PUNJAB TODAY July 24-30, 2010 FRONT PAGE - THE MOTHER OF ALL FRAUDS - Rs 80,000 Crore

The Great Rajasthan Loot

TOP EXPERT IN INTER-STATE DISPUTES, PRITAM SINGH KUMEDAN BRINGS OUT THIS SHOCKING STORY

Right from the PM, they were all party to it. Plans were drafted overnight and Punjab was told it will get compensation for its waters later from Rajasthan. No one disputes that. Now that rough estimates show Punjab has been looted to the extent of Rs 80,000 crore by Rajasthan, will our politicians wake up and act? 

Punjab must reclaim its Rs 80,000 Crore from Rajasthan

This is the great rip off trick played upon Punjab. For several decades now, Rajasthan has been using waters from Punjab’s rivers, waters for which it was to pay, for which it had agreed to pay. Everything is a matter of record. Documents are available, and experts have the same view on it. Yet, when Punjab made a demand for royalty for the waters, such hue and cry was raised. Inter-state disputes expert Pritam Singh Kumedan lifts the veil. 

For far too long, Punjab has been demanding royalty for the river waters that it has given to Rajasthan. Even the highly controversial Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004 included a clause, called Clause 5, that provided legal cover for the continuous flow of these waters to Rajasthan. But it is not even the case of Rajasthan, or anyone else for that matter, that these waters were not to be paid for.

In fact, as this article will prove clearly and convincingly, the state of Rajasthan was to pay for these waters and the cost was to be calculated later as the agreement of 1955 was reached in a hurry because of an international aspect of the waters problem. 

Pritam Singh Kumedan

For too many decades, Punjab has been fighting with Haryana over the SYL canal, and the entire dispute over waters has been reduced into a Punjab versus Haryana binary but one very important part of the dispute has been left uncommented upon, and has completely moved outside the public or the media gaze. So much so that even the experts dealing with the river waters issue and questions of availability of waters in Ravi and Beas have not been heard talking about this aspect.

The recent demand by Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the concomitant expression of 

disagreements from Haryana have triggered the debate but the latest spat between the two states over the floods induced by a couple of days of rain should not be allowed to obscure the very, very important aspect of the royalty debate. While 'royalty' is a term used by Mr Badal, we are merely concerned about the cost and compensation for the water that is, and has been, flowing into Rajasthan from Punjab. 

But first, some historical facts need to be gone into. The story is thrilling, to say the least, if you care to stick with the narrative

In the Conference held on 29 January 1955 under the Chairmanship of Gulzari Lal Nanda, the then Union Irrigation and Power Minister, it was decided to give 8.0 M.A.F. of Ravi-Beas waters to Rajasthan. Nowhere was it said that the water is to be given free-of-cost. 

In fact, it was specifically decided that the cost of water will be worked out separately by the concerned states since the Conference was concerned only with distribution of water. This cost of water that has gone to Rajasthan has not been calculated so far, and it is this cost that we plan to put a rough ball park figure to, as suggested by experts.

About 40 crore Acre feet (400 M.A.F.) of water has gone to Rajasthan from Punjab's rivers over the last 40 years. 

Besides this, Punjab also has to be compensated for the depletion of 40 crore acre feet of its sub-soil water and the cost of electricity for pumping out this water. 

But under what circumstances was the water actually allocated to Rajasthan? 

The Pre-partition story

After the Partition of the country in 1947, a "Standstill Agreement" for maintaining the pre-Partition allocation of water to West Punjab was signed in December 1947 at Shimla between East Punjab and West Punjab governments. This Agreement was to expire on 31 March, 1948, unless renewed. In spite of reminders, West Punjab did not bother to get it renewed. On April 1, 1948, East Punjab cut off water supplies to Upper Bari Doab Canal, taking off from Madhopur, and Dipalpur Canal, taking off from the right bank Ferozepur headworks. The result was that Lahore city was deprived of its main source of water supply and 8% of culturable command area in West Pakistan found itself without water. 

S. Swaran Singh was then the Irrigation Minister and S. Swarup Singh was Chief Engineer of East Punjab. 

This water tap to Pakistan was turned off without making any reference to the Central Government. No wonder, this cutting off of water supplies led to great resentment in Pakistan and a war-like situation developed between the two countries. 

Eventually, the West Punjab Government sent two Chief Engineers to Shimla for negotiating a new agreement. A new agreement valid up to October 1948 was signed on 18 April 1948, in which East Punjab asserted that as per Punjab Partition (Apportionment of Assets and Liabilities) Order, 1947, and the Arbitral Award, the proprietary rights in the waters of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rest wholly in East Punjab government and that West Punjab shall have to pay seigniorage charges (water royalty) for supply of water to CBDC (i.e. Pakistan portion of UBDC) and Dipalpur Canals. West Punjab Chief Engineers agreed and signed the agreement. Subsequently, an agreement more or less along similar lines was signed between the two Dominion Governments on May 4, 1948 at New Delhi. 

This Agreement was signed on behalf of India by Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, N. V. Gadgil, Minister for Works, Mines and Power, Government of India and Swaran Singh, Minister of Irrigation East Punjab. On behalf of Pakistan, it was signed by Ghulam Mohd, Minister of Finance, Government of Pakistan and Shaukat Hyat Khan and Mumtaz Daultana, both Ministers of West Punjab. 

Pakistan agreed to pay for water to East Punjab an amount that was to be specified by Prime Minister of India and deposit the same in the Reserve Bank of India. After some time, Pakistan started back-tracking on the agreement on the ground that it was signed under duress and is, therefore, not legally binding. India registered the agreement with U.N.O. on 10 May 1950. Pakistan, subsequently, terminated it unilaterally. 

As the water dispute was leading to great tension between the two countries and could have led to war, the World Bank stepped in and offered its "good offices" to settle the dispute, an offer that was accepted by both India and Pakistan in March 1952. 

In May,1948 after signing the agreement, Pakistan started digging a new supply channel on the right bank of Sutlej, five miles upstream of Ferozepur headworks (where both banks of Sutlej fall in Pakistan) to connect it directly to Dipalpur canal. India took strong objection to this and Pakistan, therefore, stopped digging the diversion channel in July 1948. 

In May 1948, when Pakistan had posed the threat of by-passing Ferozepur headworks by constructing a new channel from the Sutlej in her territory, just above Ferozepur, East Punjab decided to construct a new barrage at Harike. In April 1949, East Punjab was asked by Central Government to submit at an early date, proposals for the construction of this barrage. 

By the end of 1950, it was decioded that the Harike Barrage Project should include one head-regulator with a capacity of 7000 cusec for the proposed Ferozepur and Sirhind Feeders and another head-regulator, with a capacity of 18,500 cusec, for the proposed Rajasthan Canal. East Punjab also drew up a plan for diverting 20,000 cusec of River Chenab waters to Ravi by constructing a diversion tunnel at Marhu (5 miles downstream the confluence of Chandra and Bhaga). The Harike Barrage was completed in 1952. The intake gates of the 7000 cusecs Ferozepur-Sirhind feeder and 18,500 cusecs Rajasthan Feeder Canal were sealed with masonry until the feeder and part of the Rajasthan Canal were ready for use. 

