Website builds bonds among Delhi babus

New Delhi, April 21: Five-year old Kushal (name changed) wanted to play the tabla. His father, K. K. Funda- an assistant director at the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, bought the boy a pair, but couldn’t find an Ustad to teach his mentally challenged son.

“I saw a govtservants.com sticker in our ministry toilet. It is not normal for me to use online forums. But I posted a message on the site, and Ustad Vimal came to my house within a month to meet my son.”

Funda’s online message didn’t mention his son’s medical condition. “After Vimal ji spoke to my son, he offered to teach him for free. He had heard about my message from his bureaucrat friend. I had to force him to take some honorarium. I am so grateful to this website.”

Govtservants.com was the brainchild of a Mines Department section officer, a Supreme Court advocate who retired from the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office and, a deputy secretary of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution- all of whom didn’t want to mention their names. The Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules prohibits babus from managing publications or electronic media without sanction.

The website, which started a couple of years back, allows anyone to post messages for car pools, furniture, medical needs, queries on service matters and almost anything under the sun. The site made primarily for government employees also filters messages according to the building the bureaucrat works in.

No unionizing is allowed though. A few weeks back an under secretary at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting requested the site to have a small box with notices of the Central Secretariat Service Forum. His request was declined. “We want to be in the good books of the government. This will not be a lobbying platform,” said a founder who has been sticking bills with the site’s URL near lifts and toilets at government buildings.

“There was no platform for government employees to interact. The site makes our lives happier and we will never charge users a paisa. We got to host the site for only Rs. 3000 for nine years and will look for ads only after five years,” said a founder. Initially they were helped by staff from the National Informatics Centre. The site is now managed by IT professionals Gaurav and Sudhanshu Tyagi in the United States.

A founder added that babus are generally trustworthy. “Even for a car pool we like to have some safe person. This site doesn’t allow ads from any agencies. Only users post messages and we vet them.” He adds that real estate companies have already been approaching the site to advertise.

The site, which was re-launched with a user friendly interface last week, gets around 200 hits a day. The owners plan to expand it to other metros as well.

For the women in men working in behemoth-like tube-lit offices, this forum is also connecting them to employees in other departments who’ve probably been working on the same floor for years without exchanging a glance. The site’s moderators don’t mediate and users can directly contact each other.

Coming soon on the site is an option for home-stays as well. “An officer in Udagamandalam can offer to host the family of his compatriot in Delhi, at a nominal rate. That way we can go for holidays which we can’t afford otherwise,” said a founder.

India finally makes it to Venice Biennale, sets stage for delayed triennale

New Delhi, April 15: India’s first ever national pavilion at the 54^th Venice Biennale will assert a view of Indian art which will be a counterview to the kind of Indian art that the west has been exposed to, said art critic Ranjit Hoskote, who will curate the pavilion.

India will finally find a place among 94 other countries at this 116-year-old show. This comes after many missed attempts for national representation at the prestigious international art exhibition. Selection to it is globally recognised as a coming-of-age of a nation’s contemporary art.

Ashok Vajpeyi, Chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi which is sending the expedition to Venice, indicated that this would set the stage for the Triennale in India which is scheduled to take place next year. The XI Triennale in India was held in 2005.

New York based mixed-media artist Zarina Hashmi; painter-sculptor and video artists Praneet Soi from Kolkata and Gigi Scaria from Delhi and; Guwahati’s Desire Machine Collective’s Sonal Jain and Mriganka Madhukaillya’s works will be featured at the pavilion. The Venice Biennale is from June 4 to November 27.

“Much of Indian art that has been exhibited abroad has gone there through the market route,” said Hoskote who added that the pavilion will showcase the country’s non-commercial contemporary art.

Vajpeyi justified the discretionary selection of Hoskote as curator, saying that the number of curators in India was disproportionately smaller than the demand for them. Other exhibitions would feature different curators who will also be chosen at the Akademi’s discretion.

The selection of artistes was done so as to showcase the cross cultural nature of contemporary art from diverse locations. The rich art practices that run parallel to the gallery circuit will be displayed.

The rent for the pavilion, at the Arsenale in Venice is Rs. 60 lakhs. India’s art adventure to the Adriatic will totally cost the exchequer almost Rs. 2 crore, “a cost too small for India’s pride,” confirmed Culture Secretary Jawhar Sircar. There would be three important art conferences in Mumbai, Delhi and Guwahati while the Biennale is and a delegation led by the culture minister would visit the show, he added.

