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August 1-15, 2010 |Vol. 01 Issue 13 | Rs 30

Ruraldevelopmentminister Joshi

promises biggerNREGA .44

Corporate afsecretary RBandyopadhy

on enlighteneregulations

Why the sunwill never seton parliament

complex, GoldenTemple .36

EXCLUSIVE:THE ISSUES PAPER THAT SET OFF THE KAMAL NATH-MONTEK WAR

WRONgROAd,

KAMAL

Its bad enough that thePlanning Commission

paper says NHAI will gobust. How and why it

arrives at that conclusion

is worse. Full report.p.25

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2/52

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3/52www.GovernanceNow.com

EditorB V Rao

[email protected] EditorAjay [email protected]

Peoples EditorAnupam Goswami

Deputy EditorsPrasanna Mohanty, Ashish Mehta,Ashish Sharma

Assistant EditorsSamir Sachdeva, Kapil Bajaj

Special CorrespondentsBrajesh Kumar, Trithesh Nandan

Principal CorrespondentsGeetanjali Minhas, Danish Raza,

Jasleen KaurCorrespondentsShivani Chaturvedi, Neha Sethi,Sarthak Ray, Sonal Matharu

Chief of Bureau (Special Features)Sweta [email protected]

DesignParveen Kumar, Noor Mohammad

PhotographerRavi Choudhary

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Volume 01 Issue 13

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25 NATH OF THE HIgHWAyS NHAI, under Kamal Nath, is building highways asif they are going out of fashion, leaving prudencynorms on the roadside. This could lead to a scaldisaster bigger than the USs sub-prime crisis, ac-cording to a Planning Commission paper.

36 Sunshine Country

Ministry of new and renewable energy promotessolar power at key places like parliament complexand Golden Temple to spread the good word

42 Now showing at Vidhan Soudha... Confused by the theatre of the absurd? Want to

make sense of recent political events in Karnataka?Here is a primer

16 The ood security umbrella just got small, very small.NAC nally cut the food security coat according tothe available cloth, without sparing a thought formalnourished children

08 Making a song and dance o learningAn alternative school is also a home for children,teaching them the art of self-discovery

44 Interview with ruraldevelopment ministeC P Joshi

We will add moreworks to expand thscope of NREGA

20 Interview withcorporate affairssecretarR Banopahaa

Our motto is cor-porate growthwith enlightenedregulations

33 Is it oreigners registration ofce or a Bollywood party?Valueable lessons inforeigners registra-tion procedure.

50 Last WorDid you have to do iMr Krishna?

contentsash

ish

asth

a

na

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4/52GovernanceNow | August 1-15, 20104

Political fee that

citizens must paLets not be nave. In a country ofscams, theft of Rs 11,412 crore ofpublic funds is no longer a scam.

Rs 11,412 crore of missing public funds in Bihar as point-ed out in a report of the comptroller and auditor general(CAG) and the subject of tragicomedy played out in Biharassembly in July is no longer even a teeny-weeny prickon public consciousness. The entire matter has become

another televised show of unruly behaviour of the legislators in-

side and outside a state assembly. Or, going by the predictable news-paper comment, its the oppositions search for a scandal to pin ontothe shoulders of the ruling coalition ahead of the assembly elections.

Nothing will come out of another scam in a country of scams. Nopolitical thief, especially a heavyweight, will ever be condignly pun-ished. The next government of Bihar will have its own scam. Thatsthe certainty that we the citizens of India have come to ascribe to theway this country governs itself.

What happened to Rs 1,153 crore fodder scam in which Lalu PrasadYadav, who currently represents the opposition in Bihar, was in-volved? Heres an excerpt from what a much used website saysabout the fodder scam that involved theft of public funds over manyyears and by multiple state governments.

In February 1985, the then CAG took notice of delayed monthly ac-count submissions by the Bihar state treasury and departments and

wrote to the then Bihar chief minister, Chandrashekhar Singh, waring him that this could be indicative of temporary embezzlemenThis initiated a continuous chain of closer scrutiny and warnings bprincipal accountant generals (PAGs) and CAGs to the Bihar goverment across the tenures of multiple chief ministers (cutting acro

party aliations), but the warnings were ignored in a manner thwas suggestive of a patternAnother excerpt: As the investigation proceeded, the CBI un

earthed linkages to the serving chief minister of Bihar Lalu PrasaYadav and on May 10, 1997, made a formal request to the governoto prosecute Lalu.

Even as he continues to dodge conviction in the fodder scam, LalPrasad is now the sanctimonious demander of CBI enquiry into thloss of Rs 11,412 crore of public funds. He will remain so until hwins power again and then another scam. We know the cycle.

This cycle, in fact, characteristhe way the Indian brand of reprsentative democracy plays itsenot just in Bihar, but in every oter state and the centre. Membe

of every ruling party or coalitiosiphon o huge amounts of publfunds to recoup the eye-poppininvestments that are needed todato win elections and to strengthethe hold of their faction or paron power.

Ministers make money in cotracts for public works and sevices in collusion with privaparties, in development and wefare schemes, and through othincreasingly subtle and sophiscated means. Its an electoral anpolitical system that primari

E D I T O R I A L S

Members of ever

rulin part orcoalition siphonoff hue amountsof public funsto recoup theee-poppininvestments thatare neee toa towin elections.

RTI activist Amit Jethwas cold-blooded

murder outside the Gujarat high court,

a high-security zone, on July 20 is the

latest in a series of such killings in re-

cent times. There have been at least

three others who lost their lives this year alone for

daring to expose corruption involving the high and

mighty. In the case of Jethwa, a BJP member of par-

liament has been named by the family of the de-

ceased, but the suspect has not been questioned so

far, let alone be arrested. The reluctance on the part

of the police is understandable; they hadnt bothered

to act or provide security to the activist when he

complained of the threat to his life while trying to

expose illegal mining in the Gir forest area. Much in

the similar way Satish Shetty, another RTI activist,

lost his life in January this year when he was lynched

in broad daylight on the outskirts of Pune, where he

lived. Shetty had proved troublesome for the land

sharks and their political patrons. Two more RTI

activists Shashidhar Mishra of Bihar and Datta Pa-

til of Maharashtra were eliminated this year in the

months of February and May, respectively.

But have you heard any politician or a minister,

either from the centre or the states where these i

cidents happened, condemning these killings

promising swift action? No. If that doesnt mov

you, here is another shocker. Former Chief Justice

India R C Lahoti recently wrote a letter to Congre

president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi to t

her how every whistleblower who approached th

Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the apex ins

tution entrusted with the task of ghting corruptio

came to grief! Having failed to move CVC, Justice L

hoti tells Gandhi in his letter: Let me take but on

example. It would be recalled that after the unfo

tunate murder of Satyendra Dubey, while workin

in the NHAI, CVC issued a resolution extending pr

tection to whistleblowers to save them from viole

consequences. Information available show that a

ter the issue of this resolution, every whistleblow

who approached CVC came to grief, while culpr

remain, by and large, unharmed to this day. Justi

Lahoti runs a non-government agency, India Rej

venation Initiative, to help the whistleblowers.

Is the government sabotagingwhistleblowers movement?A law to protect them has been pending ever sinceSatyendra Dube was killed in Patna in 2003

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The resolution Justice Lahoti refers to is the

Government of India Resolution on Public In-

terest Disclosures and Protection of Informers

issued in 2004 by the CVC after IITian Satyendra

Dube was eliminated in Patna in 2003 following

his letter to the Prime Ministers Oce complain-

ing about corruption in national highway projects.

The central government had, at the time, prom-

ised to bring in a law also to protect the whistle-

blowers. It was never done. When a private mem-

bers bill on the subject was moved in Rajya Sabha

in 2006, the member was persuaded to withdraw

it on the promise that the government would soon

honour its promise. The Law Commission too re-

leased a draft bill around that time, which was,

of course, dismissed by the RTI activists and oth-

er civil society groups as weak and silent on pro-

tection or compensation to be provided to the

whistleblowers. Finally, after the ghastly mur-

der of Satish Shetty in January this year it seemed

the government was waking up from its slumber

when a minister, Prithviraj Chavan, disclosed

February that The Public Disclosure and Prote

tion of Informers Bill was being nalized by a

empowered group of ministers headed by defen

minister A K Antony. Curiously, the proposed bi

which is supposed to be ready and may be intr

duced in the monsoon session of parliament, is n

available in public domain. Worse, a civil socie

activist has been trying hard for several month

to get access to this draft bill but neither the go

ernment nor the Central Information Commissio

has so far come to his help.

Does the government really want to help peop

ght corruption? Our experience shows that th

trail in big-ticket corruption cases often leads

the high and mighty who control the governmen

and every conceivable trade and industry. Transpa

ency and probity threaten their very existence! Wh

the pretense then? Let it be a free for all. At least w

would be saving some of our most public-spirited i

dividuals from meeting a ghastly end.

runs on money power and is ulti-mately funded by Indian taxpay-er. It also explains the fast grow-ing numbers of crorepatis amongour elected representatives. Its

a system thats become so institu-tionalised that only the very na-ve among Indian citizens nd itdicult to gure out.

In fact, the thousands of croresof rupees of public funds that In-dian taxpayers now pay routine-ly for keeping this system goingshould no longer be described bysuch nave expressions as cor-ruption, scam, scandal, em-bezzlement, etc.

Its actually the political feethat we must pay every day of ourlife to keep the way our system of

governance works. Changing thissystem replacing this extortion-ate Rajneeti with Lokneeti isup to us, the citizens. It will re-quire attacking the stupendouslygrowing market for political pow-er and thinking through electoraland democratic reforms in fact,a fundamental change in the waythis country is currently run.

