Honest assessment of home minister's constituency

Do you believe in “KARMA” If YES, your faith will be strengthened, and if NO, you may change your mind - at the end of this report.

How else can we explain the plight of the people, for none of their mistakes - and their representative, who did nothing for them, lives in ever increasing luxury for the past 25 years or more.

Yes! I am talking about, Sivaganga constituency, from where our union home minister P Chidambaram has been elected for a sixth consecutive term. Not to mention the fact that he is a mainstay in the union cabinet for many years now. He has served as a minister of state in Rajiv ministry too. Over the years, he has grown to one of the political bigwig of the country. Yet, I should sadly admit, his constituency remains as a true picture of neglect.

Well! I have nothing personal against PC, and I haven’t conducted a survey. By virtue of my extensive travelling through the constituency, and the resultant inevitable comparison with other parts of the state, I could come to such a conclusion. It may be hard to believe or accept- but I am not exaggerating. Absolutely nothing has been done for the people for many years ( I contemplated writing ‘Very little’ instead of ‘Nothing’ – but with what I have seen, ‘Nothing’- would only be appropriate)

I interacted with people with various backgrounds, I kept my eyes and ears and more importantly, the mind open to observe things. I categorized my research under the following agenda:
i) Signs of growth
ii) Basic Infrastructure
iii) Living Conditions
iv) Employment opportunities
v) Development schemes/works

If you want to see a place where no growth could be noticed for decades, you should choose Sivaganga constituency. Things are in their places, just by the will of god, (Bhagwan Bharosa)- just as they were decades ago.

Infrastructure is invisible. Roads, buildings, bus stops, schools, hospitals are in very bad shape. Roads are terribly damaged except for Sivaganga City, where roads ceased to exist long back. Needless to add, other Infrastructure too is just as pathetic. Better not to write about the living conditions in the villages, which form the major part of this constituency…


There are no employment opportunities within the constituency. The trend of people migrating to other parts of the state/nation/world in search of a decent job/living continues. A considerable number of people (min 01 per family) work in Malaysia/ Singapore/ Brunei/Gulf Countries, fetch good money and survive here. A large Granite facility, advertised to have a potential for 5000 direct and indirect employments, is dumped after much deliberation, for reasons and economics known only to Mr PC.

Not so surprisingly, there are no development schemes/ Works at any place I visited. Recently there was news about MPs not utilizing their funds to their constituencies. Hold on! PC’s name did not feature in it. Only thing, there no sign of that utilized fund.

To sum up, PC has nothing to show, other than opening branches of various branches, in and around Karaikkudi and Sivaganga. The changes and growth I got to see were of individual efforts. For example, A famous entrepreneur from Trichy, has provided bore wells throughout his native village and surrounding villages. He is said to be helping people in many other ways. Also the hard earned foreign money of the people,who remain in a foeign country for years together and do all sorts of physical work, help in sustaining the economy in villages.

When individual efforts are able to provide solace to people, much could have been done by PC but he never lived up to the expectations. People can’t be blamed. It is widespread news with in the area that PC was voted out this time, but he barely managed to cling on using his “techniques”- and became home minister again.


If this is not KARMA, then……..?

A FORGOTTEN PROMISE

After the implementation of VI pay commission, there were many issues raised by the Armed Forces. The following two were very prominent, and in that order.

i) 70% weightage in pensionary benefits.
ii) Placing Lt Cols and equivalants in Pay Band –4 (instead of 3)

Both were accepted as core issues, and the Govt conceded to the demands. Six months down the line, Lt Cols and their counterparts, enjoy the elevated status of Pay Band-4, got their arrears and happily counting their fortune. But no news about the other proposal and subsequent approval. Authorities “haven’t received any correspondence about 70%’ , pension Office “did not get any any specific orders”, and JCDA “do not have anything in black and white”. On the whole, whole thing is safely forgotten.

But who is really bothered?
The other central Govt staff, not going to be benefited, they need not be bothered.

Govt has to cough up extra dough, so……, a majority Govt need not honour the promise made by a desperate minority Govt before elections, that too when no state elections are looming large over the horizon.

The Armed Forces top brass may have got a “fair deal”- to sweep the 70% appeal under the carpet, as soon as PB-4 is sanctioned for Lt Cols, and they are not bothered.

Defense Officers, irrespective of their capabilities, end up in PB-4, in just 13 years, and they don’t have enough place to store their "hard earned" money- and they aren’t bothered.

The real Mr Bechara is the PBOR, (Personnel Below Officer Rank) who can not actually do anything in this regard, other than venting feelings in a blog.

So, it is very difficult to get the 70% proposal/approval to be implemented. The issue is now ready for a silent burial. I will be more than happy to be proved wrong.

DEBACLE OF DEFENDING CHAMPIONS

India knocked out in the super 8 stages of T20 world cup. Well, none surprised. Because this format of the game doesn’t allow any team the luxury of being hailed as clear favorites, or for that matter – underdogs. The reason for such scenario is the fact that no team has come up with clear-cut strategies on how to approach the game, like the mighty (may not be any more) Australians often do for tests and one dayers. Teams are to be blamed because, despite the fact that T20 is going to be future of cricket, they haven’t taken this format seriously. Younis Khan openly admitted that T20 is a time pass game and created a flutter. In a game where two wickets or two sixes in an over determines the result, and very little chance of revival when the game starts slipping away, captains, more often than not, just go through the motions and hope things happen.

As far as India’s premature exit is concerned, the batsmen were the culprits- Except for an occasion when Bhajji gave 10 in wides (2 balls out side the legside, beating keeper to boundary) and India lost by 3 runs. Their shot selection did them in. Most of them were in the IPL mode, at lofted the balls at will only to be caught at the deep. Significantly, in IPL a ball hit for 70-75 meters, sailed to the galleries, whereas, the same distance hit ended up safely into the hands of fielders. The sixes hit in long on, long off were measured to be 90 meters.

Next reason is their soft approach. When fielding they don’t pressurize the batsmen by accurate throws, and while batting - by quick running. Instead of converting singles to twos, they converted twos to singles, and sometimes got run out in the process. Such approach pushed them deeper in to the hole from where they never managed to get out. Better luck next time.