He emphasized that the recent Anish Kapoor exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, India’s entry to Biennale and, a waiver on import duty for art and antiquities to galleries in India- are the ministry’s attempts to back art and make things easier for exhibitors and connoisseurs.

Mani report finds Zonal Cultural Centres completely out of sync with their objective of taking culture to the aam aadmi

New Delhi, April 12: A report on Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs)- which were set up 25 years back to disseminate India’s varied cultures to audiences who did not have access to them- says these bodies have completely deviated from their objectives. More than Rs. 288 crores has been spent by ZCCs since they were formed.

The three-volume report on the seven ZCCs was authored by a committee- established by the Central Advisory Board on Culture in August 2010- chaired by Rajya Sabha Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar, actor Amol Palekar and Oriya poet Sitakant Mahapatra. They found that ZCCs have focused on cultural performances at their headquarters and middle-class urban venues, instead of disseminating the cultures of the region across the zone.

The ZCCs were set up in Patiala, Thanjavur, Santiniketan, Udaipur, Dimapur, Nagpur and Allahabad, and not in state capitals to prevent them from being state-oriented instead of catering the region as a whole. The governors of the host states chair the ZCCs, to keep them free from state politics and domination.

Yet, exactly this has happened. While most centres had seen a rise in the number of programmes they conducted, these mostly took place at the state capital or the headquarters of the centre.

The Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre now has headquarters both in Santiniketan and Salt Lake. The report notes that in the last 15 years, with a sizeable increase in funds, “…the concentration of programming at the two Headquarters of the ZCC in Salt Lake City and Santiniketan becomes even more marked.” It adds that little has been done for the poor of Calcutta or other urban centres like Siliguri.

In her deposition for the committee Danseuse Leela Samson, Director, South Zone Cultural Centre (SZCC) stated, “I think if the SZCC is only serving the Governor of Tamil Nadu, then they should equally be serving the governors of all member-States. This is a very partisan kind of situation. It really was not working because there is obviously very high pressure from the Governor’s Office.”

The committee also found that the ZCCs were regarded as a limbo for bureaucrats waiting for a posting. Danseuse Sonal Mansingh stated, “There a lot of aims, lot of money, lot of opportunities, but there is a confusion of aims.”

The committee has recommended that the corpus fund of ZCCs be raised to Rs. 50 crores to prevent them from being dominated by governments of host states, like has happened to the SZCC where all infrastructure funding was done by Tamil Nadu.

It has also recommended that ZCC director posts not be reserved only for bureaucrats.

Structural changes have also been proposed to distance ZCCs from the government, and to give the cultural community as sense of ownership over them, said Aiyar.

An independent Indian Council of Zonal Cultural Centres, integrated with the three national academies and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. ZCCs must be linked with local bodies and youth clubs.

For Naxalite-hit areas, the committee has recommended police action against ultras to be combined with participative development by promoting tribal artistes. “Cultural troupes matter at least as much as armed troops in the struggle,” says the report.

A Folk and Tribal Arts Akademi and museum, along with livelihood security for tribal artistes is an imperative to protect the dying cultural repertoire of tribals, the committee found. Cross country cultural yatras culminating in a silver jubilee Apna Utsav yatra in Kolkata or Chennai coordinated by Amol Palekar, has been proposed for this year.

ED attaching properties of Koda and Co worth almost 130 crores, tip of the iceberg say officials

New Delhi, April 12: The Directorate of Enforcement has started attaching properties of former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda and his associates Binod Sinha, Vikas Sinha and Sunil Sinha.

They have begun doing so after getting an approval order on April 6 from the Adjudicating Authority for cases under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) - a finance ministry body. The properties- land and apartments- are located in Jharkhand, Bihar and Maharashtra have a registry value of around Rs. 130 crores according to 2007 revenue department valuations, say Directorate sources.

“This is the largest attachment made under the PMLA from any politician,” said a senior official, “You can expect another couple of orders, but this will take at least a month’s time as we are busy with 2G cases.” The total value of the properties identified may go up to Rs. 300 crores.

Many companies, including Rohitas Krishnan’s Quantum Powertech, Ranchi and Manohar Lal Pal’s Smridhi Sponge Limited, Jamshedpur, have also been attached.

