अंधेर नगरी . . .

(On The Recent Power Cut Plan of MP Electricity Distribution Companies.)

यदि कोई आपसे कहे, "देखिए साहब, आपके क्षेत्र में चोरियाँ बढती ही जा रही हैं इसलिए हमको यह थाना बंद करना पड़ेगा ! ", तो आप उससे क्या कहेंगे, यही न की वो मज़ाक कर रहा है | बन्धु नींद से जागिए, यह मज़ाक नही हमारी विद्युत वितरण कंपनियों की नई विद्युत कटौती नीति है जिसका क्रियान्वयन कल से शुरू हो गया है | जिस भी क्षेत्र में बिजली ज्यादा चोरी होगी उस क्षेत्र में उतनी ही ज्यादा कटौती होगी | अब अगर आप किसी झुग्गी-बस्ती के आसपास रहते हैं तो तैयार हो जाइए अपने पूर्वजों की तरह रहने के लिए | "चोरी बढ़ रही है तो थाना बंद", वाह साहब दुनिया में ऐसी नीति सिर्फ़ हमारे देश में ही देखने को मिल सकती है |

यह बानगी है उन अकर्मंड, गैर-जिम्मेदार किंतु बेहद चालाक अफसरों की जो एक नपुंसक सरकार को मूर्ख बनाकर हम सभी के और हमारे बच्चों के भविष्य से खेल रहे हैं और हम सभी कुछ नही कर पा रहे हैं | ज़रा सोचिए, जनरेटर और इनवर्टर की सुविधा से संपन्न वातानुकूलित आवासों में रहने वाले ये अफसर और मंत्री क्या हमें हो रहे नुकसान को समझ सकते हैं | क्या बच्चे, क्या बुजुर्ग, क्या अमीर, क्या गरीब, क्या अस्पताल, क्या उद्योग-धंधे, क्या कृषि, क्या सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी, ऐसा एक क्षेत्र बता दीजिए जो इसपर आश्रित न हो, उसपर यह तुगलकी-फरमान जारी करने का क्या मतलब निकाला जाए |

ऐसा नही है की मध्य प्रदेश में बिजली की कमी है, मध्य प्रदेश सरकार द्वारा जारी (२००६ के) आंकडों पर अगर नज़र डाली जाए तो बात बिल्कुल साफ़ हो जाती है कि वितरण कम्पनियाँ अपना ठीकरा उपभोक्ताओं के सर फोड़ना चाहती हैं | कुछ महत्वपूर्ण तथ्य आपके सामने रख रहा हूँ:
१. कुल उत्पादन क्षमता: लगभग ८००० मेगावाट.
२. कुल उपलब्धता: ५००० में.वा. + १८३० में.वा. = ६८३० में.वा.
३. रबी के दौरान मांग: ६९०० में.वा.
४. कुल उत्पादन (दस लाख यूनिट में): ३२२३२.
५. कुल बिक्री (दस लाख यूनिट में): १८०२२.
६. कुल नुकसान (दस लाख यूनिट में): १४२१०.
७. कुल नुकसान (कुल उत्पादन के प्रतिशत में): ४३%.
८. मीटरकृत विद्युत् कनेक्शन (कुल कनेक्शनों के प्रतिशत में): ८०%

अब इन आंकडों पर थोड़ा विचार-विमर्श:
पहला, कुल कुल उत्पादन क्षमता के लगभग ७२% तक आसानी से पहुँचा जा सकता है अगर उचित प्रबंधन किया जाए, पर उत्पादन ४८०० में.वा. से लेकर ५००० में. वा. के बीच झूलता रहता है | इसके अलावा कभी कोएले की कमी तो कभी तकनिकी खराबी उत्पादन को प्रभावित करते हैं, उचित रख-रखाव और प्रबंधन से यह कम किया जा सकता है |

दूसरा यह कि, रबी के दौरान भी मांग ६९०० में. वा. तक ही जाती है तो कमी सिर्फ़ ७० में.वा. की है जो आसानी से खरीदी जा सकती है | आप यह कहेंगे कि ये आंकडे तो २००६ के हैं अब २००९ शुरू हो गया है, मांग बढ़ भी तो सकती है, जी हाँ, पर इसका जवाब भी हमारी सरकार ने दिया है २००७-०८ के वित्तीय वर्ष में १४५० मेगावाट बिजली के उत्पादन बढ़ाने का ज़िक्र भी इन आंकडों में है |

