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Maoist violence may be spinning out of control
A surge in Maoist violence that killed nearly 750 people, including 520 civilians, in India last year threatens to explode with the brazen killing of Sunil Mahto, MP, during Holi festivities, demonstrating again that the ultra-left radicals have the ability and resources to attack at will.
This has been this year's first high-profile attack by Naxalites, or Indian Maoists. The security establishment insists the Maoist movement has consolidated itself and the Maoists hold sway over wide underdeveloped areas across the centre, east and south of the country, forming a strategic geographical corridor.
To substantiate their point, intelligence officials cite the instance of the killing of a Congress leader in Andhra Pradesh Monday by Maoists as he inspected a road construction project in Mahabubnagar district.
'It seemed like a coordinated attack,' one senior official told IANS. Prakash, a member of the Mandal Praja Parishad (MPP), was shot in Marikal, about 150 km south of Hyderabad.
'It is obvious that there is coordination, especially after the merger of People's War Group (PWG) and Maoist Communist Centre some years back' to set up the Communist Party of India-Maoist, the official added.
Also the fact that the ninth congress of the CPI-Maoist met in an undisclosed forest area in Jharkhand less than a month ago would have helped the Maoists to close ranks and firm up their line of attack, the sources said.
At the end of January, there were 121 Maoist attacks across India with 27 civilians and 10 security personnel killed. And, like the previous year, both Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand bore the brunt of violence. Last year the two states alone accounted for a whopping 1,025 of the 1,509 attacks that left 512 civilians and security personnel killed.
That Jharkhand has been a perfect breeding ground for Left extremism is evidenced by the fact that almost 16 of the state's 22 districts have been hit by Maoist violence. These include landmine attacks, one of which killed 13 police personnel three months ago, the assault on a Central Reserve Police Force camp and the raid on a prison.
Although an Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister Shivraj Patil promises to evolve strategies to deal with what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh describes as the country's 'biggest internal security challenge', the rebellion continues to engulf huge swathes of the country's centre, east and south.
Just this year, the government deployed 33 paramilitary battalions on anti-Naxalite duty and sanctioned a further 29 India Reserve (IR) battalions, besides setting aside Rs.3.71 billion under the police modernization scheme for weaponry, telecommunication equipment and other infrastructure.
Acknowledging that poverty in Maoist strongholds was still a serious problem, the government also sanctioned Rs.24.75 billion under the Backward Districts Initiative (BDI) to fill in critical gaps in physical and social development in affected states.
However, officials in the tribal affairs ministry admit that distribution of development funds still remains a challenge because the delivery system is corruption prone with earmarked monies not reaching the intended beneficiaries. Similarly, Maoist-affected states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar have some of the country's lowest ratios of police to population.
Despite the money allocated for police modernisation and expansion, many states have simply been unable to fill up vacancies in police stations despite five rounds of meeting of chief secretaries and directors general of police last year.
Counter-insurgency officials say that unless the government - including concerned state governments - redoubles its energies to contain the Maoist extremism, which currently affects 172 of the country's 602 districts, the crisis can only escalate.
http://www.indiaenews.com/india/20070311/42440.htm
Teenagers light up remote village
- Renewable energy revolution
Gardih (Bokaro): Two teenagers, both first-year BA students at Tenughat College and Jharkhand College, Dumri, respectively, have done the impossible. Basudev and Narayan Ganjhu have lit up their remote hamlet with electricity.
The experiment to generate electricity with oilseeds (Karanj ka tel, as it is called here) was hugely successful, with some help from Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA). Barely 2 litres of the oil light up 100 homes as well as 20 bulbs put on lamp-posts outside for three hours every evening, between 6 and 9 pm.
"We were tired of the dark ages," confesses Basudev. By the time he returned from college, there would be household work to do. And with sunset, the village would go to sleep. Basudev and Narayan moved from one government office to another till they were able to contact JREDA and persuaded the officials to launch the experiment in their village.
Inhabited by Ganjhus, the village is said to be a hotbed of extremists. This reporter was advised by the police to hurry and return early from the village since it was already noon. The underground Maoists draw heavily from the Ganjhus, who are poor but hard-working nevertheless. It was not easy, therefore, for the teenagers to get officials to take them seriously. But they speak reverentially of one "Shivanand Babu" from JREDA, who went out of his way to help.