It could be a long haul. Lets lookthrough the tragicomedy in Biharto the larger pattern behind it andfocus on our options for bringingabout the fundamental change.

Apopular bureaucratic adage is: Showme the ace, I will show you the rule.Its borne out once again by the gov-ernments moves in clearing the

decks or Pulok Chatterjee to become the nextcabinet secretary. The 1974 UP cadre IAS oi-cer is set to get an unhindered our-year termas the cabinet secretary when the present in-cumbent retires next year.

That is a oregone conclusion simply be-cause Chatterjee is seen as close to 10 Jan-path. Believed to have been a sot-spoken o-icer, he had let UP to join the Rajiv GandhiFoundation (RGF) in the early 1990s.

That was a time when Prime Minister PV Nar-asimha Rao was not kindly disposed towardsSonia Gandhi who was maintaining a low-pro-ile. Chatterjee stood by her in her capacityas head o the RGF. In 1995, using RGF as theront, Sonia addressed a rally in Amethi inwhich she launched a veiled attack on the Raogovernment or ignoring the ideals o RajivGandhi. This was in the post-Babri mosquedemolition phase and Rao was gradually los-ing support.

Chatterjee was believed to be the brains be-hind the Amethi show. His shadow loomedlarge on much o the strategic moves rom 10

Janpa th. Sonia retai ned him as her secre tar y

when she was the leader o Opposition durinthe NDA regime. He was drated in the PMas secretary when Manmohan Singh took ovas the PM. Subsequently, he was sent on thmost sought-ater bureaucratic assignmeas executive director o the World Bank.

Chatterjees ortunes have been linked the all and rise o the Nehru-Gandhi amilHis was a classic case o a committed breaucrat being rewarded by political maters ater throwing all norms to the wind. Hpath to the cabinet secretary post has beecleared in an unparalleled manner. The icumbent KM Chandrashekhar was given tw

successive extensions to block the possibilio new claimants or the post.

Chandrashekhars term is set to come tan end in June 2011 which will coincide wireturn o Chatterjee rom the World Bank. everything goes as per plan, Chatterjee wget ull our years as mandated by the necabinet decision. Ironically, this posting in sharp contrast to the rules ramed by thPMO which stipulated that no IAS or IPS oicer would be allowed to remain out o hiher cadre posting ater a stipulated perioo six years. Characteristically, perhaps, thcabinet approved this decision without andemur.

Justice Lahoti says in his letterto Sonia Gandhi: Let me takebut one example. It would berecalled that ater the unortunatemurder o Satyendra Dubey, whileworking in the NHAI, CVC issued a

resolution extending protection towhistleblowers to save them rom

violent consequences. Inormationavailable shows that ater theissue o this resolution, everywhistleblower who approachedCVC came to grie, while culpritsremain, by and large, unharmed tothis day.

The importance of bein Pulok ChatterjeeThe man next in line to become the Union cabinet secretary draws hispowers straight from 10 Janpath

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This refers to The burden is allours (July 16-31). There should

be rule that a person appointedas a minister (or even elected asa parliamentarian) should re-sign from all posts in the partyand private organisations sothat he/she may devote full timefor the job for which the personmay be getting pay, perks andprivileges from the exchequer.Another option is to appointonly as ministers only thosewho have not been elected andthen MPs can keep a watch overthem. This will bring in expertsrather than selsh politicianson ministerial posts without anyaim of political gains out of theirministerial berths.

Subhash Chandra AgrawalNew Delhi

Gujarat protestsThe article on peoples protestsin Gujarat, This land is ripe fortrouble (June 16-30), was won-derful, very evocative and well-written. Im glad there is at least

one magazine around that cov-ers stories that aect the life ofordinary folks. What a shame a government bent on destroy-ing the livelihood of its own peo-ple, all in the name of progress!Seems like corporates are thenew kings of modern India: theycan pretty much have whateverthey eng want, and at what-ever cost!

Saurabh MishraOn email

The Mahatma and ModiRegaring Modis Rs 135 crore

joke on Mahatma Gandhi(June 16-30), it will be interest-ing to note that some Gujaratiyoungsters were engaged in avery articulate debate on Face-Book on the Mahatma Man-dir project by Narendra Modi.It was so fruitful that 20 of thenearly 50 Facebook friends met

in Ahmedabad, at a roadsidekitlee (tea vendor) beside theIIM to protest the move. Thegroup is planning more protests

by approaching the masses.

Kiran TrivediAhmedabad

ClarifcationMaharajas travails, the box ac-companying Jitender Bhargavasanalysis titled All is not lost forAir India, not yet. (May 1-15,)was prepared by the editorialteam of Governance Now andnot by Bhargava.

Hosting the CommonwealthGames, we are told, is a pretigious event for India. Soprestigious that crores ofrupees are being spent on i

much of them in beautifying the capital with workslike streetscaping which isbeing done and then redonusing the poor, ination-hittaxpayers money. Still, its matter of Indias prestige bfore the world. So be it.

However, pray tell us pre-cisely how prestigious is th

event? Olympics championUsain Bolt, Shelly Ann Fra-ser and Chris Holy do notthink the event is prestigiouenough, so they are not coming. We can expect moresuch announcements in thedays to come.

But Games Organis-ing Committee chairmanSuresh Kalmadi maintainsthat it does not matter if acouple of top stars do notcome, as the biggest eversquads are coming from

England, Australia and elsewhere. He did not specifyhow many people in thesesquads would be interna-tional sports stars and howmany would be ocials onleisure trip. Sports ministerM S Gill responded well tothat cavalier claim. He saidnobodys going to come andwatch the Games if Sureshand I run.

The Games story, as it isunfolding, is a story of mis-governance that is hurtingpeople, more directly so inDelhi. Now we know thesupposedly prestigious evewe are bankrolling is notworth a trip for Olympicsstars. The question to debatis: Would you now wasteyour money on buying aticket for one of the Gamesevents?

Participate in the debate,send your views to [email protected]

This is in regard to the cov-er story, Optimum City, of theJune 16-30 issue. It is hearten-

ing to note the progress thatAhmedabad has made, butthere was a conspicuous lackof addressing the commu-nal divide and the ghettoisa-tion of the city in the article.It is simple enough to compart-mentalise the aspects of the cityand talk about them as if onedoes not affect the other. Butwhen the discussion is on gov-ernance hardly a neutral entity and the Gujarat governmentis one that is known to operatewith an exclusionary agenda,

the divide is important in howgovernance touches the lives ofdifferent communities differently.To neatly elide over the thesmoky past and the commu-nal divide of the city betrays aprivilege of willful blindness.This is exactly what came

through in the article. After asingle mention of the differ-ences between east and west

Ahmedabad, the writer wenton to laud the achievementsof the municipal body, andthe value addition that hap-pened to real estate on thewest side of the city. The slumsand poverty of the east sidegarner no more attention.Most strikingly, at the end,where the writer quotes a num-ber of young professionals (whoall, not surprisingly, bear Hindunames) favouring Ahmedabadover other cities, the implicationis clearly that only the upwardly

mobile, urbane middle class isable to take advantage of thecitys facilities and enjoy them.

It would have been enlighten-ing to read whether a residentof Juhapura finds the city moreaccessible as a result of thering road, how the real estateboom has affected the lives ofsmall traders across the city,whether reports of Muslims find-ing it unsafe to venture intowest Ahmedabad after dark arestill true. Positive answers tothese questions would havebeen a much better indicator ofAhmedabads achievements.Considering the statewide phe-

nomenon of marginalising Mus-lim communities it would havebeen relevant to ask whetherthe development of Ahmed-abad has indeed been inclusive.

Harshita YalamartyNew Delhi

R E A D E R S S p A C E

Write to Governance NowWe invite your suggestions, reac-tions to thestories and analyses and, of course,your own take on all matters relat-ed to governance. You can email orsend snail mail. All letters mustaccompany your postal address.

[email protected] Publishing Division24A Mindmill Corporate TowersFilm City, Sector 16A, Noida 201301

Two tales o a city

Power burden

Would you buy theGames ticket i Boltis not coming?

Debate

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oJustice N Santosh Hegde, the Loka-yukta of Karnataka will have a help-

ing hand in the retired Karnataka HighCourt Judge S B Majage who has been

sworn in as the statesUpalokayukta. Hegdehad been demanding

that the post be lled up soon; this waone of the conditions laid down by him fowithdrawing his resignation from his posearlier this month. Speaking at a function after taking over oce, Majage saithat he would work within the ambit o

law and would make sincere and honeseorts to check corruption. According tHegde, there were nearly 7,000 to 8,00pending cases and nearly 3,500 caseready to be cleared and awaiting the noof the Upalokayukta. Majage describeit as a golden opportunity given to himto serve people and said he would perusall pending les and try and redress thgrievances of people.

U day Kumar, a 31-year-oldIIT Bombay postgradu-ate will go down in history asthe man who gave the Indianrupee a symbol and broughtit in league with the US dol-lar, British pound sterling,euro and Japanese yen. Ku-mars entry was chosen fromamong 3,000 designs competing for thecurrency symbol. He will get an award ofRs 2.5 lakh. Kumars symbol, a mix of theDevanagri Ra and Roman R, is now the

international symbol for oucurrency. The entries weevaluated by a jury heaed by the RBI deputy govenor, which included experfrom reputed art and dsign institutes. Born in Chenai on October 10, 197Kumar belongs to a family thhails from Thanjavur. Hstudied architecture at Ann

University in Chennai. Subsequently, hdid his Masters in Architecture from IBombay. And, recently, he joined as teacher at IIT Guwahati.

