___________

In the following excerpts from a report in Business Standard Haridaspur-Paradip and Talcher-Bimlagarh are listed as strategic projects. I hope they are fast tracked.

… Delays in land acquisition and forest clearances continue to stand in the way of completing strategic projects like the 82-km Haridaspur-Paradip line and the 154-km link between Talcher and Bimlagarh, both in Orissa. While the first project is to give good port access to units in the steel hub of Kalinganagar, the second is designed to step up evacuation of coal from mines at Angul and Talcher.

…This is why India, endowed with the world’s fifth largest bauxite deposits and the fourth largest coal reserves, has emerged as a preferred place for making aluminium. Within the country, Orissa is where every aluminium maker wants a presence. That is why the Vedanta group, in spite of being solidly anchored in Chhattisgarh, thanks to its 50 per cent ownership of Balco, with capacity of 345,000 tonnes and then giving shape to a 650,000-tonne smelter there, wants to create alumina capacity of five mt and smelting capacity of 1.6 mt in Orissa, with adequate upstream integration in bauxite mining and coal-based power.

NAY SAYERS
Unfortunately, Vedanta is not able to realise what it has set out to do in Orissa, as it fell foul of pressure groups such as Amnesty International and Survival International and also of the ministry of environment and forests. The Niyamgiri Hills, from where Vedanta’s refinery is to draw bauxite, is considered sacred by Dongria Kondh tribesmen. But why should the company be stopped to take out bauxite from there if it is ready to resettle the displaced people and practise environment-friendly mining?

As a result of the impasse, Vedanta is required to source bauxite from outside, totally upsetting the considerations for hosting a refinery at nearby Lanjigarh. The denial of mining at Niyamgiri is setting a bad precedent for the mining sector. Redemption for Vedanta would hopefully come, with the Orissa government committed to offering alternative bauxite deposits.

There are some recent news on Vedanta’s expansion in Lanjigarh. But the news are confusing. Following is an excerpt from a September 17th report in Times of India.

Vedanta has suffered another setback in its fight-back to expand the aluminium refinery in Orissa after the Union environment ministry had struck down its environment clearance for violations.

The Cuttack bench of the Orissa High Court backed the environment ministry and ordered that Vedanta would have to apply afresh for a clearance for expansion if it wants to.

Following is an excerpt from a September 19th report in ndtv.com.

The ministry of environment and forests has cleared Vedanta Aluminium’s project in Lanjigarh, Orissa. 

The expansion of Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta Aluminium’s four million tonne Lanjigarh refinery plant in Kalahandi had been put on hold by the Union Environment Ministry  on October 21, 2010.

… Environment ministry’s expert appraisal committee (EAC) has cleared the project with 70 conditions, sources told NDTV. Major conditions among them are:  Five per cent of the total project cost would be spent on social welfare projects.The company will maintain air, water quality & develop 164 hectare of plant area as green belt.

Others conditions say that the company will also submit rehabilitation and resettlement policy covering tribals, which should be in line with government policies. The company will also be required to submit corporate environment policy approved by its board.

Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/vedanta-s-aluminium-project-in-orissa-gets-green-nod-178542?ch=kjjbhrkjrhplkmn&cp

Read more at: http://profit.ndtv.com/news/show/vedanta-s-aluminium-project-in-orissa-gets-green-nod-178542?ch=kjjbhrkjrhplkmn&cp

Following is from Dharitri.

Following is from Sambada.

The others are:

1. Dilip Tirkey (Men’s Hockey)
2. Prabodh Tirkey (Men’s Hockey)
3. Ignace Tirkey (Men’s Hockey)
4. Subhadra Pradhan (Women’s Hockey)
5. Jyoti Sunita Kullu (Women’s Hockey)
6. Shradhanjali Samantaray (Women’s Soccer)

Following is an excerpt from a report in ibnlive.com.

The single window committee (SWC) on Friday approved proposals for four industrial units, two of them power plants, with an investment of Rs 1,286.61 crore.

… The proposal of M/S Beverages Private Limited to set up a soft drink beverages unit with capacity of one lakh crates per annum at Atabira in Bargarh district with an investment of Rs 59.61 crore was approved in the meeting.
Similarly, the proposal of M/S Essar Power Orissa Limited to set up 4×30 MW captive power plant in two phases at Paradip with an investment of ` 683 crore was also given the green signal.

It is expected that the project will provide employment opportunity to 200persons.

The proposal submitted by Investa Ventures Limited for setting up a LED manufacturing plant and incubation park at Chandaka near Bhubaneswar with an estimated investment of Rs 190 crore was also approved.

The plant will produce energy saving LED electric bulbs and tubes and is expected to open employment opportunities for 470 persons.

Besides, the proposal of M/S Ultra Tech Cement Ltd for expansion of the existing cement grinding capacity from 1MTPA to 3 MTPA at Jharsuguda Cement Works and bulk terminal in Cuttack district with an investment of ` 354 crore has also got the approval of the committee.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard. (Thanks to Abhishek for the pointer.)

The government has envisaged an investment of more than Rs 22,000 crore for setting up nine new major ports in the country over the next five years.

The Ministry of Shipping has asked nine coastal states — West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat — to select sites for setting up a major port each. It is awaiting a response from all nine states.

"We have written to all the nine (maritime) states and have asked them to select site for the major port," a Shipping Ministry official said, adding that construction of each port would cost about Rs 2,500 crore.

The 12 existing major ports are Mumbai, the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Kolkata (with Haldia), Chennai, Visakhapatanam, Kochi, Paradip, New Mangalore, Marmagao, Ennore, Tuticorin and Kandla.

… Any port with two or more berths with facilities and equipment capable of handling 100,000 tonne per month of cargo from ocean-going ships is categorised as a major port.

The Shipping Ministry plans to create port capacity of around 3,200 million tonne to handle the expected traffic of about 2,500 million tonne by 2020.

… About 90 per cent by volume and 70% by value of the country’s international trade is carried through maritime transport.

For some reason I feel there is a catch somewhere.

To start with with private parties willing to spend their own money in setting up ports, why does the central government needs to spend its tax earnings on this. It should focus on elements for which private funding is lacking.

Other arms of the central government are trying to sell-off equity in public sector units to get money for other developmental things. With that background it does not make sense for India to spend money on things (new ports) that the private sector can do.

Perhaps some of the readers can suggest some perspectives where the above makes sense.

Following are some excerpts from a report in Business Standard. (Among all the news report that I have seen this seems to have the most numbers. Hope they are accurate.)

… on November 1, 2000, when he opted for a study leave for of years till October 31, 2002. A senior Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) official told Business Standard that according to the study leave conditions, Kejriwal had signed a bond which required him to mandatorily serve the government for three years after coming back.

Kejriwal joined back on November 1, 2002. The CBDT official said that in 2003, Kejriwal was promoted as joint commissioner and was transferred from Delhi to Chandigarh but he never joined there. The official said he went on Extra Ordinary Leave (EOL) for two years thereafter from November 1, 2003 to October 31, 2005 and resigned in February 2006.

