HOW TO HAVE A CLEAN INDIA PAN INDIA

 

We  are lacking in Cleanliness and it is  an established fact today. This fact is borne out by the level of dirtiness we see around every where we reside. Sooner we admit this weakness publically faster we will be able to sort out the mess we have pushed ourselves in. It ranges from personal hygiene/cleanliness to the immediate surrounding cleanliness and further our tolerance to dirty environment including our attitude to look the other way when we see dirt and unclean environs. We as individuals personally detest participating in community cleaning. Our apathy and personal belief or notion that it is the duty of the government and municipalities alone to keep whole of  India  clean is the root cause of generally dirty India.

India is centuries old civilisation with some of the best known as well some not so well known heritage sites in the world. Any tourism circuit with known heritage sites like ours is supposed to be a very much in demand and attracts tourists from far and wide. But the Indian tourist circuit despite having all the credentials does not seem to be very popular. The one and only single reason for this stands out starkly and that is  the lack of cleanliness and upkeep of these sites. The dirtiness of our country is  affecting our tourism in a big way as we  fail to attract tourists both international as well as domestic  - who like to visit clean ,hygienic  and well kept tourist spots/places  and the  most important being clean toilets  there. Add the lack of courtesy of the tourism support staff  to this the picture of why we do  not get the required number of international as well domestic tourists  the abysmal picture is complete of Atithi Devo Bhavah. The level of cleanliness and upkeep has to be compared and matched with the contemporaries tourist attractive destinations all over the world.

Tourism case is highlighted to bring home the effects of not keeping our nation clean enough but we suffer as a nation in many connected ways which are mentioned:      

·        Our self esteem as a nation/country is hurt anytime it is mentioned at international forums that we need to do more on hygiene, cleanliness, maintenance and health issues. 

·        The health system takes its toll because dirty environs gives rise to many diseases and most of it in the form of epidemics.

·        The personal hygiene which is lacking gives rise to  issues of personal hygiene, skin and health problems. 

·        The international  look and presentation  of  our country is damaged when pictures depicting India dirty and full of filth are splashed across the Internet. 

·        Losing out on Crores in revenue loss because of unscientific garbage disposal.

We as  a community and government have to jointly organize the effort of  - Clean India Pan India. Here is the catch – that why the govt should be depended upon to initiate action.   This can be achieved by a single action  of the government  by which we can be  trained and educated to remain clean and maintain clean surroundings  when we can start teaching both theory and practice  of cleanliness as a part of school syllabus. Actually if we all develop a sense of cleanliness while being brought up  we will certainly grow up to be citizens of a clean country. This cannot be achieved unless we make national conscious effort to make India clean. The effort has to have many prongs like:- 

·        The basic cleanliness subject has to be started as a part of standard school curriculum with cleanliness as a compulsory subject from class one up to graduation.  It will be equally applicable to science and non science streams. 

·        It should be a specialized subject getting technical, scientific, practical, vocation producing and interesting so as to produce specialized educated and trained cleanliness/environment protection experts. 

·        It is not a matter to be left alone to the poor SC and ST's to bear the burden of getting employed in cleanliness sector. What needs to be done is that by bringing in more modern tools and skills and equipment, advanced and updated knowledge and training this sector needs to become an attractive vocation for everybody instead of the present scenario where it is heavily dependent on manpower from a few castes only because others consider it too dirty to adopt this as a vocation.  Actually we need to take these  people out from this misery as they are already suffering because of the following reasons. 

o  They are extremely poor. 

o  Their health is already very poor and they are always exposed to conditions in which the diseases are attracted by their poor immunity and they fall to Tuberculosis, skin ,breathing disorders, cholera and nutrient deficiency caused diseases. 

o  They are already at bottom ladder of the self esteem ladder. 

o  They are already deprived of healthy working environments. 

The following suggestions are made: 

·        A CLEAN INDIA  TASK FORCE :  Based on the pattern of  Ecological Battalions of the Territorial Army  pattern for the complete country coverage to give clean India look  pan India. It will be easier to get  results  by selecting areas of extreme nature with maximum return potential  on priority. 

