To improve policies on crop use, invest in better science
Humanity has enjoyed an unusual streak of food surplus since the green revolution began in the mid-1960s. These trends sustained economic development and a significant reduction in global hunger and poverty. A sharp reversal is now possible, however, given strong economic growth in the world’s most populous countries and loss of suitable cropland.
People with rising incomes consume more meat and livestock products, which in turn requires more grain per unit of food produced. The rapid expansion of biofuel production only complicates the competition between food and fuel.
Moreover, yields of rice and wheat are running up against the genetic ceiling allowed by current varieties, and rates of yield increase are not sufficient to meet the demand for livestock feed, food and biofuels for the world’s 6.5 billion people. Without significant improvements, massive deforestation and environmental degradation will be inevitable in trying to feed the nine billion individuals who will be alive in 2050.
Debate is now raging over whether climate change will further reduce the world’s ability to feed itself. Estimating the long-term effects is critical to setting effective policies that ensure food security. Unfortunately, the answers differ. Much of this inconsistency arises because yield research conducted in greenhouses and on small plots, the current experimental methods, does not predict performance on commercial-scale fields; the conditions are just not comparable to production-scale farming. Without direct measurements under realistic growth conditions, we must resort to computer models or evaluations of historical data—and they show disparate results, too.
There is an urgent need to better quantify the impact of projected climate change on major crop yields. Funding for real-world experiments has been crashing, however. And linkages between models for climate change and crop production are relatively crude.
Policymakers depend on that work, but the models are only as good as the science behind them. The models’ predictions must be validated with real-world measures of how climate affects crops grown in actual agricultural ecosystems, over time and across regions. Without rigorous validation, models can mislead, as small errors expand into large ones.
Carbon sequestration in soil is a case in point. Models predict that soils will hold on to more carbon under so-called no-till farming practices, in which plant stalks and roots remaining after harvest are left to decompose. Yet recent studies based on direct measurement of soil have not confirmed any net improvement.
We cannot wait for perfect simulations; policy decisions must be made with imperfect knowledge. The danger, of course, is that poor policies built on erroneous models can waste billions of dollars. We must spend more on real-world research to improve the models so we can predict the impact of climate change. Only then can we decide whether the world can tolerate more crops for biofuels.
Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Biofuels or Food?"
OR Read in the link
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=biofuels-or-food&sc=DD_20081023
शुक्रवार, 24 अक्तूबर 2008
मंगलवार, 21 अक्तूबर 2008
Moving the Earth: a planetary survival guide
22:10 20 October 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Jeff Hecht
For related Pictures please copy and paste the following URL
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14984
Read the Article below
The clock is ticking inexorably toward doomsday even if we don't kill ourselves by poisoning the environment oroverheating the planet. You see, there's a little problem with the Sun.
The Sun is slowly getting warmer as it burns the hydrogen in its core. In about 5 billion years, the Sun will begin evolving into a bloated red giant. Its outer gas shell will swell up,engulfing the Earth by the time it reaches its peak size and brightness 7 billion years from now.
But long before that, in 1.1 billion years, the Sun will grow 11% brighter, raising average terrestrial temperatures to around 50 °C (120 °F). That will warm the oceans so much that they evaporate without boiling, like a pan of water left on a sunny kitchen counter.
Plants and animals will have a very tough time adapting to that hothouse, although some single-celled organisms called Archaea might survive. But only for a while. Once the water vapour is in the atmosphere, ultraviolet light from the Sun will split the water molecules, and the hydrogen needed to build living cells will slowly leak into space. If our descendants – or other intelligent life-forms that follow us – want to survive, they'll have to migrate elsewhere. But where and how?
One approach would be to fire up rockets and move to another planet. Back in 1930, British science-fiction author Olaf Stapledon wrote about a future where our descendants fled toVenus, and later Neptune, when the Earth became uninhabitable. Eminent scientists such as Stephen Hawking have endorsed the idea of establishing colonies on the Moon or other planets so humanity would survive any disaster that wiped out life on Earth.
Yet evacuating all 6.7 billion Earthlings would take the equivalent of a billion space shuttle launches. Even if we could launch 1000 shuttles a day, it would still take 2700 years to move the whole planet's population.
Then there's the matter of taking care of people once they reached their new home. Moving to any other planet would require "terraforming" it to provide food, water and oxygen to support colonists. Why not bring our own planet along with the resources we would need?
Tiny change
Elementary physics tells us that we actually can move the planets. Launching a rocket into space pushes the Earth a bit in the opposite direction, like the recoil from a gun.
Science-fiction author and trained physicist Stanley Schmidtexploited this fact in his novel The Sins of the Fathers, in which aliens built giant rocket engines at the South Pole to move the Earth. (Read about other sci-fi novels and films that have tackled the problem of moving worlds.)
In real life, however, the Earth is so massive that a rocket would have little effect on its motion. Launching a billion 10-tonne rockets in exactly the same direction would change the Earth's velocity by just 20 nanometres per second – peanuts compared to the planet's current speed of 30 kilometres per second.
A few astronomers have tackled the problem of moving planets, but not for dealing with emergencies on human time scales. They're actually devising thought experiments to understand the dynamics of planetary systems, says Greg Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz. So processes that occur on geologic time scales work perfectly well.
Moving out
Planetary dynamics seemed simple and orderly when we knew only our own solar system, but that changed with thediscovery of "hot Jupiters" on tight orbits around other stars. The planets couldn't have formed in the scorching regions where they orbit – there was not enough gas and dust there to amass such giant worlds. Instead, they must have migrated there from more distant birthplaces.
To understand how planetary systems might rearrange themselves, Laughlin, his Santa Cruz colleague Don Korycansky, and University of Michigan astronomer Fred Adams posed themselves the problem of how to move the Earth so the warming Sun didn't cook the planet.
For the purposes of their calculation, the three chose the Earth's final destination as an orbit 1.5 times its present distance from the Sun, at what is now the orbit of Mars. In 6.3 billion years, when the Sun is in its red-giant stage and is 2.2 times brighter than today, a planet at that distance will receive about as much sunlight as the Earth receives today.
Moving the Earth to a circular orbit at that distance requires increasing its orbital energy by about 30%. That would be possible, they say, by changing the orbits of icy bodies in the distant solar system so they would pass close to the Earth, transferring some of their orbital energy to the planet.
Once an object was nudged out of the Kuiper belt, its orbit could be fine-tuned in the inner solar system using jets of ice vaporised from its surface (Illustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Enlarge image
The impact of a space rock more than 100 km across would kill most – if not all – life on Earth (Illustration: Don Davis/NASA)
A solar sail about 19 times as wide as the Earth would be needed to move the planet out of harm's way when the Sun becomes a red giant (Illustration: NASA/MSFC)
A 20-metre solar sail system is fully deployed during testing at a NASA centre (Image: NASA)
The objects lie in a ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune called the Kuiper belt and in an even more distant shell of comets called the Oort cloud. Because they are far from the Sun, the objects have relatively low orbital energy, so they could be nudged using methods being developed to deflect asteroids away from the Earth.
These range from the gentle pull of gravity tugs – spacecraft that fly near the object and gravitationally pull them off course – to the stronger push of mass drivers, which dig into and spew out pieces of the icy body, pushing it in the opposite direction.
Their orbits could then be fine-tuned in the inner solar system using jets of ices vaporised from their surfaces by equipment sent there. Nobody's thinking about deploying a future Bruce Willis with a rocket-load of nukes to do the job. "You need very fine-grained control, which a nuclear weapon certainly would not produce!" says Laughlin.
Sterilised biosphere
About a million such close passes would do the trick. If we spaced them evenly, that would mean about one close pass every 1000 to 6000 years, depending on whether we wanted to reach the orbit of Mars by the time the Sun started to vaporise the ocean, or when it hit its red-giant phase. Luckily, the objects could be re-used if they looped around both Jupiter and the Earth, taking energy from the giant planet and transferring it to Earth.
It would be a big job, and would take plenty of patience to move the Earth consistently outwards as the Sun grew warmer. It also carries a significant risk because the objects would have to pass just 10,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
The objects would be much more massive than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, so one little "oops" could be devastating. Laughlin and colleagues take that very seriously, concluding their paper with the warning: "The collision of a 100-km diameter object with the Earth at cosmic velocity would sterilise the biosphere most effectively, at least to the level of bacteria. This danger cannot be overemphasised."
Push from the Sun
That danger could be avoided by using a giant solar sail, says Colin McInnes, a mechanical engineer at the University of Strathclyde.
Solar sails are thin, mirror-like films that are propelled by the weak pressure of the sunlight that falls on them. McInnes's idea is to put a free-floating solar sail at a point near the Earth where the pressure of solar radiation essentially balances the Earth's gravitational pull.
His analysis shows that the reflection of sunlight from the sail will pull the Earth outwards along with the sail – in physical terms, increasing the Earth's orbital energy and accelerating the centre of mass of the system outwards, away from the Sun.
McInnes calculates that moving the Earth outwards to keep pace with the Sun's warming would require a disc-shaped sail 19.2 times the Earth's diameter. It would have to be tilted at an angle of 35° to the line towards the Sun, and stationed at about five times the Moon's distance from the Earth.
He envisions building it in space by refining the raw materials in a 9-km-wide metal-rich asteroid. Nickel and iron from the asteroid would be made into an 8-micron-thick film for the sail.
Thrown into chaos
The sail would be complex as well as large; it would need active control to maintain the sail's proper shape, particularly in the face of perturbations by the Moon's gravity. But McInnes says it would require moving 10,000 times less mass than slinging objects from the Kuiper belt past Earth.
Geoffrey Landis, a science fiction author and NASA scientist, says the concept is sound. "It looks like the physics is right, but of course there's no technology in existence or currently proposed to make a solar sail 20 times the diameter of the Earth ¡V at the moment, that's science fiction."
