आप सभी इस नये चिट्ठे को पढ़ेंगे ऐसी अपेक्षा है। यूं हिन्दी में तिरछी नजरिया पर सब कुछ उपलब्ध रहेगा। 

-हितेन्द्र.

Read: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3378687.cms

Hope Ms Roy Reads this:

Indian Needs Azadi From Arundhati Roy As Much As Arundhati Roy Needs From India

“In just two years 227 Pune conservancy staff died cleaning city’s filth.” This was a shocking story in the Indian Express of Pune on October 12^th. A conservancy staffer’s duty is to clean the city’s garbage, toilets and sewage they also dispose unclaimed dead bodies.  The story, says that 40 have died in the first six month of 2007-08 itself; 107 died in the previous year and 80 in 2005-06. Majority of cases have been registered as merely “sickness” in the Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) records. The most shocking part is the average age of those who lost their lives, 45. Of the 107 who died in 2006-07, 70 were under the age of 50 and of those, 32 were under 40. The deaths have also been attributed to cancer, tuberculosis jaundice and heart diseases. The deaths include both men and women. PMC employs over 6000 such staff but the number of deaths can not be just ignored seeing the early age deaths and the reasons.

 Working Conditions:  

‘Kachra Kondi’ (Garbage Jam) is a 55 minute documentary made by Pune based theatre director Atul Pethe. The film is produced by PMC worker’s union. The movies shoes that although the PMC officials claim that workers are provided with gumboots, gloves and rain suits etc, workers hardly get any of these. This is also common to see a conservancy staff working bare handed inside a gutter. There are also workers who are hired by contractors. No records are available for them but one can imagine what they must be getting from their employers. While cleaning humane waste, working inside gutters, the workers are exposed to methane gas, and harmful viruses.

  Life Insurance: 

The family members of those PMC workers who died are no struggling for compensation. It shatters the family when a key bread earner dies at the age of 30 to 45.

The Life Insurance Corporation of India, which was earlier offering a group insurance of Rs, 30000 to the class IV employees recently closed the scheme saying that this was nit viable to them due to the increased number of deaths. Now the only compensation possible to the family members of dead workers is a meager amount Rs. 15,000 under the “Kamgar Kalyan Yojna”. Now the PMC is talking to SBI to provide an insurance coverage of Rs. 50,000 to its workers. So, not even a satisfactory compensation package is available.

 The Employee Care Factor: 

The government jobs in India are most sought after ones on the society for it provides job security and retirement benefits. Also, there is not much accountability fixed with many of the jobs, neither there are targets unlike the private sector. Often these reasons are cited to explain the in efficient and slow functioning of government departments. But does the government departments and civic bodies like PMC, really care for the lives of their people? Not only in the conservancy staff, proper uniform, which is according to one’s working conditions, is hardly seen in any of the government departments. Tools and equipments are ignored upon. Medical checkups are not regular or are there only in papers.

There is another issue of the civic body employees. In case of sub-governmental agencies like municipalities and panchayati raj institutions, employee benefits do not match with that in the government. In states like Chhattisgarh, Shiksha-karmis (teachers employed by local governing bodies) have long been demanding equal treatment for equal responsibilities. It is funny on part of the governments to shrug such issues by disowning these teachers, saying that they are not employed by the government.  So, for these employees, there is no fifth or sixth pay commission.

Awareness is another front. Not only in case of conservancy staff but even in small scale industries one hardly sees safety precautions being taken or proper tools and safety equipment used.

 The Un-Organized Sector: 

There are around 5000 people working as conservancy staff in Pune who are employed by small private contractors. These workers do not have a union of themselves. As the jobs for these contractors are not stable, workers can not fight for their rights, or one does not know whether they are aware of their rights! While the unions for PMC employees fight for the rights of their members, who will carry the voices of the contract conservancy workers.

  The Role of the Society: 

The urban society is also responsible for these kinds of problems. If citizens keep their surroundings clean and do not let others loiter around, this will be a good contribution, unfortunately we as citizens forget that we have other duties after paying taxes. No one cares about the people who clean the places we live in.

 About Other Cities: 

Pune is not alone; the situation of conservancy staff in other cities can not be different. And hence this is time when there is a national attention to this problem. There are reports that the central government has taken note of the news in Pune and is planning some action over it.

 What can be done? Modernization of Sewage Systems:

Indian cities still depend on age old drainage systems. Some cities even do not even have a citywide underground sewage system, Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh is one example. The drainage system should be modern and should meet international standards.

