclination.

• ISRO Navigation Satellite in orbit: With this launch, the country is poised to operationalize the Indian regional Navigation Satellite System

• India will now be able to make receivers able to locate themselves independently.

Source: The Hindu

વિશ્વમાં ૧૨૦ કરોડ લોકોને રોજ પીવાલાયક પાણી મળતું નથી

૨૨ માર્ચ વિશ્વ જળ દિવસ વિશેષ

• પાણી પણ લોહીની જેમ એવું કુદરતી તત્વ છે જેને પ્રયોગશાળામાં બનાવી શકાતું નથી. આથી પાણીનો કરકસરથી ઉપયોગ કરવાનો મેસેજ આપવા ૨૨ માર્ચે વિશ્વ જળ દિવસ ઉજવવામાં આવે છે. પૃથ્વી પરના સમુદ્રો તથા મહાસાગરોમાં ૧૩૭૦ મિલિયન ઘનફૂટ જળ છે. જે કુલ જળ જથ્થાના આશરે ૯૭.૨૫% જેટલું છે. હિમક્ષેત્રોમાં આશરે ૨.૧% જેટલો જળ જથ્થો છે. જ્યારે ૧% જેટલો જળ જથ્થો વાતાવરણમાં ભેજ અને સપાટી પરના જળ સ્વરૃપે છે. માનવ અને સજીવ સૃષ્ટિ માટે પીવાલાયક પાણી માત્ર ૨% જેટલું છે. જે જરૃરિયાત કરતાં ખૂબજ ઓછું છે. દર વર્ષે વિશ્વમાં ૮૦ લાખ લોકો ઉમેરાય છે. તેમાં પણ બદલાતી જતી લાઇફ સ્ટાઇલ અને ફુડ હેબિટના કારણે પાણીનો વપરાશ સતત વધતો જાય છે. એક સર્વે મુજબ માંસાહાર કરનારા વિસ્તારોમાં પાણીનો વપરાશ શાકાહારીઓની સરખામણીમાં વધુ જોવા મળે છે.

• ૫ મીનિટના શાવર બાથમાં સરેરાશ ૯૫ લીટર પાણી બગાડે છે. પાણીના બેડા માથે લઇને પાણી શોધવા નિકળતી મહિલાઓના જીવનનો ૨૫ ટકા હિસ્સો પાણીમાં જાય છે. એક સર્વે મુજબ તો સરેરાશ ભારતીય મહિલા દરરોજ ૪ કલાક સમય પાણી સંબંધિત કામગીરી પાછળ વિતાવે છે. દેશમાં વધતા જતા વોટરપાર્ક દરરોજ કરોડો લીટર પાણી વેડફે છે. એક શાવર સરેરાશ પ મીનિટ ચાલુ રાખવામાં આવે તો ૯૫ લીટર પાણી વહી જાય છે. નળ માંથી એક સેકન્ડમાં એક ટીપું પાણી ટપકતું હોય તો એક અઠવાડિયામાં ૫૦૦ લીટર પાણીનો બગાડ થાય છે.

• અનાજ પેદા કરવા માથાદીઠ ૩૦૦૦ લી. પાણી જોઈએ. વિશ્વમાં પીવાલાયક પાણીનો જથ્થો ર ટકા કરતા પણ ઓછો છે. વિશ્વમાં પાણીના કુલ વપરાશનો ૭૦ ટકા હિસ્સો ખેતીમાં વપરાય છે. ૨૦ ટકા ઇન્ડસ્ટ્રીઝ અને ૧૦ ટકા ઘરેલું વપરાશ થાય છે. ૧ લીટર બાયોફયુઅલ તૈયાર કરવા માટે ૩૦૦૦ થી ૪૦૦૦ લીટર પાણીની જરુર પડે છે. માણસની રોજની પીવાના પાણીની જરુરીયાત ૩ થી ૪ લીટર છે જયારે એક દિવસનું ફુડ તૈયાર કરવામાં ૨૦૦૦ થી ૫૦૦૦ લીટર પાણી વપરાય છે. એક સર્વે પ્રમાણે ૭૦% પાણીનો ઉપયોગ સિંચાઇ માટે થાય છે. તેમજ એક વ્યક્તિ દીઠ દૈનિક આહારની જરૃરિયાત સંતોષવા માટે પૂરતાં પ્રમાણમાં અનાજ પેદા કરવા માટે લીટર દીઠ ૩૦૦૦ લીટર પાણી જોઇએ.

• એક લીટર દૂધના ઉત્પાદન માટે ૧૦૦૦ લીટર પાણી જોઈએ. આપણે રોજ બરોજ દૂધનો વપરાશ કરીએ છીએ પરંતુ એ જાણીને નવાઇ વાગશે કે એક પશુ પાસેથી ૧ લીટર દૂધ મેળવવા માટે ૧૦૦૦ લીટર પાણીનો વપરાશ થાય છે. આથી એક લીટર દૂધ ખરીદો ત્યારે ૧૦૦ ૦લીટર પાણી પણ ખરીદો છો એ ભૂલતા નહી. આ ૧૦૦૦લીટર પાણીમાં પશુઓનો પિવડાવવામાં આવતા પાણી ઉપરાંત ઘાસચારો ઉગાડવા અને સાફ સફાઇ માટે વપરાતા પાણીનો પણ સમાવેશ થાય છે. આવી જ રીતે એક કિલો ચોખાના ઉત્પાદન માટે ૨૫૦૦ લીટર, ૧ કિલો બટાટાના ઉત્પાદન માટે ૨૮૭ લીટર, ૧ ડઝન કેળાના ઉત્પાદન માટે ૧,૯૨૦ લીટર, ૧ કિલો બ્રેડ તૈયાર કરવા માટે ૧૬૦૦ લીટર, ૧ પિત્ઝા તૈયાર કરવા માટે ૧૨૬૦ લીટર અને ૧૦૦ ગ્રામ ચોકલેટ તૈયાર કરવા માટે ૧૭૦૦ લીટર પાણીનો વપરાશ થાય છે.

• અમેરિકા વિશ્વમાં પાણીનો સૌથી વધુ બગાડ કરે છે. અમેરિકાનો એક નાગરીક સરેરાશ શાવરમાં ૫ મીનિટમાં જેટલું પાણી વાપરે તેટલું પાણી ભારત જેવા વિકાસશિલ દેશનો એક નાગરીક આખા દિવસમાં વાપરે છે. એક અમરિકન ૧૦૦ થી ૧૭૫ ગેલન પાણીનો ઉપયોગ કરે છે. આવી જ રીતે તેની સાથે આમ પણ થઇ શકે છે. વોટર પ્રિન્ટમાં અમેરિકા સૌથી હાઇએસ્ટ પાણીનો વપરાશ કરનારા દેશોમાં આવે છે. દુનિયામાં ૯૦,૮૭ બિલિયન કયૂબિક મીટર પાણીનો વપરાશ થાય છે. તેમાં ચીન ૧૨.૦૭ બિલિયન ભારત ૧૧.૮૨ બિલિયન અને અમેરિકા ૧૦.૮૩ બિલિયન પાણીનો ઉપયોગ કરે છે. અમેરિકાની વસ્તી ભારત કરતા ખૂબજ ઓછી હોવા છતાં ભારત જેટલો જ પાણીનો વપરાશ કરે છે.ભારતમાં માથા દિઠ પાણીની વપરાશ ૮૦ લીટર છે જયારે અમેરિકા માથાદિઠ દરરોજ ૧૬,૩૦ લીટર પાણીનો ઉપયોગ કરે છે.

