Will clean up Ganga in three years -- Uma

Union minister Uma Bharti asserted on December 14 that the Centre was committed to cleaning up Ganga within three years even as she voiced dismay over the extent of pollution after an inspection near Allahabad saying the people were getting only "effluents" and not "Ganga jal" from the river. The water Resources Minister said that she was looking forward to holding a meeting with the Uttar Pradesh government to discuss its plans as the state has to pay a key role in the efforts to cleanse the holy river.

Allahabad High Court is rightly concerned about the condition of the holiest river in India. Who is to blame for this condition? The elected governments? The permanent executives I.e bureaucrats including technocrats? 

One may be perhaps forced to reckon with a pitiable alibi at the end of the day looking to the preparations promised and the works executed / performed so far by the new central government! 

Life & Death on Maoists Land

Kasalpara villagers fear CRPF backlash

Pavan Dahat reports for the Hindu on December 4, 2014 that the locals claim the security forces have used force under the pretext of carrying out combing operations.

Blades Maya, a resident of Kasalpara village said, the jawans searched every house in her village and detained five men after Monday's encounter. The encounter was the second such incident in Kasalpara in the last ten days. Due to the advice of Maoists the village folk stayed in a corner of the village and escaped from the crossfire on November 21. Around 25 women met this reporter near a stream outside the village and expressed fears about their husbands' whereabouts. Another woman accused the CRPF of beating up many women from the village.

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Rahul Pandita: Hindu, Saturday December 13, 2014

"The CRPF is so ill-prepared to fight Maoists, it is a miracle its troops are not deserting en masse".

For 15 days , since November 15, more than 2000 troops from six battalions of the CRPF had been venturing out to conduct SADO- Search and Destroy Operations - in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district. The troops were asked to engage Maoists if they ever came in contact in the absence of any intelligence inputs with them. 

The local tribal population is fed up with the establishment/government inasmuch as they are left in the lurch to the mercy of the Maoists. "The government has not diagnosed the problem and is behaving rather like a quack", a CRPF officer said.

A CRPF soldier, undergoing treatment after December 1 episode in which 14 CRPF personnel were killed, said "One thing I tell you, it is better to be a Maoist in Chhattisgarh than be a CRPF jawan". 

Can we expect a solution to the Naxalite menace in Chhattisgarh or elsewhere in the country under these circumstances?

What a sham in planning and execution with unintelligent and halfhearted approach by even the extraordinary setup like CRPF?

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Age is no bar for a talented man!

At 95, US man by name Peter Weber Jr has become the world's oldest pilot as reported by the Guinness World Record keepers. This California man has succeeded another US man from Colorado, Cole Kugel who flew in 2007 at the age of 105 and died the same year. 

What a feat achieved by the great men in USA, the land of origin of aeroplanes!

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MOUs between China and India

India's P.M Mr Modi and Chinese President Mr.Xi, during this week, are meeting, talking and signing bilateral agreements and many MOUs for cooperation and collaboration in the fields of manufacturing, trading, education, culture, communication, science and technology, border disputes etc.

MOUs are formal documents exchanged on such occasions but the speed of their implementation on the ground is normally slow unfortunately in many cases depending on the priorities attached by both the parties to such agreements. 

Well one would expect tremendous resolve on the part of Modi to push through the given targets.

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Mockery of Higher Education

Editorial "Fraudulent Duplication" in The Hindu dated May 13, 2015 reaffirms my fear and apprehension that the parents and students are being duped merrily and mockingly by many of those individuals and organisations running professional colleges in the private sector. The extent of fraud is convincingly argued in the said editorial based on facts and figures found on the government websites. Whom are we to blame? We the Indians are next to none in cheating and befooling in almost all the spheres!

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A change for the better?

"Artists agitated over cultural policy shift" The Hindu May 6, 2015

More than 130 artists sign letter protesting govt's decision to remove people of eminence from cultural institutes - the news in brief.

It is not cultural  policy shift. It is only the change of guards in apex institutions so that a fresh and alternative approach can be ensured. Many a time such changes may usher in faster and better progress in the field. Of course sometimes we may lose the services of some dedicated souls too in the process. With that thought in mind if the new government effects transfer of many stereotyped and pseudo intellectuals from their posts there would be nothing wrong in it. Over a period of time some self-seeking and self-publishing often establishing their own friends and well wishers in positions of eminence is a known fact of life. I for one would strongly advocate the change of entrenched guards for the betterment of culture and society once in a decade or two.
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