·        CLEANLINESS AS A SUBJECT: Cleanliness with Maintenance be made as a school subject from class one to +2. This will result in children learning the theory and practice of cleanliness. As a part of vocation education it will produce specialized supervisors of cleanliness which we will require to man the cleanliness departments/drives/initiatives. As an example -  children in Japan wash their own school toilets for 20 minutes every day so as inculcate a sense of cleanliness in them and naturally they dirty them much less as they themselves have to clean these. 

·        INCREASE WAGES IN THIS SECTOR: Make this vocation well paid as per the job related difficulty matrix, skills required and demand -supply cycle of trained manpower. 

·        LINK WITH HEALTH SECTOR SPENDING: Our effort and requirement to have  clean and hygienic environments will reduce the burden on our health sector spending. So actually we will be doing preventive action of would be diseases by pre emptive action of ensuring healthy and clean environment. In this manner we will save man hours which otherwise would have been lost to sickness and disease.

 

·        TEACHING AND SPECIALISED SKILL TRAINING INSTITUTES: We as country do not have any institutes however rudimentary where cleanliness is taught as a subject and training imparted because till date this vocation has been considered highly unskilled. Other then private agencies and hotel management institutes where housekeeping is taught as a subject limited to hotel management there  are no known institutions to impart training on the subject of Cleanliness. Keeping the  level of dirt  and unhygienic conditions a majority of India lives in  and faces every day we should have had one institute in every state to produce trained manpower for this purpose. Vocational institutes like existing polytechnic’s and ITI’s  need to be upgraded and roped in for supervisor and technician level training after plus 2.

 

·        UNIVERSITY OF ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY AND PROTECTION: Even now we should consider having a University of Environment Sustainability and Protection where graduates and post graduates will be  produced  for this huge potential employment sector leading to huge earnings. It is a win - win situation for all segments where we get cleaner environments, we get more revenues from garbage  processing, increased tourist numbers lesser expenditure on health as fewer people get sick due to clean and hygienic living conditions and on top we get a place of pride in the comity of nations. A well meaning corporate house can be roped in for a pilot project to layout, run, experiment, structure and make sustainable model for this type of an institute.

 

·        GOLD FROM GARBAGE CONCEPT: This gold from garbage concept can be realized  by resorting to garbage segregation, recycling of garbage, energy from garbage, Vermin composting and composting for nutrient rich manure for the agricultural sector. It is can be easily assumed that the garbage from the 12 major cities if properly composted can easily turn 100 desert villages  sandy land into rich moisture holding soil plus the energy from the bio digesters which will sort out most of the problems as being faced today of garbage disposal as a part of solid waste management.

 

 

ROOT CAUSE OF INFLATION FOR THE COMMON MAN: NO CONTROL OVER MAXIMUM RETAIL PRICE OF VEGETABLES AND FRUITS

This phenomenon of not having a regulatory or a cap on the PROFIT LEVELS OF THE RETAILERS OF THE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT RETAILERS has been escaping the attention of almost all people dealing with the inflation in India. The reason is that this inflation we take it as granted because there is no regulator and all people who are involved seem so poor that it certainly does not come to the notice very easily. It can be pointer to how much money is moving in the hands of few which are also unaccounted. With this as a little back ground the focus of this paper is simply to point out the following few facts. Very little has been written on the subject per se when I went to research on the Internet too. So it has escaped the eye of many researchers too.

But what is mind boggling is the numbers which are affected by this hidden shylock type of fleecing of the poor .  This effect all persons across the population spectrum but  certainly very large poor  and lower middle class people are affected by these high profits  which affect the consumer prices of fruit and  vegetable prices. In this game of making more money in a short time the irony is that mostly poor are fleecing the poor.

The prices of the retail are fixed on whim and fancy of retailers and are very   high for poor consumers   as the percentage of profit is always ranging from 40 to 100 percent. They are kept artificially high even invoking some reason or the other like either the production has been less, rains have spoilt the crop, or the transportation has failed, hording by big whole selling traders there by reducing the quantity in to the market so to meet the  demand and supply cycle.

There is no way a consumer can know the actual buyers cost because he has to pay  as asked by retailer  and he has no source to verify the information supplied verbally.There is a MRP on almost all goods which a poor person uses for his survival like Atta, rice, sugar, salt, medicines, but for the vegetable and fruit s there is no such MRP.

