A. K. Antony’s criticism is a warning to Congress-led coalition in Kerala

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Roy Mathew

Defence Minister A. K. Antony has issued a warning to the UDF government in Kerala by expressing his anguish over the situation in Kerala at a function of Indo-Russian firm BrahMos Aerospace in Thiruvananthapuram. The Defence Minister said that though Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and P. K. Kunhalikutty have been asking for projects for the State, he was not courageous enough to locate any project in Kerala after the UDF government came to power.

Defence Minister A. K. Antony in his office in New Delhi

Though Antony did not say it directly, he was warning that the Congress led coalition in the State (UDF) would not be able to retain the seats it had won in the last Lok Saba Elections unless its performance improves. It is significant that his warning comes at a time when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has reshuffled his Cabinet with a view to the elections due in 2014. As the Number Two in the Union Cabinet, Antony has to see that the Congress performs well in the next elections.

The UDF had won 16 seats in the last Lok Sabha election out of 20. Every school boy knows that the Front would not be able to retain them in the next elections under the present circumstances, not to speak of winning more seats. When he was the Chief Minister in the State, Mr. Antony had not been able to lead the Front to a victory in the Assembly elections. As Union Minister he wants to be one who has contributed to victory of the Front in the next Lok Sabha elections. However, he is admitting that he was unable to do anything for the State because of the situation in the State. He was not getting the cooperation he wanted.

It is also notable that Mr. Antony praised the (previous) LDF government in Kerala. He knows only too well that the Congress will have to fall back on the Left too if it did not win enough seats to form a government at the Centre. So, he is building bridges. It is also a fact the previous government had facilitated establishment of defence projects in the State.

Antony could also be concerned about a number of other issues. There is growing discord among the ruling Front constituents. They are even making unethical bargains. The front could lose votes if Congress played to their tunes on some of the controversial positions they are taking. There is also considerable discord in the Congress. The proposed reorganisation of KPCC is getting delayed. All this should worry Mr. Antony more than anyone else. So, it is not surprising that he has fired a salvo against the UDF government, though he is unlikely to repeat that as elections come closer. The crucial point is how far the Congress and UDF constituents in the State would heed his warning and act in larger interests.

Tailpiece:
Above all these, there is a personal factor to Mr. Antony’s criticism. Image-conscious Antony is hurt by the fact that allegations had been raised over the take over the Kerala Hitech Industries by joint venture Brahmos Aerospace and that neither Mr. Chandy nor Kunhalikutty had come to his defence. In fact, the INTUC unit in the company joined hands with the AITUC union which raised the allegations. Mr. Antony would not have voiced his concerns openly but for this factor. His remarks stemmed from personal hurt and diminishing influence in Kerala politics. (Revised and tailpiece added as post script on 17/11/2011).

Surveillance cameras infringe privacy of citizens

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Roy Mathew

Kerala Health Minister V. S. Sivakumar has announced that surveillance cameras would be installed in Ward 9 of the General Hospital in Trivandrum. Ward 9 is where the hospital authorities admit older persons who require geriatric and palliative care.

The ward is over crowed with double the number of patients against bed strength. There was complaint that the body of a patient who died was left in the ward for hours without moving it out to the mortuary. The Minister visited the ward in view of the the complaint and reports of pathetic conditions at the ward. His prescription of cameras (in addition to promise of more staff) would deprive the old men of their private moments. Many lie there half-naked often without any relative to care for them. The ward sometimes see emotional outbursts as well as intimate moments with family members.

Surveillance cameras in Trivandrum

It is not clear why the Minister wants cameras in the ward. Is it for the hospital superintendent or other to keep watch on what is going on in the ward? Is it to check whether bodies are lying on the floor? Is it assist the nurses in keeping tab on the patients owing to shortage of staff? Or is it to see whether the patients are being care for or is it to keep prying media men out of the precincts? Whatever it is, surveillance cameras in hospital wards is not a good idea.

It is not even good for classrooms. Some tuition masters and schools in the city have installed cameras in their classrooms to keep tab on the students. What kind of attitudes would children develop when they are aware that they are being constantly watched upon? Classrooms are not private places. Still, they have a right to some kind of privacy, at least during intervals.

