"Jheel Mahotsav" of Bhopal

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This should be music to the ears of the environmentalists of Bhopal who have gone hoarse crying for effective conservation of the Upper Lake. A report was recently published about the Jheel Mahotsav (the Lake Festival) that was to be celebrated in mid-January hitting some rough weather. The Mahotsav, reportedly, could not be held as scheduled as some youth programme clashed with it. Now, however, Prayatna, a local environmental advocacy group, has decided to launch protests against the state government’s decisions to hold the Mahotsav and conduct other amusement activities on the banks of the various water bodies, especially the Upper Lake.

Reiterating that the Upper Lake is a vital source of drinking water for the local community and generally called the “lifeline” of the city (despite the availability now of water from the Narmada River) Prayatna has said, any amusement activity near the Lake would be detrimental to it and the quality of its water. If the government does not relent, Prayatna, led by Ajay Dube, is all set to launch an agitation.

Ironically, the Mahotsav was to be held under the aegis of the state government, the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the MP State Tourism Development Corporation (MPSTDC). While the state government is supposedly responsible for conservation of the Lake and has since appointed the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) for suggesting measures for the purpose, the BMC is the custodian of the water body and ought to be its overall protector. Yet these two authorities have had no qualms about agreeing to hold the Mahotsav. Nothing could be stranger as numerous environmentalists and limnologists have opined during the course of their visits to this Wetland in the past that collection of a large number of visitors in and around it would prove harmful for it. The concerned departments of the government and the BMC are aware of their opinions, yet they seem to be turning a blind eye to them and are seemingly getting carried away by the hype of holding utsavs and mahotsavs.

Already, some researchers have predicted that if business continues as usual the Lake will not remain useful for the local people within the next eighty years or so. I had also come across a report that even CEPT has said that the way construction is going on in its catchments and the way unrestricted chemical farming is allowed to be continued therein the Lake would cease to be in its present form in another sixty years. The man made lake that has survived for a millennium is now going to cease to exist on account of apathy and incompetence of those who are in charge of its care and conservation.

In the meantime, the CEPT made a presentation to the Bhopal Citizens’ Forum in which it is reported to have opined that there is too much human activity near the Lake which is not quite conducive to its proper conservation. As they are yet to submit their report to the government they were requested by members of the Forum to consider suggesting moving away of all the amusement activities from the shores of the Lake or drastically reduce such activities particularly at the Boat Club and Sair Sapata Complex. Many have felt that not only the government is adding to means of amusement near the Lake, it is also converting the Lake View Road into a museum of sorts, what with an old steam locomotive and a model of a naval ship parked there. Plans are also afoot to display an air force fighter plane. The basic idea is to get more people to avail of facilities provided by the MPSTDC of motor boats, a floating restaurant and its other eateries – activities that are contra-indicated for effective conservation of the water body.

The local MPSTDC is actually proving to be a bane for the Lake. According to reports, it had planned to get Shankar, Ehsan and Loy, the famous trio who have given musical scores in various popular films, to get hundreds and thousands of people to enjoy the live musical show. The Corporation claims assembly of large number of people will enhance their awareness about need to conserve the Lake. Instead, collection of hundreds of people only generates a lot of waste that generally includes plastic and other such contaminants that later flow into the Lake. It is nothing but a sort of a fig leaf that barely covers the Corporation's commercial motives. It thinks that attaching the tag of “conservation” would make its activities on the Lake shores legitimate.

It also has plans to put the Upper Lake on the national tourism circuit – whatever that means – forgetting that the Upper Lake, and the Bhoj Wetland that it is part of, are an eco-sensitive zone, more so because the Lake happens to be the “lifeline” for the people of Bhopal. Collection of large number of people, having eateries on its shores and even motor-boating should, therefore, be a strict no, no. Unfortunately the Corporation seems to have lost all sense of propriety. For the sake of its bottom-line it has thrown its innate sense of corporate social responsibility out of the window.

One cannot, therefore, but support Prayatna in its efforts to ensure that the trio of the government, the BMC and the MPSTDC are stopped on their tracks are not allowed to hold the Jheel Mahotsav this year or ever in the future. Letters and appeals to the government seldom bring forth the desired results. In crunch situations, it is only mass protests that generally deliver.

Air pollution in Bhopal

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A recent report in the newspapers about how fumes-spewing vehicles have caused 5, 71, 947 cases of acute respiratory infections (ARI) in the state in a yea was alarming. The figure has been made public by the Central Health Intelligence Bureau (CBHI). Commenting on these figures an Associate Professor of Chest Diseases of Gandhi Medical College said “Increasing cars and two-wheelers in cities and rural areas might have become status symbols but the vehicles are having deadly impact on people. Sudden outbreaks like (that) of swine flu are one(s) to watch out for, as suggested by World Health Organisation (WHO)”.