This meant that, effectively, he worked with the income tax department for one year after coming back from the study leave, against the bond condition of three years.

The CBDT official said the bond condition outlined that if he quits within three years after joining back, he would have to pay back the leave salary with interest, as determined by the government. “Kejriwal is deficient by two year,” added the official.

Kejriwal’s argues that he resigned after working for three-and-a-half years and has not violated the bond condition. In fact, Kejriwal requested CBDT for a waiver of the bond condition after resigning from service on the submission that he had been working for a public cause — the Right to Information (RTI) — which helped the government.

… The CBDT official said since then the department had sent a number of letters to Kejriwal for the payment of dues, which is a must for accepting his resignation, but he had ignored.

The latest notice was sent by CBDT on August 5. This was the time when the battle between the Anna Hazare team and the government was brewing on the Lokpal Bill, raising apprehensions of a political motive behind the move.

Kejriwal has pointed out that it was not specified that he cannot go on leave during the three year period he had to serve after coming back from his study leave. The government’s contention, on the other hand, is that he is two-years’ deficient in service as per the bond conditions and will have to pay the dues.

Following are some of my observations:

1. The letters sent on August 5, 2011 ( 11 days before the fast) does seem vindictive.
2. But the report above says a number of letters were sent. This contradicts the claim in many other reports that the government did  not send anything for a number of years and suddenly send this just before the fast.
3. The Time line mentioned above:
   • Paid study leave period: November 1, 2000 till October 31, 2002.
   • Bond requirement (as mentioned above): Serve three years after coming back.
   • Served after coming back: November 1, 2002 – November 1, 2003
   • Did not join after was transferred to Chandigarh.
   • Extra-ordinary leave: November 1, 2003 to October 31, 2005
   • Resigned: February 2006.
4. Government’s contention: Worked with the income tax department for one year after coming back from the study leave, against the bond condition of three years.
5. Kejriwal’s contention: Resigned after working for three-and-a-half years and has not violated the bond condition

To sort this out I looked up the All India Services (Study Leave Regulations) in the web. Assuming that that is the right document, it contains the following bond one has to sign before going on a study leave.

So Kejriwal is right in that he resigned more than three years after his joining back date. 

But if one tries to understand the intent of the bond, which is that after going on a paid study leave, one needs to work for three years (this is not spelled out accurately in the bond), Kejriwal did not satisfy the intent.

I am no lawyer and there may be previous cases in the courts that can be used to decide what is written in the bond and what its intent is.

But even if Kejriwal is legally right, what he is doing is finding a loophole in the clumsily written bond statement. Many people who are considered corrupt by the aam janata do exactly that; hide behind loop holes.

Considering that Kejriwal is leading the anti-corruption movement and many consider him as an icon of the country (so much so that if India had a Presidential form of government, and there was a presidential election in the next few months, he would have had a very good chance of winning it) he should not hide behind a loophole; he should pay his dues immediately and move on.

As per recent news, the latest route to be added is KIIT-Niladri Vihar – Kalpana with stops at Infocity, Niladri Vihar, Sailashree Vihar, Damana, Chandrasekharpur-Omfed Square, Kalinga Hospital Square, Sainik School, Institute of Physics, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Utkal University, Regional Museum of Natural History, Planetarium, Acharya Vihar, Master Canteen, and Kalpana Square.

For an overall status following is an excerpt from a Telegraph report.

Dream Team Sahara will deploy five buses for the new route. Therefore, a total of 90 buses will ply in the city bus service network in 12 routes, including those to Cuttack and Puri.

“At present, we are running 15 buses in Cuttack. But as Orissa High Court has given a directive to introduce more buses for the historic city, we are planning to add five more buses for Cuttack. Similarly, five buses are running between Bhubaneswar and Puri. By the end of this month, the number is, however, expected to go up to 15. Therefore, we will ultimately run all the 125 buses as per the plan for the city bus service under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). With 90 buses pressed into service, bus companies will have to provide 35 more buses to make the fleet fully equipped,” said chief operating officer of Dream Team Sahara, Sudhanshu Jena.

The detailed stoppages and distances of the older routes are given in the following brochure obtained from a BMC site.

The draft approach paper to the Twelfth plan is at http://planningcommission.gov.in/plans/planrel/12appdrft/appraoch_12plan.pdf.

Following are some excerpts.

Page 6: 1.12 One critical parameter to examine the degree of inclusiveness is to see what has happened to the real farm wages in the rural areas. This is because the largest number of poor, primarily landless workers, is in rural areas and the majority of them still rely on farm work for their livelihood. It is comforting to see that during the period 2007 to 2010 (calendar years), the average real wage rates have increased by 16 percent at an all India level. The growth was the fastest in Andhra Pradesh (42%) and Orissa (33%). Even in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, real farm wages went up by 19 and 20 percent respectively, over the three year period.

Page 50: 3.33 Access to power has been particularly poor in rural habitations and the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana RGGVY was devised to remedy this problem by providing connections to all villages and free connections to BPL families. There are, however, still a large number of habitations left uncovered and a very large population that has no connectivity. It is desirable to try and universalize access of power during the Twelfth Plan and this requires dealing with the large backlog in the States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and Assam and some of the other North East States. However for effective universal access the RGGVY programme has to be restructured. Connectivity by itself is only part of the problem, since in many States there is also a real shortage of power. Besides RGGVY focuses only on household supply and does not address the need for providing electricity for agriculture, which needs three phase supply. This in turn requires strengthening of the rural network, and not just last mile connectivity to households, which is what RGGVY covers.

Page 56: 4.7 A master plan for 18,637 kilometres of expressways, with new alignments for both passenger and freight movements in high traffic density corridors based on “access control toll” needs to be taken up. These roads will be either 4 or 6 lane. The proposed National Expressway Authority of India is expected to take the initiatives for both land acquisition and to get the work executed under BOT mode.

Page 120: 9.19 District Hospitals need to be greatly strengthened in terms of both equipment and staffing for a wide range of secondary care services and also some tertiary level services. They should actually be viewed as District Knowledge Centres for training a broad array of health workers including nurses, mid‐level health workers (e.g. Bachelor of Rural Health Care or Bachelor of Primary Health Practice) Paramedics and other public health and health management professionals. New medical and nursing colleges should preferably be linked to district hospitals in underserved states and districts, ensuring that districts with a population of 25 lakhs and above are prioritized for establishment of such colleges if they presently lack them. New programmes for developing mid‐level health workers (such as Bachelor of Rural Health Care/Bachelor of Primary Health Practice) and nurse‐practitioners which have been ntroduced in some States must be similarly linked to District Hospitals and their attached District Knowledge Centres.

