The supreme court has finally hit the nail. Everyone concerned with the grave situation in the country must welcome the honorable court's ire towards non performance of the successive governments towards the water crisis.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday linked the existence of government to the solution of water shortage in the country. According to the court, government has no right to be in power if it does not solve the problem. It is largely on the one of the famous lines byu Sharad Joshi, veteran farmer's leader : Sarkar kya samasya suljhaye, jab sarkar khud ek samasya hai! (How can government solve a problem, government itself is a problem)

"Government has no right to be in office. You have no right to be in office if you can't provide water," Justice Markandeya Katju heading a bench with Justice H L Dattu told Additional Solicitor General Parag Tripathi appearing for the Center.

The court also constituted a committee to be headed by the Secretary, Union Ministry of Science and Technology as its chairman, and Secretary, Union Ministry of Water Resources as a member, apart from scientists. It said the committee should be entrusted the task of conducting a scientific research on a war footing to find inexpensive methods of converting saline water from the sea into fresh water.

Closer home, city of Pune has its woes of drinking water. Pune Municipal Corporation has gone on record to say that the existing system of water supply is not fully capable to provide water judiciously. Currently, there are 50 tankers providing water to the citizens in city. This arrangement is mainly for those citizens living in suburban areas.

Last year, when the rain god played hide and seek in the early months of monsoon season, there was large hue and cry by corporators belonging to all parties. According to Irrigation Department, the norms for the water supply in urban area stipulate that each person should get 150 Litres. of water every day. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) area gets 11 thousand million cubic meters (TMC) water everyday. This translates into 400 cubic seconds (Cusecs) of water flow. Of this, 40 per cent is relayed to the city from pipelines and 60 per cent through canals. Since the water runs thorough this pipe line for 24 hours, the areas located near this line enjoy water supply all the time. That affects the parts located far away from the water purification centre. However, the good news is that the water level in the dams providing water to the city is four per cent more as compared to last year.

Water shortage in Pune division touched a high in 2003 when following three successive years without rains, as many as 905 tankers were deployed for the water supply. This time around the situation is not so grave, but in nearby Satara district things are in bad shape. The district administration has employed 13 tankers as well as bullock carts to supply water to the people.

On the state level, Groundwater Surveys and Development Agency (GSDA) has completed the Groundwater Resource Estimation of Maharashtra in 2004 on watershed and taluka basis. According to GSDA estimation, out of total 1505 watersheds, 76 are categorized as overexploited meaning that groundwater development is more than 100 percent of the recharge there. 20 are categorized as critical and 163 watersheds are categorized as Semi-critical. 

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Can we do that?

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Reigning the Foreigners

Pune Police Issue Notices to College Authorities

After having a field day in the city, the foreign students in Pune are facing the heat. The foreigners registration branch of Pune police has turned its focus on the foreign students residing in Pune.

The Foreigners' Registration Office (FRO) has issued notices to college authorities in city to provide information about foreign students. The notices have been issued to keep a check on the activities of foreign students.

There are 23,432 foreign nationals registered in Pune, of which 14,800 are students. The issue has assumed importance in view of the heightened security measures in the country as well as the city. Even today, there was a bomb hoax call in the Fergusson College and Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Temple.

This is the second step of the measures against the foreign students in Pune. The Pune police had issued notices to more than 100 students in the month of December. The notice was given because the students were living in the city without permission.

Interestingly, I had given a story of how the number of foreign students is dwindling in the city and those of others is increasing. The reason attributed are large numbers of companies in Pune which employ foreigners. In the past, the city had overseas visitors mainly because of Osho Ashram in Koregaon Park area. But it is thing of the past now. While the persons in IT and other industries come mostly from European countries, those from Sudan, Nigeria and other African countries constitute the students.

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The Problems of Railway in Marathwada

The seven districts of Maharashtra bordering Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, namely Aurangabad, Nanded, Parbhani, Hingoli, Latur, Osmanabad, Jalna, Beed are collectively known as Marathwada. It was formerly under the Nizam rule and was separeted in 1960 at the time of formation of Maharashtra. The area is known for its economic backwardness and one reason ascribed for it is the lack of communication facilities. This absence of facilities include modern uitilities like internet and mobile communication as well as traditional ways of transportation. It is difficult for anyone to imagine how the area has been marred by the problems of railway.

