[humanrights-movement:4763] Findings of PDS Survey held in June, 2011
A summer survey to study the ground realities of the Public Distribution System (PDS), initiated by IIT Delhi, and coordinated by development economists, Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera, was conducted in the month of June, 2011. A group of research scholars and student volunteers spent three weeks surveying the PDS in more than 100 randomly-selected villages spread over nine states (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh). They inspected the local fair price shops and interviewed more than a thousand “below-the-poverty-line” (BPL) households. Here are a group of articles written by them based on their findings : *Open Letter to the PM **: *In all the sample states, with the notable exception of Bihar, there have been major initiatives in the recent past to improve the PDS and these efforts are showing results. Most of the sample households were getting the bulk if not the whole of their foodgrain entitlements under the PDS http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/letter-toprime-ministerpublic-distribution-system/443560/ (Also contains table illustrating their findings) *PDS: Signs of Revival* *by Reetika Khera* Obituaries for the PDS system are a bit premature, based as they are on outdated data and presumptions. Despite flaws like pilfering and leakages, the system shows signs of improvement in certain states. http://www.hindu.com/mag/2011/06/12/stories/2011061250110400.htm *PDS Leakages : The Plot Thickens* *by Reetika Khera and Jean Drèze* : While diversion rates still remain high, evidence seems to point to substantial improvements in the public distribution system around the country. http://www.hindu.com/mag/2011/06/12/stories/2011061250110400.htm *The PDS Learning Curve **by Jijo Jose:* In Odisha, we surveyed two districts: Nuapada, infamous for its starvation deaths and high rates of distress migration, and Sundergarh, hotbed of the controversial POSCO project. In each district we surveyed six villages, spread over two blocks http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/pds-learning-curve -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups humanrights movement group. To post to this group, send email to humanrights-movement@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to humanrights-movement+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
[humanrights-movement:4764] Fw: Update from POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti as on 21st August 2011
--- On Sun, 21/8/11, alter nate nopo...@gmail.com wrote: From: alter nate nopo...@gmail.com Subject: Update from POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti as on 21st August 2011 To: prashantpaikray prashantpaik...@gmail.com Date: Sunday, 21 August, 2011, 14:22 Dear Friends, Our roadblock against the setting up the POSCO steel plant is continuing at Gobindpur village boarder. Another protest by Bhitamati Suraksha Samiti in Nuagaon village is also continued. The people at Gadakujang village erected a bamboo gate to prevent entry of officials and have stalled the construction and tree-felling operation who were earlier staunch supporters of the steel project. Recently, the government is making new tricks to enter into our area. The government is planning to laid a coastal road from Paradip (nearest town) to our villages. On 19th of August the government has laid the foundation for road construction. On 20th of August, around 400 people including the contractor and workers were proceeding to the site during the day; our people protested the move and chased them away. We held a public meeting to oppose the laying of the road. Our people are determined not to allow the construction of the road. We will let you know the future developments here. Kindly circulate this mail widely. In Solidarity, Prashant Paikaray Spokesperson, POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti Mobile no - 09437571547 E -Mail- prashantpaik...@gmail.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups humanrights movement group. To post to this group, send email to humanrights-movement@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to humanrights-movement+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
[humanrights-movement:4766] Fwd: Aam Jan Lokpal, UIDs: A Third View By Gopal Krishna
