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WHOSE

HEAD,Mr PrIMEMINISTEr?

insight:jagdeep chhokar on why uid is a number o problems

October 16-31, 2010 |Vol. 01 Issue 18 | `30

P.16

Salman Khurshid:Expect moreshareholder

democracyp.40

This mans vhas shapeda model of

self-governap.08

Ayodhya verdict:holy men atground zero want

development rstp.30

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GovernanceNow | October 16-31, 20104

vNow it is up to the other organs ofthe state to do their bit for solvingAyodhya imbroglio

It is impossible to solve a puzzle from the state of mind inwhich it was created. You need to go to a dierent plane tosolve it. That is exactly what has happened in Ayodhya. For thepast six decades, the political executive has been prevaricat-ing on the issue, more often keeping in mind its own narrow

ends. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Ayodhya imbro-

glio is the creation of the countrys muddled politics.When the idols were smuggled into the central dome on December

23, 1949, Nehru and Patel were furious and had sought their removalforthwith. Ayodhya then was not even a local issue, let alone a nation-al issue. The then UP chief minister Govind Ballabh Pant prevaricat-ed. That a Faizabad district magistrate had the temerity to overrulehis political masters speaks of the confusion in the countrys top pow-er echelons at the time.

The next generation of politicians had ample opportunity to sal-vage its image by resolving the dispute which began to simmer in theeighties. Besieged by Punjab militancy and troubles in the northeastand Jammu and Kashmir, Indira Gandhi chose to ignore the issue asit was not worth her attention. But her assassination and polarisa-tion of the electorate on communal lines in 1984 made Rajiv Gandhithe biggest political beneciary. The Congress party tasted blood and

it was the Congress that opened the locks at the Babri Mosques central dome on February 1, 1986. Since then, Ayodhya has turned intoplace where angels fear to tread but politicians rush to reap reward

That is why Mulayam Singh Yadav is fuming at the verdict. The Cogress has been maintaining a studied ambiguity while the Hindutv

Parivar is just waiting for the right opportunity to strike and win oveits lost constituency. In their three separate verdicts, the judges of thhigh court tried to grapple with facts, faith and ctions of each grouto arrive at a decision. A glance at the judgment clearly belies thbelief that the judgment was based solely on faith without giving duconsideration to law.

Only a nave reader would say that the learned judges of the higcourt ignored the facts of law while deciding about Rams birthplac

The judges, particularJustice S U Khan, dwelt length on cases of Hindlaw to grant Ram Lalla thstatus of a juristic personObviously there is no dening that people have a rig

to nd fault with the higcourts verdict on merit bthey will not be able to dso on intent. Like profesional politicians, there isgroup of professional seclarists who regard themselves to be sole champons of minority rights. Therefuse to acknowledge thfact that for the rst time isix decades, a judicial soltion to the dispute is at leamade available. And, in ancase, aggrieved parties a

E D I T O r I A L S

a e , w v

. o av .

The Judicial Standards and Accountabil-

ity Bill of 2010, which was approved by

the union cabinet on October 5, is yet

another formulation in the decades-

long endeavour of the government

to bring in transparency and accountability in the

higher judiciary. Meant to replace the Judiciary (In-

quiry) Act of 1968, the latest formulation provides

for a national oversight committee with which

anyone can lodge a complaint against the higher

judiciary, including the chief justice of India (CJI)

and the chief justices of high courts. The oversight

committee will be a ve-member body, which will

be headed by a retired CJI, one judge each from the

apex court and the high court who will be nominat-

ed by the CJI, the attorney general and an eminent

person nominated by the president.

Once a complaint is received, it will be forward-

ed to a scrutiny panel. If the complaint is against a

supreme court judge, the panel will consist of a for-

mer CJI and two sitting apex court judges and if it

is against a high court judge, the panel will have a

former chief justice of high court and two of its sit-

ting judges. This panel will submit its report in three

months. In case the complaint is against a chief jus-

tice, the oversight committee itself will carry out the

scrutiny. If charges are found correct, an investi-

gation committee will go into it and the action will

follow. If charges are not serious, the oversight com

mittee will issue an advisory or warning. But if s

rious, the judge will be requested to resign, failin

which the oversight committee will recommend h

removal to the president. In such an eventuality, th

impeachment proceeding will begin as per the exi

ing system of impeachment.

There are two other key features in the propose

bill. One, the judges will be required to le annu

return of assets and liabilities of their own, the

spouse and children and will be put up on the we

sites of the respective courts. Two, the judges will b

prohibited from having close association with law

yers who practise in the same court, permit relativ

to appear before him or hear a case involving the

family, close relatives or friends. Besides, there a

other donts like not to contest elections to any clu

association connected with the law or any court, n

to air views on political issues or pending cases an

not to speculate in securities or indulge in any trad

or allow ocial residence for professional work b

n The judicial accountability bill proposes an oversight committee that isneither independent nor permanent in nature

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www.GovernanceNow.com

family members.

It must be acknowledged that these are quite rad-

ical steps, especially in view of the fact that there

is no legal mechanism to deal with the complaints

against judges and an in-house system that exists

doesnt really work, which was evident in the way

complaints against Justice PD Dinakaran and Justice

Nirmal Yadav were dealt with. Impeachment has

not been able to remove even one judge for miscon-

duct in the past 60 years because of the sti condi-

tionalities and reluctance of the politicians to antag-

onise the judiciary.

But the proposed bill falls short of expectations in

one crucial area. The oversight committee consists

of a majority of ex-ocio members. To expect sit-

ting judges to sit on judgment over the misconduct

of brother judges, who could be their senior (if the

complaint is against the CJI, for example) or with

whom they may be sharing the bench every day,

is expecting too much. So is the case with the attor-

ney general who has to practice in their courts. The

scrutiny panel too suers from the same shortcom

ing and cant be expected to do any better than th

in-house mechanism that exists now. Apart from r

luctance, ex-ocio members may be short on tim

and motivation. As Prashant Bhushan, senior a

vocate campaigning for judicial accountability f

many years, has been pleading, such a body has

be an independent and permanent body, membe

of which should be drawn from a wider catchme

area and involving various other institutions lik

the leaders of opposition, human rights bodies, CE

CVC and CAG etc.

The problem with the nature of the oversight com

mittee becomes even more acute when we reali

that the judges self-appoint themselves through

collegium, which consists of a group of senior jud

es of the apex court. This is an opaque system an

needs to be replaced with an outside body, witho

which any talk about transparency and accoun

ability in judiciary is meaningless. The bill shou

start from there, instead of overlooking it.

allowed to approach the supreme courtfor nal resolution.

It is certainly not our case that the judg-ment be accepted without criticism.But we must appreciate the fact that an

eort has been made by the judiciary toresolve a festering dispute which has thepotential of developing into gangrene inthe countrys body politic. That the coun-try heaved a sigh of relief after the ver-dict is evident by the mature reactionof people across the communal divide.Though the nal verdict will come onlyfrom the supreme court if an aggrievedparty approaches it, there is certainlya light at the end of a long, long tunnel.Albert Einstein had rightly said, Wecannot solve todays problems using themindset that created them. Our politi-cians are doggedly refusing to shed the

old mindset and are still seeking refugein raking up Ayodhya controversy toramp up their political fortunes.

By all indications, the Ayodhya contro-versy is nding least acceptance as a po-litical controversy. Judicial interventionhas eectively defanged its potential asreligious discord since the disputed landhas been equally distributed amongthe three parties. That the judiciary hasshown foresight in dealing with a con-tentious issue in the face of abdicationby the executive and the legislature is a

matter of celebration. And this reectsthe inherent strength of our republic.

Time was when our leaders used tobe nation-builders. Now we havestatue-builders as our leaders. Theyhave reduced historical leaders to

brand ambassadors. Ambedkar statues inUttar Pradesh are a case in point. Now itis Sardar Patels turn. Gujarat chie min-ister Narendra Modi has announced plansto build a statue o the Iron Man o India,overlooking the controversial Sardar Sar-ovar dam. At 182 metres, it will be tallerthan the tallest statue in the world today the Statue o Liberty. Consider it as Modisreply to the US, which has denied him visaor obvious reasons.

Sardar is one Congress leader Modi is i nawe o. In his public speeches soon ater2002, he began quoting (and misquoting)the great leader, delivering the messagethat great minds think alike. His ollowersgot the cue and anointed him as ChhoteSardar. There, however, was a protocolissue: Chhote Sardar was supposed tobe the then union home minister, L K Ad-vani. The veteran leader apparently gaveup his claim to the title (he preerred LohPurush); otherwise we would have a BadeChhote Sardar and a Chhote Chhote Sar-dar. Imagine the conusion that wouldhave ensued, when you also consider their

Congress counterparts, the one in 7 RacCourse Road, and the other at the YojanBhavan.

When Modi and the rest o the SangParivar are out to appropriate Gandhji, who was killed by a communal anatiSardar and other Congress leaders likeM Munshi are o course easy targets them. Never mind the act that Patel aways remained with the Congress. Sardcomes handy to Modi when he wants woo the inluential Patel community this still not irmly behind him when he eters the tenth year o his rather eventchie ministership. His announcement

the project also came ater the model codo conduct was in place ahead o the crcial civic polls.

