Post #19: Color of the Colorless water

           Water, the wonder liquid, is the valuable gift for our nature. We often say Water is life. It is a vital molecule to the existence of all known forms of life on the Earth, even though it does not provide any vitamins, calories or other nutrients. Human body contains almost 70% water. It plays an important role in the world economy, as it functions as a solvent for a wide variety of chemical substances, raw for power generation, industrial cooling and transportation. Though it has no color, but because we are adding unknowingly and knowingly, it is now showing own color to us.

           Water covers 70.9% of the Earth’s surface. Out of this, 97% is in the form of Ocean and Sea water. Remaining 3% is Fresh Water which can be termed as very scarce resource available on the Earth. Surprisingly, out of the total available fresh water, 98% of water is in the form of Polar Ice and Glaciers, 1.7% water is available as Ground water and 0.3% is in the form of Rivers and Lakes. Water is also present in the atmosphere in solid, liquid and vapor states.

          Experts are of the view that by 2025, more than half of the world population will be facing water based vulnerability and by 2030, in some developing nations demand will exceed by 50%. Today, almost 1.9 billion people in the world lack fresh water access. In the coming decades, people may employ separate security guard for keeping water safe and secure, some says the 3^rd World War will be for the water and these kinds of thing have already started happening!

In Indian Context:

           India accounts for 17.5% of global population whereas water availability is only 4% of global fresh water. In the last 65 years, water demand is ever increasing whereas supply is almost same. For increasing demand-supply gap, the prominent reasons are ever increasing population, rapid urbanization, industrialization and agricultural expansion.

           In some states, women travel for 5-10 km a day just to get the fresh drinking water. Recently uranium has been found in the water body of Punjab state. Delhi gets water from Yamuna but water delivery mechanism in Delhi is the worst. More than half of the households do not have water meters. Tanker mafias are actively mal-practicing. When one tanker comes 1000s of water bottle holders come, they combat with each other. Some states are reporting that their water table is going down by 1-2 feet/year.

          We Indians think that we have enough water, but reality is pretty scary when it comes to per capita availability in India which is very-very low. More than 60% of the population has no access to fresh water. We unnecessarily waste the water while bathing, washing clothes, in the kitchen. Our farmers switch the pump on in the night, come back home, sleep like Kumbhakaran, in the morning they reach to farm and switch the pump off. In between they irrigated their farm with more than needed water, so how much water got wasted you can imagine.

         Rivers are getting contaminated with hazardous chemicals and human wastage. Yamuna River, despite wasting Rs. 6,500+ crores for cleaning it up, has become more polluted in the recent years. Today, Yamuna is the most polluted river of the world. Ganga is on the verge of becoming the second Yamuna.

Water Disputes in India:

            According to Indian Constitution provision, Entry 17,List II says managing the water resource is primarily a state subject on which they enjoy the exclusive power related to four aspects – Drainage & Embankments, Irrigation, Supply of Drinking Water and other storages system such as Sanctuaries, Dam, Tank & flood control measures.

            As per Entry 56, List I Union has the power of regulation and development of inter-state river valley which is necessary in the public interest.

        Article 262 empowers parliament to constitute River-Water-Tribunal to adjudicate disputes related to sharing of inter-state river water. Parliament had passed a law Inter State River Water Tribunal (ISRWT) Act 1956. Tribunal is a quasi-judicial body which consists of judicial, technical and administrative experts.

            India is a federal democracy and many rivers cross state boundaries. Because of large areas of India relatively being arid (agricultural) and country which accounts for only 4% of global fresh water against 17.5% of global population, mechanism for allocating scarce water resource is critically important. However, constructing efficient and equitable mechanism for river water between the states have long been an important legal, political and constitutional issues.

          Myriad inter-state river water disputes have erupted since independence. The larger dispute between Karnataka and Tamilnadu mainly over Cauvery river water raises hatred and violence. Disputes are persistent because in the peninsular India, rivers are seasonal in nature. Cauvery River, flowing from west to east, is one of the most utilized and disputed river of India rather of the world. It originates from Talacauvery located at Kodagu district in Karnataka which drains into Bay of Bengal. Karnataka shares 42% of water, Tamilnadu 54% , Kerala 3.5% and remaining share goes to Puducherry.