Page 120: 9.25 Lack of human resources is as responsible for inadequate provision of health services as lack of physical infrastructure, especially in rural areas. According to Rural Health Statistics (RHS), 2,010, there is shortage of 2,433 doctors at PHCs (10.27 per cent of the required number); 11,361 specialists at CHCs (62.6 per cent of the required number); and 13,683 nurses at PHCs and CHCs combined (i.e., 24.69 per cent of the required number). In addition 7,655 Pharmacists and 14,225 Laboratory Technicians are needed at PHCs &CHCs (27.13 per cent and 50.42 per cent of the required number) in the country. These numbers are based on the 2001 Census.

9.26 The status of Human Resources for Health (HRH) has improved during the 11th Five year plan period, however much more needs to be done. The density of doctors in India is 0.6 per 1,000 and that of nurses and midwives is 1.30 per 1,000, representing jointly 1.9 health workers per 1,000. While no norms for Health Human Resource have been set for the country, if one takes a threshold of 2.5 health workers (including midwives, nurses, and doctors) per 1,000 population, there is shortage of health workers. Furthermore, because of a skewed distribution of all cadres of health workers, the vulnerable populations in rural, tribal and hilly areas continue to be extremely underserved.

9.27 The Twelfth Plan must therefore ensure a sizeable expansion in teaching institutions for doctors, nurses and paramedics. Only 193 districts of a total of 640 have a medical college – the remaining 447 districts do not have any medical colleges. Further, the existing teaching capacity for creating paramedical professionals is grossly inadequate. Against 335 medical colleges, there are 319 ANM training schools, 49 Health and Family Welfare Training Schools and only 34 LHV training schools. To fill the gap in training needs of paramedical professionals, the Twelfth Plan proposes to develop each of the District Hospitals (635) into knowledge centres, and CHCs (4535) into training institutions.

Page 131: 10.20 There must be a strategic shift from mere expansion to improvement in quality higher education. For this, the focus should be not only on larger enrolment, but also on the quality of the expansion. During the Twelfth‐Plan period, an additional enrolment of 10 million could be targeted in higher education equivalent to 3 million additional seats for each age cohort entering the higher education system. This would significantly increase the GER bringing it broadly in line with the global average.

10.21 A holistic and balanced expansion approach is needed to target under‐represented sections of society. Thrust should be on consolidating and improving the capacity and quality of the existing institutions. New institutions may be set up to bridge regional imbalances and disparities across disciplines and to address special economic, social and technological needs of the country. Further, traditional education should be supplemented with skill‐based studies and institutional differentiation should be encouraged so that institutions grow along their own growth trajectories without being clones of each other. Open and distance education methods could be deployed to augment capacity optimally. In addition, the concept of Meta University aimed at collaborative and multi‐disciplinary learning that redefines knowledge‐creation and knowledge‐sharing in the twenty‐first century, could also be explored.

10.22 There is an urgent need to step up both public and private investment in higher education (including technical), and increase in the efficiency of its utilization. About 18 per cent of all government education spending or about 1.12 percentage of GDP is spent on higher education today. This should be raised to 25 percent and 1.5 per cent respectively. An increase of 0.38 per cent of GDP means an additional allocation of about Rs.25, 000 crore to higher education for the Centre and the States taken together.

10.23 State universities and their affiliated colleges that account for more than 90 percent of the enrolment suffer from severe fund constraints and poor governance leading to poor quality. Strategic Central‐funding based on State higher education plans should be leveraged to stimulate more state funding linked to academic and governance reforms which may include norm‐based funding for State universities and colleges. Allocation of operating budget should be based on objective norms and new investments based on competitive grants and performance contracts. Institutions should be encouraged to raise their own funds through various legitimate means. Reasonable tuition fees in higher education need to be supplemented with appropriate publicly‐funded financial aid. The scale and reach of scholarship schemes and student loans need to be enhanced. Government guarantees for student loans could be considered. The central principle should be that no student who is eligible to be admitted should be deprived of higher education for financial reasons.

Encouraging Private Participation

10.26 Private sector growth in higher education (including technical) should be facilitated and innovative Public‐Private Partnerships (PPP) should be explored and developed in the Twelfth‐ Plan. Private higher education accounts for about four‐fifths of enrolment in professional higher education and one‐third overall. This growth trend is likely to continue in the Twelfth Plan. Currently, this growth is restricted to specific areas and there are concerns about quality and use of unfair practices. A clear policy is therefore required to manage private education and a statutory and transparent framework needs to be established for its operation for driving private growth further in a legitimate and balanced manner. The “not‐for‐profit” tag in higher education sector should, perhaps, be re‐examined in a more pragmatic manner so as to ensure quality without losing focus on expansion and equity. Deserving private institutions could benefit with access to public funds in the form of loans, financial aid for students and competitive funding for research.

Research Culture and Faculty Issues

10.27 We must bring back the ‘lost’ research culture of Indian Universities so as to create new knowledge and improve teaching standards. This would require more funding for university‐ based research and funding policies that create right incentives for quality research and promote collaboration among institutions. Related to this is the issue of faculty shortages which can be tackled through innovative ways such as technology‐enabled learning and collaborative information and communication technologies (ICT). A complete overhaul of the Academic Staff Colleges that are used to provide refresher courses for teachers is also necessary. Initiatives to improve the quality and availability of teachers in higher education need to be launched in a mission mode. With improvements in life expectancy, a growing pool of retired and elderly people is now available in the country. They have potential to enrich teaching‐learning experience and act as social capital for the society. It is possible to tap and convert their valuable acquired expertise into useful codified knowledge through a special Ph.D. programme for senior citizens facilitated by liberal entry requirements.

Page 134: 10.30 While most of our universities and colleges are required to build human resources to reach desired levels of competence, we also need to go beyond this to ensure that the country has several institutions of higher education that strive to achieve excellence in both teaching and research. The latter needs significantly large resources and, also much greater institutional autonomy and approval incentive structures. Realistically, India should aim to have at least a few universities in the global top‐league. To achieve this as quickly as possible, the country should act on two fronts. It should create new top‐end universities and also upgrade very good ones. A few new Innovation Universities could be established urgently, and several universities and institutions could be converted or upgraded by creating centres of excellence within the University, building on their existing strength. At the core of achieving excellence, is ability of institutions to attract and retain high quality faculty from across the world. This not only requires providing them with competitive salaries but also ensuring a challenging work environment and a lot of flexibility. The Twelfth Plan should attempt to operationalize these objectives.

10.31 In addition, the idea of creating large education hubs on fallow lands at four or five locations in the country, anchored by large public sector enterprises (possibly with participation by the private sector) and funded through their allocations for corporate social responsibility needs to be explored. These could be models for industry‐institute interface and would ensure local and regional development of areas where these are located.

10.32 Higher education is an increasingly global enterprise; hence Indian institutions should embrace internationalization that could provide them with new opportunities. Country’s rationale for internationalization would be to enhance its soft power, improve standards of domestic provision and produce graduates with international competencies and skills. This can best be achieved by having more and innovative partnerships. Given the historical advantage in higher education (particularly among emerging market economies) the wide spread use of English language and low cost living, India can potently become a global hub for higher education. We need to provide greater autonomy to our Centres of excellence to enter into collaborative partnership with the best universities abroad.

