Issue 15 (Low Res)

EXCLUSIVE: you either build roads or you build garages: kamal nath
September 1-15, 2010 | Vol. 01 Issue 15 | ` 30
third
GETS A
JUSTICE
eye!
A risen-from-theranks chief justice takes a bottomup approach to administration of justice.
p.16
Digantars schools churn out role models, not just students

p.12
Civic governance: Of bad cricket captains and poor city planners

p.26
If Manmohan is the best leader the world has got, has it got very little?
p.50
Founders Team
Gautam Adhikari Markand Adhikari Anurag Batra (abatra@governancenow.com) Editor B V Rao bvrao@governancenow.com Managing Editor Ajay Singh ajay@governancenow.com Peoples Editor Anupam Goswami Deputy Editors Prasanna Mohanty, Ashish Mehta, Ashish Sharma Assistant Editors Samir Sachdeva, Kapil Bajaj Special Correspondents Brajesh Kumar, Trithesh Nandan Principal Correspondents Geetanjali Minhas, Danish Raza, Jasleen Kaur Correspondents Shivani Chaturvedi, Neha Sethi, Sarthak Ray, Sonal Matharu Chief of Bureau (Special Features) Sweta Ranjan sweta@governancenow.com Design Parveen Kumar, Noor Mohammad Photographer Ravi Choudhary Marketing Asst. Manager Marketing Shivangi Gupta shivangi@governancenow.com Circulation & Distribution Head Rajshekhar Chakrabarty Senior Executive, Distribution Banisha Verma banisha@governancenow.com Manager IT Santosh Gupta Asst. Manager HR Monika Sharma Design consultants LDI Graphics Pvt. Ltd. www.liquiddesigns.in info@liquiddesigns.in Printed, published and owned by Markand Adhikari. Printed at Utkarsh Art Press Pvt Ltd, D-9/3, Okhla Industrial Area Phase I, New Delhi, 110020. Tel: 011-41636301, and published at 24A, Mindmill Corporate Tower, Sector 16A, Film City, Noida 201301. Tel: 01203920555. Editor: B V Rao (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act) Volume 01 Issue 15 UPENG03560/24/1/2009-TC www.governancenow.com feedback@governancenow.com Cover imaging: Ashish Asthana Cover design: Anand Hirvey, Parveen Kumar
contents

08 Interview: Highways minister Kamal Nath
Once you have 30 pc growth in auto sector, you either build roads or you build garages
12 Lessons in life, taught at school
Digantars schools in Rajasthans villages have churned out role-models, not students
16 Highest intervention in lower courts

38 A Rs 70,608 crore jamboree

Chief Justice Kapadia has set into motion the wheels of justice to correct a long-standing lapse and furnish even the last court in the land with the basic infrastructure
46 Should we chase their dragon or our ghosts?

Yes, that is the actual bill for the Commonwealth Gamesmore than 114 times the original calculation made in 2002when you include all event-specific projects. The real story behind the financial and governance mess
Dont fantasise about towering over China, just start fixing our governance and being less divided within Manmohan, the leader of leaders!
50 Last Word

30 Paid News: Scourge of democracy Dont expect politicians to do something about the
menace of paid news, only those with commitment to journalism can counter the trend and they must do so at the earliest
26 Urban un-planning

Civic governance is not an easy job when you have to consider so many surprise factors. Rains during monsoon, for example!
www.GovernanceNow.com 3
EDITORIALS
Subterfuge, rather than sincerity, marks the nuclear law

Government will forever remain a suspect for the way it sought to compromise polluter-pays principle
y the time you read this both houses of parliament would have passed the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2010, hopefully without any more mischief from the government. But few would be assured by prime minister Manmohan Singhs solemn declaration in parliament that he was not working for the US interests or that he shared the oppositions concerns for nuclear safeguards. In fact, the opposition had charged his government with using a sleight of hand in drafting the law and trying to hustle it through parliament. This was not without reason and the doubts over the governments sincerity will linger on until US president Barack Obamas goes back after his visit in November. To begin with, the government wanted to get the nuclear bill passed in the last budget session without anybody having a clue about it. The parliamentary standing committee, that went through the bill subsequently, strongly objected to the fact that even the ministries which would play crucial roles in the event of a nuclear disaster werent consulted. It pointed out that when the committee inquired from the
The word intent may have been dropped from the bill, but the governments intent is clear as daylight.
secretaries of ministries/departments of government of India that appeared before it as to whether the draft nuclear liability bill was referred to them for their views/comments, some of them viz. ministries of health & family welfare, agriculture labour & employment, food & public distribution, etc. replied in the negative. It did ask the government to do so in future but that is of no consequence. The problem began right at the beginning when it was learnt that the government had compromised on the polluter-pays principle by letting off both the nuclear operator and the supplier of nuclear equipment lightly in the event of a nuclear disaster. The opposition blocked the bills tabling but the governments intent was exposed because it introduced the bill surreptitiously on the last day of the last day of the session after cutting deals with some now-on, nowoff allies. Then the bill was referred to the science and technology standing committee, headed by loyal Congressman T Subbarami Reddy, and not the one dealing with energy as it should have been. And on the very first day of the panels meet, the government slipped in an amendment removing suppliers liability completely. This was detected and a storm was raised. But the panel was forced to retain the provision and also modify the language which required that willful act or gross negligence needed to be established. When the panels report was tabled, the government played mischief again and inserted a word and to link supplier liability to a written contract with the operator. This led to another storm until and was deleted. The governments subterfuge did end there. The union cabinet found a new word to let off the
Ramesh shows the way....if only he stays the course!
No point in having a ministry and sundry laws to protect environment, forest, forest rights and tribal self-rule in the Scheduled Areas if these were to be sacrificed at the altar of development
y rejecting the proposal to mine the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa for bauxite, environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh has upheld the rule of law, which is what good governance is all about. Logically, after two panels of his ministry and several independent studies incontrovertibly established that all relevant laws of the land have been flouted in allowing Vedanta Alumina Ltd to set up its refinery in Lanjigarh and then seek, through the Orissa Mining Corporation, mining rights to the
Niyamgiri hills, that was the only recourse left. But as we are well aware, logic or rule of law has hardly inconvenienced the private corporate bodies in our country. Take a fresh look at Vedanta Alumina Ltds Lanjigarh project. Rameshs own ministry was playing footsie until now. Not once did it consider the project in its entirety. First it gave environment clearance only to the one million tonne refinery in 2004, but slept over the forest clearance. Now it transpires that the refinery has occupied 26.123 hectare
of village forest land illegally. The mining part of the project came into picture in 2005. The ministry granted forest clearance to this in 2007, but called it in-principle clearance subject to certain conditions (it is violation of these conditions that the ministry has cited to deny final forest clearance). The environment clearance for mining came two years later, in 2009. Meantime, Vedanta sought expansion of its refinery to six million tonnes capacity in 2008. The same year, the ministry granted inprinciple environment clearance, but slept over the forest clearance. What do you make out of all these regulatory gymnastics? Now, let us look at the state governments role. It has granted all the necessary clearances and duly submitted all compliance reports in connection with Vedantas project. But as the MoEF panels, particularly the N C Saxena committee, has pointed out, the state government not only flouted every law of the land but also misrepresented facts. It said, wrongly, that the primitive tribes of the area,
GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010
supplier saying that the intent of the supplier to cause nuclear damage needed to be established. Understandably, another storm was raised for it to be dropped. All these manoeuvres were linked to the US because it is the turn of the US suppliers to enter the scene. The government has already signed deals with Russia and France, without supplier liability but that is another story. The operators liability, which was initially a lowly Rs 500 crore, also provoked protest until it was raised to Rs 1,500 crore. It is still less than about Rs 2,200 crore paid to the Bhopal victims. But doubts remain because the bill passed by Lok Sabha contained a clause that provides for the government to assume full liability for a nuclear installation not operated by it if it is of the opinion that this is necessary in public interest. Now what is this public interest needs to be explained. Coming as it does after the Bhopal verdict and the subsequent uproar over gross injustice to the victims in terms of compensation it is a pity that the government could do no better than use subterfuge, rather than sincerity, in passing such a crucial law.
World champion is checkmated

The unseemly fracas over honorary degree to Viswanathan Anand offers lessons to bureaucrats, academia and sports administrators
ur politicians, administrators and others of the ilk are so ingenious that they can beat even a chess champion. When grandmaster Viswanathan Anand, arguably the most successful sportsperson India has ever produced, received an offer of an honorary PhD from the Hyderabad University, he could not have known what was in store. Though he initially declined the offer, he was persuaded to accept the award. On the eve of the ceremony, however, he faced an unexpected move from the human resource development ministry when he was asked if he was an Indian citizen or not. As the controversy made headlines, HRD minister Kapil Sibal had to apologise to Anand even as the ceremony to confer the doctorate degree on him was indefinitely postponed. In other words, honour can wait, but insult has been delivered. This affair raises several questions. Firstly, just as foreign universities have honoured Indians ranging from Manmohan Singh to Amitabh Bachchan, leading central universities too have been honouring global achievers including foreigners. While officials maintain that the university needs to inform the HRD ministry in advance, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Banaras Hindu University have
been going ahead honouring foreign dignitaries without bothering to seek permission from ministers and bureaucrats. So why did the Hyderabad University choose to bring the whole red tape into the picture? Secondly, even if Anand had a Spanish passport as it was rumoured, no Indian would have opposed the move as he has retained his Indian identity. Yet, if at all a definite word was needed on his citizenship, it could have been done in a more discreet manner than asking him directly if he held an Indian passport. The incident shows how we treat a national icon at a time when gargantuan corruption and colossal mess behind the Commonwealth Games is ignored in the name of national prestige. Sadly, it also shows how we treat chess. You cannot imagine a popular cricketer being humiliated in this manner. In fact, in their case, it is the other way round: they prefer to shoot commercials rather than receive their Padma or Arjuna awards. It is no coincidence that Anand did not have to deal with any chess federation with an ageing politician at its helm for decades. His individual achievement goes against the grain of our powers that be in sports administration. No wonder the system has got him this time.
Dongaria and Kutia Kondhs, didnt stake claim to the proposed mining area as is their right under the Forest Rights Act. It said, wrongly again, that the tribals informed consent had been taken as per the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act to acquire their land. It said, wrongly yet again, that proper environment impact assessment (EIA) of the project had been done, when it was only a rapid EIA. And after the Saxena committee said mining Niyamgiri will be illegal because it had been established beyond doubt that the area proposed for mining and the surrounding thick forests are the cultural, religious and economic habitat of the Kondhs, the state said, again wrongly, that the supreme court had given forest clearance to the project in 2008. In fact, the apex courts next and concluding line was: The next step would be for the MoEF to grant its approval in accordance with law. As for Vedanta Alumina, it violated several laws by encroaching 26.123 hectare forest land without MoEF clearance, expanding the refinery without
The issue is not of development as Orissa and Vedanta will have us believe. It is of good governance. All environment, forest and tribal related laws are to make development sustainable, humane, equitable and just. Lets hope this is kept in mind while embarking on developmental activities.
MoEF clearance, building mine access road without MoEF clearance, wrongly concluding from public hearings that its project had wide support of the tribals, falsifying EIA report to say that the proposed mining area is unproductive and tree deficient area not useful for wildlife and forest and sourcing bauxite from 14 mines outside Orissa, 11 of which dont have environment clearance! The issue here is not of development, as the Orissa government and Vedanta Alumina would like everyone to believe. It is nobodys case that mining shouldnt be allowed. A poor state like Orissa does need to mine its natural resources to propel economic growth and a Vedanta to bring investment. The issue is really of good governance. All environment, forest and tribal related laws are to make development sustainable, humane, equitable and just. And that is what Jairam needs to prove. He needs to prove that his environment laws apply to all equally and Vedanta has not been made an example of for political reasons.
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LETTERS
Party time at foreigners registration office?

Regarding the article on the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (Is it foreigners registration office or a Bollywood party?, August 1-15), I highly commend you for touching this long overdue subject. The FRRO is indeed a catastrophe and the French ladys experience is by no means far fetched. The whole nightmare for foreigners in India starts at the airport with very mean customs officers who will treat you like you have a deadly disease and should not enter their beloved country. Since my first visit to FRRO in 2004, nothing has changed there, though the foreigners entering India and coming to Delhis FRRO must have increased in great numbers. As the writer of the article said correctly, the lines now are endless, yet many times people are sent away by the reception desk officers for petty things. No one at FRRO will explain anything to the baffled and tired people. When I married my Indian husband, it took us three months and 10 visits both to the FRRO as well as the home ministry before I got a (hand-written) xvisa for spouses, and that took place one day before my tourist visa would have expired. If they are overworked and understaffed, one can understand certain irritations and bad vibes, but these people, as in fact 99 percent of public servants in North India turn their noses so high up at you, that they have completely forgotten why they are there in the first place: to serve. Without foreigners coming to India, they would all be without a job. They are unhelpful, sometimes, rude and completely uncaring, considering what is at stake for most people here. I had one Australian in line behind me who had come on business to India for a week. When he was at the airport catching his return flight, the officers sent him away, telling him he needed an exit stamp. It was 2 am and this man had naturally given up his hotel room. Now he missed his flight, he needed to get a taxi, rebook a room and start the tedious process not to mention getting a fresh air travel ticket. He said he would never ever come to India again. I am sure every country has similar problems and I know of Indians who have been badly treated at the German or American embassies (interestingly, most often by their fellow country men), and I know the FRRO equivalents in European countries make people feel quite horrid at times too. But in those countries you generally feel like the process is under way, even if the guy in front of you is having a bad day. In Delhis FRRO we are far from seeing any improvements soon. Bettina Snyder New Delhi
Debate Do our MPs deserve a pay hike?

Our parliamentarians are underpaid, so grossly underpaid that (in the words of Congress MP Rajiv Shukla) they get less than a government clerk. Mere Rs 16,000 a month is their salary apart from sundry allowances. They badly needed a pay hike and since the decision was in a manner of speaking in their own hands, they have got it. Their salary now goes up to Rs 50,000 along with similar hikes in various allowances. While many think the move was justified, others ask if our MPs deserve a pay hike. Just as there are humble, modest, servants of people, there are also corporate honchos falling over one another in bidding for a seat in the upper house. Is the salary a factor at all? Did anybody say I dont want to become an MP, because salaries are too low? What about performance our MPs are mostly making news for obstructing the house proceedings rather than for participating in them? At the least, shouldnt their salary (if it matters at all) be linked to their performance in the house and the constituency? Join the debate, send your views to feedback@governancenow.com
Democracy direct
This is regarding India should move towards direct democracy by Arvind Kejriwal (July 16-31). A fiery article but an equally funny one. You say corporates can buy and sell lawmakers. I am sure they can. Corporates are evading taxes, so are citizens of India. Those farmers who make lakhs and dont pay a rupee in tax have certainly bought the lawmakers. If the corporates can buy those lawmakers I am sure those millions of people who want to evade taxes can do so too. I mean, 10 rupees from each person can get you hundreds of millions. And more importantly please admit that it is the majority of us (people of the constituency) who have elected the representative and if you made a wrong choice, suffer for that cause and learn from it next time. As for direct governance, that is the funniest part of the article. Given a choice of voting once in five years we manage only about
40 percent turnout. Given the frequency it will only go down. If you are going to put an argument out saying they will have satisfaction of having their say, it is foolish as the result might not even be what they voted for. Also, the cost of a referendum every time there is a motion in parliament defeats the purpose of a parliament of representatives. By the way, if you agree that people of our country are gullible to the gimmicks of the politicians, you would agree that such referendums would only increase the gimmicks and money will flow for them. Hence, although I agree with the existence of the problem I do not agree with your proposed solution as it
is impractical and lacks thorough analysis. If you really want to change the countrys condition, change the fabric of this society, teach them to go about their business without giving bribes. If the roots change then in the due course of time the tree will bear the fruits you and I want. Learn from the politicians: they did change the fruit by sowing the seeds for corruption and easy money. Atul Kulkarni via email Write to Governance Now We invite your suggestions, reactions to the stories and analyses and, of course, your own take on all matters related to governance. You can email or send snail mail. All letters must accompany your postal address. feedback@governancenow.com SABGROUP Publishing Division 24A Mindmill Corporate Towers Film City, Sector 16A, Noida 201301
6 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010
First Indian-origin woman professor in Harvard

ita Gopinath has been appointed professor of economics at the Harvard University, becoming the first Indian-origin woman professor in the institutions history. Gopinath, 38, has been a member of the Harvard faculty since 2005 and was named associate professor in 2009. Her focus area is business cycles in emerging markets and price fluctuations across international borders. Gopinaths research
people
Borlaug institute on Indian soil
ndia plans to pay a tribute to the American agronomist who gave us the seeds for the Green revolution in the 1970s. A Borlaug Institute of South Asia will be set up in India soon. Norman E Borlaug, a Nobel prize winner, replaced Punjabs tall but low-yielding wheat varieties with dwarf but highyielding varieties. The seeds for these varieities were mixed with cheap fertilizers and subsidised power which led India out of the food crisis. Meanwhile, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar will visit Borlaugs International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and other institutes in Mexico in search for better alternative foods. Analysts say India needs another breakthrough in farm production, especially in pulses, to meet the demands of its growing population.
is on price stickiness at the US border, addressing questions on whether prices are set in the producers or the consumers currency and how this transnational pricing responds to exchange rate shocks. A Delhi University alumnus, Kolkata-born Gopinath has a PhD in economics from Princeton University. She was an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicagos Graduate School of Business.
R R Patil adopts 51 children

n a rare gesture that will go a long way in changing the way we look at politicians, Maharashtra home minister R R Patil has adopted 51 children from the Naxal violence-hit district of Gadchiroli in his state. According to a report in the Indian Express, Patil adopted these 51 children, many of them girls, after he took over as the guardian of the district. It was part of a promise he had made to provide better education to the children in the district. The children, who are in classes V and VI now, will be given support to complete their
education till class XII. Patil called for bringing progress, better educational facilities to Gadchiroli to defeat the Naxals. The children from the area are very intelligent. Most of the constables in the police force are from Gadchiroli. There is a need to improve the primary and secondary education, he said.
Priyanka Chopra is Unicef brand ambassador

he Unicef has announced actress Priyanka Chopra as its national ambassador for promoting child rights and adolescence. Chopra joins superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Sharmila Tagore in supporting UNICEFs work for children in the country and around the world. Chopra
was Miss World 2000. She made her entry into the Hindi film industry in 2002. In 2009, she earned the Best Actress title at the National Film Awards, the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Chopra started her work in collaboration with UNICEF in 2008. Since then she has recorded a series of public service announcements supporting girls education and celebrating the 20th anniversary of the convention on the rights of the child. She has also participated in a media panel discussion to promote child rights.
people politics policy performance