            Recent dispute over the use of Yamuna river water among the states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and New Delhi was resolved through conference inviting three Chief Ministers with the facilitation provided by Center. This approach was adopted only when prior intervention through legal and administrative ways had failed. But not all the disputes have happy ending like this.

            State govt under constitutional framework dominates the utilization of river water with the provision if river crosses the inter-state boundaries disputes are quite inevitable. Keeping this in the mind, Constitutional framers incorporated article 262 for ISRWT to solve the issues where direct negotiations have failed. However, sometimes states refuse to accept the award of tribunal and that is why arbitration of tribunal has failed time and again. Surprisingly, even court’s order has been ignored repeatedly which has added on the further complexity.

            The time has come to strengthen the legal and the institutional framework for solving the disputes related with water sharing. There is a growing consensus among the experts that there should be a creation of Statutory empowered single framework to adjudicate all inter-state river water dispute by amending ISRWT 1956. The tribunal can have regional branches but with a provision that decisions will be binding on all the participants of dispute. If they fail to imply its directives, they should face state disqualification for central assistance.

            But even more significant step would be to bridge the gap between demand and supply of fresh water by moderating, regulating the demand and increasing the supply. The demand can be moderated through different legislative technical administrative means directed towards enhancing the water use efficiency, whereas the supply side can be taken care with a focus on Rain-Water Harvesting, Recharging the water-table and Water-Shade management.

Inter-linking of Rivers in India:

              River Linking is a project linking two or more rivers by creating a network of manmade canals and providing catchment area. It is based on the concept that water deficit river will get waters from water surplus river.

              By linking rivers, vast amount of non-irrigated area will become fertile, floods will be prevented, hydroelectric power will be generated by constructing new dams and new water navigation routes will be created which will prove to be cheaper than road transport system.

              The National River Linking Project (NRLP) is being planned to overcome the water shortage problems in western and southern India and to solve the problem of floods in the Eastern part of Ganga Basin. Some river linking projects have been taken off.

              There are some concerns and issues like, huge capital requirement changing the course of river may have an impact on ecology, aquatic life may be jeopardized, it may result in large scale deforestation in certain areas, inter-state river water dispute may further intensify  and displacement, rehabilitation & resettlement of population residing in that area. To address all these issues, a prudent analysis is required, plan can be implemented at micro level, impact analysis can be done and then macro level projects can be given green signals.

Water Pollution:

              Water pollution is the contamination of the water bodies like lakes, rivers, oceans and groundwater. It occurs when pollutants are discharged without proper treatment in to the water bodies. It affects almost everything in the environment and it considered to be the leading cause of worldwide deaths and diseases. Water pollution alone accounts for the deaths of more than 14000 deaths a day. In India alone almost 600 people die per day because of consuming contaminated water. Some 90% of Chinese cities face some degree of water pollution.

             The time has come to regulate the sewage discharging mechanism through modern means. It can be controlled by utilizing a green infrastructure, repairing and replacing malfunctioning equipments, proper treatment before discharging polluted water in to the water bodies. There is a need to minimize water usage at all levels. Water policing mechanism has to be changed. Water auditing and footprints mechanisms are required. Water reusing/recycling technologies are also required. Multipurpose river water valley needs to be developed.

            In a nutshell, we need to spread awareness among Indians that water is a valuable gift of the nature. We should use water judiciously and should not perform criminal wastage of water. Government should provide modern techniques of treatment mechanism at subsidized rate to the industry as well as households. Water used in the kitchen, after treating can be used for moping. We would have to understand that “We are the part of this nature not the master of this nature”.

           

Post #18: Delhi: Before Kejriwal,During Kejriwal and After Kejriwal

        Delhi,also known as National Capital territory(NCT) of India,which became the capital of India in 1911. Being a union territory, it resembles more like a state due to its politico-administrative setup. It has its own High Court, own legislature, Lieutenant Governor and an executive council of ministers headed by a CM. Delhi is jointly administered by the GOI and Govt of Delhi.

