Political and Social Issues

Community based organisations will solve many problems

The Government’s claim about agricultural production achieving a record of 241 million tonnes raises a pertinent question as to how far this can translate into alleviating poverty and reducing hunger index in the country
While data on farmers’ suicides is available in the country, there is harldy any projection on starvation deaths occurring in many tribal and rural areas.
Government want to provide subsidised grains to the general (above poverty line) category, who are already benefited mostly by the price index based dearness allowances twice every year to meet food inflation
Food security should be made more holistic than just providing only cereal based food — an incomplete food basket to the poor who need health and nutrition security more than the families above the poverty line.
Whatever steps the Government has taken so far are not enough and only lacklustre
New initiatives with innovative ideas alone can solve the problem to some extent backed by strong political will to make our country hunger free; otherwise the number of hungry people will mount further
Is it not a national shame that India is being placed alongside countries like Ethiopia and Rwanda on the hunger index. Where has all the money sanctioned for rural development and poverty alleviation disappeared?
Obviously the Government could not implement some of the important recommendations of the National Commission on Farmers to combat the problem of farm suicides.
The problem still exists with the minimum support price for crops that does not satisfy the farmers who have to deal with high costs of cultivation.
The small farmers, who account for large scale suicides, are the worst affected. The concept of community based organisations (CBOs) for small farmers will be the best solution to minimize the risk of price fluctuations.
Technologies like zero tillage, good agriculture practices, multi crop system instead of depending on a single crop, product diversification, and value addition and crop insurance are some of the opportunities for the farmers to generate income and ensure sustainable livelihood.

Government notifies rules to implement nuclear liability law

Ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with United States President Barack Obama, India on Wednesday notified the implementation rules for the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act.
The rules give the nuclear plant operator the right to recourse for the period for which the supplier of equipment has taken liability for patent or latent defects or sub-standard services under a contract.
A “supplier” includes a person who manufactures and supplies either directly or through an agent a system, equipment or component or builds a structure on the basis of functional specification.
The U.S. has made it clear that India's civil nuclear liability law will have to be brought in conformity with international conventions and the current regime imposed a heavy burden on the operators of plants in India.
The notification of rules the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, passed by Parliament in August last year, comes into force.
The rules ask the operator to take out an insurance policy or financial security or a combination of both in accordance with the law.

American officials had opposed two provisions of the Indian Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act that stemmed from the legislature's refusal to indemnify foreign suppliers from accidents caused by faulty equipment.
Section 46, which allows ordinary citizens to file tort claims for damages, is seen by the U.S. nuclear industry as exposing its companies to unlimited liability in the event of an accident. The new rules do not affect this Section, thus leaving the primary American complaint unaddressed.
Washington's second objection is to Section 17(b), which grants Indian operators a right of recourse against nuclear suppliers if an accident results from the “supply of equipment or material with patent or latent defects or sub-standard services.”
The 2004 rules state in Section 9 that every licence runs for a period of five years and the 2011 rules define “product liability period” as the period for which a supplier accepts liability for an accident caused by defective equipment in a contract. By this fix, Indian officials will tell the U.S. that an American vendor can limit its exposure for an accident to five years and Rs. 1,500 crore.
However, since the Fukushima-Daiichi accident in Japan happened some three decades after the initial reactor supply, critics in India are likely to ask whether the five-year limit specified by the rules is prudent — or even legal, given that the Liability Act itself specifies no such term limits.
U.S. officials have been floating other solutions, such as getting the International Atomic Energy Agency to “vet” the Indian law to see if it is compliant with the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Safety, an international treaty that India has committed to sign.
South Block sources told The Hindu that India has flatly rejected this suggestion and is likely to say so publicly if the U.S. pushes it again.