MinisterSpeak
INTERVIEW
K a m a l N at h
Once you have 30 pc growth in auto sector, you either build roads or you build garages
f infrastructure is the edifice on which India's dream doubledigit GDP growth rests, roads are its backbone. Surface transport and highways minister Kamal Nath is leading the mammoth exercise of strengthening that backbone with his own dream within a dream: to build 20 km of roads every day. In this exclusive interview with Sweta Ranjan, the nononsense minister takes on questions about his plans and the problems. Edited excerpts:
You have been aiming to build 20 km of road length every day but the target is still far away. What are the hurdles?
Thats not correct at all. During this year itself we will achieve the 20-km/ day target. There have been hurdles, huge issues; you cant build a road simply by deciding to build a road. You got to have a project report, got to bid it out, you need to have technical consultants, you need to design the roads... all these have been put in place. I believe from about November we will be building 20 km/day.
Is your ministry facing challenges in terms of land acquisition and environment clearances?
There were a couple of hurdles or irritants plaguing the sector when I took over at this ministry. The first task I took up was to hear from
various stakeholders about their problems why the award process was so slow, why companies were not coming forward despite such great opportunities in the sector. I was able to fathom their problems which mainly related to the standard bid documents and the Model Concession Agreement. With the governments approval of the B K Chaturvedi Committee recommendations that problem has been addressed. The other problem is the poor quality of the feasibility reports and DPR (Detailed Project Report). We are taking steps to make them accurate. Another challenge is to find skilled manpower for the enormous work in progresswe are managing 20,000 km of works now to be able to fulfil our target of 7,000 km of roads per year. Though land acquisition is not a contentious issue as far as road construction is concerned, delay in acquiring land can result in time and cost overruns. We have tried to address this problem by mandating that 80 percent of the land has to be acquired before bidding out the project and balance before achieving financial closure. Special land acquisition units have been set up by NHAI (National Highway Authority of India). You have to acknowledge that we are making up for the tardiness of the past. We have to do a lot to bridge the infrastructure deficit.
Has progress not been too slow?
No, we are now doing close to 12-13 km of roads per day. Roads are built on the ground, they are not built on statements.
The 20 km target led to a war of words with planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia...
I had just said building a road is very
There have been hurdles, huge issues; you cant build a road simply by deciding to build a road. You got to have a project report, got to bid it out, you need to have technical consultants, you need to design the roads... all these have been put in place. From November, we will be building 20 km a day.
GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010
different from producing a book. I have had no problems with Montek. I said so in my speech that day. I started by saying that we have got full support from Montek Singh, planning commission member B K Chaturvedi and member secretary Sudha Pillai. But we must recognise that one size never fits all. A road in Kerala is very different from a road in Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh. I have said repeatedly that Montek and I are on the same plane and there are no issues between us.
Why is the panel critical of the target?
You should ask the planning commission. They have not said no but if they have problems let them go and deal with it. The planning commission has not told me they have problems with that. The prime minister said in his Independence day speech last year (that we would build 20 km a day). The finance minister has also spoken about 20 km a day in his budget speech. I have said repeatedly that our target
is constructing 7,000 km of roads per year and we are very much on track. For achieving such a target, a lot of ground work has to be done, the required number of works have to be sanctioned. We have done that now. The total work in progress now stands at 12,348 km. Of this 4,870 km are of previous years, while 7,478 km have been added in 2009-10. During 201011 we are targeting to award another 12,000 km. So, by next year, we will have work in progress for more than 24,000 km. As far as the planning commission is concerned they have come out with some monitorable targets for this year which are way less than what we intend to achieve. They use historical data and must have accordingly worked out the figures. We as the implementing agency have fixed our targets and are on way to achieving them.
commission. Because even the deputy chairman has written to me that this is not (the view of) the planning commission. Thats the end of the matter.
Is it true that the banks are clearing loans to the private bidders way above the project cost?
Yes, in comparison to the total project cost assessed by NHAI consultants and approved by the PPPAC (Public Private Partnership Approval Committee), the actual total project costs assessed by the bankers have been found to be in high in many cases. The banks are doing their own evaluation and we should let them do their own due diligence.
In some cases banks are giving up to 80 percent more in loans to the concessionaire than the total project cost (TPC) itself (see box on next page).
If they are evaluating it... the banks have to look at it from their own risk management, do their own due diligence.
I am referring to plan panel advisor Gajendra Haldeas report.
Gajendra Haldea is not the planning
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MinisterSpeak
Why Kamal Nath is furious Mention Planning Commission advisor Gajendra Haldeas discussion paper and Kamal Nath gets suddenly furious. The reason: the paper, entitled Sub-prime Highways, criticises the cavalier way highway works are being financed. The paper warns: The issue is that the principles and practices of good governance cannot solely rely on good behaviour of the private sector and must identify and eliminate potential risks to public interest. Due diligence and caution can hardly be overemphasised when dealing with public funds. (For more on that report, see the cover story, NHAI going for broke, Governance Now, August 1-15.) Why higher-than-TPC loans are worrying Banks have been allowed to lend far in excess of the total project cost (TPC) arrived at by the NHAI. This inflated lending means, according to the Haldea paper, that the private player may not only spend beyond reasonable costs but also siphon out funds at public expense. Why VGF at 40 percent is questioned The Model Concession Agreement (MCA) specifies the viability gap funding (VGF) at 20 percent of the total project cost (TPC), but the committee on NHDP doubled it to 40 percent. This can allow the concessionaire to transfer most of its financial risk to the public.
tomorrow. If the banks are doing this, ask the banks.
Why did you increase the VGF from 20 percent to 40 percent?
See, you have not done your homework. Forget it, you are wasting time. There is a laid-down norm where it can be 40 percent, where it can be 20 percent. Its approved by the cabinet. How can you have a VGF which is higher or lower? Its approved by the Chaturvedi committee report. Read the Chaturvedi committee report.
I am quoting from Haldeas paper.
You are wasting my time. Go and read the Chaturvedi committee report.
The concessionaire not only gets easy funding, they can even exit from the project in two years time. Will you please explain this?
How come they are dishing out such higher-than-TPC loans without collateral or guarantees?
Go and read the Chaturvedi committee report. Chaturvedi is the member infrastructure. If you want to talk to me on Haldea... please dont talk to me. The PM appointed B K Chaturvedi, so read the Chaturvedi committee report. Now you will say I dont agree with Mr Chaturvedi. Keep saying it.
What a strange question! You should ask the banks.
Aren't you worried this could create huge problems in futureon the lines of the sub-prime crisis in the US?
Why will it create problems?
Then the NHAI has been asked to give the concessionaire a viability gap funding (VGF) at 40 percent.
Good if TPC is low. We are not giving VGF on what the bank assesses.
But you are giving 40 percent though the cabinet had fixed the figure at 20 percent (see box for explanation).
You have not done any homework, so you dont know.
This is what Haldeas paper says.
Forget Haldea. The fact of the matter is this. First have a look at the paper. We are not even commenting on this as this is not a planning commission paper. You can produce a paper
I sought (the PMs intervention) on a general environmental issue when the matter came up in the cabinet. If there is already a two-lane road and you are making it four-lane, its already there; traffic is already running on it. Now if you make the Mumbai-Pune road from four-lane to six-lane or six-lane to eight-lane, it makes no sense to have an environment clearance.
Don't you consider Haldeas paper as valid?
I have not read it. Montek Singh Ahluwalia has written to me saying this is not a planning commission paper.
So you have not taken cognizance of Haldeas report.
Its not about me taking cognizance. NHAI will look at it.
Now, to turn to another controversy, the environment and forests ministry has expressed its reservations in clearing certain highway projects.
This is not a such a big problem. Only 90 km of roads are held up because of a national park or sanctuary or forest issues. These things continue. There is a process issue. I was environment minister myself when we put this regulatory process into place. So Im fully aware what the regulatory process is.
But matters must have gone beyond the routine process because you had to
seek the prime minister's intervention.

No, I sought it on a general environmental issue when the matter came up in the cabinet. If there is already a two-lane road and you are making it four-lane, its already there; traffic is already running on it. Now if you make the Mumbai-Pune road from four-lane to six-lane or six-lane to eight-lane, it makes no sense to have an environment clearance. Once you have a 30 percent growth in the auto sector, either you build roads or you build garages.
and create a separate Expressways Authority. What is the rationale for this and when will it happen?
Then there's the issue of land acquisition. Is it true that you have abandoned projects for which the respective states are not cooperating by way of acquiring land?
What I said is that if states dont want a road let them not have it. Finally the roads are in states. So if a state doesnt want a road I will build it in another state. So in the end the state doesnt get a road. Its as simple as that. NHAI has established regional offices and zonal offices to liaison with state governments on pre-construction issues.
To resolve the problem of capacity constraints, we are planning to set up an Expressways Authority of India (EAI) to implement the master plan for development of 18,637 km of expressways by 2022, i.e. by the end of 13th five-year plan. This is intended to create additional road capacity by segregating traffic so that the high volume heavy commercial vehicles and the fast car traffic destined for long distances, could ply safe and fast. The expressway will ease out traffic congestion and provide quick, fast and cheaper transport. Discussions are on with various government agencies and stakeholders. I hope we will have more clarity on this in next three months.
Your dream of setting up a Road Finance Transportation reportedly faced opposition from some quarters.
Currently 85 percent of the finance in the roads sector is being provided by public sector commercial banks. Having another organisation doing the same financial intermediation for the same target audience was not found to do any value addition.
Is it true that some states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir are reluctant to sign the state support agreement (SSA), which is an umbrella agreement with the centre to support all National Highway projects?
For any road there has to be a state support agreement. States are signing it. Until now there has not been any road for which a state support agreement does not exist. Some states have signed the SSA in general, some states sign it on the basis of every project.
You have been campaigning hard to get foreign investments in the roads sector. How has the response been?
You have proposed to split the NHAI
While the domestic sector is mostly well informed, there is still a certain element of doubt and wariness (among foreign investors) regarding the investment climate in India. Our efforts right now are focused on ensuring that the positive policy initiatives in attracting FDI (foreign direct investment) to India and
in the road sector are made known to foreign investors. We also felt it necessary to convince such investors that notwithstanding the structural challenges India posed, the profit pool remained large and attractive with potential for players to enlarge exposures. Investment benefits flowing as a result of these have a longer gestation period. Outlining and quantifying benefitswithin this limited time zone would be a bit premature. We have definite information that large inflows continue to come from overseas sources, and large mega projects have elicited encouraging response from many major players abroad. Requests for pre-qualification are at all-time highs and project bids have attracted encouraging response. Given the fact that much interest is being shown by PE (private equity) investors in Indian companies developing road projects and the overall interest shown by overseas investors, our efforts in this direction have been fairly fruitful. For example, the formation of BIRG; Tata, Actis, Atlantia (Italian tolling company) to invest $2 billion in the next five years. Many Canadian pension funds have shown interest. Australian funds are also setting aside funds for the roads sector in India. n
sweta@governancenow.com
Digantar means a change in direction, but on the outskirts of Jaipur the name has come to spell the first step towards sustainable schooling
Lessons in life, taught at school

Jasleen Kaur
hen a doctoral student in mathematics and his would-be wife, a postgraduate in sociology, joined Digantar, which means a change in direction, they were sure they wanted to be part of this experiment in alternative schooling. Thirty-two years on, having opened four such schools
providing free education to some 650 students a year, Rohit and Reena Dhankar are by no means the only ones who can look back with satisfaction at their chosen path in life. With 380 girls and 269 boys enrolled in their two senior secondary schools in Bandhyali village and a primary school each in Ritwali and Kho villages, the couple have earned lasting gratitude of the people in this economically and socially backward region near Jaipur where parents, mainly muslims and the rest dalit hindus, seldom sent their daughters to school. Nothing illustrates the success of this couples missionary zeal better than the fact that girls actually outnumber the boys in their schools.
But this transformation has neither been easy nor inevitable. It all began when Jaipur-based Jitender Pal Singh, a Doon School alumnus and his British wife Faith Hardy, the duo that had launched the handloom apparel brand Anokhi, found out that there was no school which could provide a real world education to their three children. Public schools, such as the one Singh had attended, were out, they had decided. Digantar was thus born, with Rohit Dhankar and Reena Das as the only two teachers who taught the three children and a few others who joined later. The school was patterned after the alternative schooling model pioneered by the British educationist David Horsburgh, who had been running a few centres under his Neel
photos: ravi choudhary
Education comes first

School Time
Rohit and Reena Dhankar came to Bandhyali in 1986 when they set up their first rural school.
Bagh Trust and who offered to train the teachers at Digantar. Dhankar trained under Horsburgh near Bangalore, but comprising as he did 50 percent of the teaching force he had to wrap up his two-year training within nine months. Children back home had no school to attend, so I had to return mid-way through my training, he recalls. I was quite dissatisfied with the primary education in our country, says Dhankar, But I did not have an idea as to what the ingredients of a good school should be. His training under the master educationist filled in these vital gaps and proved to be quite an eye-opener. From cleaning the classroom to interacting with children, everything was part of the training programme. Teachers were encouraged to participate in the co-curricular activities and were trained to provide a conducive environment to children to boost their holistic growth, he says. When Singhs children finished their schooling and moved to England for further studies, the school that had been created especially for them also eventually shut down. But the two teachers were by now wedded to the idea of alternative schooling forever. So, in 1986, Rohit and Reena Dhankar packed up their lives in Jaipur and moved to Bandhyali, a village on the citys fringes where they opened the first rural Digantar school, Bandhyalishala. For the villagers, it represented the antithesis of what they had heard about schools and schooling. It was based on the alternative education programme which functions on ungraded classroom teaching. The students sit in a classroom but are not graded. There is a curriculum, but it is not divided in a syllabus. The idea behind the school, Dhankar says, was to give freedom to children to learn the way they chose to. The goal was to make the children self-motivated and independent learners, so the accent was on teaching them to think critically. While the Singh family had funded the project for eight years since 1978, Horsburgh too pitched in by providing funds for the next two years. But once the Dhankars moved out of Jaipur, it was time to look for money elsewhere. We understood that for sustainability, dependence on one family was not a good idea, says Dhankar. So, in 1987, the couple formed
Asifa with her mother Muftida at home in Bandhyali village.
sifa wants to become a social worker when she grows up, betraying a maturity well beyond her age. But then, this 17-year-old twelfth grader has been through a lot more than a usual teenager. A year and a half ago, her parents got her married -- along with a sister and an aunt to save costs, since her father, the sole earner, could not afford separate weddings. Asifa appreciated her fathers predicament, but she rebelled, not just against the illegal marriage but also against her impending withdrawal from the local school, Bandhyalishala. Even before the marriage, her in-laws had expressed their wish that her education be discontinued something to which her parents readily acquiesced. She eventually did have to get married but wrested two years to finish school. Her eagerness to study was rare her will to fight for it was rarer still. So impressed were her teachers by her resolve that they joined her battle and hours of pitching, pleading and negotiating later, her parents reluctantly gave their consent to her finishing school. I am illiterate, but I am proud that all my daughters go to school, says Muftida, her mother, People in our village are quick to talk. Can you imagine sending your girl to school in such a place? But with Digantar, it is different. It is safe. Muftidas only fear is that she may not be able to convince her daughters in-laws to allow her to study further when she goes to stay with her husband. I asked ammi to request them to allow me to study. They refused. But Ill study from home, says the teenager married to a primary-school dropout. At 17, such guts need guidance and Asifa found it at Bandhyalishala. Just as many others have done before her since the school was set up.
the non-profit society, Digantar Shiksha Evam Khelkud Samiti, and approached the ministry of human resource development to get funds under the Financial Assistance to Innovative and Experimental Projects scheme. Initially, the ministry gave an annual sum of Rs 1.92 lakh, but over time the funding increased to Rs 18 lakh per annum, thanks to which the number of schools went up to four and classes were added up to eighth standard. It was a new concept and people were sceptical whether it will work or not. Initially we managed to admit only 50 children, says Dhankar. Reena remembers how the girls would stay at home while boys made their way to school. Families here would hold on to regressive beliefs. No one wanted to send their daughters to school. Then we saw a solution in sending our own daughter there. We adjusted the school timings so that the girls could come, she says. Funds from the government were both a relief and a headache, says Dhankar. Its not easy to take money from the government. Many a time funds were delayed. But the project pulled on government assistance till 2002 when the funding was abruptly scrapped. That was a difficult time, the couple recalls, but it did not last long as within four months Asha for Education, a group of Indians in the US came forward to fund the project for a year. Since then, the project has been receiving funds from the ICICI Banks Centre for
Dhankar says it is a myth created by the government that parents do not want to send their children to school. We never held that true. We found that they do want to send their children to school, provided the school is good enough, especially for girls, because these villages are very traditional.

