BURN Budget Hundred Day SUSTAINED Campaign Launched Nationwide.Urban Dreams Dilutes Aboriginal Indigenous Rural India!

BURN Budget Hundred Day SUSTAINED Campaign Launched Nationwide.Urban Dreams Dilutes Aboriginal Indigenous Rural India!


Indian Holocaust My Father`s Life and Time - THREE HUNDRED Twenty FOUR

Palash Biswas

http://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com/

1. nandigramunited: Fwd: [PMARC] Dalits Media Watch - News Updates ...

   7 Mar 2010 ... Rest of India proposes, UP disposes - The Times Of India .... BSP supremo Mayawati, too, demands vertical reservation given separately to women belonging to SC/ST, OBC and minorities. .... Fwd: Budget 2010-2011/ see the attachment. ... Plan allocation for the schemes relating to SCs an. ...
   nandigramunited-banga.blogspot.com/.../fwd-pmarc-dalits-media-watch-news_9136.html - Cached
2. [PDF]

   UNION BUDGET 2010-11 Impact Analysis

   File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
   participation where the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has been hiring godowns from private .... An allocation of Rs 17.00 bn for Post Matric Scholarships for SC ... ST and OBC students would enhance the spread of educafion amongst the ...... receipts (Details in Annex-2 to Expenditure Budget, Volume-1, 2010-2011) ...
   contents.dnb.co.in/.../D&B_Union_Budget_Impact_Analysis_2010-11.pdf

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BURN Budget Hundred Day SUSTAINED Campaign Launched Nationwide!

Urban Dreams Dilutes Aboriginal Indigenous Rural India!

Thousands MUMBAIKARS gathered opposite RK studio in Chembur, Mumbai on 2 PM sharp in the Heart of the City. They have Done an Excellent Home work as the Budget was analysed in Group Meeting held all over Maharashtra since Pranab Mukherjee, the ULTIMATE Zionist Brahamin delivered his Budget. Trade Union and Social Activists, Economists gathered in Marataha Patrakar Sangh Headquarter just near Chhatrapati  Shivajee Terminus and every word of the Budget was put on Post mortem.

In New Delhi, the capital of India Incs government and the Ruling Zionist Corporate Colonial Fascist Hegemony, the Document of Mass Disaster Agenda, so called Economic Reforms,LPG Mafia Raj, FDI FII Foreign Capital In swing was all in Flames in the Collectorate.

Mulnivasi Bamcef President Waman Meshram led thousands in FAGWADA, Punjab when they BURNT the MAN Made Calamity for Agrarian Rural India!

Pune, Parvel, Nagpur and number of Mharashtra Cities Joined the Campaign. Rajasthan and Gujarat Followed suit.

In Banaras, SEVEN Hundred Women led and organised the Budget Jalao Event. Other UP cities Replicated.

No where, the Pet Toilet Media dared to cover the Incident.

No where, Police or Administration intervened to make News!

We Knew. We arranged a SERVER to telecast Live word wide but it could not be UP LINKED anywhere in India!

We knew that the Editorial Policies are decided by India Incs and Print or Electronic Media has the Only task to justify the Economic Ethnic Cleansing converting the Rural India and Aboriginal Indigenous Landscape or Human scape into Foreign Territories!

Thus, we have DECIDED to Sustain the Burn Budget campaign for Full Hindered days henceforth in every corner of the Country and would be concentrate on every State or region one by one. It is Mass Aware Campaign against Misinformation, Mind Control and Monopolistic aggression. Please Join Us.

Please have Heart, you have not to be get ARRESTED as it would make the News and the Conspiracy would be EXPOSED!

Kolkata Inferno Spread countrywide Exposes the Cruelest fact that Indian Society and families may no more wait to GROOM the Teenage Youth or Youth in Twenties as they are ENVELOPED with URBAN Dreams  under Oil Fire inflicted in the Divided Geopolitics. The Death TOLL in Stephen`s court include young men and women in TWENTIES only, just who crossed TEEN Age, and aged Twenty, Eighteen and so on. Half of the dead include Single Children, Boy or girl or even the Twins like Joy Vijoy who should have been Pursuing their Higher studies course, had it been the Period before 1990.Generation Next has been made the Super Slaves Round The Clock just after passing Plus Two and having followed some Vocational Training in IT. ALL of these EXCELLLENT young engertic Children are being ROASTED in the OVEN of Urban Dreams of Super Consumer life style IPL Reality show with Controlled Mind , Controlled Heart, Controlled Biological Habits! Media continue to publish HUMAN stories focusing every face and every Home but delibrately skip the task of tracing out the Faces of future lost in the Virtual world on fire under Free Market democracy!

Budget casts gloom on Dalits: Udit Raj

Submitted by admin on 27 February 2010 - 8:17pm.

• Dalit
• Economy

By TCN News

New Delhi: Dr. Udit Raj, National President, Indian Justice Party and All India Confederation of SC/ST Organizations said that this budget has again cast gloom on Dalits. Rs. 4,500 crore have been allocated for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment which will be utilized not only for the welfare of Dalits but also for the welfare and upliftment of backwards and senior citizens etc.

It has also been said that the scholarship amount to the students belonging to these categories would also be raised. The amount will also be utilized for the setting up a Sign Language Research and Training Centres etc. According to the Special Component Plan, the plan budget expenditure on Dalits should be in proportion to their population.

Dr. Udit Raj said that in the budget for 2010-2011, the total expenditure proposed in the budget is Rs. 11,08,749 crore in which the component of the plan expenditure is to the tune of Rs. 3,73,092 crore. According to the 2001 census, Dalit population is 16.4% of the total population of the country and the budget allocation for the Ministry of Social Justice and Employement should be increased from Rs. 4500 crore to Rs. 61,187 crore in proportion to the population of Dalits. Even if it is taken for granted there may be budget allocation for Dalits in other Ministries also, the combined allocation for Dalit welfare of all the Ministries will not be more than 5%. "It is a matter of great regret that budget allocation for Dalit upliftment has never been done even in the past in proportion to their population. If the total non-plan budget allocation of Rs. 7,36,657 crore is proportionately allocated to Dalits and Tribals, the ammount will really be many folds," said Udit Raj.

"There is always a great emphasis in the budget for increasing revenue and expenditure but no serious attempts are made for proper management of funds. Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had once said that, in effect, only 15% of the total money goes to the targeted people. Under these circumstances, emphasis should not only be on revenue and expenditure but also on implementation of the various schemes to ensure that the maximum benefit reaches to the targeted people and corruption is eliminated. If corruption is removed and even if 50% of the money is spent on the targeted people, then a great change can be brought in the rural areas and concerted efforts can be made to remove poverty from the country. If we could take care of these two points, then there would have been no need for increasing petrol and diesel prices. The increase in petrol and diesel prices is mainly due to wrong economic policies. It has indeed been a matter of great frustration that no concrete steps have been outlined in the budget for controlling price rise of essential commodities like cereals, edible oils, wheat, rice, vegetables etc. The much relief has been given to upper salaried people which was not warranted. The excise has been increased which will further escalate the price rise. Because of this, the tax burden will be passed on common people. Thus common people will be worst sufferers. In fact, the principal objective of this budget should have been to check price rise."

Now please read this Telegraph Report and judge yourself! What BUDGET means for the so called Republic which is nothing but US Sponsored FREE Market Democracy in the World on fire!

http://s21039.gridserver.com/2010feb27/budget_casts_gloom_dalits_udit_raj.html

Business of budget

A STAFF REPORTER

(From left) Ashok Ganguly, Ashok Desai, Salman Khursheed, Rudrangshu Mukherjee, Udayan Bose, Pawan Munjal and Suhel Seth at the Bengal Club-The Telegraph Panel Discussion, presented by Royal Challenge, on Saturday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya Calcutta, March 27: The Bengal Club-The Telegraph Panel Discussion on 'The faith corporates have in the budget is misplaced' covered everything from whether the hullabaloo about the budget was justified and the importance of the budget for captains of the industry to whether India actually had a liberal economy and how important an actor the state was. For Ashok Desai, consultant editor of The Telegraph and "the only one in the (Bengal Club) room who has made a Union budget", the budget had been of great importance to business when corporate taxes were very high. "We used to get over 50 memorandums from different chambers of commerce telling us what to do with the taxes. Businesses could save money by lobbying us. In this country, businessmen concentrated more on politicians than on their business and that is the reason for the poor shape of the country," said Desai. For Hero Honda managing director Pawan Munjal, the budget is still a huge event for companies because it is important for their businesses. "The government should show us the path for the next three to five years. Tell us the trends. We need to know where we are heading. I want to know how much money is being spent on infrastructure, roads, agriculture and the rural sector because that is where my customer is," said Munjal. Munjal through his statement answered the question raised by moderator Rudrangshu Mukherjee whether the state was a principal actor in the liberal economy. The importance of the budget for companies was, however, rubbished by the next panellist. Counselage managing director and Graphiti columnist Suhel Seth termed the Union budget "an exercise in mental exaggeration" and refused to believe that India was a free market. Seth accused companies of kowtowing to those in power. "We crawl when we are asked to walk. When we are asked to jump, we ask how high. I have never seen any industrialist rate a Union budget below five. It is always above five so that they can err on the side of caution," Seth said. According to Seth, the industry will never question in public the power that is because it is worried about skeletons in its closet. Investment banker Udayan Bose said: "Do the corporates influence budget? Yes, of course, they do." "Every time there is a budget, we jump up and down thinking that this will be a big-reform budget. But the big reform in budget has already happened," Bose added. Ashok Ganguly, Rajya Sabha MP and chairman of ABP Pvt Ltd, which publishes The Telegraph, talked about poverty and how the focus should be on its eradication. For Ganguly, budgets in a large democracy like India take on a life of their own because they affect the people. He criticised industry captains for their blinkered vision and their high-handed attitude in "analysing, criticising and paralysing" the budget. "Industry captains are pontificating on what the finance minister should have done. I think it is the height of arrogance," Ganguly said. For minority affairs minister Salman Khursheed, the budget is all about telling the people about the development of India. "The budget tells you about the development of India, about the India that we had and the piece by piece dismantling of that India, whether in terms of taxes or regulation," Khursheed added. He referred to the budget as an exercise in public-private co-operation that is the need of the hour.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100328/jsp/frontpage/story_12273393.jsp

Now please analyse the High Lights of the Budget in absence of Social Justice, Land reforms, Asset Distribution and fiscal Policies, Taxationn Loaded against the EXCLUDED SC, ST, OBC and Minority Indigenous aboriginal Majority Communities, STIMULUS Continued and Government Expenditure to run the Free Market for the Ruling Zionsit market dominating Brahaminical class!

Major highlights of Union Budget 2010-11

Feb 26, 2010 Budget 2010

CHALLENGES

• To quickly revert to the high GDP growth path of 9 per cent and then find the means to cross the 'double digit growth barrier'.

• To harness economic growth to consolidate the recent gains in making development more inclusive.

• To address the weaknesses in government systems, structures and institutions at different levels of governance.

OVERVIEW OF THE ECONOMY

• India among the first few countries in the world to implement a broad-based counter-cyclic policy package to respond to the negative fallout of the global slowdown.

• The Advance Estimates for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for 2009-10 pegged at 7.2 per cent. The final figure expected to be higher when the third and fourth quarter GDP estimates for 2009-10 become available.

• The growth rate in manufacturing sector in December 2009 was 18.5 per cent – the highest in the past two decades.

• A major concern during the second half of 2009-10 has been the emergence of double digit food inflation. Government has set in motion steps, in consultation with the State Chief Ministers, which should bring down the inflation in the next few months and ensure that there is better management of food security in the country.

CONSOLIDATING GROWTH

Fiscal Consolidation

• With recovery taking root, there is a need to review public spending, mobilise resources and gear them towards building the productivity ofthe economy.

• Fiscal policy shaped with reference to the recommendations of the Thirteenth Finance Commission, which has recommended a calibrated exit strategy from the expansionary fiscal stance of last two years.

• It would be for the first time that the Government would target an explicit reduction in its domestic public debt-GDP ratio.

Tax reforms

• On the Direct Tax Code (DTC) the wide-ranging discussions with stakeholders have been concluded – Government will be in a position to implement the DTC from April 1, 2011.

• Centre actively engaged with the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers to finalise the structure of Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as the modalities of its expeditious implementation. Endeavour to introduce GST by April, 2011

People's ownership of PSUs

• Ownership has been broad based in Oil India Limited, NHPC, NTPC and Rural Electrification Corporation while the process is on for National MineralDevelopment Corporation and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam. This will raise about Rs 25,000 crore during the current year.

• Higher amount proposed to be raised during the year 2010-11. Fertiliser subsidy

• A Nutrient Based Subsidy policy for the fertiliser sector has been approved by the Government and will become effective from April 1, 2010.

• This will lead to an increase in agricultural productivity and better returns for the farmers, and overtime reduce the volatility in demand for fertiliser subsidy and contain the subsidy bill.

Petroleum and Diesel pricing policy

• Expert Group to advise the Government on a viable and sustainable system of pricing of petroleum products has submitted its recommendations.

• Decision on these recommendations will be taken in due course. Improving Investment Environment

Foreign Direct Investment

• Number of steps taken to simplify the FDI regime.

• Methodology for calculation of indirect foreign investment in Indian companies has been clearly defined.

• Complete liberalisation of pricing and payment of technology transfer fee and trademark, brand name and royalty payments.

Financial Stability and Development Council

• An apex level Financial Stability and Development Council to be set up with a view to strengthen and institutionalise the mechanism for maintaining financial stability.

• This Council would monitor macro-prudential supervision of the economy, including the functioning of large financial conglomerates, and address inter-regulatory coordination issues.

Banking Licences

• RBI is considering giving some additional banking licenses to private sector players. Non Banking Financial Companies could also be considered, if they meet the RBI's eligibility criteria.

Public Sector Bank Capitalisation

• Rs. 16,500 crore provided to ensure that the Public Sector Banks are able to attain a minimum 8 per cent Tier-I capital by March 31, 2011.

Recapitalisation of Regional Rural Banks (RRB)

• Government to provide further capital to strengthen the RRBs so that they have adequate capital base to support increased lending to the rural economy.

Corporate Governance

• Government has introduced the Companies Bill, 2009 in the Parliament to replace the existing Companies Act, 1956, which will address issues related to regulation in corporate sector in the context of the changing business environment.

Exports

• Extension of existing interest subvention of 2 per cent for one more year for exports covering handicrafts, carpets, handlooms and small and medium enterprises.

Agriculture Growth

• Government will follow a four-pronged strategy, covering

(a) Agricultural production

• Rs. 400 crore provided to extend the green revolution to the eastern region of the country comprising Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Eastern UP, West Bengal and Orissa.

• Rs. 300 crore provided to organise 60,000 "pulses and oil seed villages" in rain-fed areas during 2010-11 and provide an integrated intervention for water harvesting, watershed management and soil health, to enhance the productivity of the dry land farming areas.

• Rs. 200 crore provided for sustaining the gains already made in the green revolution areas through conservation farming, which involves concurrent attention to soil health, water conservation and preservation of biodiversity.

(b) Reduction in wastage of produce

• Government to address the issue of opening up of retail trade. It will help in bringing down the considerable difference between farm gate, wholesale and retail prices.

• Deficit in the storage capacity met through an ongoing scheme for private sector participation – FCI to hire godowns from private parties for a guaranteed period of 7 years.

(c) Credit support to farmers

• Banks have been consistently meeting the targets set for agriculture credit flow in the past few years. For the year 2010-11, the target has been set at Rs.3,75,000 crore.

• In view of the recent drought in some States and the severe floods in some other parts of the country, the period for repayment of the loan amount by farmers extended by six months from December 31, 2009 to June 30, 2010 under the Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme for Farmers.

• Incentive of additional one per cent interest subvention to farmers who repay short-term crop loans as per schedule, increased to 2% for 2010-11.

(d) Impetus to the food processing sector

• In addition to the ten mega food park projects already being set up, the Government has decided to set up five more such parks.

• External Commercial Borrowings to be available for cold storage or cold room facility, including for farm level pre-cooling, for preservation or storage of agricultural and allied produce, marine products and meat.

Infrastructure

• Rs 1,73,552 crore provided for infrastructure development which accounts for over 46 per cent of the total plan allocation.

• Allocation for road transport increased by over 13 per cent from Rs. 17,520 crore to Rs 19,894 crore.

• Rs 16,752 crore provided for Railways, which is about Rs.950 crore more than last year.

India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited (IIFCL)

• IIFCL's disbursements are expected to touch Rs 9,000 crore by end March 2010 and reach around Rs 20,000 crore by March 2011.

• IIFCL has refinanced bank lending to infrastructure projects of Rs. 3,000 crore during

the current year and is expected to more than double that amount in 2010-11.

• The take-out financing scheme announced in the last Budget is expected to initially provide finance for about Rs. 25,000 crore in the next three years.

Energy

• Plan allocation for power sector excluding RGGVY doubled from Rs.2230 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.5,130 crore in 2010-11.

• Government proposes to introduce a competitive bidding process for allocating coal blocks for captive mining to ensure greater transparency and increased participation in production from these blocks.

• A "Coal Regulatory Authority" to create a level playing field in the coal sector proposed to be set up.

• Plan outlay for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy increased by 61 per cent from Rs.620 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.1,000 crore in 2010-11.

• Solar, small hydro and micro power projects at a cost of about Rs.500 crore to be set up in Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Environment and Climate change

• National Clean Energy Fund for funding research and innovative projects in clean energy technologies to be established.

• One-time grant of Rs.200 crore to the Government of Tamil Nadu towards the cost of installation of a zero liquid discharge system at Tirupur to sustain knitwear industry.

• Rs.200 crore provided as a Special Golden Jubilee package for Goa to preserve the natural resources of the State, including sea beaches and forest cover.

• Allocation for National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) doubled in 2010-11 to Rs.500 crore.

• Schemes on bank protection works along river Bhagirathi and river Ganga-Padma in parts of Murshidabad and Nadia district of West Bengal included in the Centrally Sponsored Flood Management Programme.

• A project at Sagar Island to be developed to provide an alternate port facility in West Bengal.

INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT

• The spending on social sector has been gradually increased to Rs. 1,37,674 crore in 2010-11, which is 37% of the total plan outlay in 2010-11.

• Another 25 per cent of the plan allocations are devoted to the development of rural infrastructure.

Education

• Plan allocation for school education increased by 16 per cent from Rs.2 6,800 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.3 1,036 crore in 2010-11.

• In addition, States will have access to Rs.3,675 crore for elementary education under the Thirteenth Finance Commission grants for 2010-11.

Health

• An Annual Health Survey to prepare the District Health Profile of all Districts shall be conducted in 2010-11.

• Plan allocation to Ministry of Health & Family Welfare increased from Rs 19,534 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 22,300 crore for 2010-11.

Financial Inclusion

• Appropriate Banking facilities to be provided to habitations having population in excess of 2000 by March, 2012.

• Insurance and other services to be provided using the Business Correspondent model. By this arrangement, it is proposed to cover 60,000 habitations.

• Augmentation of Rs. 100 crore each for the Financial Inclusion Fund (FIF) and the Financial Inclusion Technology Fund, which shall be contributed by Government of India, RBI and NABARD.

Rural Development

• Rs. 66,100 crore provided for Rural Development.

• Allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme stepped up to Rs.40,100 crore in 2010-11.

• An amount of Rs.48,000 crore allocated for rural infrastructure programmes under Bharat Nirman.

• Unit cost under Indira Awas Yojana increased to Rs.45,000 in the plain areas and to Rs.48,500 in the hilly areas. Allocation for this scheme increased to Rs.10,000 crore.

• Allocation to Backward Region Grant Fund enhanced by 26 per cent from Rs.5,800 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 7,300 crore in 2010-11.

• Additional central assistance of Rs 1,200 crore provided for drought mitigation in the Bundelkhand region.

Urban Development and Housing

• Allocation for urban development increased by more than 75 per cent from Rs.3,060 crore to Rs.5,400 crore in 2010-11.

• Allocation for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation raised from Rs. 850 crore to Rs.1,000 crore in 2010-11.

• Scheme of one per cent interest subvention on housing loan upto Rs. 10 lakh, where the cost of the house does not exceed Rs.20 lakh — announced in the last Budget — extended up to March 31, 2011. Rs.700 crore provided for this scheme for the year 2010-11.

• Rs. 1,270 crore allocated for Rajiv Awas Yojana as compared to Rs. 150 crore last year.

Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises

• High Level Council on Micro and Small Enterprises to monitor the implementation of the recommendations of High-Level Task Force constituted by Prime Minister.

• Allocation for this sector to be increased from Rs. 1,794 crore to Rs.2,400 crore for the year 2010-11.

• The corpus for Micro-Finance Development and Equity Fund doubled to Rs.400 crore in 2010-11.

Unorganised Sector

National Social Security Fund for unorganised sector workers

• National Social Security Fund for unorganised sector workers to be set up with an initial allocation of Rs.1000 crore. This fund will support schemes for weavers, toddy tappers, rickshaw pullers, bidi workers etc.

• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana benefits extended to all such Mahatma Gandhi NREGA beneficiaries who have worked for more than 15 days during the preceding financial year.

• A new initiative, "Swavalamban" will be available for persons who join New Pension Scheme (NPS), with a minimum contribution of Rs. 1,000 and a maximum contribution of Rs.12,000 per annum during the financial year 2010-11, wherein Government will contribute Rs. 1,000 per year to each NPS account opened in the year 2010-11. Allocation of Rs.100 crore made for this initiative.

Skill development

• National Skill Development Corporation has approved three projects worth about Rs 45 crore to create 10 lakh skilled manpower at the rate of one lakh per annum.

• An extensive skill development programme in the textile and garment sector to be launched by leveraging the strength of existing institutions and instruments of the Textile Ministry to train 30 lakh persons over 5 years.

Social Welfare

• Plan outlay for Women and Child Development stepped up by almost 50 per cent.

• The ICDS platform being expanded for effective implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Adolescent Girls.

• "Saakshar Bharat" to further improve female literacy rate launched with a target of 7 crore non-literate adults which includes 6 crore women.

• Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana to meet the specific needs of women farmers to be launched with a provision of Rs 100 crore as a sub-component of the National Rural Livelihood Mission.

• Plan outlay of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment enhanced by 80 per cent to Rs.4500 crore. With this enhancement, the Ministry will be able to revise rates of scholarship under its post-matric scholarship schemes for SCs and OBC students.

• Plan allocation for the Ministry of Minority Affairs increased by 50 per cent from Rs.1,740 crore to Rs.2,600 crore for the year 2010-11.

STRENGTHENING TRANSPARENCY & PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILTY

• Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission to be set up to rewrite and clean up the financial sector laws to bring them in line with the requirements of the sector.

• Rs 1,900 crore allocated to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for 2010-11. UIDAI will be able to meet its commitments of issuing the first set of UID numbers in the coming year

• A Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) to be set up to look into various technological and systemic issues for effective tax administration and financial governance.

• Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) chaired by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission to be set up to evaluate the impact of flagship programmes.

Security and Justice

• Allocation for Defence increased to Rs. 1,47,344 crore including Rs 60,000 crore for capital expenditure.

• About 2,000 youth to be recruited as constables in five Central Para Military Forces from Jammu and Kashmir in the year 2010.

• Planning Commission to prepare an integrated action plan for the thirty-three left wing extremism affected districts. Adequate funds will be made available to support the action plan.

• Government has approved the setting up of the National Mission for Delivery of Justice and Legal Reforms to help reduce legal backlog in courts from an average of 15 years at present to 3 years by 2012.

BUDGET ESTIMATES 2010-11

• The Gross Tax Receipts are estimated at Rs. 7,46,651 crore

• The Non Tax Revenue Receipts are estimated at Rs. 1,48,118 crore.

• The net tax revenue to the Centre as well as the expenditure provisions in 2010-11 have been estimated with reference to the recommendations of the Thirteenth Finance Commission.

• The total expenditure proposed in the Budget Estimates is Rs. 11,08,749 crore, which is an increase of 8.6 per cent over last year.