Modis real inspiration is not Sardar bMayawati. Remember those elephant staues in memorial parks o Uttar PradeshWell, the Sardar statue will have the IroMan holding a lotus. (For l otus was his vourite lower, he never let home withoone and only a Congress conspiracy couhave hidden this historical act.) Modiother real inspiration is the above metioned Planning Commission deputy chaperson, since the statue is coming up inpublic-private partnership (PPP).

T xpct sitting judgs t sit njudgmnt vr t miscnduct brtr judgs, cud btir snir (i t cmpaint isagainst t CJI, r xamp) rit m t ma b saringt bnc vr da, is xpctingt muc.

c Monument politics scales new heights as Modi plans a Sardar statue

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6/52GovernanceNow | October 16-31, 20106

The Allahabad highcourts verdict onAyodhya wouldseem to suggest thathe resolution of thlong-standing dis-pute lies in buildingboth a temple and amosque at the site -a perfectly secularsolution for a secu-lar country.But there is one jarring note. The claim

for a temple seemsto have been grant-ed on the basis offaith and beliefof Hindus, ratherthan legal reason-ing and historicalfacts. It not only ig-nores vandalismby the faithful whosneaked in an idolin 1949 or the poli-ticians who led themob to demolish thmosque at the site i

1992 but also seemto lend credence toASIs questionablendings about apre-existing templethere.This issue is boundto gure prominenly when the matterreaches the supremcourt, primarily because of the fearthat this verdict, ifnot overturned, willegitimise vandal-ism and provokemore of the same infuture.Hence the ques-tion: Will the Ayod-hya verdict lead to resolution or merelprolong the dispute

Join the debate,send your views to

[email protected]

Refer to Congress and its Jenson& Nicholson formula for Ayodhya(October 1-15). The Ayodhya verdictcomes at a changed time in Indianhistory. Courts have always foundthe right solutions even for politi-cal mess. This verdict is with themood of masses. It is in the na-tions need of peace and harmony.Though legally and strictly speak-ing, it is more of national justicerather than legal justice to a certainextent but that is what the needof the hour is. It is sad that somepoliticians still wish to exploit it fortheir personal vote-bank politicsat the cost of the national interestof unity and brotherhood. Now it isturn of people to vote them out.

Mahesh Kumaron email

T cargs r n-tim tax?This is with reference to PPP:Pure and Private Pelf (Octo-ber 1-15). Delhi-Gurgaon Express-way toll charges are quite hefty.In fact, the toll bridge is wastageof precious fuel as millions of ve-hicles halt and pay toll charges. Ifthe government wants more rev-enue for maintenance of roads andsimilar purposes, such a collec-tion should be grouped with other

taxes like road tax that are chargedonly when the vehicle is purchased.This would also result in a drop inthe cost of collecting toll charges.

Mahesh Kapasion email

Uncmmn srvics!I have gone through your reporton e-governance in Assam (No

service is common at these cen-tres, July 1-15). I read it so latebecause I had seriously lost all

hopes on this project and startedto ignore all news items related tothe CSC (Common Service Centre)scheme. But having gone throughyour report, I am writing this mailto you just to say Thanks.Our organisation has again startedfighting against the irregularities ofAmtron and Sahaj, as these com-panies with the help of the stategovernment are again planning topocket money which was releasedfor the VLEs by central government.As per our information, the stategovernment has signed an MoU to

implement the UID project in ourstate for which each CSC will begiven contracts of printing citizensphotographs. But, again, SREI istrying to pocket at least 65 percentof this whole money from us with-out doing anything. This serviceis purely an offline service. Fromshooting photographs by visitingeach house to printing, all the workwill be done by us and SREI willpocket 65 percent of our money!

Saumarjyoti BaruahAssistant secretary, ArunodoyKendra Owners Association, Assam

Manmans adrsip scrtsRegarding your column, Manmo-han, the leader of leaders! (Sep-tember 1-15), I think it is an accu-rate reflection of the weakness ofpoliticians outside of Indira Gan-dhis family and therefore I think itis a little too harsh on ManmohanSingh. Manmohan is a manager ofmy style. If you havent said any-thing, you havent said anything

wrong. That type of non-contro-versial stance is currently popu-lar with world leaders becausethe world is excessively polarisedon many issues at the moment.

Buddhavarapu Murthyon emailDbat and discussinA silent gratitude is not of muchuse to anyone. So I wish to thankyou for having come out with Gov-ernance Now which highlights verypertinent issues of governance. Themost despicable part of our publiclife today is that governance is notdebated, especially among youth.Ive always believed that it is bet-ter to debate without a decision

than to decide without a debate.Governance Now promises tobe that debating forum.

Sunil Zalmi,Mumbai

Grat jbGovernance Now magazine andits website are a great job deliv-ered by your team. MP MOni-tor (on the website) is the finestamong all other good things. I amlooking forward to some innova-tive journalism from your team.

Keep going with the same spirit.

Giridharon email

CrrigndumRef. the article Axe the laws byJustice S U Khan (Octber 1-15).In the sentence Useful seeds re-quire tending for growth, how-ever, seeds grow untended bythemselves and at a faster rate,the second part should have readreeds grow untended by them-selves... The error is regretted.

Editor

L E T T E r S

Write to Governance NowWe invite your suggestions, reactions

to the stories and analyses and, ofcourse, your own take on all matters

related to governance. You can emailor send snail mail. All letters must

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Film City, Sector 16A, Noida 201301

coe jeo & nholo ol o ayohyWill Ayodhyaverdict lead toresolution of thdispute?

debate

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7/52www.GovernanceNow.com

peopeArjun Kumar Sengupta, a develop-ment economist, is no more. Hedied on September 26 at the age of 73.

After his PhD from the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology and teachingstints, he served as special secretary(economic advisor) to prime ministerIndira Gandhi during 1981-84. He waselected to the Rajya Sabha in 2005.

In 2004, he was appointed chairmanof the National Commission for Enter-prises in the Unorganised and Infor-mal Sector, whose recommendations

led to the enactment of the Unorgan-ised Workers Social Security Act, 2008.It was this commissions report that sathat 77 percent of Indias populationlived on less than Rs 20 a day.

Wajahat Habibullah, who retiredas chief of the Central Informa-tion Commission (CIC), has said thathis stint in the panel gave him a feeling

of how the common man viewed thegovernment.I was aware of the failings of thegovernment, but I learnt to view thegovernment from the outside, as tohow those outside the gov-ernment see it, he said onthe last day in oce.

Habibullah, who hasjoined the World Bank as amember of its rst AppealsBoard, said he did not see the

political regime as threat to the Act. Ihave of course been in discussion withpolitical leaders and a number of peo-ple. Everybody has been actually mak

ing use of the law and I dont think thelaw is under any threat from that

quarter. The political class in general has been supportive, he toldthe Mint.Meanwhile, A N Tiwari, a 1969batch IAS ocer and former sec

retary, department of person-nel and training, is the newCIC chief. His term ends in

December 2010.

Indias millionaires are doing prettywell. The net worth of the countrys 100richest people has touched $300 billion, upfrom $276 billion last year, according tothe India rich list prepared by Forbes. Thelist has 69 names, 17 more than last year.

Mukesh Ambani has retained the top

slot for the third time. This, despite his neworth falling to $27 billion from last year$32 billion. Second on the list is LakshmiMittal with a net worth of $26.1 billion.

Among the top seven, it was Anil Amba-ni who had to face the steepest drop in hiwealth by 24 percent.

m

Development economistArjun Sengupta is no moreHonour for Rahman,Ramakrishna MissionAshram

Habibullah on the other side of governance

Oscar-winning composer

A R Rahman and the Ra-makrishna Mission Ashramin Chhattisgarhs Narainpurhave jointly won the 25th In-dira Gandhi Award for Na-tional Integration for 2009for their services in promot-ing and preserving nationalintegration.

The award, which consistsof a citation and Rs 2.5 lakh,will be presented by Con-gress president Sonia Gan-dhi on October 31, the death

anniversary of the formerprime minister.The Congressinstituted theaward in 1985to recognisepeople and or-ganisations foroutstandingcontributionsto the causeof nationalintegration.

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Sna Mataru

Kuthambakkam village, on theoutskirts of Chennai, chal-lenges your modern-dayconception of the country-side. The roads are neatly

laid, the drains are not clogged and thevast stretches of paddy elds paint anidyll that is a pleasant departure fromthe regulation underdeveloped ru-ral backwater that residents cannotwait to ee just to be able to feedthemselves.

It was not always so.