School Time
Elementary Education (ICEE). A cap on funds and parents unwillingness to send adolescent wards forced the school to have classes only up to the eighth grade. For further studies, boys went to neighbouring towns but the girls did not have any choice. It was in 2006, when a group of 20 girls approached the Dhankars and requested them that the schools added classes beyond the eighth standard. Nineteen-year-old Khateeja Sheikh was among those 20 girls. Along with her friends, she went door to door to convince the families to continue to send their daughters to school. Sometimes we told them that the other families are ready, so you also send your daughter, she says. And later, when everyone agreed, Digantar was extended till senior secondary. The teachers include even former students such as Aamna, who passed out senior secondary in 2000 and was immediately married. My parents were very supportive and allowed me to study but my husband was initially against it, she says. But when she met Reena again in 2006, she got inspiration to study further. She completed her BA in 2008, after which she started teaching at Bandhyalishala. I earn Rs 8,000 while my husband gets only
My parents were very supportive and allowed me to study but my husband was initially against it. Today, I earn Rs 8,000 while my husband gets only Rs 5,000.
Aamna A former student who now teaches at Bandhyalishala
Rs 5,000, says Aamna, who is managing her teaching job alongside caring for her three children. Whats more, the first girl in her village to have studied till graduation, she is now pursuing her MA as well. I want to continue teaching. I feel happy working here, she smiles. Dhankar says it is a myth created by the government that parents do not want to send their children to school. We never held that true. We found that they do want to send their children to school, provided the school is good enough, especially for girls, because these villages are very traditional. Over time, along with the four schools, Digantar also came to develop curriculum material and run workshops for education workers, besides conducting education research and running projects including Shiksha Samarthan in Jaipur and Sandarbh Shala Project in Chittorgarh, among others. As each batch beyond the tenth standard continues to include many girls who are the first members of their families to reach this level, the Dhankars know they must carry on with their mission. n
jasleen@governancenow.com
Are Indians being made guinea pigs?
policy
Dont let these food grains rot away
eaths due to clinical trials have been steadily on the rise in India, an analysis of the health ministry data shows. However, the ministry claims that these deaths are due to unrelated health reasons. Data till June 2010 reveals that this year, 462 people, who were part of clinical trials, have died. In 2007, there were 132 deaths, in 2008 the number rose to 288 and in 2009, it went up to 637. These deaths may have occurred due to side-effects of the drugs or due to other diseases, ministry officials say.
In 2010 till August, permission was granted to 117 global clinical trials (international companies) and 134 local (Indian) trials. In 2009, 258 global and 195 local trials took place in India. In 2008, 246 global and 275 local trials obtained permission. Global pharma majors are approaching the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) besides some clinical research organisations. Trials for a standard drug in the US may cost up to $150 million but could be tested in India for 60 percent less.
Supreme Court is not interim parliament

s judicial activism leading to courts trespassing in the executives turf? Justice Markandeya Katju, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, thinks the apex court should not don the role of the lawmaking body. Can the Supreme
Court convert itself into an interim parliament and make laws in vacuum? Supreme Court judges should do their jobs and not become a parliament and make laws, Justice Katju said during the hearing of an inter-country adoption case.
ood grains in large quantities have been rotting away for lack of proper storage even as millions go to sleep on a hungry stomach. Hearing a petition in this matter, the Supreme Court asked the government to distribute the food grains rotting in godowns for free or at very low cost as a short-term measure. The court said that the government should increase the quantum of food supply to the below poverty line population, keep the fair price shops open on all days and distribute food grains to the deserving population at a very low cost or no cost, instead of letting the food go waste.
Pay more for fancy hospitals: IRDA
hen medical insurance policyholders cried foul over denial of the cashless facility, Insurance and Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) chairman J Hari Narayan said that if patients wanted to be treated at major hospitals, they better be prepared to pay higher premiums. He added that the matter of cashless mediclaim facility is not a regulatory issue and there was nothing
the regulator could do about it. He said this a day after the Delhi High Court asked the regulator to take charge of the situation. Narayans argument is that it is for the health ministry to regulate over-charging by hospitals. He said that there was nothing wrong in the insurance companies denying cashless facility as long as they reimburse the claims.

Governance of Justice
For the majesty of courts and the dignity of judges

The Chief Justice of India sits at the summit of the judicial super-structure, a supercrumbling and is bereft of basic facilities and dignity. But few CJIs have looked at urgency and tenacity that it calls for as Sarosh Homi Kapadia is doing.
indifference continues to separate this highest court in the land from, for example, the Tis Hazari court barely 10 km away which mirrors much of the malaise that afflicts the lower courts across the country and underscores what ails the governance of our judicial machinery. Chief Justice Sarosh Homi Kapadia, the 38th chief justice who took charge on May 12, is seeking to change all that. Soon after assuming office, he set into motion the wheels of justice to correct this longstanding lapse and furnish even the last court in the land with the basic infrastructure. If it is Monday afternoon, it must be Chief Justice Kapadia versus the entire system that has denied even the basics, let alone perks, of office to his junior colleagues. Following his travels through Orissa and Maharashtra, where he won his spurs as a young lawyer, the chief justice set up a special three-member bench to hear every Monday infrastructural problems being faced by the subordinate judiciary in each state. And right from the first hearing on July 12, just two months after he assumed office, he has come up with ideas and directives to make funds available to the lower courts. Maybe empathy came more naturally to him because of his humble beginnings as a clerk in a law firm. But importantly, he also followed it up with a result-oriented course of action. He got prepared a detailed report on the state of the lower courts after his travels to the mofussil courts, with inputs from the noted jurist Fali S Nariman as amicus curiae, converted this report into an application to form the basis for the work undertaken by the special bench and in the process revived a writ petition dating back to 1989 from the all-India judges association. Court staff have no infrastructure, advocates sit in cycle sheds, courts are in bathrooms, the chief justice observed during the first hearing, The government spent Rs 108 crore to give laptops to the subordinate judiciary, but unless there is a generator you cant operate laptops, can you? The question was scarcely rhetorical because he answered it himself with a seemingly simple solution. The judiciary could readily use at least the funds generated through court fees and penalties, he said. Besides that, couldnt the court fees be increased, he asked. When the court fee is Rs 2.50 and filing a cheque bounce case costs all of Rs 1.25, the answer does seem a no-brainer. Yet, somebody needed to ask that question first. The Court Fees Act, 1870, still refers to proper fee in Schedule 1 in terms of annas, the chief justices report notes, It is necessary that the central government and the state governments should rationalise the court fees applicable especially regarding commercial litigations. Availability of funds remains an issue because, as the report says, according to the centres department of justice, the total estimated cost of infrastructure needs of the district and subordinate courts until May 2010 was Rs 7,077 crore, excluding estimates for Delhi, J&K and Allahabad, which did not provide their estimates. The requirement in the current financial year itself is estimated at Rs 2,162 crore. However, the total plan outlay for the entire 11th fiveyear plan period, ending 2012, is just Rs 701.08 crore. In fact, from 1993-94 to 2009-10, states and union territories
Ashish Sharma
s you ascend the short flight of steps in Supreme Court of Indias central wing and approach Court No. 1, the chief justices court, it is perhaps natural to be both swayed and humbled by the sense of sublime power and responsibility. Thirty-seven chief justices have passed through these hallowed portals over the past 63 years and several of them have left their indelible imprint on this critical pillar of Indian democracy. Few among them, however, appear to have looked beyond the majesty of the supreme court to address the lack of dignity of their less privileged colleagues in the lower courts. Perhaps that explains why a world of
structure that is weak, this problem with the
received Rs 1,102.18 crore in all under the centrally-sponsored scheme for development of infrastructural facilities for the subordinate judiciary. The report reminds that Justice Shetty Commissions report was accepted (on March 21, 2002) which required that each state must prepare a five-year plan to improve the existing infrastructure of courts, construction of new courts, providing furniture, fixtures, library etc, to all courts and for construction of quarters for all judicial officers. Central government was directed to share half of the annual expenditure on
subordinate courts and quarters for judicial officers. Though administration of the lower courts was originally envisaged as the responsibility of the state governments, the 42nd amendment to the constitution, in 1976, placed it in the concurrent list. While the lower courts depend primarily on the state governments for funds, the centre has been providing assistance for infrastructure

development under a special scheme to states since 1934. Chief Justice Kapadias ideas find a ready resonance with those who have suffered under the prevalent system. In a situation where even a deputy secretary in the law ministry can stall the functioning of the courts, it is a good idea to use the funds generated by the judiciary, says retired Justice Rajinder Sachar, a former chief justice of Delhi High Court, and recounts, Once we had asked for Rs 60 crore but nothing moved. We found out that a deputy secretary had been sitting on the request. He says the argument that access to justice should be free doesnt wash either. I dont think a little hike in court fees is unjustified especially if you are ready to waive it for people who cant afford it, he argues, I dont think judges will start imposing fines just to generate more funds either. Retired Justice R S Sodhi, of the Delhi High Court, says the majesty of the judiciary cannot be isolated from the dignity of the courts or the judges. If a judge in a trial court has to borrow a pencil from a lawyer just because proper stationery is not being provided to him, the lack of infrastructure is directly impeding the dispensation of justice, he says, In a single stroke the system has lowered the dignity of the judge and his office. If there are no proper tables, chairs, chambers and bathrooms inside the trial courts, as is generally the case, the machinery of justice just cannot function smoothly. If you have to justify every single expense to the government, how can you expect complete autonomy of the judiciary? Rationalising court fees and using the funds generated by the judiciary is certainly one way of addressing this pressing problem. Recourse to funds generated by the courts may, then, partly address the larger issue of the autonomy of the judiciary
In a situation where even a deputy secretary can stall the functioning of the courts, it is a good idea to use the funds generated by the judiciary.
Rajinder Sachar Retired chief justice, Delhi high court
as well. Rajiv Khosla, president of the Delhi Bar Association, however, points out that there are several other important issues besides funds, which, he says, remain a problem largely in the laggard states. In Delhi, for example, he says, courts do not suffer from the lack of funds but from the lack of dedicated time available with the judges for judicial work. Judges have been assigned so much non-judicial work that many of them cannot do justice to their primary duty, says Khosla, Many among them are members of committees constituted to look into administrative matters such as infrastructure, housing, transport etc. That delays the dispensation of justice, which is the basic purpose behind initiatives such as the one being undertaken by the chief justice. Justice Kapadia seems to know. He has recently recalled many Supreme Court judicial officers posted out with various committees. P K Dham, a former additional sessions judge and practising advocate in Delhi, believes the chief justices initiative is worthwhile but says it should become an ongoing exercise. Often, CJIs start something good, but since they are at the helm for short tenures, the effort sputters once they demit office, he says. Thats perhaps why, Justice Kapadia seems to be in a hurry. Just in the second hearing, with Justices Aftab Alam and KS Radhakrishnan on his side, he accepts in toto the July 2009 report of the Supreme Court-appointed oneman commission headed by Justice E Padmanabhan, a retired judge of the Madras High Court, on determination of salary, pension etc to judicial officers and pensioners. He directs all states and union territories to implement the recommendations
on allowances with immediate effect and pay 60 percent of the arrears since 2006 and the rest within nine months thereafter. When you are agreeing with the major points, why dont you implement the recommendations? he asks the counsels of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and a few other states who have raised a few minor objections. The report, which recommended a threefold hike in salaries of judges in the subordinate judiciary, had already been accepted under the previous chief justice in May 2010. But a few states have been dragging their feet insofar as allowances are concerned and Chief Justice Kapadia is not prepared to entertain any excuses. Next week, he announces, he would be taking up the issue of pensions. Four weeks on, it is time for the chief justice to ask why several states are yet to form the monitoring committees as directed by the apex court. In his original report, he had envisaged the setting up of monitoring committees at central, state and district levels. So each state had been directed to set up a committee headed by the chief secretary, with members including the registrar general of the high court, the principal law secretary or the home secretary as the case may be and the chief engineer of the state public works department. Similarly, each district is required to have a monitoring committee headed by the principal district judge. The committee at district level can be asked to submit requisite informations in the formats to the state committee and the state committee can consider the status of various projects and, in case of delay, the state committee can ensure expeditious steps to be taken by all concerned authorities to complete the projects, the report had said. Fali S Nariman informs
Monkey standard
At Tis Hazari courts, police do no better than simians in maintaining security. Kids sell water and lawyers brave the sun.
Samir Sachdeva
hree dark-faced langoors sitting chained to a wall in the Tis Hazari district court complex of Delhi are hard to miss. You may be pardoned for thinking that they are waiting to be produced as witnesses in the court before you are told they are there to scare away monkeys! One kind of primates is often hired in this part of the world to chase away another kind that is considered more troublesome. In fact, the court complex has a wire mesh on the top floor to keep the simian interlopers out. There are other things hard to miss too at Tis Hazari courts, one of oldest and largest district court complexes in India. As you enter the main complex, one of the first things you notice is the non-functional security equipment. The police officers sitting close by allow free walk-in to everyone. You dont have to show your identity card or get your bags frisked. You can carry anything into the complex. Just walk in a little further and you can see a huge crowd jostling desperately to get into a lift that will take you to the upper floors. You walk to the next one and find a note pasted on it that reads, Yeh lift khaarab hai (This lift is out of order). There is yet another one nearby and you are tempted to use it. But the push-button meant for the third floor does not work, so you get down at the second and climb up the stairs to the third. Before that the rattle and the bang of the lift doors gives you a scare of your life and you decide never to use it again. Established in 1954 and spread over 27 acre of land, the core of the Tis Hazari complex has over 125 courts, occupying about 20 percent of the total area. The rest 80 percent houses lawyers chambers and other facilities. The administration for the core complex is the responsibility of the district judge and the rest is managed by the bar association. If you are thirsty it is futile to look for a water cooler near the courtrooms. There are two juice stalls, on the ground floor and a canteen on the third, which provide bottled water. In addition, you can find young boys (surely less than 14 years of age) selling
Dont jump to judgement at the sight of these langoors. Believe it or not, they have a perfect case for being here.
mineral water, cold-drinks and tea close to the courtrooms. They appear to be angels for the thirsty litigants who have to spend the whole day in the complex waiting a call for their hearing. In toilets, you will find faulty taps that either allow water to flow out in fury all day or not at all. The only decent toilet on the ground floor is reserved for the lawyers and to use the rest you have to pay one rupee. The cleanliness in these toilets is little better than the sanitation around the rest of the court complex. Large chunks of the floors are spotted red with paan spittle, one of the trademarks of the public buildings in India. The outer complex is managed by the bar association and has over 3,500 chambers for lawyers. But that is not enough to accommodate a far greater number of lawyers who practise here. Scores of them can be seen soaking in sunlight or rain and high humidity while going about their work sitting on wooden benches placed under the open sky. Some technology savvy lawyers have installed computers in their open chambers and have arranged for almirahs in which they lock these when they leave for the day. The chairs, tables, typewriters of these open chambers are all chained and locked at the end of the day to ensure that when the lawyers and their support staff report for work the next day nothing is missing. There is no organised parking space within the sprawling complex despite a large
space available for the purpose. Therefore, chaos is the order of the day and once you have parked your vehicle there is no knowing when you will be able to get it out. Sanjiv Nasiyan, secretary of the bar association, says there are multiple infrastructure issues that need to be addressed inadequate security, poor sanitation and drainage, disorganised parking, lack of power back-up and so on. He says space is not a constraint but planning and organisation are. Bar association on their behalf is upgrading various facilities in the outer complex which includes better canteen, common bar room and more. This oldest court appears to be one of the very few courts that have a small dispensary just opposite the bar association office. The core complex has also improved with time as now it has incorporated facilities like common lunch room for judges, disabled friendly ramps and more. But still the court hearings are done in the rooms where there are limited chairs for litigants and lawyers. Only a few can boast of air-conditioners and those having them have their MSBs tripping every now and then as the electric wires remain old. And in-case the power goes off it is just a single fan above the judge and his computer which will work on the standby generators. If the law minister today is looking forward to delivery of speedy justice he has to definitely look into the working conditions of these lawyers and judges.