While Krishnan was arrested by the CBI for money laundering last year, Pal and former Jharkhand CM Shibu Soren’s son Mrinal were questioned in February by the Directorate in Delhi.

Krishnan is also allegedly involved in Jharkhand’s rural electrification scam along with Binod, who was arrested by the CBI in Delhi last October. On April 1, the Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau revealed that Binod and Krishnan had given Koda Rs. 90 lakhs to fight the 2009 parliamentary polls.

Other companies on the list also include Kolkata- based Lacky Projects, IAG Co. and Shivans Steel, Jamshedpur-based Kolhan Trading, India Cars and Motors, Emmar Alloys and Ranchi’s Khalari Cements.

“While the companies will be allowed to function, to protect the livelihoods of their employees, they cannot be disposed off, altered or destroyed,” a Directorate source said.

He added that they would need the assistance of Jharkhand’s government, district officials and police to attach the properties, but assured that the directorate would lose no time in doing so. “We are also examining if there are properties under benami ownership, in which case they also will be attached. Investigations are still on.”

Directorate sources suspect they have not got “fair assistance” from other investigating agencies like the Jharkhand Police.

He added that this has been a “quite a tough case” as many of the defendants, like Sanjay Choudhary, Dhananjay Choudhary, Indonesia-based Anil Vastavade and Pune-based businessman Ajay Bafna are at large and have non- bailable warrants on their heads.

“Binod could only be examined by November. Until then he has managed to continue his secret proceeds of crime and he may have destroyed incriminating documents,” the official added.

The Directorate had on March 4 filed a charge sheet at a special court in Ranchi against Koda, Binod, Vikas, Manoj Punamiya and hawala trader Arvind Vyas. Mumbai based precious-metal trader Punamiya’s revelations, under interrogation in Delhi last month, are said to be critical to the case.

The directorate is awaiting replies to its Letters Rogatories (LRs) sent to countries like Dubai, Sweden, Thailand, Indonesia and Liberia to probe illegal investments.

Koda and his associates are being probed by the Income Tax department, the CBI and Jharkhand Vigilance for a range of financial crimes.

Back home with Japan lessons

- Indians recall how people worked calmly amid quake devastation

PHEROZE L. VINCENT

Dr Abhishek Kaushik at Nishitaga Hospital in Sendai New Delhi, March 17: Indian expatriates arriving from Japan following the earthquake and tsunami say that amid all the devastation, they have learnt a lesson from the Japanese: how not to panic but to go on working. Air India and Japan Airlines have begun ferrying scores of Indians along with a few Japanese tourists. The national carrier’s flight AI 307 arrived with 309 passengers in Delhi last night. Most looked a bit shaken but were full of praise for the resilient Japanese who took the tragedy in their stride and worked at clockwork precision to get their lives back on track. Two young IT professionals working in Tokyo, who gave their names only as Rohit and Vishal, said they saw no chaos on the streets. Zubair, who too works in Tokyo, said it was mostly the foreigners who panicked... Click to follow link

Remains of the day- resentment over father-son duo in drafting committee

New Delhi, April 9: The music’s over, but unlike The Doors song, they aren’t ready to turn off the lights yet. The acceptance of Hazare’s demand of a joint drafting committee of both government and non-government representatives has opened a pandora’s box of questions from participants of his 98-hour fast.

Many refused to break their fast at 1045 AM along with 72-year-old Hazare until they were offered an explanation as to why ex-cop and activist Kiran Bedi was excluded and father-and-son laywer duo Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan were included in the committee.

Much of the 4-day street show featured activists crying hoarse over dynastic rule. Irate fasters got into verbal duels today afternoon with Swami Agnivesh, Arvind Kejriwal and Medha Patkar- whom Hazare had left behind to face the people. People jostled for the mic claiming that it was their right to ask questions after the 4-day fast.

A man got hold of the mic and asked who had elected the members of the committee. “You had the names ready when the government asked for it? You kept us in the dark about it. How can two members be from the same family,” he shouted at Agnivesh.

Agnivesh replied that Bedi had herself requested not to be part of the committee. “We couldn’t conduct polling to chose the members under the circumstances of the agitation. Chidambaram, Salman Khursheed and Sibal are big lawyers. We needed equally strong lawyers to shut them up in the meetings.” It is only a coincidence that they are father and son, he explained. Shanti Bhushan had represented Raj Narain against Indira Gandhi in 1975 and his pursued many PILs for free. Besides, they were instrumental in framing the bill.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Prashant Bhushan said that he would’ve preferred to stay out of the committee. “I wanted it to be more broad based. Retired Judges could have been included along with activists. It was Hazare and Kejriwal who insisted on my father and I being part of it as they needed legal inputs on the committee as the government has included many good lawyers.”