• The Plan and Non Plan expenditures in BE 2010-11 are estimated at Rs. 3,73,092 crore and Rs. 7,35,657 crore respectively. While there is 15 per cent increase in Plan expenditure, the increase in Non Plan expenditure is only 6 per cent over the BE of previous year.

• Fiscal deficit for BE 2010-11 at 5.5 per cent of GDP, which works out to Rs.3,8 1,408 crore.

• Taking into account the various other financing items for fiscal deficit, the actual net market borrowing of the Government in 2010-11 would be of the order of Rs.3 ,45,0 10 crore. This would leave enough space to meet the credit needs of the private sector.

• The rolling targets for fiscal deficit are pegged at 4.8 per cent and 4.1 per cent for 2011-12 and 2012-13, respectively.

• Against a fiscal deficit of 7.8 per cent in 2008-09, inclusive of oil and fertilizer bonds, the comparable fiscal deficit is 6.9 per cent as per the Revised Estimates for 2009-10.

• Conscious effort made to avoid issuing bonds to oil and fertilizer companies. Government would like to continue with this practice of extending Government subsidy in cash, thereby bringing all subsidy related liabilities into Government's fiscal accounting.

PART B TAX PROPOSALS

• The Centralized Processing Centre at Bengaluru is now fully functional and is processing around 20,000 returns daily. This initiative will be taken forward by setting up two more Centres during the year.

• The Income Tax department has introduced "Sevottam", a pilot project at Pune, Kochi and Chandigarh through Aayakar Seva Kendras, which provide a single window system for registration of all applications including those for redressal of grievances as well as paper returns. The scheme will be extended to four more cities in the year.

• Automation of Central Excise & Service Tax, has already been rolled out throughout the country this year. Similarly, a Mission Mode Project for computerization of Commercial Taxes in States has been approved recently. With an outlay of Rs. 1133 crore of which the Centre's share is Rs. 800 crore, the project will lay the foundation for the launch of GST.

• The income tax department to notify SARAL-II form for individual salaried taxpayers for the coming assessment year.

• Scope of cases which may be admitted by the Settlement Commission expanded to include proceedings related to search and seizure cases pending for assessment. Scope of Settlement Commission also expanded in respect of Central Excise and Customs to include certain categories of cases that hitherto fell outside its jurisdiction.

• Bi-lateral discussions commenced to enhance the exchange of bank related and other information to effectively track tax evasion and identify undisclosed assets of resident Indians lying abroad.

Direct Taxes

• Income tax slabs for individual taxpayers to be as follows

Income upto Rs 1.6 lakh Nil

Income above Rs 1.6 lakh and upto Rs. 5 lakh 10 per cent

Income above Rs.5 lakh and upto Rs. 8 lakh 20 per cent

Income above Rs. 8 lakh 30 per cent

• Deduction of an additional amount of Rs. 20,000 allowed, over and above the existing limit of Rs. 1 lakh on tax savings, for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds as notified by the Central Government

• Besides contributions to health insurance schemes which is currently allowed as a deduction under the Income-tax Act, contributions to the Central Government Health Scheme also allowed as a deduction under the same provision.

• Current surcharge of 10 per cent on domestic companies reduced to 7.5 per cent.

• Rate of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) increased from the current rate of 15 per cent to 18 per cent of book profits.

• To further encourage R&D across all sectors of the economy, weighted deduction on expenditure incurred on in-house R&D enhanced from 150 per cent to 200 per cent. Weighted deduction on payments made to National Laboratories, research associations, colleges, universities and other institutions, for scientific research enhanced from 125 per cent to 175 per cent.

• Payment made to an approved association engaged in research in social sciences or statistical research to be allowed as a weighted deduction of 125 per cent. The income of such approved research association shall be exempt from tax.

• Benefit of investment linked deduction under the Act extended to new hotels of two-star category and above anywhere in India to boost investment in the tourism sector.

• Allow pending projects to be completed within a period of five years instead of four years for claiming a deduction of their profits, as a one time interim relief to the housing and real estate sector. Norms for built-up area of shops and other commercial establishments in housing projects to be relaxed to enable basic facilities for their residents.

• Limits for turnover over which accounts need to be audited enhanced to Rs. 60 lakh for businesses and to Rs. 15 lakh for professions.

• Limit of turnover for the purpose of presumptive taxation of small businesses enhanced to Rs. 60 lakh.

• If tax has been deducted on payment by way of any expense and is paid before the due date of filing the return, such expenditure to be allowed for deduction. Interest charged on tax deducted but not deposited by the specified date to be increased from 12 per cent to 18 per cent per annum.

• To facilitate the conversion of small companies into Limited Liability Partnerships, transfer of assets as a result of such conversion not to be subject to capital gains tax.

• "The advancement of any other object of general public utility" to be considered as "charitable purpose" even if it involves carrying on of any activity in the nature of trade, commerce or business provided that the receipts from such activities do not exceed Rs.10 lakh in the year .

• Proposals on direct taxes estimated to result in a revenue loss of Rs. 26,000 crore for the year.

Indirect Taxes

• Rate reduction in Central Excise duties to be partially rolled back and the standard rate on all non-petroleum products enhanced from 8 per cent to 10 per cent ad valorem.

• The specific rates of duty applicable to portland cement and cement clinker also adjusted upwards proportionately. Similarly, the ad valorem component of excise duty on large cars, multi-utility vehicles and sports-utility vehicles increased by 2 percentage points to 22 per cent.

• Restore the basic duty of 5 per cent on crude petroleum; 7.5 per cent on diesel and petrol and 10 per cent on other refined products. Central Excise duty on petrol and diesel enhanced by Re. 1 per litre each.

• Some structural changes in the excise duty on cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos to be made coupled with some increase in rates. Excise duty on all non-smoking tobacco such as scented tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco etc to be enhanced. Compounded levy scheme for chewing tobacco and branded unmanufactured tobacco based on the capacity of pouch packing machines to be introduced.

Agriculture & Related Sectors

• Provide project import status with a concessional import duty of 5 per cent for the setting up of mechanised handling systems and pallet racking systems in 'mandis' or warehouses for food grains and sugar as well as full exemption from service tax for the installation and commissioning of such equipment.

• Provide project import status at a concessional customs duty of 5 per cent with full exemption from service tax to the initial setting up and expansion of

¨ Cold storage, cold room including farm pre-coolers for preservation or storage of agriculture and related sectors produce ; and  Processing units for such produce.

• Provide full exemption from customs duty to refrigeration units required for the manufacture of refrigerated vans or trucks.

• Provide concessional customs duty of 5 per cent to specified agricultural machinery not manufactured in India;

• Provide central excise exemption to specified equipment for preservation, storage and processing of agriculture and related sectors and exemption from service tax to the storage and warehousing of their produce; and

• Provide full exemption from excise duty to trailers and semi-trailers used in agriculture.

• Concessional import duty to specified machinery for use in the plantation sector to be, extended up to March 31, 2011 along with a CVD exemption.

• To exempt the testing and certification of agricultural seeds from service tax.

• The transportation by road of cereals, and pulses to be exempted from service tax. Transportation by rail to remain exempt.

• To ease the cash flow position for small-scale manufacturers, they would be permitted to take full credit of Central Excise duty paid on capital goods in a single installment in the year of their receipt. Secondly, they would be permitted to pay Central Excise duty on a quarterly, rather than monthly, basis.

Environment

• To build the corpus of the National Clean Energy Fund, clean energy cess on coal produced in India at a nominal rate of Rs.50 per tonne to be levied. This cess will also apply on imported coal.

• Provide a concessional customs duty of 5 per cent to machinery, instruments, equipment and appliances etc. required for the initial setting up of photovoltaic and solar thermal power generating units and also exempt them from Central Excise duty. Ground source heat pumps used to tap geo-thermal energy to be exempted from basic customs duty and special additional duty.

• Exempt a few more specified inputs required for the manufacture of rotor blades for wind energy generators from Central Excise duty.

• Central Excise duty on LED lights reduced from 8 per cent to 4 per cent at par with Compact Fluorescent Lamps.

• To remedy the difficulty faced by manufacturers of electric cars and vehicles in neutralising the duty paid on their inputs and components, a nominal duty of 4 per cent on such vehicles imposed. Some critical parts or sub-assemblies of such vehicles exempted from basic customs duty and special additional duty subject to actual user condition. These parts would also enjoy a concessional CVD of 4 per cent.

• A concessional excise duty of 4 per cent provided to "soleckshaw", a product developed by CSIR to replace manually-operated rickshaws. Its key parts and components to be exempted from customs duty.

• Import of compostable polymer exempted from basic customs duty. Infrastructure

• Project import status to 'Monorail projects for urban transport' at a concessional basic duty of 5 per cent granted.

• To allow resale of specified machinery for road construction projects on payment of import duty at depreciated value.

• To encourage the domestic manufacture of mobile phones accessories, exemptions from basic, CVD and special additional duties are now being extended to parts of battery chargers and hands-free headphones. The validity of the exemption from special additional duty is being extended till March 31, 2011.

Medical Sector

• Uniform, concessional basic duty of 5 per cent, CVD of 4 per cent with full exemption from special additional duty prescribed on all medical equipments. A concessional basic duty of 5 per cent is being prescribed on parts and accessories for the manufacture of such equipment while they would be exempt from CVD and special additional duty.

• Full exemption currently available to medical equipment and devices such as assistive devices, rehabilitation aids etc. retained. The concession available to Government hospitals or hospitals set up under a statute also retained.

• Specified inputs for the manufacture of orthopaedic implants exempted from import duty.

Infotainment

• To address the difficulties experienced by film industry in importing digital masters of films for duplication or distribution loaded on electronic medium vis-a-vis those imported on cinematographic film, owing to a differential customs duty structure, customs duty to be charged only on the value of the carrier medium. The same dispensation would apply to music and gaming software imported for duplication. In all such cases the value representing the transfer of intellectual property rights would be subjected to service tax.

• Provide project import status at a concessional customs duty of 5 per cent with full exemption from special additional duty to the initial setting up "Digital Head End" equipment by multi-service operators.

Precious Metals

• Rates on precious metals indexed as follows:

¨ On gold and platinum from Rs.200 per 10 grams to Rs.300 per 10 grams

¨ On silver from Rs.1,000 per kg to Rs.1,500 per kg.

• Basic customs on Rhodium – a precious metal used for polishing jewellery reduced to 2 per cent.

• Basic customs duty on gold ore and concentrates reduced from 2 per cent ad valorem to a specific duty of Rs.140 per 10 grams of gold content with full exemption from special additional duty. Further, the excise duty on refined gold made from such ore or concentrate reduced from 8 per cent to a specific duty of Rs.280 per 10 grams.

Other Proposals

• Full exemption from import duty available to specified inputs or raw materials required for the manufacture of sports goods expanded to cover a few more items.

• Basic customs duty on one of key components in production of micro-wave ovens, namely magnetrons, reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent.

• Value limit of Rs. 1 lakh per annum on duty-free import of commercial samples as personal baggage enhanced to Rs. 3 lakh per annum.

• Outright exemption from special additional duty provided to goods imported in a pre-packaged form for retail sale. This would also cover mobile phones, watches and ready-made garments even when they are not imported in pre-packaged form. The refund-based exemption is also being retained for cases not covered by the new dispensation.

• Toy balloons fully exempted from Central Excise duty.

• Reduction in basic customs duty on long pepper from 70 per cent to 30 per cent;

• Reduction in basic customs duty on asafoetida from 30 per cent to 20 per cent;

• Reduction in central excise duty on replaceable kits for household type water filters other than those based on RO technology to 4 per cent;

• Reduction in central excise duty on corrugated boxes and cartons from 8 per cent to 4 per cent;

• Reduction in central excise duty on latex rubber thread from 8 per cent to 4 per cent; and

• Reduction in excise duty on goods covered under the Medicinal and Toilet Preparations Act from 16 per cent to 10 per cent.

• Proposals relating to customs and central excise are estimated to result in a net revenue gain of Rs. 43,500 crore for the year.

Service Tax

• Rate of tax on services retained at 10 per cent to pave the way forward for GST.

• Certain services, hitherto untaxed, to be brought within the purview of the service tax levy. These to be notified separately.

• Process of refund of accumulated credit to exporters of services, especially in the area of Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing, made easy by making necessary changes in the definition of export of services and procedures.

• Accredited news agencies which provide news feed online that meet certain criteria, exempted from service tax.

• Proposals relating to service tax are estimated to result in a net revenue gain of Rs 3,000 crore for the year.

• Proposals on direct taxes estimated to result in a revenue loss of Rs. 26,000 crore for the year. Proposals relating to Indirect Taxes estimated to result in a net revenue gain of Rs.46,500 crore for the year. Taking into account the concessions being given in the tax proposals and measures taken to mobilise additional resources, the net revenue gain is estimated to be Rs. 20,500 crore for the year.

Read more: http://www.taxguru.in/budget-2010/major-highlights-of-union-budget-2010-11.html#ixzz0jU2yHMnS

Read more: http://www.taxguru.in/budget-2010/major-highlights-of-union-budget-2010-11.html#ixzz0jU2cCtd3

1. [PDF]

   PART-III PLAN OUTLAY 2010-2011

   File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
   PLAN OUTLAY 2010-2011. (Rupees in Crores). Budget. Revised. Budget. Estimates. Estimates. Estimates. 2009-2010 .... that the SC/ST shall account for 50%, women for 40%, minorities ..... Authority of India Limited (SAIL). The broad details of outlay ...... Tribal Affairs : The allocation under Central Sector Plan of ...
   indiabudget.nic.in/ub2010-11/eb/po.pdf

2. results of selected sc candidates ugc rgnf 2009 2010 in ap ...

   "In the union budget for 2009-2010, the budget allocation for SC/ST has . ... AP Government had provided a four per cent reservation to the minorities in job and ... 2010-2011. Budgetary Support for Central Plan. 239840.00. 229163.18. ... having concentration of SC & ST communities ... the seats for the OBC ...
   www.pdfqueen.com/.../results-of-selected-sc-candidates-ugc-rgnf-2009-2010-in-ap/ - Cached

3. CBGA Analysis of Union Budget 2010-11

   Promises addressed in the Union Budget 2010-2011 .... Allocation for the SC subplan out of the total plan expenditure of Union Government reduced from 7.07 ... National Mission for Female Literacy to be launched with focus on minorities, .... of an SC/ST student (in the age group 5-29 years) by the Union Budget ...
   www.scribd.com/doc/.../CBGA-Analysis-of-Union-Budget-2010-11 - Cached

4. Lawyersclubindia - Featured Key Features of Budget 2010-2011 - Law ...

   31 Dec 2009 ... Interactive Platform for Legal & Law Of India, Law Information, Law Portal Of India, ... SC · Notifications · SMS alert .... Another 25 per cent of the plan allocations are devoted to the development of rural infrastructure. .... under its post matric scholarship schemes for SCs and OBC students. ...
   www.lawyersclubindia.com/spotlight/spotlight_details.asp?featured... - Cached
5. [PDF]

   01 - Budget Speech English 2010-2011 (01-83).pmd

   File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
   4 Jan 2010 ... backward classes, minorities and women, so that a prosperous social system can be built on the .... Reserve Bank of India and other sources that the growth ...... the above allocation, especially for Karnataka State, is not ..... Welfare of SC's & ST's,. OBC's, Social Welfare & Nutrition. 2359.08 ...
   finance.kar.nic.in/bud2010/bsp10e.pdf

INDIA BUDGET 2010-11
HIGHLIGHT

THE TOTAL EXPENDITURE PROPOSED IN THE BUDGET ESTIMATES IS RS.11,08,749 CRORE , AN INCREASE OF 8.6 PER CENT OVER LAST YEAR

THE PLAN AND NON-PLAN EXPENDITURE ESTIMATED AT RS.3,73,092 CRORE AND RS.7,35,657 CRORE RESPECTIVELY, AN INCREASE OF 15 PERCENT IN PLAN EXPENDITURE AND 6 PER CENT IN NON-PLAN EXPENDITURE OVER THE BE OF PREVIOUS YEAR

FISCAL DEFICIT  AT  5.5 PER CENT OF GDP WORKS OUT TO BE RS. 3,81,408 CRORE

ROLLING TARGETS FOR FISCAL DEFICIT  PEGGED AT 4.8 PER CENT AND 4.1 PER CENT  FOR 2011-12 AND 2012-13

NET MARKET BORROWING WOULD BE OF THE ORDER OF RS. 3,45,010 CRORE  LEAVING ENOUGH SPACE TO MEET CREDIT  NEEDS OF PRIVATE SECTOR

AGAINST A FISCAL DEFICIT OF 7.8 PER CENT IN 2008-09 , INCLUSIVE OF OIL AND  FERTILIZER BONDS, THE COMPARABLE FISCAL DEFICIT IS 6.9 PER CENT  AS PER RE 2009-10

GROSS TAX RECEIPTS ESTIMATED AT RS.7,46,651 CRORE AND NON-TAX RECEIPT ESTIMATED AT RS. 1,48,118  CRORE

STATUS PAPER GIVING ROAD MAP FOR CURTAILING  THE OVERALL PUBLIC DEBT  TO BE BROUGHT OUT WITHIN 6 MONTHS

ABOUT RS. 25,000 CRORES TO BE RAISED  THROUGH DISINVESTMET PROGRAMM

TO SIMPLIFY THE FDI REGIME,  FOR THE FIRST TIME BOTH OWNERSHIP & CONTROL RECOGNISED AS CENTRAL TO THE FDI POLICY.

RS. 16,500 CRORE  TO BE PROVIDED  TO PUBLIC SECTOR BANKS  TO ACHIEVE A MINIMUM 8 PER CENT TIER-

GROWTH OF 127 PER CENT  RECORDED IN EXPORTS FROM SEZs TILL DECEMBER, 2009

A FOUR-PRONGED STRATEGY TO SPUR THE GROWTH IN AGRICULTURE SECTOR ENVISAGED. WHICH INCLUDES AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, REDUCTION IN WASTAGE OF PRODUCE , CREDIT SUPPORT  TO FARMERS AND THRUST TO THE FOOD PROCESSING SECTOR

INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT  GETS AN ALLOCATION OF Rs. 1,73,552 CRORE, 46  PER CENT OF TOTAL PLAN ALLOCATION , AN INCREASE OF 13 PER CENT  IN ROAD  TRANSPORT SECTO

INDIA INFRASTRUCTURE  FINANCE COMPANY LIMITED'S  DISBURSEMENTS TO REACH RS. 20,000 CRORE BY MARCH 2011

ALLOCATION FOR POWER SECTOR INCREASED  BY MORE THAN DOUBLED TO RS. 5,130 CROR

NEW TAX INCENTIVES  ANNOUNCED FOR INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR

NATIONAL CLEAR ENERGY FUND FOR FUNDING RESEARCH AND INNOVATIVE PROJECTS  IN CLEAN ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES  TO BE SET UP.

SPENDING ON SOCIAL SECTOR  TO ACCOUNT FOR 37 PER CENT OF  TOTAL PLAN OUTLAY  AT RS.1,37,674 CROR

ALLOCATION FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT ENHANCED TO RS.66,100  CRORES. ALLOCATION FOR NREGA  STEPPED UP TO 40,100 CRORE.

RS. 48,000 CRORE ALLOCATED FOR BHARAT NIRMAN  PROGRAMME

BACKWARD REGION GRANT FUND  ALLOCATION ENHANCED TO RS. 7,300 CRORE.       

UNIQUE IDENTIFICATION AUTHORITY OF INDIA TO  GET AN ALLOCATION OF RS. 1,900 CRORE. A TECHNOLOGY ADVISORY GROUP FOR UNIQUE PROECT TO BE   SET UP

ALLOCATION  FOR DEFENCE INCREASED TO  RS.1,47,344 CROR

INCOME TAX SLABS BROADENED  -  10 PER CENT ON INCOME ABOVE  RS 1.6 LAKH TO 5.00 LAKH, 20 PER CENT   ON INCOME ABOVE 5.OO LAKH  TO 8.00 LAKH , 30 PER CENT ON ABOVE RS. 8.00 LAKH

ADDITIONAL DEDUCTION OF RS. 20,000 FOR INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE BONDS

SURCHARGE OF 10 PER CENT ON DOMESTIC COMPANIES REDUCED TO  7.5 PER CEN

MAT INCREASED  FROM 15 PER CENT TO 18 PER CENT

Five of top 10 stocks shed Rs 32k cr in m-cap

Five of the top 10 Sensex stocks lost a whopping Rs 32,000 crore in their market capitalisation past week even as the benchmark Sensex

How to make re-entry into the stock markets Short-term funds may be your best bet, now Deep discount bond: Retail investment option What is Indian Depository Receipt? Go online,buying MF units was never this easy

rose to a two-month high in the same period.

State-run mining major NMDC led the losses, with its market capitalisation dipping by Rs 23,986.44 crore to Rs 1,18,267 crore.

NMDC plunged nearly 17 per cent during the four-day trade to close at Rs 298.30 on the BSE on Friday.

Bharti Airtel, which is finalising definitive agreements to buy out Kuwait-based Zain Telecom's African assets in a USD 10.7 billion deal, lost Rs 637.47 crore from its m-cap to Rs 1,17,780 crore.

The other three M-Cap are losers are all public sector companies--- MMTC, NTPC and BHEL. Together all the five lost a sum of Rs 32,041.97 crore from their market valuation for the week ended March 28.

On other hand, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark index Sensex gained during the week on the back of heavyweight Reliance Industries, ONGC, Infosys Technologies, TCS and state-run SBI adding a combined wealth of Rs 10,206 crore to their market capitalisation (m-cap).

Also Read

→ RBI for firm regulation of clearing houses

→ Stock markets to trade in limited range: Analysts

→ Investor awareness website in local languages soon

→ United Stock Exchange gets SEBI nod for currency futures

The stock market barometer Sensex touched a fresh two-month high by gaining 85.91 points or 0.49 per cent to settle at 17,644.76-- the highest closing level since January 18.

The country's most valued firm Reliance Industries, maintained its numer-uno position and saw its valuation swell by Rs 3,008.71 crore to Rs 3,59,409.27 crore.

The second most valued firm, state-run ONGC saw its valuation surge by Rs 5,112 crore, while, NTPC at the third position witnessed value erosion of Rs 412.27 crore from its m-cap.

ONGC saw its valuation swelled to Rs 2,30,987.27 crore, while, NTPC witnessed a value erosion taking its total m-cap to Rs 1,66,764.43 crore.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/market-news/Five-of-top-10-stocks-shed-Rs-32k-cr-in-m-cap/articleshow/5734561.cms

Now, please read this report also published in Sunday Economic Times priced Rs Ten per copy!

Urban dreams: New cities to sprout across India

28 Mar 2010, 0440 hrs IST, Shantanu Nandan Sharma, ET Bureau
NEW DELHI: Independent India has had the curious—if not unique—distinction of creating large new cities usually when new states are carved out.

Tips for moving into a new home Rights and liabilities in property sale Make home loan repayment easy

After all, the four planned entirely 'new' metropolises India has developed so far, have come about thus: Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar and Naya Raipur. Forty years ago, the great steel plants also forged Bokaro, Bhilai and Rourkela, successors to older industrialisation-led agglomerations such as Jamshedpur, Burnpur, Durgapur and Modinagar, but they could not possibly absorb the influx from rural areas.

Today petroleum, steel, cement, infotech, auto and other industries are spurring town-to-city transformations, conurbations and extensions, if not always new cities. Noida, Gurgaon, Navi Mumbai and NewTown (Rajarhat) are some indicative examples; new ports and extensions at Paradip, Kandla, Mundra, Pipavav are also part of this trend. Most important of all, though, is that the government has realised it must take a primary role in facilitating a crying need for new cities in India. And not a moment too soon.