McInnes admits that even he doesn't take the idea too seriously: "It's a Friday afternoon problem."
But despite the practical difficulties of these scenarios, computer simulations by Laughlin also point out a real danger of playing with planetary orbits.
Planetary orbits are shaped by the gravitational pulls of their neighbours, so moving the Earth would change the orbits of the other inner planets in unpredictable and potentially dangerous ways.
If the move destabilised Mercury, the entire inner solar system might be thrown into a chaotic mode "that is vastly harder and possibly impossible to control", Laughlin says. That may be the best argument for leaving the planets alone unless we have no alternatives.
NewScientist.com news service
Jeff Hecht
For related Pictures please copy and paste the following URL
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14984
Read the Article below
The clock is ticking inexorably toward doomsday even if we don't kill ourselves by poisoning the environment oroverheating the planet. You see, there's a little problem with the Sun.
The Sun is slowly getting warmer as it burns the hydrogen in its core. In about 5 billion years, the Sun will begin evolving into a bloated red giant. Its outer gas shell will swell up,engulfing the Earth by the time it reaches its peak size and brightness 7 billion years from now.
But long before that, in 1.1 billion years, the Sun will grow 11% brighter, raising average terrestrial temperatures to around 50 °C (120 °F). That will warm the oceans so much that they evaporate without boiling, like a pan of water left on a sunny kitchen counter.
Plants and animals will have a very tough time adapting to that hothouse, although some single-celled organisms called Archaea might survive. But only for a while. Once the water vapour is in the atmosphere, ultraviolet light from the Sun will split the water molecules, and the hydrogen needed to build living cells will slowly leak into space. If our descendants – or other intelligent life-forms that follow us – want to survive, they'll have to migrate elsewhere. But where and how?
One approach would be to fire up rockets and move to another planet. Back in 1930, British science-fiction author Olaf Stapledon wrote about a future where our descendants fled toVenus, and later Neptune, when the Earth became uninhabitable. Eminent scientists such as Stephen Hawking have endorsed the idea of establishing colonies on the Moon or other planets so humanity would survive any disaster that wiped out life on Earth.
Yet evacuating all 6.7 billion Earthlings would take the equivalent of a billion space shuttle launches. Even if we could launch 1000 shuttles a day, it would still take 2700 years to move the whole planet's population.
Then there's the matter of taking care of people once they reached their new home. Moving to any other planet would require "terraforming" it to provide food, water and oxygen to support colonists. Why not bring our own planet along with the resources we would need?
Tiny change
Elementary physics tells us that we actually can move the planets. Launching a rocket into space pushes the Earth a bit in the opposite direction, like the recoil from a gun.
Science-fiction author and trained physicist Stanley Schmidtexploited this fact in his novel The Sins of the Fathers, in which aliens built giant rocket engines at the South Pole to move the Earth. (Read about other sci-fi novels and films that have tackled the problem of moving worlds.)
In real life, however, the Earth is so massive that a rocket would have little effect on its motion. Launching a billion 10-tonne rockets in exactly the same direction would change the Earth's velocity by just 20 nanometres per second – peanuts compared to the planet's current speed of 30 kilometres per second.
A few astronomers have tackled the problem of moving planets, but not for dealing with emergencies on human time scales. They're actually devising thought experiments to understand the dynamics of planetary systems, says Greg Laughlin of the University of California, Santa Cruz. So processes that occur on geologic time scales work perfectly well.
Moving out
Planetary dynamics seemed simple and orderly when we knew only our own solar system, but that changed with thediscovery of "hot Jupiters" on tight orbits around other stars. The planets couldn't have formed in the scorching regions where they orbit – there was not enough gas and dust there to amass such giant worlds. Instead, they must have migrated there from more distant birthplaces.
To understand how planetary systems might rearrange themselves, Laughlin, his Santa Cruz colleague Don Korycansky, and University of Michigan astronomer Fred Adams posed themselves the problem of how to move the Earth so the warming Sun didn't cook the planet.
For the purposes of their calculation, the three chose the Earth's final destination as an orbit 1.5 times its present distance from the Sun, at what is now the orbit of Mars. In 6.3 billion years, when the Sun is in its red-giant stage and is 2.2 times brighter than today, a planet at that distance will receive about as much sunlight as the Earth receives today.
Moving the Earth to a circular orbit at that distance requires increasing its orbital energy by about 30%. That would be possible, they say, by changing the orbits of icy bodies in the distant solar system so they would pass close to the Earth, transferring some of their orbital energy to the planet.
Once an object was nudged out of the Kuiper belt, its orbit could be fine-tuned in the inner solar system using jets of ice vaporised from its surface (Illustration: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Enlarge image
The impact of a space rock more than 100 km across would kill most – if not all – life on Earth (Illustration: Don Davis/NASA)
A solar sail about 19 times as wide as the Earth would be needed to move the planet out of harm's way when the Sun becomes a red giant (Illustration: NASA/MSFC)
A 20-metre solar sail system is fully deployed during testing at a NASA centre (Image: NASA)
The objects lie in a ring of icy bodies beyond Neptune called the Kuiper belt and in an even more distant shell of comets called the Oort cloud. Because they are far from the Sun, the objects have relatively low orbital energy, so they could be nudged using methods being developed to deflect asteroids away from the Earth.
These range from the gentle pull of gravity tugs – spacecraft that fly near the object and gravitationally pull them off course – to the stronger push of mass drivers, which dig into and spew out pieces of the icy body, pushing it in the opposite direction.
Their orbits could then be fine-tuned in the inner solar system using jets of ices vaporised from their surfaces by equipment sent there. Nobody's thinking about deploying a future Bruce Willis with a rocket-load of nukes to do the job. "You need very fine-grained control, which a nuclear weapon certainly would not produce!" says Laughlin.
Sterilised biosphere
About a million such close passes would do the trick. If we spaced them evenly, that would mean about one close pass every 1000 to 6000 years, depending on whether we wanted to reach the orbit of Mars by the time the Sun started to vaporise the ocean, or when it hit its red-giant phase. Luckily, the objects could be re-used if they looped around both Jupiter and the Earth, taking energy from the giant planet and transferring it to Earth.
It would be a big job, and would take plenty of patience to move the Earth consistently outwards as the Sun grew warmer. It also carries a significant risk because the objects would have to pass just 10,000 kilometres above the Earth's surface.
The objects would be much more massive than the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, so one little "oops" could be devastating. Laughlin and colleagues take that very seriously, concluding their paper with the warning: "The collision of a 100-km diameter object with the Earth at cosmic velocity would sterilise the biosphere most effectively, at least to the level of bacteria. This danger cannot be overemphasised."
Push from the Sun
That danger could be avoided by using a giant solar sail, says Colin McInnes, a mechanical engineer at the University of Strathclyde.
Solar sails are thin, mirror-like films that are propelled by the weak pressure of the sunlight that falls on them. McInnes's idea is to put a free-floating solar sail at a point near the Earth where the pressure of solar radiation essentially balances the Earth's gravitational pull.
His analysis shows that the reflection of sunlight from the sail will pull the Earth outwards along with the sail – in physical terms, increasing the Earth's orbital energy and accelerating the centre of mass of the system outwards, away from the Sun.
McInnes calculates that moving the Earth outwards to keep pace with the Sun's warming would require a disc-shaped sail 19.2 times the Earth's diameter. It would have to be tilted at an angle of 35° to the line towards the Sun, and stationed at about five times the Moon's distance from the Earth.
He envisions building it in space by refining the raw materials in a 9-km-wide metal-rich asteroid. Nickel and iron from the asteroid would be made into an 8-micron-thick film for the sail.
Thrown into chaos
The sail would be complex as well as large; it would need active control to maintain the sail's proper shape, particularly in the face of perturbations by the Moon's gravity. But McInnes says it would require moving 10,000 times less mass than slinging objects from the Kuiper belt past Earth.
Geoffrey Landis, a science fiction author and NASA scientist, says the concept is sound. "It looks like the physics is right, but of course there's no technology in existence or currently proposed to make a solar sail 20 times the diameter of the Earth ¡V at the moment, that's science fiction."
McInnes admits that even he doesn't take the idea too seriously: "It's a Friday afternoon problem."
But despite the practical difficulties of these scenarios, computer simulations by Laughlin also point out a real danger of playing with planetary orbits.
Planetary orbits are shaped by the gravitational pulls of their neighbours, so moving the Earth would change the orbits of the other inner planets in unpredictable and potentially dangerous ways.
If the move destabilised Mercury, the entire inner solar system might be thrown into a chaotic mode "that is vastly harder and possibly impossible to control", Laughlin says. That may be the best argument for leaving the planets alone unless we have no alternatives.
Sacking govt easier than removing judges in India
The Article contains the truth of the day. Citizens will have to focus on this issue of huge corruption in the Judiciary.
Dr.V.N.Sharma
*Sacking govt easier than removing judges in India*
The letter written by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention in initiating impeachment proceedings against a sitting judge of Calcutta High Court, has triggered a debate again regarding corruption in higher judiciary and its impunity.
We have seen removal of governments and Prime Ministers so many times, but removal of High Court and Supreme Court judges has not been so far heard after the Constitution of India came into force in 1950.
Independent India has, however, witnessed one impeachment, when Justice Shiv Prasad Sinha of Allahabad High Court was removed by the then Governor General of India, C Rajagopalachari in 1949 on the recommendation of the Federal Court.
The Chief Justice has given detailed information about Justice Sen's misconduct when he was appointed receiver by Justice AN Roy in Steel Authority of India versus Shipping Corporation of India case in 1993.
The three-Judge panel comprising Madras High Court Chief Justice AP Shah, MP High Court Chief Justice AK Patnaik and Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice RM Lodha inquired into the charges leveled against Justice Sen and found them true.
The panel submitted its report in February, 2008. On March 16, the Collegiums of the apex court comprising of Chief Justice BN Agarwal and Justice Asok Bhan asked Justice Sen either to resign or to opt for voluntary retirement.