While the country is try-ing to establish solar en-ergy as an alternate form and

launching solar missions, the

environment minister seems to

think otherwise. Speaking at a

press conference, organised by

activists against the Loharinag

Pala dam, to be constructed on

the Ganga, Jairam Ramesh told

activists not to live in an ideal

fantasy world. Live in an In-

dia which has 1.4 billion people

and where the government has

to meet their energy needs, he

said. Solar energy, wind ener-

gy, these are all romantic things.

We have to depend on hydel

power, thermal power, he told

the activists.

Romancinthe sun, the win

Lokayukta Hegde has a deputyProfessorat 22:tathaastu!

The Rupee man

The Patna wonder boy TathagatTulsi, once accused o beinga ake prodigy, who had mugged

up jargon, has given a tting re-ply to his critics. Tulsi, 22, has be-

come the youngest assistant pro-essor at IIT Bombay. He nished

high school at the age o nine,earned his BSc degree at 10, MSc

degree at 12 and then received hisdoctorate in quantum computing

rom the Indian Institute o Sci-ence at the age o 21. He chose IIT

Bombay over University o Water-loo, Canada. I turned down Wa-

terloo despite an impressive paypackage because I do not wantto go abroad now, Tulsi told The

Indian Express, My dream is toset up a lab ocused on quantum

computation in India,and one day help

develop a largescale quantum

computation-based supercom-

puter. IIT Bombayoers me these

possibilities.Way to go, Dr

Tulsi.

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Sonal Matharu

Neeraj Arya sat in the lobbyof Flat No 13, Khan Market,strumming his guitar and sing-

ing folk songs. As his loud, clear voiceltered through every wall of thehouse, children came peeping in from

the stairs that lead to the room up-stairs. Indira Gulati, 75, started danc-ing in circles, thoroughly enjoying themusic.

This is Manzil Gulatis home, legal-ly, and also home to Neeraj, Shalu, He-mant, Jai and many more children whowork for and learn at this NGO.

A narrow staircase, behind sometony shops, leads to this house where

children, from families with less thaRs 10,000 monthly income from anaround the upscale locality of KhaMarket in central Delhi, learn fromone another and bring out the best ithemselves. They sing and dance, theact and play, they draw and paint, thetalk and teach. And in the procesthey learn what their regular schoteachers can never teach them in th

Makin a son anance of learninIts an NGO, its an alternative school, its also ahome for children who have learnt here the art ofself-discovery

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classroom. Not a regular school, Man-zil complements formal education,but also teaches conversational Eng-lish and mathematics. It gives childrenthe condence and that much-neededpush to explore and to pursue theirdreams.

Twenty-one-year-old Arya agrees. He

eagerly shows the laminated newspa-per clippings of his past stage perfor-mances with renowned folk singersand musicians experiences whichhave transformed into memories

something he believes would nothave been possible without Manzil.He learnt music here. Music gave himan aim in life. The sparkle in his eyeswhen he talks about various peoplehe works with today and the numberof things he has seen and done at hisyoung age, reects his enthusiasm andcommitment to music.

Arya is the son of a cook and theyoungest of four siblings. He cameto Manzil in 2006 when his sister toldhim that he could learn music here.He came, he enrolled and he has beenhere since. He joined the Manzil mu-sic band with his sister Rashmi, cousinPreeti and two young men. Their bandnow performs at various Delhi Univer-sity colleges and at the India HabitatCentre (IHC) among other cultural cen-tres in and around the city. He also gota chance to play with Rahul Ram fromthe iconic Indian Ocean band and Mo-

hit Chauhan of the Silk Route band.Yoga, says Arya, was all he was taught

at the government school he studied at,in the name of extracurricular activi-ties. Music, which he learnt at Manzil,helped him discover himself. Inclinedtowards various social causes, he foundin music an outlet and a medium toreach out to people. Highly inspired bySu saint-poet Kabir and his couplets,which he keeps dropping in the songshe composes, Arya now wants to learnlm making from Shabnam Virmani,a documentary lm maker who has

made a series of lms on Kabir.Arya is one among many who adores

and admires the Manzil family he ispart of. The colourful tree painted inthe lobby of the home aptly symbolisesManzil which took its rst step in 1996and has grown bigger, better and morevibrant over the years.

In a sense, Manzil came into beingthanks to Sonia Gulati, Indiras 45-year-old daughter. Sonia was three monthsold when she fell o the bed and in-

jured her head. Fifteen days later her

head started to swell. Five-month-oldSonia went under the knife and hercondition improved with homeopath-ic treatment later. But she could neverfully recover. She suers from cerebralpalsy. Indira Gulati wanted Sonia togrow up with other children in a regu-lar school. Though she was a bit slow in

learning, in 1970 Sonia took admissionin the Bluebells school in south Delhiwhere she studied for four years.

Children in the school used to teaseme and call me polio. Once, a childpushed me down the stairs, recalls So-nia, sitting next to Indira. I used to feelso bad, she adds.

Sonia then switched to the Balvant RaiMehta Vidya Bhawan, a school whereIndira Gulati, a naturopath by pro-fession, did voluntary work for over13 years in the social work department

with children who were slow learners.Indira Gulatis husband, Krishan LalGulati, was diagnosed with cancer in1994 and he succumbed to the diseasein 1995. She took retirement in thesame year and started volunteeringin the orthopedic departments of vari-ous hospitals and counselling those inneed.

In 1996, in one of the narrow siltedand clogged lanes of Kotla Mubarak-pur village, one of the many cluster ofvillages around which the city of Delhigrew, Indira Gulati decided to share all

that she had learnt, over a total of 20years of voluntary work, with childrenwith disabilities. Her dream realisedwith Manzil, the name she gave to theschool started for the handicappedchildren and later to the NGO, whichexpanded with her persistent eortsand the support of her family.

The school was a means throughwhich the feisty woman wanted to as-sist children who are slow learners andhelp in their integrated growth withthe other children. But due to lack of

Yoga, says Arya, wasall he was taughtat the governmentschool he studiedat, in the name ofextracurricularactivities. Music,which he learnt at

Manzil, helped himdiscover himself.

Inclined towardsvarious socialcauses, he found inmusic an outlet and amedium to reach outto people.

photos: Ravi ChoudhaRy

(Above) SonGulati displayin

paintings madby her. (Facin

page) IndirGulati with Neera

Arya at her KhaMarket house

o oii oiy rorman

Art of Learning

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support from the parents of the handi-capped and the stigma attached, theirnumber slowly dwindled. She startedon May 24, 1996 with help from herfriend, Geeta Chopra, and with two

handicapped children on the roll, butkept the place open for children withno disabilities as well. They rented aroom in the village for two hours everyday where they taught these children.Soon, for the children of Kotla Manzilschool became their rst learningground. As more children joined, thefounders took a bigger room on rentand converted it in a school which isnow decorated with colourful muralson the walls and small wooden stoolslining its three sides.

Children, under ve years of age,

troop in the school and gather here intwo batches every day for two hoursto learn from their mentors and fromone another. Most of them are frommigrant families from Orissa, Him-achal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, WestBengal, Punjab and Bihar, who live inthis Gujjar-dominated urban village insouth Delhi. Swinging their arms andtapping their feet, toddlers sing poemsin unison and look at one another tocopy the actions which some remem-ber and some dont. Three-year-old

Ayush squats on the oor where toyare strewed, trying to dismantle a dohouse. While another boy tries to reacthe latch on the door, wailing, wantinto go home.

As the kids keep themselves busUma Roy, a volunteer at Manzil whhas been serving in the Kotla plaschool for over six years now, recalhow the school evolved over 14 years

In March 1998, Manzil became a reistered NGO. Earlier, the admissiowas free and the parents sent thechildren whenever they wished. Nowith a monthly fee of Rs 60 (Rs 35 tlast year) students are at least reglar. Though there are no handicappechildren at the school now, if any chiwith disability joins, no fee is charge

from him or her. Special attention needed for handicapped children susually their mothers volunteer at thschool.

Initially, the school did not have a unform, and many parents used to delier just-woken-up children in the handof the school volunteers. So, a uniformwas introduced (a red-checked shirnavy-blue shorts or skirt, red tie ansocks and black shoes) and now mothers send the children all neat and tidThe uniform also makes it easier fo

Money forrunningthe activi-ties herecame on its

own. Sometimes peo-ple who volunteered

with us donated.Somehow, wheneverwe needed money, we

got it through somemeans.

Indira GulatiFounder, Manzil

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the volunteers to keep track of the kidsduring their trips to various parks inthe city.

This unique initiative started withtwo children and today there is nocount of number of children whohave been associated with Manzil tilldate, says Indira Gulati. And what

about funds? Money for running theactivities here came on its own. Some-times people who volunteered withus donated. Somehow, wheneverwe needed money, we got it throughsome means, she says. For runningthe household expenses, the Gula-tis have a shop in the Khan Marketwhich they have rented out.

At their Khan Market home in1997, two children Hemant andPramod who had been learn-ing from Sonia previously, wantedhelp with their Maths lessons. They

turned to Ravi, Indira Gulatis son whois an Indian Institute of Management,Ahmedabad (IIMA) graduate.

Ravi realised that the children didnot have some basic maths conceptsclear and he decided to start fromthe scratch. These children thenbrought their friends along and moreand more subjects like music, danceand drama became part of theircurriculum.