तीसरा यह कि, तिरतालीस (४३%) फीसदी पारेषण और वितरण हानि (Transmission & Distribution Losses), यह इनकी अक्षमता को साबित करने के लिए काफ़ी है | हो सकता है राजनैतिक कारणों से इनके हाथ बंधे हों पर पूरे प्रदेश में आशा की एक किरण भी नही दिखाई देती, एक भी अफसर ईमानदार और अलग सोच वाला दिखाई नही देता , तो यह दोष पूर्णतः विद्युत् वितरण कंपनियों का ही है |

चौथा यह की, अगर ८०% उपभोक्ताओं की बिजली की खपत मीटर द्वारा नापी जाती है तो बाकी २०% लोगों की खपत का अंदाजा किस प्रकार लगाया जाता है और क्या यह २०% लोग इस तरह के कनेक्शन के लिए "पात्र" हैं और आज तक ये हम सभी को कितना "चूना" लगा चुके हैं |

पूर्व-राष्ट्रपति और विख्यात वैज्ञानिक श्री ऐ.पी.जे. अब्दुल कलाम ने कहा है, "कोई भी राष्ट्र तब तक आधुनिक और विकसित होने का सपना नही देख सकता जब तक वह अपने नागरिकों को उच्च गुणवत्ता वाली विद्युत् की अबाधित रूप से और सुलभता से उपलब्धता और आपूर्ति सुनिश्चित नही करता ! "

एक सदस्य के रूप में सभी को जागो पार्टी की नीतियों से अवगत कराना मेरा कर्तव्य है, तो इस विषय पर जागो पार्टी की नीतियों के मुख्य बिन्दु हैं (उपरोक्त सभी तथ्यों के अलावा):
१. विद्युत् क्षेत्र से सरकार का एकाधिकार ख़त्म करना.
२. राज्य में २४*७ बिजली सुनिश्चित करना.
३. ऊर्जा के गैर-पारंपरिक स्त्रोतों (जैसे सौर ऊर्जा, बायोमास, आदि) से ऊर्जा का विकेंद्रीकरण, ऊर्जा के स्त्रोत जनता के पास, शहरों में बैठे हाकिमों पर निर्भरता ख़त्म.
४. पारेषण और वितरण हानियों (Transmission & Distribution Losses) में अधिकारियों की जिम्मेवारी सुनिश्चित करना और तीन महीने के भीतर जांच और मामले का निपटारा, दोषी अफसरों को निलंबन या निष्कासन द्वारा तुंरत सजा देना.
५. चोरी पकड़ में आने पर या साबित होने पर कठोरतम कार्यवाही, जुर्माने के साथ अनिवार्य कारावास देने पर विचार.
६. पारेषण और वितरण हानियों (Transmission & Distribution Losses) को घटाकर ७-८ फीसदी करना.


बिजली, सड़क, पानी का नारा लगा लगा के देखी आज हमारे प्रदेश की क्या हालत कर दी है इन नेताओं ने | ६० साल बहुत लंबा समय है जो हमने इन नेताओं को दे दिया है, अब समय आ गया है की हम शासन की बागडोर ख़ुद संभालें, ख़ुद चलाएं अपने प्रदेश को, ख़ुद चलाएं अपने देश को और ख़ुद तय करें अपने भविष्य को |

आपका,
प्रच्छन्न विरोध,
(Latent Dissent)
(www.jago.in) (www.jagobhopal.blogspot.com) (www.latentdissent.blogspot.com)

[Photo source: BBC, Click here to Visit!]

यहाँ पढ़ें कैसे ये अफसर २००६ के आंकडों का उपयोग २००९ में कर रहे हैं, यह "संकट" किसी बड़े ठेके का आगाज़ तो नही ? आगे आपकी मर्ज़ी !

Suicidal Irony !

(On Farmer Committing Suicide in Bhopal.)

For the first time I paid (more) attention to a farmer’s suicide. I got two insights in the matter: one yesterday, one today.