Just a decade and a half ago,Kuthambakkam was like any oth-er village in this part of the country

unloved and uncared for by the pow-ers that be. Poverty was rampant and op-portunity scarce. There was no watersupply, no electricity and no road. Castetensions simmered and occasionallyboiled over. It took one mans vision anduntiring eorts to change all that andtransform this dalit-majority village intoa self-sustaining community that has be-come a model of self-governance.

v

How one mansvision transformedKuthambakkam villagenear Chennai into a model

of self-governance

peope poitics poic performance

Governance and I

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Rangasamy Elango, who belonged to arelatively well-o dalit family and had thegood fortune of being able to study chemi-cal engineering, gave up lucrative oppor-tunities elsewhere to stay back and work

for his people. When Tamil Nadu gov-ernment enforced the Panchayati Raj

Act, following the 73rd Amendmentto the constitution, Elango contest-ed in the elections and went on toserve for two consecutive terms

which gave him an opportunity to

turn his vision into sustainable reality.But Elangos eorts date further back,

to 1983, when he was just a 22-year-oldstudent in Chennai where he formedthe Youth Education Society. He startedteaching children and organised wom-en and young men to ght against liquorbrewing, which was a big menace inhis village. With the presence of a wa-ter body in the village, the land was fer-tile for local liquor brewing, he recalls,There were 20-30 selling points and one-third of the population was into illicit

liquor brewing. Almost all the men woulget drunk every night and beat up theirwomen and children like animals. Myrst target was to stop this practice in thvillage.

Within a year, though, his eorts came

to a standstill when he lost connectionwith the village, for his job as an execu-tive engineer with Oil India Limitedsdrilling exploration took him to Bhu-baneswar, Orissa. The lucrative job killethe small initiatives which he had starteat his village. He was faced with a toughchoice: to live for money or to live for hipeople.

I resigned and came back to Chennai twork but I was not happy with the new

job either, he remembers, I couldntconcentrate on the welfare activities inmy village, so I took the job of a scien-

tist with the CSIR (Council of Scientif-ic and Industrial Research) which gaveme a lot of free time. Thus he managedto devote time to his village once again,trained women, formed self-help groupsand sought the help of the police to stopliquor brewing. He helped villagers pro-cure bank loans from the Institute of Ru-ral Development Planning (IRDP) andhelped set up a dairy on the extra landin the village. Once the villagers realisedthey could get together and procure gov-ernment funds to change their lives forthe better, there was no looking back.

All this while, Elango constantly con-templated strengthening local self-gov-ernance. His opportunity came when thestate government passed the Panchaya-ti Raj Act in 1994. When Rajiv Gandhicame to power, he questioned why re-sources were not percolating to the vil-lages. He realised that the people, the villages had no power. There was no planfor the gram sabha (which comprises theentire adult population). The block development ocers did not know anythingabout the village. Only 19 percent of thetotal funds from the centre were reachin

the grassroots, he says, and reasons thait was so because there was an absence osustained demand from the villages.

Following a dramatic rst round ofpanchayat polls, which he won by 500votes, he called the rst meeting of thegram sabha. He realised that develop-ment could neither be initiated meaningfully nor sustained without a resolutionof the divisive caste issues. The night hewas elected president, he marched to theupper caste-dominated clusters in the vilage and sought the support of the peopl

The night he was electedpresident, he marched tothe upper caste clustersin the village and soughtthe support of the peoplethere. He promised them

that he would put an endto the violence rampant inthe dalit-dominated partsof the village. The movepaid off and the nextmorning all upper castepeople rallied around towork with him.

Women organisedunder sel-help

groups in thevillage working at

the Trust or VillageSel Governance

campus

Photos: sonal matharu

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Men organised under self-help groups in the village working inside the campus of theTrust for Village Self Governance.

White board in the panchayat ocedisplaying break-up of money spentby the panchayat.

Medical kits for Red Cross packedby women associated with self-helpgroups in the village.

Panchayat president Geeta and children from the villageat the panchayat oce.

Hammock making attracts more women to seek employment.

Computer training centre for children.Residents of Samathuvapuram, orharmoney estates in the village.

Locally produced clay bricks which are used in constructinbuildings and houses in the village. These bricks were alsodonated by the village to Tsunami victims in Tamil Nadu.

Women employed under self-help groups in the village.

Village roads levelled by the villagers themselves.

Twin houses at Samathuvapuram, where brahmins and dalits share a common roof.

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there. He promised them that he wouldput an end to the violence rampant inthe dalit-dominated parts of the village.The move paid o and the next morningall upper caste people rallied around towork with him. The second gram sabha

collectively decided that panchayat fundswould be used for the uplift of the ne-glected dalit-dominated areas. When allpeople were given a chance to decide forthemselves, they were already using theirdiscretion with wisdom.

More dramatic developments were tofollow.

With the entire community getting to-gether, Elango helped build a seventhcluster in the village where brahminsand dalits actually came together to liveas neighbours in twin houses. Samathu-vapuram, meaning harmony estates, had

been an initiative of the state govern-ment but Elango needed to create theright environment to get it sanctioned forthe village. Built over 100 acres, it cameto house a hundred homes, built in clay,bricks and cement, with the villagers pro-viding free labour. Fifty families of brah-mins and dalits each, half of them fromother villages and urban slums whichdid not have pucca houses, were invitedto occupy these homes. One family fromeither community shared the same roof,with just a common wall separating theirhomes. Most of these families shifted here

in 2001, when this hamlet was construct-ed, and have been living here peacefullyever since.

Those families which could not con-tribute monetarily towards this venturehelped in constructing the houses free ofcharge. The houses are built of materialslocally produced by the villagers like theclay bricks which keep the houses coolin summers. Each family has 150 squarefeet of land, irrespective of the size of thefamily and income.

Sambat, a mason who did not have ahouse of his own, says he shifted here as

soon as the house became ready. His wifeinvites us for food as Sambat points to thecommunity hall across the street whereall the villages weddings take place.

Panchayati Raj becomes a slave to thegovernment when it has no plan of itsown, says Elango, who made it a point tohave a clear roadmap for the village soonafter he became president, We mappedeach and every street of the village andmarked down all the needs and require-ments. We decided to prioritise things.

The panchayat was tasked with giving

Kuthambakkam in ve years what it hadnot got in 50 years. There was absolutepoverty in some pockets. There was hun-ger. There was destitution. But the vil-lage now had its people together. It hadthe will. It had a leader. The plan just fol-

lowed. As a result, the village was freed ofits open gutters. The roads were levelledand proper storm water drainage en-sured that water didnt stagnate.

Seated in the oce of the charitableTrust for Village Self Governance, whichhe formed in 2001, Elango says he nowshares his experiences with panchayatleaders from across the states 12,620 pan-chayats under his newly-formed Pan-chayat Academy. Villages can be revi-talised to play an important role in thenations economy once again, he believes.Before the villagers got the power to gov-

ern themselves, the only school in the vil-lage had classes only till eighth standard.Elango remembers that he was the onlyone in his class of 40 who went to schoolafter eighth standard as he could trav-el six km on a bicycle which his friendscould not aord.

Elango served as the panchayat presi-dent until 2006, after which his sister-in-law, Geeta, took over. She took charge ofan oce that, besides charts and otherinformative diagrams, has a white boardwhich gives details of all the money spentby the panchayat. Anybody can just walk

in and check out where exactly the mon-ey is going.

Geeta says that three days before thepanchayat meeting, held once a month,the ward members are informed aboutthe agenda of the meeting. These ward

members discuss it among their represetative groups and present their demandsand suggestions at the meeting. Thereare nine ward members, one for every300 people and they are selected by thepeople. January 26, May 1, August 15 andOctober 2 are all mandatory gram sabhadays under the constitution.

Elango continues to be just as busy ashe used to be as panchayat president. Helooks after his charitable trust and theacademy. The Trust for Village Self Gov-ernance has 48 womens as well as menself-help groups. Inside the trust comple

women pack medical kits for the RedCross while in the other building someroll metal pipes to make stoves. A fewmen are busy welding in another room.

In real federal governance, thereshould be no state or central govern-ment schemes, says Elango, If there isreal concern for local governance, thereshould be no tied grants. There is no freedom of thinking then. Where is my gov-ernance? Where is my authority? Whoasked for NREGA? Why do we need Dis-trict Rural Development Agency (DRDA)when there is no authority with the pan-

chayats? Panchayat is reduced to a mereagency of implementation. Gram sabhacan evolve the schemes. It should be peoples power. Community strength shouldbe utilised. For 14 years, panchayat hasbeen there for namesake, says Elango.He further argues that Section 205 of thePanchayat Act, which gives power to thecollector to remove a panchayat leader,should be removed.

Elango now wants to hoist a ag withformer president APJ Abdul Kalam anddeclare Kuthambakkam village as An-namkodi, meaning food security, by 202

I want gram swaraj self-reliant vil-lages to liberate my people from dependency. I have no faith in poverty reduc-tion. I have faith in prosperity generatioprosperity addition, he says. Comingfrom someone who has proved within amatter of a decade that if people are giv-en swaraj, or the right to rule themselvethey are capable of forming their ownpolicies and governing themselves, thewords just ring true. n

[email protected]

If there is real concern

for local governance,

there should be no

tied grants. There

is no freedom of

thinking then. Where

is my authority? Whoasked for the NREGA?

Panchayat is reduced

to a mere agency of

implementation.Rangasamy ElangoFormer panchayat president

peope poitics poic performanc

Governance and

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blueprints orgreen designsA small band of women is turning to eco-friendlyarchitecture, helping us reduce our carbon footprints

Surka Kadapa-Bs

An energy-ecient home isthe new buzzword amongthose who want to re-duce their carbon foot-print on Planet Earth. The

trend, which surprisingly is more popu-lar in small towns, is also likely to im-pact the real estate industry in big cities

like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Chen-nai, which are facing a severe shortageof space.