Those who hadn’t broken their fast in the morning, did do after Agnivesh’s speech at 330 PM with khichdi and curds. One such faster Mahipal Arya said that the challenge now was to get the bill, in the form they want, to be passed. He was sad that Bedi wasn’t in, but then “picture abhi baaki hai,” he said. At the clebrations at India Gate in the evening, many people carried posters with “Picture abhi baaki hai” written on them along with the uncharitable jibes- against Sonia Gandhi and the PM- which was characteristic of this campaign.

Agnivesh announced a conference in Delhi on June 4 and 5 of all anti-corruption activists to review the passage of the bill.

Medha bats for more power to the “people”

New Delhi, April 9: Having tasted success after the fast-unto-death led by social activist Anna Hazare, activist Medha Patkar- who has been leading the campaign against big dams on the River Narmada for 22 years- now wants a greater role for “people’s organizations” in lawmaking.

“It is not just us (activists) who want a greater role in framing laws, society as a whole wants that,” she said after the Hazare fast wound up today. Though Patkar wasn’t willing to specify if she wanted social activists nominated to the Lok Sabha in addition to the Rajya Sabha, she said that “people’s organizations” were already playing a big role in legislation, either in their drafting or lobbying or both.

“To avoid conflict the government, we want a joint drafting committee for the Development Planning Act too,” she told The Telegraph before heading to Swami Agnivesh’s office for a meeting.

The act, she said is a combination of the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill which the union government is working on. Patkar wants a comprehensive bill on both the issues.

Patkar’s demands found resonance with participants of the celebrations at India Gate and Jantar Mantar today. Akhilesh Rawat, an independent film producer, who usually supports the left parties said that he would vote for the leaders of the anti-corruption movement if they would contest for polls. “I don’t see any party that fully represents us. These people are known to be clean and I will definitely vote for them. Even if they don’t form a party they should have a greater say in law making as we don’t trust the Congress or BJP to make honest laws.”

It seems that the acceptance of a joint drafting committee will be used as a precedent, coupled with street shows to compel the government into submission. Akhilesh says that volunteers involved in the fast, will be regularly meeting. “We need to be vigilant and support whatever causes that may arise in future,” he said. Hazare and Agnivesh also exhorted the crowd to be ready for a long battle ahead.

“This is only the beginning. We cannot be complacent. As Swami Agnivesh said, there are many more struggles ahead; there are more reforms to be made,” said Hersh Vardhan- a demonstrator at India Gate.

Hazare’s flock increases even as he appeals to keep it secular. Uma, Chautala shown the door

New Delhi, April 6: Hundred and seventy-two people have joined Anna Hazare’s fast at Jantar Mantar, here. Banners of Baba Ramdev in front of the stage have given those of the Art of Living foundation and ex- service men supporting the agitation.

Hazare supporters even appealed to the crowd not to sing religious songs. Politicians- like former CMs Uma Bharti and Om Prakash Chautala- were also kept off the stage. Hazare is also drawing new followers- like the hundred temporary school teachers, sacked by the Delhi government, who marched to his tent raising slogans against corruption. Students in Delhi, are coming to the venue between exam papers.

“I’m damn sure this will work. We can’t hire or fire ministers. Anna’s stature will force the government to pass this bill,” said Bhumika Rai, a student of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

The closest Ram Awadh Gond (60) from Mau, Uttar Pradesh, had ever got to politics was voting for Kalyan Singh when the latter was CM. After Kalyan went, he stopped voting. “I read about this protest in the paper. I came here alone. I will fast for four days before going back to tend to my farm. I’m happy here because this will end corruption,” he said.

Volunteer doctors are conducting regular check-ups of those fasting. “We’ve been asking people to at least drink lime juice, as many are dehydrated and having low blood pressure. Once this goes on for 60 hours, then some may have to be admitted. Anna’s BP though is stable,” said a doctor on condition of anonymity.

A government ambulance with advanced life support systems has been stationed at the venue.Perhaps sensing the limit of endurance, Hazare announced that he would launch a jail bharo agitation of the government fails to form a joint committee with the civil society to frame the Jan Lokpal Bill.