Central Govt's Fraud with Punjab   

Although, the decision to give 8 MAF of Ravi-Beas waters to Rajasthan was taken only on 29.1.1955 in the conference held under the Chairmanship of Gulzari Lal Nanda, Union Irrigation Minister, it seems the GoI had already made up its mind and taken all necessary steps to give Ravi-Beas waters to Rajasthan in 1949-50 itself when the plan to construct a barrage at Harike was just under consideration. 

Such was the awe and authority of the Central Government and the Planning Commission in those days that an unwilling East Punjab had to bow before illegal dictates of the Centre and agree to give 8 M.A.F. of Ravi-Beas Waters to Rajasthan. Bhim Sen Sachar was the Chief Minister and Ch. Lahiri Singh was the Irrigation Minister of Punjab in 1955. In April 1950, the Government of Rajasthan was asked by Government of India to undertake skeleton surveys of the areas likely to be commanded by a canal to serve parts of Rajasthan from Harike, Rajasthan government refused and the Government of India had, therefore, to get the survey done through its own agency. 

N. D. Guihati, in his monumental work, "Indus Waters Treaty", observes:

"It would be interesting to recall here that East Punjab preferred at that time to go ahead with the Bhakhra Dam rather than with the Bhakhra Canal and had almost to be forced by the Planning Commission, in which I was the Chief of the Natural Resources Division, to give the Canal a higher priority. At the same time, not only was East Punjab somewhat hesitant about schemes which would take the waters of the Indus rivers outside East Punjab into Rajasthan but also,  and surprisingly, the then Government of Rajasthan was averse to undertaking investigations for the Rajasthan Canal as it feared that, in the event of an adverse decision with regard to the use of these waters, Rajasthan might not be able to derive any benefit from such investigations. It was, therefore, decided that these investigations be undertaken by an agency of the Government of India and the costs borne by that Government. 

Decision to give 8 M.A.F. Ravi-Beas Waters to Rajasthan 

The decision to allocate almost half of Ravi-Beas Waters to Rajasthan was taken by the Centre at break-neck speed within a period of three weeks as a team of World Bank was to visit Pakistan and India in February,1955 to resolve the Waters dispute between the two countries and each country had to build up a convincing case. N.D. Gulhati, India's Chief negotiator and leader of Indian delegation for negotiating with the World Bank, writes:

"Earlier, at the beginning of January, the Bank had suggested a tour of Indus Basin to begin in the middle of February, to acquaint the new Bank team with the irrigation techniques and problems of the basin…Accordingly we had to be vigilant during the visit not only to counteract efforts of Pakistan but also to emphasize the urgency and importance of irrigation development in the Indus basin in India. Nothing would be as effective, I advised my Government, as concrete steps already taken before the field trip towards utilization in India of the entire flow of the Eastern Rivers. I urged, therefore, that work should begin immediately on the construction of the Rajasthan canal. This would furnish the best proof of India's needs."

"In January 1955, when it had been decided to undertake a study tour of the basin, I wrote from Washington emphasizing the urgency of reaching an interstate agreement and of according sanction to some of the proposed new works. This, I stated, was necessary to bring home to the visiting Bank and Pakistan groups, the need for, and the importance we attached to, the full utilization in India of the waters of the Eastern Rivers. Before the end of January, the necessary agreement between the States was secured by the Minister of Irrigation and Power, Gulzari Lal Nanda, under which 15.85 M.A.F. of the waters of the Ravi and the Beas, based on mean supplies in the two rivers, available over and above the actual pre-partition use in India., was allocated as follows between the States concerned: Jammu and Kashmir 0.65 MAF; PEPSU l.30 MAF; Punjab 5.90 MAF; and Rajasthan 8.00 MAF." 

It may be added here that it was not an 'Agreement' in real sense of the term between the States but only a 'decision' taken in a meeting and that too under duress. 'The decision' was never put up before Punjab Cabinet for approval and in fact was never shown even to the Chief Minister, Punjab. Union Ministry of Irrigation and Power wrote to the States concerned for confirming the minutes of the Meeting and after many reminders from that Ministry, Ch. Lahiri Singh, Irrigation Minister, Punjab, hesitatingly sent only one line reply: "Minutes of the Conference held on 29.1.1955. are confirmed." 

Why Punjab Demanded only 5.9 M.A.F. Waters? 

The Centre had asked the States that white coming to the Conference on 29th January, 1955, they should bring along their requirements/demands for Ravi-Beas Waters. The instructions to the States were, that no area, which required lift irrigation should be included in the demand of Punjab or Pepsu. But for these instructions, Punjab and Pepsu would have demanded much more water by including Haryana areas and in that case no spare water would have been available for Rajasthan. 

Rajasthan gets Ravi-Beas Waters

Work on the construction of Rajasthan Feeder was actually started in March 1958 and by the summer of 1966, 134 mile Feeder and approximately 100 miles of 292 mile Rajasthan Canal had been finished. In the spring of 1964, the masonry was removed and metal gates installed. Some kharif irrigation was provided in 1964 along the upper reaches of Rajasthan Canal, using supplies released from Bhakhra. 

According to Rajasthan's own assertions, it is already getting 8 MAF of Ravi-Beas water (out of 8.6 MAF allocated to it as per 31.12. 1981 Agreement), about 1.5 MAF of Bhakhra water and 1.1 MAF for Bikaner Canal, i.e. a total of 10.6 M.A.F. So far, during the last 40 years, Rajasthan has received about 40 Crore Acre Feet (400 MAF) of water from Punjab's rivers. 

Cost of Ravi-Beas waters yet to be decided 

The Conference of 29.1.1955 was called in great hurry and only for the purpose of distributing Ravi-Beas Waters. Para 5 of decisions taken in the Conference stipulates: "The question of allocation of the cost of water including the cost of storage and other works may be taken up separately as the conference was concerned only with the distribution of supplies."

S. Harbans Singh, Chief Engineer, Irrigation, Punjab (retd), who was dealing with the subject in 1955 as XEN, has told me that they tried to discuss the question of payment for water by Rajasthan, but were snubbed on the ground that the Conference was concerned only with the distribution of water and that the cost of water etc. may be discussed by the States separately.

The reason why the question of payment of cost for water to Punjab by Rajasthan has remained dormant for the last 40 years is that Rajasthan started getting water for Rajasthan Canal only after about 10 years of the Conference. At the same time, Punjab was reorganized in 1966 and dispute about SYL Canal started with Haryana. The result was that clause 5 of the decision of the Conference dated 29.1.1955 was completely forgotten and Punjab has not worked out the cost/value of water supplied to Rajasthan so far. Nowhere, it is laid down or decided in any meeting or any conference that non-riparian state of Rajasthan would get Ravi-Beas waters free-of-cost. 