Among those in the forefront of thischange are some leading women archi-tects, who are designing and buildingeco-friendly homes that are comfortable,easy to maintain, reduce energy relatedgreenhouse gas emissions, and are moreeasy on the purse in the long term thanconventional homes.

This trend is slowly changing and is

like a silent revolution, explains Banga-lore-based architect Chitra Vishwanath,47, who has designed and got construct-ed over 600 eco-friendly houses in andaround her city in the last decade. In facover 6,000 eco-friendly houses have comup in Bangalore and its vicinity in the la10 years thanks to many architecturalrms that now oer clients green orenergy-ecient buildings.

Eco-friendly structures mean usinglocal materials, local skills and imply


Green Gov

laVanYa GoraDIa/W

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low-technological dependency. None ofthese buildings is more than two or threeoors high and so power is not consumedfor running lifts, for instance. Most of

these buildings are made up of soil sta-bilised blocks, Balipatnam bricks (solidand hollow), stone masonry, tiled roofsand recycled wood. They also use biogas.Their materials include natural stonesand clay tiles for the ooring. They func-tion on solar and wind power to run fansand power the LED bulbs for light. Eachone of them has a rainwater-harvestingfacility as well as infrastructure to re-cycle the garbage. And because of goodcross-ventilation through large windowsand doors, these abodes dont requireair-conditioning.

Says architect Anupama Kundoo,known for the green homes she has builtin cities across India, Eco-friendly isnot dened as a clear measurable stan-dard. Its more a tendency. It is an eortto reduce the strain on water and ener-gy as compared to conventional build-ing practices. Its an eort to considerthe health and pollution impacts and fo-cus on reducing the waste generated. Assuch there is a lot of scope to improve theperformance of buildings, particularlyin densely populated cities. Eco-friendlydoesnt mean only mud buildings today.

Kundoo, incidentally, divides her timebetween India and Germany and is cur-rently teaching architecture and urbanmanagement at the University of Tech-nology in Berlin.

Mumbai-based architect Shimul JaveriKadri, who has designed several ener-gy ecient buildings in Mumbai, Hyder-abad, Chennai and Karur (Tamil Nadu)among other places, puts it this way, Ifbuildings are constructed giving atten-tion to the direction of natural wind owand the angle of sunlight, a lot of energy

can be saved. Of course, one cant but

consume power for the usage of lifts inmulti-storied buildings. But power con-sumption can be reduced if the roomsare properly ventilated. Even the glass faades that are so popular at present canhelp reduce power consumption. This ispossible if the glass windowpanes are replaced by reective window panes thatconsiderably reduce the solar heat.

In support of her argument, Kadri citesan example of a building designed by Chcago-based architect Jeanne Gang. NameAqua, Gangs 84-storied condo buildingis making waves amongst architects the

world over. The building has a protrud-ing concrete faade resembling sea waveon each oor that controls the breezeow in the apartments and also providenatural shade to the occupants from thescorching sun.

Kadri is currently working on a residential bungalow in Alibaug, near Mumbai,where she has shaped the roof like a peepal tree leaf, with the front of the rooftilting upwards and facing the wind owThe wind ow is thus used to cool the interiors of the bungalow.

Architects admit that the concept of

eco-friendly buildings to help ght globawarming could become successful onlywhen the entire landscape of the cityand lifestyle of its residents undergo achange. And cities need to be plannedproperly, the way they used to be in ear-lier times.

You cant commute four to ve hoursin your AC car to and from oce and saythat you are helping the planet by liv-ing in eco-friendly homes. Whatever en-ergy you have saved in your house de-sign goes waste. The ideal eco-friendly

Eco-friendly is not denedas a clear measurablestandard. Its more atendency. It is an eort toreduce the strain on waterand energy as compared

to conventional buildingpractices. Its an eort toconsider the health and

pollution impacts and focuson reducing the waste

generated.

Anupama KundooArchitect

(Let) A green housein Bangaloredesigned byarchitect ChitraVishwanath. (Right)An eco-design byAnupama Kundoo.

anuPama KunDoo/W

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constructions are those where the oce,schools, colleges, hospitals and recreationcentres are close by, says Vishwanath.

This is the reason why many big namesin the world of construction are oeringtownships. Far removed from the mad-

dening crowds of the cities, these build-ers provide everything including recre-ation facilities, sports space, oce space,hospitals and markets, within the clusterof buildings they build. They also pro-vide rain harvesting systems and manyof them have set up garbage recyclingfacilities. In addition, many projects thatare now coming up have solar panellingon the rooftops to tap the energy fromthe sun.

Women architects are very optimisticthat within the next couple of decades,the lifestyle of ordinary people will un-

dergo a sea change. The concrete-alumi-num-steel buildings that are consideredsophisticated today may soon becomepass. And the mud houses, which areconsidered the poor persons habitat atpresent, may well become fashionable inthe years to come.

Says Kundoo, Cement stabilisedrammed earth walls allow a cleanermonolithic and modular solution with aminimalistic look in tune with moderntrends. Five percent cement added to themud mix allows one to do away with the

large tiled roof overhangs. This gives arural and rustic look that is slowly be-coming popular with urbanites.

People today are more conscious aboutenvironmentally sound solutions, espe-cially young couples who prefer to have

a unique house and who want to ght thbattle against global warming, indirect-ly if not directly. They are constantly insearch of green architects, who on theirpart go out of their way to experimentwith newer technology to make a houseas energy ecient as possible.

Cost wise, some of these eco-homes maynot come cheap. But while many a timethey are more expensive to construct,they could prove much cheaper to main-tain in the long term. Reveals SandhyaMahesh, wife of Mahesh Babu, a scientistwith the space research centre, Banga-

lore, Living in this house designed andconstructed by Chitra makes us feel onewith the nature. We dont have an AC inour house plus the harvested rain waterhelps us water our garden.

With more and more people adoptingeco-friendly lifestyles and with architectwilling to experiment with building styleand materials, eco-homes are just whatIndia and the world need in these timesof climate change and global warming. n

Womens Feature Service

An eco-design byMumbai-basedarchitect Shimul

Javeri Kadri, whohas designedseveral energyecient buildings

You cant commute four-ve hours in your AC carto and from oce and saythat you are helping the

planet by living in eco-

homes. Whatever energy issaved goes waste. The idealeco-friendly constructionsare those where the oce,schools, hospitals... areclose by.Chitra VishwanathArchitect

shImul JaVErI KaDrI/Wpeope poitics poic performance

Green Gov

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performanceThe government has warned seniorbureaucrats not to be casual in han-dling disciplinary and vigilance pro-

ceedings against the sta by making an

excuse of delay in getting appropriate

advice from the Union Public ServiceCommission (UPSC).

The erring ocers against whom in-

quiry establishes irregularities escape

penalty for many years just because the

UPSC, whose advice is mandatory before

taking action, often does not get all rele-

vant papers and the le keeps going back

and forth between the commission and

the concerned department.

Pointing out that the UPSC cannot reac

if the case records and relevant docu-

ments are not provided, a circular warn

that the bureaucrat concerned will nowbe issued a written warning to be more

careful in future if the commission re-

turns any incomplete proforma and

documents.

A second time default by the same of-

cer shall invite minor penalty proceed

ings against him, says the circular.

The process of college ad-missions in India is set fora radical change, with the cen-

tral universities agreeing toconduct a common entrance

test for selecting students from

across the country. Human re-

source development minister

Kapil Sibal said the move was

part of an attempt to reform

the education system and as-

sess students holistically.

Vice-chancellors of 40 central

government funded universi-

ties also agreed to create an

inter-university credit trans-

fer system to help students

switch from one university toanother. The central univer-

sities have decided in

principle to have a

common aptitude

test. The score of

the class XII exam and

that of the aptitude test

will be combined while

admitting students to the

undergraduate courses

across these central uni-

versities, Sibal said.

Environment minister JairamRamesh has dismissed aBt brinjal report preparedby six scientic acade-

mies. He said It doesnt

appear to be the prod-

uct of rigorous scientic

evaluation. There is not

a single citation or refer-

ence in the report. So there

is no way to know how the au-

thors reached their conclusions.

The report doesnt even say who all were

consulted in this exercise. The acad-

emies involved in preparing the report

were: Indian Academy of Sci-

ences, Indian National Acad-

emy of Engineering, IndianNational Science Academy

National Academy of Agr

cultural Sciences, Nation

Academy of Medical Sci-

ences and National Acad-

emy of Sciences (India).

The academies had favoure

a limited release of Br brin

jal and later issued a statement

saying they stood by their ndings. Ra

mesh had announced a moratorium on

Bt brinjal in Fenruary this year.

N axitin discipinar actinSing tst r ntrt cntra varsitis

Rams trass scintists rprt n Bt brinja

Assam chief minister TarunGogoi launched MorigaonModel District Health Project, anambitious initiative of the health

department, recently. With this,Morigaon becomes the rst dis-trict in the country to have start-ed the project and is among theve districts in the country tohave been selected under themodel district health project. Theobjective is to reduce infant and

maternal mortality rates by2015.

It is in collaboration with TheEarth Institute, Columbia Univer

sity, and the union ministry ofhealth and family welfare. Niru-pam Bajpai, senior adviser at ThEarth Institute, said the projectaimed at scaling the healthcareservices from one district to thatof the state, and subsequently toall parts of the country by 2015.