           Delhi, right now, is experiencing political tremors  as on friday the Chief minister Mr. Arvind Kejriwal  resigned over not passing JanLokpal Bill in Delhi Assembly. The assembly elections held in late 2013 had given a split mandate with no party getting absolute majority. Out of 70 seats, the largest party was BJP+ with 32 seats, the 2^nd largest party was 1 year old AAP which came with phenomenal 28 seats in its maiden election, Congress party which was ruling Delhi since 1998 won only 8 seats, JD(U) came with only one MLA  and Others with one.

Before Kejriwal

            In 1956,the legislative assembly was abolished and was controlled by direct federal GOI. But in 1993,it was re-established. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) handles civic administration for the city as part of the Panchayati Raj System. Till 1990s, Congress had formed all the govt in Delhi,in between BJP led by Madan Lal Khurana came to power. However, since 1998, Congress led by Smt. Sheila Dixit was ruling Delhi.

          Let’s not go in the deep and as Delhi was ruled mostly by the Congress so let's talk only about Congress rule in the last 15 years in brief. In the last one and half decade Delhi being the largest commercial center in Northern India has grown at very fast rate. Introduction of Metro Rail and CNG public transport system contained the pollution to the lower level. It became the most green capital city of the world. Newly constructed Bridges, Flyovers significantly contributed in the development of Delhi. Quantity of development was quite considerable but the quality,the worst. 
        In the recent years, there is a significant decline in the security of women,Nobody can forget the incident of Nirbhaya case happened on 16th of Dec'12. Slowly it became the rape capital of India. The rate of conviction is very very low. Despite huge sanction of fund,Yumuna river could never be cleaned. Corruption settled at its peak. Water supply system deteriorated. CM’s capability also deteriorated with the administrative system. CWG scam, Illegal regularization of Jhuggi-Jhopdi(JJ) colony and many unprecedented events led to the defeat of CM Sheila Dixit by a huge margin in the recent election and overall defeat of Congress Party.

During Kejriwal: Controversies

            After so many public meetings, online polls on whether AAP should form a govt or not, Kejriwal was sworn-in on 28^th of Dec’13 at Ramlila Ground in the presence of thousands of Delhites. It’s true that with the outside support of Congress he formed govt, but he never supported Congress and its leaders. He had come with 18 issues and was working on the issues till he quit.

           Though his own MLA Mr. Vinod Kumar Binny alleged that AAP is not working on the issues and derailing from the right track, after frequent press conferences he said that he may withdraw support from AAP. Whereas, in contrast, Kejriwal said “Mr. Binny was earlier demanding ministerial post and after denying the post he started shouting for LokSabha ticket”, later on he was expelled from the party on the ground of breaking party discipline.

            After that, Law Minister Mr. Somnath Bharti called the meeting of judges, some said he tried to repaint the evidences of some critical cases and hence,created controversy. Surprisingly some days later he raided Khidki Extension,Delhi at 2 AM as local people complained to him that in their area sex racket and drug paddling are actively running  and police officers are not lodging any complaints which again created controversy. Controversy was of the kind that even Ugandan Women alleged the involvement of minister for raiding in the midnight and taking their urine sample,though not proved later in medical examination. Opposition started demanding resignation of Law Minister. But through AAP’s so called internal investigation team gave him a clean chit.

          In relation with Khidki Extension case, Kejriwal registered an unsual kind of protest in the history as being a CM one had never sat on dharna ,he protested along with cabinet minister,MLAs and myriad AAP supporters in front of the Railway Bharwan demanding the suspension of 3 SHOs of Khidki Extension for not filing an FIR against drug paddlers. He, in this dharna, also shouted for separate statehood for Delhi and for bringing in the Delhi Police under state govt.  Kejriwal called off that dharna after getting assurance from Home Minister for sending the SHOs on leave.

         Women and child welfare minister Ms. Rakhi Birla was attacked and she complained to Delhi police. However,it sparked a controversy when a boy came in light when he said the tennis-ball was hit on her car and he had apologized right there.

         Within 10 days of coming in to power, Delhi govt scrapped the FDI in multi-brand retail, which may be considered as regressive step for the city like Delhi, which is also the capital of India.