 Safety and Social Security for Workers: 

Workers should be provided with modern safety tools and equipment without a compromise on cost. There shall be government intervention if public sector insurance agencies are denying a security cover to the conservancy workers. Regular health checkups and free medical facilities should be provided.

राष्ट्रपति पद के रा.ज.ग. समर्थित निर्दलीय उम्मीदवार श्री भैरों सिंह शेखावत ने कल संपत्ति की घोषणा कर दी है। देखें यहाँ। और यहाँ। तो अब संप्रग उम्मीदवार होने के नाते आपसे भारतवासियों की अपेक्षा है कि आप भी अपनी संपत्ति की घोषणा करें ताकि हमें मालूम हो कि हमारी संभावित राष्ट्रपति महोदया की कुल संपत्ति कितनी है। ऐसा इसलिये भी ज़रूरी है क्योंकि हमें आपके बारे में बहुत कुछ सुनने को मिल रहा है। पढ़ें  यहाँ।  और यहाँ

चूँकि चुनाव में अब अधिक दिन शेष नहीं हैं, अतः अच्छा होगा यदि आप शीघ्र ही यह घोषणा करें। हम यह जानते हैं कि विधिवत आप ऐसा करने को बाध्य नहीं हैं। किंतु आपसे इतना निवेदन तो देशवासी कर ही सकते हैं!

धन्यवाद।

http://www.knowpratibhapatil.com/

Most of the readers would agree that Mr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was the first choice of the common people of India. Or at least, Mrs. Pratibha Patil and Mr. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat were not. There is little doubt that our political leaders were aware of this fact. Still, they preferred to carry on with their own politically correct choices. So can the politicians afford to neglect the will of the people? Well, if it is presidential election, then yes. But even if the party bosses do not select popular candidates, why can’t the members of parliament our legislative assemblies support a people’s choice as president? After all, there are no whips in the presidential elections so a party MP or MLA is free to vote on the call of their conscience. May be we would see that happening if Mr. Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is really lucky to have some cross voting. But that will be more due to the political networking than due to the MPs and MLAs falling to people’s choice.

The question is, when in presidential elections, MPs and MLAs are free to vote as per their choice, why don’t they do it? Why don’t they question and challenge their party boss’s decisions?

We have hardly seen inner party democracy in all the leading political parties in India. Unlike the mature democracies, like US, where Member of Parliament is free to agree or disagree on policy decisions of his on party, we hardly see that happening in India. Even inside party headquarters where the party presidents are surrounded by sycophants, not many challenge a party decision. This is especially true because political parties are increasingly taking shape of private limited companies in India; most of them even have family ownerships. In such a scenario, one can not hope that our representatives whom we elect and send to the capitals will actually take our cause there. So be it a candidate against whom the list of charges of corruption, favoritism and superstition do not seem to end, the MPs will blindly follow what the party asks them to. In the process, they even forget that there is no legal binding and the polling is confidential. The anti-defection-law helps the party heads to force their will on the elected member. This law and the lack of intra-party democracy have allowed the political parties to neglect the will of the people.

So had we enjoyed a better level of transparency in the functioning of political parties (a corporate governance equivalent in politics), we would have found these presidential elections even more interesting. And we would have seen that the highest office of the country is not occupied by someone who is tainted or a third or fourth choice handpicked by her or his political messiahs.

P.S: This would be a very interesting subject to discuss that whether in any case we need a post of president or a governor!

 Let me not make any introductory paragraph with beautiful lines. All in Chhattisgarh are thinking who next? I would first say a big NO to Dr. Raman Singh. He has simply failed in proving himself to be a visionary and a candidate worth considering for a second term. We have seen only two Chief Ministers in Chhattisgarh and the later has failed in fulfilling all hopes at all fronts, simply because he fails to have the first prerequisite to become a CM, the vision. I will, hence not analyze his 2.5 years tenure but simply discuss what was done by his predecessor in his tenure of 3 years. The point I want to make is, ours is a new state with great expectations and huge potential, and it thus requires to be ruled by someone with a great vision, excellent executioner’s skills, and an ability to think rationally and innovatively. To put it simply, we want a CEO for our state and not a politician. Unfortunately we did not get one yet. And we haven’t found one yet. In this post, I will discuss why I would like the developmental policies of Mr. Ajit Jogi to be continued by the next chief minister, and why I would not like Mr. Jogi to become the chief minister of the state for the second term.