To begin with, whatever rail network exists in Marathwada was laid by the then Nizam administration. According to district gazettes of Nanded, “Nanded and the adjoining districts of Aurangabad and Parbhani are very rich in raw materials-. Cotton, the important staple crop, is abundantly grown. Visualising the importance of these raw materials in the prospective development of the region, the erstwhile Hyderabad State undertook the laying down of Hyderabad-Manmad railway line, which later on came to be called as the Godavari Valley railway, which was again renamed as Kacheguda-Manmad railway, so as to enable the transportation of the abovementioned raw materials as well as passenger traffic which was the necessity of the day. The work of this line was completed and it was opened for traffic in 1899.” Not a single inch of track has been added to that set up. Broad gauge railway was a dream for most of the public in the area till as late as 1992. There are still some districts like Beed (except Parali) and Osmanabad which have no presence of rail road. The district gazette of Beed district published in 2006 says,

“Beed district, along with other districts of the Marathwada region, was not supplied with a well-knit system of communications till recently. The total rail length in the district at present measures only 48.28 km. (30 miles), the main railway station in the district being Parali-Vaijnath. The rail track running north-east joins it with Parbhani and that running southeast with Hyderabad. The Parali-Parbhani meter gauge line was opened for traffic in 1929. The Parali-Vikarabad broad gauge line opened in 1933 serves the district well by connecting it with Secunderabad and Hyderabad, which are important places. Parali-Vaijnath is the largest market town of the district and is connected with many trade centres in the outgoing areas. Beed, the headquarters of the district, lies off the railway route and thus depends on roadways for trade. The railway communication is restricted to a small portion in the east only. It thus depends for the most part on road transport for passenger and goods traffic.”

The people are demanding for railway facilities since 1950s. Recurring agitations and demand to the central government have failed to garner any advantage for the people of Marathwada. The result is that even though most of the workforce of industries in Pune and Mumbai come from these districts, the travel to these cities is next to a nightmare for the people. Passengers going to Pune from Nanded have to take a circular travel of more than 200 kms which take approximately 5 hrs.
One reason why this apathy is being shown may be that the Nanded railway division is attached with South Central Railway which has been dominated by Andhraites. On the other hands, the people from the region ask to attach the division with Central Railway as is the case all over the state. According to Sudhakar Doiphode, the senior journalist and editor of Prajavani, a Marathi daily from Nanded, “The region has been locked into two sides with the same apathy. The developed regions like Western Maharashtra look at Marathwada as backward. The leaders their give a cold shoulder to the problems of the region, meting out a step brotherly treatment. On the other hand, the SC railway is more concerned with the good performance in Andhra Pradesh. The officers who are mainly from AP are absolutely no concerned with the people here.”

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Why Voters Did Not Vote?

By now, it is official that Pune's informed and politically aware citizens turned out in the lowest number in the history of the city's election. People are still ranting about the dismal show. But for any one who has eyes and ear, it is crystal clear why the Jago Re failed to achieve its impact on the polling process. I can give a drop down list of the reasons for people not turning up:

• Absence of Cheer Leaders : Gone are the days when the voting was a field where only leaders could graze. This is an era of IPL where viewers are not satisfied with a ball hit or bails bowled. They want drama, they want colors. Hence, the normal beep of an electronic voting machine could not satiate the thirst for an entertainment. The poll managers of political parties should take this into consideration. They should engage cheer leaders (in short and suggestive dresses only) at the polling booths. They should be preferably kept with party symbols in their hand.

• Lack of Geographical Knowledge : Pune is always considered as the center of the universe

  by those who throng here from all corners of the world. It is not for nothing that a simple looking tea stall in a corner of the city can boast of being an internationally famous shop. But the people seem to have lost a simple fact from their memory cell that the earth revolves around itself as well as sun. This large movement can cause the places to move from one place to another. It is small wonder then that the addresses and constituencies of the voters just slided down to other areas. The voters could have helped themselves simply referring to their old school books.