Precedents where non-riparian States paid for water 

Nowhere in the world has a non-riparian state ever got water even on payment and there has never been any claim or dispute about water by a non-riparian state in the whole world. However, in India, there are three instances, where non-riparian states got water on payment from riparian states because in those good olden days, there was abundance of water and most of it went waste to the sea. 

The three instances are: 

Sirhind canal: Agreement signed on 18 February, 1873 between the British Government and the non-riparian States of Patiala, Jind and Nabha, regarding Sirhind Canal, stipulated supply of water on payment of seigniorage by these States. 

Periyar River: The Periyar river rises on the western side of the Ghats where there is superabundant rainfall and falls into the sea close to Cochin, Tamil Nadu, then called Madras province, a non-riparian, entered into an agreement with Travancore-Cochin State and got water of Periyar River on annual payment. 

Gang (Bikaner Canal): Punjab agreed to give water to Bikaner State from Sutlej in 1918. Bahawalpur State objected on the ground that no water can be given to non-riparian State of Bikaner. Punjab gave water from its own share, an agreement was signed on 4 September,1920 and Bikaner State got water for Bikaner Canal on the basis of annual payment for water. 

But why the secrecy, and from whom? 

It may be noted that copy of 'Record of the decisions arrived at the Conference' circulated to the States concerned is marked SECRET (See picture).  It is quite intriguing why the decisions were to be kept secret. And secret from whom? Not from the World Bank and Pakistan because these were meant only to be shown to them and convince them about utilization. Obviously, these decisions were to be kept secret from the media and the people of Punjab, fearing that there may be resentment and agitation in Punjab against the decision of giving 8.0 MAF of Ravi-Beas Water to the non-riparian State of Rajasthan. The decisions were never brought to the notice or approved by the Punjab Cabinet or Chief Minister or the Chief Secretary. In 1955, the Chief Engineer used to be the Secretary of the Irrigation Department also. Ch. Lahiri Singh who was the Irrigation Minister, Punjab in 1955, reluctantly and hesitatingly confirmed the minutes of the Conference. Even now only officials dealing with the subject have any knowledge about the so called 'Agreement'. 

It is, therefore, time for Punjab to have a new look at the whole problem besides claiming cost/value of the water already supplied. 

Realising Rs. 80,000 Crores by Punjab from Centre & Rajasthan for Ravi-Beas Waters

Clearly, decisions that normally would have taken decades to arrive at, were taken in great haste in a matter of hours, ignoring all Constitutional and legal provisions. And above all, "the decisions" taken in the meeting held on 29 January, 1955 were kept "SECRET" and with the passage of time, after some years, were dubbed as an "Agreement" between Punjab and Rajasthan regarding distribution of Ravi-Beas Waters. 

As per clause 5 of the "Decisions" of this Conference, the question of cost of water was to be taken up separately as the Conference was concerned only with the distribution of water. This has not been done so far. Nobody has ever pointed this out during the last 55 years. It is time we do it now and also look at every aspect of the whole problem of giving water to Rajasthan from Punjab rivers afresh. 

Here are some more startling and interesting facts regarding this so- called "Agreement" of January 29, 1955:

Views of Shri Kanwar Sain, Ex-Chairman, Central Water and Power Commission regarding Agreement of 29 January, 1955:

 Shiromani Akali Dal launched Dharam Yudh Morcha in 1982 against injustice done to Punjab in the distribution of River Waters and Chandigarh etc. In order to resolve the dispute, the Central Government constituted a Cabinet sub-committee of five Central ministers to negotiate with the Akalis. Leaders of major political parties, such as L.K. Advani, Madhu Dandvate etc were also roped in. A meeting between this Central team and Shiromani Akali Dal representatives (Surjit Singh Barnala, Balwant Singh and Ravi Inder Singh) was held in New Delhi on 8 February, 1983. S. Parkash Singh Badal and S. Gurcharan Singh Tohra stayed back in Kapurthala House and guided the SAD team. This meeting remained inconclusive as there was stalemate regarding river-waters and the meeting was adjourned to 10th February. 

On 9 February, 1983,  Kanwar Sain, ex-chairman of Central Water and Power Commission, gave a press interview which appeared in the Press on 10th February 1983. He stated that Akali demand for reopening the whole river-water issue was fully justified and that even the Agreement of 29 January, 1955 should be re-opened. He also stated that the Agreement of 29 January 1955 was drafted by him and that he had given a note on the file, "Realities about the assessment of requirements may be different." He further stated that 24.3.1976 Award of Prime Minister, giving 3.5 MAF water each to Punjab and Haryana was not fair to Punjab. Punjab Today is in possession of the press interview appearing in the Indian Express dated 10th February, 1983). 

It may be mentioned here that Kanwar Sain was one of the top most and renowned irrigation engineers of India and retired as Chairman of the Central Water and Power Commission. He belonged to Haryana and after retirement, Bansi Lal, Chief Minister of Haryana, appointed him as Chairman of Haryana Development Board. He also remained Chief Engineer of Rajasthan Canal. He himself admitted that for these reasons he had soft corner for Haryana and Rajasthan. In spite of this, he boldly stated true facts and demanded justice for Punjab. 

In the meeting held on 10th February, 1983, the facts stated by Shri Kanwar Sain were brought to the notice of Central team. The meeting ended in stalemate and no meeting between this Central Committee and SAD Committee was ever held after that. 

Punjab's Requirements of Water 

Total net area under cultivation in Punjab is 1.05 crore acres. About 98% of this area is irrigated and double-cropped. Total cropped area of about 2 crore acres requires more than 5 crore acre feet of water annually. We have 85 lakh acres under wheat and 68 lakh acres under rice besides area under other crops. 

As per recommendations of PAU, rice requires 20 irrigations 3-inch deep. Thus rice alone requires 20 x 3 inch = 5 acre feet of water per acre of rice. Total requirement of water for rice alone thus comes to 340 lakh acre feet.

Punjab fulfills its requirements of water through canals, rain water and underground water.

Canals and rains account for about 2.5 crore acre feet of water (25 MAF) while the rest of 2.5 crore acre feet is ground water pumped by about 13 lakh tubewells.  Annual recharge is about 1.5 crore acre feet only, leaving a deficit of one crore acre feet annually. This excess extraction of one crore acre feet ground water results in depletion of ground water by about one foot annually.

