Another Summer Of Discontent

Karnataka is facing its fourth drought in a row. With the government clueless, farmers are preparing for the worst.

                                                                     

Parched In June, Karnataka received the lowest rainfall in 52 years.

A fourth consecutive year of drought has left a sword hanging over the necks of farmers in Karnataka. While the state government is making efforts on a war footing to contain the damage, it has been met with scepticism by farmers, who feel the measures are too little and too late to salvage the situation.

In the past four years, Karnataka has ranked second behind Rajasthan in terms of total area under drought. The drought is not just causing damage to agricultural production and losses in farmers’ income, but is leading to water scarcity and extreme poverty across the state. Last year alone, government estimates show that 15.45 lakh hectares of kharif area suffered crop losses of 50 percent or more. This year’s first crop, sown across 203 lakh hectares by 30 June, is already damaged. Now, only a miracle rain can save the second crop.

The monsoon, however, has continued to play truant. According to statistics available with the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Cell (KSNDMC), the state has been worst hit this year. This June received the least rainfall in 52 years. While the average rainfall for June was 195 mm, last month saw 116 mm. Reservoirs too have reached their lowest storage levels: at 166 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) against an installed capacity of 864 tmcft. Last year, at this time, the water levels were at 254 tmcft; 125 taluks across 30 districts in the state have been declared drought-hit. Farmers of north and interior Karnataka are the worst hit. The government is now advising them to grow alternative crops like pulses, ragi, maize and groundnut.

Nearly 56 percent of the workforce (76 lakh families) in Karnataka is engaged in agriculture and allied activities. Out of the state’s GDP of Rs 2.15 lakh crore, Rs 41,306 crore comes from the agriculture sector. But the sector has seen negative growth of 0.6 percent in the past five years.

The rainfall deficit is huge this year. Even though the coastal districts received some rainfall, the interior parts of Karnataka are reeling under drought,” says VS Prakash, former special director of the KSNDMC. “If we don’t get good rains by the end of July, the situation will worsen. The sowing will not happen in the targeted 74 lakh hectares.”

On the floor of the Assembly, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that his government has geared up for the emergent drought. Revenue Minister V Srinivas Prasad informed the House that drinking water was being supplied to 1,062 villages and a circular had been issued that reservoirs and tanks should be utilised only to meet basic human needs. The state had released Rs 250 crore and then an additional Rs 400 crore for drought-relief purposes.

However, not everyone is convinced by the government’s move, especially the farmers and groups representing them. “The government’s efforts are a total failure. They have no permanent solutions. They always come up with temporary measures,” says Kodihalli Chandrashekhar, leader of Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (the largest farmers’ union in the state).

Even after three years of consecutive droughts, Karnataka does not have a well-defined drought policy. The revenue minister heads drought-relief operations and the state’s chief secretary coordinates it. Drought management is equated with reliance on large-scale resource transfer to drought-affected regions.

“Since the state is seeing repeated drought, the government should have looked for permanent solutions. Otherwise, there will be an increase in the number of farmer suicides,” says Chandrashekhar. Karnataka is among the states with the highest number of farmer suicides. Last year, 1,403 farmers committed suicide in the state.

While the state government has asked the banks to defer the collection of loan dues from the farmers, the latter are demanding the government to waive off loans considering the four years of drought. They argue it was a practice followed by the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad. But the state is unlikely to take this step.

The article was first published in Tehelka magazine: http://www.tehelka.com/karnataka-drought-another-summer-of-discontent/

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Justice Eludes The Wrongly Accused

Remains of the day 16 persons were injured in the 2013 Malleswaram blast.
Photo: Bangalore News Photo

Last November, in what was perhaps its first such intervention in a terror case, the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) directed the state government to pay compensation to three men wrongly arrested for involvement in a bomb blast outside the BJP office in Malleswaram, Bengaluru. But Peer Mohideen, Saddam Hussain and Tenkashi Haneef are yet to receive any compensation.

The blast took place on 17 April 2013, when the state was gearing up for the Assembly election. Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who replaced Shettar as the Karnataka chief minister after the polls, had at that time accused the BJP of carrying out the blast to garner sympathy votes. Later, the Bengaluru Police pinned the blame on the Tamil Nadu-based terror outfit Al Umma, which had earlier been banned by the Tamil Nadu government for orchestrating the 1998 Coimbatore bombings.

The police prepared a list of 17 persons who were allegedly connected with the Malleswaram blast. Thirteen of them were lodged in the Bangalore Central Jail. Most of them had earlier been accused of being involved in the Coimbatore blasts and later acquitted in that case after spending around 10 years in prison.

Mohideen, 39, was named as the “prime accused” in the FIR filed just after the Malleswaram blast. He was picked up along with his brother-in-law Basheer in a joint operation of the Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Police. Mohideen had to spend six months in jail before the investigators realised they had no substantial evidence against him. His name did not figure in the chargesheet filed on 19 October, nor did the names of Hussain and Haneef.

Soon after his release on 29 October, Mohideen had told TEHELKA that he was incarcerated because of his refusal to turn an approver in the case. He also alleged that he had been tortured in custody. Hussain, too, was released soon after, while Haneef continues to languish in the Trichy jail as he was also accused in another case.