Page 138: Backward, Border and Remote Areas

11.11 Special emphasis must be given in the XIIth Plan for connecting to areas where connectivity is poor, which is one of several reasons why they are unable to become active participants in the growth process. These areas include the mountainous Himalayan region, the under‐developed pockets in Central and Eastern India, the islands territories and some regions in the North East. A large number of districts (often characterised by forested areas with tribal population) in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have experienced much less development than the overall development of the States within which they are located. They are also affected by Left Wing Extremism. Some of these less developed regions are spread across state boundaries, such as Bundelkand, which extends across Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In other instances these are pockets within a state that are historically fraught with difficult conditions. Notable amongst them are the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra; the Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK) region in Orissa and most of the tribal belt in Central and Eastern India.

11.12 To deal with the legitimate aspirations of the people of these neglected regions the overall growth strategy must have a component of regional development. This will require inter‐state cooperation and strengthening the pace of development of inter‐state and intra‐ state connectivity of tribal and other isolated communities through forests and difficult terrain. It will need better governance and deeper involvement of local people in the development process. Skill development and employment opportunities must be an important component of this strategy. The XIIth Plan will identify such areas for continued and enhanced development.

11.13 The development of physical infrastructure coupled with opportunities for education and skill development can generate significant improvements in livelihood and incomes and result in better sharing of the fruits of economic growth with these remote areas.

Plan within a Plan

11.14 A special effort is needed in the Twelfth Plan to create a Plan within a Plan. There are already programmes such as the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF), Border Area Development Programme (BADP), Hill Area Development Programme (HADP), the Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput (KBK) Plan, the Bihar Special Plan, the Bundelkhand Special Package, and most recently, the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts. The XIIth Plan should create a greater coherence among all these Special Plans.

Page 154: 13.16 Finally, the institutional concepts which were initiated in earlier Five Year Plans, like the Inter University Centres and Inter‐Institutional Centres for enhancing research and educational linkages for Universities, are to be expanded further to cover many other inter‐disciplinary research areas such as Earth System Science, life sciences, Computational Science, Cognitive Science etc., during the Twelfth Plan to bring about functional connectivity across universities and domain institutions. This would also overcome regional disparities in the quality of education/research.

As per this report in Times of India Anna and his team have further plans. One of those plans is "Electoral Reforms." Following is an excerpt from that report: 

"We have to change the election system of the country… we have the right to reject," he said, adding that people should be allowed to use the option not to vote if they don’t like any candidate.

I completely agree that "Electoral Reforms" is an important issue. I have thought about it for some time. Following are some of my thoughts.

1. Holding Primaries: In the current system the party bosses have the ultimate say in terms of their candidates. So Sonia Gandhi, Nitin Gadkari, Sharad Pawar, Naveen Patnaik etc. have the ultimate say of their candidates in some faraway place in Odisha. How much sense does that make? Since it is extremely difficult to win as an independent, create a new party and run, or have a chance to convince existing parties and their boses to field you as a candidate,  it creates a huge barrier for someone to enter politics and get elected and as a result a very huge percentage of elected representatives are family members of past or current representatives. Also, often the situations arise when none of the candidates chosen by the party bosses are "good". To address these the best way is to introduce "primaries" or "preliminary elections" for all recognized parties. These preliminary election would then determine who the candidate of a particular party will be. Laws can be made to decide who can vote in these primaries. In US, in some states only party members can vote for the primary elections of that party and in other states there are open primaries. Open primaries is much easier to implement. So basically what will happen is before the election there will be another election where there can be multiple candidates of each party. As before everyone can only vote for one candidate total. After the primary elections the top voted candidate from each party goes on to the main election.

2. Removal of the anti-defection law: The anti-defection law passed in 1985 as the 52nd amendment to the Indian constitution is a bad piece of legislation. Because of it MPs do not have the freedom to vote their conscience or vote as per the will of their constituents. They have to vote as dictated by their party leader.  This is extremely dangerous. The following illustrates it. Currently, if their is a single party with majority in Delhi it can pass whatever bill its boss wants. Now imagine someone is able to blackmail this boss. (Say the blackmailer possesses some document that can greatly harm the party boss.) This blackmailer can now pass whatever bill it wants. But abolishing the anti-defection law and allowing MPs to vote their conscience would mean government motions may fail resulting in the government being forced to resign under the collective responsibility principle. This is not desirable. So additional changes would be necessary to avoid this. See (5) below.

3. Provide mechanisms to recall an elected representative: If an elected representative is out-of-synch with the voters of his/her constituency there should be a mechanism to recall that representative and have a new election. That way elected representatives can not forget their voters between elections and only show up around the election time. (Team Anna has mentioned this as one of their goals.)

4. Government funding of election: Currently a big reason the elected representatives are corrupt is that they have to find funds for their election expenses. Many of them, though not personally corrupt, participate and if not participate then allow (and turn a blind eye) someone to raise funds (mostly in an illegal manner) for their elections. This can be avoided if government funds elections. Such a system is in place in the US; it allows a candidate to refuse this funding and use his/her own funding.

5. Direct election of CM and PM but with term limits of maximum of two terms: Came across the following suggestion of a  clever way to directly elect CMs and PM. To that I will add that our CMs and PMs should have a term limit of maximum of two terms. This will allow for young leadership to emerge more easily.

… consider the idea of adding a single non-voting seat to every State Assembly and to the Lok Sabha. This single non-voting seat could have for its constituency all eligible voters within that State in the case of a State Assembly and similarly it could have all of the eligible voters in India in the case of the Lok Sabha. During elections this all-State or all-India constituency could go to polls along with the other legislative and parliamentary constituencies. The person who gets elected to this non-voting Lok Sabha or Assembly seat could be automatically considered to be the Leader of the House as he or she would be reflecting the collective will of all the voters of that Legislative Assembly or Parliament. Since the seat is a non-voting addition to the strength of the House this seat will not change the balance of power in the legislature which continues to be same as before.

By virtue of being the leader of the House the person elected to the all-State or all-India constituency will have to be invited by the Governor or the President to form the next Government as the Chief Minister or Prime Minister. Irrespective of whether a party or a combination of parties has a legislative majority the Chief Minister or Prime Minister will have a fixed term which will be the same as the term of the legislature. Removal of the Chief Minister of Prime Minister would now require a higher legislative bar similar to a Presidential impeachment. The anti-defection law becomes redundant and irrelevant since the Government no longer depends on a simple majority in the legislature.

In the absence of anti-defection laws, a cultural shift could be effected wherein legislators across party lines can think independently and come together to propose bi-partisan Bills in a manner similar to what we see in the United States. The Chief Minister or Prime Minister could then also have the additional freedom to appoint members to his Cabinet from outside the legislature thus eliminating another source of instability and dissidence.