However, with Justice Sen deciding not to comply with either of the two options, the Chief Justice was forced to resort to this unprecedented move.
The move is unprecedented, because neither there is any provision in the constitution about such recommendation nor before this, any Chief Justice has taken such 'extreme step'.
In fact Article 124(4) of Indian Constitution provides for removal of High Court and Supreme Court Judges.
The Article says: "A judge of Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total number of membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity."
There is no separate provision for removal of High Court judges and Article 217(1)(b) provides for this and says, "A judge may be removed from his office by the President in the manner provided in clause(4) of Article 124 for the removal of a judge of the Supreme Court."
The processes of removal of High Court and Supreme Court judges are the same. The above Article of the Constitution provides for impeachment,whereas; Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 determines the process of impeachment.
According to this Act, the impeachment of a judge can be done only by Parliament and impeachment can be initiated after a motion addressed to the President of India is signed by at least 100 members of the Lok sabha or 50 members of Rajya Sabha.
Such is the process and such is the impunity. Such Judicial impunity has been conferred on Judiciary for the sake of its independence.
The above provision is similar to the rule prevailing in England, since the Act of Settlement, 1701, to the effect that though judges of the superior courts are appointed by the Crown, they do not hold office during his pleasure, but hold their office on good behaviour and the Crown may remove them based on a joint address from both the Houses of Parliament.
Any way the credit must be given to Chief Justice, who could take such extra-ordinary step, because after all, extra-ordinary situation demands extra-ordinary steps.
But unfortunately, the government was sitting over it as it was written two months ago and could only be known to public through media.
Before any debate on this issue, it should be clearly borne in mind that
above cumbersome procedure of impeachment and other judicial impunities have
been enshrined in the Constitution for making Judiciary independent.
*Independence of Judiciary
*The independence is guaranteed in our Constitution and the concept has been borrowed from the US Constitution. Article III of US Constitution guarantees Independence and Supremacy of Judiciary in the US.
Independence of Judiciary is the tenet of democracy and therefore, even Russian Constitution of 1993 (Chapter-7 Section 120-122) also guarantees independence of Judiciary in the country.
In fact section 124 of the Russian Constitution says, "Judges shall posses immunity and criminal proceedings may not be brought against a Judge except as provided for by federal law."
In India, this independence and limited Judicial Supremacy are enshrined in the Constitution and are expressed in the methods of appointment of judges; the process of impeachment; and the power of judicial review.
Now, if all these provisions of the Constitution are analysed, inference can easily be drawn that the problems lay here themselves and so do solutions.
*The Appointment Rules*
Articles 124 and 217 provide for appointment of Judges of Supreme Court and High Court respectively. They clearly stipulate that the appointments have to be made by the President in consultation with the Chief Justice.
The word 'consultation' has been always a matter of dissent and controversy. In fact, when AN Ray was appointed as Chief Justice after superseding three senior Judges namely Hegde, Grover and Shelat, there was uproar in Judicial community including the Bar council of the apex court.
They argued that judges have been superseded owing to their judgement in Keshavanand case (AIR 1973 Supreme Court) which went against the government.
Gradually the direction of Executive in matters of appointment of judges started diminishing. In 1993, a land mark judgment came from Supreme Court in 'Advocates on record versus Union of India' case.
The apex court ruled that the recommendations for appointment of Judges in High Court and Supreme Court will be made by collegiums of three Judges and shall be in a way binding on the government.
After a 'presidential reference', the number in the collegiums was increased from three to five.
This judgment was a landmark because it took virtually all discretionary powers of the Executive in matters of appointment of judges in higher judiciary. Thus, the word 'consultation' became 'concurrence'.
Some people in legal domain argue that it was a dangerous development and was against the principles of the Constitution itself. How can a person or a group of persons appoint themselves which goes against the ideas enshrined in Article 311?
They opine that there must be a transparent and justifiable procedure for such appointments. There are instances where persons from one family are becoming Judges for two to three generations.
The judicial community of higher Judiciary is becoming an elite club of few
'privileged families'. Candidly, it is not what 'independence' meant for.
*The Impeachment*
The process of impeachment as discussed in the article above, clearly indicates that it is a cumbersome process. No wonder then, not a single judge could be removed in India since 1949.
It may be recalled that in 1991, the impeachment proceedings for removal of Justice V Ramaswami fell flat on its face after members of the Congress party decided to abstain from voting.
The process of impeachment is laid down in Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 which says that even if the motion is accepted, the presiding officer of the House has to constitute a three judge committee to further inquire into the matter.
The process suggests that the motion will be put to voting once again after the submission of the report by the Judges' Committee. However, unlike in the case of a no confidence motion against a government, which requires a simple majority to survive, the impeachment motion against a judge requires a two-third majority.
That is why, it is truly said that it is easier to decide the fate of 100 billion people by way of forming and toppling Governments in India than removing a Judge in the country.
It is also but strange that the country which has seen many a ministers and bureaucrats being convicted on charges of corruption does not have a single incidence of a judge being impeached.
The 'Transparency International' in its report of 2007 has counted judiciary as the third most corrupt institutions in India, an inference totally in contrary to the common perception that instances of corruption in higher judiciary are not unheard of.
The former CJI Y K Sabarwal himself is in the eyes of storm for his judgement pronounced in the 'Delhi Sealing Case', which allegedly benefited his son. When a report in this regard appeared in one Newspaper, a suo motto contempt proceeding was initiated and the concerned reporter was sought to be punished.
The Contempt of Court Act, 1971, which itself is not yet codified, is another tool which sometimes is used to gauge the voice of dissent.
In another infamous case, the vigilance department of UP Police exposed misappropriation of funds worth Rs 23 crore from the GPF account of Class III and IV employees of Ghaziabad Civil Court.
One of the accused arrested in this connection, made startling revelation that he has parted the money both in cash and kind, with one sitting Judge of SC, ten Judges of HC and 23 Judges of lower courts.
The investigation is not proceeding as Police cannot interrogate judges without the consent of SC, though such protections are not given in Judges (Inquiry) Act. The matter is still pending with the apex court and the CJI has to convince the nation, whether there is equality before the law or not.
Not to forget the matter of the two Haryana High Court Judges whose names have figured in a case in which a law officer from Haryana has alleged to have sent Rs 15 lakh to them. The Matter has been referred to CBI by the apex court.
The list is long and result is dismally naught. And while one may agree that it is easy preaching than done, the question being asked by common citizen is that who will judge the judges?
*The Remedies
*. The provisions of RTI should be made applicable to all components of functioning of Judiciary. Accordingly, suitable amendments in RTI Act, 2005 can be made.
. The procedure of selection of Judges should be made more transparent and justifiable. Panel of judges can be made well in advance before recommendation and be known to public by way of websites or media.
. Idea of setting up of a National Judicial Commission can also be made into reality, after all if you are required to go for a test for becoming a clerk, why does selection of judges not require any test. An all India test might also be conducted to select judges of higher judiciary.
. The Government is sitting over the Judges (inquiry) bill, 2006 for more than two years, therefore it should be passed, but before that necessary amendments are required, because the concept of 'brother judges' doing inquiry has proved ineffective if not futile.
. The contempt of Court Act, 1971 should be suitably amended, because healthy criticism of any institution is generally beneficial for the system itself in the long run. The Judiciary should prepare itself for listening to its criticism and bring about change by itself, a change though painful but helpful.
*-The opinion expressed in this article are of the writer and not those of iGovernment*
Click to get the
daily dose of news on good governance at iGovernment.
Dr.V.N.Sharma
*Sacking govt easier than removing judges in India*
The letter written by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention in initiating impeachment proceedings against a sitting judge of Calcutta High Court, has triggered a debate again regarding corruption in higher judiciary and its impunity.
We have seen removal of governments and Prime Ministers so many times, but removal of High Court and Supreme Court judges has not been so far heard after the Constitution of India came into force in 1950.
Independent India has, however, witnessed one impeachment, when Justice Shiv Prasad Sinha of Allahabad High Court was removed by the then Governor General of India, C Rajagopalachari in 1949 on the recommendation of the Federal Court.
The Chief Justice has given detailed information about Justice Sen's misconduct when he was appointed receiver by Justice AN Roy in Steel Authority of India versus Shipping Corporation of India case in 1993.
The three-Judge panel comprising Madras High Court Chief Justice AP Shah, MP High Court Chief Justice AK Patnaik and Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice RM Lodha inquired into the charges leveled against Justice Sen and found them true.
The panel submitted its report in February, 2008. On March 16, the Collegiums of the apex court comprising of Chief Justice BN Agarwal and Justice Asok Bhan asked Justice Sen either to resign or to opt for voluntary retirement.
However, with Justice Sen deciding not to comply with either of the two options, the Chief Justice was forced to resort to this unprecedented move.
The move is unprecedented, because neither there is any provision in the constitution about such recommendation nor before this, any Chief Justice has taken such 'extreme step'.
In fact Article 124(4) of Indian Constitution provides for removal of High Court and Supreme Court Judges.
The Article says: "A judge of Supreme Court shall not be removed from his office except by an order of the President passed after an address by each House of Parliament supported by a majority of the total number of membership of that House and by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that House present and voting has been presented to the President in the same session for such removal on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity."
There is no separate provision for removal of High Court judges and Article 217(1)(b) provides for this and says, "A judge may be removed from his office by the President in the manner provided in clause(4) of Article 124 for the removal of a judge of the Supreme Court."
The processes of removal of High Court and Supreme Court judges are the same. The above Article of the Constitution provides for impeachment,whereas; Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 determines the process of impeachment.
According to this Act, the impeachment of a judge can be done only by Parliament and impeachment can be initiated after a motion addressed to the President of India is signed by at least 100 members of the Lok sabha or 50 members of Rajya Sabha.