Cuntrs frst md district at prjct

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PRIDEWASH

Even if the CommonwealthGames were supposed to bethe Big Fat Indian Weddingwhere everything would wo

out well in the end, it is cleaManmohan Singh needs tohire a few good band-wallahand re a few. Will he dothat as promised or, nowthat the Games are a grandsuccess, will he pride-coat tshame and ridicule India wsubjected to?


CWG Con Job

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B V Ra

Afew weeks ago,when the GreatIndian Common-wealth GamesCircus was at

its best, our columnist SureshMenon had written that theexpectations from the Gameswere being driven so low thatit just needed the microphoneto function during oath-taking

for the organisers to declarethe Games a grand success!

As is obvious, much morethan a mike worked well onOctober 3 and by all accountsthe opening ceremony wasspectacular. From the evi-dence of the rst week, it isrisk-free to assume, the roofswill hold for another week.And by October 15, when youget to read this a day after anequally (assumed) spectacularclosing ceremony and a pos-

sible No. 2 slot on the medalstally, the news channels willnot allow us to think and feelanything other than immensepride as Indians.

All the mighty pre-Gamesmessthe turf wars, lack ofleadership, pass-the-parcelaccountability, corruption,nepotism, ineciency, leak-ing roofs, crashing bridg-es, stinking toilets, cloggeddrains, submerged roads and

trac jamswill already

seem like a distant

memory. There is serious riskthat Suresh Kalmadi, whocould have been lynched bymobs as recently as last week,will be knighted by the nextand Sheila Dikshit, who could

have lost an election lastweek, would win unopposedif she sought election by nextweek to be chief minister forlife.

That is why, in spite of themike working, Suresh Me-non was not wrong. Indeed,it doesnt take much to makeIndians proud and Indiaamnesic.

Unlike Mani Shankar Ai-yar, we are not sports-hat-ers. It would not have glad-

dened our socialist heartsif the games had failed andIndia was shamed. Anyway,the queens lap (London) isperhaps not the best vantagepoint to ponticate about In-dias hungry and rail againsther Games. Neither do wethink that the debate shouldbe about priorities; it is ri-diculous to contend that ev-erything else must be on holdtill the last hungry stomachis lled. Hunger, as Suresh

Kalmadi and his band of boyswill tell you, is not only offood and can be a bottom-less pit.

No, the Games are not thedebate. It doesnt take muchto organise a sporting eventinvolving 71 countries for allof 11 days. Delhi had donedamn good job of hosting 23countries for Asiad way backin 1982 when, thankfully,Mani Shankar Aiyar was stilla babu without a voice and

24x7 news was not aroundto amplify every noise. The

circus that was conducted be-fore and around the Games isthe debate.

The Games were made tostand on two stilts: legacy (ofinfrastructure) for Delhi andnational pride. No less a per-son than the prime minis-ter invoked national pride toplead for postponing all ques-

tions of accountability and ac-tion against the inept and thecorrupt till after the Games.Now that the Games are over,lets restrict the debate to justthe two issues: legacy and na-tional pride.

Legacy or DelhiWhen Delhis citizens werebearing the brunt of thepreparations, Sheila Dikshitwould blame the rains andcounsel patience and forbear-

ance because she was doingall this for Delhi. The lega-cy of infrastructure that her

government was getting upwould make life easy for alland make Delhi a global city,no less. Undoubtedly, whenso much money is poured inta city in such a short span of

time, some things have to improve. And they have, that isundeniable. The rains havestopped and the slush has given way to neatly paved roadand newly laid (though rarelused) pedestrian ways thatmake at least parts of centraand south Delhi look a littlemore beautiful than before.Soon the guests will go backand Delhiites will reclaim allthe lanes and access all theyovers. Delhis drive to the

next trac red-light will behastened by a few minutesand that will be enough foreverybody to wonder if theyhave been unfair to Sheila-

ji all this while. Kuchh bhikaho, games ke chalte Dillitoh sudhar gayi yaar. Yes,that is already getting to bethe refrain of Delhiites suf-fering guilt pangs for curs-ing their favourite, aunt-nextdoor chief minister: Saywhat you may, Delhi has de

nitely improved thanks to thGames.

Sheile Dikshit must havebanked upon this cklenessof the people and the narrow(how-soon-can-I-get-to-the-next-red-light) yardstick usedby Delhis great vocal motor-owning minority (13%) formeasuring improvementwhile imploring them to waifor the Games to be over. Itdoesnt take much to con Delhi and conned it has been.

Con No. 1Take the Games village forexample. As Boria Majumdar

Soon the guestswill go back and

Delhiites willreclaim all the

lanes. Delhisdrive to the nexttrac light will behastened by a fewminutes. That willbe enough for allto wonder if theyhave been unfairto Sheilaji all this

while.

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and Nalin Mehta have point-ed out in their book, Sello-

tape Legacy: Delhi and theCommonwealth Games, thevillage was supposed to bea hostel for Delhi Universitystudents post Games. That iswhat India promised in thebid for the Games in 2003.That would have been a leg-acy to be proud of. But as su-preme court judge, JusticeG S Singhvi, rightly said, theCommonwealth Games wouldbe public purpose only tillOctober 14, after that it will

be private pursuit. Within afew days from now, Delhisuber rich will be vying withone another to buy up hous-es here in the range of Rs 6crore or more per at. Evenforeign delegates say the Vil-lage is the best any Common-wealth Games has put up. Butthe Village will not be Delhisto feel proud of, it will belongto about 1168 of the richest ofits rich. Exclusive, absolute-ly private. And to think that

the Delhi Development Au-thority sunk in about Rs 700crore of taxpayer money tobail out the private contractorwho has now taken it to court(whats the charge, ill-con-ceived municence?)!

Con No. 2The ride to Mayur Vihar andNoida (across the Yamuna inEast Delhi) was made smoothand easy many years ago

from the Nizamuddin bridgeside. That ride got even bet-

ter and faster after the newyover opened a few monthsago. Delhiites must be hap-py with this legacy of thegames for sure. But it doesnttake much to realise that thisyover was never meant tobe for Delhi. This was pure-ly and simply meant to makelife easy for the 1,168 fami-lies that will soon inhabit theVillage. The only purpose thisyover serves is to give thesefavoured few families easy en-

try and exit to the Nizamud-din bridge and save them thetrouble of waiting at a traclight just as they emerge fromtheir gated colony. It will notget the rest of Delhi a minutefaster to Mayur Vihar or Noi-da than before.

There was of course a way ofavoiding the trac light with-out building the yover. TheNizamuddin bridge road isso wide that provision couldhave been made for the Vil-

lagers to take a free left turn,join the trac and then takea U-turn further down theroad (to head for Central andSouth Delhi). This kind of in-novation is in evidence acrossDelhi where wide roads per-mit a portion to be cordonedo for U-turns to minimisetrac stoppages (see pic-ture of Badarpur-Mehrauliroad above). That would havemeant a signal-free journey

for the well-heeled Villagersat no extra cost to the tax-payer. Instead, a six-lane y-over was built because theirtime is precious and you cant

make them drive an extra kilometre. The irony is that the

Village doesnt need this ac-cess at all; it already has easyaccess to Central and SouthDelhi from the Akshardhamside. The cost of this uselesslegacy for the taxpayer: Rs 9crore.

Con No. 3Same is the case with thesignal-free travel betweenMayur Vihar and Noida. Twonew yovers have sprung upon this long road. This stretch

was a trac nightmare withat least three trac light stoppages. It needed tending tomuch before the Games camacalling. But the governmentof course got thinking onlybecause it wanted to providenon-stop travel for the ath-letes from the Village to thevelodrome (in Noida) andback. So the whole stretch ofthe road was widened morethan two times over and making space for the two succes-

sive yovers (one of them asix-lane one).

Here again, it did not crossanybodys mind that if provi-sion was made for three U-turns on this widened road,it would have provided Delhithe same relief that two gigantic yovers will. But creatinglegacy for a city is no jokeand always costs some smallchange. Which in this case isabout Rs 400 crore!


CWG Con Job

Unlike ManiShankar Aiyar,we are notsports-haters. Itwould not have

gladdened oursocialist heartsif the Games had

failed and Indiawas shamed.

Anyway, thequeens lap(London) is notthe best vantage

point to ponticateabout Indiashungry and railagainst her Games.

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These are examples that areevident to a layman. Urban

planners can point out manymore and question this wholepolitical sales pitch of theGames as the impetus for Del-his claim to global greatness(see report, Delhi dazzled todeceive). It is estimated thatRs 1,00,000 crore (close to $20 billion) have been pumpedinto Delhi in a short span ofthree years (the Delhi govern-ment itself admits to Rs 87,500crore). A few new cities couldhave been created with that

kind of money, forget aboutrefurbishing just one. No cityin recent memory has pouredin so much into infrastruc-ture. If all that money indeedwent where it was meant togo, Delhiites would not haveto die to experience heaven. Itcould have been created righthere, right now.

So, that is the big questionprime minister ManmohanSingh and chief minister Shei-la Dikshit have to answer. If

so much money was actuallyspent, where is the evidence?Why are only parts of Delhiwhich were already its show-pieces, the better for it?