• ૮૦ ટકા બીમારીઓ દૂષિત પાણી પીવાથી થાય છે. વિશ્વમાં પ વર્ષથી ઓછી ઉંમરના બાળકોના થતા મુત્યુંનું સૌથી વધુ કારણ ડાયેરિયા છે. જે એક પાણીજન્ય બિમારી છે. દર વર્ષે ૧૫ લાખ બાળકોનો ભોગ લેતો ડાયેરિયાની બિમારી એઇડઝ અને કેન્સર કરતા વધુ ખતરનાક છે. દર વર્ષે વિશ્વમાં ૩૫ લાખથી પણ વધુ લોકો પાણીજન્ય બિમારી કમળો,કોલેરા,ડાયેરિયાથી મરે છે.

• હોસ્પીટલમાં જોવા મળતા ૧૦ દર્દીઓમાંના આઠ ની બિમારીનું કારણ દૂષિત પાણી છે. વિશ્વના ચારમાંથી દરેક એક સીટીમાં ૭૯૪ મિલિયન લોકોને સેનીટેશન અંગેની યોગ્ય સગવડતા મળતી નથી જેને કારણે કોલેરા, મલેરિયા અને ડાયેરિયા જેવા રોગો વારંવાર માથું ઊંચકે છે. ભારતમાં પણ બાળ મરણનો આંકડો ઉંચો છે તેના માટે અસ્વચ્છ પાણી જવાબદાર છે. વિશ્વમાં દર ૧૭ સેકન્ડે એક બાળકનું ડાયેરિયા થવાથી મુત્યું થાય છે.

Truly Inspiring Real Life Incident: Shila Ghosh at Pally [West Bengal]

Shila Ghosh: a lady 83 years old who lives @ pally in West Bengal.

• Every evening she comes from Pallu to kolkata to sell the fries.The pedestrians out of respect buy the fries from her. After lung cancer took away her only son from her 5 years back,to make ends meet she works.Her nephew aged 30 works as a mover on meagre wages in pally.

• When asked if she has a problem in travelling,she weakly smile ans says “No,the bus gets me here and my health is not that bad”.

• She earns 400 rupees per day but still it is less for her family of four.Circumstances could have easily forced her to beg but her dignity and respect is everything for her,she would work till the end of her life rather than beg on the streets.

• When we go on complaining, let us remember her… she has chose to solve her problems on her own for as they say God helps them those who help themselves.

Wonderful woman...

May god give her all the strength…

She truly is an inspiration for all of us…

"My intance is just not Inspiraion but if u going at Pally or if u live in pally just buy what she sell and help her."

A background to Section 66A of the IT Act, 2000

A few minutes ago, the Supreme Court delivered a judgement striking down Section 66 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. This was in response to a PIL that challenged the constitutionality of this provision. In light of this, we present a background to Section 66 A and the recent developments leading up to its challenge before the Court.

What does the Information Technology Act, 2000 provide for?

• The Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 provides for legal recognition for transactions through electronic communication, also known as e-commerce. The Act also penalizes various forms of cyber crime. The Act was amended in 2009 to insert a new section, Section 66A which was said to address cases of cyber crime with the advent of technology and the internet.

What does Section 66(A) of the IT Act say?

• Section 66(A) of the Act criminalises the sending of offensive messages through a computer or other communication devices. Under this provision, any person who by means of a computer or communication device sends any information that is:

1. grossly offensive;
2. false and meant for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will;
3. meant to deceive or mislead the recipient about the origin of such messages, etc, shall be punishable with imprisonment up to three years and with fine. 

Over the past few years, incidents related to comments, sharing of information, or thoughts expressed by an individual to a wider audience on the internet have attracted criminal penalties under Section 66(A). This has led to discussion and debate on the ambit of the Section and its applicability to such actions.

What have been the major developments in context of this Section?

• In the recent past, a few arrests were made under Section 66(A) on the basis of social media posts directed at notable personalities, including politicians. These were alleged to be offensive in nature. In November 2012, there were various reports of alleged misuse of the law, and the penalties imposed were said to be disproportionate to the offence.

• Thereafter, a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the Supreme Court, challenging this provision on grounds of unconstitutionality. It was said to impinge upon the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

How has the government responded so far?

• Subsequently, the central government issued guidelines for the purposes of Section 66(A). These guidelines clarified that prior approval of the Deputy Commissioner or Inspector General of Police was required before a police officer or police station could register a complaint under Section 66(A). In May 2013, the Supreme Court (in relation to the above PIL) also passed an order saying that such approval was necessary before any arrest is to be made. Since matters related to police and public order are dealt with by respective state governments, a Supreme Court order was required for these guidelines to be applicable across the country. However, no changes have been made to Section 66 A itself. 

Has there been any legislative movement with regard to Section 66(A)?

• A Private Member Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha in 2013 to amend Section 66(A) of the IT Act. The Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill stated that most of the offences that Section 66(A) dealt with were already covered by the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. This had resulted in dual penalties for the same offence. According to the Bill, there were also inconsistencies between the two laws in relation to the duration of imprisonment for the same offence. The offence of threatening someone with injury through email attracts imprisonment of two years under the IPC and three years under the IT Act. The Bill was eventually withdrawn.

• In the same year, a Private Members resolution was also moved in Parliament. The resolution proposed to make four changes: (i) bring Section 66(A) in line with the Fundamental Rights of the Constitution; (ii) restrict the application of the provision to communication between two persons; (iii) precisely define the offence covered; and (iv) reduce the penalty and make the offence a non-cognizable one (which means no arrest could be made without a court order). However, the resolution was also withdrawn.

Meanwhile, how has the PIL proceeded?

• According to news reports, the Supreme Court in February, 2015 had stated that the constitutional validity of the provision would be tested, in relation to the PIL before it. The government argued that they were open to amend/change the provision as the intention was not to suppress freedom of speech and expression, but only deal with cyber crime. 

• The issues being examined by the Court relate to the powers of the police to decide what is abusive, causes annoyance, etc,. instead of the examination of the offence by the judiciary . This is pertinent because this offence is a cognizable one, attracting a penalty of at least three years imprisonment. The law is also said to be ambiguous on the issue of what would constitute information that is “grossly offensive,” as no guidelines have been provided for the same. This lack of clarity could lead to increased litigation.

• The judgement is not available in the public domain yet. It remains to be seen on what the reasoning of the Supreme Court was, in its decision to strike down Section 66A, today.

