Vol 8 Issue 6 ●
Regn. no. MAHENG/2004/15104
Nov-Dec 2011
‘To oppress others is a sin, but to tolerate oppression is a bigger sin.’ www.ngoconnect.org
A ‘SHAKTI’ PROJECT
-Bhagwad Gita
I n d i a ’ s Fi r s t N G O N e w s ta b l o i d CONNECTiNG The bogey of green clearances The environment is holding up growth and economic evelopment. is the common refrain in circles that matter. However,a report on what needs to be done, said that the best would be to dismantle green conditions, almost completely. The B K Chaturvedi committee recommends that all coal mining projects should be given automatic clearance, with exceptions only for projects in ‘dense’areas. .. Then, the committee wants all those provisions that seek to protect the rights of people or theenvironment to be relaxed. It recommends that the gram sabha, required to give consent to the project, should be held without a quorum. In other words, emocracy should be sidelined. Similarly, public hearings should be done away with when it comes to expansion of the current mines. It also recommends that even in areas identified as critically polluted, new projects should be allowed without check. It has no time to waste on such considerations as the health of the people who live in these regions. The horrendous cumulative impacts of these massive projects must be ignored, because we are a nation in a hurry, it says. …The proposed manufacturing policy, … wants none of these inconvenient green checks. It wants to take away all powers of the environment and forest clearances from the Centre and state agencies and hand them over to the project management. But are green clearances holding up projects?First, the scale and pace of green clearances have been unprecedented in the past five years. In fact, the pace doubled, with 203,576 hectares (ha) of forestland diverted for mining and industrial projects in the past five years. Coal mining accounted for more than half the forestland diverted, and as many as 113 coal mining projects were cleared—the highest in a five-year plan since1981. Secondly, clearances when added together overshoot the current and future targets in power projects. Till August 2011, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has granted clearances for an astounding 210,000 MW of thermal power capacity, — 60,000 MW more than what has been proposed till 2017. But what was built in the past five years was a mere 32,394 MW. What is going on? ... Is this a landwater-coal scam, given that each project sits on valuable natural esources? Or is it all about getting the licence to pollute? t in this haste to give clearances, it is the environment that is being short-changed. Most mining districts of the country have become a livinghell. Environmental regulations should be strengthened, not weakened. More importantly, environmentalists must see how the regulatory regime can be worked better. This is the agenda that matters. (excerpts from an editorial by Sunita Narain). ———————————————
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The Food Security Bill is passed
fter years of campaigning and rallies by the Right to Food Secretariat and its partners, Parliament passed the Food Security Bill: The basic points: Every person belonging to ‘priority’ household shall be entitled to receive seven kg. of foodgrains per month and every ‘general’ category person shall be entitled to not less than three kg. of grains. The Bill provides for supply of wheat at Rs. 2 per kg, rice at Rs. 3 per kg and coarse cereals at Re. 1 per kg to ‘priority’ households. For ‘general’ families the cost would “not exceed 50 per cent of the minimum support price for wheat and coarse grains and not exceed 50 per cent of derived MSP. Importantly, the Bill provides for “food security allowance” from state governments to such beneficiaries who do not receive the entitled quantities of foodgrains or meals. The ‘priority’ and ‘general’ beneficiaries and the exclusion criteria shall be prescribed by the Central government. Already identification of rural beneficiaries is being done under a SocioEconomic Caste Census. A similar exercise shall be undertaken for urban beneficiaries. The Bill provides for meals at “free or affordable prices’’ to destitute, homeless persons, disaster-affected people and persons living in starvation.
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NGOConnect wishes you a New Year of Change, equality and inclusiveness Govt orders probe against 10 NGOs New Delhi, Nov.21:The Government ordered a probe against 10 NGO and charitable trusts for allegedly funding political activities with funds received from abroad. According to official sources, an order to this effect was issued by the Union Home Ministry in the face of allegations that various NGOs and charitable trusts were acting on behalf of “foreign interests”. The Government recently made it mandatory for all NGOs and charitable trusts to file details of foreign contributions received in their Income Tax returns along with their Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) number.
It also covers maternity benefits of Rs. 1000 per month for six months to pregnant and lactating women.
A revised I-T return form has been prepared by the Directorate General of I-T Exemption and is pending with the Central Board of Direct Taxes for final approval before it is notified for implementation, likely from the next financial year.
The state governments shall identify through anganwadis and provide free meals to children who suffer from malnutrition.
The new return form for NGOs will have additional columns for mentioning FCRA number and another for details of overseas contributions received.
Focussing on reforms in the PDS, the Bill has given primacy to introduction of cash transfers and food coupons to the targeted beneficiaries in lieu of their foodgrains entitlements as well as leveraging ‘aadhar’ for “proper targeting of beneficiaries under the Act.’’
