Is Mulayam losing the won battle?

As the dark clouds of Assembly elections hover over Mulayam Singh Government in UP, the wrestler in him finds it difficult to escape the prospects of president’s rule during hustings.

Beleaguered due to the growing discontent against Samajwadi Party rule, Mulayam Singh is busy with last ditch efforts to retain his chief ministership during forthcoming (April-May) Assembly elections. In his attempt to thwart the danger of president’s rule, he called in the Assembly session from Jan 15. A notification to this effect was issued by Mata Prasad Pandey, the Assembly speaker.
On the other hand, the UP Government Rajeshwar Rao closed the session ‘sine-die’ w.e.f. 9th Jan 2007. This created an unprecedented constitutional crisis in the state of UP.
Why Mulayam Singh and his Samajwadi Party are getting desperate? Opposition parties including BJP and BSP have called upon the governor and the president of India stressing the need to impose president rule. The Congress, BSP and BJP have been citing incidents to show that the administration in UP has ‘collapsed’ and ‘law and order’ has failed.

The dailies in the state carry almost every day the stories about murder, loot, kidnapping, chain snatching, extortion and to top it all the refusal of the police to write FIRs.
The most recent incidents are of the disappearance or murder of Meerut University lecturer Dr. Kavita Chaudhary and serial killings about 20 boys and girls in Nithari (NOIDA). These are the hottest cases, which have been referred to CBI, now, reluctantly by the state government. The resignations of three ministers of Chaudhary Ajit Singh’s LOK DAL (LD) on 9th Jan, from the Mulayam Singh Ministry have sent shivers in the Mulayam Singh camp. Problem has been further aggravated due to Congress’s decision to withdraw support.
The latest Party position in the UP Assembly is as under:

SP 152 CPM 1
BSP 67 others 2
BJP 83 Independents 16
Congress 15 Nominative 1
LBD 33 Unattached 6
LD 15 Vacant 2
KCP 2 Debarred from voting rights 9

Out of total 404 (2 MLA have died) as such the effective strength of the UP Assembly is 393 members. For a majority 197 members are required. 13 independents are either ministers or CMDs of Government corporations. The Congress, LBD, LD, LCP, CPM, were supporting the government till now but the Congress has given a jolt to Mulayam’s plans by announcing withdrawal of support, making it almost inevitable that UP is heading towards President’s rule without Congress and Lok Dal.
Congress and Lok Dal’s decision means that Mulayam Singh will have a wafer thin majority of 204 members. If eight of these, too, withdraw their support, the government could collapse.
In spite of numerical strength at the moment, the imposition of president’s rule in UP appears imminent. The constitution crisis may take a curious turn. The coming days will be eventful.

Public is there to be fooled

You and I comprise the ‘public’. And it is evident that we, the public, are being taken for granted by those in the high echelons of power. Moral: we are meant to be fooled. In other words, we deserve that we are fooled time and again.
If we are not being befooled, why is it that the election promises are not being honoured and the parties go to polls every next time? If we are not being befooled, why is that the politicians say something at one time and altogether different thing at other instance? Glaring example: Congress that gave support to Mulayam Singh till a day before citing ‘secular’ reasons withdraws support a shade prior to election, citing ‘secular’ reasons once again. But the most glaring example is undoubtedly the mother of most gruesome of all tales – Nithari. Was it because the Government didn’t want to distribute any more cheques of 5 lakh each (already the State was emptied by a huge amount) that the skeleton digging drive was stopped? Was it because they had no more land to give to the families of sufferers? Or was it that they didn’t want any more adverse publicity (already their image has been much sullied)?
However, those who were saying that it is not Samajwadi Party’s fault if an incident of this nature occurs are finding no cover to hide their faces. Accepted that there was no fault of the Samajwadi Party, but who gave orders to stop further probe, after 19 skeletons were recovered from the drains in Nithari.
Raj Babbar is right when he says that some thing is fishy here as well. Says he: “Now after CBI taking over the investigation, not only more body parts were recovered from there; the investigating team also managed to lay its hands on 40 gunny bags containing human organs.” Latest recoveries clearly indicate that the police attempted to dilute the magnitude of the ghastly incident, Babbar charged.
Moreover, Babbar has charged that a sum of Rs. 3 crore is spent on annual cleaning of drains in Noida. He said: “I have definite information that this exercise has not been undertaken during the last three years but Rs. 9 crore has been shown as spent on this head. The Noida authority too has accepted this fact,” he claimed. Babbar seems to be right here as so many skeletons would not have been thrown overnight.
With more and more bags being recovered, there remains no doubt that Nithari was the case of organ trade and not just individual crime like ‘child-abuse’ or ‘flesh-eating’. If this is so, it cannot be the work of just two persons. Who are the others involved? More importantly, who are those who are shielding them even now? A thorough probe is required.