In going slow on large greenfield cities, India was in line with global trends, says J David Foster, an urban affairs expert formerly with USAID, who lists new capitals like Brasilia, Canberra and Abuja as the few exceptions. Indeed, more new cities worldwide were stymied by the mixed track record of countries like Egypt and Britain on that front. But as Indians move on from Mahatma Gandhi's vision of village-centred utopias — and pile into India's existing urban agglomerations — international failures can no longer be a disincentive.

Thus in the past five years the Central government has made a provision for a whopping Rs 1 lakh crore to bolster infrastructure in 63 major cities in India under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, it has pushed for SEZs and then, inevitably, greenfield cities. And if HCC's under-construction Lavasa, India's first post-Independence hill station near Pune, is evidence of the private sector's interest, the Centre's plan to build six brand-new cities in the next five years may be the catalyst India desperately needs for more such initiatives.

Also Read

The greenfield cities on the anvil—Dholera in Gujarat, Manesar-Bawal in Haryana, Indore-Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, and Dighi and Nasik-Igatpuri in Maharashtra—have been conceived on a grand scale, along the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC). For example, at 900 sq km, Dholera is envisioned to be six times bigger than Chandigarh. The success of these cities, however, hinges on DMIC getting private sector investment and the Central government facilitating soft loans from multilateral agencies with a 10-year moratorium at least.

Amitabh Kant, CEO of DMIC Development Corporation, a private company formed with 49% government equity, said the master plans for three cities are ready; SundayET has reviewed a part of these master plans. Plans for the two other cities in Maharashtra are at an advanced stage. According to the initial plans, Dholera has a four-year target of completion, with four-laned roads (provision for 10 lanes), a 100 m road corridor, improvements to the NH8E, a broad guage rail line and more.

Anup Maheshwari's view on market scenario
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Top stories ET Coverage: Rly Budget 2009 15 Feb 2010, 1314 hrs IST ET Coverage: Budget 2009  15 Feb 2010, 1230 hrs IST Budget: How & Why  9 Feb 2010, 1427 hrs IST Through the budgetary process, the Parliament authorises the government to collect funds by way of taxes, duties, cess, borrowings. The funds so collected are used, with the approval of Parliament, to meet its expenditure. Past FMs: Men who read between numbers  9 Feb 2010, 1424 hrs IST Decoding the Budget jargon  8 Feb 2010, 1124 hrs IST The finance minister's budget speech may be ridden with jargon, but its core is no different from that of a household budget. Lashing out at Indian Premier League for using "cricket as an instrument of business", Sports Minister M S Gill has accused the BCCI of changing the rules of the game to allow the cash-awash Twenty20 league run a commercial venture. Gill said the rules of cricket had been changed by the IPL, and acquiesced by the BCCI, by way of giving batsman advantage over bowlers to promote entertainment, allowing mongoose bat and shortening boundaries, all to earn profit. "What the IPL is doing, the bowler is only the victim and the bat -- now you have a mongoose bat (and) I look forward to a cobra bat. The boundaries have been shortened ... the whole thing is to entertain the masses. And the bowler is just an instrument for this promotion. IPL is fundamentally business..." Gill told a TV news channel. "Its focus is earning money. Now two new teams have been bought and one of the gentlemen who has bought ... said look this is business, we bought it for business and our job is to earn from it. Cricket is an instrument of business," he added. The minister dared to touch upon the controversial issue of some IPL stakeholders holding powerful posts in the BCCI and said those involved in the Twenty20 league should not be part of the Board to avoid conflict of interest. "... those who control the game, that is BCCI, they have a direct interest as owners of teams, as people who have a direct benefit from it and this is something very dangerous. What I have noticed, and I am sure everybody else has, (that) major office bearers are on both sides," Gill said. "Those who are to make rules for everyone, for all aspects of the game and keeping in view the interest of the game and the country and the long term, have to be totally apart from being involved in IPL in any way," he said. "Obviously I think so," he added when asked whether there was any conflict of interest with BCCI members on both sides of the Board and IPL. Gill said the IPL was not only detrimental to the health of other longer formats of the game but it has also damaged the sportsmanship of the cricketers and their urge to play for the country. "... the five-day Test is under challenge and you see nobody turns up for it, crowds have already been moved away. Even the 50-over is reduced to T20 and I sometimes say jokingly that we'll go to T5 and then T1 and then half an over," he said. "Even the seasons have been changed. Now this (IPL) has to be accommodated. And today I find that they are concerned will India in the Twenty20 World Cup have any role? People will not be that keen to play for the national team, as they will be for a commercial team. Certainly, Test cricket and India's position in it will be affected," Gill said. "Sportsmanship in what way I can't say but the fact of the matter is the attitude, the mental attitude of the players is obviously modified by the requirements and by the enticements of the game," he said. Gill felt that the huge sums of money cricket attracts and its skewed coverage in the media has retarded the development of other sports. "... There is something happening which is adverse to the rest of them (other sports). Most of newspapers or even the television channels, they give three pages of the newspaper or most of the time to cricket, cricket, cricket. Hockey mein do anything, football mein do anything ... they don't get a word. And whether you have a World Cup going on here of hockey or anything (there's no coverage)," he said. The sad part, he said, was that cricketers got favourable treatment from even the committee which decides on Arjuna Awards by disregarding his nomination of Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar while awarding three cricketers the honour. "I am not happy at that (Sushil not getting Arjuna Award) ... we recommended him. We have also a so-called technical expertise to make that judgement. But I am sorry though I have represented but the committees that select in the other ministry they take names direct and we are not even consulted or our view taken, which, I think, is wrong. They must take our view. They can't reject our view," he said. Gill was also not happy with state governments jostling to announce financial rewards to cricketers and not to other sportspersons. "I do feel sad about this and I do expect public authorities, elected authorities in states or anywhere, to be more responsive to a fair treatment of Indian sportsmen and Indian people," he said when reminded about indifferent treatment by Karnataka government on world billiard and snooker champion Pankaj Advani. 1	Market Analysis Stock to Buy Research Reports Indian ADRs gain $1.3 bn in past week Post-deal : Stock prices dip initially, rise later Rights issues, preferential allotments may come into tax net Wary investors turn to small companies Investors turn to wealth managers for best bets More >> Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam IPO to be delayed Traders build positions in Bafna Pharma Hero Honda falls on low interim dividend hopes Jubilant raises $85 mn in share sale: Sources Stocks to watch: Bharti Airtel, NTPC, IOC, Tata Motors More >> Realty focussed PE fund raising skids 61% to $17 bn till May Prabhudas Lilladher has a reduce rating on Infosys Fin Crisis: Too late and too little done in US Weak rupee takes its toll on cos with huge foreign debt Wait for more signals before turning positive More >> ET Cetera Warning space on tobacco packs; India lags India is somewhere in the middle with Belgium, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, which have 40 per cent or above coverage of the total package. Meat ban by Indian-origin billionaire stirs row ISRO developing winged reusable rocket More >> Interviews Chetan Maini, Deputy Chairman, REVA Electric Car Company BK Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission Birger Steen, V-P, SMB & distribution, Microsoft Corp Kelly Clark, Worldwide CEO, Maxus Bijou Kurien, President & Chief Executive-Lifestyle, Reliance Retail V Shankar, CEO, Non-Asian operations, Standard Chartered More >>

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Budget-Basics/articlelist/5551820.cms

IPL running business, BCCI promoting it: Gill
Lashing out at Indian Premier League for using "cricket as an instrument of business", Sports Minister M S Gill has accused the BCCI of changing the rules of the game to allow the cash-awash Twenty20 league run a commercial venture.

Gill said the rules of cricket had been changed by the IPL, and acquiesced by the BCCI, by way of giving batsman advantage over bowlers to promote entertainment, allowing mongoose bat and shortening boundaries, all to earn profit.

"What the IPL is doing, the bowler is only the victim and the bat -- now you have a mongoose bat (and) I look forward to a cobra bat. The boundaries have been shortened ... the whole thing is to entertain the masses. And the bowler is just an instrument for this promotion. IPL is fundamentally business..." Gill told a TV news channel.

"Its focus is earning money. Now two new teams have been bought and one of the gentlemen who has bought ... said look this is business, we bought it for business and our job is to earn from it. Cricket is an instrument of business," he added.

The minister dared to touch upon the controversial issue of some IPL stakeholders holding powerful posts in the BCCI and said those involved in the Twenty20 league should not be part of the Board to avoid conflict of interest.

"... those who control the game, that is BCCI, they have a direct interest as owners of teams, as people who have a direct benefit from it and this is something very dangerous. What I have noticed, and I am sure everybody else has, (that) major office bearers are on both sides," Gill said.

"Those who are to make rules for everyone, for all aspects of the game and keeping in view the interest of the game and the country and the long term, have to be totally apart from being involved in IPL in any way," he said.

"Obviously I think so," he added when asked whether there was any conflict of interest with BCCI members on both sides of the Board and IPL.

Gill said the IPL was not only detrimental to the health of other longer formats of the game but it has also damaged the sportsmanship of the cricketers and their urge to play for the country.

"... the five-day Test is under challenge and you see nobody turns up for it, crowds have already been moved away. Even the 50-over is reduced to T20 and I sometimes say jokingly that we'll go to T5 and then T1 and then half an over," he said.

"Even the seasons have been changed. Now this (IPL) has to be accommodated. And today I find that they are concerned will India in the Twenty20 World Cup have any role? People will not be that keen to play for the national team, as they will be for a commercial team. Certainly, Test cricket and India's position in it will be affected," Gill said.

"Sportsmanship in what way I can't say but the fact of the matter is the attitude, the mental attitude of the players is obviously modified by the requirements and by the enticements of the game," he said.

Gill felt that the huge sums of money cricket attracts and its skewed coverage in the media has retarded the development of other sports.

"... There is something happening which is adverse to the rest of them (other sports). Most of newspapers or even the television channels, they give three pages of the newspaper or most of the time to cricket, cricket, cricket. Hockey mein do anything, football mein do anything ... they don't get a word. And whether you have a World Cup going on here of hockey or anything (there's no coverage)," he said.

The sad part, he said, was that cricketers got favourable treatment from even the committee which decides on Arjuna Awards by disregarding his nomination of Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Sushil Kumar while awarding three cricketers the honour.

"I am not happy at that (Sushil not getting Arjuna Award) ... we recommended him. We have also a so-called technical expertise to make that judgement. But I am sorry though I have represented but the committees that select in the other ministry they take names direct and we are not even consulted or our view taken, which, I think, is wrong. They must take our view. They can't reject our view," he said.

Gill was also not happy with state governments jostling to announce financial rewards to cricketers and not to other sportspersons.

"I do feel sad about this and I do expect public authorities, elected authorities in states or anywhere, to be more responsive to a fair treatment of Indian sportsmen and Indian people," he said when reminded about indifferent treatment by Karnataka government on world billiard and snooker champion Pankaj Advani.

India developing winged reusable rocket : ISRO
India is developing a winged reusable rocket and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has configured a Technology Demonstrator as a first step towards realising it, the space agency said in a report.

India's space scientists have already configured a winged Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD). This is a first step towards realising a Two Stage To Orbit (TSTO) fully re-reusable launch vehicle, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The agency said in its latest annual report that a series of technology demonstration missions have been conceived.

"The RLV-TD will act as a flying test bed to evaluate various technologies like hypersonic flight, autonomous landing, powered cruise flight and hypersonic flight using air breathing propulsion. First in the series of demonstration trials is the hypersonic flight experiment (HEX)," it said.

Meanwhile, for the Chandrayaan-2 mission, expected by 2012-13, ISRO has received 36 Indian payload proposals for orbiter and lander/rover.

The Scientific Advisory Board of Chandrayaan-2, a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-1, is currently in the process of reviewing the payloads proposed for orbiter.

ISRO sources said the space agency has also received foreign proposals evincing interest to send their instruments for hosting by the Chandrayaan-2 which would be jointly developed with Russia.

It would have an Indian orbiter and mini-rover, and Russian lander and rover.

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Economy may grow close to 8 per cent in fourth quarter: Assocham 28 Mar 2010, 1512 hrs IST Indian economy could grow close to 8% in the last quarter of the current fiscal, while the overall growth for the year could be between 7.2-7.4 per cent. 31 per cent Muslims live below poverty line: NCAER survey  28 Mar 2010, 1445 hrs IST Nearly one third of Muslims in the nation survive on less than Rs 550 a month, economic think tank NCAER said. All Economy headlines >> Policy Expanded IIP basket from April data: Sen New companies bill to facilitate, guide gen next joining family biz: Khurshid Realty regulatory bill this year: Reddy More >> Finance RBI for firm regulation of clearing houses CIL selloff may fetch Rs 10K crore for government FX reserves at $278.193 bn as on March 19 More >> Foreign Trade We are committed to close FTA with EU by Oct: Sharma Govt slaps duty on import of Chinese chemical, machine WTO members pursue Doha despite gaps, no miracles More >> Infrastructure India expects $5 bn Canadian investment in road sector HDIL unit gets approval for special economic zone India surprises with big new coal ports More >> Agriculture Despite price boil, dairy industry most competitive globally Govt thinking of reducing interest rate on crop loans: Pawar Monsoon seen normal this year: Farm secy More >>	Market Analysis Stock to Buy Research Reports Indian ADRs gain $1.3 bn in past week Post-deal : Stock prices dip initially, rise later Rights issues, preferential allotments may come into tax net Wary investors turn to small companies Investors turn to wealth managers for best bets More >> Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam IPO to be delayed Traders build positions in Bafna Pharma Hero Honda falls on low interim dividend hopes Jubilant raises $85 mn in share sale: Sources Stocks to watch: Bharti Airtel, NTPC, IOC, Tata Motors More >> Realty focussed PE fund raising skids 61% to $17 bn till May Prabhudas Lilladher has a reduce rating on Infosys Fin Crisis: Too late and too little done in US Weak rupee takes its toll on cos with huge foreign debt Wait for more signals before turning positive More >> ET Cetera Warning space on tobacco packs; India lags India is somewhere in the middle with Belgium, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, which have 40 per cent or above coverage of the total package. Meat ban by Indian-origin billionaire stirs row ISRO developing winged reusable rocket More >> Interviews Chetan Maini, Deputy Chairman, REVA Electric Car Company BK Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission Birger Steen, V-P, SMB & distribution, Microsoft Corp Kelly Clark, Worldwide CEO, Maxus Bijou Kurien, President & Chief Executive-Lifestyle, Reliance Retail V Shankar, CEO, Non-Asian operations, Standard Chartered More >>

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Expanded IIP basket from April data: Sen 28 Mar 2010, 1232 hrs IST Govt to add 150 new items and delete obsolete ones from the bask of goods and services that make up the IIP data. New companies bill to facilitate, guide gen next joining family biz: Khurshid  27 Mar 2010, 1649 hrs IST The new companies bill 2009 will take a special approach to second and third generation family members joining the family run companies after their studies, the Union Minister of State for Corporate affairs, Salman Khurshid said here on Saturday. Realty regulatory bill this year: Reddy  26 Mar 2010, 2155 hrs IST The much-awaited real estate regulatory bill, which seeks to protect home-buyers from fly-by-night developers, will be passed this year, urban development minister Jaipal Reddy said here today. Govt to introduce new Companies Act soon  26 Mar 2010, 1557 hrs IST The government will shortly introduce a new Companies Act which would ensure greater transparency and accountability in corporate India, a senior Central government official said. Liberal rules for up to Rs 1,200 cr FDI come into play  26 Mar 2010, 1453 hrs IST The government on Friday said it has started implementing liberal FDI rules under which proposals up to Rs 1,200 crore foreign equity would be cleared by the finance minister. Rights issues, preferential allotments may come into tax net  26 Mar 2010, 0441 hrs IST, Sugata Ghosh Companies going for rights issues, share sale to strategic investors, or stock rejig among group firms may face new hurdles if the taxman chooses to strictly interpret a new provision introduced last year. Corporate ethics rules must for PSUs  26 Mar 2010, 0336 hrs IST Public sector companies must follow corporate governance norms and business ethics code issued by the department of public enterprises, the Union Cabinet clarified on Thursday. No views on raising FII limit in gov securities: RBI  25 Mar 2010, 1907 hrs IST India's central bank has no views on increasing the foreign institutional investment limit in government securities. Govt lines up hydro projects worth Rs 84k cr in northeast  25 Mar 2010, 1713 hrs IST The govt has firmed up an investment of over Rs 84,000 crore for setting up hydel projects in the north-eastern region of the country by 2020. Corporate governance norms must for all CPSEs  25 Mar 2010, 1633 hrs IST The government today asked all the 246 central public sector enterprises to follow corporate governance norms and business ethics. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ... 10 >

Market Analysis Stock to Buy Research Reports Indian ADRs gain $1.3 bn in past week Post-deal : Stock prices dip initially, rise later Rights issues, preferential allotments may come into tax net Wary investors turn to small companies Investors turn to wealth managers for best bets More >> Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam IPO to be delayed Traders build positions in Bafna Pharma Hero Honda falls on low interim dividend hopes Jubilant raises $85 mn in share sale: Sources Stocks to watch: Bharti Airtel, NTPC, IOC, Tata Motors More >> Realty focussed PE fund raising skids 61% to $17 bn till May Prabhudas Lilladher has a reduce rating on Infosys Fin Crisis: Too late and too little done in US Weak rupee takes its toll on cos with huge foreign debt Wait for more signals before turning positive More >>

ET Cetera Warning space on tobacco packs; India lags India is somewhere in the middle with Belgium, the United Kingdom and Malaysia, which have 40 per cent or above coverage of the total package. Meat ban by Indian-origin billionaire stirs row ISRO developing winged reusable rocket

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Interviews Chetan Maini, Deputy Chairman, REVA Electric Car Company BK Chaturvedi, Member, Planning Commission Birger Steen, V-P, SMB & distribution, Microsoft Corp Kelly Clark, Worldwide CEO, Maxus Bijou Kurien, President & Chief Executive-Lifestyle, Reliance Retail V Shankar, CEO, Non-Asian operations, Standard Chartered More >>

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Tata, Fiat, Hyundai & GM set to up prices from April 1 Economic Times - ‎7 hours ago‎ According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, about 1.22 million cars were sold in India during April 2009 to January 2010, ... BOM:500570 - NSE:TATAMOTORS - PINK:HYMLF India Talkies Realty cos bogged down by tax, rate hikes, seek help Moneycontrol.com - ‎Mar 26, 2010‎ Budget 2010-11 introduced the contentious service tax on apartments, that are still under construction. Developers have said this will increase property ... Service tax on housing complexes needs review: Reddy NDTV.com Reddy seeks review of service tax on housing complexes Economic Times Reddy seeks review of proposed service tax for housing sector Business Standard domain-B - Sify all 44 news articles » Email this story Traders give a call for 'Delhi Bandh' against hike in VAT Sify - ‎19 hours ago‎ The Delhi government in its Budget 2010-2011 proposed to hike VAT slabs on different commodities. The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) called for a ... The Hindu Rs 16500 cr to be infused into 13 banks in 2010-11 Business Standard - ‎Mar 26, 2010‎ According to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms, banks have to maintain a minimum capital adequacy ratio of 9 per cent, with Tier I capital of at least 6 ... RBI offices to function as usual on April 01, 2010 Gaea Times (blog) Delhi Lacks All Credibility on Inflation Wall Street Journal RBI to take steps to contain inflation ncrsamaylive.com Deccan Herald - Trading Markets (press release) all 115 news articles » Email this story Gaea Times (blog) Union Bank Of India Enters Mutual Fund Gaea Times (blog) - ‎4 hours ago‎ March 18th, 2010 more images NEW DELHI, INDIA (GaeaTimes.com)- The largest life insurance company of India, LIC may enter banking sector but it is up to the ... BOM:532477 The outsider: Climate change is a fight beyond governments Times of India - stuart fraser - ‎16 hours ago‎ India aims to increase its share of grid-connected renewable energy to 10% by 2012. It plans 20GW of solar power generation by 2022. Its 2010-11 Budget ... India Talkies Cut motion if fuel duties hike not withdrawn: CPI-M Sify - ‎Mar 26, 2010‎ Terming the 2010-11 budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as of a 'pro-big business' and a 'pro-rich' orientation, the Communist Party of ... CPM to move cut motion if no rollback on fuel duties NDTV.com all 19 news articles » Email this story Rs 8.24 crore surplus budget presented Express Buzz - ‎8 hours ago‎ Meanwhile, amidst the pandemonium, Jayaprakash presented the Corporation budget for 2010-11, final one of the present Council. The budget envisages an ... Indian Express 'Tighter money, service tax may push up property prices' Economic Times - ‎Mar 26, 2010‎ ... tightening by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and imposition of service tax on under-developed housing complexes, as proposed in the Budget 2010-11, ... Rate hike to weigh on housing prices: DLF NDTV.com all 21 news articles » Email this story Fresh News IRCTC earnings set to take Rs 30-crore hit Business Standard - Sharmistha Mukherjee - ‎19 hours ago‎ In her Budget speech on February 24, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had reduced the maximum limit of service charge to Rs 10 from the earlier Rs 15 for ... Dial four wrong entries to talk to railway enquiry executive! Economic Times all 19 news articles » Email this story Stay up to date on these results: Create an email alert for budget india 2010 Add a custom section for budget india 2010 to Google News Add a news gadget for budget india 2010 to your Google homepage

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Budget proposals come in for criticism

2010-02-22 02:35:50

Budget proposals come in for criticism HYDERABAD: The 2010-11 budget proposals have been criticised by organisations of farmers, weavers, toddy- tappers, artisans, teachers, sheep and goat-rearers, the AP Committee of Girijan Sangham and the AP...

Full Article at The Hindu »

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India: Budget 2010- Offers Much for the Rich, Nothing for the Poor!

-Rajesh Tyagi/ 2.3.2010

Amidst applause by the big business groups, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, presented $239 billion budget of Union Government, on Friday, in Lok Sabha (Lower chamber of parliament), for the financial year 2010-2011. Stock markets showed a rare rally, as the budget was being presented by the Minister. On BSE sensex, a record surge of more than 300 points was recorded. With the Government's pledge to cut fiscal deficit, without corresponding cut in the profits of capitalists and the luxuries of the bosses, and even at the cost of steep inflation, Government borrowings, expansion in the net of indirect taxes, hike in fuel prices, etc.etc., i.e. a pledge to put all burden on the back of the working people, there was jubilation in business world.

As budget focussed upon the concerns and interests of big business, the expectations of the rich were all met. Capitalist bosses have thus welcomed the budget from all sides. Unlike the times, when Congress led UPA Government in the centre held power with the aid of support from Stalinist left front and thus was forced to accede to maintain at least the farce of a centrist budget, this time Congress did not have any such compulsions, as none of its allies could exert any pressure. This, not only relieved the Congress from influence of its allies, the allies themselves were relieved of the responsibility of exerting any pressure.

More free hand was assumed by the Government to shift the burden of the budget upon the backs of the working people, as no elections except those for one State Assembly of Bihar, are in the offing, this year. With Congress having clear mandate for another four years at its disposal, the timing of presentation of the budget, doubtlessly, is most convenient for it to unveil its policy and proposals to favour the big business, in complete derogation to the interest and opinion of multi-millions of working people. This made the big business specially cheerful in advance, anticipating a budget without any hassles from allies or ineffective opposition.

Attitude of the business world, to the Union budget, is best expressed in the words of H.M. Nerukar, MD, Tata Steel, who lauded it saying that, "It has surprised mostly on the positive side. It is a good budget which lays out the target and road map of the Government to maintain growth momentum, while ensuing greater fiscal prudence in the near term".

Though the previous Governments whether supported by left or right, have presented budgets, essentially favouring the rich and burdening the poor, but the budget this year is peculiar in many of its projections.

This budget has raised the state borrowings to unprecedented height, with an abrupt 1.3% hike in the same. With this estimate Government borrowings would touch Rs.15,000 Crore per week. This is necessitated by the measures taken by the Government to set-off the losses of big business during the recent financial crisis. The direct aid, concessions and subsidies given to the business enterprise, resulted in huge fiscal deficit of $75.8 billion, part of which Government plans to make up through state borrowings. Repayments for these borrowings would give further push to future budget deficits and resultant inflation.