During Kejriwal: Achievements

          Even after so much of hues and cries in the last 49 days, Kejriwal had achieved many things which cannot be ignored by anyone. In such a short span of time,Kejriwal gave Delhites what Sheila Dixit in 15 years could not. Whatever Kejriwal promised before assembly election,He tried to deliver as soon as possible. Media called him "A Man in Hurry". However,his dream bills JanLokpal and Swaraj could not be passed and eventually led to the downfall of govt. We should admit that what he said, he did and he failed so he quit.

         Kejriwal was successful in calling off the VIP Culture which,earlier, could not be ended even after the order of honorable Supreme Court. Before Kejriwal VIPs used to put red beacon in the private vehicles too.

            He took a decision on providing 50% subsidy for the usage of 400 units of electricity per household, though it was only for the current financial year. Later on an order for CAG audit of private electricity companies was passed and companies opposed. 

          Water upto 20,000 L/month/per connection was provided for free of cost. But exceeding 20,000 L ,people had to pay full charge thinking that it may encourage water conservation. Subsequently, the displaying of online record of Tanker water supply for all on the Delhi Jal Board Website was ordered. Apart from these steps, VAT on water was simplified.

          Providing permits to 5500 new Auto-rickshaw owners for the whole Delhi-NCR,which was a much required step, AAP govt should be appreciated for this.

              For curbing the bribery in govt offices,Kejriwal govt announced new anti-corruption helpline number and encouraged to do sting operations on officials whenever they demand money. Many officials were caught red-handed and put behind the bars. FIRs  were filed on many leaders who were indulged in CWG,Oil,Water,Gas scams.

        Helpline number of Nursery Admissions started for parents. Management quota in the private schools was abolished. Govt immediately tried to fix the problems of water, toilets, electricity and infrastructure in the govt schools.

            Govt announced for constructing 58 new night-shelters and providing basic facilities like water, beds and toilet for poor homeless people in the bone-chilling winter. Though govt was not so much successful in preventing the deaths of people and later the notice from high court was served upon the govt.

         Rupees One cr. of help announced for the constable who died while fighting against corruption.

       Kejriwal govt started studying the possibility of making contracted serviceman to permanent serviceman.

         SIT formation was announced for the inquiry of ’84 Sikh Riot.

        Women Security Force formation was initiated.

After Kejriwal

          As soon as Kejriwal resigned,he recommended Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the house and to process the fresh election. However, LG Najeeb Jung recommended for the President rule. The questions are what will happen to the policies and changes made by Kejriwal? Will these be overturned by the next govt? Will the FIRs lodged against corrupt officials and ministers be revoked? In the state, people were happy with Kejriwal though most of them may not be voting for AAP in the center,but right now AAP supporters are not happy with the resignation of CM. Now,Kejriwal may increase his pace for fighting the general elections due this year. In the next assembly election,whenever it takes place,people may vote for AAP in full majority,who knows? Perhaps, within a week Delhi will come under President rule. There have not been so much of days passed yet,we will have to wait and see what happens in the next few days. 

          

          

      

        

Post #17: Secularism : The most misused word in India

The term ‘Secularism’ was first invented and used by the British writer George Jacob Holyoake in 1851 to describe his views of promoting a social order separate from religion, without deliberately criticizing religious beliefs.

           The precise meaning of Secularism or Secularity is “State has NO connection with religion and having NO religion of its own”. Every Individual of every religion is having equal rights; they all are treated equally under the roof of same law, no matter from which religion they belong to. State accepts every individual’s right to pursue his or her own religion and the right of religion to shape its own concepts of spirituality.

           We Indians are expert in manipulating the things and we try to imply everything in different ways irrespective of the meanings. We actually consider ourselves as surgeons we do surgery of everything.  Same has happened with the word ‘Secularism’, it is the most misused word in Indian Politics. In Indian context- Secularism means treating all religions equally and state is neutral to all religious groups, there is no separation between religion and the state. See how manipulative we are.

           Nowadays secularism is being used only as the strategy to achieve political goals. Experts are of the view that public activities and political decisions should remain untouched by the religious beliefs or practices. These differences are forcing many scholars to declare that India is not a secular state, as the word secularism is widely understood everywhere in the world.

          In European countries, secularism is a movement toward modernization irrespective of traditional religious values. French concept says there should be absence of governmental institutions in religion, as well as no existence of religion in governmental institutions and schools. Whereas we are totally opposite to that, Indian concept provides financial support to religious schools and accepts religious law over governmental institutions. Indian govt financially supports, regulates and administers the Wakf council (Islam), historic Hindu temples, Buddhist monasteries, and certain Christian religious institutions; this is quite evident that Indian govt is involved in various religious activities.