So far, there was only one return form that was applicable for all NGOs and trusts, including noncharitable trusts that were not qualified for exemptions.
There will be an internal grievance redress mechanism from block and district levels. The Centre shall set up a National Food Commission and every State government shall constitute a State Food Commission for monitoring and reviewing the implementation of the Act.
The necessity to devise a new form arose after it was found during scrutiny of some NGOs that they had received considerable foreign contributions, but failed to mention them in their return of income filed with the I-T department. At present, the I-T Department is scrutinising accounts of several NGOs and charitable trusts that had received foreign contributions in the past decade.
There shall be social audit of the functioning of ration shops.
An FCRA list was obtained from the Union Home Ministry and returns of income of such institutions that had received funds are being tallied. All suspect cases pertain to the assessment year up to 2009-10.
Contact: Secretariat - Right to Food C a m p a i g n 5 A, Jungi House, Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110049. India Email: righttofoodindia@gmail.com | Phone - 91 -11 -2649 9563 Website: www.righttofoodindia.org
The Government is also likely to introduce a fresh tax of 15 per cent on those charitable trusts and religious organisations that have been diverting their accumulated income to acquiring new assets in and outside the country.
The Bill provides for women above 18 years to be considered the head of the beneficiary household for purpose of issue of ration cards.
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Message For International Donors To India Excerpts from an article by Dr. Sylvia Karpagam (Countercurrents.org) Nov. 20. There are several reasons why donors choose to fund India. ….There are some international agencies that genuinely want to support and nurture development. They feel the need for a more equitable world which they can support through technical expertise and funds – commendable indeed!! a way of sharing resources and helping those in need. Unfortunately, the donors can sometimes be lulled into a false sense of comfort about India’s problems. When they visit India, their contact is almost exclusively with the upper caste and class who determine to a large extent what is visible, what is unseen, and how issues are addressed. …. The ‘lower caste’ has no word to offer and no history except what is allowed and sanctioned. They are silent and their existence feeds a belief of their own inferiority. They have no voice, so they will not be heard. One will only hear about them. And one will only hear so much as one is allowed to. ...There is a tendency to give issues names that protects oneself…with the most clinical of terminology – the “below poverty line”, the “vulnerable”, the “marginalized”, the “underprivileged”, ‘the tribals’?…… Donors would rather view the world with a benign eye. …One can pity marginalized groups in an extraordinarily discriminatory society such as in India, but it is vital to look inwards at the contribution of oneself and one’s community to human rights violation...There is an interesting analogy of a man who has a herd of cattle that he cares for very well. When asked why he doesn’t just set them free, his response is simple - ‘But then, I can’t milk them”. If donors do not demand … moral accountability, if they fail to look below and beyond what is made visible to them, then they do demonstrate a rather unforgivable flaw. The money that donors spend, would never have reached the genuinely marginalized. This is the serious flaw in fund contribution to
India. Donors have a moral imperative to question more than what they hear. … So what should donor agencies insist on… – they should insist on leadership from the marginalized, even if their quality, education and language skills are not “up to the mark” (as defined by the upper caste). They should insist on representation by a dalit on their project management committees. …As a donor, this would be your moral obligation to the most deprived and marginalized in India.— —-Dr. Sylvia Karpagam MD, MBBS is a public health doctor and writer. She has worked with NGOs and feels that international donors have a poor awareness about the caste hierarchy in India. She blogs at http:/ /drsylviakarpagam.wordpress.com/
Do NGOs stall village initiatives? It was an interesting but chilling fact that Harish Hande, this year’s cowinner of the Magsaysay Award and founder of SELCO- solar energy for the masses—mentioned at the CSM function to launch their report, Made in Bangalore. Answering a question regarding the role of NGOs in the development of social entrepreneurs, he was quite emphatic in stating that, in his experience, NGOs are not only unhelpful, they hinder. E.g. They would not let his company help villagers get solar energy for a paltry payment. They (the NGOs) insisted that the villagers were poor and could not pay. The end result- the villagers (who wanted to, and could, pay)- did not get solar lights!!!
India ranks 134 in HDI New Delhi, Nov.2: India ranks a low 134 among 187 countries in terms of the human development index (HDI), which assesses long-term progress in health, education and income indicators, a UN report said. Although placed in the “medium” category, India’s standing is way behind scores of economically less developed countries, including wartorn Iraq as well as the Philippines.India’s ranking in 2010 was 119 out of 169 countries. UN official Seeta Prabhu said: “ India’s gender inequality index was 0.6, the highest in South Asia.