The KSHRC immediately took suo moto notice of the cases of Mohideen, Hussain and Haneef, and directed the Karnataka chief secretary to release an interim compensation of Rs 2 lakh each. In its order, the commission stated, “There is a need to look at victims of police lapses. Arresting and sending (people) behind bars on charges of terrorism for no fault (of theirs), amounts to serious lapses on the part of the investigators. Police officers, who, without thinking, subjected innocent men to unjust detention and torture to extract confessions, should be made accountable… The award of compensation was just a small step towards sensitisation of the police force towards the view that a person whose rights have been violated should be regarded as a victim.”

However, Abdul Kalam, legal counsel for the three men, says, “Even after eight months since the KSHRC’s directive and 15 months after they had been arrested in the Malleswaram blast case, not even one of them has received any compensation.”

Home Secretary SK Pattanayak told TEHELKA, “I do not know why the compensation was not paid, but I will look into it.”

So, what lies ahead for the three men who were arrested and then released without their names figuring in the chargesheet?

According to KSHRC member G Hunugund, the commission has already done what it could by issuing a directive to the state government to pay interim compensation to all those who got hurt in the blast and whose property was damaged as well as those who were wrongly arrested. “If the government has not released the compensation for Mohideen, Hussain and Haneef, there is nothing that we can do,” says Hunugund. “The onus is on them to approach the high court.”

Kalam, however, informs that his clients do not want to move the court on the compensation issue as they fear it would antagonise the police and “more innocents might be arrested”.-- 

The article was first publsihed in Tehelka. http://www.tehelka.com/karnataka-no-compensation-for-three-men-wrongly-arrested-in-a-blast-case/

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Money Can’t Buy Loyalty: Opposition to the government’s decision to payimams has come from a surprise quarter: Muslims themselves.

The Congress government in Karnataka has touched a raw nerve by deciding to give honorariums to pesh-imams (chief imams) and muezzins (who call people for the congregational prayer). While the government claims that it is following a Supreme Court directive, the move has raised concern and confusion in the community. Some Muslim scholars and activists have decried the move as “internal meddling” and “against the principles of Islam”.

Interestingly, the idea of giving honorariums to pesh-imams and muezzins serving mosques that fall under the state wakf board was mooted when the BS Yeddyurappa-led BJP regime was in power. However, the scheme did not take off due to budgetary constraints. But, the Siddaramaiah government has now allocated Rs 47 crore, helping the scheme to take off.

In a public announcement, Qamarul Islam, the minister for minority affairs, Haj and wakf, informed that the government intends to give a monthly honorarium of Rs 3,100 to pesh-imams and Rs 2,500 to muezzins after the completion of every three months. The minister added that the scheme would be applicable to those wakf institutions whose income is less than 1 lakh per annum. He also informed that the wakf board would obtain the attendance certificate from respective institutions of serving imams, scrutinise them as per rules and send the proposal to the government for the sanction of the honorarium. “The honorarium then would be released to their respective accounts via online banking,” he added.

But Muslims have strongly opposed what they consider interference in their religious affairs. A section of Muslim activists and scholars, who had earlier opposed the BJP government’s move to implement the scheme, are dismayed that the Congress regime has gone ahead with the scheme despite their opposition. They are adamant that the state should have no role in the registration of madrasas, the formation of a Madrasa Board or defining the role of a priest.

Community leaders worry that once the imams start getting salaries from the government, they will be subordinated by the state as they will be accountable to the government as public servants. They believe that such a move will hinder their entitlement for free speech against the ruling party or lackeys of the party who would ultimately have a final say on who should be entitled for the salary and who should not; leaving the priestly class at the mercy of local corporators or MLAs. Some even worry that this move would give the right-wing groups an issue to rally against the minorities in the name of appeasement politics.

“Once they take the money, they will be working under the government or at least feel obliged to the government,” says Masood Abdul Khader, convener of the Karnataka Muslim Muttahida Mahaz, an umbrella organisation of Muslim bodies. “Imams are forbidden to take money from the government.”

Echoing similar sentiments, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind state president Atharulla Sharief says, “For centuries, the Muslim community has been managing mosques and madrasas on its own. This practice should continue. Keeping in view the dignity of the imams and muezzins, such financial aid is undesirable.”

However, Sharief says that if the state government is insistent on providing aid, it should follow the Tamil Nadu model where retired imams and muezzins get pensions from the wakf board. It is estimated that chief imams and muezzins serving nearly 7,000 mosques are eligible under the scheme. “These mosques fall under the category of the prescribed income limit (under Rs 1 lakh per annum),” says Karnataka Wakf Board CEO Mir Anis Ahmed.

Even though the scheme was announced three weeks ago, the wakf board is yet to receive applications from districts other than Bengaluru. But Ahmed has an explanation. “The scheme insists that the mode of payment is through online banking. Most of them are finding it difficult to open a bank account. Once it is done, I am sure the applications will come,” he says.

Ahmed also rubbishes the fears of the state gaining control over these imams. “They have some apprehensions that once money is given by the government, local managements will lose their grip and the state will interfere in their administration,” he says. “I need not give answers to such hypothetical situations. We are acting purely based on the recent SC directive.”

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