Tale of Two Cities & CMs

English writer and social critic who is regarded as the greatest novelist of the Victorian period, Charles Dickens wrote his famous novel ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ set in London and Paris, before and during French Revolution. The novel depicts the plight of French peasantry demoralized by French Aristocracy and unflattering description of life in London. If Charles Dickens were reborn and happened to visit Chennai and Bangalore, the citadels of power of the states, Fort St. George and Vidhana Soudha respectively and the plight of the farmers of Tamil Nadu demoralized by the regime of aristocratic Jayalalitha, he would have penned a novel with the title ‘A Tale of Two Cities and Chief Ministers’.

If the districts of Tiruchi, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam in the Cauvery delta region in Tamil Nadu depend upon Cauvery water for irrigation, so are the districts of Mysore, Mandya in the Cauvery basin in Karnataka. Karnataka state political leadership has become a byword for instability, with three Chief Ministers of BJP within less than four years and the present occupant of the seat since last month is also uncertain about its longevity. While vacating the seat for the present Jagadish Shettar, the outgone Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda’s only plea to him was that he should not slacken the drought relief works that were initiated and carried on in full swing. As a result of the continuity of their efforts, on August 2, Union Agriculture Minister  Sharad Pawar and Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh visited Bangalore along with a 12 member official team.

The central government asked the Karnataka government to submit a revised report on the severe drought situation across the state and the funds it requires from the central government to take up additional relief works.

"We have asked the state government to submit a revised memorandum on the drought situation in the state, including losses suffered due to deficit rainfall till July 31 and funds required," Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters after Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar held a two-hour-long meeting with Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, cabinet ministers and officials in Bangalore.

Mr Pawar, who is on a tour of four drought-hit states in the country, including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan, with Mr Ramesh and a 12-member official team since August 1, reviewed the drought situation in Karnataka and measures taken to tackle the crisis, as the south-west monsoon remained tardy resulting in around 33 per cent rainfall deficiency across the southern state.

"The central government is ready to release Rs.700 crore immediately under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme to provide jobs to people in the drought-hit areas of the state," Mr Ramesh said.

In addition to Rs.286 crore agreed for providing drinking water in the drought-hit districts, the central government had released Rs.334 crore for implementing the watershed development programme on war-footing to conserve water bodies and provide relief to millions of farmers affected by a deficit monsoon.

"Once we receive the revised memorandum from the state, the Empowered Group of ministers will soon decide on the quantum of additional funds to be released for providing relief to the drought-affected people in the state," Mr Ramesh said.

"Rain deficiency in the three regions of Karnataka was 21-44 per cent in the first two months of the monsoon period, with the south interior areas being the worst-affected. We have declared drought in 25 of the 30 districts across the state due to scanty rainfall in 415 hamlets and nil rainfall in 88 villages spanning 142 local bodies," an official of the state disaster monitoring committee said.

After his swearing-in Jagadish Shettar on July 17 went to New Delhi, met Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and submitted a Memorandum to him seeking an immediate Central assistance of Rs.2,000 crore to tackle the situation. Shettar also demanded that a study team be sent to the state to assess the latest situation and release immediate relief. Only on July 24, the State government announced a Rs.3,500 crore project waiving farm loans upto Rs.25,000 in a major step to mitigate the sufferings of the farmers reeling under drought in several parts of Karnataka. In total 150 taluks in 25-districts out of 30 in the state had been declared drought affected and the government there had taken up relief works right earnestly from the month of May last, in between getting Central assistance to some extent. But both Chief Ministers had declared that funds would not be a constraint for drought relief works. Unlike Tamil Nadu, Karnataka depends only on South West monsoon for irrigation in the northern and southern districts.

In contrast to the active and sincere-to-the-people Chief Ministers of an unstable regime in Karnataka, here in Tamil Nadu we have a totally inactive and absolutely insincere Chief Minister of a brutally stable regime.

Although all the states in India have woken up to the failure of the southwest monsoon and the state governments of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have declared drought affected districts and started relief works, the empowered Group of Ministers (EoGM) of the Centre has also announced immediate drought relief package of Rs.2,000 crore to states, the Union Agriculture Ministry issued an advisory on seeds, planting and cultivation for each district depending on its rainfall situation, type of soil and availability of water for irrigation and the Union Ministers with a team of officials completed their visits to states and consultation with the state government, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister is sojourning in Kodanad estate palace for the past one and a half months not only doing nothing but also claiming that the government led by her had taken all steps to save the farmers from any loss.