The pride sledgehammerDays before what seemed likea disaster waiting to happen,the prime minister got into ac-tion. He held a urry of meet-ings and announced that sincenational prestige, pride and

honour were at stake, the gov-ernment should be allowed to

tackle the problem on handand everybody would be heldaccountable after the event.That was an entreaty to themedia to be kind. The gov-ernment couldnt have hada kinder response. Sudden-ly the discourse changed andthe channels started singingthe pride tune willingly sus-pending the questioning (andperhaps enjoying the ringingof the cash registers from theCWG advertising).

A few days into the Games,that positive approach is indanger of being replaced bytotal jingoism. The interna-tional delegates are happy, thegovernment is happy, Delhi ishappy and, most important,the national media is happy.Everybody says the nation canbe proud because of two spec-tacular ceremonies, a secondplace in the medals tally andstadium roofs holding for 11full days. Quite forgetting the

fact that nothing we do canwipe o the shame of an en-tire national government anda city governmentthe primeminister, the sports ministry,the UD ministry, the Groupof Ministers, Delhis lieuten-ant governor, CM and her en-tire Cabinetconsumed by nobusiness other than hosting ofa sporting event for the bet-ter part of a week. Or an en-tire eet of secretaries to the

government of India super-vising the cleaning of toilets

at the Games Village for threfull days!

It is of course tough to turnthe attention of a happy na-tion to troubling questionssuch as why and who allowea simple sporting event tobe scaled up to the level ofa nations prestige? Or, in acountry that has an allocatedbudget of Rs 120,000 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Missio(JNNURM) for 63 cities for

ve-years, which great nancial and economics wizard,the prime minister himselfthey say is one, cleared Rs100,000 crore for the renewaof one city for a 11-day event

Even if this was supposedto beas sports minister MS Gill so eloquently pointedoutthe Big Fat Indian Wed-ding where everything woulwork out well in the end, it isclear Manmohan Singhs Cabnet needs better bandwallah

and tentwallahs. There aremyriad other questions thatneed answers and account-ability. That is why it is timeto remind the prime ministerof his pre-Games pledge to thnation that post-Games peo-ple will have to pay for sul-lying our image irrevocably.Time to ask him: Whose headprime minister? n

[email protected]

Above Let: The fyover onNizamuddin bridge road oppo-

site the Games Village (visibleto the let o rame) built onlyto acilitate easy entry and exitor the rich and amous whowill occupy the Village soon.Cost to taxpayer: Rs 90 crore.

Centre: The U-turn on theBadarpur-Mehrauli road.Hundreds o such U-turnsacross Delhi have speeded uptrac at practically no cost tothe taxpayer. The Nizamuddinand Noida roads are broadenough or this solution tohave been tried. Instead we

have fyovers.Right: The gigantic fyoveron the Mayur Vihar-Noidaroad (shot rom the Noidaend). This fyover was built toacilitate a signal-ree ride toathletes rom the Village tothe Velodrome in Noida. CostRs 360 crore. Two U-turnscould have achieved the samepurpose or a raction o thatcost.

Photos: raVI ChouDha

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It is time to look at the legacy of the Commonwealth Games

and admit that precious little wealth of infrastructure has

been generated that is common to all residents. Yet, the city

has been left poorer by an estimated Rs one lakh crore. So

everybody will have to bear the burden of debt for years.

Contrary to what the organisers would have us believe, better

alternatives were always available


CWG Con Job

d zz v

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Asis Sarma

Connaught Placehas turned whit-er than white,the roads haveseldom been

smoother, the trac neverso orderly in recent memory.The air has turned crisper

toward the evenings, herald-ing the onset of the comingautumn, and the swollen

Yamuna has already recededto a mere suggestion of ariver. You can scarcelyremember the ordeal of the

past several months whenlarge swathes of the city hadbeen dug up seemingly for-ever. If this is what all thosepeople on the telly calleda asco, give us a asco ev-

ery time, you can reasonablyconclude while comfortablyensconced in your private sa-loon. Even if you do not owna fancy car, you can now takethe metro to many more des-tinations across the nationalcapital region. Despite all thesound and fury in the run-up to the CommonwealthGames, the event seems to beprogressing ne, save somemishaps early on and themany mysteriously unlled

seats in most stadia, and Del-hi seems set to become moreliveable than ever once thegames get over.

With good reason. After all,never before has Delhi, orany other city in the country

for that matter, seen devel-opment works on this scale.When was the last time youheard of the city spending Rs165 crore on potted plants?Or Rs 400 crore on streetscap-

ing? Or Rs 740 crore on shift-ing slum-dwellers to purpose-built ats? Or Rs 800 croreon upgrading areas such asDaryaganj, Paharganj andKarol Bagh? The list goes on.All the way toinclude Rs 7,200 crore on theBus Rapid Transport System(BRTS), Rs 12,700 crore on thenew T3 airport terminal andRs 19,000 crore on the secondphase of the Delhi Metro.

If you have spent so much

money, it cannot be all waste,even if you discount large-scale corruption, agreesA G K Menon, convenor ofthe Delhi chapter of the Indi-an National Trust For Art andCultural Heritage (INTACH),

Residents can only benetfrom improved infrastruc-ture and beautication ofparts of the city.

The larger question, thougas Menon and other urban

planners continue to ask, iswhether the city should havspent a staggering sum of atleast Rs 70,000 crore someinformed estimates peg thetotal expenditure at morethan Rs one lakh crore inthis fashion. When you begito address this question, yousoon get to the even largerquestion as to whether thecity should have spent moneon this scale at all.

Given the governments

assertions that the 11-daysporting extravaganza cameas Delhis one-way ticket tothe league of world-classcities, it is time to look at thelegacy of the CommonwealthGames. Now that the few


7/28/2019 Issue 18 (Low Res)



CWG Con Job

foreign guests who turnedup have returned home, it isno longer unpatriotic to doso. It is time to ask wheth-er the games village shouldhave been built on the riverbed and whether switching

from the original plan of us-ing the accommodation as ahostel to selling it o as anyother privately built condo-minium smacks of a ploy tofacilitate and legitimise an il-legal and ill-advised construc-tion. Or whether Rs 550 croreshould have been spent onthe elevated Barapullah roadwhich was built just to trans-port athletes from the gamesvillage to the main venue at

Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Especially since trac wasgoing to be severely curtailedon the regular roads as well.In any case, was any new y-over needed at all?

The more closely you lookat the details of the projectsand the funds splurged themore you realise that there ismuch less to the legacy of thegames than meets the eye atrst glance.

The metaphor of the Indi-an wedding that some of the

organisers, including sportsminister M S Gill, have beenusing to justify the delays andcost escalations may in factbe far more apt than manyof us appreciate. The prepa-ration has all the glitz andglamour of the Indian wed-ding pandal. What is worry-ing is that it also has just asmuch longevity as any wed-ding pandal, says H R Suri, aveteran urban planner whohas twice been president of

the Institute of Town Plan-ners, India, Such eventsshould lead to permanent fa-cilities. If you hold the Olym-pics next, you will need tostart all over from scratch be-cause you are going to sell othe apartments at the gamesvillage that you have builtby destroying the riverfront.What will you destroy nexttime to build something likethis again?

Architect and author Gau-tam Bhatia uses the meta-phor somewhat dierentlybut expresses a similar senti-ment when he says, May-be we should have held thegames in temporary tents.

That would have been a bet-ter way of showcasing India.We Indians are experts attemporary structures such aswedding tents. A Pappu TentHouse would have been amore authentic way of show-casing India than importedgoods and services from Aus-tralia, America and South Ko-rea. If this event was aboutthe pride of India, there isnothing to be proud of in themanner we have organised

it. The only message that wehave desperately sent acrossis that we are almost as goodas you are. There is nothingIndian about our solutions.

The entire philosophy be-hind the preparations forthe games has rankled withthe urban planners. The rea-son, Bhatia says, is that atno point did the organiserspause to consider whetherthe event could be turnedinto an opportunity to ad-

dress the growing problemsin the city. It was always acase of easing some of themess of the rapidly expand-ing city through piecemealsolutions. The legacy issuedid not gure prominently inthe ocial scheme of things,he says, simply because theorganisers focused on justa fortnight rather than the50-year lifespan of a build-ing. The stadia are not lledeven during the games. There

is every likelihood of thesestructures turning into whiteelephants soon, he laments.This, when Jawaharlal NehruStadium alone has takenRs 900 crore to refurbish,Indira Gandhi Indoor Sta-dium Rs 512 crore, Siri FortSports Complex Rs 329 croreand Talkatora StadiumRs 295 crore, among otherstadia, accounting for a totalof more than Rs 5,000 crore.

Dunu Roy, director of Haz-ards Centre, the non-government organisation which hacompiled these gures, sayshis latest estimate of the to-tal expenditure for the evenstands at Rs 1,02,000 crore.Of this, non-games expendi-ture accounts for Rs 46,681crore, he says. The new air-port terminal, the BRTS, theexpansion of the Delhi Met-ro and development workin unauthorised colonies

are among the key compo-nents under this head. Costhave escalated by four to 40times, says Roy, Remembethat the initial bid for the entire event was just Rs 1,772crore. Within six months, thgure for the stadia alonewas revised to Rs 1,700 crorewhich eventually went up toRs 5,214 crore.

