---------- Forwarded message ----------

From:
Date: Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 1:55 PM
Subject: re: Pressure tactics
To: bleditor@thehindu.co.in

hello hindu,
please refer to article by b.s.raghavan at http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/09/10/stories/2008091050050900.htm

kudos to the author on the brilliant article. the article correctly pinpoints the real issue in singur (and in most other places in india where industries are being pushed on the throats of tribals, rural people and vital ecosystems) wherein the multi thousand crore industries and politicians have seldom cared for the real issues on the ground.

the industry and the government should also note that if they had followed an open and honest policy of acquiring land, such impasse would not have occured. instead they went on the route of cajoling and forcing the land acquisition which has led to the current situation.

more sad is the remarks of infosys human resources head on his 'scary' situation remarks. firstly, infosys has nothing to do with the singur impasse and would have been served very well by keeping quite and secondly there is nothing 'scray' when a land owner asks for his basic rights.

when the situation at ground level is tense and when it calls for soft handling and plenty of give and take, ill advised comments will serve no purpose.

but what else can we expect from the industries that want cheap land no matter what human and environmental costs it involves.

as india's politicians seldom care on the crucial angle of global warming, there is a new study that shows that india is increasingly moving up in the carbon chain.

india's coastal areas, its agriculture, its water sources, etc all will be under huge threat if global warming is not attacked head on. burying the head in sand and telling there are no issues means we are setting a huge death trap for future generations due to climate change.

well, when india policy on basic development itself has been shredded in the maniac process of mad rush to develop, where is the time, energy and focus to concentrate on climate change. as long as politicians and businessmen are safe in their air conditioned offices, there is no climate i guess.

as the singur row on the tata nano plants swings back and forth, i found one interesting commentary.

adding to the sorry state, is the statement of infosys human resources head saying infosys is considering all options on their plans in west bengal.

below para from the article summarizes it nicely.
India Inc should guard against being seen as an insensitive, self-centred gang of greedy gargoyles out of sync with basic needs and expectations of the people. Without an India which is internally at peace with itself, where all categories of players (government, corporates, civil society, common folks) and all sectors (private, public, rural, urban, organised and unorganised) live in harmony, India Inc itself will come to grief. It should remember that its first and foremost obligation is to reinforce the efforts of elected governments to ameliorate the lot of the poor and the downtrodden, and that it should hold its wealth in trust to this end.

as this blog has repeatedly pointed out, the situation at ground level would not have come to such extreme has the not-so-communist communist government had been open, honest and caring from day one. instead they rushed head long and fell in the feet of tata's without caring a single minute about the farmers who own the land.

singur (and many other cases like it) points to the increasing decay that has set in politics as corporate heads wave and weave with their money power grabing land and natural resources at dead cheap prices. this has to stop and instances like singur atleast will put a semicolon if not a full stop to this mad process of development.

as kosi river wrecks havoc and india's elite politicians - who are managing policies and processes that squarely favor in making rich more richer - fight it out, the blame squarely lies in their lackadaisical attitude. hindustan times aug 28 editorial sums it all.

well, in india the new delhi based politicians are busy touting their grand 'success' day in and day out. realities seldom matter.

The Hindustan Times, August 28, 2008, EDITORIAL

Not just a force of nature at all

Could the Kosi River Divastation have been allayed by human intervention? The answer: Yes

T HE FLOODS are back in Bihar. And this time the governments — the state and the Centre — can't just blame the rainfall. If anyone can be blamed for the breach in the Kosi barrage in Nepal and the calamity that has followed, it is New Delhi. Under a 1954 treaty with Nepal, the safety and maintenance of the embankment is India's responsibility But clearly this has not been done. The re , sult of such a lackadaisical approach is that 50,000 people in Nepal and 2.5 million people in Bihar's five affected districts — Supaul, Saharsa, Madhubani, Darbhanga and Khagaria — have been left homeless. No wonder that Chief Minis ter Nitish Kumar has said this isn't a flood but a "catastrophe".

But what he or the Centre is shying away from saying is that this flood is man-made. No amount of finger-pointing at Kathmandu will change this.

What is more intriguing is that Indian engineers have claimed that they could not carry out the maintenance works due to lack of cooperation from the Nepalese administration and labour strikes in Nepal. If this was the case, why didn't the authorities flag off the issue on an urgent basis? Why weren't they ready for a disaster? Moreover, the water flow in the barrage was much less than its usual capacity when the breach happened.

This exposes the kind of maintenance that was done.

The other question that will be asked now is the efficacy of embanking a river. The Kosi, an embanked river, is known to carry a lot of silt. Over the years its silt load has increased, raising the riverbed.

Once a river is embanked, it will find the path of least resistance. And this is what has happened — the river has gone back to its old course. This hullabaloo about the river changing its course shouldn't surprise us. This is not the first time it has happened. So nature has conspired with man to bring devastation.

T HE FLOODS are back in Bihar. And this time the governments — the state and the Centre — can't just blame the rainfall. If anyone can be blamed for the breach in the Kosi barrage in Nepal and the calamity that has followed, it is New Delhi. Under a 1954 treaty with Nepal, the safety and main- tenance of the embankment is India's responsibility But clear- . ly this has not been done. The re- , sult of such a lackadaisical ap- proach is that 50,000 people in Nepal and 2.5 million people in Bihar's five affected districts — Supaul, Saharsa, Madhubani, Darbhanga and Khagaria — have been left homeless. No won- der that Chief Minis- ter Nitish Kumar has said this isn't a flood but a "catastrophe". But what he or the Centre is shying away from saying is that this flood is man-made. No amount of finger-pointing at Kathmandu will change this.

What is more intriguing is that Indian engineers have claimed that they could not carry out the maintenance works due to lack of cooperation from the Nepalese administration and labour strikes in Nepal. If this was the case, why didn't the authori- ties flag off the is- sue on an urgent basis? Why weren't they ready for a disaster? Moreover, the water flow in the barrage was much less than its usual capac- ity when the breach happened.

This exposes the kind of main- tenance that was done. The other question that will be asked now is the efficacy of embanking a river. The Kosi, an embanked river, is known to carry a lot of silt. Over the years its silt load has in- creased, raising the riverbed. Once a river is embanked, it will find the path of least re- sistance.

And this is what has happened — the river has gone back to its old course. This hul- labaloo about the river chang- ing its course shouldn't sur- prise us. This is not the first time it has happened. So nature has conspired with man to bring devastation.