It may also be pointed out here that in the Conference of 29 January, 1955, Punjab had put its demand of Ravi-Beas Waters at 59 lakh acre feet only (5.9 MAF) and PEPSU at 13 lakh acre feet, i.e. a total of 72 lakh acre feet (7.2 MAF) which was readily conceded. Shri S.L. Malhotra was the Chief Engineer-cum-Secretary Irrigation to Govt. of Punjab at that time, who worked out this requirement and there was no separate (IAS) Secretary Irrigation in those days. Not an inch of present Haryana's cultivated area of 88 lakh acres was included in the 7.2 MAF demand of Punjab. Had Haryana areas also been included in Punjab demand, not a drop of surplus water would have been available for allocation to Rajasthan and the whole of 15.58 MAF of surplus Ravi-Beas waters would have been utilized in Punjab itself and there would not have been any Rajasthan Canal. 

Depletion of Ground Water

As stated above, Punjab is extracting 2.5 crore acre-feet of under-ground water annually. Annual recharge of ground water is only about 1.5 crore acre feet, thus leaving a gap of about one crore acre feet which results in water-table going down by one foot annually. If Punjab had not supplied one crore acre feet of canal water annually to Rajasthan, there would not have arisen any necessity of pumping out this much underground water and annual recharge and drawl would have balanced each other. There would not have been any depletion of ground water which has now assumed alarming proportions.

According to a recent report of NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration of US) published in the August issue of the journal Nature, "Groundwater beneath North India decreases by one foot every year and if measures are not soon taken to ensure sustainable groundwater usage, consequences may include a collapse of agricultural output, severe shortage of drinking water, conflict and suffering and it can take thousands of years for aquifers to recharge." 

Experts say that wars in twenty-first century would be over water. Time is not far away when Punjab will face severe shortage of water even for drinking purposes. Giving one crore acre feet of water from Punjab rivers to Rajasthan is the only cause for this alarming depletion of ground water. 

Rajasthan Canal- Government of India's Brainwave 

Before 1948 nobody had ever thought of constructing a Canal for taking Punjab's Rivers Waters to the deserts of Rajasthan. In 1940s and 1950s, there was great shortage of food grains in India and huge quantities of food grains had to be imported every year. In order to boost food grains production, the Government of India launched "grow-more-food campaign". Efforts were made all over India to bring every available strip of vacant land under cultivation. An idea struck the Govt. of India and the Planning Commission that millions of acres of vacant desert land in Rajasthan could be brought under cultivation if water for irrigation could be arranged. 

In May 1948, India and Pakistan had signed an agreement regarding Ravi-Beas and Sutlej rivers of Punjab by which East Punjab's exclusive rights over the waters of these rivers were more or less accepted. 

Those were the days of single crop and there was no intensive agriculture. Knowing fully well that Punjab had no ready-made plans to immediately utilize these waters, Government of India found a golden opportunity to give these waters to Rajasthan. 

While giving approval to the construction of Harike Headworks in 1949, the Government of India asked Punjab Government to make provision for a 18,500 cusec canal for Rajasthan, which the Punjab Government obediently did. 

This was about six years before the 'Agreement' of 29 January, 1955. Harike Headworks were constructed in 1950-52 with a provision of 18,500 cusec canal for Rajasthan. Even the Rajasthan Government then had no idea or any hope of getting Ravi-Beas Waters and even refused to carry out any survey and the Centre had to do it at its own expense.

U.S.A. Bureau of Reclamation whose advice was sought by Government of India regarding Rajasthan Canal Project, advised against the construction of Rajasthan Canal. It advised that instead of wasting water in far away Thar desert, it should be utilized nearer home, where it would produce more food and fibre. However, the Centre ignored this advice and gave go-ahead to the Project. 

Value of Water 

In his monumental work, "The Indus Rivers", Prof. Aloys Arthur Michael of Yale University, U.S.A., says, "As in most sub-humid regions of the earth, water in the Indus Basin is more valuable than land. Had it not been for the modern irrigation network developed after the annexation of Sind and Punjab to British India in the 1840s, much of what is now the economic heart of West Pakistan would have remained essentially a semi-desert." The same applies to Rajasthan and parts of Haryana. 

Only recently, the Central Water and Power Commission issued a press-note stating that iron Gates of Madhopur Headworks had become very old with the result that 100 cusec water was leaking through these gates everyday and it was going waste to Pakistan. They put the annual value of this 100 cusecs at Rs 100 crores, which loss Punjab was suffering every year. Punjab is giving one crore acre feet or say 50 lakh cusecs of water to Rajasthan every year (1 cusec day=2 acre feet). On this basis, value of this much water comes to about Rs 14,000 crores annually. The total value of 40 crore acre feet of water supplied to Rajasthan during the last 40 years would thus come to Rs 5,60,000 crores. 

Loss on Account of Electricity and Diesel etc. 

The biggest loss suffered by Punjab for supplying one crore acre feet canal water to Rajasthan is that it has to extract this much extra ground water for its own use. There are more than 13 lakh electric and diesel operated tubewells in Punjab which pump out about 2.50 crore acre feet of ground water every year. As per PSER Commission, electricity consumed by these tubewells is more than 1000 crore units every year and value of this electricity at the rate of Rs 2.50 per unit comes to about Rs 2600 crores. However, as Punjab purchases electricity from other states at the rate of Rs 7 or 8 per unit, at this rate cost of this much electricity would come to more than Rs 7000 crores. Diesel operated tubewell is 4/5 times more costly than electric one. Due to shortage of electricity, many farmers use generators as well. Taking all these  factors into consideration, if we assume Rs 5 per unit as the cost of electricity, the total cost for 1000 crore units of electricity would come to Rs 5000 crores. 

Since Punjab is supplying one crore acre feet of Canal water to Rajasthan every year, it has to use 400 crores unit of electricity worth Rs 2000 crores every year for extracting this much ground water (40% of the 2.5 crore acre feet). Total amount spent by Punjab for pumping out 40 crore acre feet of water during the last 40 years would thus come to Rs 80,000 crores.

Had Punjab used one crore acre feet of its river water, the necessity of extracting this much ground water would not have arisen. This annual loss of 400 crore units of electricity is all due to supplying one crore acre feet of canal water to Rajasthan every year. 

The cost of boring and reboring tubewells, electric motors, diesel engines, generators, and other associated machinery and labour etc would be in addition to this. Out of 2.5 crore acre feet of ground water, one crore acre feet (i.e. 40 %) could also be debited to Rajasthan and 40 % of all expense on ground water could be debited to that state.

Punjab would have become top-most industrial state of the country if it had used this additional 400 crores units of electricity (free or subsidized) for its industry. And capital and industrialists would have come running to Punjab. Instead of being predominantly agricultural state, Punjab would have become a predominantly industrial state. 

Clearly, it is the legal right and the bounden duty of the Punjab Government and all the political parties of Punjab to recover this cost from Rajasthan. Is Punjab ready to take the step? It must.

