Over 23 lakh in race for 368 peons' posts in UP

Shailvee Sharda

Lucknow:





255 PhDs, Over 2 Lakh Graduates Among Hopefuls

When the Uttar Pradesh government advertised for posts of 368 peons on August 11, it couldn't have guessed the response would be so overwhelming.More than 23 lakh applications have poured in -over 6,250 per post. Among the applicants are over 2 lakh graduates or those with higher degrees like BTech, MSc and MCom. The applicants also include some 255 youths with PhDs.
The minimum qualification for the post was Class V pass but only 53,000 of the candidates who'd applied had not studied beyond Class V .
Uttar Pradesh has a dismal employment scenario.According to a National Sample Survey Organisation report released in 2013, around 1.32 crore people in the state in the 15-35 years age group are unemployed.
Prabhat Mittal, secretary of the secretariat administration department, which holds the appointment process, said candidates had to apply online and the last date was September 14. “On Tuesday, we were shocked to see the response,“ said Mittal. The numbers have put the fate of the recruitment process in a limbo, at least for some time. As per Sachivalaya Group D Recruitment and Service Rules ,1983, appointment for the post of peon is through direct interview.
But, if these 23 lakh candidates make a beeline, direct interview would take four and a half years even if the interviews went on 24X7.
The matter was reported to the state government on Wednesday . Accordingly , chief secretary Alok Ranjan constituted a sub-committee comprising officials from department of personnel, finance and law to suggest a formula for rejection so that the numbers may be reduced. Mittal, who heads the committee, would hold the first meeting on Thursday.
The job of a peon in UP government fetches a take home salary of Rs 16,000 per month.But beside this, candidates have their reasons for applying. “It's better to work as a peon than to wander without a job,“ said Alok, an applicant who holds a PhD. Graduate Ratan Yadav added, “There is nothing wrong in taking up menial work if it gives you an earning and keeps your self respect intact.“
Another applicant Rekha Verma said it was better to serve water to officials than to lead a life of dependency . “If you are jobless, you eventually seek help from relatives or friends... but for how long can one survive on the kindness of well-wishers,“ she said.
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Source: The Times of India, 17-09-2015

Existential Question
Most people setting out on the spiritual path tend to ask the question, “Does God exist?“ This question has three possible answers: (1) Yes; (2) Maybe; (3) No. Since no one can prove or disprove the existence of God, all three answers may be right -for respective followers. We should instead ask, “Does the world really exist?“ The reason is we can't quite perceive God; so questions about God will remain unanswered. But we can see the world. However, just because we can see the world and experience it with our bodily senses, can we say it `exists'?
What is the definition of existence? Are our bodily senses so completely reliable for us to say that the world `exists'?
When we are seeing a dream, the dream world does seem real for the duration of the dream. We can see it and our senses experience it as if it is `real'. But when we wake up, we say the dream wasn't real! It seems everything is relative to a certain state of consciousness we are in. So, even the so-called real world exists only in the kind of consciousness we have in our waking state.

If and when that consciousness changes to another state, the `real' world would be gone up in smoke just like the dream world vanishes in an instant! Then, perhaps, as seekers, we need to take the `real world' and our life in it with a pinch of salt.

Small leap forward in child health

While the Rapid Survey on Children points to substantial progress in fields that have become a focus of serious action, such as safe delivery, it also highlights the penalties of inaction in other fields

The recent release of summary findings from the Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC) has generated remarkably little interest in the mainstream media. The main focus of attention so far has been the indifferent performance of Gujarat in matters of health and nutrition — nothing new there. Related to this, there has also been some speculation about the reasons for the Central governme

nt’s apparent reluctance to release the findings. The substance of the findings, however, has passed largely unnoticed.

This is unfortunate, because there is much to learn from the survey. In fact, RSOC can be regarded as some sort of substitute for a fourth National Family Health Survey (NFHS). It may be recalled that the third NFHS was conducted almost ten years ago, in 2005-06. Prolonged delays in the completion of the fourth NFHS have created a huge gap in India’s social statistics, even as all other South Asian countries conducted regular national health and nutrition surveys. Fortunately, the RSOC survey (conducted in 2013-14) seems to be modelled on NFHS, generating a wealth of health and nutrition statistics that can be usefully compared with the corresponding findings from the third NFHS.

Overall, the RSOC findings look like relatively good news. They suggest a marked improvement in many aspects of maternal and child nutrition between 2005-06 and 2013-14. But the progress is uneven — fairly rapid in some fields, slow in others.