Such is the process and such is the impunity. Such Judicial impunity has been conferred on Judiciary for the sake of its independence.
The above provision is similar to the rule prevailing in England, since the Act of Settlement, 1701, to the effect that though judges of the superior courts are appointed by the Crown, they do not hold office during his pleasure, but hold their office on good behaviour and the Crown may remove them based on a joint address from both the Houses of Parliament.
Any way the credit must be given to Chief Justice, who could take such extra-ordinary step, because after all, extra-ordinary situation demands extra-ordinary steps.
But unfortunately, the government was sitting over it as it was written two months ago and could only be known to public through media.
Before any debate on this issue, it should be clearly borne in mind that
above cumbersome procedure of impeachment and other judicial impunities have
been enshrined in the Constitution for making Judiciary independent.
*Independence of Judiciary
*The independence is guaranteed in our Constitution and the concept has been borrowed from the US Constitution. Article III of US Constitution guarantees Independence and Supremacy of Judiciary in the US.
Independence of Judiciary is the tenet of democracy and therefore, even Russian Constitution of 1993 (Chapter-7 Section 120-122) also guarantees independence of Judiciary in the country.
In fact section 124 of the Russian Constitution says, "Judges shall posses immunity and criminal proceedings may not be brought against a Judge except as provided for by federal law."
In India, this independence and limited Judicial Supremacy are enshrined in the Constitution and are expressed in the methods of appointment of judges; the process of impeachment; and the power of judicial review.
Now, if all these provisions of the Constitution are analysed, inference can easily be drawn that the problems lay here themselves and so do solutions.
*The Appointment Rules*
Articles 124 and 217 provide for appointment of Judges of Supreme Court and High Court respectively. They clearly stipulate that the appointments have to be made by the President in consultation with the Chief Justice.
The word 'consultation' has been always a matter of dissent and controversy. In fact, when AN Ray was appointed as Chief Justice after superseding three senior Judges namely Hegde, Grover and Shelat, there was uproar in Judicial community including the Bar council of the apex court.
They argued that judges have been superseded owing to their judgement in Keshavanand case (AIR 1973 Supreme Court) which went against the government.
Gradually the direction of Executive in matters of appointment of judges started diminishing. In 1993, a land mark judgment came from Supreme Court in 'Advocates on record versus Union of India' case.
The apex court ruled that the recommendations for appointment of Judges in High Court and Supreme Court will be made by collegiums of three Judges and shall be in a way binding on the government.
After a 'presidential reference', the number in the collegiums was increased from three to five.
This judgment was a landmark because it took virtually all discretionary powers of the Executive in matters of appointment of judges in higher judiciary. Thus, the word 'consultation' became 'concurrence'.
Some people in legal domain argue that it was a dangerous development and was against the principles of the Constitution itself. How can a person or a group of persons appoint themselves which goes against the ideas enshrined in Article 311?
They opine that there must be a transparent and justifiable procedure for such appointments. There are instances where persons from one family are becoming Judges for two to three generations.
The judicial community of higher Judiciary is becoming an elite club of few
'privileged families'. Candidly, it is not what 'independence' meant for.
*The Impeachment*
The process of impeachment as discussed in the article above, clearly indicates that it is a cumbersome process. No wonder then, not a single judge could be removed in India since 1949.
It may be recalled that in 1991, the impeachment proceedings for removal of Justice V Ramaswami fell flat on its face after members of the Congress party decided to abstain from voting.
The process of impeachment is laid down in Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968 which says that even if the motion is accepted, the presiding officer of the House has to constitute a three judge committee to further inquire into the matter.
The process suggests that the motion will be put to voting once again after the submission of the report by the Judges' Committee. However, unlike in the case of a no confidence motion against a government, which requires a simple majority to survive, the impeachment motion against a judge requires a two-third majority.
That is why, it is truly said that it is easier to decide the fate of 100 billion people by way of forming and toppling Governments in India than removing a Judge in the country.
It is also but strange that the country which has seen many a ministers and bureaucrats being convicted on charges of corruption does not have a single incidence of a judge being impeached.
The 'Transparency International' in its report of 2007 has counted judiciary as the third most corrupt institutions in India, an inference totally in contrary to the common perception that instances of corruption in higher judiciary are not unheard of.
The former CJI Y K Sabarwal himself is in the eyes of storm for his judgement pronounced in the 'Delhi Sealing Case', which allegedly benefited his son. When a report in this regard appeared in one Newspaper, a suo motto contempt proceeding was initiated and the concerned reporter was sought to be punished.
The Contempt of Court Act, 1971, which itself is not yet codified, is another tool which sometimes is used to gauge the voice of dissent.
In another infamous case, the vigilance department of UP Police exposed misappropriation of funds worth Rs 23 crore from the GPF account of Class III and IV employees of Ghaziabad Civil Court.
One of the accused arrested in this connection, made startling revelation that he has parted the money both in cash and kind, with one sitting Judge of SC, ten Judges of HC and 23 Judges of lower courts.
The investigation is not proceeding as Police cannot interrogate judges without the consent of SC, though such protections are not given in Judges (Inquiry) Act. The matter is still pending with the apex court and the CJI has to convince the nation, whether there is equality before the law or not.
Not to forget the matter of the two Haryana High Court Judges whose names have figured in a case in which a law officer from Haryana has alleged to have sent Rs 15 lakh to them. The Matter has been referred to CBI by the apex court.
The list is long and result is dismally naught. And while one may agree that it is easy preaching than done, the question being asked by common citizen is that who will judge the judges?
*The Remedies
*. The provisions of RTI should be made applicable to all components of functioning of Judiciary. Accordingly, suitable amendments in RTI Act, 2005 can be made.
. The procedure of selection of Judges should be made more transparent and justifiable. Panel of judges can be made well in advance before recommendation and be known to public by way of websites or media.
. Idea of setting up of a National Judicial Commission can also be made into reality, after all if you are required to go for a test for becoming a clerk, why does selection of judges not require any test. An all India test might also be conducted to select judges of higher judiciary.
. The Government is sitting over the Judges (inquiry) bill, 2006 for more than two years, therefore it should be passed, but before that necessary amendments are required, because the concept of 'brother judges' doing inquiry has proved ineffective if not futile.
. The contempt of Court Act, 1971 should be suitably amended, because healthy criticism of any institution is generally beneficial for the system itself in the long run. The Judiciary should prepare itself for listening to its criticism and bring about change by itself, a change though painful but helpful.
*-The opinion expressed in this article are of the writer and not those of iGovernment*
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daily dose of news on good governance at iGovernment.
Subsidies, tax breaks got Tata to Singur
This is how the Corporate India is grabbing the land and snatching
the livelihood of the poor and downtrodden. The shameless is the role played
by the State Govt. in making underhand deals. The issue is whether the Govt
is authorised to transfer land and property by an underhand deal.
Pl read the following message.
Dr.V.N.Sharma
The Singur controversy is being debated nationally. The agreement of West
Bengal Govt. with Tata has been kept secret all these years. Recently the
RTI commissioner ordered it to be made pubic. Even then the WB Govt. did not
make the entire agreement public. A portion of it is still being kept secret
and the Tatas have gone to the High Court, so that the secret portion is
not published . The deal is very strange and possibly the first of its kind
in independent India. Attached herewith are the salient features of the
deal.
*Barundeb Mukherjee*
*Subsidies, tax breaks got Tata to Singur*
*Bs Reporter / Kolkata **September 09, 2008**, 0:08 IST*
The agreement between Tata Motors and the government of West Bengal to
manufacture the world's cheapest car in the state involved much more than
subsidies on land and interest paid on bank loans.
The government worked out a package — which included tax paybacks and
concessional power — to match the benefits the plant would have enjoyed in
Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, both designated backward areas that
attracted central tax concessions.
The documents, which the West Bengal government released today, show that
the state government will provide to Tata Motors a loan of Rs 200 crore at 1
per cent interest per year repayable in five equal annual installments
starting from the 21st year of the date of disbursement of loan.
If the state had put the sum in a fixed deposit scheme, its principal would
be worth Rs 3,000 crore in 20 years. This loan was disbursed within 60 days of signing of the agreement in May 2006.
The West Bengal government will also provide electricity for the project at
Rs 3 per KwH, against the going rate of Rs 4.15 per KwH.
In the case of a more than 25 paise per KwH increase in tariff in every
block of five years, the government will provide relief through additional
compensation to neutralise the additional increase.
The state government also promised to revisit the computation of the
comparison of benefits offered by Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
The incentive package in these states comprised excise exemption for 10
years and 100 per cent income tax exemption for the first five years and 30
per cent for the next five years.
The state government also subsidised the cost of land required for the
factory and the interest paid by Tata Motors on loans taken to build the
project.
Thus, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) is to
provide Industrial Promotion Assistance in the form of a loan to Tata Motors
at 0.1 per cent interest a year for amounts equal to gross VAT and CST
received by the government of West Bengal in each of the previous year ended
March 31 on the sale of each Nano from the date of commencement of sales.
In other words, the state government would repay Tata Motors the VAT and CST
collected on each Nano sale and as a result not earn anything as tax.
This benefit will continue till the balance amount of the benefit offered by
Uttarakhand was reached on a net present value basis, after which it is to
be discontinued. The loan with interest will be repayable in annual
installments starting from the 31st year of sales from the plant.
WBIDC will ensure that the loan under this head is paid within 60 days of
the close of the previous year (March 31), failing which WBIDC will be
liable to compensate Tata Motors for the financial inconvenience at the rate
of 1.5 times the bank rate prevailing at the time on the amount due for the
period of the delay.
The agreement also said Tata Motors and the government of West Bengal will
make joint efforts to maximise sales of the car in West Bengal.
Under the agreement, WBIDC would provides 645.67 acres to Tata Motors Ltd on
a 90-year lease, on an annual lease rental of Rs 1 crore per year for the
first five years with an increase at the rate of 25 per cent after every
five years till 30 years.