The protest has also got more organised. There’s a daily timetable dividing the day into meetings, rest, press briefings and sangeet-bhajan. Volunteers wearing ‘India against corruption’ caps and badges go around distributing pamphlets with information on the Jan Lokpal Bill. They run a counter with the sign- We need your support, more than your donations. “Free Miss Call to 02261559789 to fight against corruption says another.” SMS from known BJP sources are flooding text message inboxes.

There’s also a huge vinyl sheet with tricolour roundels for people to write their views. At regular intervals fasters are given the mic. They say their name, where they’re from and then say what they think is wrong with the system and how they want to change.

Old timers in the crowd comment that this is like the emergency. Sampurna Kranti is on its way. As Anna lies down fasting, the comperes have declared an open season on the Congress. Personal attacks on the PM are routine.

A poster of former BJP leader K. N. Govindacharya along with the pantheon of Hindu freedom fighters and icons and with former president APJ Abdul Kalam has come up. Even an image of Lord Ganesha was put up on the stage. It was later taken off.

Sunil Sharma, who walked around with a banner of Ramdev wrapped around himself, thinks that this will turn into another Tahrir Square. Speakers on stage have been promising that since yesterday. “If this doesn’t force the government to end corruption, Baba has promised to start a new party. This is just the beginning,” he said.

Shaukat Ali, a Hazare supporter from Amravati, Maharashtra, said that these additions were done by Ramdev’s men. “I trust in Anna. He is secular. The rest will come and go.”

Anna Hazare begins indefinite fast for Jan Lokpal Bill- Saffron nationalists make presence felt

New Delhi, April 5: Tricolours fluttered atop SUVs also bearing BJP, Rahtriya Lok Dal and yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Bharat Swabhiman Nyas’ stickers and flags near Jantar Mantar, in the capital, where social activist Kisan Baburao “Anna” Hazare began a fast-unto-death at for a Jan Lokpal Bill.

Hazare said that this bill- drafted by Karnataka Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde, activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan social worker Arvind Kejriwal- is more transparent and stringent than the government’s Lokpal Bill which, would give to give more teeth to the ombudsman to curb corruption.

Addressing a crowd of around 500- mostly salaried class and small trader audience- 73-year-old Padmashree winner Hazare said that he had is undertaking this fast because the government denied his demand that the drafting committee for the bill have an equal number of government and civil society representatives.

“The government proposed a four-member ministerial committee. I said if ministers could stop corruption, then why is it increasing for 61 years since we became a republic.”

Hazare added that before he attended Ramdev’s anti-corruption rally in Delhi on February 27, he had written to Sonia Gandhi about the bill. “She didn’t even reply. You can’t reply to a man who has given his whole life for the country,” said the 1965-war veteran.

The audience, mesmerized by his simple manner and apparent asceticism, started raising slogans of “Shame! Shame!”

“The NAC kept calling me, but I didn’t go. They want to just use me as a photo opportunity to take the wind out the sails of our movement. I will only go when the de facto PM Sonia Gandhi takes a decision,” he added.

He said that he expected the government to relent in three to four days.

Hazare shared the dais with Magsaysay award winners Kiran Bedi, Sandeep Pandey and Kejriwal, along with activist preacher Swami Agnivesh and Prashant Bhushan. He was also visited by the JD(U)’s Sharad Yadav and the BJP’s Prakash Javadekar, who expressed solidarity with his causebut asked him to call off the fast.

The backdrop of the stage has a large image of Bharat Mata. The compere Kumar Vishwas said that in history books Alexander, Akbar and Babur were on one side a poets like Kabir on the other. Hazare was like the latter. People like the former will be forced to leave the country. Flags and banners of Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation also fluttered at the tent, and their activists chanted nationalists slogans.

Bhushan termed the government’s Lokpal Bill as “useless.”

“The Lokpal,” he said, “should have the power to recover ill-gotten wealth from the guilty.” He explained that they weren’t insisting that the government accept their draft in its entirety. “We are also agreeable to the NAC choosing common people and government representatives to frame the bill.”

While Hazare and Bhushan insisted their objective wasn’t to fell the government, Agnivesh appealed to the crowd to “throw out these corrupt rulers.” He said that simultaneous fasts are on in 500 towns and cities. “If Anna dies don’t think you will win Manmohan Singh. Ten thousand more Annas are here from Dhanbad, Hyderabad, Indore and other places,” he thundered.