As both the Comptroller anAuditor General of India andCentral Vigilance Commissio

have detailed in their reportas has the media through aseries of exposes, most proj-ects have been beset by thetwin evils of gross corruptioand substandard quality. Dehi has just joined a long list ocities that have hosted suchevents and struggled to repathe debt over the next 10 to30 years. Los Angeles is theonly city since 1968 the yeafrom when nancial records

Maybe we shouldhave held the

games in temporarytents. We Indiansare expertsat temporarystructures such as

wedding tents.A Pappu Tent Housewould have beena more authenticway of showcasing

India.

Gautam BhatiaArchitect and author

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for such multi-discipline in-ternational sporting eventsare available which did notfall into the debt trap, saysRoy, That is because Los An-geles is the only city that didnot build new facilities forthe summer Olympics that ithosted in 1984.

In a study conducted at theNational Institute of UrbanAairs, senior research of-cer Debjani Ghosh, whoearlier taught urban plan-

ning at the School of Plan-ning and Architecture, NewDelhi, pointed out as much.Ghosh also did a comparisonwith the Asian Games thatDelhi hosted in 1982. If In-dia had to host the Common-wealth Games, such an eventcould only have been held inDelhi. No other city has theinfrastructure that Delhi al-ready had in place. No othercity, whether it be Mumbaior Kolkata, has the land, she

says, But those who marvelat the Asiad forget that thethen prime minister steppedin two years ahead of theevent, while in the pres-ent case the prime ministerstepped in only three or fourmonths ahead of the games.If you consider the absenceof a central command in thiscase, the authorities seemto have managed a prettydecent job in the end.

The cost however spiralledso much that, Roy says, thegovernment will have nooption but to raise at leastRs 3,000 crore per year justto service the debt. This willlead to an inevitable rise in

taxes and user charges, in-cluding a possible leasing outof the stadia and privatisa-tion of some of the yovers,he says. How else will thestadia pay for themselves?he asks, Surely, not by hold-ing such events once in 20years. I wont be surprisedif the government imposesa special games tax on fuel,too. Justice G S Singhvi ofthe supreme court expressedit most memorably when he

observed, barely a fortnightahead of the games, Till Oc-tober 15, Commonwealth isa public purpose, and there-after it will be private pur-pose... When the new bridgecollapsed, it collapsed like apack of cards. There is ram-pant corruption...

Ghosh agrees that the issueof legacy is linked directly tothe post-games use of the fa-cilities that have been creat-ed or renovated. Much will

depend on how these stadiaare used after the games. Un-less they are used on a regu-lar basis, there will be littleincentive to maintain them,she points out.

If these planners had theirway, though, Delhi would nothave spent so much moneyon such an event at all.

If I were to be oeredRs one lakh crore to spendon Delhi over three years, asthe organisers of these games

have done, I wouldnt takeit, says Roy, Delhi does notneed more than Rs 20,000crore for all the improve-ments it needs.

Menon, too, says that plan-ning for Delhi should not beconsidered in isolation, espe-cially since the budget underthe Jawaharlal Nehru Nation-al Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) for 60 cities acrossthe country over seven years,

including the share of thestates, is just about as muchas the amount spent on thesgames. In this context, therefore, even considering a budget of Rs one lakh crore for asingle city, any city in India,

is anathema to planners.Much of the problem aris-

es from this self-demeaningconcept of a world-class citysays Menon, If we just saythat we will deliver rst-clasgames, we can do so at a fration of the cost. If I were toplan such an event, I wouldhave done it anywhere but athis venue. Instead of relocaing slum-dwellers to Bawa-na, I would have held thegames in Bawana or Narela.

This alone would have re-duced the costs considerablyand developed an alternativarea at the same time.

Urban planners argue thatthe so-called development bequeathed by the games mayactually end up accentuatingthe citys problems. For ex-ample, they say that yoversserve just 13 percent of thetotal population that ownsprivate vehicles. They also ague that the expansion of the

metro is likely to concentratecongestion along its routes,clogging the city further.Strengthening the bus ser-vice would have made moresense, says Roy. In any case,the games have led to cre-ation and improvement of facilities in a small area, there-by widening the gulf with threst of the city. West Delhi,for example, has remainedlargely untouched by thesegames. The approach seems

to be to just accommodatethe trends. If more peopleare taking to drinking, let usbuild more whisky factories,seems to be the approachsays Bhatia, The need, onthe other hand, is to providea substantial upgrade of ba-sic facilities of drainage andso on to everybody, includ-ing in the slums and, equallyimportant, to clamp restric-tions on the unsustainable

You have madethe city evenmore attractive.You have made astrong magnet evenstronger while you

needed to create analternate magnet.So, will you arriveat solutions, orattract more

problems?A G K MenonConvenor, Delhi chapter, INTACH

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Laltuncobbler, BadliCleanliness is only beingensured in places where thegames are being held. Lookaround this place. There is nocleanliness here. Poor peopleare dying of dengue every daybut no one bothers. They are

spraying medicines only nearthe stadiums. Looking at thispart of the city, can anyonemake out that we are hostingthe Commonwealth Games?

Virendra Yadavproperty dealer, Badli

Just look at the roads here. Thereare so many potholes. Water collects

here and it gives way to mosquitobreeding. The government has

nished constructing yovers andmet deadlines for new metro routes,

but no one has come to completeunnished work in the villages.

No new yovers have come up inthis part of the city. Roads havent

been repaired after the rains. Badliunderpass is still under constructionand trac jams are as bad as ever.

Mahesh Yadavdry fruit seller, Samaypur

The government is improving

infrastructure ahead of theCommonwealth Games, but oncethe games are over, they will not

bother about it a bit. There willbe no maintenance and the citywill come back to where it was

before the makeover started.They are building roads and

yovers for public conveniencebut this is being done in selected

places and not in the entire city.

BaDlI,DElhI

sonal matha

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habits of the growing middleclass. Whether it is for owner-ship of land or of cars, there isneed to restrict the increasingconsumerism of the middle-class. Some people say it isundemocratic to do so. What

nonsense! All great cities inthe world, whether Copenha-gen or Vienna, are liveableonly because they have eec-tive restrictions in place.

Bhatia is not alone in lash-ing out at the governmentsbasic approach to planningfor the city. If you can limitthe number of coolies, autosand cycle-rickshaws, why notcars? asks Roy. He says itis also a complete myth thatthere is no choice but to relo-

cate slum-dwellers to Bawa-na. There is enough land,right here in South Delhi, hesays, If you can destroy theridge and give away the landfor building malls and a ve-star hotel in Vasant Kunj, orto malls in Saket, why cantyou build houses instead? If aDelhi Haat can come up overa drain, why cant houses?

Roy says he would ratherspend on just housing andcreating livelihoods to trans-

form Delhi into a more live-able city for all. Dont buildhouses for the poor. How cana family earning Rs 3,000 permonth aord to pay upRs 60,000 at one go, as thegovernment is demandingfrom those who have beenrelocated? Give them plotsinstead. People can alwaysbuild houses for themselvesin a more cost-ecient man-ner. Just give them plots andaccess to credit, he says, and

adds, Similarly, all you needto do is just support liveli-hoods. Provide sanitationand other infrastructure tovendors, for instance. Thesepeople will manage the restthemselves. But to do thisyou have to rst understandand appreciate that streetfood, for example, is organicpart of the city.

Planners are therefore ar-guing for sustainable Indian

solutions to Indian problems.I dont think much of whatthey have built using the

games as the excuse is rel-evant for the city either todayor after the games, says adisappointed Bhatia. Menonsays the problem stems fromthe desire of those among thedecision-makers to transformDelhi into Shanghai or Singa-pore instead of a global Indi-an city. Forty percent of Del-his population lives underthe poverty line. If I have toplan for Delhi, I cannot turnto any Western city for solu-

tions. None of them has asmany poor people. I can lookto them for best practicesbut not for solutions. Whereis the plan to make Delhi amore liveable city for thissection of the population?The only solution the organ-isers of the games oeredwas to turn these people out,Menon fumes.

Suri says the expansion ofthe metro is a prime exampleof wastage of public mon-

ey. Why couldnt the exist-ing railway lines be used forthe Delhi Metro? Delhi al-ready had a ring railway be-sides several railway linesconnecting Rohtak, Rewari,Ghaziabad, Agra and Loni,among other places. Wherewas the need to set up a sepa-rate infrastructure at suchcost? Now, even after spend-ing so much on the metro,is the metro able to serve a

majority of the commuters?The answer in this city willalways be no, he says. Theimportant issue in terms oftransport, says Bhatia, is connectivity more than evenincrease in the number of

modes of transport. Every-body living anywhere acrossthe city should be connectedby reliable public transport,which is still not the case de-spite a massive expenditureon the metro. There is a longstanding need to augment local forms of public transporfor short distances, he says.

One legacy of the Asiadin 1982, reminds Ghosh, isthat most of the labourersdid not return to their na-

tive places. Perhaps thatis why the organisers havebeen very clear that this timround the labourers shouldbe made to return home,she says, But what if thesepeople stay on and becomepart of the cityscape? Willthey add to the number ofslum-dwellers?