Lets talk of today. I earlier thought that farmer’s suicide is an issue of states like Maharashtra, Andhra and Karnataka, even Bihar and UP, and the central government is ‘doing its best’ (announcing packages and debt relief funds, was it 60,000 crore?) to save them. I thought it never happened in Madhya Pradesh, so this suicide is a rare occurrence and must not bother us more.

But then I came across the data of farmer’s suicide in MP and was completely shocked to know that MP stands fifth in number of farmer’s suicide in the country with 1232 suicides, the top four states being Maharashtra (4238), Karnataka (2135), AP (1797) and Chhattisgarh (1593). As we know this is government data the actual figure would be much higher.

Coming over to the second point, we all are missing a crucial point in this suicide. While in all other places farmers commit suicide after being unable to pay the debts back, the farmer here was even denied the opportunity to take a loan by the corrupt government officials.

Adding to that, the road to thousands always starts with a single person and this is a very tragic and serious incident which may set precedent for all the other farmers facing similar situation, if the matter is not handled properly. The Tehsildar and Patwari have been suspended but a suspended officer can be reinstated. This can’t be termed as justice, action should be swift and stern against such officers, so that nobody dares to do something like this in the future, that’s the least we can do for people like him.

Please don’t call these people unfortunate because they are the victims of a well-planned and structured conspiracy not that of bad-luck and destiny. And we all are not only a part of the conspiracy but also active contributors.

Beyond The Hype !

(On The Animal Adoption Scheme of Van Vihar)
(Photo from here, without permission)

Bhopal is in news these days, one for the sorry incident of a farmer committing suicide after being mentally harassed for four years by government officials seeking bribe. Then there is a pretty lady kissing a python, the first person to adopt a wild animal from Van Vihar National Park.

I will talk about the pretty lady, her adopted python and Van Vihar National Park here. Seeing and reading so much about her ‘activism’, I too got interested in the scheme of things. But Paranoid and Pessimistic as I have become these days, I tried to understand the working of Van Vihar. So here are some of the points that I found useful for further discussion:

1. Taking the Census data from Van Vihar website and the adoption rates set by the authorities, we can say that Rupees 89.54 Lakh are required per year for the maintenance of the listed (10) animals.

2. Taking the Visitor data for the year 2005 into consideration and the minimum rates for entry into Van Vihar (Rs.20/-), we can say that Van Vihar earned more than Rupees 50 Lakh. (250000*20, the figure would be higher for 2008 obviously).

3. The difference Rupees 39 Lakh, a meagre sum for a National Park. Of course they have to maintain the Park and the Free Ranging Animals too, so let us now discuss how Van Vihar is financed:
   
   a. Regular Maintenance : The State Government provided funds to meet the maintenance and establishment cost plus the fifty percent State share against the financial assistance provided by Central Zoo Authority (CZA).
   
   b. Development: Varieties of developmental works is carried out in Van Vihar with assistance from the Central Zoo Authority on an equal share basis between CZA and the State Government.
   
   c. Park Development Fund: The State Government has established a unique fund known as the "Park Development Fund"., Which is generated through the entry-fee receipt and other receipts from Park visitors. A controlling committee headed by Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, which approves the activities to be carried out from this fund. This fund is also utilized to create visitor facilities, such as: drinking water, Construction of sit-outs, parking, vehicle and public convenience amenities.
   

4. Now comes the real issue. No data is available anywhere on the internet about the funds allocated to Van Vihar by the CZA or the State Government or even by the Van Vihar through donations and visitor fee. No data is available on how this fund is used (or misused). No audit data or report is provided.

Yes, I know you will be saying that this is an awareness campaign Van Vihar won’t gain much money from it. I agree too but think for a moment , isn’t the money allotted to Van Vihar our money, the taxpayers’ money.And the authorities are calling it a SCHEME not an awareness campaign, and they are collecting real money.

We pay taxes in each and everything so do we need to be made aware of the issues taken up by the government authorities and the “NGOs” when the relationship is mostly unilateral. Then the Park Development Fund has all the makings of large scale misappropriation, any fund that is mentioned to be used without proper auditing links automatically qualifies for something fishy. Adding to that the ‘ad-campaign’ centered around the lady would also have cost a fortune (how is that the news is covered by each channel and newspaper), I pray for the poor animals.