The effective lease rental for Tata Motors would be Rs 1291 per acre per
month annually, rising in keeping with an escalation clause.
After 30 years, the lease rental will be fixed at Rs 5 crore per year, with
an increase at the rate of 30 per cent after every 10 years till the 60th
year. After 60 years, the lease rental will be fixed at Rs 20 crore per year
for 645 acres which will be unchanged till the 90th year.
After 90 years the lease terms will be fixed on mutually agreed terms.
The benefit on account of land would be calculated as the total land area
leased out to Tata Motors multiplied by the cost of acquisition less the net
present value (NPV) of rent payable during 60 years.
Over and above all this, the agreement says WBIDC will lease 290 acres to
vendors selected and approved by Tata Motors on payment of a premium equal
to the actual cost of acquisition plus incidentals, to be calculated on the
basis of the total acquisition cost and other incidental expenses expended
by WBIDC or any of its subsidiaries (duly certified by its auditor) averaged
over the total land acquired.
The lease rental payable per year per acre by the vendors will be Rs 8,000
per acre for the first 45 years and Rs 16,000 per acre for the next 45
years.
The going rate for commercial space in the area was around Rs 25,000 per
acre per year for high land, with low-lying or waterlogging-prone areas
fetching Rs 12,500 per month.
The initial lease tenure will be 90 years, after which the lease terms will
be fixed on mutually agreed terms at that point of time.
The agreement says Tata Motors will manufacture 250,000 cars a year on a
two-shift basis which could be expanded to 350,000 on three-shift basis.
In addition, the Singur unit would act as a mother plant for many aggregates
to tune of 500,000 cars.
Tata Motors told the West Bengal government it would be investing over Rs
1500 crore and vendors were likely to make further investment of over Rs 500
crore.
the livelihood of the poor and downtrodden. The shameless is the role played
by the State Govt. in making underhand deals. The issue is whether the Govt
is authorised to transfer land and property by an underhand deal.
Pl read the following message.
Dr.V.N.Sharma
The Singur controversy is being debated nationally. The agreement of West
Bengal Govt. with Tata has been kept secret all these years. Recently the
RTI commissioner ordered it to be made pubic. Even then the WB Govt. did not
make the entire agreement public. A portion of it is still being kept secret
and the Tatas have gone to the High Court, so that the secret portion is
not published . The deal is very strange and possibly the first of its kind
in independent India. Attached herewith are the salient features of the
deal.
*Barundeb Mukherjee*
*Subsidies, tax breaks got Tata to Singur*
*Bs Reporter / Kolkata **September 09, 2008**, 0:08 IST*
The agreement between Tata Motors and the government of West Bengal to
manufacture the world's cheapest car in the state involved much more than
subsidies on land and interest paid on bank loans.
The government worked out a package — which included tax paybacks and
concessional power — to match the benefits the plant would have enjoyed in
Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, both designated backward areas that
attracted central tax concessions.
The documents, which the West Bengal government released today, show that
the state government will provide to Tata Motors a loan of Rs 200 crore at 1
per cent interest per year repayable in five equal annual installments
starting from the 21st year of the date of disbursement of loan.
If the state had put the sum in a fixed deposit scheme, its principal would
be worth Rs 3,000 crore in 20 years. This loan was disbursed within 60 days of signing of the agreement in May 2006.
The West Bengal government will also provide electricity for the project at
Rs 3 per KwH, against the going rate of Rs 4.15 per KwH.
In the case of a more than 25 paise per KwH increase in tariff in every
block of five years, the government will provide relief through additional
compensation to neutralise the additional increase.
The state government also promised to revisit the computation of the
comparison of benefits offered by Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
The incentive package in these states comprised excise exemption for 10
years and 100 per cent income tax exemption for the first five years and 30
per cent for the next five years.
The state government also subsidised the cost of land required for the
factory and the interest paid by Tata Motors on loans taken to build the
project.
Thus, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) is to
provide Industrial Promotion Assistance in the form of a loan to Tata Motors
at 0.1 per cent interest a year for amounts equal to gross VAT and CST
received by the government of West Bengal in each of the previous year ended
March 31 on the sale of each Nano from the date of commencement of sales.
In other words, the state government would repay Tata Motors the VAT and CST
collected on each Nano sale and as a result not earn anything as tax.
This benefit will continue till the balance amount of the benefit offered by
Uttarakhand was reached on a net present value basis, after which it is to
be discontinued. The loan with interest will be repayable in annual
installments starting from the 31st year of sales from the plant.
WBIDC will ensure that the loan under this head is paid within 60 days of
the close of the previous year (March 31), failing which WBIDC will be
liable to compensate Tata Motors for the financial inconvenience at the rate
of 1.5 times the bank rate prevailing at the time on the amount due for the
period of the delay.
The agreement also said Tata Motors and the government of West Bengal will
make joint efforts to maximise sales of the car in West Bengal.
Under the agreement, WBIDC would provides 645.67 acres to Tata Motors Ltd on
a 90-year lease, on an annual lease rental of Rs 1 crore per year for the
first five years with an increase at the rate of 25 per cent after every
five years till 30 years.
The effective lease rental for Tata Motors would be Rs 1291 per acre per
month annually, rising in keeping with an escalation clause.
After 30 years, the lease rental will be fixed at Rs 5 crore per year, with
an increase at the rate of 30 per cent after every 10 years till the 60th
year. After 60 years, the lease rental will be fixed at Rs 20 crore per year
for 645 acres which will be unchanged till the 90th year.
After 90 years the lease terms will be fixed on mutually agreed terms.
The benefit on account of land would be calculated as the total land area
leased out to Tata Motors multiplied by the cost of acquisition less the net
present value (NPV) of rent payable during 60 years.
Over and above all this, the agreement says WBIDC will lease 290 acres to
vendors selected and approved by Tata Motors on payment of a premium equal
to the actual cost of acquisition plus incidentals, to be calculated on the
basis of the total acquisition cost and other incidental expenses expended
by WBIDC or any of its subsidiaries (duly certified by its auditor) averaged
over the total land acquired.
The lease rental payable per year per acre by the vendors will be Rs 8,000
per acre for the first 45 years and Rs 16,000 per acre for the next 45
years.
The going rate for commercial space in the area was around Rs 25,000 per
acre per year for high land, with low-lying or waterlogging-prone areas
fetching Rs 12,500 per month.
The initial lease tenure will be 90 years, after which the lease terms will
be fixed on mutually agreed terms at that point of time.
The agreement says Tata Motors will manufacture 250,000 cars a year on a
two-shift basis which could be expanded to 350,000 on three-shift basis.
In addition, the Singur unit would act as a mother plant for many aggregates
to tune of 500,000 cars.
Tata Motors told the West Bengal government it would be investing over Rs
1500 crore and vendors were likely to make further investment of over Rs 500
crore.
INDIAN CORPORATES
The Article by Sripad Dharmadhikary in India Together (in the the link and text below) beautifully explains how the Corporate groups are trying to grab everything under the sun with the support of the elites of the society. Deals are now made in Hotels so that the people are prevented from participation. Dam building is becoming very attractive because it makes land grabbing easy and provides opportunity for pocketing public money. Just think of it. If we in India allow to continue with dam building we will only be taking Army and the Police to gun down the land owner population. Therefore, while discussing Kosi or other development/Rehabilitation issues solution must be found "without Dams".
Dr.V.N.Sharma
Read on in the link
http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/sep/env-nepaldam.htm
Dam forays in other countries
As Indian companies look to resources in other countries, some of the issues that have become familiar at home are surfacing elsewhere too. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.
Indian Corporates
07 September 2008 - Stories of Indian corporate acquisitions and investments abroad become one more indicator of a globally emerging power. Dams and hydropower are now being added to the list of sectors like auto, telcom and steel in which Indian companies are venturing abroad.
The Indian government and some of the public sector companies have been involved for many years in surveying, investigating, designing and building dams in other countries. But this activity has mostly been in the nature of bilateral assistance to neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bhutan, rather than aggressive corporate expansion. This is changing now. Indian companies, both public and private, are foraying into dam and hydropower in other countries, not just as equipment suppliers or construction contractors, but project developers and owners.
The Tata Group has entered into a 50-50 joint venture between Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation and Tata Africa Holdings Ltd for developing a 120 MW hydro project at Itezhi-Tezhi. Closer home, Tata Power took a 26 per cent shareholding in the 114 MW Dagachu power project in Bhutan in January 2008. The GMR group has signed an MoU to build the 300 MW Upper Karnali hydropower project in Nepal. Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) is an equity partner in the 750 MW West Seti project in Nepal, while the state owned Sutluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL) has been awarded the right to develop the Arun III project in Nepal on a BOOT basis. (The company Builds, Owns, Operates the project for certain years and Transfers it back to the Government after that).
This could just be the beginning, as both Nepal and Bhutan are planning to build a large number of hydropower projects running into many thousands of megawatts and are seeking private finances to develop these projects.
New lands, old questions
As Indian companies export know-how and finance to these countries to build hydropower projects, the important question is whether they will they also export the same attitude and approach towards the social, environmental and other impacts of these projects. People in Nepal are already questioning the record of Indian companies coming in to build these projects. SJVNL, in its earlier avatar as the Nathpa Jhakri Hydropower Corporation, built one of the messiest hydro projects in the country with faulty design and planning, huge time and cost overruns, displacement without resettlement and gross violations of environmental laws.
There are other questions raised by the locals as well - whether the resources of their country should be allowed to be used for the profits of a foreign company. These concerns raise serious doubts about how this expansion of corporate India into dam building in other countries will roll out.