Look at our squalor! Have mercy!

t Allahabad district courts, we are being provided with computers without an uninterrupted supply of electricity. There is no power back-up except a diesel generator that cannot meet the requirement of the entire court complex. During long power cuts in summers, we sweat it out. Some of the chambers dont even have fans, let alone coolers. All the chambers now have desktop computers and judicial officers have been provided with laptops. There is also a main computer room, but no computer operator has been appointed. The computers are used only for typing and producing documents, little else. Information about cases and courts decisions has not been posted online. Substantial parts of the multi-storey building have long been declared old and unusable, but continue to be in use. Even then, there is a shortage of chambers for
the chief justice that eight states have already set up the required committees. Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, who is appearing for the government, assures the chief justice that the rest of the states are also in various stages of following suit. The chief justice gives another four weeks for action taken or status reports on each state, following which, he says, he will start calling chief secretaries of each state to seek explanations on just why the directive has not been implemented and to take further action. The solicitor general, however, assures the chief justice that since this is a matter of everybodys welfare all are on the same page. Fali S Nariman remarks that these efforts to augment the infrastructure in lower courts should dispel the feeling that we take care only of ourselves. The chief justice adds that he has made it a point to visit one state every month to find out the conditions of the
A lawyer describes the poor conditions in which justice is administered at lower courts and the uphill climb before CJI Kapadia
about 6,000 lawyers who practise at Allahabad district courts. Many of the lawyers can be seen sitting under tinshed or cement-shed and using broken chairs and tables. The existing chambers are too small for comfort. Since most of them have no almirahs to store documents, bundles of papers occupy the floor space. Because of shortage of chairs and tables, most of the lawyers have to remain standing while they wait for the hearing of their case to begin and during hearings. There is very limited space within courtrooms for lawyers and police to sit or stand in. Docks are missing in some courtrooms. There is hardly any sitting space for the public; they have to sit in verandahs or somewhere in the court premises. All these factors are impediments in day-to-day proceedings.
Arvind Kumar Mishra
There is poor cleanliness and sanitation in the court building. Toilets are in particularly bad shape. The lift tends to go out of order very often. There is no arrangement for parking of vehicles within the premises. There is no canteen in the entire premises. For drinking water, we rely on two water dispensers and four poorly maintained handpumps. There is neither a post office nor a basic medical facility. While the conditions in which justice is administered is in tatters, we read our union minister for law and justice M Veerappa Moily talking about fast-tracking the disposal of mountains of pending cases. Thats an unexceptional objective, but it wont be achieved without providing spacious buildings, chairs, electricity and other basic amenities. (As told to Shivani Chaturvedi)
weeks to the solicitor general to furnish details of action taken on the idea of creating an SPV. What has been happening is that the funds generated by the courts have been going straight to the state consolidated fund or the exchequer.the high courts dont even know how much funds are being generated. Why cant we have accounting under three heads: court fees, costs and fines? he asks, and says creation of an SPV is one way of utilising funds generated by the judiciary. He has other ideas as well, including the creation of a national budget for judicial infrastructure under the aegis of the Supreme Court. As another hearing comes to a close, CJI Kapadia has taken yet another firm step towards ameliorating the conditions of the lower courts that remain the first point of contact between a majority of the citizens and the judiciary. n
ashishs@governancenow.com
lower courts. Next week, I am going again, he tells Nariman. So the court stands adjourned for four weeks (until September 13) as far as infrastructure is concerned, the chief justice concludes. The following week
Funds generated by the courts have been going straight to the state consolidated fund. The high courts dont even know how much funds are being generated. Why cant we have accounting under three heads: court fees, costs and fines?
he takes up the issue of utilising funds generated by the judiciary for the upkeep of the lower courts. In his report, he had observed, It is necessary to create separate infrastructure fund head of account, under control of respective high courts or special purpose vehicles where the costs, court fees and fines imposed by the high courts and subordinate courts could be deposited and high court or SPV (as the case may be) should be able to allot funds to state judiciary mainly for the purpose of construction and maintenance of court buildings, judicial quarters, furnishings, computerisation, generators and other welfare measures for subordinate judiciary, judicial officers, and staff. Costs and fine imposed by Supreme Court can be deposited to such account for the state concerned. If SPV is created, monitoring committee can be part of it or assist the SPV. The chief justice grants two
Sanjay, 28, resident of Delhi
Beerbal, 36, a resident of Delhi
The condition of toilets is bad. Such basic facilities should be taken care of in a place like courts. Not only for petitioners but also for lawyers the basic amenities should be at least okay if not of a good standard.
Parking is a big problem. The district court should have a proper parking zone. Though I have come here by the Metro, I can understand the problems of those who come to the court in their own vehicles.
Karkardooma
courts Delhi
shivani chaturvedi
Indrapal, 32, a resident of Delhi
Mansingh, 42, tailor and resident ofDelhi
Nazmul Hasan, 50, working with an NGO in Delhi
Cleanliness inside the court premises and in rooms is lacking in the district courts. Just look at the entrance of the court: it is waterlogged after rains. Rainwater on the floor is causing great inconvenience to petitioners and other visitors. It is quite risky. Just now I saw a person who fell down due to the slippery floor.
There is no proper sitting arrangement for petitioners in the Karkardooma district court. We have to sit in the veranda or somewhere in the court premises. I have been here several times regarding a case but every time I have faced the same problem.
I have come to this court for the first time regarding a case related to labour. I found that there is no photostat shop within the court premises. We have to go to a shop just outside the court and its charges are high. Definitely, there should be a photostat facility within the court premises.
Prabha Rani, 32, Delhi High Court advocate
Deepa Babbar, 33, housewife
In this complex, the lawyers chambers are inside the court. You dont have to walk, as is the case in Tis Hazari. The Bar rooms are bigger than in other district courts. There are more lifts, so there is less rush.
There is enough space for visitors to sit and rest. The lawyers chambers are also better. There is a large parking facility and the Metro station is just next door. Cleanliness everywhere, including in rest rooms, also impressed me. I would say work is done in a better manner her than in any other court.
DWARKA, NEW DELHI
Chandan Mishra, 26, Supreme Court advocate
Dharmendra Gupta, 39, businessman
The Dwarka district court is very good for lawyers as there is security in the premises of the court. There are no unnecessary people in the court. The lifts are better maintained as compared to the other district courts. This court is far better than the one in Rohini and can be called the best in Delhi.
Since I live in west Delhi, this district court is very convenient for me. They have thoughtfully provided drinking water outlets everywhere. In the Tis Hazari court, if it rains you have to make a dash and take shelter in some lawyers chamber, but here there is enough covered space.
The Kapadia impact

Ashish Sharma
The chief justice has not just turned the spotlight on the neglected lower courts but also brought in fresh ideas to cut through the clutter in the supreme court
o frivolous public interest litigations. Fewer adjournments. No out of turn mentioning of matters by lawyers. Three fresh ideas, one clear objective. Chief Justice Kapadia is shaking the system out of its traditional slumber in a bid to speed up the dispensation of justice in the highest court in the land. He has dismissed public interest litigations demanding reservation for women in parliament and indicting the government for its failure to prevent deaths in road accidents, for example. He has inspired his fellow judges to decline requests for adjournments. When a young lawyer stated in Justice G S Singhvis court on a Friday afternoon, I have no instructions, your Lordship (except to seek an adjournment), the judge stayed firm, But I am not giving you an adjournment. You have already got it thrice, on your asking, in the last six months. Tell me, what is the locus of your client in the case? The
young lady repeated, I have no instructions. The judge persisted and asked her a series of questions. Finally, the lawyer pleaded for any date next week since her senior had to come from out of town. OK, Monday, the judge relented, but not without adding, But we will ask you these four questions again, and you better have answers. Besides, he asked her to file some additional documents the next day, a Saturday! The registry will open tomorrow, he announced. Senior lawyers are being made to look very uncomfortable if they seek an adjournment. So, more and more junior lawyers are seen in courts asking for adjournments, which are often being turned down. Now judges have taken to referring to the history of adjournments before the hapless lawyers are allowed to even explain. In another attempt at simplifying procedures, the chief justice has split the forest bench into two. While questions of policy and norms will be argued in his court, disputes
of implementation will be heard by the second court. Announcing this in open court, he characteristically said, And no adjournments, please. Now that the cases are divided, I am not going to entertain any adjournments. Much the same is the case with the practice of mentioning matters out of turn. Sorry, you cannot mention a case here, the chief justice told a senior lawyer, You have to go to the registrar. Earlier, at least three courts used to hear lawyers who wanted to mention urgent matters at 2 pm. That would easily take up 15 to 30 minutes of the court each day. Now, lawyers are required to make a small note and submit it to the registrar. The registrar then lists it before the relevant court, depending upon the issue. The list is now displayed outside the courtroom every morning. The process of mentioning urgent matters out of turn has, therefore, been streamlined, saving almost half the time. While everybody is scrambling to fall in line with these changes, many are still taking
their time to get used to the austerity of the chief justice. At a felicitation in Mumbai, where he had instructed that only tea and biscuits should be served, he ticked off lawyers because they served sandwiches as well! On another occasion, when he visited Surat, the Gujarat government had to convince him to provide him with even a rudimentary security escort. But he bluntly refused to meet any state official, including the law secretary. It was quite a change for the government because in the past it had routinely played host to a large entourage accompanying the chief justices who would expect the state government to extend such hospitality. Are the changes initiated by him likely to trickle down to the high courts and the lower courts? If you take just the issue of adjournments, I can tell you the chief justices initiative is not likely to have an impact on any other court than the supreme court, says Rajiv Khosla, president of the Delhi Bar Association. That is because though the judges like to blame it on the lawyers the fact remains that the

judges are as much to blame. Judges are often far too busy in other, administrative matters, to attend to their primary responsibility. We have suggested several times that the Bar can play a significant role in speeding up justice. Unless the chief justice takes the Bar on board, he is unlikely to achieve the results that he desires. No judicial order is going to do anything in this matter. Khosla says judges in district courts routinely spend a day every week in mediation, besides nearly a fifth of their court time in training. We need to rethink whether we really need doctors and police officers to depose in criminal cases when they are almost never cross-examined. In the case of doctors, their patients suffer as well. All such procedures impede justice, he says. Then, in cheque bounce cases, evidence can be recorded in the chambers where the lawyers can help clear the backlog. Above all, perhaps, we need to make the district courts relevant
once again, says Khosla, When the high court has accorded itself jurisdiction for all cases above Rs 20 lakh, in Delhi for example the high court is overburdened while the district courts have very little work. He says the problem has been compounded by the creation of five district courts in Delhi, with a sixth coming up in Saket, because the lawyers need to travel long distances and if they are not able to reach on time judges either adjourn the cases or pass adverse orders. As a result, he says, even five courts are not able to do much more than what a single district court managed until 1996. Are cases no longer being adjourned? asks PK Dham, a former additional sessions judge and a practising lawyer with evident surprise, Just today, all my cases, in the Delhi high court and a number of district courts got adjourned for various reasons. Yes, a long way to go. But go we must.n
ashishs@governancenow.com
Great expectations, back home

Justice Kapadias extraordinary rise to the top gives people the hope that he can spur a transformation in lower courts. Its a formidable challenge though.
Geetanjali Minhas
he chief justices efforts to lift lower courts out of their backwardness has found spontaneous support among those who have seen this man from Mumbai work and study his way up from being a Class IV employee to the highest judicial officer of the country. I am glad that Sarosh has taken up the cudgels on behalf of the lower judiciary. He is not doing this sitting in an ivory tower;
he started at the bottom as a clerk and has actually seen the functioning of lower courts, says Jai B Chinai, senior counsel of Bombay high court, who counts Kapadia among his students at Government Law College, Mumbai, in the early 1970s. In Chinais memory, what continues to stand out about Kapadia were his humble beginnings. I used to deal with about 500 students divided in twothree classes. A large number of them came from what might be called rich families that also had links with the judiciary. Sarosh
In Ahmedabad, swanky court buildings dont

Wricha Johari
n estimated 25,000 people gather every day at the eight-storey building in the heart of Ahmedabad to attend to over 10,000 criminal cases that come up for hearing before 32 courts of metropolitan magistrates. These include over 20,000 litigants and respondents, 3,000 lawyers, over 1,000 policemen and an equal number of the court staff. Considering the nearly 60 lakh population of the city, the
number of criminal cases that the courts of metropolitan magistrates take up appears minuscule just about 0.1 percent. However, the number of cases pending disposal at the lowest level of judiciary in the metropolis is piling up fast. The increasing number of pending cases in various courts in Gujarat is causing serious concern. In the courts of Gujarat, there is currently a backlog of 23 lakh cases, out of which 22 lakh cases are at the lower courts, and more specifically, 10 lakh at the Magisterial level, points out a report of the committee set up by the Gujarat government to look
into the functioning of the judiciary in the state. A lot of time is spent on posting of the cases for hearing, shuttling of cases between courts and legal paper work, points out a principal judge, on condition of anonymity. However, there has been a vast improvement in the physical infrastructure of courts in the state with separate new building complexes having been constructed even for the lowest rung of the judiciary. Moreover, computerisation of district courts is also happening at fast pace, he adds. One main reason why cases
are piling up is the inherent vested interest of the practising lawyers in prolonging the hearings by seeking repeated adjournments. However, now higher courts have begun to take a tough stand by not postponing the hearings on such frivolous grounds as unavailability of senior advocates, the principal judge avers. Countering the charge, Ahmedabad Criminal Courts Bar Association office-bearers point an accusing finger at the judicial administration which, they say, is facing a shortage of judges and competent ministerial staff.
appeared to be someone with a lot of humility; he was conscientious and one of the better students. Those qualities appeared more impressive when I learnt that he had been working as a clerk at a solicitors firm and had no familial link with the judiciary, says Chinai. When Chinai left teaching to join the legal profession, he continued to come into contact with Kapadia through Gagrat & Co., the solicitors firm that employed his former pupil. His progress from the bottom to the top bears out his sincerity, which makes me confident that he will do substantial work to improve the conditions of lower courts. Most of the other Supreme Court chief justices have had much more comfortable career progressions. Sarosh also has over two years to implement his plans, says Chinai. A visit to Mumbais civil and sessions court and small causes courts, however, doesnt make one feel as confident of change as Chinai sounds. Overcrowded courtrooms, inadequate sitting arrangement, dusty files stacked on rusted shelves, muggy air relieved only with worn-out ceiling fans,
an odd toilet, smelly and stained with paan spittle, for advocates and court staff (forget the general public), and corridors and staircases littered with waste paper. Typists producing documents for litigants and lawyers have been crowded out of the premises of the city courts and into shops and garages outside. One can smell the bad odour even in the courtrooms because
toilets are not cleaned for days together. As for the space constraint, lawyers sometimes miss the hearing of their cases while they are still looking for a place to park their car, says Manoj Prajapati, an advocate. Prajapati, who has also argued cases in district courts at Vasai, Pune, Nashik (Maharashtra), Rewa (Madhya Pradesh) and Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), says some of these courts dont have rooms for advocates to sit in, let alone the litigants. At some places, they pitch tents beside tea stalls, outside the court complex, for lawyers to sit in. Lawyers use their own chairs that they keep chained to fixtures when they leave for the day. Their briefs are left with local residents and shopkeepers, he says. Chinai says lower judiciary requires well furnished courtrooms, adequate staff that will assist in judicial work, well-stocked libraries, clean toilets, and good ambience. Efficiency wont come until you provide the basic infrastructure, services and staff. The conditions that prevail today take a lot away from a judges ability to efficiently hear cases, read law and facts of
a case. Oftentimes judges themselves have to involve themselves in the work that belongs to the help staff, he says. Chinai is critical of the cosmetic improvements that have been attempted so far, such as provision of laptop computers to the judges of district courts across the country by the Supreme Court-appointed E-committee. Providing laptops means nothing when so much is lacking. The judges and judicial staff have never been trained adequately to work efficiently on computers. There is no access to online library of laws and case law. Chinai also believes that the primary responsibility of providing infrastructure, staff and services has to be shouldered by the government, not the judiciary. The courts cannot provide facilities by themselves. Its the government that has the funds to provide what is needed by the lower courts. He also underlines the need to give judges salaries that are commensurate with the dignity of their profession. Today, you can often find a magistrate standing in the queue at a bus stop while advocates pass by in their cars, he quips.
speed up justice delivery

Take the case of the courts of metropolitan magistrates of Ahmedabad. Three of its most important courts dealing with economic offences, crime and womens police station are without a judicial magistrate for more than a year now, says Bar association president Harish Bhawaniwala as vice-president Bharat Shah nods. Because of these vacancies, no case is being heard in these courts. Other magistrates who are given the additional charge of hearing these cases take up matters of utmost importance only and refuse to dispense with routine matters, like hearing those who want to confess to their petty crimes or willing to pay fines so as to secure their passport or other such statutory documents and permits, he points out. The bar association also blames the inexperienced and inefficient ministerial staff of the courts for the unavoidable delay in dispensation of justice. The state government has recruited a large number of ministerial staff on ad hoc basis at a consolidated salary of Rs 2,500 per month. How does one expect these staff to perform their duty efficiently? Many of them dont even know how to write depositions, he says. While admitting that there has been a vast improvement in the physical infrastructure of the court, the bar association officebearers point out that lack of adequate budgetary allocation by the state government for their upkeep and maintenance is leading to poor sanitary conditions and absence of such basic amenities as water coolers and desk space for lawyers. The state has allocated Rs 1.10 crore for the metropolitan courts of the city. Of this Rs 90 lakh goes towards the salaries of judicial and ministerial staff. This leaves only Rs 20 lakh for the upkeep, repairs and maintenance of the building infrastructure. The electricity bill alone comes to Rs 35,000 a month, Shah points out. Little wonder then, one finds this apparently posh building littered with waste and filth, non-functional lifts and unhygienic overhead water tank, Bhawaniwala and Shah say. The out-of-order lifts, too, add to the delay in hearing of cases, they claim, adding that at the start of any working day there are long queues outside the two lifts that are operational. Indeed, a lot of work for Justice Kapadia!