OK we can argue that it is  very difficult  to fix a MRP for vegetables and fruits in view of the following

·         Fluctuating Quality

·         Perishing of vegetables and fruits  due to weather

·         Perish ability due to moisture content

·         Varied Varieties,

·         Level of Freshness’ after plucking

·         Transportation charge variation,

·         Market expenses/taxes

What needs to be done?

Agreed you cannot have a MRP but certainly the regulator can fix as it does the  MAXIMUM SELLING PRICE . Here it will be max profit margin by percentage on the whole sale price while keeping all the factors in view or in other words what we can still fix is the percentage of profit which can be in a range from 5- to 25 percentage keeping in view the effort, man hours spent and capital put in but no way it can be allowed to be 100% or more as is happening now.

This is actual a grey area for income tax as most of the segment involved in this trade is non IT payee.

There are large implications for Punjab government and local population at large especially the lower strata of society in particular.  A closer look at this segment reveals that about 90 % of vegetable retail trade is in hand of migrants who are making these profits . The locals have been ousted because they were not willing to sit the whole day, consider it too menial to do this business and lacked interpersonal skills to retail vegetables.

Now what is required is the following

There has to be a mechanism by which all retailers will have to display the cost of bulk on the display which should be verifiable for a particular vegetable on the website/records  of the market from which the retailer has bought or picked up the vegetable for retail sale to consumer.
There are mainly two sources from which retailer is buying

• Commission Agent
• Farmer

The consumer who is consuming the vegetable and fruit is from all sections but with rising costs of vegetable prices, the one who feels the pinch is the lowest strata of society and the middle class. This leads to malnutrition in children, women, pregnant mothers and old persons as the house holder in order to balance the budget cuts down on vegetables and fruits which are a very rich source f macro and micro nutrients.

Warning and benefit  for the Government!

So when ever any government which fails to control prices of essentials it does not get votes from these segments which are affected by high vegetable prices. The famous onion induced defeat of Delhi BJP is an example.

 On the other hand if a govt can give solace to the poor public is likely to get their nod in the elections. This is no big asking as the only effort on the government’s part is control the GREED LEVEL OF RETAILERS OF VEGETABLE AND FRUIT RETAILERS.   This step will no doubt alienate a few but get you the good governance nod from a very large rural and urban poor. This will also encourage farmers to retail their own and get remunerative prices. This will also help local poor people to step in the trade  with the shrinking profits the migrants may think of other options.
This suggestion is  to limit the level of profits which they can make at the cost of a mass of lower and middle class people who are struggling to survive under the load of   inflation of  other essentials  like petrol, diesel, LPG, Atta, Rice, Kerosene, Electricity.

To give you an idea how the vegetable prices affect the inflation please refer to links below

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120918/jsp/frontpage/story_15990093.jsp#.UjrcaHa6aM8

Costlier veggies take retail inflation to double digits — before diesel price hike kicked in

