Arjun raises concern over policies

Singh raises two issues of tribals and possible impact of the proliferation of SEZs, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Published on: Oct 18, 2006, 22:13:00 IST

None | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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HRD minister Arjun Singh raised concern over some policies of the government at the Planning Commission meeting and termed response of the government to multiple challenges as ‘timid’.

Singh, in his speech, raised two pertinent issues of deprivation of the tribals and the possible impact of the proliferation of SEZs while seeking the planning process to fulfil the Constitutional mandate of social justice.

In an apparent reference to growing naxalism, Singh said, the natural resources around tribals have been taken over by people living in the cities resulting in ‘bewilderment’ of tribals and strong protests. He feared similar impact in areas around SEZs and the malls “Imminent rage is building up,” he cautioned. And demanded a roadmap for tribals to get share of the natural resources around them.

Singh was also critical of privatisation of the basic facilities and described it as selling the ‘family silver’. Not even basic facilities are being spared in the name of public-private participation (PPP), he said.

An extension of his speech was visible in a note circulated at meeting on Wednesday. He cautioned at the growing rate employment and the poor not benefiting from the public distribution system (PDS).

For education, Singh sought more funds for opening three new IITs, 20 Indian Institutes for Information Technology, 3 Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) and four more School of Planning and Architecture. The ministry has also emphasised on the need for expansion and improvement of polytechnics.

He also demanded funds for implementing Right to Education, a Constitutional obligation of the government. “The approach paper does not spell out strategy for financing the state’s obligation,” he said, while explaining that the only choice is to address the issue ‘frontally and comprehensively’. Government requires Rs 53,000 crores to implement Right to Education.

Singh had expressed his reservation on the commission’s proposal to merger Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and Midday Meal Scheme. “Scope and mechanism of both the schemes was different,” he said, in his response. Instead, he wanted that government should look at strengthening of the Intergrated Child Development Scheme and introducing pre-school component in the scheme.

The ministry, in the note, had sought expansion of scholarships to the pre-matric level for Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, OBCs and minorities from the present post-matric level. Acknowledging that such an expansion may not be possible in one go, the ministry first wanted to target the girl child in these groups.

The ministry has also demanded a revision in approach paper with regard to universalisation of education. HRD ministry has demanded universalisation till the higher secondary level as against the commission’s proposal of the secondary level.

Email id :chetan@hindustantimes.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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