The CBHI has said that chances of deaths due to ARI are more in the state of MP on account of the want of adequate number of trained doctors. The side effects of increased pollution are asthma, cardiovascular diseases, change in lung function and even death. Children are at greater risk. Importantly, ARI is a disease group that includes pneumonia, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus – a respiratory virus and these cause, according to WHO, 4.5 million deaths annually

While Indore is reported to be more polluted than Bhopal, yet we cannot wait till we catch up with our sister city. The numbers of vehicles, including those propelled by diesel, are rapidly rising in the city. What is worse, in the absence of any emission control old, reconditioned two and three-wheelers, cars, delivery vans, trucks and buses that should have been banished from the roads have currently free rein on them, particularly in the older parts of the town and in commercial zones. Add to that the problem of adulteration of petrol diesel, both for cars and two wheelers and you have a lethal mix, something forbidding that can immensely harm regular commuters exposed these noxious fumes. All of us have become vulnerable, more so the children and the elderly. Emission control measures will not only protect such groups but will also reduce public expenditure on healthcare.

ome feeble efforts were made to check emission from cars almost a decade back but the whole thing was inexplicably wound up. No reasons were assigned. Eventually one came to know that the question of authority to check the vehicles and to impose penalties had not been finalised. The men and machines were withdrawn and I once came across one of them in the premises of Durga Petrol Pump. The government has never been serious about controlling vehicular emissions. If it does not care about what happens to the Planet Earth owing to global warming, it should at least care about its own people.

Bhopal Citizens' Forum had taken up the matter regarding pollution check of vehicles in Bhopal with the Department of Housing & Environment a few months back. Although a substantial amount of time has elapsed neither has it been apprised of the action taken nor is there is any evidence on the ground of the government’s effort to curb vehicular emissions. Hopefully, the Form will soon remind the government.

Phoograph taken from the comments recorded by Gulrez Raza Khan in Facebook

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The rape that stunned the nation

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It was different; it was a different kind of gang-rape that shook not only the nation but also the Diaspora, besides evoking strong and sensitive reactions from abroad. It even prompted the Secretary General of the United Nations to write to the Indian Prime Minister for ensuring greater security for women. It was a different kind of rape in that it was not like the ones that are reported almost every day in the newspapers. It was different because it was an uncommonly and excessively brutal and beastly assault, which tore up the insides of the 23-year old bright and ambitious paramedic, eventually taking her life despite the best efforts of medicine men in the country’s capital and abroad. 

So much has been written about this unfortunate incident that it is now needless to repeat the details. What, however, matters is that this rape has become a sort of a watershed in the Indian social consciousness. Reports of rapes in the newspapers and the electronic media have been frequent, if not regular, and common people have been taking them in their stride, pursuing their day-to-day activities leaving the rape-victims to fend for themselves in the tortuously protracted (and sometimes gender-biased) investigations followed by adjournments-and-appeals infested legal proceedings. But the mindless brutality exhibited in this particular case of sexual violence seems to have acted as the tipping point that released unprecedented social energy in the shape of protests and strident demands for the lives of the brute rapists who displayed traits worse than those of predatory animals. 

The barbaric rape provoked an acute sense of horror, distress and shock stirring up the nation, setting off spontaneous reactions right across the country. Massive peaceful assemblies were held, to start with, in Delhi at a scale much larger than what one had seen in 2011 during Anna Hazare’s Lokpal campaign. Later, it spread all across the country from north to south and east to west. Largely non-violent, barring a few stray incidents of violence engineered by miscreants in Delhi, the demonstrations, though leaderless, exhibited exemplary discipline and restraint. There was no breast-beating, only loud and vociferous demands for, inter alia, change of the laws, meting out prompt justice ending in severe punishment to the perpetrators of the horrific crime. The civil society has never reacted in this manner in the past bewildering, as it did, the political and governmental establishments.

The protestors, with their legitimate demands for harsher punishment for rape and sexual assault, built up such a pressure on the government that it promptly appointed a committee headed by a former chief justice of the apex court to review the existing softer provisions dealing the offences. They had to, as the protestors gave vent to their anger against the MPs who, they said, unanimously enact legislations within three days raising their salaries but amendments to the laws for sexual violence proposed by the Law Commission have been left unattended for more than a decade. Likewise, Delhi Government promptly set up five “fast track” courts to deal with rape cases on the basis of 2003 recommendations of the same Commission. Typically, commissions are created for specific purposes but their recommendations are seldom acted upon with promptitude for the benefit of the society. The pressure this time was so overwhelming that the government couldn’t tarry any further.

