AURANGZEB ROAD, LUYTENS, NEW DELHI

 

 

It is unfortunate that a prominent road in New Delhi is named after Aurangzeb, the most ruthless and cruel among the many ruthless and cruel Muslim rulers. Greatest oppressor, mass-murderer and who introduced jyzia tax. What a paradox – There is no road named after the great Chatrapati who fought all his life nailing Aurangzeb and ultimately Marathas were successful in uniting this great country when they unfurled saffron flag in Atak

 

What are we as a nation doing about it? Majority citizens of this country have already made peace with history or are numb to the insults inflicted upon our nation.

 

Time has come to review and correct this aberration of having road named after Aurangzeb. Bharat Ratna Dr Abul Kalaam people’s President, great visionary, eminent scientist, Karmayogi and role model to Gen Next breathed his last giving a lecture at IIM, Shillong on 27^th July 2015.

 

There would be many memorials built after the great man, but immediately let us rename Aurangzeb road by naming it after the great man, thereby erasing the memory of the tyrant Aurangzeb. This could be apt Shradhanjali to our nuclear man.   

RASHTRACHAKSHU

The primary duty of police force is crime prevention, investigation and maintenance of public order. This is necessary to achieve a broader objective of welfare of the individual and society at large.

We all know that police force is limited and if police doesn’t get last mile surveillance, the organisation would always fall short of its duty. Last mile surveillance cannot be achieved with the existing force levels unless the citizens pitch in. We should be ready to become watch dogs for police, to help them achieve their aim.

We are all very busy in our own world and family responsibilities keep us occupied. Although busy, many conscientious citizens keep observing things going on in our vicinity. Through various interactions with our neighbours we come to know about persons living in the colony. Sometimes we come across such actions of our neighbour, close associate or a family staying in our locality which go against our conscience as a person and unlawful as a citizen. These actions could be in the form any of the following - employing a child labourer, black money creation, corrupt practices or suspected antinational or terrorist activities. It can also cover flouting of corporation rules including illegal construction, encroachment, not paying property or commercial tax commensurate to the usage or any other illegal actions. Sometimes we are sure about their activities and sometimes we just suspect.  Many times we would like to talk to them but fear that they won’t listen. Majority of times as a result of our busy schedule we don’t take action or because we stay in close proximity and fear that giving a complaint would spoil the relationship or our stand would make it difficult for us to continue staying in our colony and so being peace loving, they avoid getting into trouble. In some cases, there might be very practical constraints of old age and therefore the indifference. Sometimes for some reasons the conscientious citizens may not want to get involved with police. Some would refuse to BELL THE CAT for fear of getting the identity revealed and exposing themselves to hate rage.

We all agree that if the wrongdoing or the suspected act is nipped at the bud then society could be saved from a larger wrong. If there becomes a constant fear of getting detected then many wrong doers would not indulge in such activities. A proactive citizen is a boon to the society. Remember inaction, silence and indifference towards wrong doings have made the evil to triumph. We should help police to help ourselves and thereby our society.

Would you like to BELL THE CAT?

Here is a forum called Rashtrachakshu (Eyes of the Nation) where conscientious citizens can help the society by informing us of your ‘FIND’ and we would do the rest. Your identity would not be revealed.

Following are the guidelines –

Please email your suspicion at rashtrachakshu@gmail.com . We would require your contact number and would contact you back.

At present we request conscientious citizens from only BANGALORE area contact us. We are also seeking conscientious volunteers from all over India to start this movement. Please feel free to contact us at rashtrachakshu@gmail.com . We request your contact number (s) and in a nutshell your background to proceed.

Lest I forget - Have you taken RASHTRAVRAT? Still not? Please read http://www.rashtravrat.blogspot.in/p/rashtravrat.html

FIRST YEAR OF MODI SARKAR

Modi Sarkar has completed one year. There would be many ‘for’ and ‘against’ views. Congress would ask ‘Kahan Hai Ache Din?’. English News Channels as always would be engaged only in such news items where there is a scope of garnering high TRP’s.

 

My take on first year of Modi.

 

Nation building cannot happen in one day. If we aspire for cleanliness, planning and modernization then in democratic set up patience is the word and for that one year is very less.

 

Laying the foundation is most important part of the building. It takes quite some time for people to start noticing the building construction above the ground level.

 

Some refuse to wait, more get frustrated and many remain skeptical. Only a very few hold on.

 

First few steps for building the nation have been taken by Modi Sarkar

 

Jan Dhan Yojana –

for financial inclusiveness for all especially rural and BPL families.

 

E-auction of natural resources –

more than anything else the process has been firmly established and thousands of crores of rupees corruption has been plugged.