The Revenge of Ghaghar

Punjab and Haryana are today blaming each other for floods. A strange variety of discourse is being constructed and de-constructed as if the problems of the region are because someone diverted the flood water to its neighbour. It is time we stopped playing these games and focussed on the real issues. Nature is doing to us what we are doing to the nature. This article has been penned by well known social activist and environmentalist Umendra Dutt after a journey alongside Ghaghar. He met the people, the land, the river, and brought a tale so sordid that unless we act fast, we will soon have no more tales to tell. 
 A Punjab Today Special 


Umendra Dutt


About two years ago, my friend, the famous singer Rabbi Shergill, wrote: "There is no doubt that it was just because of a major environmental change that the great civilization of Indus valley had completely vanished. The same reasons, in the same form, today exist before us. The only difference between the two situations is that in those times it was a natural disaster but this time it is man made." Rabbi compared the present situation of Punjab with that of the Sindh valley which was destroyed because of scarcity of water.

Umendra Dutt

'Sindh ghaatti ajj fir maran nu tyaar  hai', wrote Rabbi Will this really happen? It is a fading ecosystem, a dying civilization, a whole community being put on slow death. As Dr Amar Singh Azad, my senior colleague in Kheti Virasat Mission, puts it: "It is crime against humanity and nature by our own governments that too in the name of development."
If you want to see crimes against humanity, all you need to do is to visit the villages near Dhakansu drain and Ghaghar River in Patiala and Sangrur districts.
This was our third visit to any river or drain area to educate ourselves on environmental toxicity and its multiple impacts. For me personally, it was the second river I was trying to follow after Jayanti in Ropar district where I did a padyatra about eight years back. I found several similarities between disappearance of Jayanti and Ghaghar. Both rivers have lost their relevance since the people have forgotten what they stood for. Over the years, the river eco-system at both places has been ravaged and ruined by the developmental activities carried out in the name of modernity, the so called new thinking.
Let me share some more about our recent yatra which in simpler words was more of a field trip to learn about multiple crises of water, environmental toxicity, condition of agriculture, biodiversity, health crisis on vast spectrum and socio-economic stress around the Ghaghar river. All in all, a veritable ecological disaster.

Villages Up for Sale

The riverscape is extremely frightening. In recent times, there has been  much more talk about the acute health and water tragedy going on in few districts of Malwa region. But we all need to stand corrected. The deadly devastation has spread to all of Punjab now. Even as this is happening, some of our well-wishers continue to ask us: "Why are you activists creating so much scare?" Let me respond in the words of Dr. Azad: "Yes, we want to create a scare because it is real and because situation is far more destructive then our government thinks it is."
I understand that these are big words, but must not these be used when the idea is that big and scary? Punjab is a dying civilization. Several people may find this offending, ugly and uncalled for. But the indications we are getting from across the Punjab are making it clear that our establishment is signing death warrants of the whole river and related ecosystems in this part of country.
In what kind of a socio-economic set up do you see villages setting themselves up for sale? It symbolises a state of deep distress and devastation across Punjab. Let me illustrate with a real example. It was March 2002, and it was the first of its kind of protests in India in Harkishanpura of Bathinda district. This was followed by Malsingh Wala in Mansa district in 2005. Both these villages, embedded in the cotton belt of Malwa, have one thing in common: an acute water crisis. It is this situation that forced both villages to put their land on sale. Now, such water-distress has engulfed the villages of ecologically more prosperous area of Puadh. A village in Patiala district near Chandigarh - Mirzapur Sandharsi - is willing to put itself on sale too.
A visit to the village showed that Punjab is fast turning into a waterless region. It can be Harkishanpura, Mandi Khurd or MalSingh Wala or Teja Rohella, Dona Nanka near Fazilka or Mirzapur Sandharsi - village after village is being captured by severe water crisis.
There are several indicators to reaffirm of why Dr. Amar Singh Azad said that Punjab is a dying civilization. Severe multiple environmental toxicity stared us in the face as we travelled from Mirzapur Sandharsi to Harpalpur to Shahpur Theri and Makrod Sahib in Sangrur. After confirmation of presence of uranium traces in hair samples of children from Baba Farid Centre for Special Children and water and soil samples, it is certain that Punjab is in the midst of multiple environmental toxicity.
 There is a drinking water crisis due to drying-up of upper aquifers, plunging water quality, destruction of river eco-system and vanishing aquatic life besides loss of biodiversity and crop diversity. This, along with increasing health problems, particularly those related to reproductive health, falling immune capacity, early ageing and cancers, calls for a collective sense of shock. Combine it with falling agriculture productivity, increase in external inputs and rising debts and you have a recipe for growing disconnect between farmer and his land. No wonder, the farmers are selling their farms.  

Acute Water Stress and its Impacts

Punj-aab is fast turning into Be-aab and Punjabis of Be-aab Punjab are bound to become Be-abaad (displaced). Mirzapur Sandharsi underlines this sorry transformation. Surinder Singh, Sarpanch of Mirzapur Sandharsi, says the water stress is forcing them to a situation where they are ready to sell their entire village.
Harbans Singh, chairman of village cooperative society, said as there was no water left in two upper aquifers at 70 feet and 150 feet respectively -  the aquifer at 70 feet went dry about a decade back while the 150 feet one dried off five years earlier  the villagers are forced to dig 12 to 20 feet every year.
When the Ghaghar River was "alive" about 15 year back and its people full of zest, they never anticipated they would face with such acute depletion of water.
But ever wondered about who is ready to buy these villages and agricultural land? The farmers of Mirzapur Sandharsi sold their land to a distillery company which is set to draw water from 1200 feet deep aquifers. Villagers are hopeful that company will change their lives after getting water from 1200 feet deep bore-wells. What is ironic is that after exhausting all upper aquifers, the villagers are finding a solution in a factory producing alcohol as if they are the harbingers of hope.  What they perhaps chose not to see is that it is a distillery which has primarily caused destruction of all water sources and contaminated Ghaghar river and its banks.
From the agriculture point of view, the water that a distillery will access is not the same as the upper aquifers. Although farmers are able to cultivate wheat and paddy, there is no scope for vegetables as the water is extremely hard. It is no surprise then that no farmer is growing vegetables for the last ten years in Mirzapur Sandharsi village.
Vegetables have simply vanished, and now are sourced from as far as Ambala. Harpalpur's farmers used to sell veggies at Rajpura and Chandigarh, but no more now. It is the same story for Shahpur Their, Mandavi, Chandu, Makrodr Sahib and Foold. The vegetable and food growers are now mere consumers, adding an additional economic burden.      
Wheat yields have dropped drastically in the last few years in the area. Some are getting a yield of five quintals per acre of wheat. Usage of chemical fertilizers is zooming and farming is becoming an even more costly affair. Diversity of crops has gone for a kick, and ditto for diversity of species in livestock. Long past have gone the says when farmers would grow through combination inter-cropping of single crops like corn, basmati rice, cotton, sugarcane, wheat, mustard; millets such as pearl millet, barley and pulses such as toria, moong, masar, moth, alsi, til, tara-mira, gwara, arhar as well as chillies.