6. Instead of "Right to Reject" allow "Write-in" candidates: The idea behind "right to reject" is that during voting there should be a option of "No One." This was suggested in a movie. In light of implementing 1-5 I don’t see any usefulness of this idea by itself. However, a better idea is to have a write-in option where people can write the name of the person (who is not in the ballot) who they want to vote for. So people can write "No one" if they desire so. Or they can write someone’s name. This is a good back-up if at last moment one of the candidate passes-away or if there is some major change (say a major movement like the current movement) and people want to vote for someone who is not in the ballot.

A few points and recap of similar news:

1. TATA Steel has a football academy in Jamshedpur.
2. Hockey: SAIL has a hockey academy in Rourkela which serves the tribal belt around Sundergarh well.  The proposed Hockey academy in Bhubaneswar will be a good plus. I think KISS with its large tribal students could and would be one of the top recruiting ground for the proposed hockey academy.
3. Women’s footbal (soccer): As per the news item at http://www.dailypioneer.com/321111/FAO-glad-to-host-SAFF-Championship-in-December.html the Football Academy of Odisha (FAO) is setting up a woman football academy in Cuttack or Kendrapada.
4. Sports, Hockey: The above article also mentions that the State government is spending 20 crores for an Odisha Hockey Academy and astroturf hockey stadium in the Kalinga stadium complex. (See news item below.)
    
5. American Football: Bhubaneswar to be one of the eight teams in the Elite Football League that will start in 2012.
6. Indoor games: ECOR making an indoor stadium in Bhubaneswar.
7. Tennis Academy: Being established in Bhubaneswar.
8. Cricket Academy: Odisha Cricket academy has been established in Cuttack.
9. Cricket: ECOR has made a cricket stadium in Bhubaneswar and aims to make it of international standards.

Following is from a report in Telegraph:

1. Khurda – Balangir line: "… the process of separating the government land has been hampered because of the demand of premium for it by the concerned tehsildars. This, when the state government had exempted it.

   Between the 32km and the 112km marks of the line, 1,020 acres are required and out of this, 802 acres have been handed over by the state government.

   However, processing of papers for the land acquisition from the 80km to the 112km mark is held up for verification. This patch of land is crucial for the project."

2. Haridaspur-Paradip broad gauge line: " the progress of land acquisition has been hampered by the demand for higher compensation against acquired land by the local people. Interestingly, payment of ex gratia to the landlosers has already been made by Haridaspur- Paradip Rail Corporation Limited."
3. Talcher-Bimalagarh new broad gauge line: "… a total of 68.56 acres of government land and 58.865 acres of forestland is yet to be demarkated by the state government in favour of railways."
4. Angul-Sukinda new broad gauge line:  "has also not been taken up because of the state government’s non-cooperation. The project would involve 69 villages, but formalities have been completed only for 38 villages. Preliminary estimates regarding the remaining 31 villages are pending with the commerce and transport department for sanction."
5. Rajaathagarh-Barang doubling project: "… 11 acres were required. The total private land required for the project has been acquired and the alienation proposal is under process by the district administration."
6. Jharsuguda-Rengal doubling rail project: "119 acres are involved. Land measuring 14.570 acres in two villages is to be handed over to railways by the state government. The acquisition of another 4.310 acres is pending with the state government’s transport and commerce department."
7. Lanjigarh-Junagarh new broad gauge line: " work has been stalled because of non-acquisition of land. With the possession of 2.8km forestland yet to be reported by the divisional forest officer, Bhawanipatna, the construction has been held up.

Following is from the Team Orissa newsletter of AprilJune’2011.

In regards to the airport in Paradeep, there has been news that it will be an important aspect of the proposed PCPIR in Paradeep.

In the past, two other airport locations have been mentioned: Koraput/Jeypore/Sunabeda area and Balasore/Baripada/Rasgovindpur area. In fact, after Rourkela, Jharsuguda and Gopalpur, these two will be the important locations as they have the potential to be regional airports.

(Thanks to Situn and Rourkelacity.com for the pointer.)

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

Air taxi services between Rourkela and Calcutta will be launched from September 1. As a promotional fare, a one way trip per person (inclusive of all charges) would cost Rs 4,189 for Rourkela-Calcutta sector from September 1 till 11. Thereafter, the full fare of Rs 6,494 (inclusive of all charges) will be levied on the sector. The bookings on the Calcutta-Rourkela-Calcutta route is already on and available on the website www.dtdsindia.com.

We explored the DTDS webiste at http://www.dtdsindia.com/.  Following are some excerpts.

Between Kolkata airport and all the neighboring Steel City Bokaro, Jamshedpur, Burnpur, Durgapur (Panagarh), Rourkela airport at a fixed and convenient schedule.  …

As soon as you arrive at airport, our staff will greet you with your boarding ticket and escort you till the aircraft where you board and take off.

Following are the flight timings.

Now the people of Rourkela need to patronize this flight so that other careers get interested in scheduling regular flights to Rourkela.

The following comparison is based on the article http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Aruna-Roys-bill-seeks-to-fine-tune-clauses-in-Annas-Jan-Lokpal/articleshow/9700516.cms. I will add more to this as I read the bills in more detail and/or come across other comparisons of all three bills.

In http://164.100.47.5/newcommittee/press_release/press/Committee%20on%20Personnel,%20PublicGrievances,%20Law%20and%20Justice/PR%20-%20LB,%202011.pdf the parliament standing committee on this bill asks for a feedback memorandum. Following is a quote from that:

Those desirous of submitting memoranda to the Committee may send two copies thereof, neatly typed in double space (either in English or Hindi) to Shri K.P. Singh, Director, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, 201, Second Floor, Parliament House Annexe, New Delhi-110001 (Tel: 23034201, Fax: 23016784, E-mail: kpsingh@sansad.nic.in and rs-cpers@sansad.nic.in) within fifteen days of publication of this advertisement. Those who are willing to appear before the Committee for oral evidence besides submitting the memorandum may so indicate.

The Date of Publication of the above notice is 20th August, 2011 and the Last date for Submitting a Memorandum is 3rd September, 2011.

Following is a comparison of the Lokpal Bill and JanLokpal Bill by Hindustan Times. The part I agree with is annotated in red.

Following are Aruna Roy’s views as quoted in Economic Times. Her views resonate with me more than the views coming out of Anna’s camp.

Terming Anna Hazare’s Jan Lokpal Bill "impractical and complicated", noted social activist … Aruna Roy said that giving widespread powers to an unelected body is a "threat to democracy".

"Jan Lokpal is a bill impossible to implement. Also, it derails the checks and balances between the judiciary, executive and other organs of the democratic structure," Roy, 65, who pioneered the right to information (RTI) movement in the country, told IANS in an interview here.

"Not that we agree with the government Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal legislation should be thoroughly deliberated again by activists, lawmakers and all other stakeholders.