The experiment has caused even the mandarins in New Delhi to sit up and take notice. Karanj is a wild and largely neglected tree that grows unplanned but in abundance in several forested areas, including Jharkhand. The ease with which the oil has substituted diesel or petrol at Gardih, has opened up possibilities of electrifying villages at the fraction of the cost required to extend transmission lines across remote and far-flung areas.
The generator at Gardih has a capacity to produce 5KVA. Twenty lampposts have been erected across the village in such a way that wires could be extended to each of the 100-odd huts and small houses. The generator has been placed in the house of S. Ganjhu, primarily because it enjoys a central position.
A toothless Jibu Ganjhu (70) had never imagined that he would find electricity in the village during his lifetime. With child-like enthusiasm, he exclaims "Genrattor kerosene, petrol se na chalai, Karanj tel se chala hai ," (The generator does not run on petrol or kerosene but on Karanj oil). He remembers the date, October 21 last year, when the entire village dressed up to greet light in their lives.
Although the area has hundreds of trees bearing Karanj seeds, the two young men realise that they are not enough. Karanj trees will have to be grown in thousands to feed the demand, and planted systematically. On Sunday the oil stock was enough to last them for the next 10 days. But the youths are not ready to return to the Dark Age and have decided to buy the oil to keep up the supply. Each household has been asked to shell out Rs 20 every month, so that they can light up the village, even if for three hours.
"We do not want government jobs. We want to remain in the village and help out our elders," said Basudev and Narayan. Both of them dream of a chain of energy cooperatives that will transform the region.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070227/asp/jamshedpur/story_7446274.asp
Scrap the food trap
Honourable Finance Minister,
Sir,
You have allocated Rs 7,324 crore on Mid-Day-Meal (MDM) scheme in this budget. But allocated only Rs 611 crore on the Post Matric Scholarship - India's most successful and transparent public policy program for Dalits/Adivasis.
While defending MDM, Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) offers the following rational:
"The programme is intended to give a boost to universalisation of primary education, by increasing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously impacting on nutrition of students in primary classes."
In your opinion, thus, food will attract children of the poor to schools. Consider the following:
In the year 1989-99, there were 2.22 crore Dalits and 1.09 crore Adivasi children in the school going age group of 6-11 years.
Of them, 1.95 crore Dalits, and 93 lakh Adivasi children were already in schools. (Selected Educational Statistics, 1998-99, New Delhi, 2000). These figures relate to pre-MDM scheme days.
Finance Minister, how do you explain the near universal enrolment of Dalit/Adivasi children at primary level when MDM scheme wasn't in existence?
The figures only prove that: first, that Dalit/Adivasi parents value education, second that, they are serious about future of their children, and third that, they send their children to school for education, and not for food.
Retention in schools is cited one of the reasons for MDM. Consider the following:
In 1989-99, 98.81 lakh Dalits and 49 lakh Adivasi children were in school going age group of 11-14 years (VI-VIII)
Of them, 61.35 lakh, Dalits and 25.56 lakh Adivasi children were enrolled in middle schools (VI-VIII).
This figure, Finance Minister, exposes your retention in school logic - as the dropout rate is more in the middle level whereas your MDM is meant for primary schools.
The Ministry of HRD in its mission statement is 'encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities' through food incentives. Seems a bit strange.
Coming to the nutrition, have you bothered to check what kind of food is being served in these schools. Even in the Capital, children have been known to fall sick after eating the food - think of remote areas.
Coming back to enhancing enrolment and retention questions, your own report - Selected Educational Statistics, contradicts you. As per the report, the drop-out rate at primary level (I-V) is at 42.39 per cent, but it goes up to 56.82 per cent at the middle school level (VI-VIII).
Finance Minister, have you ever thought as why the drop-out rate is higher at middle level? Here are some reasons:
In the villages, poor don't get work for more than six months in a calendar year. Harvesting and sowing are peak seasons when all members of the family must work to sustain them for the other six months
Children in the age group of 6-11 years are unemployable, but once they are 11-years-old they become employable.
In the villages sowing and harvesting seasons clash with academic calendar - paddy is planted in July when schools open. Paddy harvesting and wheat sowing take place in November-December when the half-yearly exams take place. Wheat is harvested/maize are harvested in March/April when final exams take place. This interferes with their education.
It for this very reason that we want to compensate the parents by Rs three per child per day and rest assured the children won't miss a day's school. The cost of this would be less than Rs 5,000 crore a year.
But instead you will spend Rs 7,324 crore on MDM which nobody asked for. Finance Minister, do you know that MDM scheme has paralysed teaching primary schools, and radically altered tastes of the children. Before the MDM scheme, children used to go to school for education.