An economic principle comes to my mind, if you pay somebody for being poor why he would change his conditions. Donations more or less end up doing just the opposite they are intended to do, be it animals or human beings (if they can be called so).

Coming to the lady, adopting the animal is her choice, be it even for a month (by the way, the rate for python's monthly adoption is Rs.720/-, not bad for all that nationwide publicity), however I would like to wait and see whether there is a lifelong commitment, dedication, a love for the wildlife and forests that can exist beyond the hype.

And if I may request you Abhinita, Please request your father, Mr. Das (IAS) on my behalf, to advise/guide the Van Vihar people to put up the financial data on the website so that people like me can save hours searching for them on the net and then the words criticizing them and instead praise people like you. (As you are a law student I wanted to request you to file an RTI application for it, but how can I ask you to do something I am not doing, however. . .)

Finally, I rest my arguments and promise that I will find excuses in all future events till it suits my conditions and of course my purse.

And Thank you Abhinita that you helped me know our system better, keep up the good work!

All The Best!

[P.S. Actually a whole lot of questions can be investigated if someone wants to, for example, the propreity of development and maintenance work, the contracting system, the utilization of funds, etc.]

Blast Rhetoric: Guwahati Blast, Statements, Alerts and Me.

As I have talked earlier, there are a variety of Terrorist Organizations in India and it will be a fallacy to deal with only one group out of the rest. The Blasts in Guwahati, Assam yesterday lend support to my view.

The first point is that no high alert/ red alert sounded in Bhopal, security have not been tightened, police checking and patrolling have not been increased after these blasts, when this is a common practice during and after attacks and blasts in ‘mainland’ India. The view is prevalent and subscribed to by many that the extremism and separatism in North-Eastern States and Kashmir will not affect ‘mainland’ India.

The second point is the political rhetoric, ask Pakistan to shut terror camps, ask Bangladesh to shut terror camps, ask Myanmar to shut terror camps, why do our politicians try to use other countries as scapegoats, why don’t they simply accept that they are incapable of providing safety and security to the citizens. They themselves live in bunker-like houses (I call them rat-holes) and express grief and sorrow over deaths, connect the unconnected (make some allegations and controversial statements) and continue with their ‘work’. If you divert your attention to where they point, you are a fool; one must set his house in order before launching a crusade against unknown ‘terrorists’. Even if the other countries are sheltering these people how can they so easily infiltrate into our country. Can anybody answer?

The third point is Pakistani terrorists attacking Indians is understandable but an Indian leave it… an Asom killing another Asom is out of my mind. What is going on in Assam? (I don’t have sufficient knowledge about the issue.) OK they want to terrorize people, but terrorize people for what? Everybody is after sovereignty, what they will do after it is quite unclear. But even they can’t be blamed, the whole system is running on misplaced priorities, for example, southern states do better in population control and their various quotas are cut, seats to Parliament are cut and those states doing worse for their people get more and more money as Special Packages. Why will they change a system that brings packages of the order of Thousand Crores to them? Look at the north-eastern states, they have the highest literacy rates in India yet their youth have to migrate to places like Delhi to find employment, WHAT A SHAME !

Many of us have been thinking about the patterns in terrorist attacks and blasts. My guess on the issue is that this time they will either attack many cities at the same time or to tease the people and police they will blast one city each following day, so that the reality of red and high alerts is also exposed. And our recently formed NIA gets some work to do.

Till then GOOD LUCK !

'Pay-to-Play !', The Blagojevich Scandal, The Voice of American Citizens and Me.

Today I came to know about the Blagojevich Scandal in America and then I realized how complex yet how similar our world is. The more I read the more I got fascinated. So here is my opinion on the issue.

I wanted to list my thoughts but that would not make any sense, so I have copied a number of points and comments from various websites, proper citation would be difficult so kindly bear with the links provided.

1. The Case: Barak Obama was elected President of the US, thus his seat (as a senator) got vacant. The Governor has the power to nominate someone as a replacement for the post, Gov. Blagojevich thought of making some fast money by (mis)using this power, on one side and on the other the fundraisers (the [American] Indian Businessmen) tried to bribe him so he nominates that Jesse Jackson Jr. for the post. All the parties are under the scanner and the investigations are going on.

