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Vice President in City

The Vice President of India M. Hamid Ansari was in Pune today. He delivered 4th Convocation address at the ‘National Insurance Academy School of Management. He said that insurance is slowly moving beyond tax incentives and statutory insurance requirements towards becoming an effective risk mitigation instrument. The success of the transition and reaping of the fruits of insurance depends on the efficacy of regulation and timely innovation to cater to real needs of our citizens.

The Vice President expressed his concern that the current agricultural insurance schemes suffer from low coverage and high claims-to-premium ratio. There is an urgent need to seriously consider some proposals including coverage of pre-sowing and post-harvest risks and effecting a transition to actuarial rates and upfront subsidy payments by the Government which will enable timely claim payments. Sustainable agricultural growth and improvement in agricultural technology and productivity would not be possible without reliable risk cover for our farmers.

He said that the success of the transition and reaping of the fruits of insurance depends on the efficacy of regulation and timely innovation to cater to real needs of our citizens.

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Politics of Stupidity

Is the controversy in Uttar Pradesh a ploy to divert the attention from real issue? One is tempted to infer from what is being broadcasted, shown and reported in the last two days. Whatever Rita Bahuguna-Joshi might have said, that does not accrue that the focus should be shifted on her instead of the persons about whom she spoke.

High handedness in the functioning of Mayawati is something not new to the Indian media nor to the public. Whoever knowing her name also knows what it signifies for. Rita Bahuguna is a novice comparatively whose main claim to fame is that she is one of the important functionaries of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Party. Had the Congress was in a dilapidated state in UP as was the case for over two decades, her tirade against Mayawati would not have attracted any attention. But when she spoke at a rally in Muradabad district, it carried the weight of recent buoyant return of UP Congress to political mainstream with 19 seats in its kitty.

The same measure of weight prompted Mayawati to react against the alleged inflammatory statements by Rita Bahuguna. Activists from Bahujan Samaj Party, whose allegiance with democracy does not go beyond power game, promptly followed suit with torching the bungalow of Congress leader. What a waste, what a loss! Administration also chipped in with its contribution by filing more than 14 cases against Rita Bahuguna.

Let's come to the main point. Rita Bahuguna spoke about a 16 year girl who was raped and then was offered a compensation. She said this is not a proper way of the governance. She was right in at specifics but not at the general level. As successive governments in center and states, mostly of Congress party, have defiantly held same position over the years. 'we have given compensation to the victims and every care will be taken to rehabilitate them,' is the pet answer of any ruling party functionary when anything unwanted happens in the country. Rims of paper and hours of electronic broadcast have been wasted with these statements. We have seen it when thousands of farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra and we have read when people die of hunger in Orissa. Same apathy and same antipathy to real cause has become a hallmark of the system. So what was different this time then?

It was also in line with the followed practice of leap service that discussions have turned towards the probity and tolerance in public life. It should have been rather the safety of the citizens and good governance. Sonia Gandhi has said that the action against those who burned Bahuguna's house will determine the real nature of Mayawati's government stops short of approaching the issue. She could have said that Mayawati should first take action against culprits of rape. But she will not say so because she is more concerned with the impending assembly elections in the state. That is the real cause of worry.

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Problems Galore Even After Rains

The Pune city is getting satisfactory rains for the last three days. The dams supplying water to the city are filled sufficiently. Still the troubles are not yet over for the city as the rain is not so heavy today as previous two days. The water supply to the city was reduced by 40 percent in the first week of this month due to absence of the rains.

The water situation in Pune district is satisfactory now as all the dams are filled more than 50 percent. According to the Irrigation Department officials, which controls the water distribution in the state, Pune needs four more days of heavy rains to bring the water supply to normal. As on today, the liver storage in the dams is as follows: Khadakwasla 85.53%, Panshet 23.93, Warasgaon 15.62, Temghar 25.71, Mulshi 38.58 and Pawana 43.62.

The good rains on Tuesday took the level up in dams across Pune region. The situation was so bad that Warasgaon and Temghar dams had zero percent water storage before the rains. The rains started Monday night. The rainfall experienced in the catchment areas of these dams was sufficient to fill the gap and these two dams started having live storage.
Still, the roads were seen clogged on Wednesday and Pune residents are still getting the water in less proportion. Last year, there was exactly similar situation here but neither people nor administration learned any lesson from the situation. Ajit Pawar, guardian minister of Pune and also the Water Resourced minister of Maharashtra will take a review meeting hopefully within a week. That will decide the fate of water supply in the city. For now at least, the problems persist in the cultural capital of Maharashtra.

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Happy National Day, France

It is National Day in France today as the country celebrates 220^th anniversary of Fall of Bastille. The event marked the start of the French revolution. I was in ninth standard when I first learned of French revolution. It was exactly 20 years ago and the lesson was incorporated in our textbook. That was the time when I first learned about Robespierre, Honoré Mirabeau and also Marie Antoinette. It was a coincidence that the same year marked 20^th anniversary of the French revolution.