Fiscal deficit has gone on steep rise since 2007-08, surging from 2.7% to 6.2% of GDP in 2008-09. Measures proposed to curb the same could not have impact as the non plan expenditure, mainly for arranging luxuries for political and administrative bosses and ever-growing pilferage in public exchequer, has neutralised them, continuosly.

Even with such huge fiscal deficits and unparalleled borrowings creating immense pressure upon public exchequer, roll back of the huge and convenient stimulus measures, like concessions in direct financial aids and concessions in Excise and Taxes, offered to business enterprise last year during recession, has been put at very low pedestal. Huge allocations have been made to upgrade the infrastructure to stimulate trade and business, while no support is proposed for expanding and perfecting the infrastructure in social sectors like the public distribution system.

With continued focus upon divestment of public sector, another major arena, the Government has selected to make up for budget deficit by $8.6 billion, is through sale of stakes in public sector to private players. Dismantling of public sector by turning it over to private sector, is one of the stark features of the budget. Under the cover of public-private partnership, large scale enterprise are planned, which would make it possible for the capitalist bosses to have at their disposal huge chunks of public money accumulated through state channels, including direct and indirect taxation, and utilise them with the aid of state bureaucracy, to mince private profits.

Burdening lower income groups with proposals for additional taxes of Rs.20,000 Crore, the surcharge paid by companies is further lowered, while support and incentives for SEZs would remain in place untouched.

The much trumpeted slogan of 'inclusive growth' is apparent landscape for a farce with no whisper in the budget to curb consumer price inflation, the biggest concern for working and poor people. Alongside no measures have been projected to boost food production and productivity. With Kharif production declining by 6.5% (18.5 million tonnes) over 2008-09 and a loss of 46.18 lakh hectares of cultivated land, the speculations of a good Rabi harvest in the budget is a distant dream.

Remarkable rise in fuel prices threatens not only to dilute the marginal benefits given to lower income groups, but a further shot in inflationary index. Direct rise of upto Rs.3 per litre in petrol and diesel prices would make direct impact on food prices, in which transportation cost is major component. In February alone the food prices rose by 17.5%. Government has though recognised the fears that surging prices of essential food items may trigger a double-digit inflation in food prices, which in its turn may spill over to steep general inflation, resulting in some sort of social unrest, even food riots, but fell short of addressing the issue. Allies of UPA, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Dravid Munetra Kazhgam (DMK) have demanded rollback of hike in fuel prices to avoid cascading effect on overall prices.

Finance Minister, who went to answer the business magnates in New Delhi the very next day of delivery of his budget speech, acceding to worries of high inflation said that, "I had to take that risk of inflationary pressure to mobilise resources to prepare economy for a higher growth trajectory, to enable a reduction in Government borrowings and return to fiscal consolidation. In the course of time it will be absorbed". Rather, he should have put it more clear that in the course of time people will digest this 'bait'.

As the Government showed its readiness to demolish the regime of subsidies, gradually, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry was quick to respond, saying that, "the budget is inclusive and strikes right balance between growth propulsion and fiscal consolidation". The fact is that in the guise of 'rationalisation of subsidies' the Government is ready to undermine all subsidies, starting from fertilizers and fuel. No measures are however suggested to cut the non-plan expenditure, which makes the major component in structure of fiscal deficit.

Marginal raise in income tax slabs with restructuring thereof does not offer any substantial relief for those having yearly income upto Rs.5,00,000/-. Only those above it, the upper middle class would be beneficiary of it. Concessions in direct taxes for upper middle class, are coupled with burdens in indirect taxes, bringing twelve new items under service tax and raising of fuel prices.

The budget as a whole focuses upon keeping the economic recovery robust, counting chiefly upon the public savings and investments. In its bid to lower the fiscal deficit, whose main component is the non-budgetary aid given to propel the business in crisis last year, the government has chosen consciously to shift the burden upon the shoulders of unsuspecting poor working classes.

No provisions have been made in the budget to address the issue of ever rising unemployment in youth, which is one of the biggest social concerns, especially in urban areas, rural as well. Employment exchanges in Delhi alone have enlisted four lakh unemployed young people with them.

Inadequacy of budgetary allocations for basic social sectors like health and education may be gauged form the fact that this budget has gone down by .01% from 0.36 to 0.37%, this year, in budget allocations for health, despite the promises of UPA for an allocation upto 3%.

Price control system, a regulatory measure in the hands of the government for ensuring supply of essential commodities in the market at regulated prices, is the focussed casualty. The items in fuel, food and fertilisers would be left open to blind market forces. The Government has planned first to dissociate subsidies from 'price control system' and then to put the subsidies to an end.

However, it is not out of place to mention that the budget unveils the policy of Government only partially, while leaving the rest to be executed outside it. The reforms on the anvil like demolition of protections to workers under labour laws, relaxing cap on FDI etc. are the issues which are not addressed in the budget proposals are left to be tackled outside the same. Similarly, issues like demolition of subsidies on items of domestic use like cooking gas, are again left out in the budget to be dealt with separately and gradually.

Assurance of 'inclusive growth' in the long run, with the measures proposed in the budget does not seem to be serious word as the past record shows that fiscal consolidation of economy does not result in any relief to the working people. Budget, in nutshell, offers relief to the rich and promises to the poor. The promises, notably are made at a time when speculations about the world capitalist economy, going to take a double-dip are gaining ground. World Bank President Robert Zoellick, on Friday, though denied speculations about double-dip, but admitted the possibility of a re-plunge of economy, saying that, "The world economy is no longer staring into the abyss but we're definitely not out of the woods by any means," Zoellick told a meeting of the Bretton Woods Committee. "I don't believe a double-dip is likely but the pace of recovery is going to be quite uncertain." He said: "As economies recover there were also hidden dangers and re-pricing of sovereign credit risk would be a challenge in 2010". Commenting upon the crisis in Greece, he said "It extends beyond Greece and in the case of the U.S., I think this will also be an issue for states and municipalities".

The Stalinist left -CPI and CPM- who staged a ceremonious protest against the budget, this time in the shape of a walkout from parliament, during budget speech of the Finance Minister, did not present a serious critique of the budget. Immediately after staging walkout, Sitaram Yechury, leader of CPM, told the press casually that the action was not well thought of, rather was spontaneous. TMC under Mamata Banerjee and DMK under M. Karunanidhi, have only registered a meek opposition to hike in fuel prices. None of the bourgeois parties or any of the Stalinist party has posed a serious challenge to the rabidly pro-rich budget of the Union Government.

The bourgeois governments, the managing committees of capitalists, present budgets offering everything what can be offered to capitalist, political and administrative bosses and have only false promises to offer to the working people. Whatever little they seem to offer to common people, stands diluted soon through the channels of inflation and price hike etc. Only the government of the working class can really prepare and present a budget aimed at management and welfare of public affairs and public welfare. Striving towards a socialist revolution is thus the only legitimate answer of the working class to the apathy of the bourgeois governments and their capitalist-landlord bosses.

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INDIA BUDGET 2010-11
Expecting return to 9% GDP

INDIAN federal Budget for fiscal 2010-11 presented by country's Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in Parliament on February 26, 2010 would help the Indian economy to return to 9% GDP. The expectation is raised by none else than the country's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The PM has termed the Budget "exceeding well" and patted the FM with "A job well done". The PM, himself an economist, has allayed the apprehension of the critics that the Budget proposals would fuel inflation.

 "You must look at the total picture emerging from the budget. The net revenue gain for the Finance Minister is only Rs 20,000 crore. In an economy as large as India, this resource mobilization effort and balance should not trigger any inflationary expectation. At the same time it gives the muscle needed. The Finance Minister has not called back to the pre stimulus excise duty rate", the Prime Minister said.

Due to hike in excise duty consumers will have to pay more for petrol, diesel, cars, TVs, cigarettes, tobacco, air-conditioner, gold and silver. On the other hand, mobile accessories, medical equipment energy efficient CFL lamps, set top boxes, compact disc, toys and books will be cheaper on account of some tax concessions offered on these items by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Union Budget for 2010-11. "Symptoms of economic recovery are widespread and more clear now," he said.

Mukherjee has substantially cut income tax rates along with other direct tax concessions that would result in a net loss of Rs 26,000 crore to the exchequer.

Armed with the logic that the economy is in the recovery mode, the the Finance minister announced hike in excise duties by 2% to 10% on all non-oil products as part of withdrawal of stimulus measures. Excise duty was cut by 6% in two phases since December 2008 from a peak of 14% earlier to perk up the economy, which came under the impact of deepening financial crisis. However, Mukherjee, in the Budget for 2010-11, retained service tax at the level of 10%. The tax was cut by 2% from 12% as part of stimulus. The tax proposals will pave the way for introduction of Goods and Services Tax by leveling both excise duty and service tax to 10%.

The Finance minister presented the federal Budget with fiscal deficit of 5.5% of GDP as he pegged total expenditure at Rs 11.09 lakh crore while the total tax and non-tax revenue estimated at Rs 6.82 lakh crore for the year 2010-11. The deficit is much lower than the budgeted estimate for the current fiscal at 6.8%, which, however, has been revised to 6.7%.

To meet the shortfall, the government has estimated borrowing of Rs 3.81 lakh crore for fiscal 2010-11, lower than the current fiscal's Rs 4.01 lakh crore. "I am happy to report that against a fiscal deficit of 7.8 per cent in 2008-09, inclusive of oil and fertiliser bonds, the comparable fiscal deficit is 6.9 per cent as per the revised estimates for 2009-10," Mukherjee said.

Focus areas

The Union Budget this year has aimed to focus on inclusive growth and insuring food security. These concerns for aam aadami have gone hand in hand with credible measures for improving investment climate, strengthening infrastructure and fiscal consolidation. As the country looks to 'quickly revert to high GDP growth path' in the wake of 'uncertain times', concerns for inclusive growth targeting the disadvantaged sections form the defining features of the Budget.

Many new initiatives have been introduced for sustained and inclusive growth. These include setting up of Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana, Financial Stability and Development Council, Gold Regulatory Authority, Technical Advisory Group for Unique Projects, National Mission for Delivery of Justice and Legal Reforms, Independent Evaluation Office  and National Clean Energy Fund,

Presenting the Union Budget 2010-11 in the Lok Sabha today, the Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee, said that three challenges would continue to engage the Indian policy planners for next few years. The first challenge is to quickly revert to the high GDP growth path of 9 per cent and then find the means to cross the double digit growth barrier. The second challenge is to consolidate recent gains in making development more inclusive. The third challenge is to remove weaknesses at different levels of governance and to improve public delivery mechanism. The Budget, therefore, focuses on fiscal consolidation, making growth more broad-based and ensuring that supply-demand imbalances are better managed.

The Minister expressed the hope that the economy will reach 10 per cent growth in not too distant a future. The Minister explained that after a fall in GDP growth in 2008-09 to 6.7 per cent, the growth has built up and 7.2 per cent growth is expected in 2009-10. The Minister said that the recovery is very encouraging as it has come  about despite negative growth in agriculture sector. The growth rate in manufacturing in December 2009 was 18.5 per cent, the highest in past two decades. Similarly, there are also signs of a turnaround in the merchandise exports with a positive growth in November and December 2009 after a decline in about twelve successive months.

Expressing concern at the emergence of double digit food inflation, the Minister said that the Government has set in motion steps in consultation with the State Chief Ministers to bring down the inflation in the next few months and ensure better management of food security.

FISCAL CONSOLIDATION

The Minister said that now that the recovery has taken roots, there is a need to review public spending, mobilize resources and gear them towards building the productivity of the economy.

The government will follow the recommendations of the Thirteenth Finance Commission by capping the government debt. The Commission has recommended a capping of the combined debt of the Centre and the States at 68 per cent of the GDP to be achieved by 2014-15.

For the first time, the Government would target an explicit reduction in its domestic public debt-GDP ratio. A status paper would be brought out within six months, giving a detailed analysis of the situation and a road map for curtailing the overall public debt. This would be followed by an annual report on the subject.

The Finance Minister expressed the hope that a broad consensus would be achieved on the Direct Tax Code and the Goods and Service Tax (GST) and these would be introduced from April 2011.  

IMPROVING INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT

The Finance Minister said that a number of steps have been taken to simplify the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) regime. The government also intends to make the FDI policy user-friendly by consolidating all prior regulations and guidelines into one comprehensive document. This would enhance clarity and predictability of our FDI policy to foreign investors, he said.

With a view to strengthen and institutionalize the mechanism for maintaining financial stability, Government has decided to set up an apex-level Financial Stability and Development Council. It would monitor macro prudential supervision of the economy, including the functioning of large financial conglomerates.

Towards strengthening the banking system, the Budget provides Rs.16500 crore as Tier-I capital. It would ensure that the Public Sector Banks are able to attain a minimum 8 per cent Tier-I Capital by March 2011. Further capital would also be infused into the Regional Rural Banks (RRBs). The Minister also informed that the RBI is considering giving some additional banking licenses to private sector players. Non Banking Financial Companies could also be considered, if they meet the RBI's eligibility criteria.
 

Positive message for reform: CII In Budget 2010, the Finance Minister has sent out a positive message for reform that will ensure a stable macro-economic environment conducive for growth. In particular, CII appreciates the efforts made towards fiscal consolidation even as stimulus measures for industry have been largely maintained, said Mr Venu Srinivasan, President, CII, commenting on the Union Budget presented in the Parliament today. The CII President said that the reform measures proposed in the Budget include major areas such as direct and indirect tax reform, accelerated disinvestment of PSUs, more transparent subsidy regime for fertilizers, financial sector consolidation and efforts to strengthen transparency and public accountability. Simplification of Income Tax returns and the automation of Central Excise and Service Tax are most welcome.   The initiative to target an explicit reduction in the government's debt-GDP ratio, as recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission, is a welcome move that will provide confidence to investors, the CII statement issued here said. Indeed, the reduction in the fiscal deficit from the revised estimate of 6.9% of GDP in 2009-10 to 5.5% in 2010-11 has brought relief to the debt market, as it implies a reduction in net government borrowing. This will allow interest rates to remain stable even as there is a recovery in private sector borrowing. CII also welcomes the move away from the practice of issuing bonds to oil and fertilizer companies, and not accounting for these subsidies in the Budget. With a few exceptions, CII welcomes most of the changes in the direct and indirect tax rates. CII welcomes the reduction in the corporate surcharge from 10% to 7.5% and the increase in deduction against R&D from 150% to 200%. However, the increase in MAT is a retrograde move, as it dilutes the incentives given to companies for various reasons. The change in the slabs for personal taxes is welcome, as it will provide greater disposable income in the hands of taxpayers. CII is particularly happy that the Finance Minister has sent a clear message that any unwinding of the stimulus would be calibrated, based on the pace of recovery of industry. Extension of interest subvention of 2 per cent to exports for one year for the SME sector is also welcome. The SME sector will also benefit from the increase in the limits for presumptive taxation and the clarification that no capital gains tax would be levied in case of conversion of small companies into LLPs. Important measures have been taken to consolidate regulation in the financial sector. The establishment of the Financial Stability and Development Council will help inter-regulatory co-ordination while the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Council will provide an outline for the expected reforms in this sector. The provision of additional banking licenses to private sector entities will enable greater competition in banking even as public sector banks are strengthened through re-capitalisation. CII also welcomes the steps taken to encourage agricultural growth. The dual strategy of increasing agricultural productivity on the one hand and initiating reforms in the food supply chain on the other is one that has long been recommended by CII. If implemented well, this can go a long way in overcoming the supply bottlenecks that have been responsible for the current increase in inflation. Incentives provided to the food processing sector will also enable greater investment in this critical area, the press statement said. CII has always highlighted the need for greater investment in infrastructure which will be a catalyst for growth. Budget 2010 has provided for significant increases in the Plan outlay for the critical infrastructure sectors such as roads, power, housing and rural infrastructure. The National Clean Energy Fund has also been established with an allocation of Rs 1000 crores to promote research and innovation in clean energy. CII is confident that with these measures, there will be a step-up in the amount invested in infrastructure.

AGRICULTURE GROWTH

A four-pronged strategy would be followed to spur growth in agriculture sector. The elements of the strategy are (a) agricultural production; (b) reduction in wastage of produce; (c) credit support to farmers; and (d) a thrust to the food processing sector.

The Budget provides Rs.400 crore for extending the green revolution to the eastern region of the country comprising Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Eastern UP, West Bengal and Orissa, with the active involvement of Gram Sabhas and the farming families.

60,000 'pulses and oil seed villages' will be organized in rainfed areas with an outlay of Rs.300 crore during 2010-11. This will provide water harvesting, watershed management and soil health facilities to enhance to productivity of dryland farming areas. Another Rs.200 crore have been provided in the Budget for conservation farming.

To improve the storage capacity of food grains, Food Corporation of India is being allowed to hire godowns from private parties for a guaranteed period of seven years. This period so far was five years.

The target for farm credit is being raised to Rs.3,75,000 crore in 2010-11 from Rs.3,25,000 crore in the current year.

The period for repayment of loans under the Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme is being extended by six months to June 30,2010.

The interest subvention for timely repayment of crop loans is being raised from 1 per cent to 2 per cent. Thus, the effective rate of interest for crop loans for farmers who repay their crop loan as per schedule will now be 5 per cent per year.

Five more Mega Food Parks will be set up in addition to the 10 already being established. External Commercial Borrowings will henceforth be available for cold storage, farm level pre-cooling and preservation and storage of agricultural and allied produce marine products and meat.  

INFRASTRUCTURE

The Budget provides Rs.1,73,552 crore for infrastructure, accounting for over 46 per cent of the total Plan allocation.

The allocation for road transport is being increased by over 13 per cent from Rs 17,520 crore to Rs.19,894 crore.

Disbursement for infrastructure by India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd(IIFCL) is expected to reach Rs.20,000 crore in 2010-11 as against Rs.9,000 crore this year.  Refinancing of bank landing to infrastructure projects by IIFCL is expected to be more than double in 2010-11.

ENERGY

The Plan allocation for power sector is being more than doubled from Rs.2,230 crore in 2009-10 to Rs.5,130 crore in 2010-11.

A Coal Regulatory Authority is proposed to be set up for creating level playing field in the coal sector and resolving various issues.

The Plan outlay for New and Renewal Energy Ministry is being increased by 61 per cent from Rs. 620 crore to Rs.1,000 crore, especially to support the ambitious solar energy programme.

 

Growth Oriented: FICCI The Union Budget is growth oriented and forward looking, preparing the Indian economy post global financial meltdown for a sustained course to attain double digit growth. The Finance Minister has done a fine balancing job under trying circumstances, astutely managing fiscal deficit while keeping an eye on growthh, observed Harsh Pati Singhania, President, FICCI. In the face of pressure for stimulus withdrawal, the Finance Minister has only partially increased the CENVAT rate from 8 percent to 10 percent. Secondly, he has not increased the service tax rate. Thirdly, he has restructured the income tax slabs in a manner which will leave more money in the hands of consumers and thereby encourage demandd, Singhania observed. By and large, the Finance Minister has provided a stable tax and policy framework for the Indian Economy to move forwardd, he added. However, industry is disappointed that the Finance Minister had raised the MAT rate from 15 percent to 18 percent when industry was demanding a cut down to 10 percent. Further, the impact of excise duty hike across the board coupled with increase in excise duty on petrol and diesel will add pressure on the price line in current circumstancess, Singhania noted. However, industry appreciates the need for some fiscal correction. Singhania noted that the Finance Minister has laid out a roadmap for fiscal correction as well as radical reforms of the tax regime through introduction of GST and Direct Tax Code. He has given a little time for preparation for introduction of these from only next year, thereby providing time for further public debate on DTC and fine tuning administrative machinery for GSTT, he said. FICCI President also noted with satisfaction the emphasis the Finance Minister has placed on overall development of critical sectors such as agriculture and rural development, which FICCI has been emphasizing. Enhanced outlays for infrastructure projects would also add to the growth momentum. The Finance Ministerrs announcement to infuse more capital into Public Sector Banks is good for credit growth as this will enable banks to lend more for productive economic activities. The reduction of surcharge on corporate tax rate has also been welcomed by Singhania.

INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT

Stating that inclusive development is an act of faith for the UPA government, the Finance Minister said that after the Right to Information, Right to Work and Right to Education, the government is now ready with the draft Food Security Bill.  A sums of Rs.1,37,674 crore, representing 37 per cent of the total outlay, will be spent on social sector programmes.

Plan Allocation for school education is being increased from Rs.26,800 crore to Rs.31,036 crore to support the children's rights to free and compulsory education. In addition, States will have an access to Rs. 3,675 crore for elementary education under the Finance Commission grant for 2010-11.  

It has been decided to provide appropriate banking facilities to habitations having population in excess of 2000 by March 2012. It is also proposed to extend insurance and other services to the targeted beneficiaries. These provisions are expected to cover 60,000 habitations.

Rs.66,100 crore have been provided for Rural Development. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme gets Rs.40,100 crore and Bharat Nirman Programme, Rs.48,000 crore.

Indira Awas Yojana gets Rs.10,000 crore. The unit cost under this scheme is being raised to Rs.45,000 in plain areas and Rs.48500 in hilly areas to cover the increase in cost of construction of houses.  

The allocation to Backward Region Grant Fund is being enhanced by 26 per cent from Rs.5,800 crore to Rs.7,300 crore. An additional Central assistance of Rs.1,200 crore is being provided for drought mitigation in the Bundelkhand region.

Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana gets 75 per cent increase in allocation from Rs.3,060 crore to Rs.5,400 crore. In addition, the allocation for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is also being raised from Rs.850 crore to Rs.1,000 crore in 2010-11.

The 1 per cent interest subvention on housing loans upto Rs.10 lakh (where the cost of the house does not exceed Rs.20 lakh) provided in the Budget for 2009-10 has been extended by another year.

Rajiv Awas Yojana, a scheme for housing to slum dwellers and urban poor, gets a huge jump in allocation from Rs.150 crore last year to Rs.1,270 crore in 2010-11.

It has been decided to set up a National Social Security Fund for unorganized sector workers with an initial allocation of Rs.1,000 crore. This fund will support schemes for weavers, toddy tappers, rickshaw pullers, bidi workers etc. 

The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Joyana is being extended to all Mahatma Gandhi NREGA beneficiaries who have worked for more than 15 days during the preceding financial year.

The Swavalamban initiative started last year, under which the government contributes Rs.1,000 per year to each New Pension Scheme (NPS) account, will now be available for another three years.

Plan outlay for Women and Child Development is being stepped up by 50 per cent. A Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana is being launched to meet the specific needs of women farmers.

The Plan outlay of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment gets a boost of 80 per cent to Rs.4,500 crore. Besides supporting the programmes for the target beneficiaries, the Ministry will be able to raise the rates for scholarship schemes for SC and OBC students. Similarly, the Ministry of Minority Affairs allocation has been raised by 50 per cent to Rs.2,600 crore.

STRENGTHENING TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY

The government proposes to set up a Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission to rewrite and clean up the financial sector laws to bring them in line with the requirements of the sector.

Rs.1,900 crore has been allocated for the Unique Identification Authority of India.

A Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects (TAGUP) is proposed to be set up under the Chairmanship of Shri Nandan Nilekani for creation of reliable and secure IT projects.

Defence gets an allocation of Rs.1,47,344 crore. As a one time confidence building measure in Jammu and Kashmir about 2000 youths will be recruited as constable in five Central Para-Military forces in 2010. Adequate funds will be made available to support the action plan to be prepared by the Planning Commission for development of 33 left wing extremist affected districts.

An Independent Evaluation Office is to be set up to undertake impartial and objective assessment of various public programmes and improve the effectiveness of public interventions in Planning Commission.

A National Mission for Delivery of Justice and Legal Reforms is also to be set up.