 

Swach Bharat abhiyan –

This would take at least two generations. Cleanliness has been given due place by the highest authority and it needs to be lauded. We all like our surroundings to be clean but awareness at national level was missing. Swach Bharat Abhiyan has brought this back.

 

Black Money Act –

To deter those who launder money and stash in other country.

 

Defence Projects –

Almost all the pending big ticket Defense projects have been cleared. For last 10 years procurement and modernization had come to stand still. Whether it is production of submarines, acquisition of artillery guns, making light utility helicopters, fighter planes or air craft carriers, all issues have been addressed. It is a significant achievement.  

 

Foreign Policy –

With each foreign visit Modi Sarkar has ensured investments and geopolitic border talks with neighbours.

 

Disaster Management –

The reaction time shown by Modi Sarkar is unparalleled and requires a standing ovation. Be it timely help to Indians in Yemen or to Nepal.

 

Land Acquisition Bill –

Unless land is available, no industry can come to rural India. Industry brings in employment and regular income. Investments are waiting. 

 

Tail Piece - Transforming our country into a great nation requires an unswerving effort put in by generations together. It is a continuous process and therefore making our nation great and maintaining it should become our passion, our second religion, our national creed, our national culture and a second nature. For this we should give some time to MODI SARKAR.

OPPORTUNIST INSENSITIVE KEJRIWAL

             When I read it in news that Swami Agnivesh had alleged that Kejriwal wanted Anna Hazare to die during his ten day fast to have greater impact on the movement I rubbished it as a mere publicity stunt by Swami Agnivesh.

            On 22 Apr when Kejriwal was on the dais protesting against the ordinance about Land Acquisition Bill, a farmer committed suicide some meters away from the dais from where leaders were speaking against land ordinance. A few meters away from the stage, Kejriwal with Manish Sisodia and others kept watching the farmer screaming and hang himself with his towel. A crowd of around 2000 had gathered to hear the speeches.

            The news reports tells us that even after the suicide the speakers including Kejriwal continued with their rally even as farmer’s body was hanging from the tree. Even when the farmer’s body fell on the ground Kumar Vishwas and Kejriwal were unmoved. They tried to blame BJP that they had sent the farmer at the rally to sabotage the rally.

            That Kejriwal wanted to make a political drama out of the suicide was obvious. This only shows the power hungry Kejriwal’s cruel self and selfish motive.

            People around him have judged him by now (Yogendra Yadav and party) and others are getting the taste of his opportunism.

            Power corrupts and misplaced ambition makes a man cruel and selfish. Kejriwal has shown this and the people are urged to judge this man and halt him right now.

            I tend to believe Swami Agnivesh after this incident.

KEJRIWAL - THE OPPORTUNIST

First he was in a hurry to become Chief Minister. In 2013 elections AAP did not get enough seats but he set aside his – self professed high moral ground and took Congress support to become Chief Minister. The moment he became CM, tried to set aside his ‘anti VIP culture stand’ and selected a huge bunglow for himself, immediately retracting when he saw opposition to his bunglow.

 

It was just a month into his Chief Ministership and general elections were announced. Opportunist Kejriwal thought it was a right time to plunge into general elections to take advantage of anti-incumbency sentiment against Congress. He immediately resigned as CM and tried to go national. After the drubbing, now it has come to light that Kejriwal tried to engage Congress for forming government in Delhi with their support of six MLAs!!!!!!!! The audio tapes have surfaced corroborating this. This was the time when Arvind was shouting at top of his voice that BJP is breaking Congress and are in talks with six MLAs. It is being called political realignment!!!!!!! Not to talk of transfer of two crore rupees at midnight in AAP account by a single donor and a AAP candidate was caught with 8000 liquor bottles on the eve of elections.

 

It is nothing but power hungry opportunism. The meaning of 67 seats in Delhi assembly is nothing but an outcome of jittery delhi votors who did not want to have another hung assembly and transfer of Congress, JD (U), TMC, BSP, SP and all other parties opposed to BJP. Another reason was freebies announced by Kejriwal. Kejriwal believes in freebies rather than wealth creation – this is cheap popularity and not leadership. At the end Delhi has lost the plot and wasted precious votes.

 

Where is Kejriwal? The anti VIP culture and ‘aam aadmi’ Chief Minister is cooling his heels at Jindal Health Center for 10 days leaving administration of Delhi to his deputy.

 

So Kejriwal should stop feigning that he is different, his party is different as he has shown political opportunism, compromise and greed in this short period of one year.

 

TRUE COLORS OF PDP

BJP won handsomely in J & K. The vote share and seats were such that no party could form a government. It had to be a coalition or J & K under Central rule. In a democracy this is a bad idea.