Traffic police and Motor Vehicles Department are also increasingly using cameras for surveillance.There are more than 500 cameras installed in Trivandrum city while Kochi have about half the number. Cameras from private establishments are also being connected to the police control rooms. You will be watched as you pray at the Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple in Trivandrum (though not at the sanctum sanctorum). Some residence associations are also setting up cameras to find people dumping waste in this locality though the legality of installing such surveillance by private persons in public places is in doubt.

Vehicles as well as citizens are under constant watch along the main thoroughfares of the city. Though the cameras help to book traffic offences by capturing screenshots of violations, police men are still on the streets directly booking offenders. So, harassment of drivers and corruption do not disappear.

Anyway, the police still need personnel at junctions to regulate traffic and it doubtful whether monitoring of the video feeds are constant. If effective monitoring of all junctions and other points are to be done, one requires a large number of personnel at the control rooms. This cannot be cost effective despite the advantages of the technology and falling costs of equipment. (The 57 cameras at Padmanabha Swamy temple reportedly cost about Rs. 15 millions).

Besides, misuse of the system by police as well as private citizens could not be ruled out. When police criminal nexus exists, surveillance could even aid criminals and quotation gangs. It is any way a case of big boss watching over the citizens from all angles. Police can use the system to track movements of politicians, journalists and others. Though it is said that camera surveillance would help to check crimes, it effectiveness is yet to be proved (except in the case of traffic offences). The advantage could be limited as cameras would only force shifting of occurrence of crimes from city centres to the suburbs. Somewhere we have to strike a balance between privacy, surveillance and prevention of crimes.

Conclusions of empowered committee of SC in Mullaperiyar case

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Roy Mathew

The final hearing of the Mullaperiyar case is likely to begin in February next year before the Supreme Court. (The date is tentatively fixed as February 19, 2013). The report of the Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court on Mullaperiyar Dam has gone totally against Kerala. So, Kerala will have to disprove the Committee’s findings or advance fresh and acceptable arguments if it is to win the case. The Court has said that that it would not accept fresh evidence including the Dam Break Analysis.

Baby dam saddling the main Mullaperiyar dam. Repairs were carried out to this dam despite objection from Kerala but with tacit support by officials. Another round of repairs are underway now, reportedly with the permission of the courts. Photo: Roy Mathew

It is notable that the Committee has suggested repairs to the dam even while holding that the dam was hydrologically, structurally and seismically safe. The repairs have already begun.

The repairs proposed include treatment of upstream surface of dam, reaming of drainage holes, instrumentation and grouting of dam body. It has also suggested “periodical monitoring, analysis and leading away the seepage from toe of the dam towards downstream “.

The Committee found that the dam has not been adversely affected by leeching of lime dissolved in seepage water and rejected Kerala’s contentions in this regard. (That leaching has occurred is something that even Tamil Nadu had admitted. The dam had already been grouted for this reason and further grouting is proposed by the Committee itself. )
It said that the precautionary principle is not applicable as the dam has been found safe, and added that the Dam Break Flood Analysis and Emergency Action Plan do serve as precautionary measures. The findings of studies by Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkie and Delhi were rejected.

The Committee said that it did not accept the scare of a dam break flood wave because the Kerala government had not prepared dam break flood analysis. (The dam break analysis has since been done and it leaves little doubt that a dam break would be catastrophic.)

Conclusions of the Report in full at Expert-Eyes.org
Appraisal and analysis of various studies by EC Committee(Chapter VI of report)
Report of the Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court– all chapters
Mullaperiyar Dam break analysis by IIT Roorkee
Structural stability analysis of Mullaperiyar dam

Kochi Metro project and E. Sreedharan

Posted on November 4, 2012 by Roy Mathew

The controversy over Kochi Metro Rail points to people’s lack of trust over Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his government, and for that matter, any government in Kerala. They trust octogenarian E. Sreedharan (former MD of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation) to complete the Metro project efficiently and without much time lag.

Mr. Sreedharan naturally wants an organisation behind him and he wants the one that he is familiar with — the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). And DMRC had agreed to be behind him and the only formality that remained was ratification of agreement by the director boards of the DMRC and the Kochi Metro Rail Limited formed to implement the project.