Young people from India and Australia come together

Young people from India and Australia have come together to tackle river pollution and global warming as part of the 5th International Swatcha Ganga Chhatra Sangam being organized on Tulsi Ghat, Varanasi on 17th and 18th January.
Telling details of the program, Dr. VB Mishra, President of the Sankat Mochan Foundation said: “River Ganga is one of the greatest rivers of the world, providing spiritual and physical sustenance to hundreds of millions of people. The health of the river is threatened by numerous open drains that are pouring raw sewage directly into religious bathing areas. Global warming also threatens the future and health of the river, as the major glaciers feeding into Ganga are melting. The solutions of both these problems lie in the hands of the people.”
Dr. Mishra further informed: “There are 30 drains discharging raw sewage into the religious bathing areas in Benaras and 69 drains discharging into Ganga and Yamuna at Allahabad. We estimate there are 2000 sewer outfalls discharging sewage and industrial pollution along the whole length of the river. This is 95% of the problem for Ganga and it must be stopped. Appropriate technology and natural systems that don’t depend on electricity are available. We know how this sewage problem can be solved. We need to act now.”
Mrs. Lennox, Co-Founder of Global River Environmental Education Network – Australia (Oz Green), said: It is disturbing to see that after 15 years of visiting Benares, the situation of sewage pollution of the religious bathing areas continues. I am concerned about the health of the people and the risk of water borne diseases.”
5th International Youth River Congress is aimed at sharing the experiences of young people from Varanasi schools and young Australian leaders. During the congress, young people will learn from the Swatcha Ganga Research Laboratory (SGRL) about the state of water quality in Ganga and its impact on the common people. The congress is taking place between the major religious bathing days of the Ardh Kumbh Mela and Makar Sankranti and also amid recent water quality testing conducted by the SGRL which reveals that river water quality in the religious bathing areas is thousands of times above the safe limit for bathing.

‘Strict action is taken against corrupt at Jal Nigam’: MD

Corruption is a bane that is devouring the administrative set-up of the country. Krishan Kumar Aggarwal, managing director, Jal Nigam claims to have put a brake on it, at least in his organization. “Since hon’ble Urban Development Minister has taken over as President – Jal Nigam, we have made a great deal of progress in this direction. Whenever any incident of corruption comes to our knowledge, we take strict action. I do not say that we have been able to stop it altogether, but it has been curbed extensively,” says the MD.
KK Aggarwal has several decades of experience working in this field. A civil engineer from Roorkee University, who later did ME in Hydraulics, he joined what was then LSGD on 15th February, 1971, which was later converted into Jal Nigam in 1975. He is at helm of affairs as MD, Jal Nigam since 30th June, 2005 and has been instrumental in Jal Nigam’s recent focus on improving work load and quality. Other than the usual chore of handling water supply, sever and drainage, Jal Nigam also builds and hand over sever treatment plants to local bodies like Nagar Nigam, but there are several cities like Allahabad, Lucknow and Varanasi where sever treatment plants, built as part of Ganga Action Plan, are also being operated by Jal Nigam due to paucity of technical resources with the local bodies. “Cities like Muzzaffarnagar, Saharanpur, Mathura and Vrindavan have been taken over but the rest are still being handled by us,” informs Mr. Aggarwal while describing the nature of Jal Nigam’s work.
Mr. Aggarwal is a busy man today. “Present posting is routinely hectic,” says he adding that other than the routine work, there is enough work pressure owing to the huge size of area that he has to handle. Due to this, he is unable to pursue his hobbies. Says Mr. Aggarwal: “I have been a sportsman all my life. Other than studies my time was spent in playing table tennis, badminton and volleyball. When the club was close, I used to go to watch movies, another of my favourite past-time. Now it’s not possible to play. I do see a movie occasionally on TV but it has been a long time since I went to a picture hall.”
Hailing from a small town of Hasanpur in district Moradabad, KK Aggarwal has come a long way. Today, both his children are settled. While his son Prashnu Aggarwal is a practicing lawyer in High Court, with Arun Sinha, his daughter is doing MSc in Computers.
When asked where he finds the society heading, KK Aggarwal candidly refutes though he adds: “I won’t talk much as values have changed with generation. People are becoming more materialistic. What will be the end, I cannot tell.”
Whatever, one thing is certain. This man has spent lifetime doing a great service – serving the society through providing one of the most basic needs – water. May the devata of rain and water shower on him a just reward!