         In India, Many Political parties (I would not like to mention the names) often use, I would rather say ‘misuse’, the term secularism to counter the opponents and to counter this, opponents use the term “pseudo-secularism” to describe the policies that involve minority appeasement and it implies that those who claim to be secular are actually not so, but are anti-majority or pro-minority and involved in only vote bank politics which is opposite of the definition of secularism. Once the BJP leader LK Advani had characterized pseudo-secular politicians as those for whom "secularism is only a euphemism for vote-bank politics". That’s very true!

          When it comes to personal law, we forget that India is a secular state. The applicable personal law differs if an individual’s religion is Islam, Christianity, or Hindu e.g., the minimum age of marriage for girls is 18 for Hindu and Christian Indians, while the personal law according to sharia allows Muslim Indians to marry a girl less than 12 years old. In Western secular countries, age of consent and age of marriage are derived from secular laws, not religious laws.

           We live in a global village; modernization and development are the needs of the hour. It’s high time to separate religion from India and bring in the Uniform Civil Code for all its citizens, political appeasement may work for particular party to run the govt and particular religion to develop temporarily but it will have a long term negative impact on the political environment of India. It will be the gross violation of right to equality. Political pundits will have to understand this terminology before it’s too late; they will have to stop misusing the word ‘Secularism’ as soon as possible.

           

Post #16: Japan: An inspiration for us

        For India, its high time to learn many things from Japan. What and why should we learn, I'll explain it in the next few paragraphs. But in the beginning, I want to say that we typical Indians do not forget the things so easily and we keep on complaining like anything without knowing the consequences. I wonder if these things are in our genes or traits. Anyways lets know about Japan.

      Japan,an East Asian country, aka "Land of the Rising Sun". Japanese people call themselves   'Nihonjin' and they called their language 'Nihongo'. It consists of 6852 islands,out of these only 4 major islands Honshu,Hokkaido,Kyushu and Shikoku occupy 97% of country's land. It has a total area of 3,77,944 square km which places Japan at the 62nd place in the list. Japan has only 0.8% of water available on the planet Earth.Tokyo is the capital city of Japan.

        Japan is having 73% forested,mountainous,hilly terrain,rigid,unsuitable,unproductive land for agriculture,industrial or residential use. Most of the islands are located in a volcanic zone on the pacific ring of fire. There are 108 active volcanoes, full of destructive earthquakes often resulting in Tsunami,disastrous floods,several times each century. No Iron Ore,No coal,No petroleum,No metals or non metals, Nothing in the name of Natural resources. They only have dedication,rich culture, healthy work environment and they work over 18 hours a day.

       If we talk about population,Japan is the 10th largest country of the world having 126 million people (though earlier it was 128 million, there is drastic decline in the population). It is one of the most densely populated country of the world,most of the population are living in coastal area. In 2009,22.7% of population was over 65 years of age. Experts are saying that Japan,in 2050, will have 40% of over 65 years old age population. Tokyo alone has 30 million of Japan's population.

          Achievements of Japan which we all should appreciate and learn from it: 

• Japan is the 3rd largest Economy( by nominal GDP $5.228 trillion) and the 4th largest Economy(by Purchasing power parity GDP $4.866 trillion) of the world.
• The 4th largest exporter as well as importer in the world. It has 5th largest military budget but used only for self defense and peacekeeping roles,as according to Japanese constitution of 1947 it has no right to declare a war or use force against any country in any international dispute.
• The 3rd largest (after US & France) donor of official development assistance($ 9.48 billion in 2009). Japan invests over $200 billion in China whereas in India only $13-14 billion. 
• Japanese women have the 2nd highest life expectancy, according to United Nations it has the 3rd lowest infant mortality rate(IMR)
• Japan is one of the smallest tax revenues of the developed world, in terms of Ease of doing Business japan stands at 12th out of 178 countries. It is the home to 326 companies from Forbes global 2000.
• Japan's 7,00,000 researchers share a whopping $130 billion R&D budget which is the 3rd largest in the world and also a world leader in fundamental Scientific Research.
• It alone has produced 16 Nobel laureates in Physics,Chemistry & Medicine, 3 Fileds medalists and 1 Gauss prize laureate.
• Being a leader in robotics use and processing,it has 402,000 robots out of 7,42,500 world's industrial robots and there are still many things to enlist here. But these are enough to think over it.