Planned Chaos
Urban Un
Civic governance is not an easy job when you have to consider so many surprise factors. Rain during monsoon, for example!
Suresh Menon
n cricket, poor fielding captains have one trait in common. They place fielders where the previous ball was played; it is called following the ball. Thus a batsman plays a cover drive for four, and next ball there is a fielder at cover, he pulls for two and a fielder is moved to midwicket and so on. Nothing is anticipated, nothing planned. Our urban planning often follows the same pattern. First the roads are dug up and laid afresh. Then the same roads are dug up because someone forgot to lay the pipes. After they have been re-laid, they are dug up again for electrical work. Exhausted with all this digging and re-digging, officials then simply leave them open to the elements. A moments thought will show there is method in the madness. For each new job involves a fresh contract, fresh kickbacks and bribes. Wealth-creation and employment in one stroke (or two or three or six). It is not the bribery that has affected the people of Delhi, for instance, so much as the fact that officials have lopped off the top and yet not delivered. The difference between the efficient and the others is not that the there is no corruption in efficient governments. It is that they take kickbacks and do the work while the inefficient merely take the money and ignore the job. Hence the ethical dilemma. Corruption without efficiency is unpalatable. Bangalore, one of our fastest growing cities, is a good example of urban surprise. Everything comes as a surprisefor example, the rains every year and its obvious fallout, the water shortage. The power situation comes as a shock, as do building violations approved by the authorities. This year, announces a minister every year, there will be no power shortage and
ashish asthana
planning
his speech stops in mid-sentence because a power cut turns the mike off. This year it will be all right believe the ever-optimistic citizens, but the number of hours without power every day only increases. Domestic work is done between 2.40 am and 4.10 am, the best time of the day to switch on fans and lights and appliances. The day the last village is electrified fully will be the day the first city loses all electrification. That seems to be the plan. Urban planning has been taken to the next levelurban unplanning. The oneway streets are so planned that if you leave home for an appointment half-anhour away, you will find yourself back home in about two hours of non-stop driving. All roads lead home, or conversely, to the next state if you miss a turning that hadnt been there the previous day. In case you are unhappy with this, they have thoughtfully decided to lop away large chunks of it in the name of widening roads. Every attempt is made by the officials to huff and puff and blow your house down because there are too many vehicles on the road. This is the latest Urban Tamasha. Walls are duly marked, citizens are duly kept away from the decision-making process, and to add to the confusion, ministers and planners speak in a forked tongue. Those who have no authority to make such statements rush to the media with comforting storiesdont worry, the roads will not be widened, your property is safe. This is followed by the who the hell is he to decide response from the road-widening authorities, and everything is back to normal. Urban Planning also involves Urban Punishments. If you build large apartment blocks, we will cut off your water supply, says the municipality (known in Bangalore by all of four letters, the BBMP, Bruhat Bengalooru Mahanagara Palike). Then there is CNSF, or Cutting off Nose to Spite Face. The same authorities who allow builders to construct malls without
Bangalore, one of our fastest growing cities, is a good example of urban surprise. Everything comes as a surprise for example, the rain every year and its obvious fallout, the water shortage. The power situation comes as a shock, as do building violations approved by the authorities. This year, announces a minister every year, there will be no power shortage and his speech stops in midsentence because a power cut turns the mike off.
parking spaces then make a big deal of pulling them up for not having parking spaces. In fact, says the mayor of Bangalore, the citys biggest problem is the proliferation of malls. They play havoc with the traffic because vehicles are parked on the roads which means we have to widen the roads and lop off large portions of your property so they can build more malls where the lack of parking spaces you get the idea. It is the cycle of birth and rebirth from which tax-paying citizens hope to get moksha but dont. First the luxuriesthe fancy buildings, the attractive mallsand then the necessities: water, electricity, parking, access, approach. This is urban planning in reverse. If it offends, cut it off is another mantra. The police commissioner wants all of Bangalore to stop drinking and eating out by 11.30 pm and be home in bed. His argument? Most crimes are committed between 11.31 and early morning, and by drunks who cant sleep. Keep everybody off the liquor and see how crime-free we become. Sadly, he didnt make allowance for the sober thieves and murderers who have pushed up Bangalores crime rate, the most sensational recent one being the murder of his wife by a techie who confessed to killing her before going out for a morning jog. In the finest traditions of following the ball, expect the city to ban jogging in the morning or techies or techies who are married. You mustnt kill your wife, the commissioner is quoted as saying, live separately, get divorced, but dont give in to violence. That plea should solve the problem. There is something sweet and innocent about it. If only he had thought of extending that to other areas: Please dont steal, buy it in the supermarket instead or dont ore metal illegally or please try good governance, I swear its possible. n
talmenon@yahoo.com

Power Buzz
Delhi Diary
Nitish doesnt mind Lalus fat salary

ihar chief minister Nitish Kumar does not mind members of parliament getting a three-fold hike in their salary. Cost of living is going up, everybodys salaries are going up, so why shouldnt the salary of the MPs go up, he asked a gathering of eminent persons at the Governance Now Forum in New Delhi on August 21 (more about that in our next issue). Momentarily you would have been excused if you thought Nitish was backing his enemy no. 1, Lalu Prasad Yadav, who has been at the forefront of the demand for massive hike in members salary. But no, no temporary truce had taken place between the two principal contenders
for the Bihar chief ministers chair in the upcoming elections. Because, after a momentary pause, Nitish added: MPs
deserve a pay hike, I have also been an MP...they have a right to demand a hike, but not in such a crass manner. The reference was, of course, to Lalu Prasad and his mock parliament that he held with a handful of MPs as willing participants. OK, I am your leader. I will fulfil all your demands, Lalu had declared playing the mock prime minister. Never one to overstate a point, Nitish left it there and went on to define the word governance in a manner very few serving chief ministers in the country can define the term. Those lucky to be present at the daylong seminar went home impressed and praying: that he gets a second term.
DMK retaliates to Mamata

When the AIADMK wanted to hold a rally against the price rise, the venue they had chosen in Trichy was a railway property. So J Jayalalitha had a word with Mamata Banerjee and the railway minister was only too happy to oblige. This has, predictably, upset the DMK. M K Alagiri has bluntly told other DMK ministers, especially Dayanidhi Maran, not to consider any request from Mamata on jute related issues.
Retirement plans
Question of question hour
Fashion statement in Central Hall
heres no better time than the start of the day in parliament if opposition MPs want to register protest on any issue and question hour has become a victim of this tradition. So, Meira Kumar and Hamid Ansari, the presiding officers of the lower and upper houses, wanted to change the time of question hour: beginning at 3 pm rather than 11 am. But their efforts to effect this change have failed because the main opposition BJP is not in favour of the idea. When the General Purposes Committee of the Rajya Sabha held a meeting under the chairmanship of Ansari, BJP leaders categorically stated that the party was not for shifting question hour to evening. So Ansari, who wants to make the government accountable to the upper house, made another proposal: let there be a lottery to choose 10 questions from a list of 20
oral starred questions. The ministers will be called to the house with the lottery order of preference. This proposal has been under discussion. When the same exercise was carried out for the Lok Sabha, the BJP said, lets not break the tradition of starting question hour at 11 am. On the next day, as the BJP wanted the house to skip question hour, Bansal took pot shots at leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj, taunting her for the BJPs double standards.
f you want to be noticed in the Central Hall of parliament, being tech-savvy helps. So many firsttime MPs are already doing so. As soon as they enter the hall, they bring out their laptops and iPads and start checking email, reading e-papers and writing notes. For example, EM Sudharshan Nachiappan, a Congress MP, is always seen armed with his very tiny iPod. The Lok Sabha is expected to amend its rules and provide better computers to its members from January 2011. The Rajya Sabha, on the other hand, has already amended its rules. If an MP is ready to shell out the extra amount over and above their entitlement of Rs 1.5 lakh, an Apple package including a laptop and iPod is made available to them.
As steel secretary Atul Chaturvedi, who retires on August 31, paid a farewell call on him, steel minister Virbhadra Singh naturally asked him about his post retirement plans. The bureaucrat replied in a lighter vein that he planned to grill the minister with questions. For that, he of course has to become an MP. So, Singh asked him which party would get him elected to the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. In a relaxed mood, Singh also requested Chaturvedi not to ask him any questions because you presided over the steel ministry and know the nitty-gritty. Jokes apart, Singh in his aristocratic style showed warmth and wished Chaturvedi well.
Posting pressure
The central government has been under tremendous pressure from certain politicans from Bihar who wants to see Pramod Kumar, an IPS officer of 1989 seniority, as deputy director of the Narcotics Control Bureau in Chennai. In Parti
Manmohan is third longest serving PM

minister of India after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi clocking 2,273 days in office. Indias first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru tops the list at 6,130 days, while his daughter Indira Gandhi remains the second longest-serving prime minister with 5,829 days in office. In fact after Nehru, Manmohan Singh is the only prime minister to have been re-elected on completion of a full five-year term.
politics
Gag order in BJP
ince a number of gag orders by BJP president Nitin Gadkari have failed to stop his party leaders from talking unofficially to the press, he has now threatened to spy on them. According to a report in the Hindu, Gadkari cautioned leaders against talking to the press, adding reports on who is talking to reporters come back to me. There was talk of tapping phones and conversations, the report said. Gadkari, who took charge as BJP president towards the end of 2009, has several times warned colleagues that none other than the authorised spokespersons should talk to journalists. With several power centres in the BJP, talking out of turn to the press by many of the second rung leaders had become commonplace. This forced Gadkari to appoint six spokespersons.
hen Manmohan Singh was sworn in as prime minister in May 2004, after Congress chief Sonia Gandhis unprecedented act of renunciation, many gave him a few years, at best, at the helm, before the crown prince Rahul Gandhi took over the reins. However, he defied all the odds and on August 11 he overtook Atal Bihari Vajpayee to become the third longest serving prime
PM promises job package for Kashmiri youths

gainst the backdrop of the protests in Kashmir largely led by the youngsters, prime minister Manmohan Singh on August 10 announced a six-member expert group to create a job-generation plan for the Valleys youth. He said the expert group headed by renowned economist and former Reserve Bank of India governor C Rangarajan will formulate a jobs plan for the state, involving both the public and
private sectors. The panel also includes Infosys founder N R Narayana Murthy, Confederation of Indian Industry chief mentor Tarun Das, Federation Chamber of Industries in Kashmir president Shakeel Qalander and P Nanda Kumar.
alu Prasad named himself as prime minister during a mock session of parliament. It so happened that the Lok Sabha was adjourned over a round of opposition protests. The opposition leaders rushed to the speakers chamber to protest but Meira Kumar was not there, so they returned to the house. As they wondered what to do, as Mulayam Singh Yadav and Gopinath Munde squatted on the floor with several MPs, Lalu had a brainwave. He was in any case leading the MPs in pressing for a better pay package, so he declared himself the
Lalu Prasad as mock prime minister

prime minister. OK, I am your leader. I will fulfill all your demands, he declared, as the fellow MPs clapped and cheered him on. Munde was then named speaker and Mulayam his deputy. Fortunately or otherwise, the mock session came to an end very soon. Later, the speaker only said that parliament was a temple of democracy and irreverence had no place in it. But parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal blasted Lalu, Mulayam and Munde for enacting a theatre of the absurd in this august place.
ashish asthana
Print and the mint!

Only those with commitment to journalism can counter the paid news trend and they must do so at the earliest
Jagdeep S Chhokar
Reader Beware!
he 2009 elections to the Lok Sabha and to the Maharashtra and Haryana assemblies confirmed that the electoral system in India, and consequently Indian democracy, has contacted another deadly, and so far untreatable, virus. While technical names and descriptions may vary, in common parlance it is called paid news. The term paid news was first used by the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ), which was the first union of journalists to speak out against the phenomenon. While the
APUWJ traces the genesis of paid news to the general elections of 2004 when small and local newspapers in mofussil towns and district headquarters in some parts of Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat started this practice in an organised way, a report prepared by a sub-committee of the PressCouncil of India traces the origins of the practice to the start of a paid content service by the name Medianet by Bennett Coleman Company Limited (BCCL), publishers of the Times of India (see box). This service started openly offering to send journalists to cover product launches or personality-related events, for a price. The efforts of converting journalism into business bore fruit when it was widely reported in 2005 that several companies had allotted equity shares to BCCL in return of BCCL providing advertising space to these companies in BCCL-owned media ventures in what came to be called private treaties. The success of private treaties attracted attention from various quarters, one of which was
MediaNama.com, the premier source of information and analysis on the telecom and digital media business in India. S Sivakumar, CEO designate of Times Private Treaties, was interviewed by Nikhil Pahwa, editor of Medianama.com, on June 24, 2008. When asked about the total value of the portfolio of Times Private Treaties, Sivakumar said, The market valueI dont know since were not in the business of exiting. At cost, I can only give an indicationat an average deal size of Rs 15-20 crore and 175-200 clients. This puts the aggregate value somewhere between Rs 2,625 crore and Rs 4,000 crore! From the small newspapers owned and edited by the same person assisted by a few others enter(ing) into agreements with the local leaders of prominent parties or candidates and start(ing) to publish propaganda material of these parties or candidates as news for a fee in the run up to the elections (APUWJ) to the Rs 2,625-4,000 crore business of Times Private Treaties is some
progress indeed! That is why much has been written about paid news and innumerable discussions and seminars have been held but there seems to be still no signs of any real action. Several leading lights of what is now called media have expressed serious concern that unless something is done by them, themselves, the government and the political class will take advantage of the situation and force some kind of draconian controls on them. Such fears are not unfounded. While there is much speculation about what the government might do, there does not seem to be any reliable evidence of intended specific action. The newspaper reading and TV watching public, of course, continues to be confused about what to believe as news, and what to treat as disguised advertising. With so much agreement on something like self-regulation by the media, why it is that nothing seems to be happening, and what can be done to make something happen? One of the main reasons is the lack

Reader Beware!
of clarity about all that is involved. Following are some of the major confounding issues. The very first is what media is. In a discussion on paid news, one of the leading newscasters and writers maintained that the issue concerns the entire range of media, including films, television, etc. This, that is to say, broadening the issue, is a standard technique of confusing matters leading to paralysing action. It is akin to saying that poverty must be completely eradicated from India before any industrialisation can be attempted. The very first clarity needed is: what is news, and what part of media can be considered relevant to news? This clarity is required amongst those who really feel the pain of the stigma that might attach to them as a result of the paid news phenomenon. The second issue is what has come to be called the business of journalism. It can be presented as the question: Is journalism a business, like any other business? This question also presents itself for some other human endeavours, the prominent ones being education, healthcare and law. While all of these have become like any other business today, a cogent argument can be made that these, including journalism, should not be like any other business as these seem to touch human lives much more intimately than many other human endeavours. The third major issue is blurring of lines between ownership and journalism, the phenomenon of journalists turning into owners of media businesses. Separation of ownership and management is an age-old concept in the management of large businesses, but it is fast becoming the bane of the
so-called media businesses. Another manifestation of this is the shifting sands of editorial freedom and control.
The legal perspective
The existing laws governing the Pressin India consist primarily of three enactments. The oldest is the Pressand Registration of Books Act, 1867. Yes, 1867! While it defines editor to mean the person who controls the selection of the matter that is published in a newspaper [Section 1(1)], it uses the expressions printer and publisher freely along with editor, often sounding as if these expressions are freely interchangeable. While the Act does make a distinction between the owners and the editor, printer, and publisher particularly in Section 19B, dealing with the Register of newspapers, it does not delineate well enough the duties, responsibilities, and rights of the editor and the owner(s). In addition, there is lack of clarity, in spite of many judicial rulings, including some by the Supreme Court, about the locus standi of functionaries such as managing editor, resident editor, chief editor, editor-inchief, features editor, sports editor, entertainment editor, op-ed page editor, edit page editor, and even response features editor! Then came the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955, which attempted to regulate certain conditions of service of working journalists and other persons employed in newspaper establishments. Some of these conditions are minimum period of notice for firing, gratuity, provident fund, hours of work and minimum wages. For example, section 3(2)(a) of the Act provides that an editor has to
What then can be done, and by whom? The limitations of the Election Commission of India and the judiciary have already been enumerated elsewhere, leaving only the two main actors in the paid news drama: those who give money (or inducements in any way, shape, or form) and those who take itthe politicians and the media folks.
be given at least six months notice for removal from service. Section 2(f) defines a working journalist as a person whose principal avocation is that of a journalist and who is employed as such, either whole-time or parttime, in, or in relation to, one or more newspaper establishments, and includes an editor, a leader-writer, news editor, sub-editor, featurewriter, copy-tester, reporter, correspondent, cartoonist, news-photographer and proof-reader It, thus, does expand the definition beyond the 1867 Act. However, given that many senior journalists choose to work with their employers under fixed term contracts, they opt out of the protection that can be accorded to them under the provisions of the Act. This was graphically illustrated in a debate on Blurring the line between news & ads organised by the Foundation for Media Professionals in October 2009 where Chaitanya Kalbag, former editor of Hindustan Times, said he was sacked with half an hours notice. The next is the PressCouncil Act, 1978, enacted in the afterglow of the lifting of the infamous Emergency, with the stated objective to preserve the freedom of the Pressand to maintain and improve the standards of newspapers and news agencies in India. Section 13(2) of the Act lays down 11 lofty functions for the Council, four of which are: to ensure on the part of newspapers, news agencies and journalists, the maintenance of high standards of public taste and foster a due sense of both the rights and responsibilities of citizenship [Section 13(2)(c)]; to keep under review any development likely to restrict the supply and dissemination of news of public interest and importance [Section 13(2)(e)];
n pursuing its quest for profits, it can be argued that certain media organizations have sacrificed good journalistic practices and ethical norms. Individual transgressions -- reporters and correspondents being offered cash and other incentives, namely paid-for junkets at home or abroad in return for favourable reports on a company or an individual were, until recently, considered more of an aberration than a norm. News that was published in such a manner was suspect because of the fawning manner in which events/persons were described while the reports gave an impression of being objective and fair. The byline of the journalist was stated upfront. Over the years such individual transgressions became institutionalised. In the 1980s, after Sameer Jain became the executive head of Bennett, Coleman Company Limited (BCCL), publishers of the Times of India (TOI) group of publications, the rules of the Indian media game began to change. Besides initiating cut-throat cover-price competition, marketing was used creatively to make BCCL one of the most profitable media conglomerates in the country it currently earns more profit than the rest of the publishing industries in the country put together though as a corporate group, the STAR group has in recent years recorded a higher annual turnover in particular years. The media phenomenon that has caused considerable outrage of late has been BCCLs 2003 decision to start a paid content service called Medianet, which, for a price, openly offers to send journalists to cover product launches or personality-related events. When competing newspapers pointed out the blatant violation of journalistic ethics implicit in such a practice, BCCLs bosses argued that such advertorials were not appearing in newspapers like the TOI
What the Press Council doesnt want you to read