New Delhi, Sept 18 (PTI): Soaring vegetable prices pushed up the retail inflation to double digits at 10.03 per cent in August, up from 9.86 per cent in August. According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released on Tuesday, the highest rise in prices was for vegetables, which recorded an increase of 20.79 per cent during the month. In the urban areas, the CPI rose to 10.19 per cent during the month as compared to 10.10 per cent in July. The retail price rise in rural areas worked out to be 9.90 per cent during August up from 9.76 per cent in the previous month. The CPI for August, however, did not capture the impact of hike in diesel price announced by the government on September 13 to help the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to reduce their under recoveries. The CPI for food and beverages section during August increased by 12.03 per cent, clothing, bedding and footwear by 10.71 per cent and fuel and light by 7.55 per cent. Among the individual segments, steep rise in retail price was noticed in case of oil and fats (18.41 per cent), followed by sugar (17.51 per cent) and pulses and products (16.04 per cent). The Reserve Bank of India in its mid-quarter monetary policy on MOnday had raised concerns about the price situation saying ”as inflationary tendencies have persisted, the primary focus on monetary policy remains the containment of inflation and anchoring of inflation expectations.” The central bank had refrained from reducing the key pending rates despite persistent pressure from industry to cut them to promote sagging economic growth. And how much vegetable prices have risen in last decade in comparison to other eatables you must read the report published in Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Food-prices-rose-157-between-2004-and-2013/articleshow/22777817.cms?intenttarget=no By Subodh Verma ,Sep 20 2013 NEW DELHI: If you were to ask any random aam aadmi anywhere in India what is the single biggest failing of the UPA , the answer would be - price rise . This is so because the most important items of family spending - food items - have relentlessly risen for the past several years despite repeated promises to bring them down by the economic mandarins and policy wonks that run the country's economy. Poorer families have had to stop eating various foods in order to save crumbling family budgets. Between 2004 and 2013 food prices in general rose by 157%. But when you get into the nuts and bolts the real pain becomes starkly clear. India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world. Yet chronic supply shortages coupled with serial hoarding has led vegetable prices to shoot up by a deadly 350% in that period.   Onion prices have increased by an incredible 521% since 2004. And it's not a smooth even rise. There were times when onion prices doubled, even tripled within weeks and then subsided after a few weeks of rampage. This happened in the winter of 2010-11. And it is happening again now with onion prices touching Rs 70-80 levels in most parts of the country.   This has happened with other key staples also like potatoes. In the second half of 2009 potato prices zoomed up by almost 100% and it was only in January 2010 that the levels came down. Other vegetables have followed their own mad ways - brinjal for instance is 311% costlier now than in 2004, and prices of the lowly cabbage have risen by a jaw dropping 714%. Various vegetable prices are in fact at all time highs.   The hike in vegetable prices hit poorer families especially hard because earlier, starting 2006, another staple of families had been knocked out of thalis. This was pulses, the single biggest source of protein in largely vegetarian India. Their prices rose steadily 2005 onwards and by 2010 they had more than doubled. Then again they increased in 2012 and reached an all time high in September last year. There has been a slight decline since then but even then prices are 123% higher than 2004.        What about other key food items? Milk prices have increased by 119%. Egg prices have gone up by 124%. Spices and condiments have increased by 119%. Sugar has increased by 106%. Even salt, an essential of most cooked food has increased by 85% in the past decade.   Prices of the two staple cereals of India, rice and wheat, have increased by 137% and 117%, respectively. Remember, India has seen record harvests for a series of years and except for 2004 and 2009, monsoons have been good generally. So mass produced crops like wheat and rice which demand high water inputs have not been subject to the usual weather depression. Even fruit prices have increased by 95% despite bumper crops of many popular fruits like bananas, mangoes, oranges and papaya.   These are the wholesale prices. What the aam aadmi gets at the local shop has more jacked up prices. But if the wholesale prices have risen so dramatically, imagine the real prices you pay for.   Strangely, principal political parties gearing up for elections next year seem to be indifferent to this continuing decimation of family budgets. It will be a very angry voter that they will face at the hustings.

 

HOW CAN CONVICTS ESCAPE?

Escape of  convicts and under trials  from police custody is a  very disturbing aspect and an impediment on the path  to build a safe society. It is no more true to just hate the crime only because of changing society values . This is so because some criminals because of basic mental tendencies keep on repeating the crimes rather than shun them in fact some of them are quite boastful of their such activities.

There has been a series of escapes of known criminal under trials from the police custody while being brought to or while being taken back to jail. In fact it is sort of very upsetting vicious cycle in which one set of policemen get suspended for allowing the escape  because various reasons such as  being lackadaisical in their approach to the duty or being active partners in escape for money or after being threatened of elimination to policemen or their family members  by the free gang members of the jailed persons.

 Firstly we need to introspect the existing system- There is no tagging or segregation while being moved out from jail for court appearance   as under trials on basis of the Heinousness of their crimes or heir track record of notoriety, Secondly the police men on such duty are either persons who are   not wanted by the corrupt system otherwise they would have been  part of the lucrative thana system  by being a SHO,Asst SHO ,ASI at thana or a Munshi as a head constable or the bottom end of the professional scale, thirdly very badly maintained vehicles for bringing the under trials to the various courts they mostly break down enroute. Incidentally judicial system is very slow in adopting technology. Where is the need to bring the under trials all the way from Bathinda to Panchkula and back Why the trial cannot be held r through video conferencing. Let there be video conferencing   in courts and jails and it is not a very costly affair now a days. This is method needs to be adopted in case of prize catches ,heinous criminals  and  hardened twice convicted and later escaped under trials needs no over emphasis till we can have it for all  under trials.   A paradox exits in this  very situation while these hardened criminals  are on the run and are  caught – this has  a positive fall out for the  policemen who capture them as they are  given out of turn promotions and increments  but negatively  these very criminals when they escape then   get these very policemen suspended or kill them while escaping.