Biodiversity and Riverscape Lost

Farmers and people living in those times will vouch for the fact that all these crops were grown without any chemical inputs simply by irrigating their farms with Ghaghar water. But as Ghaghar has gone dry, the biodiverse farming system which flourished here for hundreds of years has also shriveled up.
The real and life sustaining wealth of the farmers - water, earth and diversity - stand plundered.  
This has also eroded traditional knowledge system of farming and farming techniques which relied on low or no cost utilisation of natural materials around a household or fields. Now farmers are entirely dependent on externally purchased seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and weedicides, confirms Jaswant Singh of Shahpur Theri.
All of this is further complicated by the acute situation on the farm debt front, said Harvinder Singh, Youth Club President of Shahpur Their. Our travels in the belt showed that it was not just Mirzapur Sandharsi. Too many villages would put themselves up for sale if they spotted a buyer. It is the saddest turn in human history when the farmers feel no more attachment to their village. In Punjab, that is a turn history has taken. Bad news is that our rulers haven't been jolted and worse is that we haven't registered the shock.
Our rivers are being murdered, their bounties are being plundered. Old timers recall a clean Ghaghar and the times when they used to drink its water. So many have seen the death of Ghaghar. So few are seen crying. Long lost are the memories of several perennial springs like Nadiya Taal from where people used to get water for the entire year, the memories of Dhaak and Dhaki trees, Jand, Kiker, and bushes of Duaansa. Now, forget about the diverse variety of birds, even spotting a crow or a sparrow has become a rare event.
Punjabis will find it hard to live with the tag of committing violence against nature. But are we ready for the time when nature will avenge itself?
The cancer cases that you see in the villages are one such form of revenge. Rising infertility and other reproductive health disorders are another. Add to this the neurological disorders, allergies and a severely injured immunity, childless couples, cases of miscarriages, spontaneous abortions and premature deliveries, congenital abnormalities, cerebral palsy, autism, learning and behavioral disabilities. The list of illnesses is much longer. The state of animal health indicates that toxicity has reached its threshold level.
We are fast moving towards total collapse of reproductive system. Apart from human beings, cows and buffalos are also losing their reproductive capacity. Lactation periods are down and reproduction cycles have come down to 5 from 15.

Question of Accountability

Today, Ghaghar is asking for justice. We need to fix accountability. Who is responsible for this ecological destruction? How we are going to give justice to Ghaghar, her inhabitants and the nature? Is it not clear to us that the liquor and wine distilleries at Banur, Patiala, Patran have killed Ghaghar? Everyone who issued those NOCs to these factories is responsible. And that includes the Punjab Pollution Control Board, the Revenue department and the Directorate of excise and taxation besides the Punjab's finance ministry. They are killers. Pure and simple.
Punjab needs a true and honest people's movement. Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal has already taken an initiative in this direction, but we need to go much further. . We need to talk political ecology and political economy of decision making. People have to start thinking politically to punish the environmental culprits of Punjab. We have to evolve newer ways to punish those who are responsible for this devastation.
The killers and destroyers of Kali Bein, East Bein, Budha Dariya, Sutlej and other rivulets of Punjab and the harbingers of water crisis in the districts of Faridkot, Muktsar, Bathinda and Mansa need to be named.
My friend Prof Shubh Prem Brar from Bathinda has rightly said, "The Southern Punjab is surrounded by toxic water ways; it is like garland of poisonous waters encircling the large area of Punjab." If you see the map of Punjab you see poisonous waters are encircling entire south, south-eastern and south-western region of Punjab. It is absolutely terrifying. Let's join hands to prove Rabbi Shergill wrong. Believe me, he will not mind. It is time to learn from the death of the civilization of Sindh Ghati. Rabbi does not want to sing any songs about how Punjabis killed their own rivers, their own civilization. Let's not give him the chance.

(The author is Executive Director of Kheti Virasat Mission, a Jaitu based civil society ecological action group working on natural farming and environmental health. For feedback, mail 
punjabtoday@gmail.com. Punjab Today intends to continue this debate since we believe that our politics must be guided by the real concerns of the people. At a time when fights for jal, jungle and zameen are on in the country, it is sad that large sections of the media are not playing their due role. We intend to change that.)

Controversy is knocking at the doors

Darshani Deodi Gates removed after 210 years for repairs, but something else needs some restoration too


Rita Manchanda

One would have thought that a task as sacred as restoration of the famous Darshani Deodi gates would be an occasion that will induce a fervour of religiosity and spirituality among the Sikh community and will only inspire our newer generation to know more about our history. One would have also expected, and rightly so, that thousands of young children would be asking why the Darshani Deodi gates were so important, where they came from, and how have they attained such huge place in Sikh sense of history.
Instead, as the SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar extended his hand for the mandatory photo-op, touching the historic silver gates when these were being removed and carted away, the questions that were tossed by sections of the community were rather disturbing.
And to add distrust to the context of utter failure to find unanimity and conciliation, Makkar himself put a question mark on the origin of the gates of Darshani Deodi by saying he does not want to comment on the origins of the gates. Such a statement is bound to put a question mark on the entire exercise.
Many political bodies of shades different than the ruling Akalis asked if there was any intention to return the gates to the Somnath Temple, and that too, under the influence of the Bhartiya Janata Party, with which the ruling Akali Dal has an alliance?
To prove that he had no such intentions, Makkar took some extra ordinary measures. Special glass enclosures have been erected. He had to announce that the Gates will not be taken out of the complex, not even for repairs, and that all repairs will be carried out in full public view inside the glass enclosures. A whole deal of time, energy and money is being spent on first filming, micro filming and preserving every inch of detail of the gates. And special assurances are being given that the details will not be changed and the gates will merely be repaired, not renovated.
All of this proves the extent to which the SGPC leadership has lost its trust, and what all it has to do to merely underline that if it wants to repair the gates, it will only do that and not run away with them and give these over to some temple. The centuries old huge gates at the entrance to the sanctum sanctorum of Golden Temple had their sandalwood base crumbling and the ivory carving and golden screws on the doors had suffered damage due to more than 210 years of exposure to the vagaries of time. Avtar Singh Makkar has been around for much less time, and seems to have suffered much more damage. Worse, no one is ready to vouch that it can even be repaired.
Since their installation in 1800 AD by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, this was for the first time that the gates were unhooked. Many historians believe the gates were originally from Gujarat’s Somnath Temple, which were looted by Afghan invaders in the 12th century, and which were later brought back by the Sikhs from Afghan hands. That story is part of the popular Sikh folklore for decades now. It is said that the Sikh warriors, after snatching the precious gates from the Afghans, had offered them to Hindus but the Somnath management had refused to accept the doors, terming them “impure” as these had been looked at and touched by the Afghans.
Now, with the advent of modernity and an idea of historical heritage taking deeper roots, there have been demands that the Gates be returned to the Somnath Temple. It is in this context that many had thought that the Gates were being removed with the hidden purpose of somehow effecting their return to the Temple. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) chief Simranjit Singh Mann, who was against the removal or any “tempering” with the gates, found support from many other radical Sikh bodies.
Both Makkar and the Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Gurbachan Singh tried to say that the Gates were being removed only for repairs but the trust deficit has been much more than the damage to the Gates, forcing Makkar to issue a statement that said, "The doors are sacred and ... work will be carried out inside the Golden Temple premises and the gates will not be taken out of the complex.”
He said he does not want to get into any controversy by commenting on the origin of the gates. His opponents said that was strange behaviour.
"Does fear of controversy stop anyone from saying a historical truth? And why is Makkar hesitant? Is he ashamed of the Sikh history? Is, of all the people, the SGPC president saying he is embarrassed or ashamed by a chapter of the Sikh history and will not comment on it?" asked a senior leader and opponent of the move to remove the Gates. Makkar is stuck on his "no comments" line: “We do not want to get into any controversy. The gates need repair and we are duty bound to restore them to their traditional pristine glory.”
To underline the levels to which the SGPC president is suffering the trust deficit, members of the Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Committee sat outside the complex to ensure that the gates were not taken out.
Now, restoration cum preservation of the Darshani Gates will be carried out as kar sewa under the supervision of Baba Kashmira Singh Bhuriwale. “A five-member committee headed by Golden Temple head priest Jaswinder Singh will overview the repair work. Gates made of silver have replaced the original gates till the repair is completed, which may take a year,” Makkar said. Clearly, Makkar delayed the Darshani Deodi gates' removal for a year but failed to find conciliation with the opponents. Unfortunately, there is little chance of anyone taking up the kar sewa of Makkar's reputation that has suffered extensive damage due to his behaving more as a minion at the beck and call of his political masters than as a leader of the SGPC. Will our leaders learn from the past?