Additionally, there are serious issues about the ethics and responsibilities of these companies. Consider the Upper Karnali project in the Mid-Western area of Nepal. The Karnali river, known as the Ghaghra in India rises in the Himalayas near Tibet and drains an area of about 43,000 sq km before it enters India. In its upper reaches the Karnali flows through a beautiful and deep gorge. In an amazing wonder of nature, the Karnali river makes a sharp hairpin bend and loops back in a path about 60 kms long. This brings the channel within 2 kms of its upstream. At this location, the upstream and downstream parts of the river are separated by a mountain ridge about 2 kms wide, but the height difference between the two points is 150 m.
The Upper Karnali project plans to utilise this bend to build a power generation station. The project involves the construction of a dam across the river at the higher point that diverts water through a tunnel to the lower point, generating 300 MW in the process utilising the head of 150 m. The advantage claimed for this location is the very short tunnelling that would be required.
Nepal has agreed to transform itself into a federally organised political entity. Under this structure, water resources would come under the control of the States that are to be formed. There is a demand that these projects be put on hold till the States come into being.
• High growth: In deep waters
On 24 January 2008 the government of Nepal signed an MoU with GMR-ITD, a consortium comprising of GMR Energy Limited (GEL), GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL) and Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited (ITD) whereby the consortium would undertake to build the Upper Karnali project on a BOOT basis. Both parties note that the project is export-oriented, with the power to be sold to India. The consortium will give 12 percent of the power and 27 percent of the equity free of cost to Nepal.
Like most such large dam projects, the decision on this project also seems to have been taken completely bypassing the local people who will be directly affected. Not only have the local people not been consulted, but they have not been informed properly about the project, and its impacts on their lives and livelihood.
Needless to say, the project is likely to have serious impacts. The lands and fields of several villages are going to be affected by submergence. Equally important, the project is likely to lead to a drying up of the whole loop of the river. The dam, and the diversion of water through the tunnel will completely alter the ecology of about 60 to 70 km of the river. One of the most severe impacts would be on fish and on the livelihoods of those who depend on it. The issue of greatest concern however is that none of these impacts have been properly studied or assessed while it has already been decided to go ahead with the project. The MoU requires the GMR consortium to conduct the EIA study and prepare the environmental management plan. This is putting the cart before the horse, a characteristic feature of most large dam hydropower projects.
In July 2008, I visited the dam site and the villages that are likely to be affected by the project. In a meeting held in Ramaghat, where the dam will be built, the villagers reiterated their strong dependence on the river and their close relationship with it. They talked about how the river provided them with drinking water, water for cattle and fish even in the areas where the gorge is deep. In other areas the river also provides water for irrigation. In particular, they emphasised that all communities fish in the river, but one of the economically most backward communities - the bhadi (landless, homeless and so-called untouchable) community - is fully dependent on fishing. They described several special occasions and festivals that are celebrated on the banks of the river including Shivaratri, when there is a big fair where people from the neighbouring districts gather on its banks. The people were emphatic in saying that they cannot survive without the river.
The people were particularly angry about the way they were being treated. In the meeting, a number of people expressed this, saying that nobody from the company or from the government had come and spoken with them or informed them about the project. They strongly protested how such deals are stuck in hotels in Kathmandu without the directly affected people being anywhere in the picture.
The village of Ramaghat will be affected by the dam submergence.
The project developer company had visited one of the affected villages sometime back, but did not hold any substantive discussions with all the people, but instead just met a few of them randomly and informally. In these informal chats, the company officials seem to have promised the people schools and hospitals. However it is unlikely that people are going to be satisfied with these crumbs that are traditionally thrown at the affected populations.
People are raising very fundamental questions about how the government of Nepal allow a foreign company to take away 88 percent of the electricity generated by the project while Nepal itself is reeling under a severe power crises. They are asking why a company should be allowed to make huge profits from a river that belongs to the people.
One important issue that is being raised is the power of the central government to sign away the rights to the river in view of the proposed political restructuring in Nepal. In principle Nepal has agreed to transform itself into a federally organised political entity. Under this structure, water resources would come under the control of the States that are to be formed. There is a demand that these projects be put on hold till the States come into being so that their control and decisions about their own natural resources are not compromised.
At the root of this is a process of increasing demands that the benefits from resource development must be shared with the people at the lowest tiers. It remains to be seen how a company that is building the project primarily for making profits addresses these demands.
These demands are now turning into an aggressive stand challenging the project itself. The Himalayan Times of 10 August 2008 reported that the Maoist-affiliated Autonomous Council of Karnali (ACK) warned all concerned not to visit the Karnali Region with the aim of commissioning major hydropower projects. It quoted ACK chairman Gorakh Bhahadur BC as saying that "the people who visit the far-western region to garner support for major hydropower projects may face people's action ...". He also warned the government and developers to stop their activities and wait till the country is restructured and States' rights over natural resources are established.
In an interaction organised in Kathmandu recently by the Water and Energy Users' Federation (WAFED) Nepal of people from the Upper Karnali area with some members of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal and other experts, the speakers voiced a similar demand asking the government to scrap the MoU with GMR.
Such a stance is not restricted to the Upper Karnali project but is seen in all large scale infrastructure development that is taking place. As Indian corporates - and through them the Indian elite - look to resources in other countries to make profits and also satisfy their rising demands for consumption of energy, these are issues that are going to become sharper.
Indeed, if these issues are seen in greater relief where an Indian company is operating in a foreign land, they are present in equal strength here in India as corporates look to the remote areas of our own country for the same objectives of satisfying the consumption demands of the elite and their own profits. ⊕
Shripad Dharmadhikary
07 Sep 2008
Shripad Dharmadhikary coordinates the Manthan Adhyanan Kendra, a centre set up to research, analyse and monitor water and energy issues.
Dr.V.N.Sharma
Read on in the link
http://www.indiatogether.org/2008/sep/env-nepaldam.htm
Dam forays in other countries
As Indian companies look to resources in other countries, some of the issues that have become familiar at home are surfacing elsewhere too. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.
Indian Corporates
07 September 2008 - Stories of Indian corporate acquisitions and investments abroad become one more indicator of a globally emerging power. Dams and hydropower are now being added to the list of sectors like auto, telcom and steel in which Indian companies are venturing abroad.
The Indian government and some of the public sector companies have been involved for many years in surveying, investigating, designing and building dams in other countries. But this activity has mostly been in the nature of bilateral assistance to neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bhutan, rather than aggressive corporate expansion. This is changing now. Indian companies, both public and private, are foraying into dam and hydropower in other countries, not just as equipment suppliers or construction contractors, but project developers and owners.
The Tata Group has entered into a 50-50 joint venture between Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation and Tata Africa Holdings Ltd for developing a 120 MW hydro project at Itezhi-Tezhi. Closer home, Tata Power took a 26 per cent shareholding in the 114 MW Dagachu power project in Bhutan in January 2008. The GMR group has signed an MoU to build the 300 MW Upper Karnali hydropower project in Nepal. Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) is an equity partner in the 750 MW West Seti project in Nepal, while the state owned Sutluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited (SJVNL) has been awarded the right to develop the Arun III project in Nepal on a BOOT basis. (The company Builds, Owns, Operates the project for certain years and Transfers it back to the Government after that).
This could just be the beginning, as both Nepal and Bhutan are planning to build a large number of hydropower projects running into many thousands of megawatts and are seeking private finances to develop these projects.
New lands, old questions
As Indian companies export know-how and finance to these countries to build hydropower projects, the important question is whether they will they also export the same attitude and approach towards the social, environmental and other impacts of these projects. People in Nepal are already questioning the record of Indian companies coming in to build these projects. SJVNL, in its earlier avatar as the Nathpa Jhakri Hydropower Corporation, built one of the messiest hydro projects in the country with faulty design and planning, huge time and cost overruns, displacement without resettlement and gross violations of environmental laws.
There are other questions raised by the locals as well - whether the resources of their country should be allowed to be used for the profits of a foreign company. These concerns raise serious doubts about how this expansion of corporate India into dam building in other countries will roll out.
Additionally, there are serious issues about the ethics and responsibilities of these companies. Consider the Upper Karnali project in the Mid-Western area of Nepal. The Karnali river, known as the Ghaghra in India rises in the Himalayas near Tibet and drains an area of about 43,000 sq km before it enters India. In its upper reaches the Karnali flows through a beautiful and deep gorge. In an amazing wonder of nature, the Karnali river makes a sharp hairpin bend and loops back in a path about 60 kms long. This brings the channel within 2 kms of its upstream. At this location, the upstream and downstream parts of the river are separated by a mountain ridge about 2 kms wide, but the height difference between the two points is 150 m.
The Upper Karnali project plans to utilise this bend to build a power generation station. The project involves the construction of a dam across the river at the higher point that diverts water through a tunnel to the lower point, generating 300 MW in the process utilising the head of 150 m. The advantage claimed for this location is the very short tunnelling that would be required.
Nepal has agreed to transform itself into a federally organised political entity. Under this structure, water resources would come under the control of the States that are to be formed. There is a demand that these projects be put on hold till the States come into being.
• High growth: In deep waters
On 24 January 2008 the government of Nepal signed an MoU with GMR-ITD, a consortium comprising of GMR Energy Limited (GEL), GMR Infrastructure Limited (GIL) and Italian-Thai Development Public Company Limited (ITD) whereby the consortium would undertake to build the Upper Karnali project on a BOOT basis. Both parties note that the project is export-oriented, with the power to be sold to India. The consortium will give 12 percent of the power and 27 percent of the equity free of cost to Nepal.
Like most such large dam projects, the decision on this project also seems to have been taken completely bypassing the local people who will be directly affected. Not only have the local people not been consulted, but they have not been informed properly about the project, and its impacts on their lives and livelihood.
Needless to say, the project is likely to have serious impacts. The lands and fields of several villages are going to be affected by submergence. Equally important, the project is likely to lead to a drying up of the whole loop of the river. The dam, and the diversion of water through the tunnel will completely alter the ecology of about 60 to 70 km of the river. One of the most severe impacts would be on fish and on the livelihoods of those who depend on it. The issue of greatest concern however is that none of these impacts have been properly studied or assessed while it has already been decided to go ahead with the project. The MoU requires the GMR consortium to conduct the EIA study and prepare the environmental management plan. This is putting the cart before the horse, a characteristic feature of most large dam hydropower projects.