itself, but only in the city-specific colour supplements that highlight society trivia rather than hard news. There was another, more blatant justification of this practice not just by BCCL but other media companies that emulated such a practice after BCCL started it. If public relations (PR) firms are already bribing journalists to ensure that coverage of their clients is carried, what was wrong then with eliminating the intermediary in this instance, the PR agency it was argued. Besides Medianet, BCCL devised another innovative marketing and PR strategy. In 2005, ten companies, including Videocon India and Kinetic Motors, allotted unknown amounts of equity shares to BCCL as part of a deal to enable these firms to receive advertising space in BCCL-owned media ventures. The success of the scheme turned BCCL into one of the largest private equity investors in India. At the end of 2007, the media company boasted of investments in 140 companies in aviation, media, retail and entertainment, among other sectors, valued at an estimated Rs 1,500 crore. According to an interview given by a senior BCCL representative (S. Sivakumar) to a website (medianama.com) in July 2008, the company had between 175 and 200 private treaty clients with an average deal size of between Rs 15 crore and Rs 20 crore implying an aggregate investment that could vary between Rs 2,600 crore and Rs 4,000 crore. It is a separate matter that the fall in stockmarket indices in 2008 robbed some of the sheen off the private treaties scheme for the BCCL management. While the value of BCCLs holdings in partner companies came down, the media company had to meet its commitments to provide advertising space at old inflated valuations which also had to be shown as assessable taxable income for BCCL on which corporation tax is levied. Even as the private treaties scheme was apparently aimed at undermining competition to the TOI, a number of the newspapers competitors as well as television channels started similar schemes. The private treaties scheme pioneered in the Indian media by BCCL involves giving advertising space to private corporate entities/advertisers in exchange for equity investment the company officially denies that it also provides favourable editorial coverage to its private treaty clients and/or blacks out adverse comment against its clients. While BCCL representatives denied receiving money for providing favourable editorial space, the integrity of news was compromised. In advertisements published in the Economic Times and the TOI celebrating the success of the groups private treaties, on December 4, 2009, the Mumbai edition of the newspapers published a half-page colour advertisement titled How to perform the Great Indian Rope Trick and cited the case of Pantaloon. What was being referred was how Pantaloons strategic partnership with the TOI group had paid off. The advertisement read: with the added advantage of being a media house, Times Private Treaties, went beyond the usual role of an investor by not straining the partners cash flows. It was because of the unparalleled advertising muscle of Indias leading media conglomerate. As Pantaloon furiously expanded, Times Private Treaties (TPT) ensured that (it) was never short on demand. The TPT has a better phrase for it -business sense.
From the revised draft report of the sub-committee of the Press Council of India, which the PCI has not put on even its website. In its own Report on Paid News, PCI says it may remain on record as reference document.
to promote a proper functional relationship among all classes of persons engaged in the production or publication of newspapers or in news agencies [Section 13(2)(h)]; to concern itself with developments such as concentration of or other aspects of ownership of newspapers and news agencies which may affect the independence of the Press[Section 13(2)(i)]. There are two aspects of the
PressCouncil Act that need pointing out. One is, it says that the expressions editor and newspaper have the same definitions respectively as given in the Pressand Registration of Books Act, 1867, and the Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955. These definitions come with all their limitations and
infirmities as mentioned above. The other is that if the Council has reason to believe that a newspaper or news agency has offended against the standards of journalistic ethics or public taste or that an editor or a working journalist has committed any professional misconduct, the Council maywarn, admonish or censure the newspaper, the news agency, the editor or the journalist or
disapprove the conduct of the editor or the journalist.., and that If the Council is of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient in the public interest to do so, it may require any newspaper to publish therein in such manner as the Council thinks fit, any particulars relating to any inquiry under this section [14(2)] against a newspaper or news agency, an editor or a journalist working therein,

Reader Beware!
including the name of such newspaper, news agency, editor or journalist. The functioning and efficacy of the PressCouncil is illustrated by its actions on the paid news phenomenon. One of its latest publications says, Realising the dangers of paid news to democracy as well as the right to freedom of expression enshrined in Article 19 of the Constitution of India, on June 9, 2009, the PressCouncil of India appointed a sub-committee comprising Shri Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Shri Kalimekolam Sreenivas Reddy to examine the phenomenon of paid news observed during the last Lok Sabha elections based on inputs received from the members and others.' The two members met a cross-section of society in New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad and also went through many letters and representations that were sent to the Council. The report of the sub-committee was discussed in detail by the PressCouncil in its two meetings held in Indore and New Delhi on March 31, 2010, and April 26, 2010, respectively. Members gave a number of suggestions and thereafter, the PressCouncil of India chairman appointed a drafting committee to prepare a final report for the consideration of the Council. The most efficacious way of describing the working of the PressCouncil is to quote a journalist who has been consistently researching and writing on paid news, P Sainath. In the penultimate paragraph of a piece titled The Empire strikes backand how! on August 5, 2010, Sainath writes in The Hindu, The differences between the full report of the sub-committee and the final report of the PressCouncil are many. The first (36,000 words) was based on painstaking investigation, inquiry, research, interviews and
depositions. The second (less than 3,600 words) was based on hot air. In fact, little more than a group of people gutting an inquiry they did not work on and did not want. Any substance it has is drawn from the original. For instance, the section on recommendations. The rest is a heavily-watered down, crudely amputated version of the real thing. Worse, this censorship carries the stigma of a very questionable vested interest: to conceal the names and identities of the main practitioners of paid news from the general public (see box on previous page). Thus a body entrusted with Preserving the freedom of the Pressand improving the standards of Pressin India has set an appalling standard. The guardian of Pressfreedom stands as an arbitrary censor of truthful journalism. It has acted less like the watchdog of the press that its ideals call for. And more like the lapdog of the powerful media owners who stood to be exposed by the report of its own sub-committee. Indeed, the first signal of the PCI's action is to those powerful forces: don't worry, you're safe. We've fixed that (emphasis supplied).
What can be done?
What then can be done, and by whom? The limitations of the Election Commission of India and the judiciary have already been enumerated elsewhere, leaving only the two main actors in the paid news drama: those who give money (or inducements in any way, shape, or form) and those who take itthe politicians and the media folks. The official response of the media is described above. At other levels there have been a variety of initiatives by members of the media fraternity to at least show concern on this issue. The debate on Blurring the line between news & ads
One solution may be to introduce internal democracy and financial transparency in political parties by law. But that will also need action in parliament by the political establishment, and is therefore unlikely. What is more likely is that the government will try to come up with another independent regulator and the media will shout about attacks on freedom of the press.
organised by the Foundation for Media Professionals in October 2009 has already been mentioned. The Editors Guild of India, the Indian Womens PressCorps, the PressAssociation and others organised a seminar on paid news in New Delhi on March 13, 2010, which was attended by leaders of political parties, media representative, and others interested. At all such events, absence of owners of big media seems conspicuous. This is illustrated by the experience of the Foundation for Media Professionals, An earlier attempt by FMP to debate the issue failed after the marketing head of an organisation that had initiated the practice of private treaties backed out. Consequently two of the other paneliststhe owner of a reputed English news weekly, and the proprietress of a newspaper groupdeclined. This suggests that media managers and owners do not want public scrutiny of a practice that they know is dodgy. What has been referred to above as media folks is not a monolithic whole. It has several components that the three Acts mentioned above have attempted to distinguish and deal with differentially as these components have different interests and compulsions. But the Acts have not been able to do it effectively enough, particularly given the current state of what has now come to be called the media industry. The media industry is controlled by the owners, editorscum-owners, editors-cumpart owners (as stock holders) and several other categories, which can be grouped under the label media barons. It is these media barons that enjoy the fruits of activities such as paid news. The worst sufferers of the paid news stigma are those who are in the profession of journalism,
What politicians say: Excerpts from Rajya Sabha speeches

Sitaram Yechuri (I)t is an issue that also concerns the future of parliamentary democracy in India The syndrome of paid news, actually, negates Indias system of parliamentary democracy and undermines the very essence of journalism. Ambika Soni While it is widely agreed that it is not easy to find proof for such malpractices, there exists strong circumstantial evidence (T)here is no denying the fact that there is an urgent need to protect the right of citizens to correct and unbiased information. It is important that all sections of society should introspect on this issue as it has wide-ranging implications for our democratic structure. Arun Jaitley But, here, we are predominantly concerned with the manner in which the practice is polluting the whole electoral process You are subverting one of the basic features of Indias constitution which is the conduct of free and fair elections, and, therefore, the entire exercise that is being done is a complete corruption of the electoral process and is a trade or a business with an unlawful purposeTherefore, does the government of the day have the ability to stand up and say that this business or trade which threatens Indian democracy is going to be prohibited or not prohibited?
or what may be called journalists. Journalists, those who feel and claim to be in the profession of journalism, are thus pitted against the nexus of media barons and political class. The proclivity the political class has to form nexuses is widely known and can be seen in the enduring linkages forged by the political class with the business community and with the bureaucracy. While there has been a clamour by the politicians against paid news, the fact remains that there cannot be, and could not have been, any paid news unless at least some politicians engaged in the practice. To say that Political parties and candidates are being compelled to pay(Arun Jaitley, Rajya Sabha, March 5), and that there needs to be accountability on the part of media houses and journalists, (Sitaram Yechury, Rajya Sabha, March 5), sounds hollow when seen in the light of the fact that only four out of
6,753 candidates reported, in the statement of expenses submitted by them to the Election Commission of India for the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, that they exceeded the prescribed limit of expenditure, and only 30 reported having spent between 90 to 100 percent of the limit. The average expenditure was 50-55 percent of the limit, between Rs 12.5 lakh and 13.75 lakh against the limit of Rs 25 lakh. Obviously, there is something seriously wrong somewhere as Yechury also mentioned in the Rajya Sabha that, As per reports, the size of the paid news market in Andhra Pradesh in the elections in 2009 alone was over Rs 1,000 crore. In Maharashtra, which is the cradle of paid news, the size of the market has reached a figure of some thousands of crores. Politicians of all hues speak unambiguously about the damaging effects of paid news. (For a sampler from the Rajya Sabha speeches, see the
box above.) However, no evidence of even an intention of taking any concrete action is forthcoming. It has been observed that This situation is likely to continue as long as political parties are run as corporate houses and elections are contested as campaigns to be won at any cost, including that of ideology. Seemingly, the pressures of competitive electoral politics prevent parties from coming together to reform themselves and the system. One solution may therefore be to introduce internal democracy and financial transparency in political parties by law, as suggested by the Law Commission of India in its 170th report on electoral reforms, submitted in May 1999. But that will also need action in Parliament by the political establishment, and is therefore unlikely. What is more likely is that the government will try to come up with another socalled independent regulator
and the media will shout about attacks on freedom of the press. In the final analysis, the issue is of ownership and a sense of belonging. Those who really own journalism and belong to it will feel the most pressured into doing something about it. Therefore, the divergent interests and motivations of a diverse groups consisting of owners, media barons, TV anchors, and the like, who have a partial interest in journalism will have to be harmonised with those who are relatively pure journalists. And therefore it is the relatively pure journalists who have, or should have, a need to deal with the issue head on, and they need to do so quickly. n
Chhokar is former professor, dean and director in-charge of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a founding member of Association for Democratic Reforms and National Election Watch. jchhokar@gmail.com
SABGROUP venture
Manmohans progress outpaces this dams progress

ay back in 1991, the then member-secretary of the Planning Commission laid the foundation stone of a multipurpose dam project in Manipur. Decades later, when that bureaucrat became the prime minister, the project was yet to be completed. Now it has been, as if to prove that things in India move slowly but surely. The Khuga multipurpose project, near the state capital Imphal, took almost three
performance
Big drop in polio cases UID Authority faces manpower crunch
decades to complete with its cost shooting up by more than 2,500 percent. The initial estimated cost of the dam in 1980 was a mere Rs 15 crore. Though the dam built on the Khuga river has already started supplying water to the residents of Churachandpur town 10 km away from the site, it has still not been formally declared completed by the government. Why? They are looking for a date from the PM.
heres good news on the polio front, going by the health ministrys records. Only 24 polio cases are registered till date this year as against last years 741. This is due to effective surveillance of migrant population and vaccination drive, according to officials in the ministry. Out of the 24 cases, 10 are from Uttar Pradesh, six from Bihar, five from West Bengal and one each from Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. There have been seven cases of the P1 strain of the virus and 17 of the less virulent P3 strain. The World Health Organisation has said it would further streamline the population of migrants and identify areas in the states along with municipal corporations so that each person is covered under the Pulse Polio immunisation rounds to eradicate the disease from India.
he eight regional offices of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) are facing a manpower crunch. Vacancies in these offices have not been filled since they became functional in November 2009. Out of 35 posts sanctioned in each of
the centres in Delhi, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Lucnow, Mumbai, Ranchi and Guwahati, there are only three or four people on average working in these units. A UIDAI official said state government employees are not willing to join the organisation because of strict deadlines and less benefits.
BlackBerry faces security challenge

esearch In Motion, the Canada-based manufacturer of BlackBerry mobile instruments, has been embroiled in a controversy as the Indian government wants it to follow security norms applicable to all mobile telephone service providers. The home ministry has told RIM that it should enable security agencies access to all data flowing through BlackBerry or face a ban on two specific services. On its part, the company has repeated assurances it made two years ago. It also added: RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries. Meanwhile, media reports indicate that after the BlackBerry episode, the Indian agencies may target internet-based messaging services, offered by web majors like Google and Skype, which are inaccessible to them or allow communication between users in encrypted format.