Post IIMA, Ravi went to Canada for ayear and worked with Shell for eightmonths, the earnings from which

lasted him eight years. After his fa-thers death, however, he planned togo to the hills, in Garhwal, but he slow-ly got involved in Manzil aairs.

As Manzil grew, the past studentsstarted teaching the new ones. Justlike at Sujan Singh Park, where Man-zil runs its classes. Jai Kumar and hisfriend Anand Chaurasia, both teenag-ers, teach English Mini lessons to 10younger children. They ask studentsto guess the verb through their ges-tures and prepare a sentence usingthat verb. Jai, who was a Manzil stu-

dent, has also acted in several playsproduced and directed by the Manziltheatre group, Swakriti, at the IHC,Gandhi Samiti, Lazer Park in Gurgaonamong other places.

The model of a school in India,says Ravi, is where there is one teach-er and 40 students. The teacher or-ders and the students obey. Whenwe follow the good student syn-drome where the student does whatthe teacher says, we are killing ini-tiative. We are killing the learning

procedures. Such obedient studentsare not learners. If in a class of 40, onestudent is eating lunch and anotheris drawing, they are taking their owninitiative and learning in the process.That is when the real learning hap-

pens. Every child is born with his orher own energy and brains.

He recalls his days at the IIMA wherehe says the passion for learning andteaching is very much alive becausethese institutions are autonomous. Hebelieves students in any educationalinstitution must be given that encour-aging space.

For parents who send their chil-dren to Manzil, it is just a tuition cen-tre. They feel that schools and tuitioncentres are the only two places forlearning and there is no third place

for education. There is a need to re-form the existing education system,he says.

Though he has no set plan which hecan propose to the policy makers, hefeels that the open spaces in schoolswhich are locked up after 2 pm whenthe school time is up, should be usedfor community learning in the eve-ning. And let a thousand Manzilsbloom. n

[email protected]

Forparentswho send

theirchildrento Manzil,

it is just a tuitioncentre. They feel thatschools and tuitioncentres are theonly two places forlearning and there

is no third place foreducation. There isa need to reform theexisting educationsystem.

Ravi GulatiCo-ounder, Manzil

(Above) Teenagersat mini englishlesson at Sujan

Singh Park centre(Facing page

Toddlers at Manzischool in Kotla

Mubarakpur

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Shivani Chaturvedi

Adrawn, phlegmat-ic whistle announc-es locomotive en-gine come to life as itbounces o the hugesheds walls andhigh ceiling. Steambillows from under-

neath the engine and out its chimney. TheRewari Queen always makes a grand startin the loco shed, amid the white stage-smoke steam. Soon, the engine rolls and

the time-travel begins.The steam-powered locomotive is a sig-

nature of the railways past. At a t ftyand a few odd running years, the enginestill chugs along 180 metres of track running on parts that belong at a muse-um. But when the Rewari Queen rolls, theengines hot breath and the white smokeenveloping it inspires nostalgia for a past

which one may or may not have lived.There was a time when trains hauled by

such engines linked Cawnpore and Con-jeevaram. But with the coming of dieseland electric engines, they just ran out ofsteam. Retired, some were sent to scrap-yards, others to the rail museum.

But at the Queens palace a shed tak-ing up a little less than an acre of theeight housing the railway heritage cen-tre in Rewari, Haryana nine other age-ing royals of the rails bring history to lifeeveryday. All, thanks to Ashwani Lohani,

a divisional manager with the NortherRailways at Delhi.

The rst-of- its-kind project in the coutry came up seeking to keep steam locmotives alive and rolling for tourists anhistory bus alike. Previously, Rewa

Junction was known as the biggest juntion of metre gauge (MG) lines in entirAsia. The shed had its own claim to recor

books as the biggest for MG engines, houing about 70 to 80 of them.

In 1993, the steam traction was phaseout and the metre gauge lines were coverted into broad gauge. By Septembethat year, most of the steam locos were othe tracks dismantled, auctioned or dipatched to other railway zones. Just twor three were kept in the Rewari shed fospecial trains like Royal Orient Express,heritage train.

A few broad gauge steam engines werbrought from dierent sheds to th

gatherin

steam forpreservinrailwasheritaeIt took an ocer with a boyhood

passion for steam locomotives to

power Indias rst project of its kind

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place. A line was laid down for these torun. In 2002, the then railway ministerNitish Kumar inaugurated the shed as aheritage centre. At that time the shed wasunder Bikaner division of the NorthernRailways. With new zones and divisionscoming up, this shed came under the

jurisdiction of Delhi division of the North-ern Railways in 2003.

Then, everybody seemed to have sim-ply forgotten everything about heritage,steam engines and Rewari until January,2010 when Lohani chose to revive theshed.

The rst time I visited the shed as aDRM, I was oered tea. I refused as it feltlike I was in a graveyard for dying steamlocos, says Lohani.

The shed was crying out for mainte-nance and not one of the engines couldrun. As the director of National Rail Mu-seum from 1994 to 1998, Lohani had

suggested moves to revive the shed bunothing materialised due to unspeciereasons.

But soon after he took charge as thDRM, he knew he had to bring the sheback to life. The shed was repaired. Engines were procured from other zonebringing the number up to ten takinup the entire shed. Most of these engine

were built in the 1940s. A special additioto the heritage centre is engine WP 720an American locomotive engine gifted bthe countrys ambassador on August 11947.

Engines were repaired to get themrunning, tracks were refurbished, denmended and shells painted. The heritagcentre nally lost its legacy of neglect.

Lohanis association with the railwayhas been long and illustrious. As directoof the national rail museum for nearve years, he has made reviving heritag

These ageless beauties, at the upcoming steam heritage shed in Rewari, have the potential to draw railway enthusiasts and history bus alike.

The rst time Ivisited the shed as a

DRM, I was oeredtea. I refused as itfelt like I was in agraveyard for dyingsteam locos,

Ashwani Lohani,Divisional railway manager, Delhi .

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a habit. In 2002, he became the direc-tor (tourism) and chairman of the Indi-an Tourism Development Corporation.By then, he was long familiar with his vi-sion for tourism. The very rst time I re-

alised that I wanted to do such work wasin 1997. That was the year I revived theFairy Queen. It set a Guinness world re-cord for the oldest steam engine in opera-tion, he says.

This further pushed him to form IndianSteam Railway Society in November 1999.The society is like a fanclub for steam en-gines. The members of the society meetonce a month and hold discussions onsteam locos. An annual international con-ference is also organised.

If one knew Lohani as a four-year-oldin the 1960s, tugging at the whistle cord

of a WP class steam locomotive at Cawn-pore (now Kanpur), one would have beenfamiliar with his fascination for steamengines.

I could sense my childhood thrill re-turn 30 years later when I put the FairyQueen back on the tracks, he says, sa-vouring the nostalgia.

This unusual passion is common in someof the 32 people who work in the Rewarished 25 of whom are in maintenance.Not much else explains the patience re-quired to generate enough steam to movethe engines. Only after eight hours of

shovelling coal into the furnace, heatingthe iron rods and lling the engine tankswith water can the engines roll.

Sher Singh is one of the longest-serv-ing maintenance guys here. He has beenworking in the shed since 1974. It is noteasy to escape imbibing some sense ofthe history of the place if one has workedthere as long. Shyam Bihari, a section en-gineer, shares his favourite anecdote withme. An engine had been once sent to My-sore for display at an exhibition. A fewdays after it was back in the shed, a 75-year old man turned up and asked if he

could see it.He said he had come all the way just to

have one look more at the engine he hadseen in Mysore! He even left a remark onthe visitors book, he says, just as amusedas he was then.

Depending on the distance the enginehas travelled, maintenance priority isassigned.

The shed also houses a small museumwhich has many antiquated spare partsof steam engines on display. Logos of dif-ferent railways from pre-Independence

India are an important bit of history.Quite tellingly, they bear motifs and em-blems of the princely states of India. Nowonder, most railways from back thenare named after these states. There is alsoa working model of the Walshert valve

gear housed here. The gears principlepretty much moves every trains enginetoday.

It costs the Delhi division about Rs 8 lakha month to maintain the shed, the enginesand the labourers.

But it is not as if these engines stand asquaint reminders of history. They havemade quite some money in the past asmovie props.

A loud, overtly patriotic truck-driverand his family escaped from Pakistan toIndia, shovelling coal into 7161 WPs fur-nace in the movie Gadar - Ek Prem Katha.

A ctionalised portrayal of MahatmaGandhis son Harilal sees him lying a des-titute in the Rewari loco shed recreatedas a station in the movie Gandhi My Fa-ther. 22907 AWE was in the movie LoveAaj Kal taking a shy Sikh girl away fromher lover. 7200 WP and 7161 WP recreat-ed Kakori train in the recreation of bits ofour freedom movement in Rang De Bas-anti. In Guru, Aishwarya Rais characterwould have boarded the train 7200 WPwas chugging to elope with her boyfriend

only he never showed up at the station.

The engines are rented for movies at R35,000 per day. And they are never let oufor less than a week. The maths is, quisimple, telling.

But Lohani has greater plans for themHe wants them to be available to cur

ous tourists and history-worshippers fowhom these are heritage on wheels.

Two tracks, in addition to the presenthree, will be laid in the shed so that thengines can whistle for the visitors ofteer. The sheds decor and propping is beindone with the railways heritage as ththeme. Antique furniture like benches, tbles, clock, phone, lanterns, antique mirors, old books and literature on steam lcomotives are being collected.

The shed walls will display old photgraphs of the last train to Pakistan, traicarrying ashes of Mahatma Gandhi, r

train that entered Old Delhi station, costruction of Yamuna Bank in east Delhand photos of old sheds and engines.