As per definition any political party contesting elections has to abide by the constitution of India and PDP is a political party and BJP and PDP came together to form a government based on a common minimum programme for development and betterment of J & K.

The moment the government was formed PDP started to show their colours  - CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed thanked Pakistan (?) for the successful elections in the valley by saying “Pakistan, militants allowed conducive atmosphere for polls”. As if we are at their mercy. Next he unilaterally released Masarat Alam who is a known separatist and was under detention. This is at the least contrary to common minimum programme and anti national. This has created a severe embarrassment for BJP.

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed has shown his colours. BJP should come out of alliance at the next provocation or any apparent anti-national activity and clamp Central rule on J & K. PDP should be shown its position and told that under the garb of a political party they cannot push their separatist agenda by covertly supporting separatist leaders.

It is good that PDP has not got the numbers to form the government by itself. BJP can rein in the party with its near equal seats. Otherwise the PDP party’s agenda would have gone largely unchecked

Tailpiece – The alliance would break before six months and J & K would come under central rule for another six months before BJP forms a government with NC.

कुछ तो लोग कहेंगे, लोगोंका काम है कहना।

LAND ACQUISITION BILL

1.         It is draconian, it is more sinister than British Raj, it is a land grab, government is against farmers, modi is property dealer, farmers are being bulldozed – all opposition parties are crying hoarse on the land acquisition bill. What are the contentious issues, what are the differences from the UPA bill and why the opposition is opposing. Let us see one by one.

2.         Original Land Acquistion Act. “The land acquisition act of 1894 was created with the purpose of facilitating acquisition by the government of privately held land for public purposes. The word "public purpose", as defined in the act, refers to the acquisition of land for constructing educational institutions or schemes such as housing, health or slum clearance, as well as for projects concerned with rural planning or formation of sites. The word "government" refers to the central government if the purpose for acquisition is for the union and for all other purposes it refers to the state government. It is not necessary that all the acquisition has to be initiated by the government alone. Local authorities, societies registered under the societies registration act, 1860 and co-operative societies established under the co-operative societies act can also acquire the land for developmental activities through the government.” - Sourse Wikipedia. The most relevant issue as far as the land owner is concerned is compensation. On compensation this law further states that – “Provision for settlement of dispute pertaining to apportionment of the compensation amount is available under section 30 of the Act. In such a situation, the Deputy Commissioner should refer the matter to the court. The claimant will be entitled to the compensation which is determined on the basis of the market value of the land determined as on the date of preliminary notification. According to section 34, if there is delay in payment of compensation beyond one year from the date on which possession is taken, interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum shall be payable from the date of expiry of the said period of one year on the outstanding amount of compensation until the date of payment.”   - Source Wiki.

3.         Contentious Issue of Compensation.

Over the years it was considered that the compensation is not enough considering it is not only the land but the livelihood of many. Land was seen as a source of regular income, a capital especially for farmers. Therefore there was urgent requirement of amending this law as per the changed social situations and aspirations of the land owners. In 2013 UPA came out with draft amended land acquisition bill which did not see the light of the day. The bill came up after a prolonged consultative period with all stake holders. BJP introduced a refined and improved version of the bill plugging impractical corners of the bill. Let us see the main difference between the three bills at a glance in the table given below.

