Baneful bore wells

Baby Mahi has died after falling into a 70 feet open bore and after fighting for life for over 80 hours in the dark depths underneath. A precious life is nipped in the bud. Many such incidents happen across the country and most of them are not even reported. There are such many accidents involving school buses where children are injured or dead. The administration and the society mourn for the event and move on.

Coming to the bore wells, it is a menace in India. People all over the country are busy digging bore wells either for drinking water or agricultural purposes. No one knows the count, it must be in lakhs, and they are the modern day mines consuming children, spoiling the ground water table and ecology of the region.

While there are regulations for digging a bore well it is pretty easy to work around the regulations, bribe the civic officials and go about digging the well.

Think about it, the average depth of a bore well for striking ground water in the city of Hyderabad is > 700 ft. I am sure a significant number of them would not have struck water and would have been left open. Imagine the danger we are subjecting our innocent children to. Civic administration and civil society are jointly responsible for this irresponsible behavior.

Need a President

There were questions raised when Pratibha Singh Patil was picked up from nowhere by Sonia Gandhi and made the President of India. Benefit of doubt was given since she will be the first women president of India etc.

The incumbent is completing an almost inconsequential term, she was hardly visible on the national scene and struggled to meet the standards of the office. Coming soon after the active APJ Abdul Kalam, Pratibha found it hard to match the speed, intellectual sharpness and charisma of Kalam.

Beyond the above the president's office was in the news for the wrong reasons, 230 odd crores spent on foreign visits ( was something achieved? FDI etc ? ). This is a lot of money for a country like India. If we go by the planning commission standards of INR 36/day lot of folks can live for a long time on 231 crores. Also the Pune house for president, frequent trips to Pune etc brought down the image of the president.

Pratibha singh patil had an opportunity as the first women president of the country to talk about women's rights, female foeticide, 30% reservation for women in the legislatures etc. She did not set the agenda and missed an opportunity to be the voice for Indian Women.

With Sh.Pranab Mukherji leading the pack in the race to the Raisina we can hope to see an elevation in the role. A man of great integrity and intellect he is indeed the right choice to restore dignity to the office of the president. While he is congressman he will not be a push over on policy issues and will apply his mind. Ruling dispensations better be wary of Pranab the president.

Where do they get the money

Bye-elections are on and the political scene in Andhra Pradesh is muddy. The major parties are outspending each other. As per EC data police have rounded off 41crores in this bye-elections alone, in the last state general elections they managed to catch just 31 crores. The data is telling, money that is being spent to win these “prestigious” elections is mind boggling.

No one sensible will believe the declarations of the candidates on the money they are spending, political parties and candidates take the EC for a ride. EC obviously does not have the wherewithal to monitor and catch the culprits. So in AP it is all “ benami” money that is spent, we have liquor shops with “benami” ownership, properties that are “benami”. No one knows who is the owner of the money, liquor shop and properties in AP. It has become a “benami” state earning lots of “badnaam” for the blatant corruption that is being seen in public life.

There is no impact of inflation, interest rate hike or the general economic slowdown on these elections, in fact the way money is being spent one could mistake that we are having an economic boom.

We need to fix the electoral system immediately to stop this illegal money flowing into the system during the elections, in some way it impacts the credibility of the democratic process. This money is an entry barrier for good candidates to get elected to the house.

Leaving this side show, the common man who is the real show is struggling to make a living, investors have stopped coming to the state leading to reduction in employment opportunities, there is a general sluggishness in governance with no active decision making. But the government cares a hoot and our leaders are busy shedding crocodile tears to the public.

Enemies of state

Gali Janardhan Reddy the infamous marauder of mines has exploited bureaucrats and politicians to run his illegal mining empire. He has now extended his baneful influence towards the judiciary; he is accused of bribing a judge to get his bail. The “bail deal” apparently is 60 crores. It is now an allegation but nothing to be surprised if it turns out to be a fact. The happenings in the state are a reflection of the worst kind of corruption that has ever happened in independent India.

The revelations that are coming out due to the arrest of Gali, Jagan Mohan Reddy, B.P. Acharya, Nimmagadda Prasad and others will shock the hell out of the common man. People in power have played with and around the laws to rob the state and citizen out of its wealth. To name a few Obulapuram, Emmar, Vanpic, Ramky, Brahmani steels scams run into deals worth thousands of crores. It used be said that YSR ran the state with an iron hand and every one had to fall in line to his diktats, the unraveling has started, the underhand dealings are coming out in the open.

Jagan Mohan Reddy has for over a year de-stabilized the state politics with his aggressive people contact program “Odarpu Yatra”, his message was that the government is anti-people and his represents people aspirations. It turns out that it is all about himself. There have been suspicions all through about he becoming an billionaire overnight, the pieces are falling in place now on how he made money, quid pro quo, intangible benefits etc. Suresh Kalmadi and others are smaller cheats before Jagan and team. This team has unbounded desire to be in power and rob the state and its people.

Brahmani steels, Vanpic and Lepakshi knowledge hub and many other SEZ allocations turn out to be land grabbing exercises than for any economic activities. The poor and vulnerable have been thrown out in the garb of setting industries which never materialized. The noose has tightened and hopefully the culprits will be brought to justice.

While we talk about the state there seems to be a bigger scam taking shape at the center “coal gate”. The Prime Minister can be investigated in this. He is Mr. Clean and a man of great integrity, all of us will vouch for that but sir the country is slipping into a laissez-faire democracy under your watchful eyes. All the major scams are happening in congress ruled states.

Dark clouds are looming on our economic horizon, the ongoing economic scams have a big role to play in the slowing down of foreign investments.