The shed will get a theme cafeteria anrestrooms.

With the Commonwealth Games touist inux in mind, a special train will rufrom Delhi Cantonment to Rewari.

At First Class AC fares, the passengeon this train will indeed be time traveling cheap. n

[email protected]

Ashwani Lohani had to steamroller opposition to put his pet project on track or completion beothe Commonwealth Games.

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oiyg iven the rise in number ofcases relating to environ-ment and forests, the SupremeCourt decided to set up an addi-tional green bench. The rst one,

headed by the Chief Justice of In-dia, will look into the policy mat-ters and lay down fresh normswherever required and the im-plementation of which wouldthen be taken care of by the sec-ond bench. The rst one has beenmeeting every Friday since 1995.

The second one, to be headed bJustice Sudershan Reddy, woube meeting every Monday.

The rural development ministrywanted two improvements in theNREGSincrease in minimum days oemployment rom 100 days to 200 daysand linking the wage to the annual in-fation rate. But the nance ministryshot down both saying it cant mobi-lize additional resources requiredRs30,000 crore or the rst one and Rs5,000-7,000 crore or the second. Inany case, the governments prioritiesare to provide compensation to theBhopal gas victims and und develop-ment programmes or the Maoist-in-ested districts.

The fate of POSCOs mega proj-ect in Orissa (Rs 54,000 crore)hangs in a delicate balance. TheMoU has lapsed after ve yearsand has to be renewed.

A section of the protesters haveshown signs of fatigue and wantthe project to go ahead but thatis little consolation because theOrissa high court wants a com-plete re-look at the prospectinglicence to be issued to the rmfor the iron ore mines. Mean-while, the ministry of environ-ment and forests has withheld

its clearance after nding outhat the Forest Rights Act ha

not been complied with. So, has asked former bureaucrat C Saxena to head back to Orisseven as he landed in Delhi aftea gruelling tour of the Niyamgiri hills spanning Kalahanand Raygada districts which thVedanta Alumina proposes tmine for bauxite. That is another mega project, linked as it is expansion of its existing aluminplant in Lanjigarh, which is waiing environment clearance.

After the food law, the National Advi-sory Council intends to take up theCommunal Violence (Prevention,

Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill,

which was intended to prevent the Godhrapogrom and its aftermath and has been inthe making since 2005. The NAC is disap-pointed and wants it completely recast, atask now entrusted to Harsh Mander andFarah Naqvi.

The council felt that the proposed law doesnot full the stated objectives which is to

ensure action and accountability of publauthorities for prevention and control communal/sectarian violence; speedy ivestigation, prosecution and punishment

the guilty; justice and security to the victimand survivors; guarantee of the rights of thvictims and survivors to comprehensivrescue, relief, rehabilitation, compensatiorestitution and reparation. The objectivisnt to give more powers to the centre anthe state government, the council remarkat its last meeting.

NAC to recast communal violence law

Second green benchStatus quo or NREGS

POSCO mess

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Bhavdeep Kang

In accepting the recommen-dations of the Planning Com-mission on the Food Securi-ty Bill, the National AdvisoryCouncil (NAC) has acknowl-

edged what the government hasbeen saying all along, that food en-titlements cannot stretch beyondthe food supply. Thus, the food se-curity coat must be cut accordingto the available cloth.

At this point, agriculture cannotsustain universalised food securityand hence, a big chunk of the pop-

ulation must be left outside its pur-view. In its discussion paper putbefore the NAC, the Planning Com-mission had pointed out that cere-al (wheat and rice) procurementaveraged 55 million tonnes in thelast three years (against 40 milliontonnes earlier) and hence, entitle-ments under the Food Security Act(FSA) should not exceed 50 milliontonnes per year.

The requirement of BPL house-holds, assumed to number 8.07

The foo securit

umbrella just ot small,ver small.NAC nally cut the food security coat according to the available cloth, did not bother aboumalnutrition

ashish astha

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crore, would be around 40 milliontonnes of grain at 35 kg per house-hold. This would leave only 10 mil-lion tonnes for welfare schemesand above poverty line (APL)households. At present, APL fam-ilies lift 16 million tonnes of foodgrains every year.

It was therefore suggested thatissue price of food grains to APLcardholders be raised to at least 75percent of the minimum supportprice (MSP), in order to discour-

age them from using their cards. Itwould also trim the spiraling foodsubsidy bill. This suggestion hasbeen accepted by the NAC.

While this is a practical move,it would eectively leave manyhouseholds which are teeteringon the edge of poverty, out of thefood security umbrella. Interest-ingly, the Planning Commissiontalks of increasing the number ofBPL households from 7.41 crore to8.07 crore. But the number of BPLration cards currently existing, ac-

cording to the Ministry of Consum-er Aairs, Food and Public Distri-bution, is 10.98 crore!

In its note to the Ministry of Foodon March 18 this year, the Minis-try of Finance had observed thatWhatever we do, we should notreduce the coverage of BPL fami-lies to below 10.8 crore. At pres-ent, the centre only delivers foodgrains sucient for 6.52 crorefamilies.

The other major climbdown by

the NAC has been on the issue ofnutritional security. It has accepteda calorie-based approach to foodsecurity, by leaving pulses, coarsegrains and oilseeds out of the legalentitlement. This means that ram-

pant malnutrition due to proteinand nutrient deciency will not beaddressed. In South India, for ex-ample, where cheap rice makesup the calorie requirement, chil-dren suer from mild to moderatemalnutrition due to lack of pulses,coarse grains and vegetables.

Supply constraints are the mainreason for this. And it does notappear that this issue can be ad-dressed anytime in the near future,although the NAC has promisedthat it will be. The only alterna-

tive would be to increase importsof these commodities. Basing foodsecurity on food imports is not acomfortable solution.

Production of pulses, going by of-cial estimates, is expected to in-crease from around 14.86 milliontonnes last year to around 15.73million tonnes this year. But de-mand is expected to rise from 18million tonnes to almost 20 milliontonnes, resulting in a supply gap of4.18 million tonnes. This, despiteheavy subsidies to selected dis-

tricts for increasing production ofpulses.

Likewise, oilseeds are likely tofall short of demand by a milliontonnes, about half the requiredamount, despite strong eorts atupping production. Coarse grainsproduction, with the exception ofmaize, has been static or shrink-ing despite the fact that the nutri-tional prole of these grains is farsuperior to either wheat or rice. Ashortfall in milk, meat and vegeta-bles is also expected with food hab-

its changing rapidly.If universalised food security is

to become fact, the centre needs torejig the entire system of agricul-ture (as well as the delivery mech-anism). Ideally, the agriculturalsystem should be structured to en-sure food security. Instead, foodsecurity is being structured in ac-cordance with the agricultural sys-tem. n

[email protected]

Here is the executive summary of the Plann

Commissions discussion paper for the NAC

Food Security is a combination o adeuood production and its availability to all s

tions o the society. Since production is icult to mandate by law, the proposed largely concentrates on the second part o problem.To evolve a workable Food Security law, the lowing decisions need to be taken:

1: Should the price o Rs 3 per kg be made plicable or both wheat and rice, and or as well as Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) houholds; or should dierential pricing be mapplicable or each o these categories?2: Should the BPL price also be adjusted ev

year by linking it to MSP and/or the MGNREminimum wage?3: Should the BPL entitlement be Rs 25 kg household as declared in the maniestoshould it continue to be 35 kg as at present4: Should the ood grain entitlement behousehold basis (25-35 kg per household) oper-capita basis (6 kg per capita)? In case olatter, point no. 3 above becomes redundan5: Should the BPL numbers as estimatedTendulkar Committee or 2004-05 be projechypothetically orward assuming no reductin poverty; OR should th e declared numbers2004-05 be used or the present, till an upd

ed igure based on 2009-10 NSSO Survey 2011 census becomes available?6: Should we opt or a legal entitlement non-BPL, which necessarily means a hignormal price or APL combined with a sstantially higher buer stock, or should continue with an arbitrary allocation to APL pending on availability?7: How much stock should the FCI maintainensure ood security or all, including in time o crisis?

We strongly believe o the public distributsystem is an integral part o the new Food

curity Law. We need to move to a system wheby ood is released into the F DS/PDS systema price linked to MSP, while the p oor can clthe subsidy via a smart card linked to UIDareas where it is diicult to operationalizethe time being, ood coupons or experimelike Chhattisgarh could be tried. BPL smcard holders could be given a choice not oin the range o ood stus to chose rom, also among alternative ood price shopstheir area, to make the proposed ood secusystem more are and meaningul to them.

The 7 short points thatstole NACs thuner

Ideally, theagricultural systemshould be structured

to ensure foodsecurity. Instead,food security isbeing structured inaccordance with theagricultural system.