 Fearful of the pervasive anger, the political class demanded special session of the parliament to enact the amendments in a hurry when most of them remained dormant earlier, never bothering to raise this vital issue even as rapes and assaults on women were frequently being reported. Clearly, it was not the lapse of the government alone; every political outfit was at fault. When the Home Minister put his proverbial foot in the mouth by saying that the government could not meet protestors all the time, he obviously forgot that three senior ministers had met and spent about three hours meeting the Yoga Guru Ramdev with a view to buying him off during 2011 agitations for enactment of a Lokpal bill. The unforthcoming Prime Minister made a bland statement with a gaffe of a “theek hai?” (all right?) at its tail end and later made amends by remaining present at the Airport with the seemingly insensitive UPA Chairperson when the body of the rape victim arrived from Singapore at the unearthly hour of 3.00 AM. 

The Delhi Police never had it so bad, despite the Union Home Secretary’s gratuitous pat on its back for prompt investigations followed by arrests. The Home Secretary’s fatuous praise overlooked the fact that the unfortunate assault would not have taken place had the Delhi Police functioned in accordance with the law. Before the horrific attack there was a series of failures of Delhi Police which are now common knowledge.

Recent reports, however, indicate the bus was booked on several occasions for violation of various traffic rules in the past but each time it was somehow let off lightly. Investigations have revealed that the bus-owner was paying “hafta” (weekly bribe) to the Police; an entry to that effect was found in a police diary. Such entries are reportedly communicated to all traffic police officers to enable the buses in question to illegally operate without let or hindrance. The young life of the aspiring paramedic was lost largely because of the utter lack of governance as exemplified by the ineffective and corrupt ways of Delhi Police. 

Its strong-arm methods in dealing with the protestors too came in for severe criticism. Its use of batons on unarmed protestors, including elderly women, firing of numerous tear-gas shells and directing high-pressure water cannons in severely cold conditions were condemned by all. Evidently, Delhi Police’s assault on sleeping devotees of Yoga Guru Ramdev Delhi’s Ram Leela Grounds in 2011 was not a one-off action. It has a history of such atrocious conduct. It also came in for heavy criticism for its steps to prevent peaceful assembly of protests at India Gate and Jantar Mantar by blocking all roads and imposition of prohibitory orders, respectively. The Delhi High Court pulled it up asking it to maintain law and desist from curbing basic rights. Later, it has had recently to apologise before the High Court for suppression of the names of delinquent policemen.

Although the print and electronic media called her “Nirbhaya” (fearless) and “Damini” (lightning), respectively, the rape victim has remained faceless and nameless even after her death. The media, however, has been doing outstanding work ferreting out relevant facts connected with the incident. Even the companion of the victim was interviewed who emphasised that instead of lighting candles people should help others who happen to be in distress. Had people promptly responded to appeals made by him while lying on the roadside, he asserted, the victim might have survived. A news channel has, therefore, launched a campaign for change in attitudes of such pervasive callousness prompted by fear of harassment by the Police. A distinct hands-off attitude has been perceptible all over the country in such cases largely because of protracted, virtually interminable police investigations in which witnesses and others who attempt to help the victim are browbeaten and threatened by the corrupt police investigators. The channel’s initiative is indeed praise-worthy but the policemen all over the country also will have to mend their ways.

Even as the nation was virtually on an unofficial mourning for the death of an innocent victim because of a brutal assault some conservative legislators and organisations placed all the blame for her misfortune on the girl. While some felt that she should not have been out on the streets with her boy friend so late in the evening, others blamed only her for the incident. According to them, mostly it is the women who invite trouble either by way of their conduct or by wearing Western dresses that expose far too much. They blamed Westernisation of social mores for whatever was happening to women in the country. The chief of an extreme right wing organisation, while showing utter disconnect with reality in speciously calling rapes an urban phenomenon, asserted that Hindu marriages were a contract under which women were ordained to serve the needs of their husbands. Another self-styled god-man blamed the victim for not seeking mercy from those who attacked her. The media has been proactive in hitting out at and tearing apart those who made regressive statements or sexist, gender-biased comments. The newly elected Congress MP, the son of the President, had to face inquisitional questioning from several channels for his idiotic comment against the protestors whom he contemptuously called “highly dented and painted” socialites.

Rapes were being reported every day from various corners of the country even while the protest against the Delhi rape were continuing. It seemed the rapists were immune to whatever was happening around them and the sub-culture of rape seems to be flourishing unabated. The spate of reports in the dailies made one wonder whether it was the media’s way of trying to project before the country the enormity of the problem. The silver lining, however, was that Police, having shaken away its lethargy, promptly nabbed most of the rapists.