2. My Views:
a. The Bloddy Indians: Soon we will see an American Raj Thackray emerge to deal with the bloody Indians, who are bent upon spoiling their value system. This person or rather group won't understand that the problem involves both the parties. The person accepting the graft was a WHITE American and the dollars were being raised and rained for a BLACK American. As I have said earlier, A corrupt person has no ideology apart from greed and selfishness, nor does he have a nationality, religion or ethnicity.

b. Corruption and the Value Sytem in India and beyond: I accept that we have corruption at chronic levels in our country and we have learnt to live in this but we must also accept the truth, the reality. The truth is, the Value System that is being talked about is fast fading all around the world thanks to our unabashed support to Individualism. Each person is a competitor of other, the enemy of enemy is friend, and the only thing that matters is success guided by greed and selfishness.
We have long bid goodbye to the philosophical aspect of the religion and have tried to bribe even gods in one way or other to forgive our wrongdoings. Society is only a concept nowadays, people don't even know people in their neighbourhood. But the frustration, the guilt, the anger inside us don't pour out, we don't rebel because many things are at stake, we don't kick these people who are bent to spoil the whole world because of either our guilty conscience or uf plain laziness. (call it apathy, inaction, indifference anything but it is failure to accept responsibilities that come our way simply for a day's comfort.)
To deal with the situation,we have to completely reform our education system as soon as possible, the human values, the trust, the friendship, the compassion, all need to be a part of our existence and we must strive to make it possible. As I have said earlier, Moral Science should be made a compulsory subject with double the marks allotted to Mathematics.

c. The US of A and India: it's very easy to say you people are corrupting my country. The right wingers in India say that Americans are spoiling our culture, their leftist counterparts say America is after our sovereignty. Think for a moment the right-wingers all ape westerners especially Americans, they wear Denim Jeans and T-shirts, watch English movies, yet criticize Americans. The Left, what to talk of them, first, at the personal level, the children of most of the Leftist leaders are studying/living abroad. Leaving that apart, given the current state of our polity America need not cut deals with UPA, Soniaji and Mannu Uncle, it has the resources to buy off most of the Member of Parliaments and nobody would know. I know CIA can do that and all that crap talk of sovereignty. I say to hell with a sovereignty like China. The point is they all are doing politics, POLITICS IS POLITICS AND POLITICS IS DIRTY EVERYWHERE. (till good people don't come in to clean the dirt.)

d. The Bloody Indians revisited: Thinking of Politics, I see these professionals, Engineers, Doctors, MBAs, Entrepreneurs and Businessmen are very active in American Politics, but these people don't give a damn about politics in India. Is it due to the insecurity stemming from lack of power and influence over matters or some genuine interest in changing the American society (for good). Only time can tell. If we can find this trigger, what makes them not only participate but actively participate in the politics we will be able to change India for sure.

e. Lessons to learn: apart from the obvious, the first point is America is not a picture perfect story, the romanticized America can fool you, many of the admirers want to emulate everything America does must now wake up. We must aim at a better and caring society. Second, Corruption can be dealt with successfully only by focusing on it in the entirety (and to define entirety here requires imagination and creativity, and reforms start with oneself) , the terms Political Corruption, so and so are all jargon, in this world everything is connected to everything. Third, we cannot avoid the involvement in politics, we can't leave voids in our systems for the corrupt to come, sit at the top and decide our futures. Everybody must participate in politics. Last and the most important point, we all are facing same or similar problems and we can help each other in it. We must help each other in this great cause.

3. The Solution: New state ethics law targets 'pay to play':
Key provisions of this law include:
• Businesses with contracts or pending bids must register with state election officials naming their owners, affiliates and key executives.

• The Illinois State Board of Elections will create a searchable database with contractor information.

• Contractors must tell lawmakers when making a donation to their campaigns that they're registered with the state.

• Donations are prohibited to the state officeholder controlling the contract or any candidate for that office.

• Violations can result in contracts being voided.