Now, they go to schools for food.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=prasad%2Fprasad199.txt&writer=prasad
A Dalit middle class by 2050?
Middle class" is a relative term, something like "elite" or "underclass." There is hardly any evidence of the existence of a Dalit elite, though there may be many Dalit families with all the trappings of exclusivity. The term "elite" does not denote to mere affluence. It is a politico-cultural expression, where affluence is a prerequisite qualification. In any society, the elite is placed in a position of influence and wield power in the State. Thus, by definition, there cannot be a Dalit middle class simply because there is no Dalit elite.
But, in layman terms, the class of people, urbanised, with access to organised housing facilities, decent income and education is entitled to be described as a middle class. This class of people tend to think alike, with some common bondage, fraternity. By this yardstick, there is a visible section from within the community, which can be described as the "Dalit middle class," thanks to the policy of affirmative actions in government jobs and the Legislatures.
According to the Report of the National Commission for SC/STs (1997-98), the Central, Public Sector Enterprises (PSE) and Public Sector Banks (PSB), had 1.24 million SCs and STs in Groups A, B and C categories (excluding Group D and sweepers). In addition there could be another 2.5 million SC/STs in similar employ of the governments in the states. Yet another million could be working in the private sector, either as employees or entrepreneurs. Thus, about 4.5 million SC/STs can said to be leading reasonably decent lives with assured incomes, insurance policies against their names and access to post-retirement benefits. It is this section of Dalits, which makes up about 5.75 per cent of the total Dalit Main Work Force, which qualify for the label "Dalit middle class." What will be the figure like by 2050?
Would the size of this so-called middle class swell to 40 million? I wish it does. But, the figures available with us at present point to very terrible days ahead. For instance, take the case of Dalit officers in the Group A category. According to the Commission's report, there were 67,000 Dalit officers (central government , PSEs, PSBs). Within this category, 58,550 or 87.29 per cent, belonged to PSEs/PSBs. Thus, if by 2050, all PSEs/PSBs got privatised, 90 per cent of the Group A Dalits will have withered away into thin air!
Incidentally, it is this group of Dalits which had the bright potential to evolve into the Dalit elite, had it got the opportunity to access Group A government jobs for a few more generations. The community which cannot produce an elite of its own should in no way hope for any decisive emancipatory battles. Further, of the total government jobs (central government, PSEs, PSBs), 47.62 per cent belong to the PSEs and PSBs. Due to privatisation, nearly half of Dalits earlier counted as constituting its middle class, stand the risk of vanishing by 2050. Their job prospects in core government departments (both central and states), too are shrinking. By 1990, the UPSC had some 800 civil service vacancies. Today, UPSC advertises for only 350 posts, a fall by more than 50 per cent. Recruitment in the Group C category is declining on similar scale. As for the states, the situation is as woeful.
The Post & Telegraph Department, one of the largest employers of Dalits, is losing out to the private sector. The proliferation of private security agencies has led to the stagnation of recruitment in the Police, a department which drew heavily for personnel from the Dalit community. If the Dalits don't find an answer to privatisation, the existing number of about 3.5 million Dalits in service may come down to the 1960 level of 1 million by 2050. This means that in the coming 50 years, there will be hardly any Dalit middle class worth the mention. The crisis would intensify, as by 2050, there will be more qualified Dalits in the job market than today but fewer government openings to greet them.
Yet, it is surprising that the Dalits themselves are least bothered by the grim road ahead. Their obsession with "isms" make them fear the market economy. Paradoxically, they have left everything to the will of the market. The market economy is best suited for ending hunger as the growth of an economy has its own logic. The poorest of the Dalits, who neither benefited from education or employment, are not at the same scale of poverty today as they were in 1950. But, the market economy would not lead to automatic promotion of Dalits as dignified partners in the economy. It did not do so in the case of the Blacks in the United States and nor will it transform the condition of the Dalits in India. The "ism" Dalits must understand one thing: Whatever money they have saved, will not last more than two generations. If they just look around, they would see so many descendants of the zamindars of Uttar Pradesh working today as rickshaw pullers and scions of Nawab families selling peanuts on the streets of Lucknow. Unless they wake up to the new reality, the Dalits' forward march, which began in 1950 would, by 2050, be a backward march to square one.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=PRASAD55%2Etxt&writer=PRASAD&validit=yes
No details of Rly projects. Because Lalu said 'what ADRI?