Positive, growth oriented: ASSOCHAM ASSOCHAM President Dr. Swati Piramal while welcoming Budget proposals, termed them as Pragmatic, positive, growth and development oriented as these aim at attaining inclusive growth. "The Finance Minister has performed the most balancing act under given circumstances by partially rolling out the Stimulus package and at the same time paid adequate attention for development of social sector and more specifically so for rural sector", said Dr. Piramal. Mr. Mukherjee has done his best in the budget proposals to fuel consumption and sufficiently incentivised renewable energy, infrastructure, research and development in health and equipped these sectors with reasonably higher allocations. Dr. Piramal also welcomed a deadline set for introduction of GST and Direct Tax Code, pointing out that these would be major tax reforms which will not only provide tax relief's to people and industry but also help the government realize higher tax collections. According to ASSOCHAM, the budget proposals will bring in more money in hands of individuals as several good measures have been introduced in the Finance Bill in the form of tax relief's to general public. Mr. Mukherjee for the first time in the recent history of budget presentation placed huge faith in the private sector which will come forward to building Indian economy and help it achieve higher growth in years to come. The ASSOCHAM has also welcomed announcements for bringing in more and more services under the purview of service tax by not tinkering with it's existing ceiling rate of 10%.

TAX PROPOSALS

The Finance Minister emphasized the need for continued Tax Reforms. The Tax Returns form are being simplified and the Income Tax Department is now ready to notify Saral-2 forms for individual salary tax payers. The Sevottam project started in four cities to provide a single window system for registration and grievance redressal will be extended to four more cities. Two more centres will be opened for bulk processing of Tax Returns. The Indirect Tax Administrations are being revamped to achieve the roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST). Rs.1133 crore have been budgeted for a mission mode project to achieve this.

Major relief has been provided to individual tax payers by enhancing exemption limit and reducing tax in different slabs of personal income.. Deduction of an additional amount of Rs.20000 for investment in long term infrastructure bonds will be available in addition to the existing limit of Rs.1 lakh available for specified savings.

The surcharge on domestic companies is being reduced from 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent. However, the minimum alternate tax (MAT) is being increased from 15 per cent to 18 per cent.

Exemptions and deductions have been provided to increase spending on research.

The investment linked deduction to new hotels of two star category and above is being extended to give boost to investment in Tourism sector.

A one time interim relief is being provided to the housing and real estate sector by allowing pending projects to be completed within a period of five years instead of four years for claiming a deduction on their profits.

The Finance Minister has proposed to partially roll back the rate deduction in Central Excise duties and enhance the standard rate on all non-petroleum products from 8 per cent to 10 per cent ad valorem. The specific rates of duty applicable to Portland cement and cement clinker are also being adjusted upwards proportionately. Similarly, the ad valorem component of excise duty on large cars, multi-utility vehicles and sports utility vehicles which was reduced as part of the first stimulus package, is being increased by 2 percentage points to 22 per cent.

The basic duty of 5 per cent on crude petroleum; 7.5 per cent on diesel and petrol and 10 per cent on other refined products is being enhanced. The Central Excise Duty on petrol and diesel is being enhanced by Rs.1 per litre.

Excise duty on non-smoking tobacco is being enhanced. In addition a compounded levy scheme is being introduced by chewing tobacco and branded unmanufactured tobacco based on the capacity of pouch making machines.

A number of duty concessions are being proposed to support agriculture and allied sector. Mechanised handling systems in warehouses will get project import status with a concessional import duty of 5 per cent. Installation and commissioning of such equipment will be fully exempt from service tax.  Concessional duty will also be applicable for cold storages, food processing units, specified equipment for food preservation etc. The concessional import duty to specified machinery for use in the plantation sector is being further extended upto March 2011. Testing and certification of agricultural seed is being exempt from service tax.

Tax exemptions have been announced for equipment used in solar systems and wind energy system, LED lights, electric cars, cycle rickshaw, mobile phone components and certain medical equipment.

The rate of tax on services has been retained at 10 per cent.

BUDGET ESTIMATES

The Budget Estimates 2010-11 provides for a total expenditure of Rs. 11,08,749 crore. Out of this, Rs 3,73,092 crore is plan expenditure and Rs.7,35,657 crore is non-plan expenditure. The plan expenditure has increased by 15 per cent while there is only 6 per cent in increase in non-plan expenditure.

The total receipt are estimate Rs.7,46,651 crore.

The Fiscal deficit is pegged at 5.5 per cent. In the Medium Term Fiscal Policy Statement being presented along with other Budget documents in the House today, the rolling targets for fiscal deficit are pegged at 4.8 per cent and 4.1 per cent for 2011-12 and 2012-13, respectively. These projections improve upon the recommendations of the Thirteenth Finance Commission.     

Source: Press Information Bureau, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India

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दंतेवाड़ा को समझाने के कई तरीके हो सकते हैं। यह एक विरोधाभास है। भारत के हृदय में बसा हुआ राज्यों की सीमा पर एक शहर। यही युद्ध का केंद्र है। आज यह सिर के बल खड़ा है। भीतर से यह पूरी तरह उघड़ा पड़ा है।

दंतेवाड़ा में पुलिस सादे कपड़े पहनती है और बागी पहनते हैं वर्दी। जेल अधीक्षक जेल में है, और कैदी आजाद (दो साल पहले शहर की पुरानी जेल से करीब 300 कैदी भाग निकले थे)। जिन महिलाओं का बलात्कार हुआ है, वे पुलिस हिरासत में हैं। बलात्कारी बाजार में खड़े भाषण दे रहे हैं।

इंद्रावती नदी के किनारे का इलाका माओवादियों द्वारा नियंत्रित है। पुलिस इस इलाके को 'पाकिस्तान' कहती है। यहां गांव खाली हैं, लेकिन जंगल लोगों से अटे पड़े हैं। जिन बच्चों को स्कूलों में होना चाहिए था, वे जंगलों में भागे फिर रहे हैं। जंगल के खूबसूरत गांवों में कंक्रीट की बनी स्कूली इमारतें या तो उड़ा दी गयी हैं और उनका मलबा बचा हुआ है, या फिर इनमें पुलिस वाले भरे हुए हैं। इस जंगल में जो युद्ध करवट ले रहा है, भारत सरकार को उस पर गर्व भी है और कुछ संकोच भी। ऑपरेशन ग्रीनहंट भारत के गृहमंत्री (और इस युद्ध के सीईओ) पी चिदंबरम के लिए अगर गर्वोक्ति है, तो एक इनकार भी। वह कहते हैं कि ऐसा कोई युद्ध नहीं चल रहा, यह सिर्फ मीडिया द्वारा गढ़ा गया है। और इसके बावजूद ढेर सारा पैसा इस युद्ध में झोंका जा रहा है, दसियों हजार सैन्य टुकड़ियों को तैनात कर दिया गया है। भले ही, युद्ध भूमि मध्य भारत के जंगल हैं तो क्या हुआ, इसके गंभीर नतीजे हम सभी के लिए होंगे।

एक उदार चेतन मस्तिष्क के लिए यह मान लेना आसान है कि यह युद्ध भारत सरकार और उन माओवादियों के बीच है जो चुनावों को ढोंग और संसद को सुअरबाड़ा कहते हैं; जिन्होंने भारतीय राजसत्ता को उखाड़ फेंकने की अपनी मंशा खुलेआम जाहिर कर दी है। उनके लिए यह भुला देना आसान है और सुविधाजनक भी कि मध्य भारत के आदिवासियों के प्रतिरोध का इतिहास माओ से भी सदियों पुराना है (यही सचाई भी है, क्योंकि यदि उन्होंने प्रतिरोध नहीं किया होता, तो वे बचे ही नहीं होते)। हो, उरांव, कोल, संथाल, मुंडा, गोंड आदिवासियों ने एक नहीं, कई बार विद्रोह किया है, कभी अंग्रेजों के खिलाफ तो कभी जमींदारों और सूदखोरों के खिलाफ। इनकी बगावत को बर्बर तरीकों से कुचल दिया गया, हजारों आदिवासियों को मार दिया गया, इसके बावजूद इन लोगों को जीता नहीं जा सका। यहां तक कि आजादी के बाद पश्चिम बंगाल के नक्सलबाड़ी गांव में हुए पहले जन उभार – जिसे हम माओवादी कह सकते हैं – के केंद्र में भी आदिवासी ही थे (जहां से नक्सलवादी नाम का शब्द पैदा हुआ, आजकल जिसे माओवादी के पर्याय के रूप में इस्तेमाल किया जाता है)। तब से लेकर अब तक नक्सली राजनीति अभिन्न रूप से आदिवासी उभार के साथ जुड़ी हुई है, जो हमें जितना नक्सलवादियों के बारे में बताती है, उतना ही वह आदिवासियों से भी सरोकार रखती है।

बगावत की यह विरासत अपने पीछे ऐसे असंतुष्ट और रुष्ट लोगों को छोड़ गयी है जिन्हें जान-बूझ कर भारत सरकार ने हाशिये पर धकेल दिया है और अलग-थलग छोड़े हुए है। भारतीय लोकतंत्र का नैतिक दस्तावेज यानी भारत का संविधान संसद द्वारा 1950 में अपनाया गया था। आदिवासियों के लिए यह एक त्रासदी का दिन था। संविधान ने औपनिवेशिक नीति को सही ठहराते हुए आदिवासी इलाकों का जिम्मा भारतीय राजसत्ता के हाथ में दे दिया। रातों-रात समूची आदिवासी आबादी अपनी ही जमीन पर गैर-कानूनी प्रवासियों में तब्दील हो गयी। इस संविधान ने वनोत्पादों पर आदिवासियों के पारंपरिक अधिकारों को ही अस्वीकार कर दिया और इस तरह उनकी समूची जीवन पद्धति को आपराधिक करार दिया। वोट देने के अधिकार के बदले संविधान ने आजीविका और आत्मसम्मान के उनके अधिकार को ही छीन लिया।

सरकार ने पहले तो उनसे सब कुछ छीन लिया और उन्हें गरीबी के कुएं में धकेल दिया। इसके बाद वह उनकी गरीबी को उन्हीं के खिलाफ इस्तेमाल करने में लग गयी। हर बार जब उसे बड़ी आबादी को विस्थापित करने की जरूरत पड़ती – बांधों, सिंचाई परियोजनाओं, खनन आदि के लिए – तो सरकार अचानक 'आदिवासियों को मुख्यधारा में लाने' या उन्हें 'आधुनिक विकास का फल देने' की बात करने लग जाती। इसका नतीजा यह हुआ है कि भारत की 'प्रगति' के शरणार्थी यानी आंतरिक रूप से विस्थापित करोड़ों लोगों (बड़े बांधों से अकेले तीन करोड़ से ज्यादा विस्थापित) में अधिसंख्य आदिवासी लोग ही हैं। जाहिर है जब यह सरकार आदिवासियों के कल्याण की बात शुरू करे, तो वह चिंता करने का वक्त होता है।

इस कड़ी में सबसे हालिया चिंता के स्वर गृहमंत्री पी चिदंबरम की ओर से आये हैं। उन्होंने कहा है कि वह नहीं चाहते कि आदिवासी 'संग्रहालयी संस्कृति' का हिस्सा रहें। जब वह एक कॉरपोरेट वकील के अपने करियर में तमाम प्रमुख खनन कंपनियों के हितों को आवाज दे रहे थे, तब तो आदिवासियों का कल्याण उनकी प्राथमिकताओं में ऐसे नहीं आता था। इसलिए जरूरी है कि उनकी इस नयी उत्तेजना के आधार को टटोला जाए।

पिछले तकरीबन पांच साल के दौरान छत्तीसगढ़, झारखंड, उड़ीसा और पश्चिम बंगाल की सरकारों ने कॉरपोरेट घरानों के साथ कई खरब डॉलर के सैंकड़ों समझौतों पर दस्तखत किये हैं। स्टील प्लांट, स्पंज आयरन फैक्टरी, पावर प्लांट, एल्युमिनियम रिफाइनरी, बांधों और खदानों के लिए किये गये ये सारे समझौते गोपनीय हैं। इन्हें हरे नोटों में बदलने के लिए बेहद जरूरी है कि आदिवासियों को इन इलाकों से खत्म कर दिया जाए।

यह युद्ध, इसी के लिए है।

मेरे निकलने से एक दिन पहले मेरी मां ने कॉल किया। वह ऊंघते हुए बोली, 'मैं सोच रही थी, कि इस देश को एक अदद क्रांति की जरूरत है।'

रायपुर से दंतेवाड़ा तक का सफर करीब दस घंटे का है। इसमें उन इलाकों से होकर गुजरना पड़ता है, जिन्हें 'माओवादी संक्रमित' कहा जाता है। ऐसे शब्द बेवजह नहीं बनाये गये। संक्रमण/संक्रमित जैसे शब्द बीमारी या कीटों के लिए इस्तेमाल में आते हैं। और बीमारियों को दूर किया ही जाना चाहिए। कीटों को खत्म करना ही पड़ता है। ठीक वैसे ही माओवादियों को साफ किया ही जाना होगा। बड़े चुपके से और अदृश्य तरीकों से नरसंहार की यह भाषा हमारी शब्दावली का हिस्सा बन चुकी है।

राजमार्ग को सुरक्षित रखने के लिए सुरक्षा बलों ने दोनों ओर जंगलों की एक संकरी पट्टी को घेरा हुआ है। इसके पार 'दादा लोगों' का राज है यानी भाइयों का, कॉमरेडों का राज।

रायपुर के बाहरी इलाके में एक विशाल बिलबोर्ड पर वेदांता के कैंसर अस्पताल का विज्ञापन लगा है (वही कंपनी, जिसमें कभी हमारे गृहमंत्री नौकरी करते थे)। उड़ीसा में, जहां वेदांता बॉक्साइट का खनन कर रही है, वह एक विश्वविद्यालय भी बना रही है। ऐसे ही चुपके से और अदृश्य तरीकों से खनन निगम हमारी कल्पनाओं में प्रवेश कर जाते हैं ऐसी उदार ताकतों के रूप में, जो वास्तव में हमारा ख्याल रखते हों। कर्नाटक की हालिया लोकायुक्त रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक एक निजी कंपनी द्वारा खोदे गये एक टन लौह अयस्क के लिए सरकार को 27 रुपये की रॉयल्टी मिलती है और खनन कंपनी 5000 रुपये बनाती है। बॉक्साइट और अल्युमीनियम के क्षेत्र में तो हालत और भी बुरी है। ये अरबों डॉलर की दिनदहाड़े लूट की दास्तानें हैं। इतना तो चुनावों, सरकारों, जजों, अखबारों, टीवी चैनलों, एनजीओ और अनुदान एजेंसियों को खरीद लेने के लिए काफी है। ऐसे में यहां-वहां एकाध कैंसर अस्पताल बनवा देने में क्या जाता है?

मुझे याद नहीं कि छत्तीसगढ़ सरकार द्वारा दस्तखत किये गये समझौतों की लंबी फेहरिस्त में वेदांता का नाम है या नहीं। लेकिन इतना तो शक होता ही है कि अगर यहां एक कैंसर अस्पताल है, तो पास में ही कहीं बॉक्साइट का कोई पहाड़ भी होगा।

हम कांकेर से गुजरते हैं, जो अपने जंगल युद्धकौशल और प्रति उग्रवाद प्रशिक्षण कॉलेज के लिए जाना जाता है। इसे ब्रिगेडियर बीके पंवार चलाते हैं, जो इस युद्ध के एक और प्यादे के रूप में भ्रष्ट पुलिसवालों को जंगल कमांडो में तब्दील करने की जिम्मेदारी निभा रहे हैं। युद्धकौशल प्रशिक्षण स्कूल का उद्देश पत्थरों पर रंगा हुआ है, 'एक गुरिल्ला से लड़ने के लिए गुरिल्ला बनो।'

काफी देर हो चुकी थी। जगदलपुर सो चुका था, बस कुछेक होर्डिंगें जगमगा रही थीं जिनमें राहुल गांधी लोगों से यूथ कांग्रेस में आने का आह्वान करते दिख रहे थे। हाल के कुछ महीनों में वह दो बार बस्तर जा चुके हैं, लेकिन युद्ध के बारे में शायद उन्होंने एक शब्द भी नहीं कहा है। जनता के इस राजकुमार के लिए इस मसले पर कुछ भी कहना उसे मुश्किल में डाल सकता है। शायद उनके मीडिया प्रबंधकों ने ही उन्हें ऐसा करने से रोका होगा। राहुल गांधी का प्रचार अभियान इतनी सतर्कता से चलाया जा रहा है कि बलात्कार, हत्याओं, गांवों को जलाने और हजारों लोगों को उनके घरों से खदेड़ने के लिए जिम्मेदार सरकार प्रायोजित सेना सलवा जुड़ुम के कर्ताधर्ता कांग्रेसी विधायक महेंद्र कर्मा का नाम बीच में कहीं नहीं आ पाता।

मां दंतेश्वरी के मंदिर पर मैं समय से पहले ही पहुंच चुकी थी। मुझे नहीं पता था कि मुझे यहां क्या कहना है। उसने बताया कि उसका नाम मंगतू है। जल्द ही मैं जान गयी कि जिस दंडकारण्य में मैं प्रवेश करने जा रही थी, वह ऐसे लोगों से अटा पड़ा था, जिनके कई नाम थे और जिनकी पहचान अस्पष्ट थी। यह विचार मेरे लिए राहत से कम नहीं था कि कुछ देर के लिए दूसरा बन जाना और अपनी पहचान से अलग होना कितना खूबसूरत होता होगा।

मंदिर से कुछ ही दूरी पर एक बस स्टैंड था। हम वहां पैदल पहुंचे। वहां पहले से ही काफी भीड़ थी। काफी तेजी से यहां चीजें बदलीं। बाइक पर दो व्यक्ति थे। कोई संवाद नहीं – बस आंखों में ही नमस्ते बंदगी हुई, हमने बाइक पर अपना वजन संभाला और चल दिये। मुझे कोई आइडिया नहीं था कि हम कहां जा रहे थे। रास्ते में पुलिस अधीक्षक का आवास पड़ा। मैं पिछली बार के अपने दौरे में इधर आयी थी, सो मुझे पहचानने में दिक्कत नहीं हुई। वह स्पष्टवादी व्यक्ति था। उसने कहा था, 'देखिए मैडम, साफ-साफ कहूं तो यह समस्या पुलिस या सेना से हल नहीं होने वाली। इन आदिवासियों की दिक्कत यह है कि वे लालच नाम की चीज नहीं समझते। जब तक वे लालच को नहीं समझेंगे और खुद लालची नहीं बनेंगे, हमारे लिए कोई भी उम्मीद करना बेकार है। मैंने अपने अधिकारी से कहा है कि सुरक्षा बलों को हटा कर उसकी जगह हर घर में एक टीवी लगवा दीजिए। सब कुछ अपने आप ठीक हो जाएगा।'

कुछ ही देर में हम चौड़े पाट वाली एक नदी के रेतीले किनारों पर पहुंच गये। यह बरसाती नदी थी। इसलिए अभी वह बची नहीं थी। चारों ओर रेत के बीच एक पतली सी धारा थी जिसमें टखने भर पानी था और उसे पार करना काफी आसान था। उस पार था 'पाकिस्तान'। उस एसपी ने मुझसे कहा था, 'मैडम, हमारे सिपाही उधर लोगों को जान से मार देते हैं।' मुझे याद है कि हम जैसे ही उस पार जाने लगे, एक पुलिसवाले की राइफल का निशाना हमारी ओर ही था। इतने खुले में उन्हें पहचान पाना मुश्किल नहीं था। मंगतू को हालांकि इससे कोई फर्क नहीं पड़ता। मैं भी उसी के पीछे हो ली।

उस पार हमारा इंतजार कर रहा था चंदू, जिसकी हलकी हरी शर्ट पर लिखा था हॉर्लिक्स! 'आंतरिक सुरक्षा का यह खतरा' कुछ उम्रदराज था। उसकी मुस्कराहट काफी प्यारी थी। उसके पास एक साइकिल थी, एक जेरी कैन जिसमें उबला पानी और मेरे लिए कई पैकेट ग्लूकोज के बिस्कुट, जो पार्टी ने भिजवाये थे। हमने अपनी सांस थाम कर चलना शुरू किया। उसकी साइकिल हमारा ध्यान बंटा रही थी। हालांकि रास्ता ऐसा था जिस पर साइकिल चलाना संभव नहीं था। पहाड़ों और पथरीले रास्तों पर चढ़ते-उतरते हम चलते गये। जब साइकिल चलाना मुश्किल हो जाता, तो चंदू उसे अपने सिर पर ऐसे उठा लेता जैसे कि उसका कोई वजन ही न हो। सूरज ढलते ही उनके कंधों पर लटके बैग बांग देने लगे। उनमें मुर्गे भरे थे जिन्हें बेचने वे बाजार ले गये थे, लेकिन बेच नहीं पाये थे।

अब कुत्तों के भौंकने की आवाजें आने लगी थीं। मैं कह नहीं सकती कि वे कितनी दूर थे। अब रास्ता मैदानी हो रहा था। मैंने नजरें चुरा कर आकाश की ओर देखा। खुला आकाश मुझे मदहोश करता है। मुझे उम्मीद थी कि हमारी मंजिल जल्द ही आने वाली है। चंदू ने कहा, हां। जल्दी यानी एक घंटे से भी ज्यादा। अब मुझे ढेर सारे पेड़ों की कतारें नजर आने लगी थीं। हम पहुंच चुके थे।

गांव काफी बड़ा था और मकान एक-दूसरे से काफी दूर बने थे। हम जिस घर में गये, वह काफी खूबसूरत था। आग जल रही थी, जिसके चारों ओर लोग बैठे थे। बाहर अंधेरे में उससे भी ज्यादा लोग थे। पता नहीं, कितने। उन्होंने अभिवादन किया, कॉमरेड लाल सलाम। मैंने भी जवाब दिया, लाल सलाम। मैं थक कर चूर हो चुकी थी। उस घर की महिला ने मुझे भीतर बुलाया। उसने मुझे खाने को रेड राइस के साथ हरी फलियों में पकी हुई चिकेन करी दी। जबर्दस्त खाना। उसकी बच्ची मेरे पास में ही सोयी हुई थी और उसके चांदी के कड़े धधकती हुई आग में चमक रहे थे।

हम सवेरे पांच बजे उठ गये। छह बजे तक हम निकल पड़े। एकाध घंटे के बाद एक और नदी हमने पार की। रास्ते में कुछ खूबसूरत गांव पड़े। हर गांव पर इमली के पेड़ों की छाया थी। इतने विशाल और विनम्र जैसे कि उन गांवों पर झुका हुआ कोई ईश्वर हो। यह थी बस्तर की मीठी इमली। ग्यारह बजते-बजते सूरज चढ़ चुका था। अब चलना सज़ा हो रहा था। दोपहर के खाने के लिए हम एक गांव में रुकते हैं। करीब दो बजे हम फिर से चल पड़ते हैं। इस गांव में हम दीदी से मिलने जा रहे हैं। दीदी यानी बहन कॉमरेड, जो हमें बताएंगी कि आगे क्या करना है। चंदू को नहीं पता कि आगे का सफर कैसा होगा। यहां सूचनाओं के भी स्तर होते हैं। हर व्यक्ति को हर चीज जानना जरूरी नहीं होता। जब हम वहां पहुंचते हैं, तो दीदी नहीं मिलती। उसकी कोई खबर नहीं है। पहली बार मैं देखती हूं कि चंदू के माथे पर चिंता की लकीरें हैं। मैं और भी चिंतित हो जाती हूं। मैं नहीं जानती कि लोग यहां एक-दूसरे से कैसे संपर्क करते हैं, अगर कुछ गड़बड़ हुई तो फिर क्या?

