‘Neither UPA nor NDA promised livelihood-based rehabilitation’

Interview with social activist Medha Patkar on why she opposes the Land Bill proposed by the Centre

Social activist Medha Patkar has been in the forefront of the struggle for the rights and rehabilitation of project-displaced populations for over two decades, and has relentlessly pursued the formulation of a national rehabilitation policy. She spoke to Gargi Parsaiat the site of the agitation in Delhi about the pitfalls in the National Democratic Alliance government’s proposed new Land Bill brought through an ordinance to amend the earlier Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, (LARR) 2013, enacted by the United Progressive Alliance government.

The government maintains that the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in LARR (Amendment) Bill, 2014 to replace the Ordinance is not against farmers and will help development. Your view?

That is not correct. We too are for development but the government’s idea is different because it not only wants to go in for corporatisation of every sector. But for that it does not mind misusing resources such as land — the life support of millions of people. Over decades people have been waiting for full-fledged livelihood-based rehabilitation which is neither fully promised in the new Bill nor is there in the 2013 Act of the UPA.

Was the NDA justified in bringing an Ordinance to change the land law?

There are about 100 Acts all over the country under which land acquisition goes on. Of these, 16 are Central Acts. The UPA brought three under the 2013 Act but 13 were left out as they had to be amended in order to make them consistent with the new Act within one year, that is by December 31, 2014, after approval from both Houses of Parliament as provided under Section 105. The NDA is giving this as the reason for bringing in the Ordinance, but the question is why did they wait till December 31? If the NDA amendments were in favour of the poor, then they could have made them public instead of bringing it through an Ordinance.

What does Social Impact Analysis involve?

It is the first pre-conditional phase before any rehabilitation. It is an analysis of the impact of the project on displaced peoples’ livelihoods, whether they would become jobless with cash but no permanent source of livelihood; whether their relationship with natural resources, the ecosystem will be affected; whether their community integration, as in the case of tribals and even non-tribals in rural India, will be shattered and they would be dispersed, as also, the effect on forests, fish and the food security when agricultural lands are going to be taken away. Under the Constitution, gram sabhas and panchayats have the right to planning and management of land, water, electrification, etc. Without granting that primacy to the local units, to take away hectares of land for mega projects is undemocratic.

Has the NDA removed the SIA and consent clause altogether?

Yes, and apart from those 13 laws, they have added five more categories for exclusion which include everything. This Act is applicable to public purpose projects besides public sector projects. So while defining public purpose projects, they have included infrastructure projects as notified by Department of Economic Affairs which includes mining, tourism, water power, [private] educational institutions, [private] hospitals and so on. The NDA proposes to bring the 13 Acts in line with the 2013 Act but have knocked off infrastructure projects from SIA and Consent provisions. This is a tricky matter. The most interesting part is that the maximum land acquisition, and so maximum social impact, will be in irrigation projects, but those have been excluded from SIA and consent and industrial corridors.

The government says corridors will bring agro industry into rural areas, promising employment.

That industrialisation immediately brings employment to local and project affected people has not happened anywhere. The latest CAG report on SEZs says that the land which is taken is not even used for industries and lies vacant for many years. That is why the 2013 Act said that acquired land lying unused for five years will have to be returned to the owner. But the NDA’s proposed Bill changes that, and has added that the land for which a project has been planned will not be returned. But they will go on extending the planning period and will never return the land to the original farmers. If the acquired land is not used for industry, where is the promised employment? There is no ceiling on how much land can be acquired for PPP and private companies, now defined as private entities. Remember there is a ceiling on agricultural land while the farmer is contributing to food security.

But land use has changed.

Yes. Consent was required of 80 per cent of people whose land is going to be acquired for private projects and 70 per cent for public-private projects. None for government projects — for mega dams or mega city or industrial development projects. In many cases, government acquires land and hands it over to corporates within a year. It becomes a government project for which consent is not necessary. Therefore, the Land Use Policy and any change in land use must have the consent of the people.

The government says it needs land for development and growth.

Yes, it needs land, but what kind of land? There is banjar land and wasteland lying in each State and also PSUs lying vacant for decades, and now they want to continue to acquire even multiple crop land. It is clear that agricultural land being diverted for non-agricultural use is reaching its limits. Within 10 years, according to the Economic Survey of India, about 150 lakh hectares was diverted. Multiple crop land should be the last resort, the 2013 Act says. But the NDA wants to remove this too.