-- Forwarded message -- From: Vivek sundara viveksund...@gmail.com Date: Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 8:47 PM Date: 21 August 2011 Subject: Aam Jan Lokpal, UIDs: A Third View By Gopal Krishna Aam Jan Lokpal, UIDs: A Third View By Gopal Krishnahttp://www.countercurrents.org/krishna200811.htm ** Aam Jan Lokpal, UIDs: A Third View *By Gopal Krishna* 20 August, 2011 *Rediff.com*http://www.rediff.com/news/report/a-third-view-on-aam-jan-lokpal-uids/20110819.htm *Today, in addition to Aam Jan Lokpal, the country seeks liberation from non-governmental institutions which takes birth due to legislations passed by British Parliament in 1860 and 1882. * Is there even an iota of doubt that independence from this colonial legacy will make movements democratic and holistic? Will Parliament and the State's legislative assemblies take steps to dismantle this colonial law that creates non-governmental institutions in the country? Historical and political understanding of most non-governmental institutions can be gauged from the fact that the Unique Identity Number/Aadhaar number / National Population Register which is a chain for slavery deemed to be a solution just because of touching faith in discredited rulers and the companies. One of the most recent Wikileaks indicates that former dictator Hosni Mubarak and his regime handed over the database of UID card to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. On June 29, 2011 Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh met six editors to speak on corruption and Lokpal, but instead, he implied that Unique Identity Number/ Aadhaar Number being created by the chairperson of Unique Identification Authority of Indiaand former Infosys [ Get Quote ] CEO Nandan Manohar Nilekani to deal with corruption. Surprisingly, non-government institutions in general have failed to fathom the threats posed by commercials czars who have proposed the Centralised Identities Data Register. If the goal is to change the system instead of change in the ruling party, Lokpal alone is not sufficient. Most people involved with the 'total revolution' movement in the 1970s have opened their own departmental stores, shops and non-governmental institutions who had led a similar anti-corruption movement. Before they take retirement or be left in the pit of oblivion, they must answer as why did they abandon their own call for 'total revolution'? Why they did not deconstruct in the context of their movement and failure in the context of world history. Why they made total revolution' as meaningless word? If it is indeed about change in the system, where is the manifesto of the change? There are at least five things that merit attention in this regard. One is sarkari Lokpal Bill, the second Jan Lokpal, the third is Aam Jan Lokpal, fourth is National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 and the Companies Bill 2009. With regard to the first three there is an apparent agreement that on one issue that country's political and administrative system have been poisoned by the business enterprises and company's owners. Quite cunningly, these enterprises and owners have engineered seemingly irreconcilable confrontation. Among these three my consent is with the Aam Jan Lokpal. But the real issue is the intent of the government since early 1960s. Recently, in the Parliament Library one came across Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill that was introduced on May 9, 1968 by the then Home Minister Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan was in the Lok Sabha. Lokpal Bill, 1977 that introduced by the then Home Minister Charan Singh when Shanti Bhushan was the Law Minister in the aftermath of the call for 'total revolution' and after the change of ruling political party in the Lok Sabha in 1977. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, 1971 was introduced by the then Home Minister Ram Niwas Mirdha, In 1985, Law Minister Ashok Kumar Sen, in 1989, the Law Minister Dinesh Govswami, in 1996, S.R.Balasubramaniam, Minister of State of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, in 1998, M R Janarthanan, Minister of State of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension and in 2001, Minister of State of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension Kadambur Vasundhara Raje were introduced in the Lok Sabha. Once again, the 40-page Lokpal Bill, 2011 was introduced on August 4, 2011 in Lok Sabha by V Narayanasamy, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension Minister. As per PTI news report dated August 8, 2011, Vice President and the Chairman of Rajya Sabha Hamid Ansari has referred the Bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances headed by Rajya Sabha member of Parliament and spokesman of Indian National Congress, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the Congress. The government has introduced it and the parliamentary committee would look into it 'This Committee has vacancy for six more MPs. In coming days, who all are recruited from different political parties would be interesting. Is there anyone in the Parliament and outside the Parliament to
[humanrights-movement:4767] Anhad Press Meet Invite -Today 4 PM 22nd August 2011, At Press Club Azad Maidan Mumbai
Anhad has Organized the Press Meet Topic: Lokpal: An Alternative View Time Venue: 4 PM, Monday, 22nd August 2011, Press Club Azad Maidan, Speakers: Mahesh Bhatt, Shabnam Hashmi, Ram Puniyani, Dr. Anand Teltumde, Kamayani Bali Mahabal, Amir Rizvi, Waqar Kazi, -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups humanrights movement group. To post to this group, send email to humanrights-movement@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to humanrights-movement+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/humanrights-movement?hl=en.