कितने लोग इस भगत सिंह को जानते हैं

इंसान को संस्कार सिर्फ माता पिता या परिवार से ही नहीं मिलते. समाज भी अपने ढंग से संस्कारों के बीज बोता है. पिछली सदी के शुरुआती साल कुछ ऐसे ही थे. उस दौर में संस्कारों और विचारों की जो फसल उगी, उसका असर आज भी दिखाई देता है. उन दिनों गोरी हुक़ूमत ने ज़ुल्मों की सारी सीमाएं तोड़ दी थीं. देशभक्तों को कीड़े मकोड़ों की तरह मारा जा रहा था. किसी को भी फाँसी चढ़ा देना सरकार का शग़ल बन गया था. ऐसे में जब आठ साल के बालक भगत सिंह ने किशोर क्रांतिकारी करतार सिंह सराभा को वतन के लिए हँसते हँसते फाँसी के तख़्ते चढ़ते देखा तो हमेशा के लिए करतार देवता की तरह उसके बालमन के मंदिर में प्रतिष्ठित हो गए. चौबीस घंटे करतार की तस्वीर भगत सिंह के साथ रहती. सराभा की फाँसी के रोज़ क्रांतिकारियों ने जो गीत गाया था, वो भगत सिंह अक्सर गुनगुनाया करता. इस गीत की कुछ पंक्तियाँ थीं- फ़ख्र है भारत को ऐ करतार तू जाता है आज/ जगत औ पिंगले को भी साथ ले जाता है आज/ हम तुम्हारे मिशन को पूरा करेंगे संगियो/ क़सम हर हिंदी तुम्हारे ख़ून की खाता है आज/

कुछ बरस ही बीते थे कि जलियाँवाला बाग़ का बर्बर नरसंहार हुआ. सारा देश बदले की आग में जलने लगा. भगत सिंह का ख़ून खौल उठा. कुछ संकल्प अवचेतन में समा गए. 1857 के ग़दर से लेकर कूका विद्रोह तक जो भी साहित्य मिला, अपने अंदर पी लिया. एक एक क्रांतिकारी की कहानी किशोर भगतसिंह की ज़ुबान पर थी. होती भी क्यों न. परिवार की कई पीढ़ियाँ अंगरेज़ी राज से लड़तीं आ रही थीं. दादा अर्जुनसिंह, पिता किशन सिंह, चाचा अजीत सिंह और चाचा स्वर्ण सिंह को देश के लिए मर मिटते भगत सिंह ने देखा था. चाचा स्वर्ण सिंह सिर्फ 23 साल की उमर में जेल की यातनाओं का विरोध करते हुए शहीद हो चुके थे. दूसरे चाचा अजीत सिंह को देश निकाला दिया गया था. दादा और पिता आए दिन आंदोलनों की अगुआई करते जेल जाया करते थे. पिता गांधी और कांग्रेस के अनुयायी थे तो चाचा गरम दल की विचारधारा का प्रतिनिधित्व करते थे. घर में घंटों बहसें होती थीं. भगत सिंह के ज़ेहन में विचारों की फसल पकती रही.

सोचिए! भगत सिंह पंद्रह-सोलह साल के थे और नेशनल कॉलेज लाहौर में पढ़ रहे थे. देश को आज़ादी कैसे मिले, इस पर अपने शिक्षकों और सहपाठियों से चर्चा किया करते थे. जितनी अच्छी हिन्दी और उर्दू, उतनी ही अंगरेज़ी और पंजाबी. इसी कच्ची आयु में भगत सिंह ने पंजाब में उठे भाषा विवाद पर झकझोरने वाला लेख लिखा. लेख पर हिन्दी साहित्य सम्मेलन ने पचास रूपए का इनाम दिया. भगत सिंह की शहादत के बाद 28 फ़रवरी, 1933 को हिंदी संदेश में यह लेख प्रकाशित हुआ था. लेख की भाषा और विचारों का प्रवाह अदभुत है. एक हिस्सा यहाँ प्रस्तुत है- "इस समय पंजाब में उर्दू का ज़ोर है. अदालतों की भाषा भी यही है. यह सब ठीक है परन्तु हमारे सामने इस समय मुख्य प्रश्न भारत को एक राष्ट्र बनाना है. एक राष्ट्र बनाने के लिए एक भाषा होना आवश्यक है परन्तु यह एकदम नहीं हो सकता. उसके लिए क़दम क़दम चलना पड़ता है. यदि हम अभी भारत की एक भाषा नहीं बना सकते तो कम से कम लिपि तो एक बना देना चाहिए. उर्दू लिपि सर्वांग -संपूर्ण नहीं है. फिर सबसे बड़ी बात तो यह है कि उसका आधार फारसी पर है. उर्दू कवियों की उड़ान चाहे वो हिन्दी( भारतीय ) ही क्यों न हों -ईरान के साक़ी और अरब के खजूरों तक जा पहुँचती है. क़ाज़ी नज़र-उल-इस्लाम की कविता में तो धूरजटी, विश्वामित्र और दुर्वासा की चर्चा बार बार है, लेकिन हमारे उर्दू, हिंदी, पंजाबी कवि उस ओर ध्यान तक न दे सके. क्या यह दुःख की बात नहीं? इसका मुख्य कारण भारतीयता और भारतीय साहित्य से उनकी अनभिज्ञता है. उनमें भारतीयता आ ही नहीं पाती, तो फिर उनके रचे गए साहित्य से हम कहाँ तक भारतीय बन सकते हैं?…तो उर्दू अपूर्ण है और जब हमारे सामने वैज्ञानिक सिद्धांतों पर आधारित सर्वांग-संपूर्ण हिंदी लिपि विधमान है, फिर उसे अपने अपनाने में हिचक क्यों? हिंदी के पक्षधर सज्जनों से हम कहेंगे कि हिंदी भाषा ही अंत में एक दिन भारत की भाषा बनेगी, परंतु पहले से ही उसका प्रचार करने से बहुत सुविधा होगी."
सोलह-सत्रह बरस के भगत सिंह की इस भाषा पर आप क्या टिप्पणी करेंगे? इतनी सरल और कमाल के संप्रेषण वाली भाषा भगत सिंह ने बानवे-तिरानवे साल पहले लिखी थी. आज भी भाषा के पंडित और पत्रकारिता के पुरोधा इतनी आसान हिंदी नहीं लिख पाते और माफ़ कीजिए हमारे अपने घरों के बच्चे क्या सोलह-सत्रह की उमर में आज इतने परिपक्व हो पाते हैं. नर्सरी-केजी-वन, केजी-टू के रास्ते पर चलकर इस उमर में वे दसवीं या ग्यारहवीं में पढ़ते हैं और उनके ज्ञान का स्तर क्या होता है- बताने की ज़रूरत नहीं. इस उमर तक भगत सिंह विवेकानंद, गुरुनानक, दयानंद सरस्वती, रवींद्रनाथ ठाकुर और स्वामी रामतीर्थ जैसे अनेक भारतीय विद्वानों का एक-एक शब्द घोंट कर पी चुके थे. यही नहीं विदेशी लेखकों-दार्शनिकों और व्यवस्था बदलने वाले महापुरुषों में गैरीबाल्डी और मैजिनी, कार्ल मार्क्स, क्रोपाटकिन, बाकुनिन और डेनब्रीन तक भगत सिंह की आँखों के साथ अपना सफ़र तय कर चुके थे.