हम एक पुराने स्कूल के बाहर डेरा डालते हैं। यह गांव से कुछ दूर है। आखिर गांवों के सारे सरकारी स्कूल कंक्रीट के क्यों होते हैं, जिनमें खिड़कियां स्टील शटर की तरह और दरवाजे भी स्टील के होते हैं, स्लाइड करने वाले? इन्हें भी गांव के घरों जैसा मिट्टी और फूस से क्यों नहीं बनाया जाता? ताकि इनका इस्तेमाल बैरक और बंकर की तरह भी हो सके। चंदू बताता है, 'अबूझमाड़ के गांवों में स्कूल ऐसे ही होते हैं…'। एक लकड़ी से वह जमीन पर स्कूल के भवन का नक्शा खींचता है – एक दूसरे से जुड़ी तीन अष्टकोणीय आकृतियां – बिल्कुल मधुमक्खी के छत्ते की तरह। वह बताता है, 'ताकि वे यहां से हर दिशा में गोली चला सकें।' अपनी बात को समझाने के लिए वह बिल्कुल क्रिकेट के ग्राफिक की तरह तीर बनाता है। इन स्कूलों में कोई शिक्षक नहीं। चंदू बताता है कि वे सभी भाग गये। मैंने पूछा, 'कहीं तुम लोगों ने तो उन्हें नहीं खदेड़ दिया?' 'न, हम सिर्फ पुलिस को खदेड़ते हैं।' वह पूछता है, 'जब शिक्षकों को घर बैठे ही तनख्वाह मिल जाती है, तो वे यहां आने की जहमत क्यों उठाएंगे?' बात तो सही है!

वह बताता है कि यह हमारा 'नया इलाका' है। पार्टी हाल ही में यहां आयी है।

तब तक करीब 20 युवा लड़के और लड़कियां आ जाते हैं। सभी किशोरवय के या 20 से 30 के बीच में हैं। चंदू बताता है कि यह गांव की मिलिशिया है। माओवादी सैन्य क्रम की सबसे निचली कतार। मैंने पहले कभी ऐसी कोई सेना नहीं देखी। ये साड़ी और लुंगी में हैं, कुछ हरे रंग के कपड़े पहने हैं। सभी के पास भरमार है यानी मजल लोडिंग राइफल। कुछ के पास चाकू, कुल्हाड़ी, तीर-कमान भी है। एक के पास जिंदा मोर्टार भी है, जिसे तीन फुट की जीआई पाइप से बनाया गया है। इसमें बारूद भरी है। यह चलने पर बहुत तेज आवाज करती है, लेकिन इसका इस्तेमाल एक ही बार किया जा सकता है। वे बताते हैं कि इसके बावजूद पुलिस इससे डरती है। ऐसा लगता नहीं कि इन लोगों के दिमाग में युद्ध के बारे में ख्यालात चलते होंगे, शायद इसलिए कि यह इलाका सलवा जुड़ुम के दायरे से बाहर है। इन्होंने दिन भर का काम पूरा कर लिया है। वे कुछ घरों के चारों ओर बाड़ लगा रहे थे ताकि खेतों में बकरियों को घुसने से रोका जा सके। इनमें काफी उत्सुकता और उत्साह है। लड़कियां यहां लड़कों के साथ काफी सहज और आत्मविश्वास में दिखती हैं और इन चीजों को पकड़ने में मैं बहुत तेज हूं। मुझे यह देखकर अच्छा लगता है। चंदू बताता है कि इनका काम गश्त लगाना है और चार-पांच गांवों की सुरक्षा करना है, खेतों की रक्षा करना है, उनके घरों की मरम्मत करना और कुओं को साफ करना है – यानी जो भी जरूरत पड़े उसे पूरा करना है।

दीदी अब तक नहीं आयी। अब क्या किया जाए? कुछ नहीं। इंतजार कीजिए और तब तक सब्जियां काटने और छीलने में मदद कीजिए।

रात के खाने के बाद सभी कतार में चल देते हैं। हम सब कुछ साथ लेकर बढ़ते हैं – चावल, सब्जियां, हांडी और बरतन। हम स्कूल परिसर को छोड़ चुके हैं। आधे घंटे से भी कम समय में हम एक सुरक्षित छांव में पहुंच जाते हैं। यहां हमें सोना है। निस्तब्ध शांति है। मिनट भर के भीतर हर कोई अपनी झिल्ली (नीली प्लास्टिक की चादर, जिसके बगैर क्रांति संभव नहीं) बिछा चुका है। चंदू और मंगतू एक में ही काम चला लेते हैं और मुझे एक अलग झिल्ली दी जाती है। मेरे लिए सबसे अच्छी जगह वे खोज निकालते हैं सोने के लिए, एक पत्थर के किनारे। चंदू ने दीदी को संदेश भेज दिया है। यदि उसे वह मिल गया, तो सवेरे वह यहां आ जाएगी। बशर्ते संदेश उस तक पहुंचे।

अब तक मैं जितने कमरों में सोयी हूं, यह सबसे खूबसूरत कमरा है। हजार स्टार वाले होटल में मेरा निजी सुइट। और मैं घिरी हूं इन अद्भुत, खूबसूरत बच्चों से, जिनके हाथों में हथियार हैं। ये सभी निश्चित तौर पर माओवादी ही हैं। तो क्या ये मरने जा रहे हैं? क्या जंगल युद्धकौशल प्रशिक्षण स्कूल इन्हीं को मारने के लिए बनाया गया है? ये सारे हेलीकॉप्टर गनशिप, थर्मल इमेजिंग और लेजर रेंज फाइंडर क्या इन्हीं के लिए हैं?

सब सो चुके हैं, सिवाय इन संतरियों के, जो डेढ़ घंटे की पाली में सोते हैं। मेरी नजर तारों पर जाती है। जब मैं बच्ची थी, तो मीनाचल नदी के किनारे सूरज ढलते ही शुरू होने वाली झींगुरों की आवाज को मैं तारों की पुकार समझती थी, जैसे वे टिमटिमाने की तैयारी कर रहे हों। मुझे भरोसा नहीं हो रहा कि आखिर इस जगह से मुझे कितना प्यार हो गया है। दुनिया में इससे प्यारी और कोई जगह शायद नहीं होगी, जहां मैं होना चाहूंगी। आज रात मुझे क्या होना चाहिए? तारों की चादर के नीचे, कामरेड राहेल? खैर, दीदी कल आ जाएंगी।

वे दोपहर से पहले आ पहुंचे। कुछ दूरी पर मैं उन्हें देख पा रही हूं। करीब 15 थे, सभी हरी वर्दी में, हमारी ओर दौड़ कर आते हुए। जिस तरह से वे दौड़ रहे थे, मैं उन्हें देख कर समझ सकती थी कि वे मजबूत लोग हैं। जनमुक्ति गुरिल्ला सेना के लोग। वही, जिनके लिए थर्मल इमेजिंग और लेजर निर्देशित रायफलें हैं, जिनके लिए जंगल युद्धकौशल प्रशिक्षण स्कूल बनाया गया है।

कैंप तक पहुंचने में कुछ घंटे और लगेंगे। पहुंचते-पहुंचते अंधेरा हो चुका है। यहां संतरियों और गश्ती सैनिकों के कई स्तर हैं। शायद दो कतारों में करीब सौ कामरेड होंगे। सभी के पास हथियार हैं। और चेहरों पर मुस्कान। वे गाना शुरू करते हैं, 'लाल लाल सलाम, लाल लाल सलाम, आने वाले साथियों को लाल लाल सलाम।' वे काफी मीठा गाते हैं। ऐसा लगता है जैसे किसी नदी या महकते हुए जंगल पर यह कोई लोकगीत हो। गीत के साथ अभिवादन, हाथ मिलाना और बंधी मुट्ठियां। सभी एक-दूसरे का अभिवादन करते हुए कहते हैं – लाल सलाम, लाल सलाम।

कैंप के नाम पर यहां 15 वर्ग फुट में बिछी हुई नीली झिल्ली के अलावा कुछ नहीं दिखता। छत भी झिल्ली की ही है। रात में मेरा कमरा यही होगा। शायद इतने दिनों तक पैदल चलने के बदले यह मेरा पुरस्कार था, या फिर आगे जो पड़ने वाला है, उसके बदले मुझे बहलाया जा रहा था। हो सकता है दोनों ही बातें रही हों। खैर, शायद इस सफर में यह आखिरी रात थी जब मेरे सिर पर छत थी। रात के खाने पर मुझे मिलती हैं कॉमरेड नर्मदा – क्रांतिकारी आदिवासी महिला संगठन की प्रमुख (इनके सिर पर ईनाम है)। पीएलजीए की कॉमरेड सरोजा जो अपनी एसएलआर जितनी ही लंबी हैं। कॉमरेड मासे (गोंडी भाषा में इसका अर्थ होता है काली लड़की), जिनके सिर पर भी ईनाम घोषित है। तकनीक पारंगत कॉमरेड रूपी। कॉमरेड राजू, जो उस डिवीजन के प्रमुख हैं, जिसमें हम लोग चल रहे थे। और कॉमरेड वेणु (या कॉमरेड मुरली, सोनू, सुशील – आप उन्हें जो कहना चाहें), जो सबसे वरिष्ठ हैं। हो सकता है केंद्रीय कमेटी में हों, पोलित ब्यूरो में भी हो सकते हैं। मुझे बताया नहीं जाता। मैं पूछती भी नहीं। हमारे बीच में गोंडी, हलबी, तेलुगु, पंजाबी और मलयालम में बात हो रही है। सिर्फ मासे अंग्रेजी बोलती है। (इसीलिए हम तय करते हैं कि हम हिंदी में ही बात करेंगे)। कॉमरेड मासे लंबी है, शांत है और ऐसा लगता है कि संवाद में शामिल होने में उसे काफी दिक्कत हो रही हो। लेकिन जिस तरह से उसने मुझे गले लगाया, मैं निश्चित तौर पर कह सकती हूं कि वह आदमी को पहचानना जानती है। जंगल में किताबें न मिलना उसे बहुत अखरता है। जब उसे मुझ पर पूरा भरोसा हो जाएगा, शायद तब वह मुझे अपनी पूरी कहानी बताएगी।

जैसा कि इस जंगल में अक्‍सर होता है, बुरी खबर अचानक आयी। एक दौड़ते हुए व्यक्ति के साथ। जिसके पास बिस्कुट थे और छोटे-छोटे मुड़े हुए कागज के टुकड़ों पर कुछ लिखा हुआ था। ये टुकड़े एक बैग में ऐसे भरे थे जैसे चिप्स हों। हर जगह की खबर। ओंगनार गांव में पुलिस ने पांच लोगों को मार दिया है। इनमें चार मिलिशिया के हैं और एक आम ग्रामीण। संथु पोट्टाई (25), फूलो वाड्डे (22), कांडे पोट्टाई (22), रामोली वाड्डे (20), दलसाई कोराम (22)। हो सकता है ये सभी वे बच्चे हों जो पिछली रात तारों से नहायी हमारी डॉर्मिटरी का हिस्सा थे।
फिर अच्छी खबर आती है कुछ लोगों के झुंड के साथ, जिसमें एक मोटा युवक भी है। वह भी उन्हीं के कपड़ों में है, लेकिन वे नये हैं। सभी उसके कपड़ों की बड़ाई करते हैं कि वे कितने फिट हो रहे हैं। वह शर्माता भी है और खुश भी होता है। वह एक डॉक्टर है जो अभी-अभी जंगल में कॉमरेडों के साथ रह कर काम करने आया है। पिछली बार दंडकारण्य में जब कोई डॉक्टर आया था, तो इस बात को बरसों बीत गये।

मुझे कॉमरेड कमला से मिलवाया जाता है। मुझे हिदायत दी जाती है कि मैं उसे बिना साथ लिये अपनी झिल्ली से पांच फीट दूर भी न जाऊं। क्योंकि अंधेरे में कोई भी रास्ता भूल कर गुम हो सकता है। (मैं उसे जगाती ही नहीं, बिल्कुल लट्ठ की तरह पड़ी रहती हूं)। सुबह कमला मुझे पॉलीथिन का बना एक पीला पैकेट देती है, जिसका एक कोना फटा हुआ था। यह अबिस गोल्ड रिफाइंड सोया तेल का पैकेट था, जो अब शौच में मेरे मग के रूप में काम आने वाला था। क्रांति की राह में कुछ भी बरबाद नहीं जाता।

(अब भी कॉमरेड कमला के बारे में मैं लगातार, रोजाना सोचती रहती हूं। वह सतरह बरस की है। उसके पीछे एक देसी पिस्तौल लटकी रहती है। और उसकी मुस्कान तो गजब है। फिर भी अगर पुलिस से कभी सामना हो गया, तो वे उसे मार डालेंगे। वे पहले शायद उसकी इज्जत लूटेंगे। उससे कोई सवाल नहीं किया जाएगा। क्योंकि वह 'आंतरिक सुरक्षा के लिए खतरा' है।)

दंडकारण्य को अंग्रेज गोंडवाना कहते थे, यानी गोंडो की धरती। आज इस जंगल से मध्य प्रदेश, छत्तीसगढ़, उड़ीसा, आंध्र प्रदेश और महाराष्ट्र की सीमाएं जुड़ती हैं। समस्याग्रस्त लोगों को अलग-अलग प्रशासनिक इकाइयों में बांटना तो पुरानी तरकीब है। लेकिन ये माओवादी और गोंड राजकीय सीमाओं जैसी चीजों पर बहुत ध्यान नहीं देते। उनके दिमाग में तो अलग नक्शा चल रहा होता है। और जंगल के जीवों की तरह उनके रास्ते भी अलग होते हैं। इनके लिए सड़कें चलने के लिए नहीं बनीं। वे तो सिर्फ पार करने के लिए हैं, और धीरे-धीरे ऐसा चलन बढ़ता ही जा रहा है क्योंकि वहां सेना तैनात होती है। कोया ओर दोरला जनजातियों में बंटे गोंड यहां बहुसंख्य हैं, हालांकि दूसरे आदिवासी समुदायों की भी यहां रिहाइश है। गैर-आदिवासी बसावट सिर्फ जंगलों के किनारे सड़कों और बाजारों के पास है।

पीडब्ल्यूजी के लोग दंडकारण्य में आने वाले पहले प्रचारक नहीं थे। प्रसिद्ध गांधीवादी बाबा आम्टे ने 1975 में वरोरा में कुष्ठ आश्रम और अस्पताल खोला था। अबूझमाड़ के सुदूर गांवों में रामकृष्ण मिशन ने ग्रामीण स्कूल खोलने शुरू किये थे। उत्तरी बस्तर में बाबा बिहारी दास ने 'आदिवासियों को वापस हिंदू बनाने' के लिए एक आक्रामक अभियान शुरू किया था, जिसके तहत आदिवासी संस्कृति को नष्ट कर उनमें हिंदू धर्म की सबसे बड़ी नेमत जाति को उनके भीतर प्रवेश कराया जाना था। शुरू में जिन्होंने धर्म बदला – गांवों के मुखिया और बड़े जमींदार – सलवा जुड़ुम के संस्थापक महेंद्र कर्मा जैसे लोग, उन्हें द्विज ब्राह्मण की उपाधि दी गयी। (जाहिर तौर पर यह एक घपला ही था, क्योंकि कोई भी ब्राह्मण नहीं बन सकता। ऐसा ही होता तो हम अब तक ब्राह्मणों के देश बन चुके होते)। लेकिन इस नकली हिंदूवाद को आदिवासियों के लिए पर्याप्त माना जाता है, ठीक वैसे ही जैसे हर नकली चीज – बिस्कुट, साबुन, माचिस और तेल – जो गांवों के बाजारों में मिलती है। हिंदुत्व के इस अभियान ने भूमि रिकॉर्ड में गांवों के नामों को बदल दिया। अब इन गांवों के दो नाम हैं, एक जनता का दिया नाम और दूसरा सरकारी नाम। मसलन, इन्नार गांव को चिन्नारी बना दिया गया। मतदाता सूची में आदिवासियों के नाम बदल कर हिंदू नाम बना दिये गये। (मासा कर्मा बन गये महेंद्र कर्मा)। जिन्होंने हिंदू बनना स्वीकार नहीं किया, उन्हें 'कटवा' कह दिया गया (यानी अछूत), जो बाद में माओवादियों के स्वाभाविक समर्थक बन गये।

पीडब्ल्यूजी ने अपना काम सबसे पहले दक्षिणी बस्तर और गढ़चिरौली में शुरू किया। कॉमरेड वेणु उन शुरुआती महीनों के बारे में विस्तार से बताते हैं : कि गांव वाले कैसे उनसे भय खाते थे और अपने घरों में इन्हें घुसने नहीं देते। कोई उन्हें खाना-पानी नहीं देता। पुलिस ने अफवाह फैला दी थी कि वे चोर हैं। डर कर महिलाओं ने अपने जेवर लकड़ी के चूल्हे की राख में छुपा दिये। बड़े पैमाने पर इनका दमन किया गया। नवंबर 1980 में पुलिस ने गढ़चिरौली में एक गांव की सभा पर गोलीबारी की, जिसमें तकरीबन समूचा स्क्वाड ही मारा गया। यह दंडकारण्य की पहली 'फर्जी मुठभेड़' थी। यह बहुत बड़ा झटका था जिसके चलते कॉमरेड गोदावरी के उस पार अदीलाबाद लौट गये। लेकिन 1981 में वे फिर लौटे। उन्होंने इस बार आदिवासियों को तेंदू पत्ता के दाम बढ़ाने के मुद्दे पर संगठित करना शुरू किया। उस वक्त व्यापारी 50 पत्तों के एक बंडल का तीन पैसा देते थे। इस किस्म की राजनीति से बिल्कुल अनजान लोगों को इस मुद्दे पर संगठित कर के हड़ताल आयोजित करवाना अपने आप में एक बड़ा काम था। आखिरकार हड़ताल कामयाब हुई और मजदूरी को बढ़ा कर छह पैसे बंडल कर दिया गया। लेकिन पार्टी की असली कामयाबी एकता की ताकत का प्रदर्शन था कि कैसे राजनीतिक सौदेबाजी करने का यह एक नया तरीका हो सकता है। आज तमाम हड़तालों और प्रदर्शनों के सिलसिले के बाद एक बंडल की मजदूरी एक रुपया मिलती है। (मौजूदा दरों पर इसकी संभावना कम ही लगती है, लेकिन तेंदू पत्तों का कारोबार सैंकड़ों करोड़ रुपये का होता है)। हर सीजन में सरकार ठेके देती है और ठेकेदारों को एक निश्चित मात्रा में तेंदू पत्ता इकट्ठा करने की मंजूरी देती है – जो 1500 से 5000 मानक बोरे के बीच हो सकती है। हर मानक बोरे में करीब 1000 बंडल होते हैं (यह पता करने का कोई तरीका नहीं कि ठेकेदार इससे ज्यादा बंडल न निकालते हों)। बाजार में आते ही तेंदू पत्ता किलो में बिकने लगता है। बंडल को मानक बोरों और फिर किलो में बदलने वाले गणित पर पूरी तरह ठेकेदारों का नियंत्रण होता है और उनके पास इसमें हेर-फेर करने की पर्याप्त गुंजाइश रहती है। मामूली आकलन के हिसाब से भी एक ठेकेदार के पास हर मानक बोरे पर 1100 रुपये बचते हैं, वो भी पार्टी को हर बोरे पर 120 रुपये का कमीशन देने के बाद। इस हिसाब से एक छोटा ठेकेदार (1500 बोरे) एक सीजन में करीब 16 लाख रुपये बना लेता है और बड़ा ठेकेदार (5000 बोरे) कम से कम 55 लाख रुपये। वास्तविक राशि इसकी कई गुना हो सकती है। इस पूरे कारोबार में 'आंतरिक सुरक्षा के लिए सबसे ज्यादा खतरनाक' लोगों को सिर्फ इतना मिल पाता है कि वे अगले सीजन तक जिंदा रह सकें।

अचानक इस बातचीत में सबकी हंसी से खलल पड़ता है। पीएलजीए का एक कॉमरेड निलेश काफी तेजी से खाना पकाने वाली जगह की ओर दौड़ता हुआ आ रहा था। वह रह-रह कर खुद को मार भी रहा था। वह पास आया तो मैंने देखा कि उसके ऊपर लाल चींटियों का पत्ते वाला एक घोंसला था। चींटियां उसके पूरे शरीर पर रेंग गयी थीं और हाथ व गले में काट रही थीं। निलेश खुद भी हंस रहा था। कॉमरेड वेणु ने पूछा, 'क्या आपने कभी चींटियों की चटनी खायी है?' मैं लाल चीटियों से खूब वाकिफ हूं, केरल में बीते अपने बचपन से ही। उन्होंने मुझे काटा भी है, लेकिन मैंने कभी उन्हें चखा नहीं।

निलेश बीजापुर से है, जो सलवा जुड़ुम का केंद्र है। उसका छोटा भाई सलवा जुड़ुम में चला गया। उसे एसपीओ बना दिया गया है। वह अपनी मां के साथ बसागुड़ा कैंप में रहता है। उसके पिता ने साथ जाने से मना कर दिया। वह गांव में ही रुक गये। बाद में जब मुझे निलेश से बात करने का मौका मिला, तो मैंने पूछा कि उसका भाई सलवा जुड़ुम के साथ क्यों चला गया।

'वह बहुत छोटा था। उसे लोगों को लूटने और घरों को जलाने का जब मौका मिला तो उसे बहुत मजा आने लगा। वह सनक गया। अब वह फंस चुका है। वह कभी गांव वापस नहीं आ सकता। उसे माफ नहीं किया जाएगा। और यह बात वह जानता है।'

हम इतिहास के अपने सबक पर लौट आये। कॉमरेड वेणु ने बताया कि पार्टी का अगला बड़ा संघर्ष बल्लारपुर पेपर मिल्स के खिलाफ था। सरकार ने थापर कंपनी को काफी रियायती दरों पर 1.5 लाख टन बांस निकालने का ठेका 45 साल के लिए दे दिया था (बॉक्साइट की तुलना में यह छोटा धंधा है, फिर भी इस इलाके में पर्याप्त है)। आदिवासियों को एक बंडल के लिए 10 पैसे मिल रहे थे – एक बंडल में बांस के 20 तने होते हैं (थापर इससे कितना मुनाफा कमा रहा था, यह बताने के लोभ में मैं नहीं पड़ना चाहती)। लंबे समय तक चले आंदोलन, हड़ताल, फिर पेपर मिल के अधिकारियों के साथ सबके सामने खुली बातचीत के बाद दाम को बढ़ा कर तीस पैसे कर दिया गया। आदिवासियों के लिए यह बड़ी उपलब्धि थी। दूसरी राजनीतिक पार्टियों ने वादे तो किये थे, लेकिन पूरे करने के कोई संकेत नहीं दिये। इसके बाद लोग पीडब्ल्यूजी के पास उसमें शामिल होने के लिए आने लगे।

सात स्क्वाड की टीम ने काफी लंबा रास्ता अब तय कर लिया था। इसका प्रभाव अब 60,000 वर्ग किलोमीटर वन क्षेत्र, हजारों गांवों और लाखों लोगों के बीच था।

लेकिन वन विभाग का खात्मा पुलिस के आने का सबब बन गया था। अब खून-खराबे का सिलसिला चल निकला। पुलिस की फर्जी मुठभेड़, पीडब्ल्यूजी का घेराव। जमीन के पुनर्वितरण के बाद दूसरी जिम्मेदारियां भी आ गयीं : सिंचाई, खेती की पैदावार और आबादी बढ़ने की समस्या, जिसके चलते जंगल भूमि साफ होती जा रही थी। इसके बाद 'जन कार्रवाई' और 'सैन्य कार्रवाई' को अलग करने का फैसला लिया गया।

लोहंडीगुड़ा, जहां महज पांच घंटे में गाड़ी चला कर दंतेवाड़ा से पहुंचा जा सकता है, कभी भी नक्सली इलाका नहीं था। लेकिन आज है। कॉमरेड जूरी उसी इलाके में काम करती है। मैं चींटियों की चटनी खा रही थी, तब वह मेरे बगल में ही बैठी थी। वह बताती है कि उन्होंने वहां तब जाने का फैसला किया, जब गांवों की दीवारों पर लोग रंगने लगे, नक्सली आओ, हमें बचाओ। कुछ ही महीने पहले ग्राम पंचायत अध्यक्ष विमल मेश्राम को सरे बाजार गोली मार दी गयी थी। जूरी कहती है, 'वह टाटा का आदमी था। वह लोगों पर जमीन देकर मुआवजा लेने का जबरन दबाव बना रहा था। ठीक ही हुआ कि वह खत्म हो गया। हमारा भी एक कॉमरेड हालांकि चला गया। उन्होंने उसे गोली मार दी। आप और चपोली लेंगी?' वह सिर्फ 20 बरस की है। 'हम टाटा को वहां नहीं आने देंगे। लोग नहीं चाहते कि वे आएं।' जूरी पीएलजीए की नहीं है। वह पार्टी की सांस्कृतिक इकाई चेतना नाट्य मंच में है। वह गाती है। गीत भी लिखती है। अबूझमाड़ की रहने वाली है। (उसने कॉमरेड माधव से ब्याह किया है। माधव जब मंच की टुकड़ी के साथ गाते हुए उसके गांव आये थे, तो उसे उनसे प्रेम हो गया था)।

मुझे लगा कि अब कुछ कहना चाहिए। हिंसा की व्यर्थता के बारे में, या फिर जान से मार देने के संक्षिप्त फैसलों पर। लेकिन मैं उन्हें क्या करने को कहती? कि वे अदालत में जाएं? या दिल्ली में जंतर-मंतर पर धरना करें? रैली निकालें? या फिर आमरण अनशन पर बैठ जाएं? अजीब हास्यास्पद बात होती। नयी आर्थिक नीति के प्रचारकों से – जिनके लिए यह कहना काफी आसान होता है कि 'देयर इज नो आल्टरनेटिव' – पूछा जाना चाहिए कि वे एक वैकल्पिक प्रतिरोध नीति भी सुझाएं। बिल्कुल इन लोगों के हिसाब से, जो इस जंगल के हिसाब से फिट बैठती हो। अभी, इसी वक्त। आखिर ये लोग किस पार्टी को वोट दें? इस देश की किस लोकतांत्रिक संस्था के पास ये गुहार लगाएं? आखिर ऐसा कौन सा दरवाजा बचा है, जो नर्मदा बचाओ आंदोलन ने बड़े बांधों के खिलाफ अपने बरसों से चल रहे संघर्ष के दौरान न खटखटाया हो?