Many youth and school students in the crowd said that they had got to know of the meeting from Facebook. Various organizations supporting the fast, like India Against Corruption, have launched a vigorous online publicity campaign.

Defence veterans too had gathered wearing their regimental side caps. Recent scams were the last straw that has brought them out on the street said retired Colonel R. P. Chaturvedi. “As responsible citizens we can’t burn buses. We will protest by peacefully agitating with Gandhians like Hazare,” he said.

Vimla, a slum dweller associated with city based NGO Centre for Advocacy and Research, who attended the demonstration, “This may lead to at least a small change. We trust this movement because we area part of it. We slum dwellers suffer the most due to corruption. Anna will see to it the bug fish are caught, the smaller ones will then follow.”

MPs want roads, cops prefer water supply to combat Maoists

New Delhi, March 14: MPs may have won the battle to be included in the selection panel for schemes from Integrated Action Plan (IAP) funds for Left Wing Extremist (LWE) hit districts, but the war on how these will be spent is brewing between them and the police.

The IAP was started last year with a grant of 25 crore per district per year. This will increase to Rs. 30 crore for the next financial year. Funds have started pouring in by this year.

Chatra’s independent MP Inder Singh Namdhari threw down the gauntlet when he wrote the home minister last month about MPs being excluded from selection panels.

Currently selection panels include the district’s collector or magistrate, superintendent of police and forest officer. In some districts, even officers in charge of police stations, block development officers and sub divisional officers, of the areas in which the schemes are implemented, are included.

In his terse letter Namdhari cited the landmine blast on SP Anoop T. Mathew’s convoy on May 28 last year in Palmau district, in which a cop died and two of his colleagues were injured. He blamed it on the dilapidated road at Palamu’s Chak village where the attack happened.

He wrote, “… even after release of LWE fund, this road has not been incorporated by the concerned deputy commissioners of Palamu & [sic] Chatra. It is also unfortunate that the directive sent by the home ministry has eliminated the names of MPs from the selection panel of schemes… I feel frustrated because I am not in a position to face the public of the area which has elected me.”

His views are echoed by Jehanabad’s JD(U) MP Jagdish Sharma. “Local MPs know local problems. DC’s don’t know everything. They do what they will before being transferred, but we have to live here whether we remain MPs or not. How can they beat the naxals when work hasn’t even started with these funds?

The planning commission’s online progress report shows that work on anganwadis have started in Jehanabad in January. Sharma wasn’t willing to comment on his own CM scrapping the corruption ridden MLA LADS funds.

While the finance minister included MPs on the panel in his budget speech, their mention was amiss in the printed version. Sharma, Namdhari and others wrote to him to which he clarified that MPs would be included. The online version of the speech was subsequently edited.

Planning Commission sources say that initially they had proposed to only include panchayat representatives, and not legislators, to prevent corruption and politicization. Senior police officers too want politicians out.

“We take feedback and opinions from local people whenever we implement schemes. If politicians are on the panel these schemes will get unnecessarily politicized,” said an SP of an LWE hit district.

Disagreements with politicians aren’t just on procedure, but they also extend to the actual implementation of the schemes.

Namdhari explained that underdevelopment and unemployment aren’t the only reasons for naxals gaining strength. “They are addicted to the levy they extort from contractors. The more money you pump in the stronger they get. They have a vested interest in not letting development take place.”

He added that LWE funds should solely be spent on increasing the accessibility of the police, like road building. “You shouldn’t waste it on digging ponds.” He ever wrote to Pranab Mukherjee saying, “… in the previous lot of schemes selected by officials several useless schemes have been chosen.”

The IAP however specifies that schemes should show results in the short term. An SP of an LWE district in Jharkhand explained: “I want schools in interior villages. In Palamu and Latehar there is no water in summer. Drinking water, communications- these are of best use in interior villages. Only then will the public believe in us.”

SP Anoop Mathew said, “We take on schemes we can implement fast. They may be roads, but in areas where we can provide security for construction. We have to make visible changes. This is the first time the police are playing a major role in development planning. We’re confident they will contribute in curbing naxalism.”

With legislators finally set to enter selection panels, one can only hope against hopes for a productive synergy between the 2 pillars of democracy in curbing naxalism.