उमर के इसी पड़ाव पर परंपरा के मुताबिक़ परिवार ने उनका ब्याह रचाना चाहा तो पिता जी को एक चिठ्ठी लिखकर घर छोड़ दिया.

सोलह साल के भगत सिंह ने लिखा,

पूज्य पिता जी,

नमस्ते!

मेरी ज़िंदगी भारत की आज़ादी के महान संकल्प के लिए दान कर दी गई है. इसलिए मेरी ज़िंदगी में आराम और सांसारिक सुखों का कोई आकर्षण नहीं है. आपको याद होगा कि जब मैं बहुत छोटा था, तो बापू जी (दादाजी) ने मेरे जनेऊ संस्कार के समय ऐलान किया था कि मुझे वतन की सेवा के लिए वक़्फ़ (दान) कर दिया गया है. लिहाज़ा मैं उस समय की उनकी प्रतिज्ञा पूरी कर रहा हूँ. उम्मीद है आप मुझे माफ़ कर देंगे

आपका ताबेदार

भगतसिंह

घर छोड़कर भगतसिंह जा पहुँचे थे कानपुर. महान देशभक्त पत्रकार गणेश शंकर विद्यार्थी उन दिनों कानपुर से प्रताप का प्रकाशन करते थे. वे तब बलवंत सिंह के नाम से लिखा करते थे. उनके विचारोतेजक लेख प्रताप में छपते और उन्हें पढ़कर लोगों के दिलो दिमाग में क्रांति की चिनगारी फड़कने लगती. उन्हीं दिनों कलकत्ते से साप्ताहिक मतवाला निकलता था. मतवाला में लिखे उनके दो लेख बेहद चर्चित हुए. एक का शीर्षक था- विश्वप्रेम. पंद्रह और बाईस नवंबर 1924 को दो किस्तों में यह लेख प्रकाशित हुआ. लेख के इस हिस्से में देखिए भगत सिंह के विचारों की क्रांतिकारी अभिव्यक्ति.

” जब तक काला-गोरा, सभ्य-असभ्य, शासक-शासित, अमीर-ग़रीब, छूत-अछूत आदि शब्दों का प्रयोग होता है, तब तक कहाँ विश्व बंधुत्व और कहाँ विश्व प्रेम? यह उपदेश स्वतंत्र जातियाँ दे सकती हैं. भारत जैसा ग़ुलाम देश तो इसका नाम भी नहीं ले सकता. फिर उसका प्रचार कैसे होगा? तुम्हें शक्ति एकत्र करनी होगी. शक्ति एकत्रित करने के लिए अपनी एकत्रित शक्ति ख़र्च कर देनी पड़ेगी. राणा प्रताप की तरह ज़िंदगी भर दर-दर ठोकरें खानी होंगी, तब कहीं जाकर उस परीक्षा में उतीर्ण हो सकोगे……. तुम विश्व प्रेम का दम भरते हो. पहले पैरों पर खड़े होना सीखो. स्वतंत्र जातियों में अभिमान के साथ सिर ऊँचा करके खड़े होने के योग्य बनो. जब तक तुम्हारे साथ कामागाटा मारु जहाज़ जैसे दुव्यवहार होते रहेंगे, तब तक डैम काला मैन कहलाओगे, जब तक देश में जालियांवाला बाग़ जैसे भीषण कांड होंगे, जब तक वीरागंनाओं का अपमान होगा और तुम्हारी ओर से कोई प्रतिकार न होगा, तब तक तुम्हारा यह ढ़ोंग कुछ मानी नहीं रखता. कैसी शांती, कैसा सुख और कैसा विश्व प्रेम? यदि वास्तव में चाहते हो तो पहले अपमानों का प्रतिकार करना सीखो. माँ को आज़ाद कराने के लिए कट मरो. बंदी माँ को आज़ाद कराने के लिए आजन्म कालेपानी में ठोकरें खाने को तैयार हो जाओ. मरने को तत्पर हो जाओ.
मतवाला में ही भगत सिंह का दूसरा लेख 16 मई, 1925 को बलवंत सिंह के नाम से छपा. ध्यान दिलाने की ज़रूरत नहीं कि उन दिनों अनेक क्रांतिकारी छद्म नामों से लिखा करते थे. युवक शीर्षक से लिखे गए लेख का एक टुकड़ा प्रस्तुत है-

“अगर रक़्त की भेंट चाहिए तो सिवा युवक के कौन देगा? अगर तुम बलिदान चाहते हो तो तुम्हे युवक की ओर देखना होगा. प्रत्येक जाति के भाग्य विधाता युवक ही होते हैं. ……सच्चा देशभक्त युवक बिना झिझक मौत का आलिंगन करता है, संगीनों के सामने छाती खोलकर डट जाता है, तोप के मँह पर बैठकर मुस्कुराता है, बेड़ियों की झनकार पर राष्ट्रीय गान गाता है और फाँसी के तख्ते पर हँसते हँसते चढ़ जाता है. अमेरिकी युवा पैट्रिक हेनरी ने कहा था, जेल की दीवारों के बाहर ज़िंदगी बड़ी महँगी है. पर, जेल की काल कोठरियों की ज़िंदगी और भी महँगी है क्योंकि वहाँ यह स्वतंत्रता संग्राम के मू्ल्य रूप में चुकाई जाती है. ऐ भारतीय युवक! तू क्यों गफ़लत की नींद में पड़ा बेखबर सो रहा है. उठ! अब अधिक मत सो. सोना हो तो अनंत निद्र की गोद में जाकर सो रहा…… धिक्कार है तेरी निर्जीवता पर. तेरे पूर्वज भी नतमस्तक हैं इस नपुंसत्व पर. यदि अब भी तेरे किसी अंग में कुछ हया बाकी हो तो उठकर माता के दूध की लाज रख, उसके उद्धार का बीड़ा उठा, उसके आंसुओं की एक एक बूंद की सौगंध ले, उसका बेड़ा पार कर और मुक्त कंठ से बोल- वंदे मातरम!
प्रताप में भगत सिंह की पत्रकारिता को पर लगे. बलवंत सिंह के नाम से छपे इन लेखों ने धूम मचा दी. शुरुआत में तो स्वयं गणेश शंकर विद्यार्थी को पता नहीं था कि असल में बलवंत सिंह कौन है? और एक दिन जब पता चला तो भगत सिंह को उन्होंने गले से लगा लिया. भगत सिंह अब प्रताप के संपादकीय विभाग में काम कर रहे थे. इन्हीं दिनों दिल्ली में तनाव बढ़ा. दंगे भड़के और विद्यार्थी जी ने भगत सिंह को रिपोर्टिंग के लिए दिल्ली भेजा. विद्यार्थी जी दंगों की निरपेक्ष रिपोर्टिंग चाहते थे. भगत सिंह उनके उम्मीदों पर खरे उतरे. प्रताप में काम करते हुए उन्होंने महान क्रांतिकारी शचिन्द्रनाथ सान्याल की आत्मकथा बंदी जीवन का पंजाबी में अनुवाद किया. इस अनुवाद ने पंजाब में देश भक्ति की एक नई लहर पैदा की. इसके बाद आयरिश क्रांतिकारी डेन ब्रीन की आत्मकथा का अँगरेजी से हिंदी अनुवाद किया. प्रताप में यह अनुवाद आयरिश स्वतंत्रता संग्राम शीर्षक से प्रकाशित हुआ. इस अनुवाद ने भी देश में चल रहे आज़ादी के आंदोलन को एक वैचारिक मोड़ दिया.