 Another funny feature is the Indian hand cuffing style in front and the types of handcuffs used. We seem to adopt everything from the west but do not adopt their non nonsense approach to suspects and criminals. Why do not we handcuff by taking the persons both hands behind his back as we see in almost all Hollywood movies and actual TV footage of  criminals being caught and handcuffed.  Had we been adopting this method one is sure that this criminal escape as well as snatching and  killing of the Head constable was avoidable as  back handcuffing would have made it impossible for the under trials to  snatch the rifle and open fire.

Now coming to the point of having food and buying the rations from the local market while in transit should be a strict no.  Any policeman showing laxity should be suspended. Another very common feature is of the accompanying policemen being hosted by criminals on their way in and out of jail. The policemen and under trials need to carry packed food and have uninterrupted  journey to and fro from the jail to court and back. There are many incidents where the under trials eat with the police men and most of the times the under trials benefit either by lacing the food with sedatives or throwing chili powder as a getaway weapon. Very strict action needs to be taken otherwise we see policemen guarding the prisoners turning a blind eye   while the relatives friends and mingle freely with the under trials thereby passing all sots f drugs and other banned material to these under trials under the garb of giving them eatables . It has been an acknowledged fact that the jail authorities connive with the inmates to get them drugs etc by charging hefty bribes and in a similar manner paroles are also arranged. Time has come to now segregate the very dangerous under trials from others and find methods to see they are convicted by a speedy trial using all methods of available technology like video conferencing.

SUGGESTED METHOD TO MAKE BADDOWAL AMMUNITION DUMP SAFE

I want to draw the attention of the decision making  bodies as well as common citizens regarding the safety of  villages and Ludhiana city in the danger area radius of around 10 Kms from the centre of the Ammunition Dump at Baddowal.  It is not only the residents who are on the verge of the 1000yards limit who are unsafe but residents staying in the radius of 10 kms and beyond  are equally unsafe if we go by the effects and damage caused by various fires at Ammunition dumps situated at Bharatpur (Rajasthan)and Suratgarh. So leaving aside the old safety distances we need to look beyond stipulations of the 1903 rule and look for safety measures which are safe and effective for area residents while keeping  the army’s logistic support systems  also in view. As of now due to the limits imposed by the safety distance of 1000 yards no construction on the periphery around the ammunition dump is allowed. In order to give a practical solution I am suggesting a few measures  in this regard.

BACKGROUND

THE WORKS OF DEFENCE ACT, 1903 (PARA7(b)  when it came into being -the lethality of munitions then stored was much less and with lesser areas of destruction. But with the present day munitions all these distances have become redundant. Basically 1000 yards/993 meters was distance kept to for following purposes.

·To avoid Fire and destruction in case of unwanted detonation.

·To avoid sabotage by natives/enemies as English were ruling or present day sabotage by enemy agents/Terrorists.

·To avoid fire and ballast hazards to nearby residents

FACTS

In view of all the advances in technology all the above reasons have become nullified.

Destruction due to fire and other blasts all areas are have become unsafe around the radius of the dump say up to 6 to12 KMs. This fact is borne out in the fires which have been experienced at various ammunition dumps.

The risk of sabotage is there now also and it does not get diminished with 1000 yards ring around the Ammunition Depots.

ACTION REQUIRED NOW

It is very clear that being strategically placed on ground the Baddowal Ammunition Dump cannot be shifted. Then it is worth considering it making it safe. Therefore what is required to be done immediately is to actually safe guard all who can be affected in case of a tragedy. THERE EXISTS A CLEAR CUT CASE FOR CHANGING THE STRATEGY FROM HAVING PERIMETER DISTANCE SEPARATION BY IMPOSING A NO CONSTRUCTION ZONE AT A DISTANCE OF 1000 YARDS DISTANCE TO SWITCHING OVER TO ACTIVE NEGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF BLAST, FIRE AND FLYING MISSILES/DEBRIS.