4.         Differences in the Land Acquisition Bill.

Table : Major Differences in the Land Acquisition Bill

Feature	Land Acq Bill (LAB) 1894	UPA LARR 2013	NDA - LAB ORDINANCE
Compensation	Market rate only.	For a typical rural household that owns the average of 3 acres of land, the Act will replace the loss of annual average per capita income of Rs.11,136 for the rural household, with: four times the market value of the land, and an upfront payment of Rs.1,36,000 (US$ 3,000) for subsistence, transportation and resettlement allowances, and an additional entitlement of a job to the family member, or a payment of Rs.5,00,000 (US$ 11,000) up front, or a monthly annuity totaling Rs.24,000 (US$ 550) per year for 20 years with adjustment for inflation – the option from these three choices shall be the legal right of the affected land owner family, not the land acquirer, and a house with no less than 50 square meters in plinth area, and additional benefits may apply if the land is resold without development, used for urbanization, or if the land owner belongs to SC/ST or other protected groups per rules of the Government of India If the affected families on the above rural land demand 100% upfront compensation from the land acquirer, and the market value of land is Rs.1,00,000 per acre, the Act mandates the land acquirer to offset the loss of an average per capita 2010 income of Rs.11,136 per year created by this 3 acre of rural land, with the following: Rs.18,36,000 (US$ 41,727) to the rural land owner; which is the total of R&R allowances of Rs.6,36,000 plus Rs.12,00,000 – which is four times the market value of the land, plus a house with no less than 50 square metres in plinth area and benefits from Schedule III-VI as applicable to the rural land owner, plus additional payments of Rs.6,36,000 each to any additional families claiming to have lost its livelihood because of the acquisition, even if they do not own the land (Source Wikipedia and PDF document)	Same in addition, the ordinance has brought 13 land acquisitioning acts left in LARR 2013 bill under its ambit, thereby increasing the number of beneficiaries.   The LARR Act 2013 exempted 13 laws (such as the National Highways Act, 1956 and the Railways Act, 1989) from its purview. However, the LARR Act 2013 required that the compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement provisions of these 13 laws be brought in consonance with the LARR Act 2013, within a year of its enactment, through a notification. The Ordinance brings the compensation, rehabilitation, and resettlement provisions of these 13 laws in consonance with the LARR Act 2013. (Source  - PRS legislative research)
Expanding the Categories	-	The LARR Act 2013 requires that the consent of 80% of land owners is obtained for private projects and that the consent of 70% of land owners be obtained for PPP projects.	The Ordinance exempts five categories from this provision of the Act. The five categories are defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects including Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects where the central government owns the land.
Social Impact Study and acquisition of multicropped land and irrigated land beyond certain limits	-	LARR 2013  - these are applicable to all types of acquisition.	Applicable to all types except - The five categories  -  defence, rural infrastructure, affordable housing, industrial corridors and infrastructure projects including Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects where the central government owns the land.
Return of unutilized land.		The LARR Act 2013 required that if land acquired under it remained unutilised for five years, it was returned to the original owners or the land bank.	Ordinance states that the period after which unutilised land will need to be returned will be five years, or any period specified at the time of setting up the project, whichever is later.
Period of retrospective application	-	The LARR Act 2013 states that the Land Acquisition Act, 1894 will continue to apply in certain cases, where an award has been made under the 1894 Act. However, if such as award was made five year or more before the enactment of the LARR Act 2013, and the physical possession of land has not been taken or compensation has not been paid, the LARR Act 2013 will apply.	Ordinance states that in calculating this time period, any period during which the proceedings of acquisition were held up: (i) due to a stay order of a court, or (ii) a period specified in the award of a Tribunal for taking possession, or (iii) any period where possession has been taken but the compensation is lying deposited in a court or any account, will not be counted.

 

5.         Aim of Amending the LARR 2013 Act.  The social impact study include public hearings and expert committee report and action renders the acquisition process extremely time consuming and impractical. Land acquisition social impact study may not see the light of the day. The clause of return of unutilized (for 5 years) land is highly impractical as the all the big projects have a gestation period running into years which easily surpass 5 year period. No project would then see the light of the day. In effect the LARR 2013 was such a piece of legislation arrived by true democratic spirit of taking into account all the suggestions of all the stake holders without going into its merits and practicality that the legislation would sure prove to be anti-acquisition and anti-growth. It is an excellent example of how a thing cannot be get done as a result of impractical legislation.  

6.         Why Opposition.     It is very easy to paint the party in governance as anti-people / anti-farmers. The opposition does not have anything else to sensationalise and to attract the masses at present. Kejriwal finds it very easy to oppose everthing as his is a fledgling party. So he calls Modi property dealer. As it is people have seen how many times kejriwal has misled the people for votes. He believes in freebies rather than wealth creation. BSP, JD (U), SP knows that elections are due in UP and Bihar and if they can paint BJP as anti-farmers they could gain votes.  Leftist have found that if they oppose they can still remain relevant for some more years in India. Congress wants to remain a player in politics and this is one issue which can touch emotions of farmers. Their seriousness though could be understood by absence of Rahul Gandhi in budget session. They know farmers are not going to read the fine print and so are trying out at chicanery to change the perception of BJP from a performing government to an anti-farmer party. TMC knows that they are on slippery ground on Sharada Chit Fund scam and any attention deflecting subject is welcome. Akali Dal is opposing as elections are round the corner in Punjab and they are on slippery ground. I really have a doubt whether Shri Anna Hazare has really read the fine print of Ordinance.

7.         Tailpiece.      Key infrastructure projects worth lakhs of crores have been stalled because of impractical land acquisition legislation. If it is not done, projects won’t get completed.  The costs would keep getting escalated and the benefits of completed projects would not get accrued. It would be a waste of national wealth. BJP should go on regardless. Otherwise it will fritter the mandate. Opposition would mount another attack on the ground of non performance of the government, which is bound to get manifested with this flawed LARR 2013 legislation.

कुछ तो लोग कहेंगे, लोगोंका काम है कहना।

छोडो, बेकारकी बातोंमे, कही बीत ना जाए रैना।।