The government proposes giving good compensation equal to four to six times the market rate.

This was hugely publicised by the UPA too. Actually what is provided for in the law is that for rural areas they will give two to four times of the market value and that too is left to the States to decide. States are defining the market value as decided by the guidelines set by the village tehsildar, which is kept so low that it is nowhere near the real market value which is five to 10 times more.

So do farmers have recourse under the law if they are short-changed?

Section 87 in the 2013 Act said that if an official violates any provision in the law for social impact or seeking consent or paying compensation and rehabilitation and so on, then the affected person could file an FIR. Now the Ordinance has changed that and it says for this the farmer will have to seek the permission of the head of the department or the State government…

Has the government spoken to activists during the protest?

We had been taken on board by the Congress government in the formulation of the 2013 law. During the NDA rule, even on the Narmada dam issue, the Prime Minister has not given us an appointment. No, there has been no dialogue with us on this issue that defines the fate of the country.

gargi.parsai@thehindu.co.in

Keywords: Land Bill, land acquisition, Medha Patkar interview, UPA, NDA, rehabilitation, land ordinance, Land Acquisition Ordinance

India’s Rs. 3.8 lakh crore subsidies don’t always reach the poor

Which are India’s most effective subsidies, the ones that best reach the poor?

Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian devoted considerable space in the Economic Survey released on Friday to subsidies, how much they cost, whom they really go to, and how leaky they are.

In terms of cost, the combined subsidy for rice and wheat clearly accounts for the largest share, a third of India’s total subsidy bill.

It would appear that the Public Distribution System (PDS)-delivered grains and staples are actually best at reaching the poor. This has been borne out by other research, like the 2011-12 round of the National Council for Applied Economic Research’s India Human Development Survey, which showed that the poor were indeed most likely to use PDS shops.

Two of the worst performing subsidies – the fertiliser subsidy and the water subsidy respectively – have not been quantified, but of them, the Survey says that the fertiliser manufacturers derive the maximum benefit from the fertiliser subsidy since farmers have elastic demand, and the water subsidy goes to private taps, while 60% of the poor get their water from public taps.

But the relatively good news ends there.

Over half of all the wheat allocated through the PDS, and over 40 per cent of kerosene and sugar never reached the consumer in 2011-12, Mr. Subramanian calculates. The Economic Survey recommends using technology-led solutions including mobile phone technology and Aaadhar cards in order to better target subsidies, and a shift to cash transfers.

Soon, you could talk with computers like friends

New York: PTI





Humans may soon be able to talk to computers and robots the same way they talk to their friends, scientists say.A new programme from the US Defence Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) aims to get computers to express themselves more like humans by allowing them to use spoken language, facial expressions and gestures to communicate. “Today we view computers as tools to be activated by a few clicks or keywords, in large part because we are separated by a language barrier,“ said Paul Cohen, DARPA's communicating with computers (CwC) programme manager. “The goal of CwC is to bridge that barrier, and in the process encourage the development of new problem-solving technologies,“ Cohen said.
One of the problem-solving technologies CwC could help further is the computerbased modelling used in cancer research.
Computers previously developed by DARPA are already tasked with creating models of the complicated molecular processes that cause cells to become cancerous. But while these computers can churn out models quickly, they are not so adept at judging if the models are actually plausible and worthy of further research. If the computers could somehow seek the opinions of flesh-andblood biologists, the work they do would likely be more useful for cancer researchers.
To get computers up to the task of communicating with people, CwC researchers have devised several tasks that require computers and humans to work together toward a common goal, `Live Science' reported.
Better communications technologies could help robot operators use natural language to describe missions and give directions to the machines they operate both before and during operations.