A SUGGESTED METHOD

The time is now to build a steel reinforced RCC ring wall all around the perimeter of the dump with a design and baffle wall system which will have the following characteristics.

NEW METHOD’S CHARACTERISTICS

·Height of the SAFETY AND SECURITY WALL AROUND THE AMMUNITION DUMP BE UP TO 30 to 40 meters (This will depend on the type of munitions kept and DISTANCE where they are stored from the periphery WALL).

·Similar baffle walled separators can built to reduce distances from the actual fire centre to the perimeter and reduce sympathetic detonations of the neighboring munitions storage structures.

·It will be Made of RCC with steel reinforcement and adequately padded from both sides with sand AND BLAST AND DEBRIS ARRESTING MATERIALS.

·Thickness at base will be 3-5 meters and going to one meter thick up wards.

·Designed to withstand and contain blasts of the highest grade of munitions kept at the dump.

·It will have a honey comb configuration to be filled with debris catching materials which will be fire depressant materials.

·This design can be confirmed on a Computer Aided Design (CAD) model to test the efficacy. This will help the design be made and tested to take into the effect of blast, fire, shock, detonation and vibrations etc and thus build the same amount of safety in the design.

Conclusion

In order to safe guard the residents and use the land on the periphery of the Dump it is imperative that the action be ensued and alternatives found out. The alternatives can be studied with help of CAD and their feasibility ascertained in order to overcome problems arising out of Dump’s strategic location as well its conflict with Ludhiana’s Development plans contiguity and safety of residents. Because residents not only close to the dump’s perimeter are unsafe but even who are at distance all around the dump can be at the receiving end of any tragedy. So it is good time to take safety measures and not repent later.

Keeping the above in view my  request  to powers that be to please consider this option or any option they deem fit   and start converting the  Ammunition Dumps safe for all surrounding areas and not just secure the 1000 yards perimeter which cannot be shifted because of strategic compulsions. The first such initiative can be started as a pilot project with the Ammunition dump at BADDOWAL.

 

WE NEED TO LISTEN TO WOULD BE SUICIDERS

 State and society needs to watch warning signals of would be suiciders and respond. The next question is how the state will respond and do that to respond . One way for state is to start help lines with the help of employees such as psychiatrists, psychologists and Social workers but this kind of work requires selflessness, understanding, sympathetic nature and empathetic behaviour besides dedication and devotion to fellow human beings. How are we going to ensure that help cells will be manned when the most important HELP CALL IS GOING TO BE MADE BY A WOULD BE SUICIDAL PERSON ?. What if it meets the voice of an irritated not willing employee who wants to with his/her family rather than be counseling someone who is bent upon killing him/herself?

Therefore the solution is voluntary societal action combined with government support. The print and electronic media group  need to tie up with NGO’s and open a website like www.pleasedonotcommitsuicide.com with volunteers who are good at counseling. The victims just need to have re look at his/her problem, be given a new way to look at his/her problem, a new sympathetic ear which honestly listens, a new source of help and inspiration.

The victim if he/she can contact a easy to find website/telephone will be in 99 percent cases can be dissuaded to take the extreme step. There is very thin line which separates threshold which when crossed cannot get a life back but a few seconds of good listening and promised action, advise, solace and other such steps to ameliorate the grievance, understand the plight, giving strength to the effected soul/family, getting their grievances re addressed, listened to and sorted out are all the actions which are required at that particular moment to provide the necessary help by this voluntary listening post.

Such action will require selfless volunteers who will be on net working and who must have the state government support to sort out matters of the effected persons. Most of the cases are redeemable situations. The police and concerned departments which are on the grievance list of the would be suicidal person, must treat these cases with utmost sympathy rather the their usual brusque manner . Additional help will  be to establish a psychiatrist help cell at each sub division under the SDM to coordinate and help these would be suicide cases. The society needs to be sympathetic rather than mock at individuals as is the normal wont. Their soul cries for help and we the happy beings of the society need to help them ti save their precious lives by all means.