PATNA: Two hundred pages of Status Report on Economic Survey of Bihar 2006-2007! And only one paragraph on the ongoing railway projects in the state! Any guesses why? The Indian Railways simply refused to furnish information to the state government for the economic survey report.
The first ever economic survey report of Bihar, tabled in the state legislature recently, has elaborate details about other Central government projects, though. A private voluntary organisation, Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) had been commissioned by the state government to conduct the survey.
"ADRI what? How can it ask for official documents from us?" asked railway minister Lalu Prasad explaining his ministry's refusal to furnish data for the survey. He said the request should have come from the state government.
Lalu, a former CM, wondered how the government could rely on a private organisation like ADRI for such crucial assignments as economic survey and preparation of the list of below poverty line (BPL) families.
State's deputy CM and finance minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who tabled the survey report in the Legislative Assembly, said because of the non-cooperation of Lalu's ministry, the surveyor had to use the ads issued by the Indian Railways for gathering information on the railway projects in Bihar.
The deputy CM, however, admitted the survey was flawed. "I myself pointed out several mistakes in the survey," he said. Defending ADRI, he added there was no one in the state finance department who could have conducted the survey.
But there's more than ADRI in the story. If sources are to be believed, Lalu's refusal to part with data for a state government project was in fact an example of the tit-for-tat politics currently being practised by the ruling NDA and opposition RJD.
Observers pointed to the recent controversy over a meeting of Bihar officials called by Lalu to discuss development work in the state.
State NDA leaders chorused to term Lalu's initiative as an attack on the federal structure of India. Lalu hit back, asserting he had the authority to call the state officials for discussing development projects in his capacity as a member of the Planning Commission.
Several other issues in the past saw Lalu's RJD and the NDA being at loggerheads. The state government's opposition to the Centre's move to provide NSG cover to Lalu's wife and former CM Rabri Devi, the state government withdrawing her official driver, Rabri crying foul over absence of toilet facility in her Assembly chamber..., to name a few.
"It's the politics of trivialities. Instead of joining hands for the development of the state, parties are doing politics over everything," said a state watcher
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/Cities/Patna/No_details_of_Rly_projects
_Because_Lalu_said_what_ADRI/articleshow/1746685.cms
Buddhadeb: we are committed to taking West Bengal forward
KOLKATA: "We are promise-bound to the people [of West Bengal] to take the State forward and not back into darkness; this is our commitment ... For those yet to be convinced [of the need for industrial development] the onus is on us to get them to understand," West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Sunday.
Mr. Bhattacharjee was addressing a mammoth rally organised by the West Bengal State Krishak Sabha, the peasants' organisation of the Communist Party of India [Marxist]. The rally was aimed at assuring the congregation that the State's move to step up industrialisation would not undermine the interests either of farmers or the agricultural sector as a whole.
"We have taken up the challenge to consolidate the successes achieved in agriculture and at the same time speed up industrialisation," he said, adding that his Government would not capitulate to attempts by the Opposition to disrupt the "process of development" by engaging in violence.
"It is not a question of a fight between me or the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress but of providing employment to thousands through rapid industrialisation," he added.
Offer to Opposition
On the opposition to the Tata Motors' upcoming project at Singur, Mr. Bhattacharjee reiterated that "the door was still open to the Opposition for discussions."
"We are appealing to the Trinamool Congress not to take to violence thereby threatening to break down the wall [hemming in the project site] and trying to set fire to the fencing," he said.
"Economy will change"
The entire economy of the region was set to change with the coming up of the automobile project.
"Living standards will change, the calculations have been done, the local people stand to gain," the Chief Minister pointed out.
As for the proposed chemical hub at Nandigram, he said: "If the people there understand the need for industrialisation, it's all very good; if they don't, then we will not go to Nandigram but will set it up elsewhere," Mr Bhattacharjee said.
"Have we turned insane that we will forcibly take away land [for the project] there," he asked.
"What we had hoped for was to convert Nandigram into another major industrial hub, just the way Haldia, once a fishermen's village across the river, has," he remarked.
"But the situation of lawlessness being created there [at Nandigram] cannot be allowed to continue," Mr. Bhattacharjee asserted. Roads were being dug up and normality disrupted by "forces of mischief" fomenting unrest in the area.
"For those opposing the project, we ask them to give up the path they are pursuing," he said.
Success in agriculture
"We cannot sit back on the successes achieved in agriculture; there can be no overall development of the State then. There is need to reduce the pressure on land or else production will fall," he emphasised.