गणेश शंकर विद्यार्थी के लाडले थे भगत सिंह. उनका लिखा एक एक शब्द विद्यार्थी जी को गर्व से भर देता. ऐसे ही किसी भावुक पल में विद्यार्थी जी ने भगत सिंह को भारत में क्रांतिकारियों के सिरमौर चंद्रशेखर आज़ाद से मिलाया. आज़ादी के दीवाने दो आतिशी क्रांतिकारियों का यह अदभुत मिलन था. भगत सिंह अब क्रांतिकारी गतिविधियों और पत्रकारिता दोनों में शानदार काम कर रहे थे. गतिविधियाँ बढ़ीं तो पुलिस को भी शंका हुई. खुफिया चौकसी और कड़ी कर दी गई. विद्यार्थी जी ने पुलिस से बचने के लिए भगत सिंह को अलीगढ़ ज़िले के शादीपुर गाँव के स्कूल में हेडमास्टर बनाकर भेज दिया. पता नहीं शादीपुर के लोगों को आज इस तथ्य की जानकारी है या नहीं.

भगत सिंह शादीपुर में थे तभी विद्यार्थी जी को उनकी असली पारिवारिक कहानी पता चली. विद्यार्थी जी खुद शादीपुर गए और भगत सिंह को मनाया कि वो अपने घर लौट जाएँ. दरअसल भगत सिंह के घर छोड़ने के बाद उनकी दादी की हालत बिगड़ गई थी. दादी को लगता था कि शादी के लिए उनकी ज़िद के चलते ही भगत सिंह ने घर छोड़ा है. इसके लिए वो अपने को कुसूरवार मानती थीं. भगत सिंह को पता लगाने के लिए पिताजी ने अख़बारों में इश्तेहार दिए थे. ये इश्तेहार विद्यार्थी जी ने देखे थे, लेकिन तब उन्हें पता नहीं था कि उनके यहाँ काम करने वाला बलवंत ही भगत सिंह है. इसी के बाद वे शादीपुर जा पहुँचे थे. भगत सिंह विद्यार्थी जी का अनुरोध कैसे टालते. फौरन घर रवाना हो गए. दादी की सेवा की और कुछ समय बाद पत्रकारिता की पारी शुरू करने के लिए दिल्ली आ गए. दैनिक वीर अर्जुन में नौकरी शुरू कर दी. जल्द ही एक तेज तर्रार रिपोर्टर और विचारोतेजक लेखक के रूप में उनकी ख्याति फैल गई.

इसके अलावा भगत सिंह पंजाबी पत्रिका किरती के लिए भी रिपोर्टिंग और लेखन कर रहे थे. किरती में वे विद्रोही के नाम से लिखते थे. दिल्ली से ही प्रकाशित पत्रिका महारथी में भी वो लगातार लिख रहे थे. विद्यार्थी जी से नियमित संपर्क बना हुआ था. इस कारण प्रताप में भी वो नियमित लेखन कर रहे थे. पंद्रह मार्च 1926 को प्रताप में उनका झन्नाटेदार आलेख प्रकाशित हुआ. एक पंजाबी युवक के नाम से लिखे गए इस आलेख का शीर्षक था- भारतीय क्रांतिकारी आंदोलन का परिचय और उपशीर्षक था- होली के दिन रक्त के छींटे. इस आलेख की भाषा और भाव देखिए- “असहयोग आंदोलन पूरे यौवन पर था. पंजाब किसी से पीछे नहीं रहा. पंजाब में सिक्ख भी उठे. ख़ूब ज़ोरों के साथ. अकाली आंदोलन शुरू हुआ. बलिदानों की झड़ी लग गई.”
काकोरी केस के सेनानियों को भगत सिंह ने सलामी देते हुए एक लेख लिखा. विद्रोही के नाम से. इसमें वो लिखते हैं “हम लोग आह भरकर समझ लेते हैं कि हमारा फ़र्ज पूरा हो गया. हमें आग नहीं लगती. हम तड़प नहीं उठते. हम इतने मुर्दा हो गए हैं. आज वे भूख हड़ताल कर रहे हैं. तड़प रहे हैं. हम चुपचाप तमाशा देख रहे हैं. ईश्वर उन्हें बल और शक्ति दे कि वे वीरता से अपने दिन पूरे करें और उन वीरों के बलिदान रंग लाएँ. जनवरी 1928 में लिखा गया यह आलेख किरती में छपा था. इन दो तीन सालों में भगत सिंह ने लिखा और खूब लिखा. अपनी पत्रकारिता के ज़रिए वो लोगों के दिलोदिमाग पर छा गए. फ़रवरी 1928 में उन्होंने कूका विद्रोह पर दो हिस्सों में एक लेख लिखा. यह लेख उन्होंने बी एस संधु के नाम से लिखा था. इसमें भगत सिंह ने ब्यौरा दिया था कि किस तरह छियासठ कूका विद्रोहियों को तोप के मुंह से बाँध कर उड़ा दिया गया था. इसके भाग-दो में उनके लेख का शीर्षक था -युग पलटने वाला अग्निकुंड. इसमें वो लिखते हैं- “सभी आंदोलनों का इतिहास बताता है कि आज़ादी के लिए लड़ने वालों का एक अलग ही वर्ग बन जाता है, जिनमें न दुनिया का मोह होता है और न पाखंडी साधुओं जैसा त्याग. जो सिपाही तो होते थे, लेकिन भाड़े के लिए लड़ने वाले नहीं, बल्कि अपने फ़र्ज़ के लिए निष्काम भाव से लड़ते मरते थे. सिख इतिहास यही कुछ था. मराठों का आंदोलन भी यही बताता है. राणा प्रताप के साथी राजपूत भी ऐसे ही योद्धा थे और बुंदेलखंड के वीर छत्रसाल और उनके साथी भी इसी मिट्टी और मन से बने थे”. यह थी भगत सिंह की पढ़ाई. बिना संचार साधनों के देश के हर इलाक़े का इतिहास भगतसिंह को कहाँ से मिलता था, कौन जानता है.