The Politics of Deluge

From the flood front, the story of a man who reached home late, a child who missed school and a boy who did not turn up for his girl


Nischay Pal

If a man reaches home late, there is a human story involved. If a child misses school, there is a human story involved. If a boy fails to turn up for his girl friend at the rendevous, there is a human story involved.
But not so for the governments in Punjab and Haryana. Nearly twenty people have died in floods, thousands of acres of land lies submerged in flood waters, many lives are at stake, thousands of victims are going hungry and uncared for, and hundreds are making efforts to plug breaches, dig up roads to create water channels and do all they can to pick up pieces of shattered lives.
But amidst all of this human tragedy, much of it man made, the governments of Punjab and Haryana have come out as the most petty stake holders, blaming each other for having diverted the flood waters to the other and hurling accusations of who was supposed to do what.
For the two governments, there is no human story involved even if a father did not come home, a child missed school and a boy did not turn up at the rendevous point because one was washed away by the flood, one was electrocuted and one had to rush to retrieve his parent's body. Now, don't ask who was electrocuted, and who got washed away or lost his parent, because for those who were supposed to care, there was no human story involved.
For the farmer who had taken a loan for paddy transplantation, who had fought at the railway platforms to get migrant labourers, who had taken a tractor on rent, and whose daughter was to be married in a few months' time, the flooded fields meant a shattered life. He can't face his daughter and tell her he would have to reschedule the marriage, fixed in the month of the harvest, because someone had dug an illegal canal in Haryana or diverted some Ghaghar water into the SYL.

A Dostovesky would have plumbed the depths of the soul of such a bride not-to-be, and a more sensitised government would have been seen carrying a cross and working overtime to get relief to the people. In an evolved democracy, you would have seen teams of pyschologists fanning out to deal with the trauma that young children would be facing at the turn of events. But in Punjab and Haryana, all you see is news of more breaches in canals and irrigation drains, and some more mud-slinging.
The politicians, whose careers are built around an 'After me the deluge' philosophy, have used even a tragedy of this level to serve their petty ends.
Even as trains stood halted and terminated at various stations enroute, and TV channels flashed frightening pictures of gushing flood waters from the SYL breach, the stress was not on getting the information through about how bad the situation is and what could be expected next, but on who was to blame.
For the man who reached home late, for the child who missed school, for the boy who could not turn up for the rendevous with his girl, the simple question was: Who is managing the things for us in such a way that a couple of days of rain has led to tragedies of such proportions?
Not one voice was heard that said, "Oops! We seem to have messed up." No political party said it was calling for a shut off to mobilise people for large scale community efforts to get the relief through. No media house announced a campaign to get large number of volunteers to areas where they were needed.
Hope lived on only in the form of local communities discovering the inherent strengths in working together. The men at the gurdwara, the youth in the village, the local dera sadh and his devotees, and the village sports club people, they were all there, mostly without a shirt on and with torrents of rain trying to bust their reservepools of camaraderie and strength.
Across the flood affected areas, the rag tag self-inspired armies of such dedicated  men and women were seen trying to do what governments failed to even attempt with all the resources at their command.
Instead, sophisticated insults were being flung on the people. Politicians sitting with the Deputy Commissioner of the area and other senior officials in inflated motorised boats venturing out to estimate the losses, another boat ferrying the media corps bringing up the rear. Who can let go of such a photo-op? The flood waters in the background, the mike thrusted in your face, the cameramen clicking like men possessed. After me the deluge. It was all so customised. "Look behind me. Can you see the deluge?" If only the politician could. He is the deluge. Behind him in the photographs are only human stories of the man who reached home late, the child who missed school, the boy who could keep his date.
Relief comes marked in boxes that scream "Relief". And politicians distribute it only after the banner is hung properly that shows the benevolent faces of men who are supposed to be caring for us. Every little step should be an opportunity to display your loyalty.
Unfortunately, neither the man, nor the child, nor the boy were in the queue when one or the other minister was contriving such potential photo-ops. They are miles away, stuck amid gushing waters and shattered lives, wondering what a couple of days of rain have done to their lives.

PUNJAB TODAY July 17-23, 2010 FRONT PAGE - The Politics of Deluge

As Punjab and Haryana hurl accusations against each other faster even than the speed with which gushing flood waters destroy lives, what is being lost sight of is one simple fact. That there are human beings involved in all of this. A breach in the SYL, a spill over in the Hansi Butana, or the threaten-ing waters of Ghaghar, they all claim lives, peace and hopes. Our politicians have proven unequal to the task & the only hope came from the people themselves who proved how communities can find the strength to persist.  

Harvest of grief

Telling tales of the living dead, and of the dead. But are we paying heed?

