W(h)AT..ERrrr

(The picturesque backdrop and smiling faces in the photographs rudely expose tall claims of drinking water coverage)

The photographs that one of my development worker friend published in social media are amazingly spectacular – paddy fields, inches of standing water, lovely greenish surrounding in the vicinity, women in colourful saree negotiating the fields in serpentine motion, and lovely hills in the far background. But what has the potential to delight our visual sensation has more than enough in them to shake our conscience. The photographs give us pleasure but until, and only until. we read the narration. The brief narration that colleague Susanta Dalai gave in the social media read as follows,

… Sanakachapai is a hamlet of Badkachapai village of Durgi GP under Bissamkatak Blok in Rayagada District. All 50 HHs of the village belong to Scheduled tribe. The village is adjacent to the Durgi Gram Panchayat and about 26 km far from Bissamkatak block head quarter… out of 50 families, 35 are BPL and 15 families are APL… all the families of the village collect drinking water from paddy fields...

We all know of many habitations with such appalling conditions. But probably the government does not know - for it trusts its own MIS more than anything else. Its MIS mentions that the habitation has at least three functional tube wells and the habitation is ‘covered’ meaning, each habitant of the habitation has access to at least 40 litres of drinking water per day.

This is a very sad situation. I urge the government to take kind and immediate note of this and take urgent steps to provide clean and safe drinking water to the unfortunate people. It is not good for a democracy when a Ward Member – in this case 45 year old Sinai Kumruka – express helplessness and disgust saying “her villagers had informed the BDO about the problem with request to solve, but the BDO is not listening to the villager’s voice”. This is even more damaging for a democracy when the villagers further say, “now we have decided not to cast votes to any political party in the coming election”. The government has a responsibility to provide clean drinking water to its citizen. No justification should satisfy us if the situation is not anywhere near that. I hope the government will take remedial action which not only shows that the specific problem have been addressed but also shows the resolves that the government is upto it to eradicate occurrences of such situation very soon. I also hope that local people will find a traditional way out to reinvigorate quality water in the wells of their village. (All the photographs were posted by friend Susanta Dala. I have copied those from the facebook. The government web based MIS screenshot was viewed and downloaded on 23.09.2013. This whole piece is based on narration shared by good friend Susanta Kumar Dalai.)

Barsha Ra Chaahaanee !

2013 - Water Conservation Year

Some fresh hopes arise as the Union Cabinet decides to observe year 2013 as the 'Water Conservation Year'. The government has decided that widespread mass awareness drives will be organised throughout the year. People will be made aware about the need for conserving water. But our experience tells us that more than the people, it the government's "left hand does not know what the right hand does" kind of policies that ails us. Still something is better than nothing. Let us hope that we and the government take some action before it is too late.

Supreme Court's Niyamgiri judgment is perplexing as it lacks clarity

On 18th April 2013, the Supreme Court of India has delivered its judgement on a writ filed by Odisha Mining Corporation regarding mining of Bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills. The writ was filed against cancellation of Stage II clearance to the mining project by Ministry of Environment and Forest. The judgment, though is being hailed for upholding scope and authority of 'Gramsabha', lacks clarity almost all issues. That makes the judgment subject to selective interpretations. I have written an article on this which was published in the editorial page of Dharitri on 27th April 2013.