अब अंधेरा हो चुका था। कैंप में काफी चहल-पहल थी, लेकिन मैं कुछ नहीं देख पा रही थी। बस कुछ प्रकाश बिंदु हरकत करते से दिख रहे थे। कह पाना मुश्किल है कि वे तारे थे, पतंगे या फिर माओवादी। अचानक नन्हा मंगतू प्रकट होता है। मुझे पता चलता है कि वह यंग कम्युनिस्ट्स मोबाइल स्कूल की पहली पीढ़ी का सदस्य है, जिन्हें साम्यवाद के बुनियादी सिद्धांतों को पढ़ना, लिखना और समझना सिखाया जा रहा है (जिसको लेकर हमारा कॉरपोरेट मीडिया भौंकता रहता है, 'युवा मस्तिष्कों का सैद्धांतीकरण'। जो टीवी विज्ञापन बच्चों के कुछ सोचने-समझने के काबिल होने से पहले ही उनका ब्रेनवॉश कर देते हैं, उसे सैद्धांतीकरण के रूप में नहीं देखा जाता)। किशोर कम्युनिस्टों को न तो बंदूक रखने दी जाती है और न ही वर्दी पहननी होती है। लेकिन वे पीएलजीए के दस्तों के साथ अपनी आंखों में तारों की चमक लिये बिल्कुल किसी रॉक बैंड की तरह चलते रहते हैं।

हमारे चलने से पहले कॉमरेड वेणु पास आते हैं, 'तो ठीक है कॉमरेड, मैं इजाजत चाहूंगा।' मुझे एकबारगी झटका लगता है। एक गर्म टोपी और चप्पलों में वह एक छोटे से कीड़े की भांति लग रहे थे, अपने तीन महिला और तीन पुरुष गार्डों से घिरे हुए। सभी हथियारों से लैस थे। उन्होंने कहा, 'कॉमरेड हम आपके बहुत आभारी हैं कि आप इतनी दूर से यहां तक आयीं।' एक बार फिर हम हाथ मिलाते हैं और भिंची मुट्ठियां लहराती हैं, 'कॉमरेड, लाल सलाम।' वह जंगलों में कहीं गुम हो जाते हैं। उनके पास इन जंगलों की चाबी है। एक पल में ऐसा लगता है कि जैसे वे यहां कभी थे ही नहीं। मैं कुछ देर के लिए असहाय सी हो गयी थी, लेकिन मेरे पास सुनने के लिए उनकी घंटों की रिकॉर्डिंग है। और जैसे-जैसे ये दिन हफ्तों में बदलते जाएंगे, मैं ऐसे तमाम लोगों से मिलूंगी जो उस खांचे में रंग और शब्द भरेंगे जो उन्होंने मेरे लिए बनाया है। अब हम उल्टी दिशा में चलने लगे। कॉमरेड राजू, जिनके शरीर से एक मील दूर से ही आयोडेक्स महक रहा था, मुस्कुरा कर कहते हैं, 'मेरे घुटने तो गये। अब तो मैं मुट्ठी भर पेनकिलर लेकर ही चल पाऊंगा।'

कॉमरेड राजू बिल्कुल सही हिंदी बोलते हैं और मनोरंजक किस्से एकदम मारक तरीके से सुनाते हैं। वे रायपुर में 18 साल तक वकालत कर चुके हैं। वह और उनकी पत्नी दोनों ही पार्टी में थे और पार्टी के शहरी नेटवर्क का हिस्सा थे। 2007 के अंत में रायपुर नेटवर्क का एक अहम व्यक्ति गिरफ्तार हो गया, उसे प्रताड़ित किया गया और अंत में मुखबिर बना दिया गया। उसे पुलिस ने एक बंद वाहन में बैठाकर रायपुर का चक्कर लगवाया और पुराने साथियों की निशानदेही करने को कहा। कॉमरेड मालती इन्हीं में से एक थीं। 22 जनवरी 2008 को उन्हें कई अन्य के साथ गिरफ्तार किया गया। उनके खिलाफ आरोप है कि उन्होंने सलवा जुडुम में किये गये अत्याचार के वीडियो वाली सीडी कई सांसदों को भेजी थी। उनका मामला कभी-कभार ही सुनवाई के लिए आता है क्योंकि पुलिस जानती है कि मुकदमा कमजोर है। इसके बावजूद छत्तीसगढ़ विशेष जन सुरक्षा अधिनियम के तहत पुलिस के पास उन्हें बगैर जमानत के बरसों तक अंदर रखने की छूट मिली हुई है। कॉमरेड राजू कहते हैं, 'अब सरकार ने छत्तीसगढ़ पुलिस की तमाम टुकड़ियां तैनात कर दी हैं ताकि बेचारे सांसदों की उन्हें भेजी गयी चिट्ठियों से सुरक्षा की जा सके।' वह नहीं पकड़ा गया क्योंकि उस वक्त वह एक बैठक में दंडकारण्य आया हुआ था। तब से वह यहीं है। उसके दो छोटे बच्चे जो घर पर अकेले रह गये थे, पुलिस ने उनसे बहुत पूछताछ की। आखिरकार, ये बच्चे एक अंकल के साथ रहने चले गये और समूची गृहस्थी ही उठ गयी। कॉमरेड राजू को कुछ ही हफ्तों पहले पहली बार अपने बच्चों की खबर मिली। आखिर, उनके पास अपनी हंसी को बचाये रखने की ताकत और क्षमता कहां से आती है? जितना इन्होंने झेला है, उसके बाद भी ये क्यों लगातार आगे बढ़ पा रहे हैं? जाहिर है, पार्टी के लिए उनका प्यार, आस्था और एक उम्मीद इसके पीछे है। मेरा बार-बार तमाम निजी तरीकों से और कहीं ज्यादा गहराई में इस तथ्य से साक्षात्कार होता है।

अब हम सब एक साथ चल रहे हैं जहां मैं हूं और साथ हैं एक सौ 'विवेकहीन रूप से हिंसक' खून के प्यासे अतिवादी। कैंप छोड़ने से पहले मैंने एक नजर चारों ओर देखा था। एक भी निशान नहीं था इस बात का कि यहां करीब सौ लोगों ने डेरा डाला था, सिवाय राख के जहां आग जलायी गयी थी। मुझे इस सेना पर सहज भरोसा नहीं होता। जहां तक उपभोग का सवाल है, यह किसी भी गांधीवादी से ज्यादा गांधीवादी हैं और जलवायु परिवर्तन पर उपदेश देने वालों के मुकाबले कार्बन उत्सर्जन के मामले में सबसे आदर्श। लेकिन, फिलहाल तो विनाशकारी कामों में भी यह गांधीवादी रणनीति ही अपनाती है। मसलन, किसी पुलिस वाहन को जलाने से पहले उसके एक-एक हिस्से को तोड़ कर अलग कर लिया जाता है। स्टीयरिंग को सीधा करके भरमार बना ली जाती है, रेक्सीन को फाड़ कर हथियार रखने वाला पाउच और बैटरी को सोलर चार्जिंग में इस्तेमाल किया जाता है (अब हाईकमान से निर्देश आये हैं कि कब्जाये गये वाहनों को जलाया न जाए बल्कि दफना दिया जाए, ताकि जब जरूरत पड़े उन्हें दुरुस्त किया जा सके)।

अब हम घुप्प अंधेरे और मुर्दा शांति में चले जा रहे हैं। अकेली मैं हूं जो टॉर्च का इस्तेमाल कर रही हूं, वह भी नीचे की ओर ताकि हद से हद उसकी रोशनी में मुझे कॉमरेड कमला के पैर दिखते रह सकें और मैं जान सकूं कि मुझे कहां कदम रखना है। वह मुझसे 10 गुना ज्यादा वजन उठा रही है। अपना बैकपैक, राइफल, सिर पर रसद का एक भारी बैग, खाना पकाने वाला एक बर्तन और दोनों कंधों पर सब्जियों से भरे हुए झोले। उसके सिर पर रखा बैग जबरदस्त तरीके से संतुलित है और वह उन्हें बगैर हाथ लगाये ढलानों और फिसलनदार पथरीले रास्तों पर उतर सकती है। यह एक चमत्कार है। हम काफी लंबा चल चुके हैं। मैं इतिहास के अपने सबक की आभारी हूं क्योंकि उन तमाम चीजों के अलावा जो उससे मुझे मिलीं, कम से कम पूरे एक दिन मेरे पैरों को पूरा आराम मिला। जंगल में रात में पैदल चलना शायद सबसे खूबसूरत चीज है।

और अब मैं हर रात यही करने जा रही हूं।

नया दिन। नयी जगह। महुआ के विशाल पेड़ों तले उसिर गांव के बाहरी इलाके में हमने कैंप किया है। महुआ में अभी-अभी फूल आने शुरू हुए हैं और जंगल की छाती पर उसके मटमैले हरे ये फूल गहनों की तरह चू रहे हैं। हवा में इसकी मादकता घुली हुई है, जो सिर पर चढ़ रही है। हम भाटपाल स्कूल के बच्चों का इंतजार कर रहे हैं। ओंगनार की मुठभेड़ के बाद इसे बंद कर दिया गया था और अब यह पुलिस कैंप बन चुका है। बच्चों को घर भेज दिया गया। यही हाल नेलवाड़, मूंजमेट्टा, एडका, वेदोमकोट और धनोरा का है।

भाटपाल स्कूल के बच्चे नहीं आते।

मोस्ट वांटेड कॉमरेड नीति और कॉमरेड विनोद हमें एक लंबी सैर पर ले जाते हैं, जहां वे हमें स्थानीय जनताना सरकार द्वारा बनाये गये जल संग्रहण के ढांचे और सिंचाई तालाब दिखाते हैं। कॉमरेड नीति तमाम कृषि समस्याओं के बारे में बताती हैं। यहां सिर्फ दो फीसदी जमीन सिंचित है। दस साल पहले तक तो अबूझमाड़ में जुताई के बारे में सुना तक नहीं गया था। दूसरी ओर, गढ़चिरौली में संकर बीज और रासायनिक कीटनाशक तक घुस आये हैं।

कॉमरेड विनोद कहते हैं, 'हमें अपने कृषि विभाग में तत्काल मदद की जरूरत है। हमें ऐसे लोग चाहिए जो बीज, जैविक खाद आदि के बारे में जानते हों। जरा सी मदद से हम बहुत कुछ कर ले जाएंगे।'

जनताना सरकार के इस इलाके के प्रमुख किसान हैं, कॉमरेड रामू। वह काफी गर्व से अपने खेत दिखाते हैं, जहां चावल, बैंगन, गोंगुरा, प्याज, कोलराबी उगाये गये हैं। इसके बाद उतने ही गर्व से वह हमें बहुत विशाल, लेकिन पूरी तरह सूखा हुआ एक सिंचाई तालाब दिखाते हैं। ये क्या है? 'इसमें बरसात में भी पानी नहीं होता। दरअसल, यह गलत जगह खोदा गया है।' यह कहते ही उसके चेहरे पर मुस्कान आ जाती है, 'यह हमारा नहीं है, इसे लूटी सरकार ने खोदा है।' यहां दो समानांतर सरकारें हैं। जनताना सरकार और लूटी सरकार यानी लुटेरों की सरकार।
मुझे कॉमरेड वेणु याद आते हैं : वे हमें सिर्फ इसलिए नहीं कुचलना चाहते कि उन्हें खनिज चाहिए, बल्कि इसलिए कि हम दुनिया को एक वैकल्पिक मॉडल दे रहे हैं।

हालांकि अब तक यह कायदे से विकल्प नहीं बन सका है – बंदूक के साथ ग्राम स्वराज का विचार। यहां जबरदस्त भुखमरी है, ढेरों बीमारियां हैं। इसके बावजूद इसने विकल्प की संभावनाएं तो पैदा की ही हैं। पूरी दुनिया के लिए नहीं, न अलास्का के लिए, न ही नयी दिल्ली के लिए और शायद समूचे छत्तीसगढ़ के लिए भी नहीं – सिर्फ अपने लिए। दंडकारण्य के लिए। और यह दुनिया का सबसे गूढ़ और गोपनीय रहस्य है। इसने अपने विनाश के एक विकल्प की नींव रखी है। इसने इतिहास को झुठलाया है। तमाम कठिनाइयों के बावजूद इसने अपने वजूद का एक खाका तैयार कर ही लिया। और आज इसे जरूरत है सहयोग की। इस जगह को डॉक्टर चाहिए, शिक्षक चाहिए, किसान चाहिए।

यहां युद्ध नहीं चाहिए।

लेकिन अगर इसे इन सबकी जगह सिर्फ युद्ध मिलता है, तो यह पलट कर मारेगा।

अगले कुछ दिनों के दौरान मेरी मुलाकात केएएमएस के नेताओं से होती है। जनताना सरकार के कई पदाधिकारी, दंडकारण्य आदिवासी किसान-मजदूर संगठन के सदस्यों समेत मैं मारे गये लोगों के परिवारों से भी मिलती हूं। और उन आम लोगों से भी, जो इतने भीषण समय में जीवन को संभालने की जद्दोजहद में लगे हैं।

इस शांत से दिखने वाले जंगल में जीवन का पूरी तरह सैन्यकरण हो चुका है। लोगों को कॉर्डन एंड सर्च, फायरिंग, एडवांस, रिट्रीट, एक्शन जैसे शब्द आते हैं। अपनी फसले काटने के लिए उन्हें पीएलजीए की जरूरत पड़ती है ताकि उसका संतरी गश्त दे सके। बाजार तक जाना तो एक फौजी कार्रवाई जैसा है। सारे बाजार मुखबिरों से भरे हुए हैं जिन्हें पुलिस ने पैसा देकर खरीद लिया है। मुझे बताया जाता है कि नारायणपुर में तो एक 'मुखबिर मोहल्ला' ही है, जहां कम से कम 4000 मुखबिर रहते हैं। आदमी तो खैर अब बाजार जा ही नहीं पाते। महिलाएं जाती हैं, लेकिन उन पर कड़ी नजर रहती है। वे जरा सा भी ज्यादा खरीदारी कर लें, तो पुलिस तुरंत आरोप लगाती है कि वे नक्सलियों के लिए खरीद रही हैं। दवा की दुकानों को साफ निर्देश है कि लोगों को बेहद कम मात्रा में दवाइयां दी जाएं। जन वितरण प्रणाली के तहत राशन की चीनी, चावल और मिट्टी का तेल पुलिस स्टेशनों के आसपास या उनके भीतर भंडारित किया जाता है, जिससे उसे खरीदना लोगों के लिए तकरीबन असंभव होता है।

आखिरी रात हम एक खड़ी चढ़ाई वाले पहाड़ के नीचे रुके। सवेरे हमें इसे पार कर सड़क पर निकलना था, जहां से एक मोटरसाइकिल मुझे ले जाएगी। पहली बार जब मैं इस जंगल में घुसी थी, तब से लेकर अब तक यह जंगल बदल चुका है। अब चिरौंजी, कपास और आम में बौर आने लगे हैं।

कुडुर गांव के लोगों ने हमारे लिए कैंप में ताजा पकड़ी हुई मछली से भरा एक बड़ा सा मटका भिजवाया है। और साथ में मेरे लिए उन 71 किस्म के फलों, सब्जियों, दालों और कीड़ों के नामों और उनके बाजार दाम की एक सूची भी, जो उन्हें जंगल में मिलते हैं या जिन्हें वे उगाते हैं। यह सिर्फ एक सूची है, लेकिन यह एक दुनिया का नक्शा भी है।

हम जंगल पोस्ट तक पहुंचते हैं। फिर से दो बिस्कुट! कॉमरेड नर्मदा की ओर से एक कविता और एक पिचका हुआ फूल मुझे भेंट किया जाता है! और एक प्यारा-सा खत मासे की ओर से (कौन है वह? क्या मैं कभी जान पाऊंगी?)।

कॉमरेड सुखदेव पूछते हैं कि क्या वह मेरे आइपॉड में से एक गीत अपने कंप्‍यूटर में डाल सकते हैं। हम सुनते हैं, फैज अहमद फैज का लिखा शेर, इकबाल बानो की आवाज में, जो उन्होंने जिया-उल-हक की जुल्मतों के चरम दौर में लाहौर के एक मशहूर कंसर्ट में गाया था -

जब अहल-ए-सफ़ा-मरदूद-ए-हरम
मसनद पे बिठाये जाएंगे
सब ताज उछाले जाएंगे
सब तख्त गिराये जाएंगे
हम देखेंगे।

पाकिस्तान में इस गीत को सुनने वाले पचास हजार श्रोताओं के मुंह से इसके बाद बस एक ही आवाज निकली थी : इंकलाब जिंदाबाद! इंकलाब जिंदाबाद!

इतने सालों बाद यही नारा इस जंगल में गूंज रहा है। अजीब बात है। रिश्ते भी कैसे-कैसे बन जाते हैं।

(यह लेख आउटलुक अंग्रेजी में छपे अरुंधति रॉय के लेख वॉकिंग विद द कॉमरेड्स का संपादित और अनूदित अंश है। इसका अनुवाद युवा पत्रकार अभिषेक श्रीवास्‍तव ने किया है।)

• 

अजित वडनेरकर said:
जबर्दस्त आलेख….
अरुंधती कई जगह पूर्वाग्रही नज़र आती हैं, तब भी उनकी लिखी बातों में सचाई छुपती नहीं। एक अभियान के दोहरे आयामों से साक्षात्कार कराता आलेख।
शुक्रिया है…
# 27 March 2010 at 4:00 am

Rajesh said:
whether Maoist want to drag country in 17th Century. The Marxism is a failed model of Governance. The better example is china and Russia. In Russia Marxism failed in its own home and in China only wrapper is Chinese but every thing is capitalist. My friend in china says it is difficult for common man to survive but the only difference is you cannot speak against govt . They are forced to work for more than 12 hours without over time. The people know the companies for which they work are Chinese but investors are Americans. Today if American withdraw there investment in china , china gove will be bankrupt.
when Marxism is fail in country of origin, it cannot successful model in any part of world. No where in the work communist countries are protecting the interest of Labours.People should remember Tienanmen chowk Tragedy where chinese govt killed thousand of its own students in the name of Law and order.
In India Marxism will fail . The only thing how much cost we have to pay till we realize this fact
Arundhati writing is effective so is the translation by Abhisekh
thanks to both of them .
# 27 March 2010 at 12:28 pm

amit singh said:
ek badia aalekh
rajesh ji aap bhi sarkari bhasa bol rahe hai
astitya aur pahchan ki ladai lad rhe aadivasio ko marx aur mao se matlab.arundhati ji dhanvad itna achchhae kam ke liye
# 27 March 2010 at 4:02 pm

Rajesh said:
@ Amit ji bhole bhale Adivasiyo ko kaun bhadaka kar apna ulloo sidha kar raha hai , Iski vivechana kijiye
Meri vichar dhara sarkari nahi , Rashtrawadi hai
Apna batayeeye -
# 27 March 2010 at 9:52 pm

neeraj pasvaan said:
is report ka pooraa anuvaad honaa chaaiye tha. yah ek classic hai aur apane samay kaa bayaan karane waala ek aisa sach, jise sabse chhupaayaa jaa rahaa hai.
aur Rajesh ji kyaa aapkaa Raashtravaad' savarn Hindu ka faashivaad naheen hai, jo aadivaasiyon, daliton, musalmaanon, isaaiyon, aur sabhi nichali jaatiyon ko police aur army ke dam par raund daalanaa chaahataa hai. kyaa shikaariyon se apani jaan bachaane ke lie apni seeng kaa istemaal karane vaale hiran 'mao-vaadi' hote hain?
# 28 March 2010 at 9:16 am

Rajesh said:
@Neeraj Ji marxwadi Dialogue bahut repeat ho gaya hai. I am sure you are not living in Naxlite controlled area
How many times you were exploited by Military / Police .
Whether all Dalits , Muslims ,Adiwasis ,Christians living in Naxalite controlled area.
I am sure they are getting more freedom than any developing countries
# 28 March 2010 at 12:57 pm

neeraj pasvaan said:
why don't you ask muslims in kashmere and gujarat, adivasis in dandakaranya, (andhra, jharkhand, chhtteesgarh, orissa), christians in many places, dalits in vidarbha and all over hindi-hindu land what kind of 'freedom' and 'human dignity' they have..
as for as I'm concerned, I'm tasting the sweet honey of your savarna-nationalism for many years.
I appeal to your human soul just to listen to the weak grass-hoppers and remember it time is very alarming if only army, police and violence is used against the people of this nation to loot and sell all natural resources to the corporates..
# 28 March 2010 at 1:50 pm

ख़बर भी नज़र भी, नज़रिया, समाचार »

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जब सवाल जाति का हो तो सेकुलर(?)-संघी भाई-भाई

[1 Feb 2010 | 8 Comments | ]

दिलीप मंडल ♦ जब वर्धा में प्रोफेसर अनिल चमड़िया की नियुक्ति निरस्त करने का आदेश जारी किया जा रहा था, लगभग उन्हीं दिनों दूर दक्षिण में मैंगलोर यूनिवर्सिटी में भी ऐसा ही एक फैसला हो रहा था। एक यूनिवर्सिटी केंद्र सरकार की है और दूसरी यूनिवर्सिटी एक ऐसे राज्य में चल रही है, जहां बीजेपी का शासन है। एक यूनिवर्सिटी को तथाकथित प्रगतिशील का गौरवशाली नेतृत्व हासिल है तो दूसरे पर संघ की ध्वजा लहरा रही है। लेकिन जब लोकतांत्रिक आचरण की धज्जियां उड़ाने की बात हो तो दोनों विश्वविद्यालयों में अदभुत समानताएं दिखती हैं।

ख़बर भी नज़र भी, नज़रिया, स्‍मृति »

कोई देवता नहीं, कोई सबका कॉमरेड नहीं

[25 Jan 2010 | 9 Comments | ]

दिलीप मंडल ♦ ज्योति बसु पर बात करने वालों की नीयत पर संदेह करने से कोई फायदा नहीं होगा। सीपीएम के हितैषियों के लिए ये बहुत महत्वपूर्ण कार्यभार है कि वो बताएं कि ज्योति बसु की पहली (1977) और दूसरी (1982) कैबिनेट में कोई दलित या आदिवासी मंत्री शामिल था। सोचकर देखिए। एक कैबिनेट बनायी जाती है, वो भी कैबिनेट उन पार्टियों की, जो देश को बेहतर देश बनाना चाहते हैं और पूरी कैबिनेट में एक भी दलित या आदिवासी मंत्री नहीं। जबकि पश्चिम बंगाल में लगभग 30 फीसदी आबादी दलितों और आदिवासियों की है। अगर ये संयोग है, तो बेहद दुखद और शर्मनाक संयोग है।

ख़बर भी नज़र भी, नज़रिया, स्‍मृति »

भद्रलोक कम्युनिस्ट और मुसलमानों की दुर्गति

[23 Jan 2010 | 18 Comments | ]

दिलीप मंडल ♦ पश्चिम बंगाल में मुसलमान शिक्षा के क्षेत्र में पिछड़े हुए हैं, ड्रॉपआउट रेट राष्ट्रीय औसत से बहुत ज्यादा है, सरकारी नौकरियां उन्हें अमूमन मिलती नहीं हैं, राज्य में ओबीसी आरक्षण इतना कम है कि उन्हें उसमें हिस्सा मुश्किल से मिलता है और निजी रोजगार करने के लिए बैंक लोन मिलना आसान नहीं है। इसे किसी समुदाय के खिलाफ हिंसा की श्रेणी में क्यों नहीं रखा जा सकता? आश्चर्य इस बात का कि ये सब उस शासन में हुआ और हो रहा है, जो निहायत ही "सेकुलर" है! ऐसे सेकुलरवाद से देश के हर वंचित समुदाय को खतरा है।

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राजनीतिक उपलब्धि सत्ता के सहारे ही महिमामंडित होती है

[23 Jan 2010 | One Comment | ]

अजीत कुमार ♦ बड़ी बेबसी में हूं। न तो आपकी बातों को पूरी तरह से नकार सकता हूं और न पूरी तरह से स्वीकार कर सकता हूं। जहां तक मरने के बाद विभिन्न नेताओं और उद्योगपतियों की तरफ से आये निर्दोष बयान का मामला है। यह तो हमारे यहां परिपाटी बन चुकी है कि देहांत के तुरंत बाद उस व्यक्ति की आलोचना से एक हद तक बचा जाए। भाजपा के नेताओं की तरफ से भी आलोचना के स्वर न आने के पीछे भी सिर्फ एक परिपाटी का चलन ही है। इसी परिपाटी के चलते ही और भी नेताओं, संगठनों व सम्मानित जनों द्वारा आलोचना से गुरेज किया गया है। खैर इस मौके पर भी आपकी आलोचना से मैं असहमत नहीं हूं। यह तो व्यक्ति विशेष पर निर्भर करता है कि वह परिपाटी का मान या सम्मान करे।

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मोदी और नीतीश के मानकों पर बसु को क्‍यों कसना चाहते हैं?