"We of course support the democratic right of Hazare to hold demonstrations and fast against the government. That is why we condemned the arrest of Hazare," she said. …

Asked about the huge public support Hazare has drawn, Roy said: "There have been huge gatherings in support of NGO-sponsored agitations, like the Narmada Bachao movement. It might not have got similar publicity, as live TV was not there then."…

Roy, a Magsaysay award winner, said the Jan Lokpal bill is a "giant, complicated exercise" as it tried to extend from the prime minister to a peon.

"It wants to bring the higher judiciary into its ambit, which otherwise should have been under the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill, 2010," she said.

She felt that the suggestion of dual duties — curbing corruption and redressing grievances — under the Jan Lokpal was not feasible.

"The Jan Lokpal is a threat to democracy as a powerful, non-elected agency can lead to abuse of power and abuse of authority. Power corrupts and absolutely power corrupts absolutely," she quipped.

"Grievance redressal should not be the role of the Lokpal; it should be the work of the executive.

"See, wages of lakhs of workers in the NREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) in Rajasthan have not been paid. But that is because the shortage of bank staff and other bureaucratic delays," she said.

The massive organisational setup suggested in the Jan Lokpal will lead to corruption and inefficiency, she cautioned.

"You may be able to find 11 Lokpal members of integrity, but it is difficult to create a clean set-up of thousands of staffers and hold them accountable," Roy said.

The government-drafted Lokpal is also deficient on several fronts, she added. Since it excludes cases under the state governments, there can be no probe against cases like the Adarsh housing society scandal, the Commonwealth Games scam and illegal mining in Karnataka.

She said excluding the prime minister and the higher judiciary was wrong. "This is a wrong practice. Nobody should be above the law," she said, adding that there should be certain safeguards. "Like both the Lokpal and the Supreme Court should agree on a probe against the prime minister."

Roy also suggested that the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill should be revised to facilitate effective action against the higher judiciary while the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) should be strengthened to probe junior officials.

The whistleblowers’ protection bill too should be revised to deal with the increasing attacks and threats against RTI activists, she suggested.

"The Lokpal bill should not become an issue of adamant stances, political rivalries and personality-driven agitations. What we need is a sincere, detailed debate for legislation of immense social significance and public concern," she said.

Roy, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer from 1968 to 1974, resigned from the government as the clouds of Emergency were gathering. …

Roy’s campaign for right to information led to the enactment of the RTI Act – in Rajasthan in 2000 and five years later at the national level.

I completely agree with Aruna Roy that the parliamentary standing committee must be respected. The fact that at some other time bills were passed without much of a debate does not mean that the same should be done here. The Lokpal set up, at least as described in the Jan Lokpal bill is like another branch of democracy and proper discussions must happen at all levels before a bill on this is passed.

Now some quotes from a Business Standard article.

Harsh Mander, another NCPRI member said: “I am worried about people on the streets, who are dreaming of a better country. How can we reduce it to just one view and one issue? Let us deepen the debate and struggle for a better India.”

He said more views should be taken into account and the best possible solution should be provided to these people.

However, Justice A P Shah was harsh in his criticism of the insistence of the Anna team on having only their version of the Bill passed. “Anna is not civil society and civil society is not Anna,” he said. He said that ombudsmen in no country is given power over judiciary and this was very dangerous.

The differences between the NCPRI and its supporters and Anna supporters on the Lok Pal Bill are just a few. But, it is what is seen as the intolerant attitude of the Anna team which has annoyed NCPRI members and supporters like Anhad to organise the press conference.

Roy added that actions of the team were tantamount to hijacking the democratic system. Democracy is for the poor and it is our responsibility to make it work. We can remove rotten parts in a system, but, we cannot throw away the system itself.

“I can sit on the streets and demand that the collector delivers, but I cant go and sit in the collector’s chair. What the Anna team wants is almost that,” she said.

… The two main differences in Anna’s Bill and Aruna Roy’s Bill are the non-inclusion of the judiciary in the latter’s version and the replacement of a single Lok Pal with a three-level structure to investigate corruption at different levels of the society.

But, it is not the differences in the Bill that is causing concern to those who differ from Anna Hazare.

Roy said, “If Anna has a right to dissent, he should also acknowledge and admit the right of other people in the country to have differences with him on the Lok Pal”.

She said it was solely because of Anna Hazare and his team that Lok Pal has today become such a big issue.

Arvind Kejriwal, member of the Anna Hazare team said it was a misunderstanding that they were holding the Parliament to ransom on the Bill. He also dismissed the differences with Aruna Roy on the Bill as very minor.

“Multiple agencies to deal with corruption would lead to confusion. When a complaint is filed, we don’t know if a higher official or a lower official is involved. So it cannot work,” said Prashant Bhushan, another memeber of Hazare’s team.

I partly agree and partly disagree with the last statement of Prashant Bhusan. In case of RTI also one may not know which office to file the RTI. But ultimately it can trickle down from a top office to a lower office. The same can happen with respect to corruption complaints. However, a proper procedure should be laid out when it is clear that "corruption" has happened but is not clear at what level.

Finally, check out the articles and comments in the following:

• http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2376421.ece, especially its comments section has multitudes of views on this topic.
• http://www.business-standard.com/taketwo/news/willanna-wave-last/446294/ lists many who oppose Anna team’s approach and the Jan Lokpal bill and explains why.

The site http://www.prajnya.in/lokpaldebate.htm has a lot of pointers on all these. Following are links from that site.

• Government’s Lokpal bill: The PRS India website has the best collection of drafts and background resources relating to the Lokpal Bill.
• Jan Lokpal Bill:  Draft Bill, June 21, 2011 version.Other resources from the India Against Corruption site are available here, including "Salient features of the Jan Lokpal Bill."
• The Lokpal – NCPRI approach: Letter from Aruna Roy, MKSS; Scope and Coverage—Lokpal Basket of Measures ; (links to ppt converted) (PDF version here);  Collective and Concurrent Lokpal  Anti-Corruption and Grievance  Redress Measures, 3 July 2011  (PDF version); NCPRI Press Release, Aug 16, 2011; About the NCPRI
   

Again, the site http://www.prajnya.in/lokpaldebate.htm has a lot of pointers.

My appeal to people is to read all three and think for themselves rather than blindly following someone.

As I mention in http://www.orissalinks.com/orissagrowth/archives/5193, I support the bigger goals of the Jan Lokpal movement, which I will call the "True Democracy movement". However, in the following I give some comments and ask some questions to the statement "Beware of the Government Lokpal Bill" by Arvind Kejriwal. I got his statement from  http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150744895270714.

Beware of the Government Lokpal Bill

My dear friend,

I reviewed the Government.s Lokpal bill in great detail. I am deeply concerned and not to mention alarmed with what I learned from it. Government has completely ignored the wishes of the common man and made a mockery of our hard fought struggle for strong anti-corruption laws. I have summarized the most troubling aspects of the government version here and suggested possible steps that everyone of you can take to help in this movement.