Ajit Jogi the CEO: 

Following reasons make me to conclude that he is an excellent visionary and a good manager:

1. His decision to establish CSEB (State electricity Board) soon after the state formation. This was a decision which made Chhattisgarh a power surplus state. And he took this decision at the discomfort of his counterpart in Madhya Pradesh without whose support he would not have become the first CM of the state. It is he who envisioned Chhattisgarh as the power hub of the country.
2. His decision to close operations of State Road Transport Corporation and many other public sector companies. It was a courageous decision. While several states in India suffer from this burden called SRTC; they do not have that courage.
3. Merger of RDA (Raipur Development Authority) with RMC (The Municipal Corporation of
   Raipur). His decision to shut down the Housing Board. Abolishing Commissioner System (Three Divisions Raipur, Bilaspur and Jagdalpur ceased to exist, there was only one Revenue division in Bilaspur, this decision was repelled by the new government). These examples are sufficient to infer that he had started something like a Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) in the state.
4. Introduction of a three years medical degree course. I guess he thought of this course because he wanted doctors in villages. It takes 7-10 years for an MCI certified course to produce a medical graduate. Though the arrogant MCI did not approve of the course, enough to conclude that he had innovative ideas and the guts to implement them.
5. Opening of private universities. We know what happened later. Though there were some policy flaws on the part of conditions or entry barriers to ensure that only quality institutes would open, this had the potential not only to revolutionize the education system in
   India but also to make Chhattisgarh the hub of higher education in the country.
6. Fast progress on infrastructure (Roads, Dams, Bridges etc.).
7. Conversion of many government schools in to CBSE pattern.
8. Abolishment of PET and PMT examinations. It was a good decision. Not all parents can send there children to
   Kota or even Bhilai and pay high fees of coaching institutes. Also, this would have saved students from the pressure of two examinations.
9. The Industrial policy which resulted in Chhattisgarh becoming Sponge-Iron manufacturing hub in the country. There were some other MOU’s in steel and power. (Though we did not get something like POSCO or Mittal’s investment as in the case of Orisa and Jharkhand)
10. Crack down of notorious anti social elements
11. His efforts to change the crop cycle of the state.

Ajit Jogi the politician:

It is not bad to be a politician; we have seen the likes of Prime Minister Nehru who were a CEO as well as a politician. But today’s politics is different and in that politics Mr. Jogi is no different:

1. His less democratic values:

(a)    “हमारी काँग्रेस पार्टी के विधायक, श्री बलिराम कश्यप के नेतृत्व में बनने वाली सरकार का समर्थन करते हैं” (The Legislators of our Congress Party Support the government to be established under the leadership of Mr. Baliram Kashyap). This was his letter to the governor of the state, just after the election results were out. That was simply an act to destabilize the state government which was yet to be established. This raises questions about his respect to democratic traditions. Although he regrets writing a letter without being elected as the leader of the new CLP (Congress Legislator’s Party), if I am not incorrect, he still thinks what he did was right as he supported the efforts to establish a government with a leadership of an Adivasi. Even if the tapes produced by the BJP of his talks with Mr. Virendra Pandey, an aid of Mr. Baliram Kashyap, are not real, he at least tried to do away with the verdict of people who replaced him and elected BJP as the party with a majority in the state assembly.

(b)   His successful effort to break 12 BJP MLA’s and induct them into congress. The Tarun Chatterjee Episode. When the Congress party had full majority in the state assembly, what was the need?

(c)    The infamous April 2001 lathi charge on BJP leaders protesting against the government in
Raipur. Many opposition leaders including the leader of opposition Mr. Nand Kuamr Sai were injured seriously.

    2.   His cast based politics:

Again refereeing to the previous point, he supports the idea that there should be a tribal as the chief minister of this state as majority of the people in the state are tribesman. I do not believe that problems of a community can be solved only when someone from a particular cast will become a chief minister. If he supports this, he is not my candidate for the post of the chief minister of the state. There are few more instances, an effort under the leadership of ex DGP Mr. RLS Yadav to convene a big congregation of backward casts (probably to do a
Bihar in Chhattisgarh), and the ‘cast based’ dinner parties at ‘Karuna’ his official residence. It was probably unique of its kind that a chief minister invites people to dinner on the basis of which cast they belong to. If these dinner parties were funded from the exchequer’, then no words to condemn it.

I welcome comments

Hitendra