मार्च से अक्टूबर 1928 तक किरती में ही उन्होंने एक धारावाहिक श्रृंखला लिखी. शीर्षक था आज़ादी की भेंट शहादतें. इसमें भगतसिंह ने बलिदानी क्रांतिकारियों की गाथाएँ लिखीं थी. इनमें एक लेख मदनलाल धींगरा पर भी था. इसमें भगतसिंह के शब्दों का कमाल देखिए-“फाँसी के तख़्ते पर खड़े मदन से पूछा जाता है- कुछ कहना चाहते हो? उत्तर मिलता है- वन्दे मातरम! माँ! भारत माँ तुम्हें नमस्कार और वह वीर फाँसी पर लटक गया. उसकी लाश जेल में ही दफ़ना दी गई. हम हिन्दुस्तानियों को दाह क्रिया तक नहीं करने दी गई. धन्य था वो वीर. धन्य है उसकी याद. मुर्दा देश के इस अनमोल हीरे को बार बार प्रणाम."
भगतसिंह की पत्रकारिता का यह स्वर्णकाल था. उनके लेख और रिपोर्ताज़ हिन्दुस्तान भर में उनकी कलम का डंका बजा रहे थे. वो जेल भी गए तो वहां से उन्होंने लेखों की झड़ी लगा दी. लाहौर के साप्ताहिक वन्देमातरम में उनका एक लेख पंजाब का पहला उभार प्रकाशित हुआ. यह जेल में ही लिखा गया था. यह उर्दू में लिखा गया था. इसी तरह किरती में तीन लेखों की लेखमाला अराजकतावाद प्रकाशित हुई. इस लेखमाला ने देश के व्यवस्था चिंतकों के सोच पर हमला बोला. उनीस सौ अट्ठाइस में तो भगत सिंह की कलम का जादू लोगों के सर चढ़ कर बोला. ज़रा उनके लेखों के शीर्षक देखिए- धर्म और हमारा स्वतंत्रता संग्राम, साम्प्रदायिक दंगे और उनका इलाज, सत्याग्रह और हड़तालें, विद्यार्थी और राजनीति, मैं नास्तिक क्यों हूँ, नए नेताओं के अलग अलग विचार और अछूत का सवाल जैसे रिपोर्ताज़ आज भी प्रासंगिक हैं. इन दिनों दलितों की समस्याएं और धर्मांतरण के मुद्दे देश में गरमाए हुए हैं लेकिन देखिए भगत सिंह ने 87 साल पहले इस मसले पर क्या लिखा था -” जब तुम उन्हें इस तरह पशुओं से भी गया बीता समझोगे तो वो ज़रूर ही दूसरे धर्मों में शामिल हो जाएंगे. उन धर्मों में उन्हें अधिक अधिकार मिलेंगे, उनसे इंसानों जैसा व्यवहार किया जाएगा फिर यह कहना कि देखो जी ईसाई और मुसलमान हिन्दू क़ौम को नुकसान पहुंचा रहे हैं, व्यर्थ होगा. कितनी सटीक टिप्पणी है? एकदम तिलमिला देती है. इसी तरह एक और टिप्पणी देखिए- “जब अछूतों ने देखा कि उनकी वजह से इनमें फसाद हो रहे हैं. हर कोई उन्हें अपनी खुराक समझ रहा है तो वे अलग और संगठित ही क्यों न हो जाएं? हम मानते हैं कि उनके अपने जन प्रतिनिधि हों. वे अपने लिए अधिक अधिकार मांगें. उठो ! अछूत भाइयो उठो! अपना इतिहास देखो. गुरु गोबिंद सिंह की असली ताक़त तुम्ही थे. शिवाजी तुम्हारे भरोसे ही कुछ कर सके. तुम्हारी क़ुर्बानियाँ स्वर्ण अक्षरों में लिखीं हुईं हैं. संगठित हो जाओ. स्वयं कोशिश किए बिना कुछ भी न मिलेगा. तुम दूसरों की खुराक न बनो. सोए हुए शेरो! उठो और बग़ावत खड़ी कर दो.

इस तरह लिखने का साहस भगत सिंह ही कर सकते थे. बर्तानवी शासकों ने चाँद के जिस ऐतिहासिक फांसी अंक पर पाबंदी लगाईं थी, उसमें भी भगतसिंह ने अनेक आलेख लिखे थे. इस अंक को भारतीय पत्रकारिता की गीता माना जाता है.

और अंत में उस पर्चे का ज़िक्र, जिसने गोरों की चूलें हिला दी थीं. आठ अप्रैल ,1929 को असेम्बली में बम के साथ जो परचा फेंका गया, वो भगत सिंह ने लिखा था. यह परचा कहता है- बहरों को सुनाने के लिए बहुत ऊंची आवाज़ की आवश्यकता होती है…. जनता के प्रतिनिधियों से हमारा आग्रह है कि वे इस पार्लियमेंट का पाखंड छोड़ कर अपने अपने निर्वाचन क्षेत्रों में लौट जाएं और जनता को विदेशी दमन और शोषण के खिलाफ क्रांति के लिए तैयार करें… हम अपने विश्वास को दोहराना चाहते हैं कि व्यक्तियों की हत्या करना सरल है, लेकिन विचारों की हत्या नहीं की जा सकती.

इंक़लाब! ज़िंदाबाद!

[The Big Picture] Farmers back in focus : Why has the discourse changed?

Summary:

• In the past, over 20 years, ever since the economic liberalisation process began, the political discourse had turned away from rural issues to the urban and middle class concerns. The political parties have increasingly realised the importance of middle class as a vote bank and even in elections one could see the efforts to woo them. Many people had felt that due to this shift rural and farmer related issues had taken a back seat. Meanwhile in the last few years great efforts have been put in to bring in the new land rehabilitation law. UPA government in 2013 had brought this law with consensus. The new government which has proposed some amendments has sought to break the consensus.

• Some experts say that politicisation of the issue is going to hurt the farmers’ cause rather than helping them. This land issue has brought all the opposition together. The land acquisition act of 1894 was created with the purpose of facilitating acquisition by the government of privately held land for public purposes. Under the colonial LAA, private interest, rather than public purpose, dictated the land acquisition process. People affected by land acquisition received a pittance by way of compensation.

• Opposition parties in the parliament are opposing the Land Acquisition Bill in the present form and are demanding some changes. They say that the bill is Anti farmer. Coming under such huge pressure, the government had brought in some changes. But the stalemate over the issue still continues. The methodology that is being used to bring in the changes is also being criticised.

• The opposition has also alleged that the government has killed the spirit of the original Bill by doing away with the provision of seeking a social impact assessment and the requirement to get the prior consent of 70% of land owners before the acquisition of agricultural land. The new bill aims to relax some of the provisions in the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 passed by the previous Congress-led UPA.

Source: RajyaSabha TV

[The Big Picture] Land Bill : Can amended version stand scrutiny?

Summary:

The confrontation and controversy over the land acquisition bill continues despite the amended version having been passed by the Lok Sabha. The ordinance brought in by the new government which had amended several provisions of the law enacted in 2013 by the UPA government had faced stiff resistance. Some of the clauses including the one related to Social Impact Assessment had been removed in the ordinance. However, the present government brought in 9 amendments in the Bill before getting it passed in the Lok Sabha. However, the Bill may again face resistance in the Rajya Sabha.

Changes introduced in the Bill are:

• Land shall be acquired up to 1 km on both sides of designated railway lines or roads for industrial corridor.