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Estimates of population below povert line - 2004-05 (NSS

Note 1: Poverty is estimated once every fve years by a uinuennial survey. It is difcult to interpolate in between, as while the population isincreasing gradually, the per capita incomes are rising at a aster rate. Source: Planning Commission discussion paper

STATEPOPULATION in millions POVERTY HEAD COUNT RATIO TOTAL NUMBER OF POOR (in millions)

Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban State

Jammu & Kashmir 8.022 2.761 14.1 10.4 1.131 0.287 1.418

Himachal Pardesh 5.727 0.656 25.0 4.6 1.432 0.030 1.462

Punjab 16.526 9.198 22.1 18.7 3.652 1.720 5.372

Uttaranchal 6.648 2.425 35.1 26.2 2.333 0.635 2.969

Haryana 15.844 7.039 24.8 22.4 3.929 1.577 5.506

Delhi 0.905 14.664 15.6 12.9 0.141 1.892 2.033

Rajasthan 46.713 14.423 35.8 29.7 16.723 4.284 21.007

Uttar Pradesh 141.626 38.198 42.7 34.1 60.474 13.026 73.500

Bihar 79.905 9.359 55.7 43.7 44.507 4.090 48.597

Sikkim 0.501 0.068 31.8 25.9 0.159 0.018 0.177

Arunachal Pradesh 0.868 0.287 33.6 23.5 0.292 0.067 0.359

Nagaland 1.733 0.361 10.0 4.3 0.173 0.016 0.189

Manipur 1.682 0.598 39.3 34.5 0.661 0.206 0.867

Mizoram 0.458 0.477 23.0 7.9 0.105 0.038 0.143

Tripura 2.767 0.599 44.5 22.5 1.231 0.135 1.366

Meghalaya 1.952 0.488 14.0 24.7 0.273 0.121 0.294

Prasanna Mohanty

T

his is what the Con-gress manifestoof 2009 said aboutthe right to food:

The Indian Nation-al Congress pledges to enact aRight to Food law that guaran-tees access to sucient foodfor all people, particularly themost vulnerable sections of so-ciety. This then found men-tion in president Pratibha Pa-tils address to the joint sessionof parliament.

One year down the line, thatpromise stands substantiallydiluted.

The high-prole National Ad-visory Council headed by all-powerful Congress presidentSonia Gandhi decided on July14 that this right will be re-

stricted to only one-fourth ofthe most disadvantaged dis-tricts or blocks who will get 35kg of food grains a month at Rs3 a kg--an improvement from25 kg at Rs 3 a kg that the Con-gress manifesto had promised.

In rest of the country, ev-eryone will be entitled to 25kg of grain and the socially

vulnerable groups will get 35kg at Rs 3 a kg, until 35 kg en-titlement is universalised onsome future date.

But the key lies in anotherdecision taken that day whichsaid, There would also be acategory that would be exclud-

ed based on transparent andveriable criteria. Now howmany people would be exclud-ed and on what criteria has notbeen decided yet. There are ap-prehensions that this exclusionwould extend to the one-fourthdistricts/blocks which will haveuniversal entitlement.

That is because the NAC has

succumbed to the pressurefrom the ministries of nancconsumer aairs, food anpublic distribution, plannincommission and the eGoheaded by Pranab Mukhe

jeeall involved in workinout the right to food law.

Prcurement, nt prductinThese ministries and the planning commission in particlar made a big hue and crover the availability of foo--which was taken to be 50-5million tonnes--to restrict thamount of food grains to bmade available under the righ

Ri o oo or

on-or o Inia!Sonias dream legislation is now just an improved PDS scheme.

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surve combine with the Tenulkar methoolo)

Note 2: The 2009-10 NSSO Survey is already in progress (feld work completed). The results o this survey and Census 2011 fgures will be availableby end 2011. This combined with the Tendulkar methodology will give us the new ofcial poverty head count ratios by end 2011 or early 2012.

STATEPOPULATION in millions POVERTY HEAD COUNT RATIO TOTAL NUMBER OF POOR (in millions)

Rural Urban Rural Urban Rural Urban State

Assam 24.402 3.871 36.4 21.8 8.882 0.844 9.726

West Bengal 60.533 23.744 38.2 24.4 23.124 5.794 28.917

Jharkhand 22.31 6.536 51.6 23.8 11.512 1.556 13.068

Orrisa 32.455 6.035 60.8 37.6 19.733 2.269 22.002

Chhatisgarh 17.522 4.729 55.1 28.4 9.655 1.343 10.998

Madhya Pradesh 47.635 17.567 53.6 35.1 25.532 6.166 31.698

Gujarat 33.276 20.864 39.1 20.1 13.011 4.194 17.205

Maharasthra 57.859 45.359 47.9 25.6 27.714 11.612 39.326

Andhra Pradesh 57.917 21.935 32.3 23.4 18.707 5.133 23.840

Karnataka 35.988 19.599 37.5 25.9 13.499 5.076 18.575

Goa 0.678 0.774 28.1 22.2 0.191 0.172 0.362

Kerala 24.481 8.508 20.2 18.4 4.945 1.565 6.511

Tamil Nadu 33.483 31.14 37.5 19.7 12.556 6.135 18.691

Pondicherry 0.343 0.714 22.9 9.9 0.079 0.071 0.149

All India 781.491 314.236 41.8 25.7 326.663 80.759 407.422

to food law. Planning commis-sion also raised several otherquestions (see the box in theprevious page). It simply didntoccur to anyone that the avail-

ability gure is actually theamount of annual procure-ment of food grains, and notproduction of food grains.Our production is at least fourtimes more than procurement--it was 234.47 million tonneslast year and is expected to bea bit lower at 218.20 milliontonnes this year.

Why did NAC (and all others)rely on procurement ratherthan production and made itseem that the grain availabili-

ty is not sucient for universalentitlement?

Abhijit Sen, a key planningcommission member involvedwith the exercise (though notin NACs deliberations) says:At the moment, the assump-tion everyone is workingwith is our procurement offood grains is 50 to 55 million

tonnes. But why so? He ex-plains: Expanding procure-ment has its consequences--ahigher minimum support price(assuming that all available

grain is procured and need topay more to get more), expan-sion of procurement centresand godowns and more peo-ple to manage all these; all of

which means more money.The issue of providing nu-

trition rather than just riceand wheat, also remains unad-dressed. There is no mention

of coarse grains popular withthe poor, millets, pulses, oiland vegitables, let alone meator sh.

NAC, though, says compre-

hensive nutrition supportschemes will be initiated forvulnerable groups like, infants,pre-school children, schoolchildren, adolescent girls, preg-nant women, street-children,homless, the aged and inrm,dierentially-abled, those liv-ing with leprosy, TB and HIV/AIDS etc--alongwith communi-ty kitchens across the country.

But does it not reduce theright to food law to an im-proved version of the Antyoda-

ya Anna Yojna?

N right in right t dThe right to food has to be, bydenition, universal and isrecognized as such by the Su-preme Court (in the Shanti-star Builders vs. Narayan Kh-imalal Totame in 1990). It isalso inherent in the Directive

Principles of State Policy (Artcle 47 says the State shall rgard the raising of the level nutrition and the standard living of its people..)

Ironically, there is no righin the right to food law bing prepared by the NAC. It called the National Food Secrity Bill. Contrast this with thright to forest (The ScheduleTribes and Other TraditionForest Dwellers (Recognitioof Forest Rights) Act 2006) othe right to education (Right Children to Free and Compusory Education Act 2009.

While one hopes that the NAwill consider these issues in i

subsequent deliberations, must keep in mind that a piecmeal approach wont helFood security calls for a holitic approach that will take carof food production, nutritional needs of the malnourishecountry and its distribution.

[email protected]

7/28/2019 Issue 13 (Low Res.)


RBandyopadhyay, secretary, Min-istry of Corporate Aairs (MCA),is focused on bringing in con-

temporary management practices intoIndian industry. The 1974 batch IASocer of West Bengal cadre served alsoas secretary of the department ofpublic enterprises, where the number ofnavratna companies grew from 12 to 18during his tenure.

At MCA, ever since he took over lastSeptember, Bandyopadhyay has beenworking on the new companies bill,enhancing investor awareness and

modernisation of delivery of services.Edited excerpts from an exclusiveinterview with Sweta Ranjan:

Hw d yu see yur ministrys re in aast-deveping ecnmy?Our ministry has two mottos. The rstis corporate growth with enlightenedregulations, which means enactmentof laws that will boost and not hindergrowth. It means we will seek the viewof the stakeholders on every rule or lawthat is revisited. We put up the new ver-sion on our website for around six weeks

for comments and suggestions from thestakeholders. Then we collect, collateand analyse all the issues by an internalcommittee before taking a nal view.The second, and equally important, mot-to is corporate development with inclu-sive growth. The general perception isthat the corporate sector is meant forjust four to ve percent of our popula-tion. What we feel is that for the stabil-ity of the society more and more people

should perceive that there is somethingfor all of them in the corporate sector.So, as many people as possible should beinvolved in its development.

S what are yu ding t prmte pubicinterest in the crprate sectr?We are organising 3,000 investor aware-ness programmes across the country, inassociation with the RBI, UTI, NSE, BSEand MCX, besides trade and commercebodies like the CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM,

and professional bodies like the ICAWAI and ICSI. This is a ten-fold incrLast year, we had conducted 300 intor awareness programmes, againhighest ever in a year.

By when d yu expect the new egisareguating crprate behaviur?Its in the domain of the parliament But I hope that we will have a new Cpanies Act by the end of the year.aim is to enhance corporate growthsure greater transparency and preany fraudulent activities through

new enactment.

Can we expect mre carity n accuntabiity the directrs?Denitely. The role and responsibiof the directors, both executive as as independent, should be well-deThere is also a strong argument non-executive directors should noheld accountable to the same extenthe executive directors. But the prelaw does not make any such distinct

Its been mre than a year since

Satyam scanda. What steps has ministry taken t prevent a repeaSatyam?In the case of Satyam, cases have alrstarted in special court against the ators and executives who have beencused of misconduct and criminativities. In order to see that an unalliance does not build up we bethere should be a change and periorotation of auditors. The Serious F

The general perceptionis that the corporatesector is meant for just

four to ve percent ofour population. What

we feel is that for thestability of the societymore and more peopleshould perceive thatthere is something for allof them in the corporatesector.