In many ways the gang rape has turned out to be a defining episode. Never before people were brought so close together in sorrow, anguish and anger against the non-functionality of the established system. Shaking the people and the political class alike, it has left a deep impact on the nation’s consciousness. As far as the Establishment is concerned, the cruel and pitiless episode has driven another nail in the coffin of the UPA government.

Note: All photographs are taken from the Internet

 

Bhopal proves CAG right on JNNURM

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The Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) in his report on the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) tabled in the Parliament about six weeks ago has pointed out that the programme has failed. The ambitious 7-year programme launched in 2005 with the objectives of fast-track development of cities along with strengthening of the urban local bodies and making them more accountable “has failed on all counts”, says the CAG.

He further says, “other than housing and urban infrastructure, it was intended to strengthen the urban local bodies (ULB) to make them efficient, accountable and transparent could not be achieved as has been envisaged in terms of their structure, composition, financial resources, functions and powers…However in selected states and Union Territories ….all the mandatory and optional reforms were not implemented as per the commitments made in the Memorandum of Agreement. Thus the objective of bringing about reforms in institutional financial and structural governance structure of the ULBs to make them efficient, accountable and transparent could not be achieved…”

The performance audit of the CAG has revealed huge deficiencies in respect of delays in almost completion of all projects. The report stated that the ministries of the Central Government were not equipped to monitor a project of such magnitude. It seems, once the money was allocated to a state the ministry concerned had abdicated all responsibilities in regard to ensuring completion of the projects and monitoring quality of the work carried out.

If the Central ministries are not equipped to monitor the projects under the program the departments of the state governments are no better. We in Bhopal are all too familiar with the failure of the government and their implementing agency, the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) in monitoring and ensuring commissioning of projects in accordance with their own deadlines. 

Housing for urban poor on Idgah Hills

The case of BRTS is well known. It has already missed several deadlines and is likely to miss a few more. The ambitious targets set at various points of time have had no relationship with the capability of the BMC.  No wonder the project is dragging on and on without any signs of completion. Apart from a few bridges, many stretches of the BRTS corridor are still incomplete. No one knows when the whole thing will be completed. Even if it gets completed in another couple of years’ time there wouldn’t be sufficient number of buses, along with the necessary feeder services to make the fullest use of the corridor. Now that the Commissioner BMC has been moved away after a spat with the Mayor, there is going to be a fresh setback to the progress of the project – not that he seemed to be very proactive in pushing for its completion. In the meantime people are being subjected to untold hardships in commuting through the broken down and half-finished roads. Many accidents have taken place of which some were fatal.

Likewise, the housing project taken up under the Mission on the Idgah Hills for provision of basic services for the urban poor is yet to be completed. Many among the huge number of blocks are almost ready but are yet to be occupied for the reasons of fraudulent allotments. The case is reportedly in the courts and no one knows when one would see the end of it. In the meantime cores of rupees invested in erecting the multi-storied blocks – a veritable jungle of them – are going to produce no returns.

In the Mission there were two significant objectives: one of redevelopment of the inner (older parts of the) city and strengthening of the municipality to ensure enhancement of self-sustaining capabilities of the city. Both have hardly been taken up for implementation. Bhopal has a significant inner city that was the core of the capital during the Nawabi era. It is a thriving market place where one can sense the vibrancy of trade and commerce. As in other such cities, it is congested and crowded with very little municipal intervention. Except a railway over-bridge in its outer parts, the old city has not received any attention under the Mission.

The Municipal Corporation, too, has largely remained the same old inefficient and incompetent civic body that it used to be before the commencement of the Mission. Neither has its capabilities nor is its abilities to provide better services to the people have improved. Rampant politicking and nepotism has held it back from achieving its potential, if at all there was any. During the last seven years of the Mission the quality of life of the people that should have been bettered has, in fact, deteriorated The roads are damaged, the city is infested with stray dogs, heaps of garbage are visible all over, water – fresh and of sewers – keep flowing on the streets creating pools eating away whatever is left of the roads. On the one hand, while the Minister Urban Administration is pouring money in attempting beautification of three roads and the area around the Lake, the rest of the city hardly gets any attention for want of finances. Efficiency, accountability and transparency, as envisaged in the Mission Objectives could not be achieved in so far as the BMC is concerned. It continues to function in its old lackadaisical and opaque ways. After all, opacity sustains confusion enabling all concerned to make merry with government funds.

The 7-year term of the Mission ended in December last but nothing much has been achieved. Elsewhere, in other cities at least the BRT Systems have been put in place with significant benefits to the citizenry. Bhopal, however, has drawn a blank so far. Perhaps, we will have to wait either for extension of the Mission or formulation of another one before some semblance of improvement becomes visible. That may, however, happen in another decade’s time or so.