• Government shall undertake a survey of wasteland and arid land and maintain a record.

• A provision is included in the Bill for providing employment to project affected families.

• Hearings to be held in districts where land acquisition takes place.

• Courts won’t need government nod to take cognisance of offence under CrPC.

• ‘Five year’ clause for completion of project on acquired land will be augmented and amended by the length of the project. No acquisition will be transferred to private persons.

• Under section 33 compulsory employment clause shall be inserted.

• Land acquired for Hospitals, Educational Institutions and other Social Projects will not come under definition of Industrial Corridor.

• Government to ensure before notification land acquired would be bare minimum required for a project.

The changes are in addition to the earlier amendments moved through an ordinance where the government had added five sectors (defence, rural infra, affordable housing, industrial corridors, infra and social infra projects including PPP) to a list that would not require owners’ consent while acquiring land as well as exempted them from submitting a social impact assessment (SIA) and removal of restriction on acquisition of multi-crop lands for these sectors. The last social infra projects including PPP have been removed from the exemption list.

The changes have managed to appease the allies to some extent, but questions remain whether the opposition is willing to relent as most of them walked out during the vote in the Lok Sabha. In the Rajya Sabha however it is a different story as the ruling NDA does not enjoy a majority and where the amended Bill is likely to be defeated by an united opposition. The earlier changes or removal of consent clause has been termed anti-farmer, though they are definitely industry-friendly, while removal of SIA will save costs and time both. The main point is that the process should be fair to both farmers as well as the industry.

Source: RajyaSabha TV

The Government has launched Mission Indradhanush

• Aim: Indradhanush on  with an aim to cover all those children who are partially vaccinated or unvaccinated. 

• Mission Indradhanush will be a nationwide initiative with a special focus on 201 high focus districts. These districts account for nearly 50% of the total partially vaccinated or unvaccinated children in the country. Mission Indradhanush will provide protection against seven life-threatening diseases (diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and hepatitis B). In addition, vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis and Haemophilus influenza type B will be provided in districts of the country. Vaccination against tetanus will be provided to the pregnant women. 

• The Mission focuses on interventions to rapidly increase full immunization coverage of children by approximately 5% annually and to expand full immunization coverage to at least 90% children in the next five years.

Operation Smile and Milap

• The Ghaziabad Police, Uttar Pradesh launched an operation named Operation Smile in the month of September, 2014 to identify, track, locate, rescue and rehabilitate children who went missing and found to be subjected to abuse and exploitation. Thereafter, Government of Uttar Pradesh implemented a similar operation throughout the State.

• Delhi Police have also launched a special drive `Operation Milap to reunite missing children with their parents through the Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTU).

• Ministry of Home Affairs also took an initiative in this regard and directed all the State Governments/ UTs to launch a sustained campaign for a month in January, 2015 on the lines of  'Operation Smile'.

[The Big Picture] Rape documentary : Attitudes and challenges

Summary:

• The documentary on December 2012 rape incident made by a British documentary maker has kicked up a huge storm in the country. The film which has had interview with one of the convicted persons in the case has been at the centre of the controversy. The convicted who has been awarded death sentence has justified his act and has put the blame on the Victim. A Delhi court has restrained the broadcast of this documentary in India. Many questions have cropped following this controversy. One is the attitude of the people who commit such heinous crimes and also attitude towards the victims and perpetrators in the society. Questions about whether such documents should be made or permitted to be made are also being discussed. The larger question is whether such documentaries help in educating the society against such heinous crimes.

• Experts say that since the case is pending in the court, the views of the convicts should not be broadcasted. Usually, either the jail authorities or the courts provide the permission to the people who wish to meet the convicts in the jail. This case is peculiar because here a reference letter was brought from the Union Home Ministry seeking the permission to meet the convict. But the filmmaker has been defending herself saying that such documentaries should be allowed since they educate the people against such heinous crimes.

• This is not the first time that anybody or any convict has spoken in such a manner. Many conservative groups, some politicians and even some religious heads have, in the past, blamed the victims in such incidents. But this case has received much attention from the public. The court has not totally banned the film but has restrained it.

• Our criminal justice system needs basic reforms. Fast track courts should be set up to deal with such kind of cases. Police reforms are needed to prevent such crimes. The defence lawyer, who has been defending the convicts, has also spoken in a negative and very harsh manner. He has completely put the blame on the victim. Hence, it can be said that Rape is not just a law and order problem, it is also a social problem.

Source: RajyaSabha TV

[The Big Picture] Budget 2015 : Implications for Social Sector

Summary:

• There is a general feeling that under the Budget the allocations made to the social sector coming under various ministries have been inadequate and even much less than the allocations made last year. The centre has however defended its move by saying that higher devolution of tax revenues to the states as suggested by the 14th finance commission would fill the gap. But, the critics say that even such higher devolution would not solve the problem. States spend 95% of their collections on salaries and other expenditures. The net additional resources transferred to the States, including States’ share of taxes and duties, non-Plan grants and loans, Central assistance to State plans, assistance for Central and Centrally-sponsored schemes, is only Rs.64,000 crore in 2015-16.

• It is also true that 95% of the budget comes with a Preset because of the commitments like salaries, defence expenditure, interest repayments etc. Hence, unless a directional change is made, the centre is left out with very little resources. The present government had some advantages created because of fall in the prices of crude oil. To some extent the government has resisted the temptation on being Populist. Some initiatives like MUDRA bank are widely welcomed.

• The Budget is strong on the social sector side as it moves from Jan Dhan to Jan Suraksha and a functional social security system for all Indians. There is a 22% reduction in allocation for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) over last year. The trend of lower allocation is in line with the near universal enrolment achieved at primary level. However, the increased focus on enhancing quality of education to address the poor learning levels of students is not evident from the allocations.Even the Health sector has not received much attention.

Source: RajyaSabha TV

India’s World – Democratic Crisis in Maldives

Summary:

• The arrest of opposition leader and the former President has triggered a fresh crisis in the Maldives. Opposition parties together have started a movement called save the Constitution movement. The former president, Nasheed, has been arrested on the charge of terrorism for illegally ordering the detention of a Judge. If convicted, the former President has to be in Jail for up to 15 years putting pate to all his political ambitions. The capital city Male has been witnessing many night marches by the supporters of the former President. The Government has failed to control the situation politically.

• Maldives had previously denied India’s claim that it held discussions with Indian officials regarding former President, who sought refuge at the Indian High Commission here to evade arrest, saying it cannot interfere with the independence of the judiciary.

• In 2008, Nasheed, became the first democratically elected leader of the Maldives, defeating Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had been dictator for 30 years. In January 2012, he ordered the detention of Criminal Court judge Abdulla Mohamed for allegedly obstructing the police, ordering illegal probes, and accepting bribes to release certain criminals. The arrest triggered protests, following which, in February 2012, Nasheed resigned. He claimed he was forced to step down after soldiers and police mutinied, but his successor, Mohamed Waheed, said Nasheed had left on his own.