This year, India is getting honour at the fête nationale as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the parade organised at the national day celebration. 310 Indian soldiers will march along in the parade on the beats of military band. I am happy to find that the work of Maratha infantry in the first world war, fighting on the side of British against Germany is still revered in France, as I found in some media reports.

I am always attracted to the land of Eiffel Tower. I hope I can some day go there. Meanwhile, happy fête nationale, France.

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The name game starts again

As election nears, political parties resort to many games. In India and Maharashtra, the favorite pastime of political leaders is to give names to building, squares, roads, railway stations or whatever they can find. This has assumed such a proportion that nowadays, government plans projects later and anoints names before. As if to belittle the credit for erecting one of the great monuments in Maharashtra, a fresh controversy was started last week. On the footsteps of that controversy, now fresh controversy has been started this time again for the names.

In the inauguration ceremony of Bandra-Worli Sea Link last week, union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar sparked off the controversy by proposing to name the bridge after late Rajiv Gandhi. Opposition parties in Maharashtra were obviously enraged over the issue. Some parties like Shiv Sena even threatened an agitation.

Barely a week after that, a new controversy has erupted as the Maharashtra government announced on Wednesday to name the expressway linking Pune and Mumbai after Yashwantrao Chavan, first chief minister of Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena activits strongly objected to the announcement. In Pune some activists reportedly took out a rally upto e-way. Reports are that they hosted a board at the starting point of e-way at Wakad showing the name of the e-way after P. L. Deshpande. When the e-way was conceived, SS was in power. By the time the project was completed, it was defeated and Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance came to rule the state. At the same time, Deshpande died in June 2000. Hence SS chief Balasaheb Thackerey had expressed his wish to name the e-way after Deshpande. But that has not happened.

Obviously, Uddhav Thackerey, executive president of SS has expressed unhappiness over the announcement. He has said that by this step, Congress has insulted P. L. Deshpande. After witnessing majo r rows over Shivaji 's statue, this promises to be another big controversy before code of conduct comes into force.

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Railway Budget Off The Track

It Adopts Populist Measure
Mamata Banerjee has doled out many sops in her first railway budget. But I am afraid whether much of those sops can actually be put to use. I myself is angered with the concession given to journalists.

Banerjee today announced a new method of concessions to be given to accredited press correspondents. Under this method, the accredited journalists will receive photo identification cum credit card instead of coupons, which was in vogue till now. Now, I have travelled almost each corner of Maharashtra where the trains reach and never have I used these coupons. First of all, I am not an accredited journalist. Fellows like me can not adjust with the rigorous documentation required for getting accredition. Even in the new scheme, the credit card cum photo identification will be provided based on the certification by the Press Information Bureau and other competent State and local authorities. These authorities are not very forthcoming when it comes to awarding accredition. I know so many journalists in the regional press who, even after working for more than a decade, can not get the accredition.

In addition, concession of 30% will be increased to 50% for accredited press correspondents and permission will be given for once a year to travel with spouse at 50% concession.

Banerjee also announced a new scheme ‘Izzat’ (meaning honour) in the Railway Budget for 2009-10. This is much in the line of her predecessor Lalu Prasad Yadav who used to announce more and more sops for 'poors'. The point is not about depriving them. But let us be clear. Would you like to increase the volume of personnel traffic without heeding conveniences to be provided. Have these ministers really cared how the people are forced to suffer in the overcrowded bogies of long distance trains, sometimes in the ration of 1:4!

The new scheme will provide a uniformly priced monthly season ticket of Rs. 25 for travel up to 100 kms for members of the unorganized sector with monthly income not exceeding Rs. 1500/-. Does minister means that poor families should travel regularly 100 kms to find their wages?

Meanwhile, Pune Railway Station has been included in the list of 50 railway stations to be developed as world class stations. This is an old plan and nothing new in it. In fact, the work on modernisation of the station has taken a back seat for last one year.

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More Water Cuts For Pune

Administration Cautious Over Scarcity

Some water in the form of drizzle came in Pune city today even as the city reeled under water scarcity. The dams providing water to citizens are running dry. Guardian minister of Pune and state water resources minister Ajit Pawar today announced some measures to check the water scarcity, but in absence of sufficient rains, it is way far from satisfactory.

Pawar held a meeting today in which officials from various departments were participated. Besides divisional commissioner Dilip Bund, Pune Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Zagade and mayor Rajlaxmi Bhosale with mayor of Pimpri Chinchwad Aparna Doke were present in the meeting. The reduction in water supply was increased from 30 percent to 40 percent in the meeting. Along with it, every ward in the city will have five bore wells now as well as each ward will be supplied water with tanker. Water in the Veer, Bhatghar, Khadakwasla, Varasgaon, Panshet, Pavana and Temghar will be reserved only for the drinking purposes.

Pune experienced some rains today which expects to revives sales of these hawkers who had a very bad season this year.

Pawar said that even after about a month since the onset of monsoon, the rainfall in the vicinity of city is not sufficient. Water supply to the city is done through six dams and on average, the storage in these dams is way below 10 percent.

PMC gets around 11.5 TMC (Thousand Million Cubic Metre) water from the four dams per ay. Now, the stock of water is 0.54 TMC which might get over in about 15 days.

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