Rs. 1-crore fine proposed for charging capitation fee

In a bid to prevent educational institutions from demanding capitation fee for admission, the government wants to double the proposed penalty to Rs. 1 crore.
Union Cabinet approved amendments to the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill, 2010
The object is to curtail the element of profiteering in some institutions, which are at present beyond the scope of any such regulation
It expressed the hope that the Bill would protect students from harassment and extortion.
Another feature that gives the Bill more teeth is a grievance redress mechanism to safeguard students from unfair practices.
To ensure better quality teaching, educational institutions have been explicitly prohibited from hiring unqualified teachers.
the amended Bill has a provision to include any new type of unfair practice that emerges even after the law has been passed

Planning for the billions

More than half of the seven-billion world population is huddled on three per cent of the earth's land area.
But as the recently published U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) report cautions, this should not be taken to mean that the world can mindlessly absorb any number of people for years to come.
What emerges from the population figures is that there is an urgent need to plan human settlements proactively, using the available land wisely and ensuring that the future population is provided with better places to live in.
In the next three decades, much of the population growth will occur in urban areas, and about five billion people will live in cities. Africa and Asia are set to double their urban population in the same period.
Smaller towns that have neither the resources nor the planning infrastructure are absorbing significant numbers of people. For instance, in India, of the 2,774 new urban centres that have emerged in the last decade, 2,532 are census towns or places without a statutory urban local body such as a municipality. This disconnect is an urgent reminder to policymakers that they must strengthen the capacities of smaller towns and enable them to handle the population surge better.
Large urban agglomerations pose a different problem. The number of people residing within the city core has come down because of expensive land prices, but the peripheries have expanded with low densities, consuming more land and forcing long commutes.
Mumbai city, for instance, had a negative population growth rate of 5.75 per cent in the last decade, but Thane, its suburb, which is about 40 km away, recorded 36 per cent growth.
Such a sprawl means a huge loss of agricultural land, and it pushes the perimeter of urban consumption far beyond its immediate region. If this pattern continues unchecked, the land required to support each person, currently estimated to be 2.7 hectares, will increase and result in an ‘ecological overshoot.'
Recycling urban properties to enhance population densities and planning a balanced regional development could be a way forward.
A vital issue of concern is planning for the poor. Studies have shown that a large part of future urban growth will comprise poor people (UNFPA 2007). If the world has to remain slum-free and equitable, providing for the land needs of marginalised people should be a top priority.

Delayed entitlements should be compensated with cash: NCPRI

The National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI) has sought a new provision in the government's draft Citizen's Right to Grievances Redress Bill, 2011, to compensate a complainant for entitlements wrongly denied or delayed.
The government's draft empowers the independent appellate authority to penalise for denial or delay in entitlements but does not provide for compensating a complainant.
The Department of Personnel and Training has drafted a Bill and posted it on its website for public comments
As of now the proposed Bill provides for violations of entitlements of a complainant, but not of the obligations of the public office.
NCPRI has sought an independent grievance redress appellate authority at the district level.
Also, rather than each public authority having its own Information and Facilitation Centre, it wants a single-window centre at the Block level.
The government's website describes the Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill, 2011 as a “comprehensive rights based bill providing statutory backing for getting timely services and goods specified in citizens charters of public authorities from Gram Panchayat, Block, District, State up to Central Level.”

Comprehensive regulatory framework essential for media: Ansari

Vice-President Hamid Ansari has come out in favour of a media regulation framework, agreeing with Press Council Chairman Justice Markandey Katju that self-regulation has failed.
He was speaking on the occasion of National Press Day
The broadcast media, on the other hand, has been insisting that its efforts at self-regulation are sufficient, and any further governmental oversight will amount to an attack on the freedom of press.
Justice Katju also dismissed the idea of self-regulation alone. “There has to be some outside regulatory mechanism. You can't say there will be self-regulation, that means nothing,” he said, pointing out that every other profession — medicine, law, education — faced independent regulation. Even politicians would ask why they needed a Lokpal if self-regulation was sufficient
Participating in a panel discussion at the event, several senior journalists also agreed that the time had come for a media regulator.