• A political crisis in the Maldives will deepen unless parties hold emergency talks. The Maldives is a major tourist attraction, but political unrest has dented its image as a peaceful island paradise in recent years. A large number of Indian population resides in Maldives. Indians are the second largest expatriate community in the Maldives with approximate strength of around 26,000. Indian expatriate community consists of workers as well as professionals like doctors, teachers, accountants, managers, engineers, nurses and technicians etc. Hence, immediate intervention of the Indian government is being sought.

Explained : Changes that NDA wants to bring to land acquisition law 2013 (भूमि अधिग्रहण कानून 2013)

Earlier this week, a bill to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR Act, 2013) was introduced in Parliament. This bill replaces an ordinance which was promulgated in December 2014.

A brief overview of land acquisition laws in the country, and the changes this bill makes to the LARR Act, 2013 are provided below.

What is land acquisition (भूमि अधिग्रहण)?

• Land acquisition is the forcible take-over of privately owned land by the government. This is not the same as purchase of land, in which case the land owner does not have a compulsion to part with the land.

• Currently, land may be acquired by the central or state government for government projects, public-private partnership projects, and private projects which serve a ‘public purpose’. Public purpose includes defence, national security, infrastructure (such as roads, airports, water supply pipelines, etc), housing the poor, among others.

What were the major shifts from the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 to the LARR Act, 2013?

• The LARR Act, 2013 was enacted in January 2014, and replaced the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. Major shifts from the 1894 Act to the LARR Act, 2013 include:

• Compensation (मुआवज़ा):The 1894 Act required that compensation of 1.3 times the price of land be given to land owners. The LARR Act, 2013 provides for compensation of 2 times the price of land for urban areas, and of 2 to 4 times the price of land in rural areas.

• Rehabilitation and resettlement (पुनर्वास और पुनर्स्थापन): While the 1894 Act provided compensation to land owners, it did not provide rehabilitation and resettlement to others who were dependent on the land for their livelihood. The LARR Act, 2013 provides for rehabilitation and resettlement for these affected families as well.

• Consent (सहमति): The 1894 Act did not require the consent of land owners when land was acquired. However, the LARR Act, 2013 mandates that the consent of 80 per cent of land owners is obtained when land is acquired for private projects and the consent of 70 per cent of land owners is obtained when land is acquired for public-private partnership projects.

• Social Impact Assessment (सामाजिक प्रभाव आकलन): Unlike the 1894 Act, the LARR Act, 2013 mandates that a Social Impact Assessment is conducted for all projects, except those exempted through the urgency provision. An SIA is meant to determine whether the project serves a public purpose, and what the social impact of the acquisition of land could be on affected families.

• Restrictions on irrigated multi-cropped land (सिंचित बहु-फसली जमीन पर प्रतिबंध): The LARR Act, 2013 imposes certain limits on the amount of irrigated multi-cropped land which may be compulsorily acquired.

What are the major changes the bill makes to the LARR Act, 2013?

• Exemption of five categories of land use from certain provisions (कुछ प्रावधानों से भूमि के उपयोग की पांच श्रेणियों की छूट): The bill exempts the five categories of land use from the requirement of obtaining the consent of land owners. Additionally, the requirement of conducting a SIA and limits on multi-cropped land may be waived by the government, for these categories of land use.

• The five categories of land use are: (i) defence, (ii) rural infrastructure including electrification, (iii) affordable housing, (iv) industrial corridors, and (v) infrastructure and social infrastructure projects.

• The opponents of the bill argue that most items defined as public purpose (that is, for which land can be compulsorily acquired) fall within these five exempted categories.

• Return of unutilised land (अप्रयुक्त भूमि की वापसी): The LARR Act, 2013 required that land which was acquired and remained unused for five years be returned. The bill changes this to the later of the following; five years, or any period specified at the time of setting up the project. This is meant to address projects which may take more than five years.

• Acquisition of land for private hospitals and educational institutions (निजी अस्पतालों और शिक्षण संस्थानों के लिए भूमि का अधिग्रहण): The LARR Act, 2013 excluded the acquisition of land for private hospitals and private educational institutions from its purview. The bill removes this restriction and allows the acquisition of land for private hospitals and private educational institutions.

• Acquisition of land for ‘private entities’ ('निजी संस्थाओं' के लिए भूमि का अधिग्रहण:): The LARR Act, 2013 was applicable when land was acquired for private companies for projects with a public purpose. The bill replaces ‘private company’ with ‘private entity’. A private entity is defined as an entity other than a government entity, and can include a proprietorship, partnership, company, corporation, non-profit organisation, or other entity. This will enable, for instance, acquisition for a private educational trust.

• Offences by government (सरकार द्वारा अपराध): The LARR Act, 2013 stated that if an offence is committed by the government, the head of the department would be deemed guilty unless he could show that the offence was committed without his knowledge, or that he had exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of the offence. The bill removes this provision. It inserts a new provision which states that if an offence is committed by a government official, he cannot be prosecuted without the prior sanction of the government.

Source: PIB

[The Big Picture] Rail Budget : Is it on new tracks?

Summary:

• The first railway budget of the new government and the new railway minister was presented recently. The budget tries to turn around the railways, which is reeling under losses and many other problems now. The ambitious projections, including 8.5 lac crore investments in the next five years, have received mixed responses. Announcing of new railways, which was the hallmark of the railway budgets so far, was however missing in this budget. There is also no passenger fare increase and there are only very few freight increases. The focus of the Budget has been on to complete the earlier announced projects.

• It is also true that introduction of new trains need not necessarily be announced in the Budget. They can be announced anytime depending upon the requirements. This is also true with respect to ticket fares. They can also be increased at any time. The Budget is being appreciated by the experts. It is a budget that is at once pragmatic and visionary. It is one that has the potential to be transformational—by increasing capacity and improving technology on the supply side, improving quality of service on the demand side, and focusing on transparency and efficiency on the operational side.

• Since Railways is a corporate entity and corporate undertaking which requires a budget every year as part of a corporate plan. Previous railway budgets followed populous trend and did not have any business plan in them. The challenge before the railways minister is to immediately fill the financial gap by attracting the investors. The railway minister has also said that railway colonies and staff would be taken care, and this is a welcome step.

• The rail budget envisages an investment plan of Rs.8.5 trillion over the next five years. If successful, this could have a multiplier effect on everything from the fortunes of steel companies to the country’s ability to attract foreign interest in railways and boost the government’s ambitious Make in India programme. The budget sets out a five-year action plan that is based on the principle that fundamental to Railways’ turnaround is enhancing its capacity and generating the resources to fund it.

• The budget aims to channelize most of the PPP participation for improving its freight business. It has been losing traffic to roads and will focus on the construction of feeder routes to the dedicated freight corridor and set up a Transport Logistics Corporation of India to develop user facilities and provide end-to-end logistics solutions. Freight rates were increased by an average 3% across commodities. The budget also mentions a review of the wagon leasing scheme, special freight train operator scheme, private freight terminal scheme and liberalized wagon investment scheme to make them more liberal and attractive for the private sector. All these have been longstanding demands of the industry. To succeed in PPP model the railways has to have clear demarcation of jobs that they take up.

Source: RajyaSabha TV