LESA’s revenue collection hampered

An extensive revenue generation drive from defaulters is currently on at LESA. But while meters are being disconnected and FIRs being made with an eye on generating more funds, the monthly revenue collection received by LESA has suffered tremendously due to certain inadvertent changes.
There are close to 10 lakh electric connections in Lucknow. LESA has to undergo a monumental task of getting meter reading done for all the subscribers every month. Owing to the fact that LESA does not have the resources and staff to carry forth this exercise on its own, the task of taking meter-readings is outsourced to private parties.
Until now, four companies were doing the job with circles allotted to each one of them in Lucknow. Problem arose in Circle I (covering most of Old Lucknow including Chowk) and Circle III (covering two divisions, viz. Aishbagh and Alambagh divisions) when Signals and Systems India Ltd wound up its work from Circle I and Alambagh Division of Circle III and Sai Computers, another company handling Aishbagh division of Circle III was asked to take care of meter-readings in the areas handled by Signals and Systems India Ltd.
The problem arose when Signals and Systems, whose services were being given extensions of one month each, for reasons best known to LESA. Signals and Systems wanted an extension of at least six months to be able to do the job better. But this was not admissible to LESA, who have already opened fresh tenders and short-listed four companies, all of whom will commence work from beginning of March. Owing to its demand not met, Signals and Systems gave notice to LESA on 20th of last month that it was winding up its work and consequently Sai Systems was asked to take care of meter reading in Circle I as well as Alambagh division of Circle III till the end of February after which the newly short-listed companies will take over.
Severe problems emanated as consequence of this, as Sai Computers was not prepared – neither strength-wise nor aware of the geographical location of Circle I – informs Mohammad Firoz, Executive Engineer, Circle I, LESA. Consequently, the regular payers of bill could not come to pay as out of about 8000 readings that should have been made till when this correspondent made enquiries, Sai was able to complete taking only 1000 readings. More than 7 lakh rupee worth of payments are received from the consumers through cheques, who pay at time when men from these companies visit their houses, that revenue too has been severally hit.
Owing to this, revenue collection in Circle I has been severally hit, rues Mohammad Firoz, though he could have done little to change the situation.
The problem is as severe in Alambagh division of Circle III as well where BK Singh, Executive Engineer responsible for this area, is resorting to frantic efforts like print advertisements and loudspeaker announcements to make the consumers aware of the situation and ask them to deposit the bills after taking the reading themselves.
This also hit revenue collection at Aishbagh division of Circle III when Sai shifted some of its work force to Circle I and Alambagh division of Circle III. However, VK Kaushik, Executive Engineer at Circle III feels there is no cause for dissatisfaction from Sai Computers as they are only doing their job though he agrees that there is always scope for improvement.
This problem is likely to continue till the end of February as Sai Computers is not likely to recruit much in this area, as it is uncertain whether it will continue to work in the same area after fresh tenders. Until March, Old Lucknow as well as Alambagh division is to remain severally hit both in terms of customer satisfaction and revenue collection. Till then Mohammad Firoz and BK Singh are left with no choice but to advertise in newspapers and use loudspeakers, asking consumers to take their own readings and deposit the amount on the basis of that, efforts that they are already making.
However, till new companies take over in March, the revenue generation drive from defaulters has become a frantic revenue collection drive from the regular payers and particularly Mohammad Firoz and BK Singh, the two Executive Engineers whose area got most affected, were left with no choice but to shift focus, in this exigency.