Areas of progress

At first glance, the biggest change relates to safe delivery. The proportion of institutional deliveries among recent births shot up from 39 per cent in 2005-06 to 79 per cent in 2013-14, and the proportion attended by a skilled provider rose from 47 per cent to 81 per cent. At least part of this trend is likely to reflect the impact of Janani Suraksha Yojana, including cash incentives for institutional delivery. This leap forward, however, has not been accompanied by a general breakthrough in maternal care. For instance, the proportion of pregnant women who had at least three antenatal checkups was not much higher in 2013-14 (63 per cent) than in 2005-06 (52 per cent). Similarly, the proportion who consumed Iron and Folic Acid tablets for at least 90 days was very low in both years: 23 per cent and 24 per cent respectively. Even the sharp increase in institutional deliveries needs to be taken with a pinch of salt: in some States, many women deliver in health centres for the sake of cash incentives, with very limited real benefits in terms of natal or postnatal care.

Another area of substantial progress is vaccination. The proportion of children with a vaccination card rose from 38 per cent in 2005-06 to 84 per cent in 2013-14, and vaccination coverage rose from 59 to 79 per cent for measles, 55 to 75 per cent for DPT3, and 44 to 65 per cent for “full immunisation”. Even with these improved figures, India has some of the lowest child vaccination rates in the world, and lags far behind Bangladesh and even Nepal. But at least there is a hint of accelerated progress, after an alarming phase of near stagnation in routine immunisation. As with institutional deliveries, this pattern can be plausibly attributed to recent health policy initiatives, such as the appointment of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), who are now actively involved in immunisation programmes along with Anganwadi workers and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs). Quite likely, these initiatives can also take credit for a substantial improvement in breastfeeding practices: the proportion of children breastfed within an hour of birth rose from just 25 per cent in 2005-06 to 45 per cent in 2013-14.

Turning to other health and nutrition indicators available from these surveys, most of them point to moderate progress between 2005-06 and 2013-14 — more rapid than between NFHS-2 and NFHS-3 (conducted in 1998-99 and 2005-06 respectively), but nowhere as fast as one would hope to see in a booming economy. To illustrate, the proportion of undernourished children declined from 48 to 39 per cent based on height-for-age criteria and from 43 to 29 per cent based on weight-for-age criteria. This is a significant improvement over the preceding period, when child undernutrition was declining at a glacial pace. Yet, much faster progress is required if India is to overcome this colossal problem in a reasonable period of time.

Finally, there are worrying signs of stagnation in some important fields. One of them is access to safe drinking water: 88 per cent in 2005-06 and 91 per cent in 2013-14. The shortfall from universal coverage may not look large, but considering the vital importance of safe water, it is alarming that close to 10 per cent of households are still deprived of it (the corresponding figure in Bangladesh was just 3 per cent in 2007). No less alarming is the slow progress of sanitation: the proportion of sample households practicing open defecation declined from 55 per cent in 2005-06 to 46 per cent in 2013-14, or barely one percentage point per year. At that rate, it will take at least another 40 years for India to eliminate open defecation.

Situation in other countries

It is useful to read these figures in comparison with similar data (e.g. from the periodic Demographic and Health Surveys) from other South Asian countries, especially Bangladesh and Nepal. These comparisons tend to place India in a poor light. For instance, despite being about twice as rich as Bangladesh in terms of per-capita GDP, India lags far behind Bangladesh in terms of child vaccination rates, breastfeeding practices, incidence of open defecation, access to safe water, and related indicators. The same point applies if we compare India with Nepal, which is even poorer than Bangladesh. This gap reflects India’s resilient neglect of health and nutrition matters over a long period of time. The RSOC findings suggest that, in some respects at least, India is finally catching up with its poorer neighbours. They also suggest that the areas of rapid progress (example, safe delivery and vaccination) are those where serious action was initiated during the last 10 years or so. The need of the hour is to consolidate these initiatives and extend them to other domains where there is still no sign of rapid progress.

Alas, the Central government is going in the opposite direction. Financial allocations for the Integrated Child Development Services were slashed by 50 per cent or so in the last Union budget, sending a disastrous signal about policy priorities (no matter what compensation State governments may be receiving in the form of higher tax revenue). Health policy is a morass of confusion and inertia, with the Health Ministry and NITI Aayog talking at cross purposes. The Central government is brazenly ignoring its legal obligation to provide for maternity entitlements under the National Food Security Act. Even the sanitation budget has been quietly reduced, soon after the Prime Minister made tall promises of India being open-defecation free within five years.

