EXCUSE ME, ARE YOU THE PRIME MINISTER?

Hey Ram! the passenger on the London underground train, who happened to be a Indian Lady with three months old kid stumbled upon a person in formal suit who voluntarily commented on the beauty of the child. The gentleman was none other than the Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Mr David Cameron. She could not believe her eyes that she was travelling with Prime Minister of that Country in the underground train. The reason why he travelled in the tube rail was that the traffic over the ground was very busy and he wanted to reach his work place quickly and hence he travelled without any paraphernalia alongwith other commoners in the train. The author is equally stunned at the simplicity exhibited by the first citizen of the United Kingdom Government in comparison to the type of pomp and show one confronts on the streets and roads of Indian Sub Continent where even the smallest public representative tries to exhibit his/her importance in the eyes of the public.

ELECTORAL REFORMS

Government of India is planning to amend the law to disqualify those who have been accused of heinous offences and against whom trial courts have framed charges. The existing law, namely, the Representation of Peoples Act leaves a loop hole that has been adequately exploited by criminals to enter the legislation so far. The criminal cases normally drag on for decades and also result in long delays due to pending appeals against convictions.

Heinous offences listed under the proposal include Terror, Murder, Kidnapping of any form, Counterfeiting of Stamp Paper or Currency, Sexual assaults against the women, offences under the anti narcotic drugs law and sedition. The proposal also has a provision to fund the election expenses of women candidates from Schedule Caste/Schedule Tribe/OBC communities whose annual income is less than Rs.5 lakh and family assets less than Rs.22 lakhs.

The author is partially happy that there is some progress in the thinking of Government of India to proceed in the direction of cleansing the political arena by making few amendments in the electoral law. The ultimate requirement will be achieved only when there are drastic amendments to the basic structure of Indian Constitution as suggested by the Author in his blog dt.4.8.2011

INDIA’S INFRASTRUCTURE IN LIMBO

Parliament's Estimates Committee has deplored that National Highways Development Scheme has suffered an all-time delay in its execution. It had strongly condemned the action of Central High Way and Surface Transport Ministry in its latest report. It is reported that National Highways Authority has taken up the work of construction of 7300 K.Ms of 4 - 6 lane roads which are supposed to connect Srinagar to Kanyakumari and Porbandar to Silchar. But unfortunately there has been consistent delay in the execution of this project. In fact it was supposed to be completed by 2009. Despite the delay, the work still remains incomplete. It is also sadly reported that even agreements for construction of 444 K.Ms have not yet been signed so far. Probably such a delay and incompetency in the execution of this work has been due to faulty planning. The estimates committee has exhorted Ministry of National High Ways and Surface Transport to delegate adequate power to the National Highway Authority of India. It is a known fact that the Ministry of Highways had already been taken to task for delay in the execution of Golden Quadrilateral road network. It is to be remembered that the quadrilateral road net work connecting Delhi-Kolkota and Chennai-Mumbai (5846 K.Ms) had to be executed by 2004.

Where is the Planning Commission? What is the P.M's Economic Advisory Council doing?

TITANS BITING DUST

Cricket Team India, the winners of the world cup a few months ago went on tour to England last month. They lost both One day and Test Series and also a T.20 game. They could not register a single win against England with a disastrous performance of losing 4 test matches, 5 one days and a T20 match. One does not know why such a collapse for world leaders all of a sudden – may be due to injury suffered by some team members, but such a debacle was never expected from great players like M.S.Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and a few others who could not unfortunately put up a better and winning performance. It is high time Sachin Tendulkar leaves the team and trains some other youngsters to take his place. Such a defeat and humiliation should not be taken lightly but a thorough review of performance should be undertaken by BCCI and corrective steps taken immediately so that the position No.1 gained by Team India could be restored as quickly as possible.

GREATER CHENNAI

The Tamil Nadu Government had decided in 2009 to create the Greater Chennai by merging Municipalities, Town Panchayats and Panchayats numbering about 46 with the Chennai Corporation. At present the newly-created Greater Chennai has 200 wards. Now at present Elections to all these (527) urban bodies - corporations to town panchayats - are going to polls in October, 2011. Now according to the present scheme of things, direct elections are being held for the posts of Mayor and the Chairman of Municipalities as it was in practice till 2006.