Kiran Dhruv-Sandhu 

Chotian, a village in Sangrur district of Punjab, has seen 65 suicides by farmers since 1990. The numbers in Balra — another village of the district — is a higher 87. But while the figures are given by an NGO, and could be debated, 85-year-old Gurnam Kaur is least worried whether the suicides by three men of her family are acknowledged or not. She has a more immediate concern — of feeding a family which has no male earning member left.
For Gurmit Kaur, the end of her father’s life also ended school education of her two younger sisters, and her plans to be a college graduate. Jasvir Kaur’s grief is coupled with a hint of guilt. “My husband was being hounded by moneylenders. I saw him tossing in the bed a night before he finally consumed poison, but I could not save him,” she says.
Filmmaker Anwar Jamal’s documentary ‘Harvest of grief’ is not about the numbers but families scarred by suicides. It puts together stories of women with a similar fate, involving debt, death and deprivation. From the aged Gurnam Kaur, who is left with no sons but granddaughters of marriageable age, to the physically challenged Nazma who has to fend for her two daughters and a son, the film pleads strongly for empowering women, as the agrarian crisis in Punjab claims more lives.
“As a filmmaker, it helps being an outsider as you have to be objective. But the plight of families where farmers have committed suicides shook us. All three earning men of Gurnam Kaur’s family committed suicide. When we went to her house she wanted to offer us tea but had no sugar or jaggery. The family had not bought lentils for four months. I told her since many in our crew have diabetes, we would have tea without sugar,” says Jamal, who has won 11 international and five national awards for his short films and documentaries.
Mechanisation, indisciminate use of fertilisers and pesticides, rapid soil depletion, rising seed prices, and the vice-like grip of loan sharks have landed Punjab in a severe agricultural crisis.Suicides by famers are fast becoming the norm, leaving in its trail widows and orphans grappling with an uncertain future.
Inderjit Singh Jaijee, convener, Movement against State Repression, an organisation working for farmers, claims there have been over 200 cases of multiple suicides in Punjab. “It’s a case of wilful ignorance on part of the government. According to police reports, the number of farmer suicides in Punjab since 1988 is just seven. The revenue department report puts the figure at 232. But as per our estimate after visiting villages, nearly 3,500 to 4,000 farmers are committing suicides every year in Punjab. The government too admits in confidence that the figure could be 2,000 per year, but there is no attempt to acknowledge the problem and suggest ways to mitigate it,” he says.
“In 2009 alone, four villages in Sangrur district reported five suicides each. And these are just the cases that we know of,” he adds.
Dr Pramod Kumar, who heads the Institute of Development Communication (IDC), Chandigarh, and also lends an insight to Punjab’s agrarian crisis in the documentary, says as a result of the crisis Punjab                  is emerging as a “society of       paradoxes”.
“The agrarian crisis is also manifesting itself in increasing drug addiction and alcoholism among rural youth and increasing poverty among the Dalit population of the state,” he adds.
The film also highlights how villages are devastated by the use of pesticides. Environmentalist Dr Vandana Shiva, who explains the advent of agrarian crisis in Punjab in the documentary, says farmers in Punjab villages use the term dawai (medicine) for pesticides. They do not know what they are spraying indiscriminately is poison, but admit they feel giddy after spraying it. And that birds don’t sing in their village any more.”
Almost two years after the Punjab Farmers’ Commission, on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, had recommended pension for families of farmers who had committed suicide, the actual number of farmer suicides has only been determined for two districts, Sangrur and Bathinda. “We had recommended Rs 2 lakh pension for widows/kin of these farmers by way of Rs 50,000 in cash and fixed deposit for remaining Rs 1.5 lakh, which can bring them a monthly income of Rs 1500,” commission chairman GS Kalkat says. However, though Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, was made the coordinator for the survey being undertaken by Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), they have not been granted funds to complete the survey in other districts. “The pension scheme can only be implemented after the survey to find the number of farmer suicides is complete, which has not been done due to lack of adequate finance,” Dr P S Rangi of the commission adds.
At a time when the successive governments were criminally late in responding to the farmers hanging themselves to death, this is the story of those left behind: the women, the children, the old parents.

96,202 apply for 122 posts of constables: What’s your inference?

Ramanpreet Kaur

When I asked a girl who hailed from 

Kotshamir village how, with an M.Phil. 

under her arm, could she even think of 

applying for a peon's job, she thrust the 

rolled-up degree into my face and shouted,

"You take this and make two chapatis with

it every morning and every evening. 

Can you do that?" Well, can you, dear reader?

How do you define desperation among the Punjabi youth? By the frequency with which they are climbing atop water tanks in Punjab, forcing meetings with the Chief Minister by threatening to otherwise jump from the tanks? Or by the obduracy of women protesters to stage sit-ins despite a history of Punjab Police cops raining lathis on them with a vengeance?
You can chose any measuring stick, but it will not be long enough to truly reflect the state of affairs. Not long ago, Bathinda had witnessed a crowd of 1200 turning up for eight posts of peons, among them girls with M.A. (Punjabi) and M.Phil (Economics) degrees in hand. Post graduates and LLBs applying for posts of peons is a common scene in Punjab. The Bathinda peon-aspirant rush had come within 48 hours of a similar crowd of 900 gathering for four posts of "piada" (process server, those who deliver summons) at the courts.
When I asked a girl who hailed from Kotshamir village how, with an M.Phil. under her arm, could she even think of applying for a peon's job, she thrust the rolled-up degree into my face and shouted, "You take this and make two chapatis with it every morning and every evening. Can you do that?"
I really wanted to sympathise with her, but could not. My sympathy lay with a bunch of girls huddled together in a far corner, hated by everyone else. These were girls who hade studied merely up to class 8th. "Bha'ji, eh degree walian naal sab nu hamdardi hai, saade naal kise nu nahi. Je enhna ne chaprasi lagna hai ta sarkar ne saanu afsar ta nahi laga dena (Everyone is sympathising with these girls with degrees. If they are to be made peons, then what will we do? Afterall, the government is not going to post us as officers.)
The frustrated educated unemployed arraigned against poor and ill educated unemployed. That's the tragedy of Punjab.
But even as one would have thought that the media would bring out such state of affairs to juxtapose the reality with the claims of politicians who incessently talk of malls and airports, a new generation of hacks is taking over.
On June 27, the Indian Express reported how for the posts of 1,200 constables, some 96,202 people from all over the country applied, a large majority from Punjab. Of these, 10,211 applications were from women.
Failing to see the levels of desperation and the index of unemployment, the  ecstatic journalist gushed about the response being so impressive for the constable's job that even the very well qualified were dying to land it. The journalist even quoted SSP (headquarters) Alok Kumar saying, "The response for these posts is very good this time. Even the educational qualifications of the candidates are better...it was definitely huge this time."
Clearly, the media is now featuring a class of journalists who are devoid of any idea of the situation at the grassroots level, and whose notions of a democratic space are limited to the lobby of a mall in Chandigarh which they think is not only air conditioned but also open to all and therefore good for society.
Punjab and many other states have been repeatedly witnessing scenes of lathicharges and teeming crowds whenever there is an army recruitment camp organised in any town. Young teachers are found less in schools, more on dharnas asking the government for jobs when students go to teacher-less classrooms.
But all of this is happening when we are witnessing ever rising number of malls and multiplexes. Is there a connection between the number of flights to and from a city and the sense of insecurity among the populace?