We had been demanding that an institution called Lokpal should be set up for central government and a Lokayukta should be set up for each state government through the same Bill. Lokpal would receive and investigate corruption complaints against central government employees and politicians. Lokayukta would do that job in respective states. However, the Cabinet has rejected our demand. Only a few senior-most officers in central government have been brought within the jurisdiction of Lokpal. All officials and politicians in state governments have been left out.

What does that mean?

• It means that rampant corruption in Panchayat works would continue as it is. Through the use of RTI Act, many people across the country have revealed how payments are routinely made for ghost works. Check dams exist only on paper. List of beneficiaries of various government schemes contain bogus names. Wages of poorest people are denied and siphoned off under NREGA. Social audits in several states have exposed corruption running into thousands of crores in NREGA. Medicines are routinely diverted to black market from government hospitals. Teachers do not turn up in government schools. They pay a part of their salaries to Basic Shiksha Adhikari to mark their attendance. 80% of Rs 30,000 crores of ration subsidy is siphoned off. People living below poverty line are turned away by ration shopkeepers because their rations are diverted to black market. Much of this money reaches the party coffers or the senior-most politicians. All this will continue even after the enactment of government.s Lokpal Bill because all of this is outside its jurisdiction.

• In cities, roads would continue to break after a few months of being constructed. Flyovers would continue to collapse. Streetlights will still not light up. Parks would continue to remain dilapidated. The builders would continue to fleece ordinary consumers. You would still need to pay bribes to get your passport or income tax refund. Building plan will not be passed without a bribe. Government.s Lokpal Bill does not cover any of this.

• Adarsh Housing scam is not covered under Government’s Lokpal. Reddy brothers will continue to loot our mines and minerals. Commonwealth Games, Fodder scam, Taj Corridor Scam, Yamuna Expressway scam, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha scam, Cash for vote scam. none of these scams are covered under Government’s Lokpal Bill.

• Members of Parliament and MLAs would continue to take bribes to ask questions or vote in Parliament and legislative assemblies because Lokpal would not have the powers to investigate them.

• Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, MPs, MLAs, municipal councilors, sarpanches, judges, all state government employees, all Group B, Group C and group D employees of the central government. all are out of the jurisdiction of Government’s Lokpal Bill.

• Interestingly, if any citizen makes a complaint of corruption against any official to Lokpal and if it lacks adequate evidence, then as per government’s bill, the citizen would face two years of minimum imprisonment. And the government would provide a free advocate to the corrupt official to file a case against the citizen. But if the citizen is able to prove that the official has indeed indulged in corruption, there is just six months of minimum imprisonment. Therefore, rather than the corrupt and corruption, the government bill is targeted against those who dare raise their voice against corruption. In short, it discourages people from reporting acts of corruption!

Question: I partly agree with the above point. But there should be a mechanism to discourage people from filing frivolous charges.

• 13 people, who had dared to raise their voice against corruption, were murdered in the last one year. We had demanded that Lokpal should have the powers and duty to provide protection to such people. Government Bill does not have any such provision.

Comment: Lokpal bill or not, the government has the duty to protect all people.  With millions of complaints that is expected be made, it is not feasible to ask that the government provide special protection to all of them. May be there can be a mechanism to provide protection on a case by case basis.

• Government has retained its control over CBI. So, CBI would continue to avoid taking action against a future Raja until Supreme Court admonished them. Accounts of Quattrochis would continue to be defrozen in secrecy against national interests. CBI would continue to be used to arm twist Mayawatis, Laloo Yadavs, Jayalalithas and Mulayam Singhs into submission. Corruption money would continue to be siphoned off to Swiss accounts.

• Government’s Lokpal Bill is also unconstitutional. Prime Minister does not enjoy any immunity from investigations under the constitution. Exclusion of Prime Minister from Lokpal Bill is unconstitutional.

Comment: I am no constitutional lawyer; but I don’t agree with the above.

• Selection and removal of Lokpal members will be completely in the control of the government. Out of 9 member selection committee, five will be from ruling establishment, thus effectively giving powers in the hands of the government to appoint the most corrupt, pliable and politically loyal people as Lokpal members.

Comments: This should be negotiated based on various pros and cons.

• High Courts and Supreme Court would continue to take more than 20 years to dispose appeals in corruption cases because our plea to set up special benches to hear such appeals has also been turned down.

Government says that there are 1.25 crore government employees in the country. Government refuses to bring them under Lokpal Bill because it would need large number of anti-corruption staff to keep a check on them. Isn’t that an absurd excuse? India is a huge country. Obviously, it has large number of employees. Can the government leave them unchecked and allow them to loot the people and the country? Under law, corruption is a crime, as heinous as murder or rape. If tomorrow, the incidence of murders or rapes increases as much as we have corruption now, would the government turn around and say that this country has 120 crore population and since they would need large number of policemen to check crime, they would not do it?

The country seems to be in the clutches of highly corrupt people. It has been reported that in the Cabinet Meeting, the Prime Minister, including some of his other Cabinet colleagues, kept pleading that PM be included within the Lokpal Bill. However, the corrupt within the Cabinet had the last say. The Prime Minister was rendered helpless, though one wonders the reasons for his helplessness.

What are our options? Some people feel that Anna is unreasonable. They say that an indefinite fast is a brahmastra and should be used as a last resort. Haven’t we already reached the end of the road?

Friends, I must confess that the road ahead is extremely challenging. Government is on a path to try and crush the movement at any cost. We need the active participation of every single Indian in order to fight back. If the Government.s bill becomes law we are literally gifting our country to the corrupt people to further plunder our resources.

Like I have said before its now or never.

Let every citizen in this country take one week.s off from his normal work from 16th August, the day Anna starts his indefinite fast, and take to the streets . in front of his house or at the crossings or in parks . with a tricolor in his hands shouting slogans against corruption. Let students take off from their schools and colleges. Let everyone take to streets. If this happens, we will achieve our goal within a week. Government can crush one Anna but it cannot crush 120 crore Annas. Government can impose section 144 on one jantar mantar. But it cannot impose a curfew on the whole country.

Can we count on you support to participate in one final attempt to save our country from the corrupt?

Arvind Kejriwal

 

The above two videos give me some understanding of the goal of this movement. While I have still not educated myself on the issue of the need of a Lokpal, let alone on which of the two bills (the govt Lokpal bill and the Jan Lokpal bill) is better in which points, I think there is a need to reform the political system in India.

I almost agree with Prashant Bhushan when he says that in the current system people mostly vote for parties. I will modify it slightly and say:  in the current system people mostly vote for the parties and party icons. What this means is Sonia Gandhi or L. K. Advani or Naveen Patnaik decides who will be their party candidate some random place in Odisha.

