-: [rti4empowerment] Mixed Times

Mixed times

This has been a mixed week. On one hand there has been something to cheer about on another its been as saddening week.

They say its a blessing when your dreams come true…unfortunately in my case its different and my bad dreams are slowly coming true. In 2007, I had written about the draconian Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and how it was being abused by the Govt. This was in reference to Nandigram and its ilk across India. (Click here to read the article)

At Bhatta Parsaul in UP, this week there was an outright confrontation

between the Central and State Govts in one of the worst examples of Indian Political grandstanding that I have seen. Each side is playing to the galleries.

The Central Govt. (read Congress) is shouting from the rooftops that the farmers are being exploited when there is clear evidence that in the other states where they are in power they have done exactly what the Uttar Pradesh Govt is doing.

The UP Govt (read Mayawanti) which in Nov announced that it was coming up with a radical new plan for compensation to farmers but went ahead with the same exploitive purchase of land template which the Central Govt. has laid down and is in existence from British times.

Let me try and explain the problem, farmers in UP were paid a little over Rs. 800 per square metre for their farmlands. The same land was sold to developers at Rs. 3200 a metre.

And those developers are now offering residential plots, for example, at more than Rs. 14,000 a metre, a whopping Rs. 10,000/- plus per acre profit.

The Jaiprakash Group, contracted to build the highway, was given 6000 acres by the state government. The company says that it needs to develop that land to offset the 10,000 Crores it will spend on constructing the Yamuna Expressway.

HOWEVER, using back of envelope calculations we can clearly see through this flim flam since 6000 acres * Rs. 10000 * 4046 (no of mts per acre) =24,276,00,00,000 i.e approx 25,000 Crores.

So just on he Jaiprakash group deal alone: (remember thats just one of the projects happening along this sector)

Farmers got approx 2 thousand Crores as price for the land.

Govt made a gross profit of approx 6 thousand Crores

Developer makes a gross profit of approx 25 thousand Crores.

As explained by I have no problems with land being purchased from farmers for highways, bus stations etc. after all the nation must progress. This should be the bare minimum required for JUST the project.

My problem is with the modus operandi being followed, the moment the Govt says we need a infrastructure item like a highway, they rope in a private player, who will make this highway and to compensate them and make sure they make a profit, the Govt gives the developers land at a throwaway price which they have bullied out of the farmers using the Land Acquisition Act.

Now the private player in order to "recover his money" and make a "decent" profit will build shopping malls and residential complexes or in this case a Formula 1 track and facilities on land which belonged to the poor farmer who got a fraction of the price he would have gotten if the developer went and bought it directly from him.

Full page advertisements for EXCISE and SERVICE TAX scream…..that our money goes to build the nations infrastructure like roads and ports and if this was even vaguely true, the Govt. should invest in the highway DIRECTLY and not allow developers to make outrageous profits at the costs of the poor farmers.

What our tax rupee does do at least in Uttar Pradesh is pay for the Elephant statues at chowks or the compensation the Central Govt. has announced this morning for the people INJURED OR KILLED by this land grab ?

Isn't this a skewed logic…first you kill someone fighting to resist sale of their land because you want to profit from their land and then pay their families a compensation from the same profit.

ONLY IN INDIA

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What made me happy was this mornings comment by Ratan Tata that the Indian manager an a company is a dream to work with as compared to the JLR management.

I know all of us think that our bosses are direct descendants of the

rakshakas in Indian mythology, but ask Ratan Tata. According to him, if a JLR manager has to hold a meeting at 6 PM, he will lift his hands and say that he has a train to catch at 5 PM. An Indian will sit till 10 Pm if need be.

No wonder the sun has almost set on the British Raj.

He clarifies, that this is not the case with JLR workers just the management. So managers of India rejoice, so what if your boss doesn't appreciate you, Ratan Tata does.

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I just came back from the funeral of someone. I could not help but notice that one of the rituals is the feeding of cows. The logic according to someone

there is that all the Gods reside in the stomach of the cows , so 1/4 of everything you feed the cow reaches the dead person via the Gods.

I looked at the plate of food and almost fell off my chair. It was chock full of food such as fried pakodas (fritters), a fried papad (poppadum) and 12 rotis.(wheat pankcakes).

I scratched my head, were we not poisoning the cow in the name of feeding the dead person, the food

was full of sodium in the salt, carbohydrates in the oil, all unnatural to the food habits of a bovine. Wouldn't it ,make sense to feed the cow what it eats naturally like grass instead of this poison in the name of religion.

Lastly, I was wondering if the food is going to reach the dead person via gods in the cow, shouldn't include a dose of Digene or Eno to help the food go down, if we want to ensure that neither the dead person nor the Gods get acidity.

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Appeal

Folks, I've been asked by India Against Corruption to ask if any of the readers would like to have a meeting in their area, gymkhana / club or any kind of general gathering where their volunteer could come and talk about the Jan Lok Pal Bill and how it will benefit the public.

I am a firm believer in the Bill and if any of the readers would like to have such a meeting in their area, please email me at theindipatriot@yahoo.co.in and I will put you in touch with the volunteers.

For more articles like this one , please visit http://theindipatriot.blogspot.com

let me introduce myself:

I am an person of Indian origin residing in Mumbai who feels that the time has come to speak up or be silent forever. We all see movies like Rang De Basanti or Lage Raho Munnabhai and after walking out of theatre for the next couple of days the effect hangs like a halo around us. A few days later we go back to our old ways. This is my way of keeping the spirit of India alive.
: As they say" 100 mein se 99% beimaan phir be India hai Mahaan"; I am sending you this mail since you have at some time or the other sent me a joke, an interesting article or some other little snippet or or some friend who has liked my articles has reffered you to me or at the very least you have been a CC on such an article forwarded to me so I feel this may be of interest to you.; I have started a blog under the name indipatriot and am sending you this article and the link to the blog http://theindipatriot.blogspot.com where you can read this and other articles. I would also request you to send me articles and other things you would like me to publish on this blog from jokes to spiritual articles all comments are welcome. The email address for sending articles to is theindipatriot@yahoo.co.in If you feel that this blog is not to your taste and do not wish to receive updates about the same, please send an email to the same address and we shall remove you from the mailing list.

Disclaimer This article is my personal opinion and is not meant to offend or hurt any person or any body of people. The matter is drawn from public domain and no copyright is knowingly transgressed. If any topic is found to be objectionable by you for any reason whatsoever, please do leave a comment and I will be glad to include a clarification in my followups.

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