Games Politicians Play
A Rs 70,608 crore jamboree

Yes, that is the actual bill for the Commonwealth Games more than 114 times the original calculation made in 2003when you include all event-specific projects. A new book reveals the real story behind the financial and governance mess.
Nalin Mehta and Boria Majumdar
he Commonwealth Games have been dismissed by many as a posthumous celebration of a long-forgotten Empire. Others have mistakenly played up their potential to revive Indian sport, offering rosy visions of an assembly line of Indian sportsmen and women turning us, overnight, into the next China. This is all just window dressing. At their heart, the Commonwealth Games are about the politics of development and the raging ambitions of a rising India that so animate the middle classes and many decision makers in this
country. Fuelled by the unrelenting fear of global ridicule that so drives our weak egos and by the colour of money politicians, bureaucrats and Indias sports czars have taken the citizens of Delhi on a ride that will change their city forever. Notions of a fragile national pride are inherent in this debate. India must show its best face, we are told. Delhi has been dug up, bamboos have been brought in from the northeast to hide its poor and the organisers have had a free run on many things. This book [Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games, New Delhi] is the story of the politics of these Games. It is the story of the money that has been spent on it and how it has been spent. Our concern
is with the manner in which much of this work has been driven, the priorities which have shaped itand they have not always been driven by only altruistic desiresthe people who have shaped it and the direction in which the Games are taking Delhi and India.
Many things were not factored in before
So, how much will the Commonwealth Games cost us? That is the first big question that this book grapples with. It is not an easy question to answer because the work is spread across diverse sectors and the money is being spent by a bewildering morass of multiple agencies. To enter the story of the Commonwealth Games is to enter into a labyrinth of overlapping
controls Ministry of Sports, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Tourism, Government of Delhi, Planning Commission, New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Sports Authority of India (SAI), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), the Organising Committee and so on. There are several high-level committees to coordinate their work, but as it often happens in government, many things remain unclear to the very end. The result is that even many among those involved in organising the Games do not have the full financial picture in front of them, with each government agency pursuing its own targets. The financing of the
Commonwealth Games has been the subject of parliamentary questioning since 2004. Parliamentary records show that at the time of government approval for the Games in early 2003, the Games budget estimate had been only Rs 617.5 crore. This was a very preliminary original estimate and the Vajpayee government agreed to fund any future shortfalls between revenue and expenditure. It was a virtual blank cheque. By March 2003, when Delhi submitted its official bid, the cost estimates had tripled to Rs 1,895.3 crore. As Sunil Dutt, the sports minister at the time, told the Lok Sabha in 2004, everybody knew that these were only early projections that could only go up later. By 2005, the estimated costs
had shot up by more than six times from the original figure. By 2008, the minister of sports was estimating a figure of over Rs 7,000 crore and in 2009, the
The Delhi of 2010 is a very different place from the Delhi of 1982 but one thing has not changed: money is aplenty and everybody wants to be in on the party.
Comptroller and Auditor General provided a calculation of about Rs 13,000 crore. This was more than 20 times the original cost estimate and even this figure did not include spending by many agencies. If you were running a company, such sharp cost overruns would, in most cases, be seen as management failure. But this is only half the story. In early 2009, we were discussing these rocketing estimates with a senior Delhi government official when he dropped a bombshell. We had met about something else over lunch on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The Games came up in passing and he listened to our calculations before calmly pointing out: The total Games spending on city infrastructure is Rs 65,550 crore. It didnt
square at all with any of the other financial data. But he was way up in Delhis power circle and clearly knew what he was talking about. So we asked him for a detailed breakdown and there it was in fine print: Rs 65,550 crore clearly marked in an internal Delhi government note on what it calls Commonwealth Games-related work. The state government subsequently published these figures officially and when clubbed together with other costs, they pushed the total amount to more than Rs 70,000 crore. Our problem was that between 2003 and 2009, this estimate on infrastructure spending calculated by Sheila Dikshits government did not figure in any of the data submitted by successive sports ministers in parliament or in the internal records of the organising committee that were made available to us. This new information, passed on by the office of Delhis chief secretary, had us completely flummoxed. Why was it invisible? A close analysis of the financial data reveals that the Games infrastructure budgets submitted in parliament between 2003 and 2008 had only listed a little over Rs 1,300 crore (for building civic infrastructure) against the Delhi governments name. This was the amount that the Delhi government said it needed extra funding for, asking the Planning Commission for a grant. This was the amount that got reflected in budget estimates by sports ministers in parliament, instead of the state governments total Games-related estimate. The Delhi government and other agencies were spending far more from their own coffers the CAG also pointed this out but this spending escaped all other reporting. The organising committee and central government budget records, therefore, never reflected the rest of the Rs 65,550 crore that was being spent on the Games. If you include this amount, overall Games expenditure estimates
shoot up to a whopping Rs 70,608 crore. This is more than 114 times the original calculation made in 2003! Some might say that much of the money would have been spent anyway. Projects like new power stations account for nearly half of this budget and is it misleading to account for these in a CWG estimate? No, it is not. There is good reason why the office of Delhis chief secretary chose to put all these costs under the heading Projects Related to CWG 2010. This is their language, not ours. The fact is that most of this infrastructure construction is being put on the fast-track only because of the Games and the kind of money that is being spent on Delhis infrastructure would not have been possible in ordinary times. Power, for instance, is being fast-tracked due to the lofty promise of showcasing a capital city with 24-hour power during the Games. Why does all this matter? Well, for one thing, most of this money is the taxpayers. The Vajpayee government had guaranteed the Commonwealth Federation that it would pay for any shortfall between revenues and expenditure of the organising committee. We have already seen the huge cost overruns outlined. Remember that even these escalated costs do not cover the
entire expenditure. For instance, the crores being spent on building new hotels, on the Games Village by Emaar and elsewhere by the private sector on its own or in publicprivate partnerships are not part of the budgets reproduced here. Remember also that the central government has given funds to the organising committee as an unsecured loan to be repaid only after revenues start coming in. Suresh Kalmadi defends himself, saying: We will return every penny weve received from the government by collecting money. Sure, but is anyone willing to bet on when the money will make its way back to the governments treasury? There are some who say that cost overruns always happen in big sporting events like this one. The Beijing Olympics were a good example of this and London, which is preparing for the 2012 Olympic Games, is another. However, if these cities got their fiscal management so wrong, why is it necessary that we should do so as well? A pertinent example here is Melbourne which hosted the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Unlike Delhi, Melbournes total spending of $2,913,157,000 was just 0.6 percent above its estimate. The big question is, why were the cost estimates so far off the mark? Was it because
What a fancy DU hostel!
India lied to the CGF that the Games Village would be turned into students hostel.
here were structural reasons for the quagmire Delhi found itself in, just a year before the Games. The story of the Games Village characterises all that went wrong and deserves a close look. In 2003, Delhi was in serious danger of losing its Games bid to Hamilton, the Canadian city that hosted the first version of the Commonwealth Games in 1930 (it was called the British Empire Games then). In a two-horse race, both cities submitted detailed plans to the CGF in May 2003. When they were opened, Delhi found itself on the back foot on one of the most important questions that determine sporting mega-events: legacies and long-term impact on the city. Hamilton had put the local McMaster University at the centre of its Games concept. It put academic partnerships as the second-most important objective of the Games and the university was slated to benefit from the entire new infrastructure that was to be built. The Games Village and three of the other five new sporting venues that Hamilton proposed were to be built on the 300-acre campus of McMaster University. The idea was to create a permanent legacy of world-class and accessible sporting infrastructure for students in this small city of 500,000. In contrast, Delhis original bid proposed to build a Games Village and to sell it as luxury apartments after the Games concluded. Compared to Hamiltons focus on its university, Delhi seemed on shaky ground. Even more seriously, Indias sporting czars said that they would finance almost 40 percent of the then-estimated cost of the Games from the sale of these flats. This looked decidedly risky. The flats could only be sold after the Games. If
ravi Choudhary

Games Politicians Play
they were also supposed to pay for the Games, how would the Games be held in the first place? And what if the flats failed to yield the expected revenue? The CGFs technical experts rightly saw this as a major financial risk for Delhi. Delhi needed to win the bid. So, when the CGFs experts raised these questions, Delhis organisers agreed to a major change. The plan to sell the flats to finance part of the Games was subsequently amended to ensure that the budget would not be reliant on the sale of the accommodation. By October 2003, Delhi submitted a revised budget wherein the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) took over the risk and responsibility of the Village and the CGF Evaluation Commission reported that the sale of residential apartments is not [any more] a risk to the Games budget. Basically, government agencies agreed to pay for the money that the flats sale would have provided. One of the most disturbing but little-known stories of these Games is that at the same time, Delhis organisers also promised that its Games Village would be turned into hostel accommodation for Delhi University after the Games. CGF documents are unambiguous on this count. Leading up to the crucial vote of Commonwealth countries in November 2003, when Delhi finally won the Games, it gave an undertaking that post-Games, the Village will provide hostel facility for the Delhi University. This was done, it seems, to make Delhi look as committed to education as Hamilton did with McMaster University. Indias sports managers championed this idea and the notion of the Village as a university hostel was prominently displayed in Delhis revised bid documents. As the CGF noted, The Games Village will provide an excellent hostel facility for the Delhi University and will remain available for residential use during hosting of future international events. This plan was published in cold print but was never heard of once Delhi won the bid. Delhis Games masters had always intended on selling the real estate and the much-needed DU hostel plan was given a quiet burial. Few people knew of the commitment to the Delhi University and there was virtually no public protest when it was cancelled...
of mismanagement or because of unavoidable circumstances? Sheila Dikshit has a plausible point when she argues that the global downturn is partly responsible. There are many stakeholders. The estimates given were approximations but, because of the current economic situation, things have changed. Both cement and steel are costlier, the chief minister argues. But wait till you hear what the director general of the organising committee has to say in his defence. Speaking to us in January 2009, he admitted that the costs have escalated so sharply because the original estimates were based on total ignorance. It was such a chilling admission that it deserves to be reproduced in full: The first budget was made two years back [i.e., four years after the bid was submitted]. At that time the OC was a fledgling organisation. It was finding its feet. Nobody had past Games experience. Watching Games, seeing Games is one thing but nobody was inside it. The budget was made on very basic things. So if you want to present a very basic Games, the budget was made like that [sic]. Similarly the other arms, Delhi government, all the budgets were very rudimentary budgets. As you really take the plunge, as you get more and more into it, you begin to look at the other websites, you begin to get more documents as to what was done. Then your estimations also keep going up, so now a more detailed exercise has been done. We are in the process of re-evaluating our budgets and of course input costs have gone high steel has become more expensive, cement is a problem. These are normal escalations which happen. But many things were not factored in. Now one has become wiser because everybody is into the Games more, everybody has read more about the Games. Everybody has got more data and information
about the previous Games. Frankly, then, the organising committee never had an idea what it was doing. Delhi hosted the Asian Games in 1982 but there was no institutional memory of it, or if there was, it wasnt tapped into. The government of India signed a blank cheque based on shoddy budget estimations made by amateurs who didnt seem to know what they were doing. And are we supposed to be happy that now, six years later, the organising committee is claiming to get its act together? Shouldnt all of this have been done earlier? And who will be held accountable? The problem is that we cant get out of it now. What will the world think, they all say, and so the money keeps flowing. Let it be clear that this is not a party-specific attitude. It is no accident that the idea of the Games has always enjoyed political support, cutting across the party divide. The 2003 bid was guaranteed by the then BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government but the Congress party, then in opposition, backed it fully. So did the lieutenant governor of Delhi, the Congress-led state government of Delhi, and the MCD, also controlled at the time by the Congress. The last time so much money was floating around in Delhi was during the Asian Games in 1982, when Indira Gandhi pulled out all stops to refashion her and the capitals image in front of the world. The Delhi of 2010 is a very different place from the Delhi of 1982 but one thing has not changed: money is aplenty and everybody wants to be in on the party. n
Edited extracts from Nalin Mehta, Boria Majumdar, Sellotape Legacy: Delhi and the Commonwealth Games, New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2010. Pages 303. Rs450 xcerpted with permission from Mehta and Majumdars Sellotape Legacy, to be published by Harper Collins.
ashish asthana
Right way to carry right to food

Between the farmers field and your kitchen, the government procures, stores and distributes food grains. How it messes up at every stage and what can be done about it.
elements. Mercifully, it is a sunny day when I visit it but there are tell-tale signs to show how the monsoon caused a havoc here a few days ago. Several hundred of empty and damaged gunny bags are strewn all over the place for the purpose of drying under the sun while their contents are spread elsewhere for the same purpose. An employee is sifting through the grain and stuffing those he thinks have dried enough into new bags. Wherever you look, the bags carry fungus stains, suggesting that the grain inside is rotting and is probably not fit for consumption. A few stacks have no sign of the tarpaulin cover. Bhim, a caretaker of the godown, says most of the stocks were brought in in 2007 and have already been exposed to three monsoons. Less than 10 km away, in Akbarpur,
No cover, not even a tarpaulin sheet over this stock of paddy procured and stored by the Punjab Markfed at its godown in Akbarpur of Sangrur even during the monsoon months.
Prasanna Mohanty
f you want to know whats wrong with our food distribution system, step into the godowns of arguably the countrys largest agriculture produce marketing body, Punjab Markfed (an annual turnover of Rs 4,800 crore) in Bhawanigarh block of Sangrur district. Hundreds of gunny bags containing wheat lie in the open, exposed to the
another godown of the Punjab Markfed similarly stores paddy in the open. Some stacks have no tarpaulin cover and grains are spilled all over. These were brought in last October and may possibly survive the first rains. But a few yards away in the same compound, a rice mill remains idle with ample covered space but that cannot be used because the miller is yet to get the clearance to de-husk the paddy. Both these godowns fall in the category of what is called CAP (cover and plinth) in the FCI parlance grain stored in the open on wooden platforms, with tarpaulin sheets for protection. Punjab stores most of the paddy and a significant amount of wheat stocks for the entire country. Punjab Markfed is one of the five state government agencies that procure and store food grains on behalf of the

Food for Thought
Food Corporation of India (FCI), the national food procurement, storage and distribution agency.
FCIs problem of plenty
Punjab has a total capacity to store 19.9 million tonne of food grains9.5 million in godowns and 10.4 million in the open (CAP). All of its rice stock (6.3 million tonne) are in godowns as it cant be stored in the CAP. This leaves 3.2 million tonne space for wheat and the rest - 9.5 million of total wheat stock of 12.7 million tonne (that is 74 percent!) - rotting in the open in Punjab alone! But that is not all. A far bigger trouble is waiting round the corner. Fresh procurement will begin in October for paddy (9 million) and in April for wheat (12.7 million). These would require additional storage space. Every month 1.2 million tonne of grains are supposed to move out of Punjab to other states, thus vacating space for fresh procurement. But this year, Punjab has seen little grain movement. The wheat stock hasnt been touched at all and only 2.7 million tonnes of rice (of 9 million) has moved out. The space constraint has led to delay in de-husking of 2.2 million tonne paddy procured last October. This problem of plenty pervades FCIs operations throughout the country. As per official data, it currently stores 57.8 million tonne, against a requirement of 31.9 million tonne of buffer/strategic stocks as on July 1. Of this, 17.8 million tonne are under the CAPthat is, lying in the open. FCI explains this bizarre situation by saying it de-hired godowns at the advice of a private consultant and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) so as to utilise space lying unused following the 2002 drought. The scenario has changed but the practice continues and explains why liquor bottles were found stocked in FCI godowns of Jaipur while grains were rotting outside. Worse, it doesnt have details about the space de-hired. That is not the end of FCIs trouble. In June, an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) headed by Pranab Mukherjee decided to offload 5 million tonne of wheat in the open market to bring down the soaring prices. But to everyones shock, it was found that there was no taker for this because the prevailing wholesale price turned out to be lower than the FCI price! This was true in Delhi (Rs 1,252.15 as against wholesale price of Rs 1,230 a
quintal), Lucknow (Rs 1,282 against Rs 1,150), Bhopal (Rs 1,304 against Rs 1,180) and elsewhere. Apparently, something is seriously wrong with the minimum support price (MSP) at which FCI procured wheat last year.
Modern Golghar and other solutions
What all these details show is that the FCI and the food ministry needs to completely overhaul their operations. But how?
n The first obvious step is to set the MSP right, particularly while going for procurment of more than the normal 40 to 45 million tonne of grains - which happened last year when the government bought an extra 10 million tonne fearing drought. The problem of plenty can be addressed by setting the right target for procurement and establishing a system that can avoid panic procurement of the kind
Tamil Nadu shows how PDS can be run successfully by involving cooperative bodies and womens self-help groups, who also have the power to procure food grains locally. In Chhattisgarh, complete transparency of operation, community participation and stiff punitive action has worked wonders for the once-rotten system.
witnessed last year. n Storage of grains has emerged as a major problem. Needless to say, capacity building is required but not in the way it is done now. The right example to follow is the 18th century Golghar of Patna, built by the British to counter famine. The modern-day silos follow the same system, which is scientific as it works on the principle of first-in-first-out. We have half-adozen silos in the country. The only thing going against it is its high cost of building. Involving private sector by way of public private partnership (PPP) may be a way out. n The cheaper option is to go for Grain Banks at village or panchayat level, which are more efficient. A couple of non-government organisations of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa have demonstrated how these banks can work at the village level. n Excessive dependence on FCI and state agencies that work on its behalf is also a cause of problem. Tamil Nadu has a highly successful public distribution system which is largely run by the cooperative societies and women self-help groups - 93 percent of all fair price shops (FPS). These are also empowered to procure grain and other food items locally. n Grain movement from the FCI godowns to the intended states needs to be rationalised and made efficient so as to avoid the practice of holding on to grains for three to four years and letting them rot. Adopting some of these measures may prevent rotting of grains that we witnessed in Punjab. But what about taking the stuff that has not rotten to the people?
Universal PDS
It needs no elaboration that the public distribution system (PDS) too is rotten. What is of greater relevance is the fact that replacing the PDS with the Targeted PDS in 1997 caused even more harm. A Planning Commission report of 2005 said this switch neither benefited the poor nor reduced subsidy. On the other hand, it increased diversion of food grains by a greater extent58 percent of subsidised food grains didnt reach the intended beneficiaries. Kerala, which used to be a model state in pre-1997 era, is a good example. A 2008 study showed how Kerala has taken a complete u-turn in utilisation of the PDS from a scenario where the majority of the population was dependent on the PDS to a state where 70 percent are excluded from