INTERVIEW R BANDYOPADHYAY

Or moo i

orora rowwi ninraion

o oii oiy rorman

SecretarySpeak

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Investigation Oce (SFIO) will also getsome more teeth now.The MCA had as aunched the Eary

Warning System (EWS) in the wake the Satyam scanda. Has it heped?The ministry has developed the EWS asa system-driven tool and is an on-goingprocess. Through this method, compa-nies which have shown signicant ab-errations in dierent parameters arefurther scrutinised (technical scruti-ny) by the RoCs (Registrar of Compa-nies). Based on the reports of the RoCs,the ministry examines the issue of fur-

ther detailed scrutiny of the compa-nies where serious violations are ob-served. It will be nave on my part tosay the system is foolproof. But we aretrying to build it up. If you look at Sa-tyam, it was a company every Indianwas proud of. It had the best of direc-tors; it had won several awards. So itsvery dicult to say such things can becompletely ruled out just by makinglaws. Vigilance is still very important,vigilance of the shareholders as muchas the vigilance from Bankers andRegulators.

Yur ministry has decided t cnvergethe Generay Accepted AccuntingPrincipes (GAAP) with the InternatinaFinancia Reprting Standards (IFRS).Hw sn shud we expect theimpementatin the new standards?The ministry has set up a high poweredgroup comprising various stakehold-ers (CAG, RBI, SEBI, IRDA, ICAI, cham-bers, accounting and law experts etc)

to discuss and resolve implementa-tion challenges. In accordance with therecommendations made by the coregroup, a roadmap for convergence hasbeen prepared which proposes con-vergence of accounting standards ina phased manner starting from April2011. The convergence process willallow Indian standards to retain someof the features that may be required inthe national context.

MCA21 is a key missin mde prjectunder the Natina e-Gvernance

Pan (NeGP) that aciitates secureeectrnic fing by cmpanies. Hw are

yu panning t scae it up?MCA 21 is going on nicely with constantimprovement like e-stamping, e-formsoptimization etc. Earlier you could on-line register but the stamp duty had tobe paid to the state government physi-cally. Now, through this e- governancesystem, all states have agreed to add e-stamping as a process of e-governance.Another thing that we are trying to re-solve is the issue of correcting mistakesonline. We are putting in addition-

al features regularly to make MCA 21more adaptable and user-friendly.

Te us abut the tw amnesty schemesaunched by yur ministry.Easy Exit Scheme and Company LawSettlement Scheme will be there forthree months. CLSS 2010 gives an op-portunity to defaulting companies tomake up for their default by ling areturn of the related documents. This

we are allowing for one time only atmuch lesser cost. Under the Easy ExitScheme 2010, we are giving an oppor-tunity to the defunct companies whichdo not have any liabilities to avoidlengthy procedures and come out ofthe register.

What is yur view n the CSR creditstrading prpsed by yur minister?We have not reached a nal decisionon this yet. Discussions are going onwithin the ministry to determine howto measure Corporate Social Responsi-

bility activities and how the proposedsystem can be administered.

D yu pan t make it mandatry?It is not mandatory and we dont wantto make it mandatory. What we are try-ing to do is to develop a culture whereyou comply or explain to board mem-bers and your shareholders. This iswhat we have said in our guidelines.

Where d yu stand in the debate nafrmative actin, r reservatin, in theprivate sectr?

Actually we dont look after the recruit-ment issues of the companies and thisis done at the policy level by labourministry or by the respective admin-istrative ministry. We have not exam-ined the details of it because it has notcome to us. If it is referred to us at somepoint of time, our ministry will take aview. n

[email protected]

Ravi Choudha

7/28/2019 Issue 13 (Low Res.)


Vidyottama Sharma

Imust have been a teen-ager when I read a sto-ry in the then famous

Hindi magazine Dhar-mayugon reasons mencited to get divorce

from their wives. Times weredierent, womens liberationwas not a movement, societywas predominantly male-dom-inated and courts were gener-ally ruled by men who, ahem,came from the same male-dominated society. My youngmind could never fathom oneof the reasons men cited for

divorce and that is the onlyreason that has stayed with meover the years. A man, the sto-ry said, had led for divorcebecause his wife was too openduring intimacy time. Dontknow how to comment on thislousy reason. So, period.

I do sincerely wonderthough: What sort of thoughtsgoverned our mens minds,and dictated our societysnorms then? But then, what

has changed today? Given arecent judgment by the Bom-bay High Court, not much, onewould say. Justices A M Khan-wilkar and A A Sayed decreedin early July that accusationslike lousy cook or incompe-tent mother are no reasonsfor divorce as they do not fallunder the category of cruel-ty. A brilliant judgment. Only,a few decades too late. Else, itmay have saved many families

from falling apart because ofman-ipulative accusations. Butthen, der aayad, durust aayad.

Such ridiculous accusationshave often reduced women(we are not talking here of ed-ucated/emancipated womenwho can stand up for them-selves) to creatures that need amans approval for their veryexistence. And our society,which doesnt tire from mind-less rattling of Yatra naryastu

poojyante ramante tatra deva-taha has governed all theseperceptions with amboy-ance! Some clash of ideologiesthere, wouldnt you say! Notthat women want to be wor-shiped. Oh no, not at all! Butthen, their integrity, dignityand very existence cannot beso cruelly compromised with.Not done. No, just not done.

Let me give you the back-ground of the case in question.

A resident of Mumbais Khasuburb had led for divorcin the high court, after the tral court ruling did not go ihis favour. The reason? Hwife was cruel enough to ncook for the family and givbath to their child. The woman agreed she wasnt an ecient cook and mother. Buthe judges felt that somethinmore was needed to grant thdivorce than these inecie

cies. Adultery, under Sectio13(1)(i) of the Hindu MarriagAct, came to the rescue. Thmans accusation of havincaught his wife red-handein a compromising positiowith a relative was accepteby the court though he admited that he hadnt objected the time of action. The fact ththe woman refuted the allegtions did not cut ice with thjudges. The man nally got h

ashish astha

Women dont

cook? Manymen dont earnenough eitherMeditating on the stateof marriage when thegovernment is talking aboutmaking divorce easier

o oii oiy rorman

Governance and Society

7/28/2019 Issue 13 (Low Res.)


divorce. The court deemed thewoman had indeed committedadultery. No questions there.

But then I wonder: How onearth can you prove adultery?Or, save yourself from being

proven adulterous? But then,that is a dierent issue.

Pardon my over-imaginativemind but I do seriously think ifwomen can cite reasons like hedoes not earn enough, doesntreplace the fused bulbs, irtsoutrageously with women,forces me to cook when rela-tives come visiting even whenI am seriously ill, endangersthe lives of my children withhis rash driving etc. to legiti-mately ask for a divorce! Cru-

el enough, arent they!All right. So, I am exaggerat-

ing. But then, the serious ques-tion remains: Where did wefail as a society? When did webegin mocking our institutionof marriage? The question here

is not just this particular casebut the societal norms and per-ceptions that so strongly gov-ern our minds.

Then, there is the other sideof the coin. In 2007, the Cal-

cutta High Court ruled that ifa woman left her husbandshome on imsy grounds, shewould not be liable to mainte-nance. Fair enough. The judg-ment, under section 498Ameant to prevent harassmentof women, was a brilliant onebecause sometimes women toohave unfairly used the law totheir advantage. The woman inquestion, in an unhappy mar-riage, had walked out on herhusband one day. And then,

led a case on charges of men-tal and physical torture whileclaiming that the husband wasa computer mechanic while hehad claimed to be a computerengineer!

Naturally, I am not sayingwomen dont err in marriag-es. Of course they do. Just likemen. And I am also not say-ing all men use such lame ex-cuses (as cited in the rst case)to wander to greener pas-tures. They dont. We know

that while women are a weebit more emancipated today,mens attitude towards wom-en (mainly wives) has changedconsiderably over the years.

Then, what is ailing us? Some-thing is wrong somewhere. Thesweetness of relationships isfast disappearing. And divorce,is just a small accusation away.

Where have we failed? Whereare we going? Forget the state.It is time we, as a people, learntto govern our mind, and there-

by relationships, with bal-anced thoughts, right attitudeand a little dignity in case ofdiscord. If part we must, thenlet us part with an ability toturn back, smile and shakehands. Let us not decay as peo-ple, and as a society. More so ata time when the governmentis making the divorce processeasier!n

[email protected]

Krishnaraj Rao

Fighting corruption in independIndia is similar in one respect to coutrys struggle or independence rBritish rule. Like the reedom ightpitted against the all-powerul Empi

those ighting corruption may vwell lose their lives, as borne out

the recent murder o RTI activist Amit Jethwa (33Based at Dhari in Amreli district o Gujarat, Je

wa was shot dead in Ahmedabad by motorcycborne men on July 20.

He was known particularly or his ight agaiencroachment o orests and poaching o wilie. Jethwa used right to inormation law to gathproo o encroachment and illegal mining in Gir est o Junagadh district, which is regarded as tlast abode o Asiatic lions in the world.

He iled several petitions at the high coagainst the orest department, including a PIL illegal mining in Gir orest in which he named D

Solanki, the BJP MP rom Junagadh, as one o trespondents.Jet hwa ought il leg al appointments o orest

icials, whose purpose is to provide cover to thoengaging in illegal activities. On his petition, Gjarat high court ordered the state governmentremove a class-I oicer o the orest and enviment department who had been appointed in vlation o the rules.Jet hwa was instrum ental in get ting the gov e

ment to appoint last March two commissionersGujarat inormation commission, which had beunctioning since its inception with only one comissioner. His eorts also led to the illing upthe post o Lokayukta in Gujarat, which had bevacant since 2003.