According the award of Cauvery Water Tribunal, Karnataka shall not use water storage in their reservoirs for other than drinking water purposes during summer months. But in violation of the final order they utilized water in their reservoirs for irrigation of summer crops and drained up. Tamil Nadu government should have monitored the situation and ensured release of its due of 54 TMC water during summer months to Mettur reservoir. But other than writing a letter to the Prime Minister for convening of Cauvery River Authority and filing a petition in the Supreme Court very lately after the Karnataka reservoirs were drained, Jayalalitha did nothing to ensure rights of Tamil Nadu. She feels talking to her counterpart in Karnataka or to Union Ministers is below her dignity. In the past when Kalaignar was the CM, he had spoken to the then Karnataka Chief Ministers and once S.M.Krishna ordered overnight release of water due to Tamil Nadu.

Having slept over in the crucial months of May, June and July and turning a blind eye and deaf ears to the plights and agitations voicing demands for declaring delta districts as drought affected and providing compensation of Rs.10,000/acre to farmers and Rs.10,000 each family of agricultural workers, by the end of July 24^th, she issued a statement from her Kodanad resort, which was more political polemics than addressing the problems faced by farming community. The lady (and the government led by her) struck by ‘activity paralysis’, blamed the UPA government being struck by policy paralysis. As if she is acting on ‘critical livelihood issues’ of the people, she charged that the Centre had no time to look into the State pleas like sharing of Cauvery river water with Karnataka. In a detailed statement, Kalaignar has exposed the farce of her claims of having conducted review meetings on May 28 and June 15.

Not only in delta districts but also paddy cultivation has not been taken up in Tirunelveli and Tuticorin districts which are irrigated by Vaigai, Periyar, Manimuthar and Papanasam dams depending upon southwest monsoon. Farmers there also have raised similar demands.

While Jayalalitha is sojourning in Kodanad since June 20, except for a day in Chennai for casting her vote in the Presidential elections, farmers in delta district were resorting to various forms of protests including walk out from the Grievance Day meetings convened by district collectors. In ADMK regime nothing will move without their ‘Amma’s’ explicit sanction. With the ‘head’ of the government on longest leave, ever known for a leader of the executive except only on declared health grounds, neither the Minister for Agriculture not the Secretary of Agriculture department or Chief Secretary can announce or move anything. The state machinery remains paralysed.

In the absence of any directive from above, the poor District Collectors had to face the wrath and inconvenient questions of the farmers and people. Hence some district collectors had abstained from attending Grievance Day meetings.

Acrimonious scenes of walkout, sloganeering, and debates marked the monthly farmers’ grievance meeting in Nagapattinam at the Collectorate on July 27.

Demanding that the entire delta be declared ‘drought-hit,’ the farmers demanded a compensation of Rs.10, 000 per acre. Additionally, they also demanded Rs.10, 000 per month for farm labourers for the entire period of kuruvai season.

Further, the State government drew flak for not releasing its share of crop insurance for 2010-11 paddy. Farmers have for long been demanding the 35 per cent crop insurance component due from the State government. Pitching their protests primarily on these three demands, farmers cutting across party lines, barring ADMK, staged an acrimonious walkout to record their ‘loss of faith’ in the government. According to Giridharan, of Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangam, the State government is ‘anti-farmer’ and this is evident from its refusal to heed to the demands of farmers.

Following the walkout, farmers associations affiliated to the Communist Parties, including Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal Sangam and Tamilzhaga Vivasayigal Sangam staged a protest outside the collectorate refusing to return to the hall.

Farmers also demanded that the State government declare the situation in delta as a ‘national calamity.’

According to Mr.Danapalan, delta regions were facing a productivity loss of 2.5 tonnes of rice per acre, which would impact country’s food security. “Therefore it was only right for the government to declare Kuruvai loss as a national calamity. This would relieve farmers of penal interests on loans and allow for extension of loan repayment period .”

The agriculture department came under flak for ‘slumbering’ over since the closing of the Mettur dam on January 28. It was alleged that the department had failed to equip itself to meet the collective demand for labour, agricultural inputs, and finance, with the cropping proposed to be taken up simultaneously in the event of water release.

While in her statement Jayalalitha claims that a review meeting chaired by her decided to supply three-phase power to pumpsets in the delta region for 12 hours starting June 12, 2012 to utilize ground water, Arupathy Kalyanam, General Secretary of the Federation of Farmers in Cauvery Delta districts says, “If the government had given us adequate supply of power in May, we would have been well into our harvest by now, completing plantation at least 2 lakh hectares. But, the government acted a month late, leading us to the crisis.”

People of Tamil Nadu, started resenting their mistake of having voted Jayalalitha to power when she imposed a burden of about Rs.20,000 crore through hikes in bus fares, milk prices and electricity tariff. With her total indifference to the plight of farming community and unprecedented price rise of essential commodities, their resentment is turning into anger.

The two cities of Bangalore and Chennai are witnessing active and sincere chief ministers of an unstable regime in the former and an inactive and insincere chief minister of a brutally stable regime in the latter!