       In a nutshell,Despite having so much of difficulties,Japan is successful in achieving which India in spite of having everything is not able to achieve even 1/10th of what Japan has achieved. Have you ever seen that Japan is complaining about Hiroshima,Nagasaki atomic disaster? Have you ever seen Japan is complaining about not having any natural resources, about unproductive lands, about natural disaster they face time and again? Never,at least I haven't seen. And we typical Indians keep on complaining that Britishers looted our wealth,India was a golden bird, because of this we are poor,Friends it has been so long. We had poor monsoon rain this year,we had this, we had that...forget about all these,stop complaining and move ahead. Learn how Japanese have developed themselves,learn from their work culture. India has everything which is required for becoming a developed country,India has more than enough money to employ maximum of its citizen,to fund R&D and to come on top of the list. 

(Facts and figures taken from wiki)

Post #15: Choosing between the worst and the bad: The upcoming general election

       Once a wise man had rightly said “A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman, of the next generation”. In the current divisive political scenario, do we really have a statesman? No, not really! If we look for the options we have for voting in the upcoming general election are 1.Congress 2. Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) 3. Neonatal Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and 4. An emerging so called secular Third Front.

         Now let’s analyze pros & cons of all the parties one by one. Congress party has ruled India like a dynastic rule almost for the forty five years and in the last 10 years Congress party has become Corruption Party which has numerous records of scam right from Bofors, 2G, CWG, Adarsh housing to Coalgate. Congress has always been indulging in divisive and vote bank politics, the word ‘secularism’ is the most misused word by the Congress and its allies. To top it all who will forget ’84 Anti Sikh Riot. PM Dr. Manmohan Singh will be considered as the weakest ever PM in the history of India if we do not talk about Indo-US nuclear deal. Congress Vice President Mr. Rahul Gandhi on which politics are being thrust upon like Indian parents forces their children to become engineers or doctors. There is not much to write in the pros section of Congress. So, I would say No to Congress and I would consider it as the worst option at least for this general election

         When it comes to BJP, The biggest pros are the popular and sensible leader Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. He has the kind of administrative power no body can compete with him. BJP seems as a nationalist party. After the anointment of NaMo as PM nominee, political wave in India has changed. Majority of Indians want to see him as PM. If you talk about 2002 Godhra riot,in this NaMo has been given clean chit by the SIT formed by the honorable SC…what else can be said about BJP or NaMo? I would consider it as a bad option but the best among all.

         AAP is an amateur in this political system, AAP is doing good job in the state though some flaws are there. One side they say they won’t give and take support from BJP or Congress, on the other side they take support from Congress to form the govt. It puts a serious question mark on the authenticity of newly born AAP. They will not win the magic number of 273 and will create only an unwanted hung house. I won’t consider it even as an option for the upcoming general election.

         Idea of the third front is a myth. I don’t think so they are going to make any change. They seem pseudo secular and indulged in the vote bank politics and nothing else. As  I would consider it same as AAP.

        Now whom should we vote? We have only two options one is the worst and the second is the bad one. I would prefer to choose the bad one which is the best out of the two available options. Voting for AAP or the third front will create a hung house aftermath of the general election which will prove to be disastrous for Indian political system. After the hung house either we would have to go for re-election or for compromised allied govt. Re-election will be costly affair for the Indian economy as one single election needs so much of money, re-election may lead to inflation and wastage of time. Compromised allied govt. will have only adjournments in both the houses and will pass no pending crucial bills. There will only be blackmailing, withdrawing support, giving conditional support for the personal gain and nothing else.

         So, I urge everyone to think over it and choose whom to vote for the stable, forward looking and inclusive development oriented govt. Using NOTA option will not be considered that you are a wise person. I would like to conclude with the best option to vote for NaMo. Remember If you can't vote,You can't question the elected govt. Be strong, Be wise and think over it. (My views are personal.)