[22 Jan 2010 | 9 Comments | ]

विश्‍वदीपक ♦ 'सफल मुख्यमंत्री' की चर्चा करके क्या दिलीप जी राजनीति के सबसे सरलीकृत मुहावरे का शिकार नहीं हो रहे? अगर उनके कुछ पैमाने अलग कर दिये जाएं तो फिर नरेंद्र मोदी से सफल मुख्यमंत्री कौन है हमारे यहां? आजकल नीतीश कुमार भी उसी सफलता की राह पर हैं। लालू से लेकर मायावती तक 'अस्मिता आधारित राजनीति' करने वाले क्यों पस्त हो गये, इस बात की भी पड़ताल करनी चाहिए?

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एक इलीट हिंदू सवर्ण कम्युनिस्ट का जाना

[21 Jan 2010 | 23 Comments | ]

दिलीप मंडल ♦ इस समय समाजवाद लाना संभव नहीं है। हम पूंजीवादी व्यवस्था के अंदर काम कर रहे हैं। औद्योगीकरण और सरकार के लोककल्याणकारी कामों के लिए निजी पूंजी का इस्तेमाल करना ही होगा। समाजवाद दूर की कौड़ी है। समाजवाद हमारे राजनीतिक एजेंडे में है और हमारी पार्टी के कार्यकम में भी इसका जिक्र है, लेकिन भविष्य में भी पूंजीवाद हमारी मजबूरी बना रहेगा। 1977 से ही हमने मजदूरों की जिम्मेदारी ले ली है। लेकिन साथ ही हम उनसे ये भी कह रहे हैं कि वो जिम्मेदार बनें। कॉमरेड ज्योति बसु ने ये बात पार्टी के राज्य सचिवमंडल की बैठक के बाद पत्रकारों से कही थी। पत्रकारों ने उनसे बुद्धदेव भट्टाचार्य की औद्योगिक नीति और किसानों को जमीन से बेदखल किये जाने की नीति के बारे में सवाल पूछा था। ये खबर लगभग हर जगह छपी।

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खंडित सच के सहारे प्रभाष जी का पाठ न करें मंडल जी!

[9 Jan 2010 | 9 Comments | ]

अजीत कुमार ♦ शायद पत्रकारिता के लंबे अनुभव के दौरान आपको व्यक्तिगत तौर पर उनको परखने का मौका मिला हो। संभव है, आपको व्यक्तिगत जीवन में उनको लेकर कटु अनुभव रहे हों। यह आपके लेखन से पूरी तरह उभरता है। तब भी आप कहते हैं मैं उनके थॉट्स को लेकर व्यक्तिगत हो रहा हूं। जबकि अपने पिछले कई लेखों में प्रभाष जी को लेकर आपने जिस तरह की भाषा का प्रयोग किया है, वह पूरी तरह से साबित करता है कि आप उनके समूचे व्यक्तित्व और कृत्तित्‍व को सवाल के दायरे में ला रहे हैं। इसे मैं अपने उदाहरण से भी थोड़ा स्पष्ट करने की कोशिश करता हूं। जब तक मैं आपसे मिला नहीं था, आपकी छवि सिर्फ आपके लेखन के माध्‍यम से मेरे यहां उभरती थी। लेकिन बहुत कुछ जानने के बाद आपके लेखन के सहारे बनी छवि एक हद तक खंडित हो गयी।

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प्रभाष जी हरा सांप क़तई नहीं थे दिलीप मंडल जी!

[8 Jan 2010 | 14 Comments | ]

अजीत कुमार ♦ क्या प्रभाष जी के जाति और सत्ती प्रथा के संबंध में दिये गये विचार और उनका व्यक्तिगत ज़‍िंदगी में कर्मकांडी ब्राह्मण होना ही क्या हिंदी पत्रकारिता को उनकी अप्रतिम देन को मिटाने के लिए पर्याप्त है? आखिर अगर ऐसा है तो जाति के संबंध में गांधी के विचार को लेकर आप करेंगे? बाबरी मस्जिद विध्‍वंस पर निर्मल वर्मा के विचार को लेकर क्या उनके साहित्य में योगदान को नदारद मान लेना चाहिए? ऐसे और भी कई उदाहरण हो सकते हैं। क्या आप नहीं मानते कि हर विधा के कुछ अपने प्रतिमान होते हैं और जो भी उन प्रतिमानों पर खरा उतरता है, उस विधा के लिए वह अतिमहत्वपूर्ण हो जाता है!

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दिखाने-छिपाने की नैतिकता और एनडी तिवारी कांड

[4 Jan 2010 | 10 Comments | ]

दिलीप मंडल ♦ दिखाने और छिपाने की नैतिकता पर चल रही चर्चा के बीच इस बात पर भी बहस हो सकती है कि किसी व्यक्ति के कृत्य की और उसके गुण और अवगुण की क्या सामाजिक व्याख्या होनी चाहिए। निजी कृत्यों और कुकृत्यों की सामाजिक और खासकर जातीय व्याख्या कितनी ख़तरनाक हो सकती है, उसका अंदाज़ा संभवत: आप लगा सकते हैं। किसी जाति समूह के हीरो (जैसे सचिन) के गुणों को उस जाति समूह का गुण बताएंगे या ये कहेंगे कि कोई शख्स किसी जाति समूह का होने की वजह से किसी खास गुण से लैस है तो उस जाति समूह में अगर कोई विलेन हुआ तो उसकी व्याख्या में कैसी मुश्किलें आएंगी, इसका भी अंदाज़ा लगाया जा सकता है। जाति विशेष को खास गुणों से लैस बताने की स्थापना पर जब पिछली बार बात हुई थी तो शायद संदर्भ उतने साफ नहीं थे, लेकिन आज हैं।

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प्रभाष जोशी विमर्श से आगे भी तो बढ़िए

[15 Sep 2009 | 12 Comments | ]

आलोक तोमर ♦ कहने को बहुत कुछ है, मगर सुनने वाले सुनें तो। पच्चीस साल पुरानी अखबारों की फाइल में घुस कर सबूत खोजने वाले महान लोगों को पिछले एक साल में प्रभाष जोशी ने क्या लिखा है, यह याद नहीं आया। वे पढ़ने से ज्यादा लिखने में यक़ीन करते हैं और इसीलिए मेरे निजी सम्मान के पात्र है। वंचितों और उपेक्षितों के अखबार के तौर पर प्रभाष जी जनसत्ता सामने लाये थे और इसीलिए जनसत्ता सफल हुआ था। प्रभाष जी के रिटायरमेंट के पंद्रह साल बाद जनसत्ता का जो हाल हुआ है, उसके लिए वे ज़‍िम्मेदार नहीं हैं। अब तो वे इस अखबार के सलाहकार संपादक भी नहीं रहे।

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6 दिसंबर '92 से पहले जनसत्ता की कारसेवा

[15 Sep 2009 | 17 Comments | ]

दिलीप मंडल ♦ भागलपुर दंगे, मेरठ के मलियाना कांड, जयपुर दंगे, दिवराला सती कांड, मंडल विरोधी आंदोलन और मंदिर के आंदोलन के दौरान जनसत्ता की भूमिका पर आज गर्व कर पाना किसी के लिए भी आसान नहीं होगा। जनसत्ता ही क्यों, इस दौरान मीडिया के काफी बड़े हिस्से की भूमिका बेहद बुरी थी। ये भी बेहद महत्वपूर्ण है कि मीडिया के पक्षपात में शिकार लगभग हमेशा अल्पसंख्यक, महिलाएं, दलित और पिछड़े ही बनते हैं। मिसाल के तौर पर आरक्षण के बारे में कभी भी कोई रिपोर्ट सवर्णों के खिलाफ पक्षपात नहीं करती। इन घटनाओं और प्रसंगों में मीडिया की भूमिका के बारे में कई शोध और लेख यहां-वहां बिखरे हैं। हाशिमपुरा मलियाना के भीषण खून-खराबे के बाद तो जनसत्ता ने अपने पहले पन्ने पर पीएसी के समर्थन में अभियान चलाया था और तीन लेखों की सीरीज छापी थी।

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"गूगल गणराज्य" में प्रभाष जोशी के नायकत्व का अंत

[11 Sep 2009 | 5 Comments | ]

दिलीप मंडल ♦ आज दुनिया के किसी भी कोने में बैठा आदमी प्रभाष जी के बारे में जानने की कोशिश करेगा तो उसके पास सबसे प्रभावी औजार गूगल ही है। और गूगल पर जब वो जाएगा, तो उसे प्रभाष जोशी की एक खंडित प्रतिमा मिलेगा। उसे एक ऐसे विवाद की भी जानकारी मिलेगी, जिस पर तीखी प्रतिक्रिया हुई थी। इस विवाद के कवरेज से उसे प्रभाष जोशी के बारे में एक और पक्ष का पता चलेगा। आप कह सकते हैं कि इस विवाद के नेट पर आने के साथ ही सर्वमान्य महानायक प्रभाष जोशी की सर्वमान्यता और महानायकत्व का अंत हो गया है।

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प्रभाष जी, क्या आपने अपना टॉयलेट साफ किया है?

[9 Sep 2009 | 12 Comments | ]

दिलीप मंडल ♦ रोजगार के हर साधन के लिए मची मारामारी और जीविका के संघर्ष ने लोगों के साथ साथ समाज को बदलने के लिए मजबूर कर दिया है। सेवा का काम परंपरागत रूप से शूद्रों का होता है। लेकिन सेवा के काम में आज हर जाति के लोग हैं। सेना में हर जाति के लोग भर्ती होते हैं और उनमें ब्राह्मण से लेकर दलित शामिल हैं। हर जाति का डॉक्टर हर जाति के मरीज को छूता है और ये बात कितनी सहज लगती है। एक ऐसे डॉक्टर की कल्पना करें जो खास जाति के मरीजों के अलावा बाकियों को छूने से मना कर दे? पढ़ने पढ़ाने का काम भी हर जाति समूह के लोग कर रहे हैं और अगर आप जाति को लेकर आदिम सोच से संचालित नहीं होते तो ये बात आपके जेहन में भी नहीं आती कि इसमें कुछ अस्वाभाविक है।

Caution in Foreign Universities Bill Related to country: India

In a hurry to add achievements to his ministerial performance list, Kapil Sibal had pushed the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill in the Cabinet. India can truly benefit from a foreign university to serve its people with better education. But to difficult to experience such good intended universities from abroad. We can give encouragement to the HRD minister provided he argument for better bargain. Unfortunately the lawyer turned politician has let down his country's higher education system and the youth. By capping the corpus to be deposited by the foreign university to a peanut of Rs.50 crore he had done a great injustice. The minister should have fixed a minimum of Rs.200 crore deposit, the fee limit of not more than Rs. 2 lakh and other safeguard mechanisms. Good that the minister had pleaded for the non plying of profit out of the country. Even in this trial and error game of foreign education in India the minister needs to exercise utmost caution. Just to add his namesake achievements the lawyer minister shouldn't play with the future of the country's children. The Times of India writes on 16 March 2010 The country just took a big step for dramatically enhancing the profile of higher education in the country. On Monday, the Union cabinet cleared the Foreign Educational Institutions (regulation of entry and operation) Bill, which aims to allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India. The bill, which was adopted without changes, is expected to be introduced in Parliament after the recess of the budget session. If cleared, it would widen the definition of FDI in higher education and is expected to not only shake up the market but also throw up exciting possibilities for top Indian teachers. An excited HRD minister Kapil Sibal said the bill would lead to a ''larger revolution than even in the telecom sector''. While the bill will be opposed by the Left, it shouldn't face any serious obstacle in Parliament because the BJP is also in favour of the move, even though it might raise some objections on a provision or two of the bill. Once it is cleared, some of the top foreign universities, said to be waiting in the wings, are expected to set up campuses in India. The Atlanta-based Georgia Tech University has already bought 250 acres in Hyderabad. Although Yale University is interested in having a presence in India, and welcomed the cabinet clearance, its assistant secretary George Joseph told TOI that there were no plans as of now to set up a campus here. While the foreign universities would follow the national laws, they will not have to give reservation in admission to SC/ST/OBC students. The bill treats them as private universities. Even Indian private universities are free of quota-based admissions. Similarly, foreign universities will have freedom to fix fees and decide their admission process. The Foreign Educational Institutions (regulation of entry and operation) Bill makes it mandatory for foreign universities to publish a prospectus. Also, the bill disallows foreign educational providers from repatriating profit made from Indian campus through education. With foreign direct investment in higher education already allowed since 2002, the bill stipulates that any foreign university interested in setting up a campus in India will have to deposit a corpus of Rs 50 crore with the body that will register them. The registering body will be the University Grants Commission (UGC). The bill promises time-bound registration to foreign universities, although they will have to go through a series of registrations at various levels. The registering body after going through the application will advise government whether the foreign university be allowed or not. Asked what happens in case a foreign education provider sets up a campus in collaboration with private Indian university, ministry source said, ''It is the foreign education provider who will have to come for the registration with details of collaboration.'' Kapil Sibal was quick to welcome the cabinet approval. He said, ''This is a milestone which will enhance choices, increase competition and benchmark quality. A larger revolution than even in the telecom sector awaits us.'' AVerage monthly salaries ($ 2008 purchasing power parity) Saudi Arabia 6611 Canada 6548 United States 5816 Australia 4795 New Zealand 4490 U.K 4343 Germany 4333 Japan 4112 South Africa 4075 India 1547 China 1182 Source: Rumbley, I Pancheco & Philip Altbach

March 16, 2010 | 12:26 PM

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Tags: highereducation, edupreneurs

Encouraging Budget 2010 Related to country: India

With the union budget presented in the Parliament few minutes back, optimism has been revived. The Finance Minister had dispelled doom predictions circulated by the usual fear mongering economics crowd and put a strong hope forward. Tax concessions and special allocation to revive the green revolution in Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Jharkhand and creation of oil seed villages are highly appreciable steps. An inspiring road map to rebuild the agriculture and long term strategies to checkmate the prices of food grains and essential items are missing from the budget. All the loopholes are glaring in the major social sectors like education, health and women's development, budget 2010 deserves encouragement to pullout the society from deep crisis. The Times of India writes Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday began the presentation of Union Budget 2010-2011 with a renewed sense of optimism over the country's growth and clear signals from policymakers to bring deficits back to manageable levels. Referring to tax slabs, the finance minister said tax on income up to Rs 1.6 lakh would be nil, above Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 5 lakh would be 10%, above Rs 5 lakh to 8 lakh would be 20% and above Rs 8 lakh to be 30%. Over and above Rs 1 lakh deduction on tax savings, an additional deduction of 20% for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds would be allowed, Pranab Mukheree said. Maninimum alternative tax (MAT) increased from 15% to 18%, direct tax concessions worth Rs 26,000 crore:, was another highlight of the Budget. In his speech, the finance minister also said cars would be costlier. Earlier, Mukherjee exuded confidence of introducing major reforms on direct and indirect taxes front in the form of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Direct Taxes Code (DTC) from April one, 2011. "I am confident that the government will be in a position to implement DTC from April one, 2011... It will be my earnest endeavour to implement GST along with DTC from April one, 2011," finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his Budget speech. This means that GST would miss its earlier introduction deadline of April one, 2010, by a year. While DTC will replace the archaic Income Tax Act, GST will replace most indirect taxes at central and states levels like service tax, excise duty, VAT, cesses, surcharges and local levies. Govt extends interest subsidy for exporters for 1 more yr The government proposed to extend the concessional export finance regime for select exporters for one more year till March 31, 2011, thus giving the slowdown-hit sector further relief. "I propose to extend the interest subvention of 2 per cent for one more year for exports covering handicrafts, carpets, hand-looms and small and medium enterprises (SMEs)," finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said . The scheme was to expire on March 31, 2010. With a view to insulate the employment-oriented sectors like hand-looms, handicrafts, carpets and leather, from the impact of demand slowdown the government had extended the scheme for concessional export finance in the last Budget till March 31, this year. Beginning his speech, the finance minister said the Indian economy had weathered the crisis well but the main challenge was to make growth inclusive. The focus is to get a double-digit GDP growth rate, he said. Social sector reforms will also be on the agenda, Mukherjee said. Economic growth in 2009-10 may turn out to be higher than 7.2%, the finance minister said. We hope to breach the 10% mark in not too distant future, he added. He said the need was to make growth more broad-based. Pranab Mukherjee said Rs 400 crore to be allocated for green revolution in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa, and Rs 300 crore for creating 6000 pulse and oilseed villages. In his Budget speech, the finance minister said allocation for roads has been raised by 13% and allocation for power sector doubled. 46% of total plan dedicated to infrastructure, he added. Pranab Mukherjee said listing of PSUs will improve corporate governance. Expectations are high from the 74-year-old veteran politician, who has tabled four budgets in the past, that he will address the twin issue of bringing down prices while ensuring higher overall growth for the economy. At the same time, he is also under pressure to roll back, albeit gradually, the $37-billion stimuli announced since December 2008 to help India weather the global economic slowdown. The Economic Survey 2009-10 presented on Thursday favoured the gradual rollback of stimulus measures that were introduced following the global economic meltdown in late 2008. However on the eve of the Union Budget, Mukherjee talked about the measures that would be taken by the government to deal with 17.85 percent food inflation and certain aspects of the economy.

February 26, 2010 | 2:42 AM

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Tags: unionbudget201011, pranabmukherjhee

Latest Confusion from the HRD Minister Related to country: India

The union HRD minister Kapil Sibal is caught between the whirlwinds of private education providers and state control desiring politicians. One day he wants all the private establishments in the education to be brought under the total control of HRD ministry and the other day he wants total freedom for the private education sector. His unbalanced and weak position puts the students and parents under stress. Without understanding his responsibility and power, the minister skirts and fumbles his position which is the government's one. The latest confusion created by Sibal is the school fees in private establishments. In a conference organised by the private education providers in New Delhi on 19 February 2010, he said that private sector is free to fix the teacher's salary. No questions asked if they give peanuts for teaching! This irresponsible statement will dilute the quality of teachers in private institutions who won't stay for a long time. Teachers can be recruited by the private schools may be for weeks but they will migrate to better paying institutions sooner or later. This will surely dent the smooth functioning of the schools and affect the students parents psyche. If Sibal can't do something to better the education system it is good for him to keep quite rather than kicking controversy after controversy and confusion after confusion. The Times of India writes on 20 February 2010 In what comes as a blow to the efforts of city parents' associations which have been campaigning for reining in school fees, Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday that the fees of private schools cannot be regulated and that each school had the right to fix the salaries of its teachers. Sibal's claims contradict provisions in the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, which stipulate that remuneration of teachers in private schools cannot be less than their counterparts in government schools. The minister said this contradiction will go away once the Right to Education Act is implemented from April 1 this year ^ implying that the central Act will override the state law. ``There is no such provision in RTE,'' Sibal said about the salaries of teachers while addressing principals at the 37th annual meet of National Progressive Schools' Conference -- a group of nearly 110 private unaided schools in the city. ``The salaries of teachers in private schools do not have to be according to the government. They will decide to pay what they want to pay,'' he declared, while countering a speaker at the meet who had earlier said that small schools, which are now mushrooming in the city, did not have quality teachers because they could not afford to pay good salaries. While all schools were not required to pay Rs 22,000 (the minimum basic salaray as per the Sixth Pay Commission) to their teachers, there should be no compromise on the qualification of teachers, he added. The minister's new announcement indicates that private schools in the city may finally get a free hand in deciding teachers' salaries and consequently the fees, much to the dismay of parents. There have been many protests against schools hiking their fees last year. After the Sixth Pay Commission was implemented in the second half of 2008, schools sought to hike their fee to generate revenue to pay the teachers more. Delhi government then formed the Bansal Committee to decide how much fee a school could be allowed to increase and issued a notification in this regard on February 11 last year. According to section 9 of chapter IV of the Delhi School Education Act 1973, private schools need to pay salaries at a par with government schools. ``The scales of pay and allowances, medical facilities, pension, gratuity, provident fund and other prescribed benefits of the employees of a recognized private school shall not be less than those of the employees of the corresponding status in schools run by the appropriate authority.'' However, according to Sibal, this act will be rendered ineffective from April 1. ``Once the Right to Education (RTE) is implemented, the Delhi School Education Act will not apply.'' RTE Act has already been notified. On regulation of fees, Sibal referred to the T M Pai case saying, ``The Supreme Court has also said that fees of private schools cannot be regulated and yet some state governments have passed such acts,'' he told the teachers present. The minister said he has also moved a malpractices bill under which all schools will have to give details of their infrastructure, number of students, salaries of teachers etc on their website. If the online information is found to be false, the school can be prosecuted. As per the provisions of RTE, all unaided private schools operating in a city should be recognized. Sibal said that the bill did not aim at shutting down unrecognized schools. ``Our purpose is to enhance infrastructure and quality of private unaided schools,'' he said

February 21, 2010 | 1:23 AM

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Tags:

education, educationreforms, hrdminister

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