Food for Thought
Rotting grains: (Left) Paddy begins to rot after a few days of rain at Punjab Markfeds godown in Akbarpur of Sangrur. (Right) Wheat bags carry tell-tale marks of the rot that has set in after exposure to three successive monsoons at the Punjab Markfeds godown in Bhawanigarh of Sangrur.
the system completely. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu is a shining example how the pitfalls could have been avoided. When the entire country opted for the Targeted PDS, it retained the universal character and is a great success story. The National Advisory Council, which is presently working on the right to food law, held a special presentation of this model to learn how and why it works there. The right step, therefore, would be to switch back to the universal PDS. More so since the government is working towards the right to food law, which is, by definition, universal. Universal PDS will also remove three obvious shortcomings in the Targeted PDS: Lesser number of beneficiaries attached to an FPS makes it economically unviable, prone to greater diversion and deprives local community a stake and hence, no incentive to make PDS work. Universal PDS completely negates the concept of direct cash transfer (DCT) proposed by some experts and the governments of Delhi and Bihar to battle the PDS menace. And rightly so. Even the Planning Commission has opposed it in its recent presentation to the NAC because DCT threatens to dismantle PDS and leave the intended beneficiaries at the mercy of the private traders who would get in and take over the operation. The only stumbling block in switching back to the universal PDS is subsidy, which would go much beyond the current level Rs 60,000 crore has been earmarked as food subsidy in this years budget. The answer, however, can be found in differential pricing, which means a higher
price of PDS supply for those who are economically better off.
Operational modifications
But to make PDS work, it would require several radical changes in its operation. One is to introduce smart cards as the Planning Commission has proposed. The plan panel says that instead of delivering subsidised grain to the poor we should switch to a system where the PDS shops sell grains at the normal above-povertyline (APL) price, but the poor have a smart card which enables them to pay the subsidised price and have the subsidy amount credited to the shopkeepers account. This would eliminate possibility of diversion of food grains flowing to FPS to the market. But that leaves the issues of bogus ration cards and exclusion of the poor from the system unaddressed. The plan panel suggests that these problems can be overcome by linking the smart cards to the Unique Identity project. This linkage will have an additional benefit. UID will link food entitlement to the individuals, rather than the families, which is the case now. Since the family size vary the present system does not necessarily address peoples needs correctly. The UID Authority has already begun its spadework this linkage. The third change required is to make FPS economically viable. As Justice Wadhwa Committee has pointed out in its reports to the Supreme Court, it requires about 1,000 cardholders for each FPS to make it viable at the present rate of commission. Apart from this, the Justice Wadhwa Committee also suggested a few more
measures, like involving cooperatives and women self-help groups to run the FPS, door-step delivery of food grains to the FPS, charging actual cost of transportation (a major cause of loss for the PFS) rather than a formula-based approach as at present, timely delivery to the FPS and allowing FPS to sell other commodities. A few other modifications can be borrowed the Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh models. Tamil Nadus universal PDS has some features other than allowing cooperatives and women self-help groups to run the FPS and buy food items locally. These include mobile FPS to cater to smaller and isolated groups of people, part-time FPS to take care of emergencies, restricting the distance of FPS from beneficiaries to less than two km and keeping private individuals and firms completely off the PDS network. Chhattisgarh runs a successful Targeted PDS model. Key elements of this model are: (i) transparency every aspect of the operation is computerised, from the time grain is procured from a farmer and paid for on the spot, its real time distribution status, availability at every FPS at any given time and details about individual consumer (ii) community participation in monitoring and (iii) stiff punishment for any wrongdoing, which can be reported through a convenient mechanism. As it would be clear now, at the end of the day it is as much an issue of good governance as the involvement of local community that makes the food distribution system work. n
prasanna@governancenow.com
NOTE
Biometric attendance for NREGA workers
he government is considering a GPS-enabled plan for recording biometric attendance of NREGA workers. A web-enabled management information system (MIS), which collects parameters like job cards, muster rolls, wage payments and the number of days of employment provided, is already operational. The centre has suggested to the state governments to deploy technical and non-technical hands at all levels to monitor the progress of the scheme.
e-gov

Governance 2.0
Home ministry comps face virus attack
IT to help agriculture in Bihar
Maharashtra set for UID
The Bihar government is building state-of-the-art eKisan Bhawans at the block level to extend benefits of information technology to farmers. The e-Kisan Bhawan will be equipped with genset and internet connection, and will act as an information and advisory centre for farmers. The construction work for these buildings is in progress in 324 of the total 534 blocks in the state. The remaining blocks will get the benefit in next fiscal year.
The Maharashtra government will start collecting data for the Unique Identification Number (UIN) from November 1. The process will involve collecting 13 identity markers of a person, such as fingerprints, iris scan and photo. The state has appointed the revenue department as the nodal agency for the project and information technology principal secretary A B Pandey as the officer in charge. The state has also proposed to give Rs 100 to each member of the BPL families for registering with the UID and expects to complete the process by February.
Tulip Telecom bags projects in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat

Enterprise communications services provider Tulip Telecom has bagged orders worth Rs 158.2 crore from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat for providing data connectivity services under the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (R-APDRP). Tulip will supply, install and commission
A malicious mail containing a dangerous virus spread from the email ID of the Indian ambassador in Uzbekistan and affected home ministry officials computers. It is believed that the mail box of the diplomat might have been compromised by hackers. The Intelligence Bureau has now advised the ministry to update anti-virus systems on all its computers.
Biometric ration cards for Orissa district

Orissa has launched a pilot project in Rayagada district for multi-model biometric ration cards. The move will strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) and will benefit more than 2,10,500 families in 11 blocks of the district.
Coming: Database of Delhi properties

MPLS VPN, internet and other connectivity services to all the project towns under the R-APDRP scheme floated by power corporations of the two states. The company will be the network bandwidth service provider (NBSP) for deploying data connectivity services. The project is expected to result in significant reduction in energy loss.
Wipro bags CCTNS project

Wipro Infotech has bagged the crime and criminal tracking network system (CCTNS) project from the home ministry. The project, covering all states and union territories, will electronically link over 14,000 police stations and 6,000
higher police offices across the country. Under the project, Wipro will develop the core software to be used by the states and another core application to be used by the centre for digitisation of crime and criminal records.
e-Gram centres in Punjab
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is planning a comprehensive database of properties in the capital by collecting information from sources such as the Survey of India, a door-to-door survey, MTNL and the census data. This will require large-scale computerisation with a data warehousing solution and is expected to bring over 10 lakh properties in the tax base.
Punjab has launched a Rs 91 crore programme to set up e-gram centres in 3,017 of its panchayat clusters to provide important citizen services in rural areas. The centres will provide 14 crucial citizen services to all the 12,800 villages in Punjab. These services will include issuance of birth and death certificates, domicile certificate, collection of power bills, water bills, telephone bills, booking of tubewell and more. In the first phase, e-gram centres will be set up in 397 places in block level and extended to 3,017 villages by March 2011.
Vadodara to track its garbage
The Vadodara Municipal Corporation is planning to take the help of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to monitor the movement of garbage collection vans as people have complained that the door-to-door garbage collection service is not working properly due to alleged corruption.
Should we chase their dragon or our ghosts?

Dont fantasise about towering over China, just start fixing our governance and being less divided within.
the paper was keen to be courteous with the visitors and none of our three ace business correspondents would have gone at that hour! I returned with an account of a new export-oriented district that these overtly humble officials were trying to build. In 750-words, I sketched the larger idea powering Deng Xioping and Zhu Rongji, then mayor of Shanghai. I mentioned that this delegation was led by a key Zhu aide and it was touring Noida and Santacruz Electronics Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ), Mumbai, for copy-cat ideas. To please my boss and to appear a little more industrious, I also carried back an illustration of this district to be. It was an inelegant A-4 sheet that Wu Bangguo, the team leader, pulled out from his pocket, basically a gridplan with some black lines. When I asked what the lines were, the translator smiled and quipped, Just rice fields, for now! My boss liked what he saw, and given his penchant for shocking us occasionally, the story was spread across the entire business page, with a lavish headline, Pudong is Dengs Next Capital Stop. Ten years later, when I was resident editor of the Financial Express, my boss gave me a chance to see the Pudong I had only written about. I had just a day for pre-travel research. That included a chance conversation with Nalin Suri, then our ambassador to Beijing. Suri shared his dismay whenever Indian reporters visited China. Dont come back talking about how far behind we arehow they are the next superpower, how tall are their buildings. Half of them are empty, anyway! he chastened, hoping that I wouldnt write eulogies. I didnt. But I couldnt help contrast the astonishing infrastructure I saw before my eyes and the crumpled piece of ambitionin-A-4 that Wu, now chairman of the National Peoples Congress, had pulled out from his pocket just 10 years back. From a time theyd come to learn from Noida, the results werent just impressive. They were scary! To me therefore, Raghav Bahls
Rohit Bansal
e all have our favourite IndiaChina story. Mine dates back to the harsh Delhi winter of 1992-93. I was asked by my business editor to go see some middle-rung Chinese officials visiting from Shanghai. For a struggling copy editor in the Times of India, occasional reporting assignments were a big deal. But a 20-km commute to the Ashok Hotel at 7.30 in the morning was a bit of a task for what couldve been at the max a 100-word single column in our inside pages. Shanghai wasnt headline stuff and my nomination was neither based on my competence nor my boss own interest in the subject. Bluntly stated, someone in

Tale Of 2 Nations
sophisticated analysis of Super Power? The Amazing Race Between Chinas Hare and Indias Tortoise (Penguin, 2010) was another opportunity to revisit the core idea of who would be the Asian superpower. Bahls take is that though the Chinese hare is now four times bigger than the Indian tortoise (the two were of the same size 32 years back), it can still lose the race: unless China fixes its politics. Conversely, for all our collective dismay, the slow tortoise is just 10 years behind, that is, Indias economic size today is what Chinas was a decade ago, so we havent quite lost the race: that is if we fix our governance. After a researched account of the context, Bahl leaves the original Superpower? question unanswered. An epilogue titled Fifty Fifty cautions against overestimating the value of Chinas economic surge. It questions whether an exploding GDP would rinse it clean of all its ills and why we are often being spellbound by Chinas stamina, ambition and speed. (its) unwavering focus and execution, with a willingness to overlook Chinas flaws its totalitarian state and grinding poverty giving it the benefit of doubt legitimately due to a gritting pioneer. On India, the epilogue raises a point not often raised on the shocking realisation that Indias democratic strength may have been overestimated by the world. He argues that among the two pillars of Indias democracy, its constitutional state and its vibrant civil society, the state is deeply dysfunctional and almost all the ills plaguing India spring from its apologetic, unambitious state, and its civil leaders, across all levels, appear tired and defeated. Few can disagree on Bahls impatience with handwringers who use the excuse of democracy to cloak their own doubt and disbelief, and evidence in his work that India needs new leadership, bolder governance and policies, especially in those sectors which strike at the root of povertyagriculture, health, education and infrastructure. But I am uncomfortable with his final wager in the superpower race: advantage China on velocity and momentum, and odds on India as an institutional favourite. I stand on the side of Ramachandra Guha, who has had the courage to question our elites obsession with superpower status. It is instructive to revisit Guhas, Ten Reasons Why India Will Not Become A Superpower And Must Not. The argument includes the rise of left-wing extremism in the very heart of India; the rise of fundamentalist and illiberal tendencies
When our elite aspire for superpower status, they appear foolish and misled. The ambition comes to nothing, for the interest of the elite is not equal to the national interest. Why shouldnt nations judge themselves by their own standards, rather than seek to win in a global 100-metre race, the winner to be judged by the number of billionaires in the Forbes list or the size of our nuclear arsenal?
in all of Indias religions; the corruption and corrosion of the democratic centre; the growing gap between rich and poor; the superficiality of the mainstream media; the rapid pace of environmental degradation; the instability engendered by multiparty coalition governments; the disturbed neighbourhood (with Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka all mired in internal conflicts of their own); the unreconciled borderlands (discontent in Manipur, Nagaland, Kashmir and now the Naxal-hit states); and the shocking incapacity of our public institutions, as manifest in
the malfunctioning of our universities, our law courts, our hospitals, and our civil services. (A video of Guhas lecture is available at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=TVbhB1YjjA0). In fact, our imminent arrival as one of the worlds superpowers is a foolish discussion. As Guha has argued, we have been resilient, weve survived 60 testing years of freedom; in part by the robustness of our democracyat least the fact that elections are held regularlyand in part by the recent surge in our economy, as manifested by annual growth rates. In a follow-up essay, Superpower Fantasies India should seek other goals than joining a global race (http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090912/jsp/opinion/ story_11472930.jsp), an amused Guha observes how anticipations of Indias rise to greatness were most powerfully expressed in two cities New Delhi and Bangalore. Politicians and journalists in the former city, and businessmen in the latter, were in a visible mood of self-congratulation. Long beset by an inferiority complex vis--vis the West, they thought that Indias democratic credentials and information technology boom would now jointly ensure that at places such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, they would be treated with as much respect not to say reverence as leaders, entrepreneurs and editors coming out of Paris, Berlin, London or (especially) New York. When our elite aspire for superpower status, they appear foolish and misled and driven by male macho behaviour. The ambition comes to nothing, for the interest of the elite is not equal to the national interest. As Ashis Nandy has said, in India the choice could never be between chaos and stability, but between manageable and unmanageable chaos, between human and inhuman anarchy, and between tolerable and intolerable disorder. India will have to find her way, but not in becoming a superpower. Why shouldnt nations judge themselves by their own standards, rather than seek to win in a global 100-metre race, the winner to be judged by the number of billionaires in the Forbes list or the size of our nuclear arsenal? We neednt fantasise about dominating or towering over China. We can start by fixing our governance and being less discontented and less divided within. n
Bansal is CEO of India Strategy Group, Hammurabi & Solomon Consulting. He is an alum of Harvard Business School. rohitbansal@post.harvard.edu

Last Word
Manmohan, the leader of leaders!

B V Rao
ust the other day Khushwant Singh declared Manmohan Singh the best prime minister the country has ever had. We are trained to suspect any certificate of Indian origin unless it comes with a foreign endorsement so I did not take that seriously. But the foreign endorsement followed soon enough. Two days later, Newsweek gave him the title of the most respected world leader, a sort of leader of leaders. The very same Indian training I just mentioned leaves me with no option but to believe this foreign endorsement of Manmohans greatness. But I dont seem to be able to get rid of some stray thoughts. Such as: 1. If all the world leaders admire Manmohan the most and that makes him the best leader on the planet just now, what does it say of the state of the world as it is today? 2. Knowing as all Indians do that Manmohan hardly opens his mouth on anything, just what is it that these world leaders admire him for? His sherwani? His immaculately tied blue pagri? His resume that reads a mile-long? Just what? 3. Before they started admiring Manmohan, were these world leaders informed that our PM hardly ever takes a stand? That he is unaccustomed to letting us know what he thinks? That
ashish asthana
he calls a press conference once in four years just to say I cant comment on that now? 4. His stony silence as Kashmir burns, as Raja rakes in the billions, as Mamata dines with the Maoists, as Kalmadi and Co. turn the Commonwealth Games into a national circus, as prices hit the roof and food grains rot in the open, reminds us of A K Hangal in Sholay: Yahan itna sannata kyon hai bhai (why this defeaning silence), except that we should be asking that question. 5. Or does Manmohan talk a lot when he meets these world
leaders because: a) they are all discussing the economy and he knows a thing or two about it, and b) because The Family is not expansionist and its fine if the PM comes across as smart and in control outside India? 6. Why do these world leaders think that while, as the same Newsweek survey says, his government still steeped in corruption and sloth, Manmohan himself is clean and full of integrity? Is it because they admire Manmohans acting skills? For playing the blind king Dhritarashtra who did not punish his sons for molesting Draupadi
because he saw nothing? 7. And how does Manmohan know what to do and what to say that floors these world leaders, considering that here in India he seems to have no clue about anything at all? Why, till the other day, he did not even know that his government is responsible for conducting the Games successfully. Thank god Sonia Gandhi came back from her two-week holiday and cleared his confusion. Had she not decided that the Games were the governments concern, Manmohan would have continued to behave like the Games were being held in Cameroon, whether or not Cameroon is a Commonwealth member! 8. Do these world leaders envy Manmohan his extra-ordinary (some might call it extraconstitutional) arrangement wherein he doesnt have to address anything till he is specifically asked to or only when he realises that the people who matter dont have a view on it? Or do they admire his brilliant strategy to outsource the rest of (whatever little) work he has to Pranab Mukherjee and his nth GoM? 9. Do they admire Manmohan for the breadth of his knowledge or the width of the market he has opened up for them? Maybe they are impressed with him for his untiring efforts to ensure that their companies dont have to shell out the billions in case of a nuclear accident? Or because Manmohan it seems can hardly disagree with them on most matters? 10. Or, is it that Im just a jealous little prig? Or that Im not a proud Indian? n
bvrao@governancenow.com

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EXCLUSIVE: you either build roads or you build garages: kamal nath

September 1-15, 2010 | Vol. 01 Issue 15 | ` 30

Digantars schools churn out role models, not just students

Civic governance: Of bad cricket captains and poor city planners

08 Interview: Highways minister Kamal Nath

12 Lessons in life, taught at school

16 Highest intervention in lower courts

38 A Rs 70,608 crore jamboree

46 Should we chase their dragon or our ghosts?

Subterfuge, rather than sincerity, marks the nuclear law

Ramesh shows the way....if only he stays the course!

GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

World champion is checkmated

Party time at foreigners registration office?

Debate Do our MPs deserve a pay hike?

6 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

First Indian-origin woman professor in Harvard

R R Patil adopts 51 children

Priyanka Chopra is Unicef brand ambassador

people politics policy performance

Has progress not been too slow?

I had just said building a road is very

GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

Why is the panel critical of the target?

I am referring to plan panel advisor Gajendra Haldeas report.

Gajendra Haldea is not the planning

people politics policy performance

tomorrow. If the banks are doing this, ask the banks.

Why did you increase the VGF from 20 percent to 40 percent?

I am quoting from Haldeas paper.

What a strange question! You should ask the banks.

You have not done any homework, so you dont know.

This is what Haldeas paper says.

Don't you consider Haldeas paper as valid?

So you have not taken cognizance of Haldeas report.

Its not about me taking cognizance. NHAI will look at it.

10 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

seek the prime minister's intervention.

You have proposed to split the NHAI

Lessons in life, taught at school

12 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

photos: ravi choudhary

Education comes first

people politics policy performance

Asifa with her mother Muftida at home in Bandhyali village.

people politics policy performance

14 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

Are Indians being made guinea pigs?

Supreme Court is not interim parliament

Pay more for fancy hospitals: IRDA

people politics policy performance

For the majesty of courts and the dignity of judges

16 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

structure that is weak, this problem with the

people politics policy performance

18 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

people politics policy performance

Look at our squalor! Have mercy!

Arvind Kumar Mishra

20 GovernanceNow | September 1-15, 2010

Sanjay, 28, resident of Delhi

Beerbal, 36, a resident of Delhi

Indrapal, 32, a resident of Delhi