LESA on revenue generation spree

Geographical condition of Old Lucknow hampering efforts

A special revenue generation drive is currently on in LESA with enforcement team moving door-to-door to generate as much revenue as possible. Simultaneously, defaulters are being booked and their electric connections being disconnected, in case the full and final payment is not collected immediately. This was disclosed by Er. A.K. Singh, Chief Engineer at LESA in a special conversation with this correspondent. LESA has about 10 lakh connections in Lucknow.
Leading LESA’s monumental task in Old Lucknow is Mohammad Firoz, the Executive Engineer, who took up this arduous responsibility after proving his mettle in cities with similar geographical conditions to Old Lucknow, viz. Aligarh and Allahabad. In Circle-I itself, which comprises nearly whole of Old Lucknow, about 1500 connections have been cut so far out of nearly 15000 disconnections carried out so far in Lucknow. “Four teams are already on move in the area government by me, and about 25 FIRs have been made till now, besides generating the much needed revenue for the electricity department,” informs Mohammad Firoz.
However, Firoz’s work is largely affected due to the very nature and pattern of housing construction in the area. “Most of the area has narrow lanes and bylanes where power lines run extremely close to the houses, making it easier for theft to be carried out. Most of this theft is carried out at night. Though we are taking the assistance of police too in this regard, even they avoid getting into the houses during night,” adds the Executive Engineer.
More than 90% of consumers in Firoz’s area are domestic ‘light and fan’ users and consumption is as it is low compared to houses in localities in other circles. And places where there is high consumption, there are other constraints that prohibit action, informs Firoz, citing the case of KGMU – a big government-run hospital.
Chief Engineer, AK Singh too agrees to the enormous work pressure and limitations in enforcing regulations in sensitive areas of Lucknow. For instance, KGMU that lies in the area governed by Mohammad Firoz owes more than Rs. 1.5 crore to the electricity department. The hospital staff spends lavishly on construction, seminars and convocations and foreign travel of its senior staff but has no funds to pay to the electricity department. Even electricity cannot be disconnected, as this would lead to inconvenience to the patients.

‘Training of police personnel essential’

Training is an inherent part of all management functions. It enables the personnel and staff to remain fighting fit and move ahead with time – something that is extremely essential for smooth and satisfactory working of an organization.
For police department, it is even more essential that a proper training system is built. The police force in UP is over-worked and stressed and a proper fitness regime would help them cope with these more effectively. Moreover, training is particularly needed for the police force as bulging bellies are not just an eyesore but also a deterrent in their duties that at times require extra energy and stamina to nab the culprits.
Owing to this, SSP-Lucknow Rajiv Krishna, a fitness freak himself, is in favour of an extensive training drill, not just for the new recruits but also for the existing workforce, time and again. But for the fact that the police force is already understaffed and cannot be spared much for training sessions and fitness drills, Rajiv Krishna would have put into force a plan to bring about much-needed training and fitness regime for police officers of all ranks. “Not just physical training, there is a need to make the officers aware of changing technological and scientific developments, like computers, internet, modern mobile gadgets besides ever-changing laws related to human rights, CrPc and IPC rules and Indian constitution,” informs the SSP.
Though he has not been able to do enough in this regard, whatever time Rajiv Krishna gets he spends that in encouraging officers and informing them of the positive effects of remaining fit.
He informs that there are three training facilities in Lucknow at present. These include the 32nd Battalion PAC RTC, 35th Battalion PAC RTC and Reserved Police lines RTC. At present, training of 98 new recruits is going on at Reserved Police Lines RTC where the training starts at 4 in the morning and goes on till dinner time. Apart from impart training in squad drill and police drill, the recruits are taught riot dealing and traffic management. Arms’ training too is an important part of the training exercise. Other than this jawans are taught horse-riding and rope climbing besides games like volleyball, football, hockey and kabaddi. During the day they are taught law, Indian constitution, rules related to human rights, IPC, CrPc and how to write FIRs and other reports in police stations. This forms a major portion of the 11-month training, consequent to which they get their respective postings.
Reserved Police Lines is manned by a team of one SI, three SI-Teachers, 7 it is, 3 PTIs for physical training and 11 followers to take care of mess for a total capacity of 200 people for training at a time. Their work is supervised by a RTC Major about whom there is an ASP – an IPS officer Pritinder Singh – who give briefing of the progress to the SSP.
At times when such extensive training for new recruits is not taking place, small courses are run related to computers, how to improve the image of police, human right laws, technological updates and other courses Refresher courses too are conducted from time to time for existing personnel.
Yoga and regular motivation camps, including interaction with psychiatrists too are essential, Rajiv Krishna says, but lack of adequate staff doesn’t allow him to do all that he wishes to do.