There have been several other attacks on RTI tivists and whistle-blowers in recent times.

Last April, in a clash between two groups, Vthal Gite (39), an RTI activist who exposed irrularities at Sainath Vidyalaya at Waghbet villain Beed district o Maharashtra, was killed. Gia armer and a lour mill owner, had been attackby a rival group led by the son o the educatiosociety that runs Sainath Vidyalaya. Gite and aother activist, Brijmohan Mishra, had used RTI Ato expose irregularities in the unctioning o a other schools in the village.

The police, however, said old enmity betwe

the two groups had triggered the clash.Last May, Datta Patil o Ichalkaranji, Kolhapdistrict, Maharashtra, was ound dead in what wsuspected to be a case o murder. The motive bhind the suspected murder may have somethingdo with Patils eorts to use RTI to expose corrugovernment oicials.As the number o RTI activis ts being attack

continues to climb up, its time the citizens grouand the media highlight the issue with greater scerity. Lets not allow any more making o marto people who only want what is our constitutioright -- clean and corruption-ree government.

[email protected]

The new bree of martr

I do seriouslythink if womencan cite reasonslike he does notearn enough,doesnt replacethe fused

bulbs, irtsoutrageouslywith women etcto legitimatelyask for a divorce!Cruel enough,arent they!

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25/52

Gandhiji once saidthat it does not matterhow fast you go ifyou are heading inthe wrong direction.That seems so apt

for surface transportminister Kamal NathsNational HighwaysAuthority of India. Ifthe prognosis of thePlanning Commissionthat NHAI is doomedfor bankruptcymade Nath pounceon Montek SinghAhluwalia, themeticulous way

in which thecommissionspaper arrives at theprognosis wouldperhaps make himwant to ensure thatevery road in India isbuilt as a bypass toYojana Bhavan!

If the bankruptcy prognosis drillshuge craters on Naths six-lanehighways, the painstaking assimilation of facts that

led to this prognosis by the Planning Commissionwill leave a crater on Naths ego of the kind onlya nuke explosion can cause. The commissionspaperauthored by a senior bureaucrat withenormous experience in infrastructure and onewho blocked the ridiculous idea of sovereignguarantees to eight fast-track power projects inthe 1990s, including Enronlays bare Naths high-ying dreams for building 20 km road length a day.It says that even if Nath can pull o the sti target,he will have so burdened the exchequer that therewill not be any money left for building highways

beyond 2011.The section after

section, the discussionpaper, titled Sub-prime Highways,points out how Naths

ministry is a lawunto itself. It clearsprojects way in excessof budgetary grants,does not follow bidprocedures that aremandatory for allother ministries andover-commits publicfunds to the extentthat the privatepartner in the PPP

does not have toshell out more than10% funds for anyproject. Additionally,the partner can walkaway from any projectwithin two years ofcompletion with largesiphoned out funds

leaving the NHAI and the banks tobear the losses.

The discussion paper arrives at these conclusions

not by cutting and pasting stu from variousreports, as Nath has charged, but by relying onauthentic ocial gures of projects that have beensanctioned and loans and viability gap fundingthat have been advanced. If indeed Naths chargeis true that the planning body is full of armchairadvisors, he seems to have picked the wrongarmchair analyst to complain about.

Read exclusive extracts from the report in thefollowing pages and be prepared to get shocked.

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S P E C I A l R E P o R T

HIGHWAY HASTE

stOp, lOOk,dONt pROceed!

e d I t O R s N O t e

ashish asthana

7/28/2019 Issue 13 (Low Res.)


NhAI gOIN

Highway Haste

n an ater-dinner conversation some years ago, a distinguished editor recounted a

story on subcontinental nonchalance or decits. When the editor was on a visit to

Pakistan, Nawaz Shari insisted that they drive at plus 200 kmph on the eight-lane

motorway connecting Rawalpindi and Lahore. Zipping in the prime ministerial caval

cade, the editor couldnt help but ask how Pakistans doddering treasury would be able

to pay back or the beautiul but hopelessly out-o-budget project. Shari retorted, Come

on, janaab! Did Shah Jahan ask his nance minister beore building the Taj Mahal? Did

Sher Shah Suri worry about decit while building the G T Road?

Rohit Bansal

Kamal Naths NHAI is building highways like there is no tomorrowand like its a law unto itself. It ignores cabinet decisions, bustbudgets, sets its own rules, releases grants without collaterals, clearPPP projects with negligible private equity and lets them walk ouof projects at will. Indeed, says a Planning Commission paper, therwill be no tomorrow for NHAI beyond 2011.

7/28/2019 Issue 13 (Low Res.)


fOR bROke

Ravi Choudha

From the report

In the event o a deault

in debt service, the banks

would not have recourse to

any security other than the

projects assets, including

termination payments.

Since a highway cannot

be mortgaged or sold, the

banks will not be able to

recover their debt except

through the termination

payments made by NHAI.

7/28/2019 Issue 13 (Low Res.)


Kamal Nath, our pointsman for highways,has taken a leaf out of the book of these threefailed rulers. By laying out a powerful visualof 20 km of new roads per day, shortly afterceding Udyog Bhavan to Anand Sharma, Nathhas created a buy in which no Indian would

want to repudiate (or refudiate!). But what

Nath has not so unwittingly done is to exposethe exchequer, our banks and future genera-tions to a risk which will outlive him and theleadership he serves. This is highlighted ina Planning Commission issues paper.Nath has rubbished the paper but even for

a powerful economy like India, this could be

our sub-prime. Heres how:

The public-private partnership (PPP) modhas enabled concessionaires to raise a hugpile of debt from commercial banks. Accoring to information sought by noted RTI actiist Devashish Bhattacharya from four source(department of economic aairs, departmenof expenditure, ministry of road transport anhighways and the planning commission) onthe issues paper, in just 20 highways proects, with a total project cost of Rs 13,64crore, the PPPs have been extended loannearly double the TPC, Rs 25,940 to be prcise. (See Highway hoax for dummieson pages 30-31.)

Service of this mountain of debt hinges ofuture revenues of these highways and non the concessionaires balance sheet. Curously, these excess loans have been givewithout any collateral or guarantees that aerage Joes like you and I must give. If the concessionaire walks out without completing thproject, the only security that the banks havis the half-nished road. Such an asset cahardly be mortgaged or sold. In cases wherthe project has been completed, the additionrecourse the banks have is by way of termnation payments from the National HighwayAuthority of India (NHAI). Even here NHAI

liable to pay the bank only 90 percent of thTPC. The remaining 10 percent and all overuns above TPC are the headache of the lening bank, according to the plan panel paper.

This is expected to protect NHAI from unening contingent liability. But since enthusiastbanks have approved escalations in the NHAdetermined TPC by huge margins (Rs 25,94crore minus Rs 13,646 crore equals Rs 12,29crore as we saw in 20 projects alone) when thconcessionaire walks away, the banks will gback only 90 percent of the TPC and as we saonly if the project has been completed.

o oii oiy rorman

Highway Haste

INADEqUATE NUMBER OF BIDSConcerns relating to inadeuate competition or cartelisation are reinorcedby the act that only one or two bids have been received in a signifcantnumber o cases even though a large number o bidders were pre-ualifed inmost o these cases. This table illustrates the lack o competition:

Sr.No.

Project name No. of pre-qualifedbidders

No. ofbidsreceived

No. ofbidsopened

Actual VGF(in Rs cr) andas % of TPC)

1 Devihalli-Hassan 14 1 1 180.18 (39.8)

2 Piprakhoti-Raxaul 18 1 1 150 (39.7)

3 Brahmapore-Farakka 2 1 1 393 (39.4)

4 Raiganj-Dalkola 4 1 1 226 (38.9)

5 Bhubaneswar-Puri 26 1 1 194 (38.7)

6 Armur-Yellanddy 10 2 2 195.71 (39.9)

7 Cudappah-Kurnool 9 2 2 621.90 (39.7)

8 Kannur-Kuttipuram 13 2 2 541 (39.6)

9 Vadakkancherry-Thrissur 6 3 2 244 (39.5)

10 Ochira-Thiruvananth-puram

12 2 2 745 (38.5)

11 Farakka-Raiganj 2 2 2 415 (38.4)

12 Charthalai-Ochira 12 2 2 583 (38)

13 Ahmedabad-Godhra 16 2 2 443 (36)

14 Maharashtra-Goa to Goa-Karnataka border

5 2 2 665 (35.5)

15 Amravati-Talegaon 5 2 2 216 (34.9)

16 Pune-Sholapur 6 2 2 299 (32.4)

17 Jaipur-Tonk-Deoli 17 2 2 306 (25.9)

18 Varanasi-Aurangabad(six-lane)

4 2 2 565 (19.8)

19 Delhi-Agra (six-lane) 8 2 2 180 (9.3)

20 Bijapur-Hungund 9 3 3 274 (36.6)

21 Hungund-Hospet 9 3 3 340 (36)

22 Moradabad-Bareily 7 3 3 443 (35)

From the reportIn such a situation (o projectailure), the banks could plead

that these excess loans weregranted with ull knowledgeand participation o NHAI andthe nance ministry (through

IIFCL) and may, thereore,demand a bailout package. Nomatter who pays or these, it

is public money that would belost.

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For example, the approved TPC of the Gur-gaon-Jaipur project is Rs 1,674 crore, but thecost approved by banks is 80 percent higherat Rs 3,009 crore. So, if theres a default, thebanks would get only 90 percent of

issue 13 (low res.)

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