The Central government is effectively palming off social policy to the States, with little regard for the consequences of undermining centrally sponsored initiatives that play a critical role in the field of maternal and child health. This does not augur well for another leap forward in the near future.

(Jean Drèze is Visiting Professor at the Department of Economics, Ranchi University.)

Keywords: child health, health policy, vaccination, National Family Health Survey

Source: The Hindu, 16-09-2015

If UNSC opens its door wider, India has a claim to entry

India’s chances of becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council (UNSC) appear brighter with the General Assembly agreeing to adopt a negotiating text for UNSC reforms. Actually the reform of the UNSC is something that has been discussed since 1993. The structure of the council reflects the world balance of power of 1945. Since then the world has moved on and the power dynamics have changed. CENTO (the Central Treaty Organisation), formed to contain communism, has been dissolved.

Communism is no longer the State ideology of many nations of Europe, Africa and South America, and Cuba and the United States have established diplomatic relations. In this what has come through are the strong trends towards globalisation, which has been an ongoing, inexorable process from the time of the industrial revolution. India has been a willing partner in that.

If the UNSC opens its door wider, and there is no reason why it should not, India has a claim to entry. The country is the third-largest economy in Asia and the fastest-growing in the world. India’s companies have for long been operating in various parts of the world and professionals from this country have excelled in various fields. So this should be the right occasion to recalibrate the disequilibrium of the existing world order. Of course the reform of the UNSC can be done in various ways and on various counts. One is by defining categories of members, restricting the scope of the veto held by the five permanent members, giving representation to regions, increasing the size of the council and amending its working methods. If this is done there would be greater scope for India and other countries to be at the high table.

China and Russia have predictably opposed any expansion of the ‘permanent five’ membership of the UNSC. In the process the whole of Africa and South America are without membership in the ‘permanent five’. The five countries with veto powers have used their power only to back their favourite nations as non-permanent members. Given this power barrier, where the judges are judging for themselves, India should tread cautiously and not treat the present opportunity as ‘now or never’. There is always a next time, for which this is a healthy precedent.

We cannot water down rain harvesting

Every monsoon, most Indian cities become flowing water bodies, throwing daily life off kilter. This happens thanks to bad drainage systems and concretisation. Cities can no longer absorb heavy rain and much of the water literally goes down the drain.

Recently, the Delhi high court, while hearing a PIL regarding rainwater harvesting (RWH) units in government buildings, grilled the Delhi Jal Board  (DJB) about the status of implementation of its policy to adopt RWH system in the city. The scenario is pretty grim: Most RWH schemes in the city have remained on paper. Forget residential areas, even most government buildings don’t have an RWH arrangement. So even though Delhi gets 650-850 mm rainfall annually, much of it is wasted.

Against the demand of about 1,050 million gallons per day (MGD) of water, the DJB gets approximately 900 MGD; of this, 100 MGD comes from groundwater. The city already has several pockets of ‘dark zone’ (authorities caution against further withdrawal of ground water from these areas) but over 450,000 bore wells pump water relentlessly.

Unfortunately, the solution for Delhi’s unapologetic demand for water is more lethal. The Capital already gets its water from far off places in Haryana and the Bhakra-Beas Management Board, which regulates the supply of water and power from the Bhakra Nangal and Beas projects to Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Chandigarh.

Delhi is supporting the construction of the Renuka dam project in Himachal Pradesh, 280-odd km from the city, to get about 270 MGD of water, a fourth of its peak summer requirement. The project cost has already escalated to Rs 4,000 crore and, more importantly, it would displace thousands of people who live along the Giri river, submerge fertile land and rich forests.

Like Delhi, Mumbai too gets its water from dams located about 100 km away. Bhopal, which once had huge lakes, now gets Narmada water and Hyderabad is planning to mine the Godavari.

Rather than collecting rainwater and recharging the ground table or storing it for direct use, we are impounding rivers for supplying water to cities that are hundreds of kilometres away. This needs to change.

Instead of this parasitic existence and robbing locals of a valuable natural resource, cities like Delhi must initiate rainwater harvesting on a gigantic scale, manage the surface water bodies in a better way and have strict norms for groundwater withdrawal.

There must also be equitable water distribution — not more than 400 litres per day per capita for VIPs — and an end to distribution losses. Last but not the least, the city must learn to recycle and reuse water.