In July 2008, I visited the dam site and the villages that are likely to be affected by the project. In a meeting held in Ramaghat, where the dam will be built, the villagers reiterated their strong dependence on the river and their close relationship with it. They talked about how the river provided them with drinking water, water for cattle and fish even in the areas where the gorge is deep. In other areas the river also provides water for irrigation. In particular, they emphasised that all communities fish in the river, but one of the economically most backward communities - the bhadi (landless, homeless and so-called untouchable) community - is fully dependent on fishing. They described several special occasions and festivals that are celebrated on the banks of the river including Shivaratri, when there is a big fair where people from the neighbouring districts gather on its banks. The people were emphatic in saying that they cannot survive without the river.
The people were particularly angry about the way they were being treated. In the meeting, a number of people expressed this, saying that nobody from the company or from the government had come and spoken with them or informed them about the project. They strongly protested how such deals are stuck in hotels in Kathmandu without the directly affected people being anywhere in the picture.
The village of Ramaghat will be affected by the dam submergence.
The project developer company had visited one of the affected villages sometime back, but did not hold any substantive discussions with all the people, but instead just met a few of them randomly and informally. In these informal chats, the company officials seem to have promised the people schools and hospitals. However it is unlikely that people are going to be satisfied with these crumbs that are traditionally thrown at the affected populations.
People are raising very fundamental questions about how the government of Nepal allow a foreign company to take away 88 percent of the electricity generated by the project while Nepal itself is reeling under a severe power crises. They are asking why a company should be allowed to make huge profits from a river that belongs to the people.
One important issue that is being raised is the power of the central government to sign away the rights to the river in view of the proposed political restructuring in Nepal. In principle Nepal has agreed to transform itself into a federally organised political entity. Under this structure, water resources would come under the control of the States that are to be formed. There is a demand that these projects be put on hold till the States come into being so that their control and decisions about their own natural resources are not compromised.
At the root of this is a process of increasing demands that the benefits from resource development must be shared with the people at the lowest tiers. It remains to be seen how a company that is building the project primarily for making profits addresses these demands.
These demands are now turning into an aggressive stand challenging the project itself. The Himalayan Times of 10 August 2008 reported that the Maoist-affiliated Autonomous Council of Karnali (ACK) warned all concerned not to visit the Karnali Region with the aim of commissioning major hydropower projects. It quoted ACK chairman Gorakh Bhahadur BC as saying that "the people who visit the far-western region to garner support for major hydropower projects may face people's action ...". He also warned the government and developers to stop their activities and wait till the country is restructured and States' rights over natural resources are established.
In an interaction organised in Kathmandu recently by the Water and Energy Users' Federation (WAFED) Nepal of people from the Upper Karnali area with some members of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal and other experts, the speakers voiced a similar demand asking the government to scrap the MoU with GMR.
Such a stance is not restricted to the Upper Karnali project but is seen in all large scale infrastructure development that is taking place. As Indian corporates - and through them the Indian elite - look to resources in other countries to make profits and also satisfy their rising demands for consumption of energy, these are issues that are going to become sharper.
Indeed, if these issues are seen in greater relief where an Indian company is operating in a foreign land, they are present in equal strength here in India as corporates look to the remote areas of our own country for the same objectives of satisfying the consumption demands of the elite and their own profits. ⊕
Shripad Dharmadhikary
07 Sep 2008
Shripad Dharmadhikary coordinates the Manthan Adhyanan Kendra, a centre set up to research, analyse and monitor water and energy issues.
A financial tidal wave is underway in America today.
From NaturalNews
A financial tidal wave is underway in America today. As we've been warning
NaturalNews readers for nearly two years now, the total collapse of the U.S.
financial system is imminent. Just today, Lehman Brothers collapsed and is
now bankrupt. The AIG insurance company is collapsing as we speak. Merrill
Lynch just lost everything... it's history! WashingtonMutual bank is
plummeting rapidly and may crater before the end of the week.
Americans are practically in a financial panic, and they're watching their
life savings vanish from financial institutions they once thought were rock
solid stable. Wachovia is reportedly about to plummet as well... the bank
runs have begun, folks. The financial end game is upon us. America's
highly-leverage financial system is about to implode.
I got news for ya, friends: The FDIC is bankrupt, too. There's no possible
way it can cover the cascade of fancial failures rocketing through Wall
Street right now. You are right now witnessing an historical event: The
financial downfall of the American Empire. I'm not even sure America as we
know it will survive these unfolding events, because the federal government
is bankrupt, too.
So what can you do? First, get signed up for my 'Mindful Wealth' email
newsletter, which will start sending emails this week about how to protect
yourself from the financial fallout: http://www.naturalnews.com/024171.html
Secondly, there's a financial newsletter you need to subscribe to. I've set
up a special offer for NaturalNews readers that gets you hundreds of dollars
worth of bonus reports as you subscribe to *The Complete Investor* (my
"secret source" for cutting-edge financial news and investment
advice). Click here
to subscribe
now
This is the financial newsletter written by the guy who wrote *The
Coming Economic Collapse*. He's been warning about this financial storm for
years... This is what I read to get the scoop on what's headed our way. I
consider this to be *Must-Read Material* for being "in the know" on what's
coming.
I am working on a major, breaking story about the financial tidal wave* and
I plan to publish it tomorrow. Watch NaturalNews.com tomorrow (Tuesday), or
even late Monday night for that story. It's my #1 priority today to finish
that story and get it to you.
Finally, to calm your nerves and help lift your spirits during these
challenging economic times, do you know what you really need? CHOCOLATE! And
not just regular chocolate; you need some *Righteously Raw* chocolate.
That's the name of the company featured in today's Raw Food Product Review,
where I'm announcing the best new raw food products. Today's product is an
outrageously delicious, new line of chocolate bars that are USDA organic,
raw, vegan and simply amazing. Read my review here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/024199.html
Besides, you might as well buy all the chocolate you want right now, because
U.S. dollars are about to become worthless. Today, you can trade them for
land, food or even gold. But if you don't take action now to protect
yourself, you'll soon find them to be worthless: Retirements, savings
accounts, investments and more. Click here to subscribe to The Complete
Investor
where you can learn how to protect yourself so you can be safe and even prosperous
in the Next Society...
And remember, folks: The world is not ending. Just the financial system
you've known in the past is ending. We'll still be here after the financial
fallout. Life will go on. The only question is: Do you choose to be
empowered, informed and protected? Or will you join the ignorant masses in
the coming global financial wipeout? The difference between those two groups
is KNOWLEDGE. I'll bring you as much knowledge as I can, but it's your job
to read, stay informed and take action.
A financial tidal wave is underway in America today. As we've been warning
NaturalNews readers for nearly two years now, the total collapse of the U.S.
financial system is imminent. Just today, Lehman Brothers collapsed and is
now bankrupt. The AIG insurance company is collapsing as we speak. Merrill
Lynch just lost everything... it's history! WashingtonMutual bank is
plummeting rapidly and may crater before the end of the week.
Americans are practically in a financial panic, and they're watching their
life savings vanish from financial institutions they once thought were rock
solid stable. Wachovia is reportedly about to plummet as well... the bank
runs have begun, folks. The financial end game is upon us. America's
highly-leverage financial system is about to implode.
I got news for ya, friends: The FDIC is bankrupt, too. There's no possible
way it can cover the cascade of fancial failures rocketing through Wall
Street right now. You are right now witnessing an historical event: The
financial downfall of the American Empire. I'm not even sure America as we
know it will survive these unfolding events, because the federal government
is bankrupt, too.
So what can you do? First, get signed up for my 'Mindful Wealth' email
newsletter, which will start sending emails this week about how to protect
yourself from the financial fallout: http://www.naturalnews.com/024171.html
Secondly, there's a financial newsletter you need to subscribe to. I've set
up a special offer for NaturalNews readers that gets you hundreds of dollars
worth of bonus reports as you subscribe to *The Complete Investor* (my
"secret source" for cutting-edge financial news and investment
advice). Click here
to subscribe
now
This is the financial newsletter written by the guy who wrote *The
Coming Economic Collapse*. He's been warning about this financial storm for
years... This is what I read to get the scoop on what's headed our way. I
consider this to be *Must-Read Material* for being "in the know" on what's
coming.
I am working on a major, breaking story about the financial tidal wave* and
I plan to publish it tomorrow. Watch NaturalNews.com tomorrow (Tuesday), or
even late Monday night for that story. It's my #1 priority today to finish
that story and get it to you.
Finally, to calm your nerves and help lift your spirits during these
challenging economic times, do you know what you really need? CHOCOLATE! And
not just regular chocolate; you need some *Righteously Raw* chocolate.
That's the name of the company featured in today's Raw Food Product Review,
where I'm announcing the best new raw food products. Today's product is an
outrageously delicious, new line of chocolate bars that are USDA organic,
raw, vegan and simply amazing. Read my review here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/024199.html
Besides, you might as well buy all the chocolate you want right now, because
U.S. dollars are about to become worthless. Today, you can trade them for
land, food or even gold. But if you don't take action now to protect
yourself, you'll soon find them to be worthless: Retirements, savings
accounts, investments and more. Click here to subscribe to The Complete
Investor
where you can learn how to protect yourself so you can be safe and even prosperous
in the Next Society...
And remember, folks: The world is not ending. Just the financial system
you've known in the past is ending. We'll still be here after the financial
fallout. Life will go on. The only question is: Do you choose to be
empowered, informed and protected? Or will you join the ignorant masses in
the coming global financial wipeout? The difference between those two groups
is KNOWLEDGE. I'll bring you as much knowledge as I can, but it's your job
to read, stay informed and take action.