• Sun Did Not Have a Holiday : It is true that the election commission of India had ordered every establishment to remain closed on polling day. Unfortunately, the order was not applied to Sun god which came as usual and kept heating itself all day. That is why the temperature soared up and up. Poor people, they just thought that the heat stroke will take their life and they can not risk it just for the love of democracy. They lived their lives more. So if the result of the election turns up again to be unsatisfactory, you know whom to blame.

• Candidate Did Not Came Calling : Touted to be the biggest fare of the world, election is the only time when a candidate comes to visit the voter. It is his pious duty to apprise the voter of his features, postures and faces which might change within few days once he is elected. Unless he does not obliges, how can a voter show up at the polling booth just because he is unhappy with the current situation. It is no mandatory for the elector to know on his own who is soliciting his vote. In case someone is arguing it should be so, then he is clearly anti-democracy.

• Better Location : Why the hell EC did not care to put up the polling booths at posh and upmarket locations? How could it expect the adults to return the schools for the sake of giving away their votes to an unknown person? Least they could was to put the polling booths at emerging construction sites so that the common citizens could check the prospective properties?

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More Educated Voters Cast Their Vote

Percentage of Voting Fall Down to 42%

The traditional voters failed to register presence this time in the Pune Lok Sabha Costituency. On account of summer heat and general lack of enthusiasm, the voters turned in in small number for the poll today. Citizens from educated and middle class areas outnumbered those from slum areas. 

Large changes in the voters list in the form of addresses and voting centers as well as general lack of enthusiasm among the voters towards made the voting percentage go down. In the last election, total 48 percent of voting was registered. This time it is 42 percent. 

However, the silver lining is that mainly educated areas recorded more voting percentage than the slum areas. 22 people have been taken into custody by police for the violation of poll conduct.

Among the assembly constituencies in Pune, Kothrud, Parvati, Shivajinagar and Kasba Peth are known as having educated and middle class voters in large numbers. These areas have hitherto remained aloof from the election till now. But this time now, citizens of these areas turned up in large areas. For example, till 3 PM, Kothrud has registered 36.09 percent, Shivajinagar had 30.22 percent, Kasba Peth had 35.07 percent of votes. Compared to it, areas like Pune Cantonment and Vadgaon Sheri assembly constituencies recorded voting of only 12.57 percent.

At the end of the day, a total 42 percent of voting was recorded in the Pune Lok Sabha constituency.

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Shotgun Did Not Fire

Workers Disappointed By No Show

 

Just as I returned from a 20 days solitude from Nanded, I got a chance to attend the last rally of Bharatiya Janata Party in Pune. Coincidentally, I also attended the first rally from which the party kicked off its campaign in Maharashtra. That rally was addressed by Narendra Modi. 

This time  round, actor and ex-union minister Shatrughn Sinha was to attend a public rally at New English School. But the actor, who is also a BJP candidate from Patna Sahib in Bihar failed to turn up. Sinha was scheduled to address a rally at the venue in support of BJP candidate Anil Shirole. But Sinha, who is known for his habit of coming late failed to turn up at the venue on account of mysterios reasons.

It was said that Sinha’s speech was not planned beforehand. He just turned up in Pune yesterday and committed to speak on Tuesday. BJP’s poll managers decided to hold a public rally. But the Shotgun did not come up at the school ground even as activists and leaders of Shiv Sena-BJP waited for him. The period for campaigning came to end at 5 PM. As the deadline was approaching, anxious leaders started to address the rally themselves and completed the affair three minutes before the time. That also brought to end the hectic campaigning done by the alliance parties.

Like the first rally, there was no great enthusiasm in the speakers of the rally. But Modi could carry the show in the first rally which was not the case in the latest one. Though as the things stand out, there is much chance for Shirole this time as Suresh Kalmadi, sitting MP and Congress candidate is slugging ti out with the DS Kulkarni, the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate.

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