(Nivedita Khandekar is a Delhi-based independent journalist. The views expressed are personal.)

Source: Hindustan Times, 16-09-2015

El Nino causes severe drought in four states as monsoon retreats

A warmer-than-usual September gave out signs that the agricultural distress could spill over to the winter-sowing season, aggravating the crisis in four drought-crippled states and several others struggling with tough farm conditions because of a poor monsoon.

A powerful El Nino, a weather glitch marked by higher sea temperatures, is blamed for what could be India’s worst drought in three decades, barring the one in 2009. The monsoon is now 16% deficient. To be sure, the meteorological department had forecast rains 12% below normal.

A slowing wholesale inflation rate and falling global commodity prices may not fan prices too high beyond a point, but a “seasonal shock” is forthcoming, analysts HT spoke to said. This means prices of perishables, such as fruits, vegetables and milk, could shoot up.

Karnataka is the first state to declare a drought in almost the entire state. Almost half of Maharashtra remains parched, although the state hasn’t yet notified a drought. Over a third of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are under stress.

Analysts said they expected the real impact of a dry August and September to show when farmers take to the fields to sow winter crops because soil moisture levels would be very low. “When the second half of the monsoon gets drier, that’s a bad sign for winter sowing,” said Ramesh Pawar, a government official in Maharashtra tasked to prepare a status report.

Nearly half of the country received below-normal rains, which means many states are left with pockets of weather-battered farms, especially those without irrigation facilities. These include the whole of eastern Madhya Pradesh, which produces rice and pulses; Chhattisgarh, which grows coarse cereals along with rice; and poll-bound Bihar.

The monsoon started on a weak note in June, but a surge meant the month ended with a 16% surplus. This helped tide over a significant 17% shortfall in July. However, August was worse with a 24% shortfall.

The four worst-affected states are responsible for one-third of the country’s food output. “Therefore, we are looking at a deficiency of roughly 10-11% dip in agricultural production since a 12% below-normal monsoon last year had cut food output similarly,” said Ashoke Lahiri of Comtrade, which monitors trade in farm items.

According to a report by Crisil, which a government official told HT they were studying, the popular tur dal, soyabean, cotton and coarse cereals could take a huge blow because of poor monsoon in regions where these are grown.

The government on Tuesday said it was making arrangements to provide alternatives to provide additional 50 days of man-work in drought-hit areas under the MGNREGA rural job scheme.

It had earlier announced a diesel subsidy since farmers rely on water pumps to irrigate fields. Also, states were allowed to use funds available under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and other schemes for drought mitigation.

A PROMISE WELL KEPT - Miners to Pay 10% Royalty for Tribal Welfare

Nidhi Sharma

New Delhi





Each district where mining activity is initiated will have to set up a District Mineral Foundation

The Centre will on Wednesday notify the Pradhan Mantri Khanij Kshetra Kalyan Yojana, which would make it mandatory for all mining companies to contribute 10%-30% of royalty for welfare of tribals and other affected persons in mining areas. The move comes within a month of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's promise of Rs 6,000 crore for development of tribals in mining-affected areas in his Independence Day speech.Each district where mining activ ity is initiated will have to set up a District Mineral Foundation (DMF) ict magistrate or dis under the district magistrate or district collector. This foundation would identify people affected by mining activities and works that should be undertaken for their welfare.
Under the scheme, in case of all mining leases executed before January 12, 2015, miners would have to contribute an amount equal to 30% of the royalty payable to the DMFs. Where mining leases are granted after January 12, 2015, the rate of contribution would be 10% of the royalty . The scheme would be implemented by DMFs.
Mines secretary Balvinder Kumar told ET: “ Almost all states have set up DMFs. They were waiting for clarity from the Centre on the percentage payable to DMFs. Now the scheme is finalised and after the notification, the states would frame their rules.“
Guidelines being notified by the Ministry of Mines have specifically laid down the heads under which the funds need to be utilised to ensure the affected tribals get the benefit of the schemes. At least 60% of the funds under PMKKKY have to be used for high priority areas such as schools, primary health care centres, women and child development, drinking water supply , environment preservation and pollution control measures. Up to 40% funds can be used for infrastructure projects such as physical infrastructure, irrigation, energy and watershed development and any other measures for enhancing environment quality in mining districts.
The ministry expects to get Rs 6,000 crore under PMKKKY. Kumar said, “the total royalty for major minerals is Rs 20,000 crore.

Source: Economic Times, 16-09-2015