Harish Rawat who has made his intentions clear by starting his tenure as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from the Kedar Valley where the Himalayan State sustained maximum damage during the disaster in June last year, may reassure the disaster victims about bringing their lives back on track.
But 'ill-preparedness' on part of the State Government in dealing with disaster scenarios that cost his predecessor Vijay Bahuguna lose his chair, provide no guarantee to the people from the similar disasters ahead.
If the State Government under the leadership of Rawat seriously wishes to protect
its people from natural catastrophe which has become a routine affair in recent years and prevent such incidents, it can do so by putting some scientific methods in place along with the necessary ground works, as suggested by experts.
The matter of concern is that 'ill-preparedness' in dealing with calamities during last monsoon has seen change of guard in Uttarakhand Government in six months, but the latter has hardly learnt a lesson or two from its past mistakes committed in handling the natural disasters.
The fact is that putting in place state of the art early weather warning system in the form of weather radars was the top most priority of the State Government after providing immediate relief to the disaster when the hill State was reeling under the calamity in June last year. Under this plan, the State Government had decided to set up two such radars at Mussoorie in Garhwal and in Kumaon's Nainital area.
Now the winter season is at its fag end. But during the past six months, the State Government has not yet been able to find peace of lands to set up the early warning system in the form of weather radars.
However, when asked whether the land has been identified for setting up weather radars in the hill State, Piyoosh Rautela, executive director of Disaster Mitigation and Management Center (DMMC), Uttarakhand, said that he is not aware about it.
The revenue department deals with land related matters. “Development in this project would come to the knowledge of the department. But as far as we know the land for setting up the weather radars is yet to be sorted out,” he said.
Such ‘knee jerk’ reaction of the DMMC to the query raised to know the progress of setting up the early weather warning system only shows how serious are those who are responsible for disaster management in the mountain State along with the leadership.
The basic purpose of putting in place early weather warning system was only to make the people alert in advance so that at least a few lives could be saved and necessary preventive measures could be taken to deal with any eventuality.
It is worth mention here that natural disasters are not new to the people of Uttarakhand particularly for those who are still living in areas which are considered to be vulnerable from natural disaster point of view.
But the impact of the efforts of the subsequent State Governments to put necessary preventive measures in place to contain natural calamities that Uttarakhand has been facing for many years seems to have only on paper.
were acIJe IJIJIJ alue everywhere. If the BTT is imposed large houses would issue their own hundis to keep off the banking system.
A cash transaction would be preferable. It would require either a large inspectorate or enforcement agency to check evasion at different points. Has anybody calculated the cost not only in terms of revenue burden on the state but also in terms of corruption and harassment of almost everyoneIJ
Every commodity is sold at multi-level — manufacturer to dealers, to many sub dealers, to wholesalers, to retailers and customers. Each would be required to pay the BTT. The retailer might like to have a direct payment to the manufacturer so that his purchase cost remains low and tax paid at the lowest level.
It would create a complex trading system and cause enormous problem for the business leading it to become more inefficient. A tax on bank deposits is likely to see larger funds being turned into ‘black money’. It would also lead to a repressive tax raids and further rise in corruption.
If the Government migrates to the BTT as a sole source of revenue, cyber security of banking system as a whole becomes vital. This point must be judged in light of Chinese capability in cyber-cum-financial warfare, an Indian Defence and Strategic Analysis report says. Also the BTT will result in loss of sovereignty over tax collection as tax collection process gets outsourced to banks. In 2012, eminent lawyer Nani Palkhivala said, “Today the monster of our direct tax structure has become more monstrous than ever before”.
It cannot be replaced by a more monstrous system. Nor is demonetisation a solution. India had done it in 1946 and 1978. It has not solved the problem. Myriads of other issues surrounding the BTT have not yet received full attention. A beginning at tax reforms could be made with abolition of income tax.
ndia isIJ! igIJ IJy ts strength and international influence.
We, the people of India, should do what we can to ensure that Urdu is seen not parochially but through a nationalistic lens, and given its rightful place in our literature and in every aspect of our cultural interaction.
(The writer is Editor of The Daily Milap, India’s oldest Urdu newspaper with a large readership)