4. Role of Indians/Indian Americans: Some Comments from here,

With the xenophobia fueled by the current US recession and fears of outsourcing, there have been public accusations that Indians were good at "subverting" the system in the US.

"It is amazing how people come (to the US) and think we should change our entire value system to suit themselves," said one reader on the web site of the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago newspaper.

Another added, "Indians are very sneaky. He is getting back something from donating to these politicians."

A third reader wrote, "You need to go to a different gated community, buddy," referring to a prison.

In a segment, "Indian-Americans play politics in Chicago" broadcast nationwide over National Public Radio, Chicago-based journalist Ashok Easwaran said "there was a certain degree of embarrassment" in Illinois's Indian community which was recently excited over the ascension to power of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, both of whom had the vigorous support of the community

Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who was the other speaker in the programme, said the Indian community had a greater impact in politics compared to larger minority groups like Latinos and African Americans.

"They use money rather than numbers to break into the political process," he said, adding, "It could take more time for the Indian community to build sufficient power to get (their own) candidate elected to a major position. Their best hope in the meantime is to become key allies to major politicians."

5. Some More Comments: from here ,

*'The election was about the lesser of two evils.'
*'The lesser of two evils? We'd elect a monkey if he ran as a democrat.'

*'People are swayed by Advertising(Positive or Negative). We need Election Campaign Spending Limits and Term Limits on the amount of time spent in public office( 6 years or less).'

*'Tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee, makes no difference who would have won -- both are owned by the "Bi-partisan Combine."
And that's just the way they like it, they pick the candidates in each party and no matter who wins -- they win!'

*'Hey, quit your complaining. You fools deserve this.'

*'it is politics. they ALL do it, because they have to raise money to keep their job. I don't see a problem to try to get some campaign cash out of the power...If we don't like it, change the constitution...it is up to the people.'

*'If we want to have leaders who work only for us, then it will cost us. Until there is public financing of elections, the politicians will need to spend all their time raising money for their campaigns.'

*'Let's face it; character means nothing. Platform means nothing. Ideas mean nothing.
The only thing that matters is how well you can work the middle for the GOP. For the donkeys it's how many special interest groups you can accumulate.
That's not leadership; that's politics.'

*'The voters get what they vote for, and deserve whatever happens. The majority of voters are pretty mindless, not having the ability to see beyond the media hype and bias, or the unending torrent of BS coming from the speechwriters, via politician's mouths...If the voters of Illinois want something different, then they can vote for it. Unfortunately, the democrat party has nurtured an ever-expanding group of dependent welfare suckers who will keep voting their way as long as the freebies keep coming. These "voters" are the problem, and the main reason the corruption of the Chicago machine remains strong.'

*'It has been a long time since we weren't voting for the lesser of two weasels.
We used to blame it on the Irish politicians but it seems to be rather widespread.
Must be the gene pool.'
[The Most Innovative Explanation for Corruption I have ever heard or read.]

*'The reality is depressing. The fact is BOTH parties are tainted with corruption, and BOTH parties have demonstrated terrible judgement. The underlying culture and system of fundraising in this state make it almost impossible for a politician to avoid scandal. . .
What is even worse? Because of the connection with the President-Elect our states inept politics are now on display for the whole world to see. It tarnishes our reputation abroad and more importantly distracts the national discussion away from the issues that are so vital if we are going to get the country back on track.
If ever there was a time to straighten out Illinois this is it. We need to get our political offices out of the hands of these annointed families who aren't really serving the public good. We need to rethink campaign financing rules. Finally, there needs to be continued federal investigation to unravel the aweful network of influence and bosses that permeates every niche of our state government.'

*'Wouldn't it be cool if we just elected ethical people and didn't need the laws. A girl can dream.'

*'Pay to play has been a part of Illinois' problems for decades. The massive problem is nothing new. What's pathetic is law makers in control are just now taking steps to try and remedy the problem.
Far too many political hacks in control have been focussing everyone's attention on regulating the citizens of Illinois, when they should have been focussing on regulating the real crooks, the crooked politicians running amuck in Illinois. There's a reason why they haven't focussed correctly. (Who wants themselves scrutinized?)'

Is it not something we all feel, think and say.


JUST THINK OVER IT !

JAI HIND.