"Even as we have taken steps to increase further agricultural production, there has now been a turnaround in the industrial sector. But that is not enough, we need to move forward," he said, adding that new industries were coming up all across the State for the benefit of the upcoming generation.
Wherever land was being acquired for the purpose, it is the Government's responsibility to provide their owners "more than a fair price" and those earning a livelihood from it "job opportunities and facilities to increase their purchasing power," Mr. Bhattacharjee added.
http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/12/stories/2007031205821200.htm
Teaching tribals the tricks of trade
PARALAKHEMUNDI: In order to save the tribals from unscrupulous traders and enhance their marketing skills, Gajapati district administration has decided to take up awareness programmes for them.
Marketing has become a challenge for the tribals, who are easily conned by unscrupulous traders, said Gopabandhu Dash, programme officer of Orissa Tribal Empowerment and Livelihood Programme (OTELP) in Gajapati district.
This lacuna of tribals could be reduced through their extensive exposure to real life markets. Through vegetable seeds kits provided to Lanjia Saura tribals at Bantalda village of Gumma block under OTELP and National Horticulture Mission (NHP), the local tribals could produce 200 quintals of pumpkins from the same field that was producing 50 quintals.
But higher yield needed better marketing. Marketing and Research Training (MART) members trained the Lanjia Sauras in negotiating skills at market and were also taken on an exposure visit for direct interaction with traders at Paralakhemundi and Palasa.
These tribals were taught how to sell their produce at bargained price and increase their margin of profit by Re 1 per kg of pumpkin.
District Collector D.V. Swamy said extensive field visits, sensitisation workshop along with convergence of different developmental programmes under OTLEP have started to broaden the outlook of tribals living in remote areas. ''They are becoming more receptive to new ideas and experiments,'' he added.
Field schools for peer group of farmers is also being organised in tribal areas to keep them abreast of the latest trends in agriculture.
Extensive exposure in marketing skills is being given to tribals by taking them around real markets
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070311043315&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0
Large scale cheating in Orissa exam
Bhubaneswar: More than 200 students, including the daughter of a legislator, have been booked on the charges of malpractice during the ongoing annual matriculation examinations in Orissa.
While 85 students had been booked for cheating under Sambalpur zone, 40 had been booked under Bhubaneswar zone, 27 under Balasore, 21 under Cuttack and 20 under Berhampur zone by Saturday.
The authorities have also initiated action against teachers and Superintendents of different examination centres where the examinees had resorted to malpractice.
According to reports, the daughter of Sundargarh legislator Sushma Patel was caught red-handed while copying answers from a test paper on Saturday. The girl was appearing in the examination in a sick room due to illness.
Nearly four lakh students are appearing in the High School Certificate examination across Orissa. The examination that started on March 7 will continue till March 16.
Millennium Bismay, an eight-year-old boy from Balasore, is appearing in the examination despite his tender age following a High Court order in his favour. He is appearing in the examination at Cuttack
http://www.kalingatimes.com/orissa_news/news/20070311_Large_scale_cheating
_in_Orissa_exam.htm
Ramgiri forest, ultras new den
JEYPORE: Ramgiri forest spread over Koraput and Malkangiri districts would be the next hub of Chhattisgarh Naxals. The forest covers 4,000 sq km and two blocks, Kundura and Boipariguda in Koraput district, which are said to be favourable new destination for the cadres.
The geographical position of the forest has indeed proved advantageous for the ultras.
The most sensitive Dantewada and Bastar district forests of Chhattisgarh are linked to Ramgiri area.
The Kolab river, locally known as Pataliganga, is the sole dividing factor between the two regions.
However, a bridge near Kiang under Mathili block has reduced the distance and Naxals have reportedly started venturing from Tukpal and Pushpal, bordering Chhattisgarh.
The Chhattisgarh cadres have been eyeing Ramgiri since 2001 by winning hearts of local tribals through their frontal organisation, Adivasi Sangha.
Several efforts to enter the forest proved futile. However, for the last two years they have been reviving their activities and in the past two months cadres have been entering Ramgiri.
Meanwhile, police increased vigil in the region after some locals informed about the movement of Naxals in the 'haats' of Ramgiri forest areas.
A meeting was conducted in the wake of fresh Naxal movements by senior police and intelligence officials and police has been geared up to curb the ultras.
Koraput police are, however, tight-lipped over the arrival of Naxals in Ramgiri area.
They have started entering the forest through Tukpal and Pushpal, bordering Chhattisgarh
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20070311042858&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0
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