]]>Some of the immediate steps to be taken are,
Some people think that goonda menace won’t affect them. But you will never know when your time will come. Check the real life experience of an engineering student from Trivandrum (CET),
The guy followed and started whacking me with the stick. Initially I shouted out, asking him not to hit me, telling them that I was a nobody (at that time I thought that this was because of the hartal). This was like a reflex action, since on thinking back on these events I never felt my brain giving the commands for me to shout and scream. I had probably got two or three hits then including the one which broke my left forearm. Doctors say that the first instinct when you are about to be hit is to raise the arm which you use for everything up for self protection. I being left handed raised my left arm. I was rolling on the ground when I got my first hit in my face, on my right cheekbone. I fell silent at that point. I could only hear a ringing sound. I stopped feeling pain. Even though I was fully conscious, I didn’t feel any of the subsequent hits. The attackers left me on the road.
The incident above is nowhere near a real goonda attack, but should give you an idea about the menace. The residents of Men’s Hostel are also culprits in this case. It is also notorious for the brutal “ragging” of first year students.
Ragging is another type of goondaism which may force people to take law into their hands. If your son or daughter is sexually assaulted by a gang of thugs what will you do? What will you do if the principal says - “hey man, forget it. It is part of life”. My opinion is that the hostel warden or the principal should get bigger punishment than the culprits since it happened under their watch and if they try to suppress it.
There are two killings in Trivandrum where the wrong guy was killed by a “quotation team”. In one of these cases, the brother of the person killed took his revenge by killing one of the gang members. Remember, you and me could be next.
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]]>Yet caste based divisions are still strong. There is a strong undercurrent of both caste based and religion based politics. Take an example - Sri Narayana Guru was a visionary who realized that caste system is a plague. He said "Jaathi chothikkaruthu, parayaruthu, chinthikkaruthu" (Don’t ask, don’t talk and don’t even think about caste). But it is unfortunate that even the organization he founded is now hijacked by people who wants to spread the caste plague in our state.
Now in addition to all the caste and religion based problems, our government has now been successful in introducing a new economic based caste system. Currently it falls into two categories - APL and BPL. APL means "Above Poverty Level" and BPL means "Below Poverty Level". Now there are even proposals to create additional categories such as WBPL (Way Below Poverty Level) and WAPL (Way Above Poverty Level). Now if you thought introducing such system will eclipse caste based systems, you are wrong. It has only increased the divisions further. Now you have APL Muslim and BPL Scheduled Tribe etc.
Obviously one of the primary mandates for a government is to help who are economically backward. But this has to be done in a sensible way and a practical way. In the case of APL/BPL the objective obviously should be that in next few years, we should have zero BPL families in the state. Unfortunately this is not what is happening. Every year, BPL numbers are only increasing. Businessmen and NRIs who earn lakhs of rupees per month are also included under BPL and are given so much benefits that the families in APL are being squeezed like anything.
Governments have been increasing all types of taxation. Electricity charges, water charges, building tax etc have registered 200% to 1000% increase in last few years. Government ensures that BPL families are excluded from these rises. Which in turn affects APL families more. It has reached such a stage that these subsidies and taxes have made the living conditions of a lot of APL families to the level of BPL families. So instead of achieving merit based social progress, government actions are in some aspects turning out more poor people at the same time making a section of people lazy.
Another problem is the ridiculous level that the issue of reservation has reached. Any developed society would remove all types of reservation other than those for the physically disabled or those in dire economic conditions. But in India, we are going in the opposite direction (For example, the creamy layer was increased to 4.5lakh rupees in Kerala. This is an unfair definition but there is even demand to increase it to 7.5lakhs!!!) The following is possible future scenario in India,
A businessman sets up an administrative office. He needs to recruit 10 people for his office. According to the law of 2012 (actual scenario could be worse in the sense that there would be no general merit quota), his staff must include (the scenario is tailored for the reservation system in Kerala),
Reservation was adopted after independence to give all sections of society and equal opportunity. Reservation was time bound and was supposed to be removed within 10 years of independence. However, it has grown to a monster which in long term has the potential to destroy our country.
]]>Improve public transport- For example consider Trivandrum city. If there is good and comfortable public transport, a lot of people will abandon cars/bikes and would take the public transport. Unfortunately, forget about comfortable travel, if you are a female, you will be harassed in KSRTC buses in the city. The problem is the overcrowding of buses. Government won’t allow private buses to operate, they won’t increase bus schedules or plan about metro rail in the near future. Same applies for road infrastructure. There is a lot of resistance against widening a road to a two lane road in the city (from enviornmentalists, business interests etc.). There are many trees in Trivandrum city standing almost in the middle of the road since some idiots oppose removal of them.
Whenever a road is widened government could take enough land on both sides to plant trees as well. For every tree that is removed, two can be planted. In fact I am ready to pay a tax for it, if they are ready to acquire enough land on both sides of the road.
Waste collection & management- Except in city areas, there is no mechanism for waste collection/disposal. In trivandrum city, corporation runs a good waste collection group which charges just Rs.30 per month. This should be extended to other cities. Also there should be large collection bins across the city. Lack of these waste collection bins forces people to dump waste on the road during night or throw it on a river or lake during night.