the speaking tree - Getting Along With Followers Of Diverse Faiths

Vanamali





The main message of Hinduism is that of satya and ahimsa ­ truth and nonviolence. If you look on everything as divine, you can never hurt or harm anything, either in Nature or in the human being. Thus, the Hindu has never wanted to `conquer' or control anything except his own mind. India has never invaded any country in the last ten thousand years of its history. This is the best accolade that can be given to this culture and one that shows its uniqueness.Traditional Hinduism has always been the most tolerant, patient and welcoming of all religions. It has never persecuted others merely because they had a different theological belief. Hinduism has always sought to live side-by-side peacefully with the followers of other religions, whether they were the indigenous religions of Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism or the foreign religions of Christianity and Islam.
Hindu India has been the sole nation on earth where the Jewish community has never been persecuted even though they have been living here for more than two thousand years. Similarly, Zoroastrian refugees escaping the destruction of the Persian civilisation at the hands of Islamic conquerors were warmly welcomed in India more than a thousand years ago. The Zoroastrian community (now known as the Parsis) has thrived and lived amicably with their Hindu neighbours in peace and mutual respect. Recently when China overran Tibet, India was the only country that gave asylum to the Dalai Lama and allowed the Tibetans to come and settle down on Indian soil without hindrance, with freedom to practice their own religion ­ Buddhism.
The mistake that is now being made by modern Hindus, especially those living abroad, is to confuse the long-held Hindu tradition of tolerating other religions, with the notion that Hinduism encourages us to believe that all religions are exactly the same. The leap from toler ance of other faiths to a belief that all religions are equal is not a leap that is grounded in logic. Nor is it grounded in the history, literature or philosophy of the Hindu tradition itself.
Hinduism is its own uniquely independent religious tradition, different and distinct from any other religion on earth. This distinction has been asserted by all our great saints who used to have debates with the protagonists of non-Hindu traditions like Buddhism, Jainism and Charvakins (atheists). The sages of Hinduism met all philosophical challenges and succeeded in defeating their philosophical opponents in open assemblies.
Adi Shankarachrya, founder of Advaita Vedanta, went all over the peninsula, defeat ing all his learned opponents in open debate. This was known as his `digvijaya', or `conquest of all directions'. Indeed, Shankara is attributed as being partial ly responsible for the decline of Buddhism in India, due to his great ability to debate by which he totally annihilated his opponents' arguments and proved the superiority of vedantic doctrines.
Madhvacharya, founder of the Dvaita school of Vedanta, is similarly seen as being responsible for the sharp decline of Jainism in south India due to his acute intelligence and great debating skills in defence of the Vaidika Dharma (Vedic Dharma).
All pre-modern Hindu sages and philosophers recognised and celebrated the singularly unique vision that Hinduism has to offer the world. They clearly distinguished between Hindu and non-Hindu religions, and they defended Hinduism to the utmost of their formidable intellectual and spiritual abilities. They did so unapologetically, professionally and courageously. The Hindu worldwide makes sense and will survive only if we celebrate Hinduism's uniqueness today. (From `The Science of the Rishis' by Vanamali.) Post your comments at speakingtree.in

Mar 02 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Northeast to be on DU's course map

Shreya Roychowdhury

New Delhi:





A Northeast Studies Programme (NEISP) has been approved by the council of the department of sociology , Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. The proposal for a full-fledged course is yet to be placed before DU's academic council but an initial project­a “think tank“ bringing together academics, administrators and police­will be launched on March 12.“Since 2011, I have been conducting surveys on certain key issues in Delhi,“ Kamei Aphun of department of sociology said. “Some of these are that the academic curriculum doesn't talk about the northeast, ineffi ciency and ineffectiveness of the law and order apparatus in the face of discrimination and hate, improper guidelines and policies of the government and the role of the media. Then I figured out that it is best to bring all the representatives on one forum.” NEISP will first exist as a “think tank” featuring academics from JNU, JMI, North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Guwahati), media professionals, Delhi Police and representatives from the DONER (Development of North Eastern Region) ministry and NEC (North Eastern Council).
“I have prepared a vision statement with seven points,” Aphun said.

Food habits getting worse around the world, warn studies

Researchers implicate the role of junk food industry in the changing food habits, particularly of the young generation

Food habits are getting worse around the world. Though people in some poor and middle-income countries consume healthy food than those in many of the wealthiest regions, major Western snack and soft drink makers are targeting children in ways that will damage their health, according to a series of studies published last week in The Lancet andLancet Global Health on obesity and changing food habits around the world. The research also showed how much advertising for junk foods had soared and how few countries had moved to protect their children from it.

One of the studies assessed diet quality in 187 countries and found that worldwide, consumption of healthy foods such as fruit and vegetables has improved during the past two decades, but has been outpaced by the increased intake of unhealthy foods including processed meat and sweetened drinks in most world regions. 