[humanrights-movement:4768] I'd rather not be Anna -Arundhati Roy
I'd rather not be AnnaArundhati Roy http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2379704.ece While his means maybe Gandhian, his demands are certainly not. If what we're watching on TV is indeed a revolution, then it has to be one of the more embarrassing and unintelligible ones of recent times. For now, whatever questions you may have about the Jan Lokpal Bill, here are the answers you're likely to get: tick the box — (a) Vande Mataram (b) Bharat Mata ki Jai (c) India is Anna, Anna is India (d) Jai Hind. For completely different reasons, and in completely different ways, you could say that the Maoists and the Jan Lokpal Bill have one thing in common — they both seek the overthrow of the Indian State. One working from the bottom up, by means of an armed struggle, waged by a largely adivasi army, made up of the poorest of the poor. The other, from the top down, by means of a bloodless Gandhian coup, led by a freshly minted saint, and an army of largely urban, and certainly better off people. (In this one, the Government collaborates by doing everything it possibly can to overthrow itself.) In April 2011, a few days into Anna Hazare's first “fast unto death,” searching for some way of distracting attention from the massive corruption scams which had battered its credibility, the Government invited Team Anna, the brand name chosen by this “civil society” group, to be part of a joint drafting committee for a new anti-corruption law. A few months down the line it abandoned that effort and tabled its own bill in Parliament, a bill so flawed that it was impossible to take seriously. Then, on August 16th, the morning of his second “fast unto death,” before he had begun his fast or committed any legal offence, Anna Hazare was arrested and jailed. The struggle for the implementation of the Jan Lokpal Bill now coalesced into a struggle for the right to protest, the struggle for democracy itself. Within hours of this ‘Second Freedom Struggle,' Anna was released. Cannily, he refused to leave prison, but remained in Tihar jail as an honoured guest, where he began a fast, demanding the right to fast in a public place. For three days, while crowds and television vans gathered outside, members of Team Anna whizzed in and out of the high security prison, carrying out his video messages, to be broadcast on national TV on all channels. (Which other person would be granted this luxury?) Meanwhile 250 employees of the Municipal Commission of Delhi, 15 trucks, and six earth movers worked around the clock to ready the slushy Ramlila grounds for the grand weekend spectacle. Now, waited upon hand and foot, watched over by chanting crowds and crane-mounted cameras, attended to by India's most expensive doctors, the third phase of Anna's fast to the death has begun. “From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, India is One,” the TV anchors tell us. While his means may be Gandhian, Anna Hazare's demands are certainly not. Contrary to Gandhiji's ideas about the decentralisation of power, the Jan Lokpal Bill is a draconian, anti-corruption law, in which a panel of carefully chosen people will administer a giant bureaucracy, with thousands of employees, with the power to police everybody from the Prime Minister, the judiciary, members of Parliament, and all of the bureaucracy, down to the lowest government official. The Lokpal will have the powers of investigation, surveillance, and prosecution. Except for the fact that it won't have its own prisons, it will function as an independent administration, meant to counter the bloated, unaccountable, corrupt one that we already have. Two oligarchies, instead of just one. Whether it works or not depends on how we view corruption. Is corruption just a matter of legality, of financial irregularity and bribery, or is it the currency of a social transaction in an egregiously unequal society, in which power continues to be concentrated in the hands of a smaller and smaller minority? Imagine, for example, a city of shopping malls, on whose streets hawking has been banned. A hawker pays the local beat cop and the man from the municipality a small bribe to break the law and sell her wares to those who cannot afford the prices in the malls. Is that such a terrible thing? In future will she have to pay the Lokpal representative too? Does the solution to the problems faced by ordinary people lie in addressing the structural inequality, or in creating yet another power structure that people will have to defer to? Meanwhile the props and the choreography, the aggressive nationalism and flag waving of Anna's Revolution are all borrowed, from the anti-reservation protests, the world-cup victory parade, and the celebration of the nuclear tests. They signal to us that if we do not support The Fast, we are not ‘true Indians.' The 24-hour channels have decided that there is no other news in the country worth reporting. ‘The Fast' of course doesn't mean Irom Sharmila's fast that has lasted for more than ten years