Corruption in forest department- There is only one reason for deforestation in Kerala. The corruption of forest department. It is so easy to address this problem. Just visit the home of any forest department official. You will be surprised at the amount of wood used in his house! A large number of wildlife wardens regularly collect bribe from wood industries near forest areas for turning a blind eye. Now if a tourist enters the forest for trekking or something, the forest officials would beat him to pulp. So address the problem of corruption in forest department and you will address the problem of deforestation in Kerala. As they say in my village, without the knowledge of all powerful forest department, not even a squirrel can move in forest!
Limiting the use of plastic - Many environmentalists behave as if plastic is the worst thing invented by humans. In fact it is one of the most useful things that we have invented. However uncontrolled use of plastic is a problem. For example, in retail shops there is no need to use lightweight plastic bags and could be replaced by cloth bags. One of the retail chains in my area (Varkeys group) is giving out cloth bags for Rs. 1 per bag and it is a good idea. Whenever people adopt such good practises, government, media and other organizations should encourage it. But if someone says we should ban plastic buckets, I would call him an idiot.
Protection of waterways - This is one of the most important thing and is overlooked a lot. The pollution of rivers is one of the most serious problems we face. Discharge of untreated waste into river is one problem. Another is the direct plumbing of sewage to the rivers. Both should be banned. Unfortunately widespread corruption means you cannot do anything until you address the corruption problem.
But this should never prevent us implementing hydroelectric power plants. The alternatives in this case such as thermal plants or nuclear power plants is never a comparable solution. Whatever power conservation we do, our power requirements are going to double in the near future. If we don’t adopt the cheapest and most nature friendly solution (hydroelectric plants) we are doomed. Another interesting aspect is that a power plant and its associated administrative setup is quite useful in fighting corruption in forest department. For example, take the Idukky power project. After the commissioning of Moolamattom powerhouse, conservation of the forest around it has been successful.
Pesticides- Pesticides is the biggest threat to both environment and health of the people. Uncontrolled use of it is causing both direct damage and also slow poisoning of the population. There needs to be a concerted effort to limit the use of pesticides and promote traditional/organic ways of controlling pests. Unfortunately this is an area where environmentalists are a complete failure. Instead of blocking progress and development activities they should focus on things like pesticide control (Endosulfan is causing unimaginable suffering in Kasargod). You are able to stop railway lines and hydro electric plants but why can’t you stop pesticide abuse or the new phenomenon of genetically modified foods? Why are you going after coca-cola which contains 0.001% of pesticides while the drinking water supplied by government probably contains 1000 times more pesticide?
Thankfully we don’t need to worry about large scale pollution from industries. Our comrades have ensured that no industry can run in Kerala for a long time!
]]>It is like cutting your leg to fit it in the shoe.
KSEB has been increasing electricity bills under various heads. There is nothing called “customer service” in KSEB’s dictionary. But they are good in assaulting customers.
Recently I got a bill from KSEB and was stunned by the “terms & conditions” at the back of the bill. It says,
It is urgent that central government takes serious action to dismantle KSEB. Kerala government has been resisting the move since politicians fear that their ability for corruption will be affected (remember lavalin case?).
Here is an action plan for KSEB.
Here is a step by step guide,
1. Visit the "electoral search screen" at http://www.ceokerala.com/search.php
2. You can select either "legislative assembly" or "district" from this screen. Selecting district is the easiest option. In the following example, I selected "Trivandrum" then clicked on "Search".
3. In the next screen you will have options to search by two distinct fields. The first field can be used to enter your name or your electoral card number. The second field can be used to enter house name. Use the Malayalam online keyboard on the left side for data entry!
In the above I have selected "Mano" and clicked on search. What it shows me is the list of voters from Trivandrum whose name starts with Mano.
4. Now click on the "Thirichariyal card number" (electoral card number) to access your voter data.
5. Now click on the polling booth link at the bottom to get your polling booth information including the school and the booth number!!
Man, that is one cool stuff by government! 
And guys, don’t forget to vote. Now even your last excuse (I don’t know the polling booth) is not valid
Consider this scenario. You are a very careful fellow and takes every precaution before you buy your piece of land. You have worked 25 years and using all your savings you are buying 8 cents of land somewhere in the outskirts of a city. Now since you are aware of land mafia and other property disputes you are careful to ensure that all documentation is in order. You look at old registration documents and new registration documents and make sure that they are in order. You look at land tax receipts and ensure that ownership is clear. You take an "Encumbrance Certificate" from sub-registrar office which guarantees that the land has no liabilities or loans against it. You even look at any pending cases against the owner. You are sure that it is all clear.
You are happy and you bought the 8 cents.
After a few months, you decide build your dream house on the plot. Your land is in a village and you approach an architect. He says that in order to build the house you need permission from the Panchayat.
Till recently permission from Panchayat was not needed. Government has brought this new requirement much to the joy of Panchayat and other government officials. Now they have new ways of getting more bribe from the poor land owners.
When you approach Panchayat, they claim that the land is not yours!! You get a shock! You had all the necessary documents, but yet it is not yours! The re-survey department is saying that the land belongs to someone else. The re-survey effectively makes all your documents invalid!
Well, it turns out that the land is re-surveyed sometime in 1970 and hence it is now in some dead guy’s name. You are now frantic. The re-survey official is very happy. He got another victim to extract bribe from. You are now being asked for thousands of documents some of which are impossible to obtain. How can you get a "no objection" certificate from a dead guy. You are gradually becoming insane…..
This, my dear friends, is called the "Re-survey torture from Kerala". It will continue till the government dismantles the so called "resurvey department".
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