Now the DMRC is backtracking under oblique pressure from politicians and bureaucrats who want to the contract to be entrusted to others. It is clear that the arguments being advanced against DMRC participation are just being raised as excuses. While every private company wants to expand, the public sector DMRC just wants to confine itself to Delhi! It maintains that it is too preoccupied with its work in Delhi that it does not have the resources to undertake work in Kerala.

Delhi Metro Photo: Roy Mathew

If this is true, one wonders why it had agreed to participate and had even undertaken preliminary works. If DMRC had any real problems in taking up the work, would not Mr. Sreedharan and others known that?

This is not to say that the DRMC could be the most qualified company to undertake the work. It depended on multinational companies for civil works, design, and installation of signaling and electrical works for Delhi Metro. The coaches were imported. As a contractor for the Delhi airport express metro line, the DMRC had faltered. It had built the line for Reliance and operations had to be suspended in six months for rectification of problems.

However, the bet here is on Mr. Sreedharan who has a clean image. The Opposition and large section of people believe that large scale corruption and delays would occur if Sreedharan is not overseeing the project.

Related blog post:
Project review (in Malayalam)

CBD: Living in Harmony with Nature

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Roy Mathew

The motto “Living in Harmony with Nature,” recommended by the 11^thConference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity for activities related to UN Decade on Biodiversity highlights the spirit of the Convention and the Conference that concluded in Hyderabad last week. However, the Conference could only make limited progress in taking decisions towards implementation of targets set at its last conference.

Part of one of the biodiversity hotspots of South India– Agastyakoodam and its environs. View from Bonaccord in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala.

India brokered an agreement to double financial flows for implementation of the Convention’s strategic plans to protect biodiversity by 2015. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced India’s ratification of the Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and benefits sharing and made a pledge to allocate US$50 million during India’s two-year COP presidency, for enhancing India’s human and technical resources to attain the Convention’s objectives and for promoting capacity building in developing countries.

The Convention has decided to push for enough number of nations ratifying the Nagoya protocol so that it could come into force and the next conference of parties could focus on implementation. The Conference Secretariat was asked to take steps to develop a draft strategic framework for capacity building.

It called for discontinuation of incentives for that biofuel technologies that may aggravate drivers of biodiversity loss while acknowledging biofuel’s potential positive contribution to mitigating climate change.

It could not do much towards establishing control and regulatory mechanisms for geo-engineering other than advising the precautionary approach. The framework of the Convention may not even be sufficient to deal with larger effects of geo-engineering. The Convention failed to agree on action to address concerns about synthetic biology.

The Conference made an impressive number of decisions on several eco-system related issues, achieving synergies with other international efforts. Progress could be made towards address marine diversity issues such as such as marine

debris and ocean noise. Countries have been very slow in working towards achieving the Aichi targets and the next conference in South Korea would undertake a mid-term review of progress.

India’s biodiversity and the Convention on Biodiversity
India’s biodiversity & Convention on Biodiversity– Part II

Alternatives to endosulfan

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Roy Mathew

The recommendations of 100 alternatives to endosulfan, approved by the Persistent Organic Pollutants Review Committee to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants on October 18, should be an eye-opener for governments and agricultural scientists who were arguing that there were no cheap alternatives.

endosulfan_boy It is notable that the Committee has also recommended non-chemical alternatives which could indeed work out to be a cheap alternative. This is the first time that a Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention recommends non-chemical alternatives to a chemical proposed for elimination under the Convention.

The Union Agriculture Ministry has long been arguing that there is no alternative to endosulfan and hence it should be banned only in Kerala and Karnataka where intensive use had affected the health and well-being of people. However, evidence is emerging that endosulfan was indeed causing harm to people in other States such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Punjab also. It is high time that the ministry looked at the alternatives suggested by the Committee and promoted ecosystem-based approaches on pest management as well as technical interventions using natural plant extracts in a big way.

The Kerala government has the responsibility to present the findings of various studies and the recommendations of the Committee before the Supreme Court which is considering the case for ban on endosulfan across the country. It is not clear whether the Court has changed its earlier view that no more studies are needed to establish the link between endosulfan and the health effects on people. However, it apparently want expert opinion on nation-wide ban. It is notable that India is already committed to phase out of endosulfan being a party to the Stockholm Convention.