Menon says the organis-ers have violated a clas-sic town planning strategyin this respect. The funda-

mental principle is that youdont add to the congestionin an already congested areaIn this case, however, youhave pumped money into acity that has already beena strong magnet for peoplefrom across the country. Oneof the main problems fac-ing Delhi is that there is norestriction on the number ofpeople ocking to the city.But now, you have made thecity even more attractive.

You have made a strong manet even stronger while youshould have created an alternative magnet. By doing so,will you arrive at solutions,or attract more problems?

Unfortunately, the questionis a complete no-brainer. Itseems Delhi dazzled duringthe games only to deceive inthe long run. n

[email protected]

If I were to beoered Rs one lakhcrore to spend on

Delhi over threeyears, I wouldnttake it. Delhidoesnt need morethan Rs 20,000

crore for all theimprovementsit needs. I wouldspend the sum onlyon housing andlivelihoods.Dunu RoyDirector, Hazards Centre

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CWG Con Job

god knows d

With trac lights like this one at Lodhi Road designed more to be hidden rom public eyethan to help... God knows Delhi needed trac lights like this at Lodhi Road (at the samecrossing as the well-hidden one) which are visible rom ar.

With zig-zag-zoom being the avourite past time o every Delhi motorist... God knowsDelhi needed trac lane discipline.

With autos spewing venom...God knows Delhi needed e-rickshaws a long time ago.

But for Gods sake, did Delhi have

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elhi needed...

With railway stations looking worse than horsestables... God knows Delhi needed a railwaystation it wouldnt be ashamed o.

With historical monuments resembling publicurinals, God knows Delhis history needed a goodacelit.

With every Delhiiteand all visitors beingtaken or a ride by

the autowallahs...God knows Delhisautowallahs neededlessons in etiquette.

With Blueline buses

killing more thantransporting... Godknows Delhi neededa disciplined and saefeet.

With hardly anyexclusive acility totreat sports inju-ries... God knowsDelhi needed a su-perspeciality sportsinjury centre.


wait for the Games to realise this?

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GovernanceNow | July 1-15, 201028

ThoSe oUND wANTING IN TheIR CAll o DUTy

Governance Now Roundtable


CWG Con Job

Cuprits of Commonweath Games

Lieutenant governor oDelhi Tejendra Khanna:Games village was meantor DU students. As DDAchairman, bailed outcontractor with Rs 700 cror fats that will now besold to the super rich.

Delhis chie ministerSheila Dikshit: Createdquestionable legacy orDelhi with massive pub-lic spending while blam-ing multiplicity o author-ity and rains or all-roundmess in the run-up.

Prime minister Manmo-han Singh: Acted as i itwas none o his businessor six years, until it wastoo late. Then evoked na-tional pride and honour.Held o accountability topost-show.

Urban development min-ister S Jaipal Reddy: Hadkey role in readying inra-structure. Remained un-rufed throughout. Whena bridge collapsed closeto deadline, dismissed itas minor incident.

UPA chairpersonSonia Gandhi: Seemedto think it was beingheld on some otherplanet. One word romher would have changedthe course. Kept herselcompletely insulated.

Sports and youth aairsminister M S Gill: Igno-rance personied...aboutplayers and prepared-ness. Renovations ostadia cost a bomb andmissed deadlines.Busied with photo-ops.

Mani Shankar Aiyar: Assports minister, reusedsanctions to projects,badmouthed everyoneor holding the games,prayed or its ailure.When all his anticsailed, fed the city.

Cabinet secretary K MChandrasekhar: As heado bureaucracy, took nonote o bad planning,huge public spendingor the games until PMasked him too close tothe deadline.

Congress generalsecretary Rahul GandhiPM-in-waiting holdsimmense power (ask Niyamgiri tribals). Shirkedresponsibility, said hewas busy 24X7 buildingpartys youth brigade.

Organising committeechairman Suresh Kalma-di: Lorded over the showmarred by messy run-up,corruption, nepotism,poor hygiene, missingplayers, missing crowds.Took no responsibility.

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Dateline Ayodhya continues to spark heated

debates elsewhere but in this quiet holy town,fanaticism has given way to pragmatism and holymen are demanding economic development rst

Aja Sing

man is essen-tially an eco-nomic animal.

If you dontbelieve this

Marxist maxim, visit Ayodhyaand meet those who profess tohave renounced the materialworld and aspire for the ethe-real one. Mahant Man MaheshDas of Nayak Mandir heads agroup of holy men and writesfrequently to prime minis-ter Manmohan Singh aboutthe Ram temple construc-tion. His dilapidated ashram

is situated in the heart of Ay-odhya, it is called Pramod Van(forest of joy), which ironicallylooks like ruins of old concretestructures with deplorable civ-ic facilities. He blames it all onthe RSS-VHP combine.

The mahants anger againstthe RSS-VHP is expressed in arather queer manner. He hasdecided to give his 25 bighas ofland to Muslim tenants to till.At least I will get a fair shareof my agriculture produce af-ter every crop and there willlbe no attempt to capture theproperty, the mahant says ina worldly-wise tone.

He is right. For the past10 years, the VHPs agenda

of self-aggrandisement hasrubbed many holy men of Ay-odhya the wrong way. Realestate prices have shot up be-cause the VHP had boughtlarge tracts of land in the tem-ple town. This has left local

sadhus a sulking lot.In fact, the entire edice of

economy in Ayodhya is builtaround devotees, prasad (oer-ing to gods) and large ashramsowned by sadhus. In the pasttwo decades, the economy hasalso been lying in ruins thanksto a series of confrontationalagitations led by the RSS-VHP-BJP. There is palpable angeramong sadhus over the monu-mental neglect of Ayodhya in

terms of development. Signicantly enough, there is a stronclamour among holy men toput Ayodhya on the develop-ment agenda.

Can Ayodhya be comparedto any city like Varanasi, Hard

war or Allahabad? asks themahant while lamenting thedwindling tourist ow to thetemple town. In his view, people have stopped visiting Ay-odhya because of the VHPsRam Janmabhoomi agitation.What makes our life dicultis the call for agitation by theHindutva parivar every year,he says, referring to the factthat the deployment of forcesin Ayodhya had led to a spiral

Reading Marx inAodha

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The consolation for those who electedthese exible people into power is thatpoliticians are doing it all for our good.They are willing to do anything in theservice of the people even if it meansthat they make substantial gains in thebargain.

It never occurs to them how badly theirown party is treating them. It is as if theleader is saying, Listen, you keep awayfrom temptation, and hide from our op-position because we know how frag-ile you are and how easily you can bebought by the other side too.

This insults the resort-politicians in-telligence, his integrity which has beenbought at a price, and his ability to nego-tiate through representatives.

The writer Suketu Mehta in his story ofMumbai has written about the way rack-eteers operate under powertoni. He as-sumed this was a local expression, butrealised after a while that it was a con-traction of power of attorney. As Mehtaexplains, it is the awesome ability to acton someones behalf, or to have others doyour bidding, to sign documents, release

wanted criminals, get people killed. Powertoni: A power that does not originate iyourself, a power that you are holding osomeone elses behalf.

Politicians have powertoni all the timeThe game follows a pattern. Rebels pre

pare to pull the rug from under their owgovernment; the party in power respondby asserting its moral if not numericalsuperiority. Stories planted in the mediahint at big names being signed up, rath-er in the manner of footballers or Formula One drivers.

Then come the compromises. Politi-

cians who wouldnt be caught breathingthe same air now discover new blood relationships. There is much hugging andkissing as leaders decide to sink their difference. To bury the hatchet, and not inone anothers backs. All in the nationalcause. Those who missed out on theholiday resorts know that another crisisis just around the corner.

No resorting to force here, just the re-verse. n

[email protected]

The consolation for thosewho elected these exible

people into power is thatpoliticians are doing itall for our good. They arewilling to do anything in theservice of the people evenif it means that they makesubstantial gains in thebargain.

ashIsh asth

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Home minister P Chid-ambarms penchant forwritten communication has

caused consternation amongbureaucrats. The home minis-ter seeks report on every min-ute thing. His favourite notingon the le is reported to beobtain comments and thele is sent to the concernedocials. Since Chidambaramis regarded as a punctilioushome minister who caresabout the quality of the lan-guage and content, it nor-mally consumes much of theworking hours for chiefs of the

Central Police Organisations (CPOs)to draft a response for perusal ofChidambaram.

Sources in the government ad-mit that the heads of the CPOs areon tenterhooks whenever theyget a le from the home ministerwith his noting on it. A senior o-cial said most queries were noth-ing but meaningless exercises.Since the law and order and its

implementation falls within the ju-risdiction of the state government,

CPO ocials have adequately learntthe art of writing a response thatwould please the minister with-out saying anything new. Ocialshowever admit that in the processthey are being groomed in the artof good writing without saying any-thing categorically. Of course theirtraining in internal security has tak-en a back-seat in view of their newpreoccupation.

M any in North Block are not happy with theprime ministers troika of governor-con-sultants West Bengals M K Narayanan, Andhra

Pradeshs E S L Narasimham and Punjabs ShivraPatil, who reportedly advise the PM on nearly everything from Maoists to Ayodhya. Some policyaides, mostly junior ministers and bureaucrats,resent having to share space with the three. PMOknows what we think, but,

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