There are advantages and disadvantages in merging this suburban municipal bodies to the Greater Chennai. The proximity of these settlements on the boundaries of Chennai Corporation would stand to gain by the efforts of Greater Chennai with the help of Government of Tamil Nadu. There is no doubt that the volume of work in terms of cleaning of roads, collection of garbage & sewage, creation and maintenance of public park and garden, provision of drinking water, laying of good and motorable all weather roads, construction and maintenance of sewage lines and rain water drainage, proper lighting and control of traffic on major roads as well as junctions would increase on a massive scale. All these tasks will certainly entail an extra-ordinary amount of money, man power and mechanization. All these things will get reflected in the form of expectations and efforts of Councillers elected to the Corporation. The co-ordination of both officials and elected representatives as well as the co-ordination among the line departments would be needed for developing a clean and green Chennai.

Remember the earlier attempts made by the British Administration during pre independence days to allow self rule to the Indian citizens in the form of municipal administration. The Rippon Building near Central Railway Station in Chennai is a standing testimony to this phenomenon wherefrom all the city seniors did take pains to develop Chennai Metro from the beginning of 20th century.

ANNA CENTENARY LIBRARY

Thanks to the efforts of Kalaignar Karunanidhi who took extra interest in creating a world class library in the City of Chennai by spending nearly 200 crores of rupees. It may be remembered that this library was inaugurated on September 15, 2010. This being the biggest library in South Asia has 9 floors and six lakh books on a plinth area of 3.75 lakh Sq.Ft wherin about 1200 persons can be accomodated at a time. On an average 1500 persons are visiting this library and the number goes to 2200 during holidays. Even after one year of its inauguration the library’s manuscript section and digital library section are not yet ready for use. People are apprehensive whether this library would become another self-sustaining unit or not. The computerisation of the library is still incomplete and the amount of expenditure needed to run satisfactorily and maintenance would involve lakhs of rupees every month.

It is to be seen whether the present state government would pay adequate attention and extend financial support to maintain it in the name of the DMK founder Sri C.N.Annadurai.

CHINA’S PARTY VERDICT ON 90TH ANNIVERSARY: MAO DID IT ALL WRONG

In line with the aim and aspirations of China’s leaders three great things were announced on the eve of 90th anniversary of the ruling Communist Party:
1) China opened the World’s longest cross sea bridge spanning 42 K.Ms built over 4 years at a cost of 1.5 billion Euro Dollars. Jiaozhou Bay bridge links eastern port city of Qingdao to Huangdao island.
2) World’s longest natural gas pipeline was also operationalised from the China-Kazakhstan border to Turkmenistan. The 8700 KM long pipeline is designed to provide stable gas supply for atleast 30 years, powering the booming industrial zones in Shanghai, Gunagzhou and Hongkong.
3) A high-speed bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai which will take under five hours was flagged off on Thursday, zipping at 300kph (capable of 350 kph). China has the world’s longest high-speed rail network.

China thinks big and does bigger things - Hats off to Communist Leaders. Despite massive population and comparatively poverty ridden society, the Government is bent on doing and improving things. They find pleasure in setting world records and achieving these heights – take any sector for that matter – be it Sports and Games, Production of Steel, Cement, Road and Rail Infrastructure, Navy & Army, Industrial growth and productivity.

He might be the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, but the economic policies Mao Ze Dong followed have few takers today in the Communist Party of China(CPC) which believes “he did it all wrong”. In fact as it celebrates its 90th anniversary, the party says Mao’s ways resulted in “chaos in entire society” and it was a policy crafted out of the lessons learnt from his failures that have put China on a path to economic glory.

The CPC now attributes its success in stirring economic development in China in the past three and half decades to economic reforms propounded by Mao’s successor Deng Xiaoping, and its ability to learn from past failures. “Mao did it all wrong because he tried to develop the economy in a revolutionary way,” Xie Chuntao(Xie), Vice Director of the Party History Department, said, Xie said “Mao told his collegues in Yan’an (his home province) that the Party must let the masses to supervise the Government. He then began his way of implementing democracy, which resulted in chaos in the entire society” Bold admission and announcement indeed!!

The CPC, which had its ups and downs in its 62 year uninterrupted rule of China, will turn 90 on Thursday and is currently carrying out a massive campaign to revitalize itself by recreating its past spirit. Xie said the liberalized atmosphere brought in by Deng has made CPC take decisions with objective reality.