POP Review Committee approves 100 alternatives to endosulfan
Assessment of alternatives to endosulfan
POPRC Report on alternatives
Endosulfan– Spray of Death

Medical emergency in Thiruvananthapuram

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Roy Mathew

Kerala is facing a medical emergency in its capital. Cholera is spreading following failure the city corporation and the government on waste disposal.

The city collector has clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code against those who deposit waste at public places and water bodies and those who block movement of waste to waste disposal sites of City Corporation. This is against background of intense protests against waste disposal sites of the city which polluted the neighourhoods.

Now that the solid waste treatment plant of the City Corporation at Vilappilsala is closed following public protests, the waste collection and disposal system of the Corporation have come to a standstill for about a year now. People are forced to throw waste here and there and the results are showing. Cholera and diarrhea and other water borne diseases are spreading in the city and suburbs. Rodent population in the city has multiplied, and Hantavirus that infects people from rats had been the cause of at least one death in the city.

Patients queuing up at a government hospital in Thiruvananthapuram (old photo)

The mosquito population is also increasing and the Incidence of dengue fever has hit a high. Kerala is now the second in the country, after West Bengal, regarding incidence of dengue fever. Dengue fever has been confirmed in about 2000 persons this year officially and the actual number could be two or three times this number as the count does not cover patients admitted to private hospitals.

The measures being taken by the collector such as the ban orders are unlikely to help much in containing the outbreak. The collector’s order would only force people to keep waste in their premises and terraces. It does not make a difference whether waste is rotting in the streets or at homes. Many homes are on only a few cents of land and they have little means of disposing waste properly as the Corporation has stopped collecting them.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has miserably failed in keeping his promise that new waste treatment plants would be set up in six months in place of the closed plant at Vilappilsala. He also failed to carry out his promise that protect water supply would be extended to Vizhinjam and neighbourhoods in a year. Apart from the health of its citizens, this trend is going to hit the tourism potential of Kerala.

The politics of green politicians in Kerala

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Roy Mathew

The green brigade in the UDF in Kerala is striking a distinct position compared to rest of the members of the Assembly in the Front. They have also started using the new media for their campaign. (T. N. Pratapan, V. D. Satheesan, V. T. Balram and Hibi Eden (Congress) K. M. Shaji (Muslim League )and M. V. Sreeyams Kumar (SJD) are blogging at GreenThoughtsKerala)

Title image of blog by V. D. Satheesan, T. N. Pratapan, M. V. Sreeyams Kumar, V. T. Balram, K. M. Shaji and Hibi Eden

The scenario in the Assembly has been changing over the past decade with more members coming forward to propound the cause of environment. The Legislative Committee on Environment has over the years produced well-studied reports. Two decades ago, K. V. Surendranath of CPI was the only member campaigning for environmental causes. On the other side people like Seethi Haji (IUML) asked how it rained at sea if forests were required for precipitation. Now, there are several members both in the ruling and Opposition fronts wanting to protect the environment. They include Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan who once spoke against environmentalists.

However, a question would arise as to how deep their commitments are. Are they simply moving with the tide or playing politics? It is notable that almost all members of the green brigade are people who had missed out on ministerial positions. They have an axe to grind against Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and other UDF leaders. And they know that fighting corruption from within a la Achuthanandan has a market. Yet, that does not make the causes they are expounding less important.

Yes, they are indeed playing politics and it is notable that Mr. Chandy and industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty are in the defensive. Mr. Chandy even said that they are doing the campaign because they are sincere. May be, people can trust them more than Mr. Achuthanandan who is also expounding the same causes.

If they are sincere, they will persist. Mr. Achuthanandan forgot many of the causes he expounded when he came to power. The litmus test for green politicians of UDF too would be what they do when they come to power.

Update: Well, we did not have to wait until they come to power to know how steadfast they would be on their views. The green politicians are now supporting tourism projects such as that proposed in Nelliyampathy disregarding questions whether the land proposed to be used for such projects are forests or environmentally fragile areas. They do say that they changed their stand because Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has conceded their demands including environmental impact assessment of all projects under Emerging Kerala initiative.

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