A Balancd Approach To Kosi
Most of the solution to Kosi does not take into account that Kosi area lies in the worst seismic zones of the world. With this in mind a dam will be dangerous like a
sword ever hanging over the head. The deluge and the loss of humans and
properties is expected to be much more than what the world has seen in Kosi
this year if dams breakdown due to Earthquake.
You have assumed ever flourishing corruption in India but your proposals do
not take them into account. There is no culture of routine or planned
Maintenance in our working except in central PSUs or Private industries - we
wait for the break downs even for our domestic gadgets. Govts are champions
of this Breakdown- Maintenance culture. All the time silt gets deposited
but no silt removal programme is ever on.
Our Engg thinking is intentionally backward. For North-South flowing flood
we have East- West Rail-Roads on almost the same ground level. What can be
expected except anarchy and chaos during such a calamity as Kosi Floods 2008
when there was complete break down of Rail Road communication.
World without dams cannot be thought of in today's world because once a
Technology or Engg marvels are created they do not go back as they provide
both money and comforts to the elites of the society. But this cannot be a
prescription for all the time and all the places. Loss of Human lives and
properties cannot be allowed to be put to experimentation for ever.
I must confess that I dont claim to be a Flood control expert.So it is
a result of common sense approach in which no satellite pictures of American
and European rivers have been taken into account. And anyway the richest and
most efficient country equipped with all the resources and Advanced planning
is not coping up with 100% success with the natural disaster. So they cannot
be cited as examples for every place and every occasion.
In view of this and many other aspects I request you to think in terms of
Kosi without dams.
Dr.V.N.Sharma
sword ever hanging over the head. The deluge and the loss of humans and
properties is expected to be much more than what the world has seen in Kosi
this year if dams breakdown due to Earthquake.
You have assumed ever flourishing corruption in India but your proposals do
not take them into account. There is no culture of routine or planned
Maintenance in our working except in central PSUs or Private industries - we
wait for the break downs even for our domestic gadgets. Govts are champions
of this Breakdown- Maintenance culture. All the time silt gets deposited
but no silt removal programme is ever on.
Our Engg thinking is intentionally backward. For North-South flowing flood
we have East- West Rail-Roads on almost the same ground level. What can be
expected except anarchy and chaos during such a calamity as Kosi Floods 2008
when there was complete break down of Rail Road communication.
World without dams cannot be thought of in today's world because once a
Technology or Engg marvels are created they do not go back as they provide
both money and comforts to the elites of the society. But this cannot be a
prescription for all the time and all the places. Loss of Human lives and
properties cannot be allowed to be put to experimentation for ever.
I must confess that I dont claim to be a Flood control expert.So it is
a result of common sense approach in which no satellite pictures of American
and European rivers have been taken into account. And anyway the richest and
most efficient country equipped with all the resources and Advanced planning
is not coping up with 100% success with the natural disaster. So they cannot
be cited as examples for every place and every occasion.
In view of this and many other aspects I request you to think in terms of
Kosi without dams.
Dr.V.N.Sharma
An approach to Flood Mgt in Kosi/ Bihar
The two approaches have been discussed in brief in the following paragraphs.
*Run of the Mill approach*
This has been repeatedly happening for last 50-60 years in India. Govts in
Bihar and Centre and their Agencies will come out with a plan for another
dam/ barrage, make a lot of money through contractors and have an annual
programme of Aerial Surveys of Flood affected areas, organise relief camps
directly and through NGOs and earn lots of money through them and keep the
NGOs under control and in good humour. Very soon you will hear the proposals
from the Govt and their Engineers, contractors. Congress Party has mastered
this technique of Dam/ barrage building and "the Bandar baant" which is a
part of the programme since the beginning. All other parties have just
learnt and exceeded the Congress limits. Therefore, it is futile to talk
about the goodness or badness of this party or that. Organised local action
groups need to take care of the monitoring part during the
operationalisation and execution of the programme.
If anything more than this is desired like intervention in the planning
stage itself the initiative will have to be taken in the same way as Medha
Patkar or Dr. B.D. Sharma do and get disliked by the vested interest groups
incl. the Govts. Nothing less.
*Fresh Down To Earth Approach*
Kosi does not bring only flood but it also brings highly fertile soil in the
area year after year. According to an informal estimate the soil there is
capable of feeding 1/3 rd of the World population. Somebody should
examine/study this fact.
The new approach should be based on "No Dam/ No Barrage" (or only few of
them if at all required) and an assumption that Floods will be coming every
year on time. The Research on Materials development like Boat for every
house and Jacket for floating humans & New Building Materials and the
networks of fly over with sufficient strength and stability for Rail-Road
and wireless communications which remain intact even during the severe
flood need to be initiated in IITs and the Cement, Steel, Electronic and
Power industries etc.
One point, never to be forgotten, is that we are culturally different from
the developed countries in our culture and attitude towards Maintenance &
Repair and Public Property. The second point is that I have imagined that
corruption will be there in equal measure because it will be the same people
handling the ffairs either way but loss of life and Hanging sword on the
people's Head may be less.
The above suggestions do not provide details but they are examples of some
aspects. The invitees can be any retired Engineer of the Central and State
Govts. and Central Water Commission for the Dam/ Barrage category.
For the second category you can invite Prof. Jayant Bandopadhyaya of IIM
Kolkatta (He has studied Rivers in Nepal and Kosi belt, Prof G.D. Agrawal
(formerly of IITK and CPCB, Sri Dinesh Mishra, Medha Patkar, Dr. B.D. Sharma
and the Water Man Sri Rajendra Singh. More people can be included in future
provided we fix the provisional Agenda.
I also suggest that the Workshop/ Consultation should be exclusive and not
mixed with other activities/ meeting etc. I expect the members to give very
definite opinion on the issues involved and suggest names and e-mail ids of
such experts who can be invited.
With thanx
*Run of the Mill approach*
This has been repeatedly happening for last 50-60 years in India. Govts in
Bihar and Centre and their Agencies will come out with a plan for another
dam/ barrage, make a lot of money through contractors and have an annual
programme of Aerial Surveys of Flood affected areas, organise relief camps
directly and through NGOs and earn lots of money through them and keep the
NGOs under control and in good humour. Very soon you will hear the proposals
from the Govt and their Engineers, contractors. Congress Party has mastered
this technique of Dam/ barrage building and "the Bandar baant" which is a
part of the programme since the beginning. All other parties have just
learnt and exceeded the Congress limits. Therefore, it is futile to talk
about the goodness or badness of this party or that. Organised local action
groups need to take care of the monitoring part during the
operationalisation and execution of the programme.
If anything more than this is desired like intervention in the planning
stage itself the initiative will have to be taken in the same way as Medha
Patkar or Dr. B.D. Sharma do and get disliked by the vested interest groups
incl. the Govts. Nothing less.
*Fresh Down To Earth Approach*
Kosi does not bring only flood but it also brings highly fertile soil in the
area year after year. According to an informal estimate the soil there is
capable of feeding 1/3 rd of the World population. Somebody should
examine/study this fact.
The new approach should be based on "No Dam/ No Barrage" (or only few of
them if at all required) and an assumption that Floods will be coming every
year on time. The Research on Materials development like Boat for every
house and Jacket for floating humans & New Building Materials and the
networks of fly over with sufficient strength and stability for Rail-Road
and wireless communications which remain intact even during the severe
flood need to be initiated in IITs and the Cement, Steel, Electronic and
Power industries etc.
One point, never to be forgotten, is that we are culturally different from
the developed countries in our culture and attitude towards Maintenance &
Repair and Public Property. The second point is that I have imagined that
corruption will be there in equal measure because it will be the same people
handling the ffairs either way but loss of life and Hanging sword on the
people's Head may be less.
The above suggestions do not provide details but they are examples of some
aspects. The invitees can be any retired Engineer of the Central and State
Govts. and Central Water Commission for the Dam/ Barrage category.
For the second category you can invite Prof. Jayant Bandopadhyaya of IIM
Kolkatta (He has studied Rivers in Nepal and Kosi belt, Prof G.D. Agrawal
(formerly of IITK and CPCB, Sri Dinesh Mishra, Medha Patkar, Dr. B.D. Sharma
and the Water Man Sri Rajendra Singh. More people can be included in future
provided we fix the provisional Agenda.
I also suggest that the Workshop/ Consultation should be exclusive and not
mixed with other activities/ meeting etc. I expect the members to give very
definite opinion on the issues involved and suggest names and e-mail ids of
such experts who can be invited.
With thanx
सदस्यता लें
संदेश (Atom)
मेरे बारे में
- परिवर्त्तन
- मैं परिवर्त्तन हूँ। जीवन के हर पहलु चाहे वह समाज व्यवस्था हो, अर्थ व्यवस्था हो, शिक्षण हो या ज्ञान विज्ञानं, राजनीति हो, खाद्य सुरक्षा हो या फिर आजीविका सम्बन्धित प्रश्न हो या पर्यावरण या जल प्रबंधन मैं गतिशील रहना चाहता हूँ. लेकिन मुझे परिवर्त्तन वही पसंद है जो क्रांतिकारी और प्रगतिशील हो, आम आदमी के भले के लिए हो और उसके पक्ष में हो, जो कमजोर वर्ग की भलाई के लिए हो जैसे बच्चे, महिलाएं, किसान, मजदूर, आदिवासी इत्यादि। मैं उनलोगों का साथ देता हूँ जो आगे देखू है। पीछे देखू और बगल देखुओं से सख्त नफरत है मुझे। क्या अब आप मेरे साथ चलना चाहेंगे? तो आइये हम आप मिलकर एक तूफ़ान की शक्ल में आगे बढ़ें और गरीबी, अज्ञान के अंधकार और हर प्रकार के अन्याय एवं भ्रष्टाचार जैसे कोढ़ पर पुरजोर हमला करते हुए उसे जड़ से उखाड़ फेंके।