Improvements in diet quality between 1990 and 2010 have been greatest in high-income nations, with modest reductions in the consumption of unhealthy foods and increased intake of healthy products. However, people living in many of the wealthiest regions, including the US, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, still have among the poorest quality diets in the world, because they have some of the highest consumption of unhealthy food worldwide.

In contrast, healthy dietary pattern was recorded in several low-income countries, such as Chad and Mali, and Mediterranean nations, such as Turkey and Greece, possibly reflecting favourable aspects of the Mediterranean diet.An alarming pattern is emerging in Brazil, Vietnam, South Africa, India, Mexico and other formerly poor countries as they become richer, one study found. Many children in these countries are stunted in height due to poor nutrition and yet obese. In Egypt, one study found, stunting in toddlers increased after 2003 because home poultry flocks were culled to stop H5N1 avian flu.

At the same time, advertising of soft drinks, snacks and sugary cereals to children increased on television and in apps and online games; spending on Coke and Pepsi advertising alone in Arab countries rose to $400 million in 2012 from US $40 million six years earlier.

Per-capita consumption of Coke tripled in Egypt over the last 20 years, and the number of McDonald’s outlets went from four in 1994 to 56 in 2013. A 2011 survey of Egyptian teenagers found that a third of them were overweight.

"By 2020, projections indicate that non-communicable diseases will account for 75 per cent of all deaths. Improving diet has a crucial role to play in reducing this burden," says Fumiaki Imamura from the Medical Research Council Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge in the UK, who led the research published in the Lancet Global Health journal. "Our findings have implications for governments and international bodies worldwide. The distinct dietary trends based on healthy and unhealthy foods, we highlight, indicate the need to understand different, multiple causes of these trends, such as agricultural, food industry, and health policy. Policy actions in multiple domains are essential to help people achieve optimal diets to control the obesity epidemic and reduce non-communicable diseases in all regions of the world," he warns.

The countries with the worst diets included Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Argentina. 

UGC Sanctions Five Adjunct Faculty Positions for each Central University

New Delhi: Central Universities are adopting different methods/process to address faculty shortages in order to ensure that studies of students are not affected, which inter-alia, include hiring  ad-hoc faculty, Guest faculty, Contract faculty and Re-employed faculty. The details of faculty employed in 39 Central Universities under the purview of UGC on adhoc basis, Guest Faculty, Contractual and Re-employed is as under:-

Adhoc

Guest Faculty

Contract Faculty

RE-employed

Total

235

1975

576

136

2922

2

The main reasons for the shortage of faculty in Central Universities, inter-alia, includes:

i)        The expansion of the capacity of existing  Centrally Funded Educational Institutions (CFEIs) due to implementation of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006.

ii)      The establishment of new CEFIs and their operation from temporary campuses.

iii)    The slow pace of development of permanent campus of the newly established CEFIs.

iv)    The remoteness of the new locations of some of the CFEIs.

v)      Non-availability of suitable candidates, particularly at higher level.

vi)    Litigation in certain cases.

Two modalities have been evolved for their engagement with the university system: The “Adjunct faculty” route for younger and mid-career professionals within the target groups, and the ‘scholar-in-residence’ avenue for senior professionals and specialists.

The UGC has sanctioned five Adjunct Faculty positions for each Central University.  The UGC has also framed the guidelines for empanelment of Adjunct Faculty in Universities and Colleges. These guidelines enable higher educational institutions to access the eminent teachers and researchers who have completed their formal association with the University/College, to participate in teaching, to collaborate and to stimulate research activities for quality research at M. Phil and Ph.D. levels; and to play mentoring and inspirational role.

Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission has been launched on 25.12.2014 which envisages to address comprehensively all issues related to teachers, teaching, teacher preparation, & professional development, curriculum design, designing and developing assessment & evaluation methodology, research in Pedagogy and developing effective Pedagogy. 

UGC has also collaborated with foreign countries such as USA. UK, Isreal, Norway and New Zealand for Joint Research, Under these Joint Research programmes, there are provisions for exchange of teachers/researchers who are the project participants. These programmes which facilitate exchange of teachers have bearing on the quality of teaching as well.

This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Smt. Smriti Irani in a written reply to the Lok Sabha question.

Thursday, February 26, 2015