I think if this movement grows further and is able to achieve some kind of a primary election system to decide on candidates from various parties in various seats then that would significantly improve the political system in India. If that happens, no longer Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi or L. K. Advani or Naveen Patnaik would be able to dictate their party candidates. That will allow more grassroots participation of democracy and tainted and/or corrupt people running for office will have a higher chance of getting eliminated before the final election. It will also reduce the stupid system that is being followed where by sons and daughters of politicians are automatically given huge advantages, and not only in terms of party tickets but even in terms of ministrial positions. (For example, the current ministers Jyotiraj Sindhia, Agatha Sangma, Kumari Selja, etc. come to mind.)

In addition the anti-defection amendment needs to be modified so that MPs can vote on bills based on their conscience and not just follow the diktat of the party bosses.

Perhaps the above two can be done through a "True Democracy Bill" or "People’s democracy Bill" that the Anna team will go after after the Lokpal bill is settled.

Coming back to the Lokpal bill, I think the timeline of 18 days is unreasonable. For such an important bill there should be more discussions and states need to be asked for their opinion. However, it should not be indefinitely delayed.

Following is from http://www.idco.in/2009/Aluminium_Park_IEOI_Document%2026.07.11.pdf.

EOI SUBMISSION – DATE AND TIME 7.1. The Interested Parties should submit their EOIs, in the form & manner mentioned under Clause 4 hereinabove and seal it in an outer envelope and mark the envelope as “ EOI for Participating in the proposed Aluminium Park at Angul” on or before 17: 00 hours (IST) on September 20, 2011.

SITE DETAILS

1. The site of around 450 (four hundred and fifty) acres is located adjacent to the NALCO smelter plant in Banarpal Block of Angul District south of NH 42 and for the purpose of clarity it is delineated with red boundary line in the map under clause 2 herein below (the ‘Site’).

2. The Site is undulating in nature with no apparent physical encroachments and utility lines.

INFRASTRUCTURE LINKAGES

1. Approach Road: There is an access to the site from NH 42 through a single lane carriageway through Kulad village having a length of around 2.50 km. In addition, the Site is also connected by a single lane road of length 6.4 km from NH 42 running along the periphery of the NALCO smelter unit. An alternate dedicated approach road to the site from NH 42 is being planned by IDCO. In addition, the proposed Aluminium Park shall be having a connecting link road from the proposed Angul Bypass Road.

2. Rail: There exists a single track rail siding of NALCO which runs along the edge of the site till Budhapanka Railway Station with a length of about 14 km.

3. Water: Major perennial source of water for the site is river Brahmani to the north of the site on the other side of NH 42 at a distance of about 15 KM. To the extent possible, technologies and processes to be implemented by the prospective unit holders within the proposed park should aim at maximizing recirculation and reuse of water as major demand of water for envisaged processes is expected to be for cooling requirements. This would ensure in optimizing water requirements for the park on a sustainable basis.

4. Power: One of the major substations of the State is located at Meramandali (400/220/132/33 KV) which shall be approximately 7 Km from the Site. National Grid located at Chainpal near Talcher Thermal Power Station is also a likely source. Power shall be a key parameter for the Project and steps would be taken to consider sustainability.

PROJECT CONCEPT

1. Primarily, the idea is to promote aluminium based downstream and ancillary units in Orissa and to capitalize upon the inherent location based advantage for the Site. The current practice for the NALCO smelter unit is to extract aluminium having purity of about 99.97% through an electrolytic process in potlines at a temperature of around 10000c in molten form and then to utilize the same in casting standard billets, ingots, plates, wire rods, sheets etc. Aluminium in solid form as mentioned above is procured by downstream industries and utilized for different end products. Due to proximity of the Site with respect to the smelter unit, the molten metal directly may be procured by interested downstream industrial units within the proposed park and then utilized to form different end products as desired. Even considering issues like chances of oxidation, dross formation or heat loss during the transfer process for molten aluminium, advantages for prospective unit holders within the park using aluminium in molten form rather than the conventionally used solid form include:
• Savings in terms of energy costs for the downstream industrial units
• Reduction in terms of adverse environmental impact due to reduction in energy
requirement for the process and transportation needs • Better quality of the metal in terms of lesser chemical impurities
• Efficient management of inventory with minimized requirement of stock for unit holders

2. Under the Project, the Aluminium Park is being proposed to be developed as a state-ofthe- art industrial park for entrepreneurs in related business who shall set up new units within the park and utilize the molten metal as mentioned above. The existing customers of NALCO who currently buy the metal in conventionally available solid form and utilize it for various end products at locations away from the smelter unit in Angul may also relocate their plants/set up new units in the proposed Aluminium Park.

3. In addition, ancillary units may also set up units within the proposed Aluminium Park. There would be a mutually benefitting relationship between such units and NALCO.

4. The Aluminium Park would be so developed so as to fulfill comprehensively the functional requirements in terms of common facilities, physical and social infrastructure amidst a green environment. The suggested components that may come up within the the Aluminium Park include:
• Industrial Sheds / Plots
• Warehouses/Storage Facilities
• Common Facility Centers
• Material recycling and handling facilities
• Skill development centers and ITIs
• Landscaped (green) areas, Buffer Zones
• Truck Terminal and Parking facilities

5. The envisaged support infrastructure facilities for the Project to include:
• Reserved green space
• A systematic network of internal roads
• Regular supply of quality water with adequate storage facilities
• Reliable power supply to ensure maximization of production levels on a sustainable basis including renewable energy sources
• Promoting the use of solar energy to the extent possible
• Underground utility lines
• Fire fighting system for the Park
• Adequate parking space for trucks/others
• Common effluent treatment and solid waste disposal and management facilities including for hazardous and non hazardous wastes
• Sturdy storm water and Sewerage networks, Sewage Treatment Plant
• Common Rail Siding
• Banks / ATMs / STD – PCOs
• Public and Semi public facilities including Emergency Health Services, Crèche, Public Health Centers etc.
• Efficient and professional service-oriented Operations & Maintenance system
• Dedicated access controlled road corridor from NALCO smelter unit for carriage of molten aluminium

6. For the downstream industrial units, molten aluminium may be arranged to be supplied through a dedicated road corridor from the NALCO smelter unit with appropriate safety measures. Units may make payments individually to NALCO for the molten metal being used and a suitable pricing mechanism for molten metal shall be established by NALCO for the park including provisions for revision.

7. The suggested indicative products for the proposed Aluminum Park would include:

Downstream Industries of Aluminium
• Conductors
• Extrusions
• Castings
• Foil
• Others including powder

Ancillary Industries
• Raw materials like caustic soda, coal tar pitch, alum etc.
• Dross recovery unit
• Mechanical Items: Chisel Poker, LDPE sheets, Ingot skimming tool, etc
• Instrumentation Electronic Items: Alarm card, Pressure Switch, T/C sockets, photocell etc
• Refractory Items- like LCC lid cover, flue wall bricks etc.
• Miscellaneous Items- Hand gloves, casting wheel nozzle, cotton dust mask etc.

8. Products to be considered for commercial production within the proposed Park shall be decided based on mutual consent of the prospective Entrepreneurs/Manufacturers and AAPPL –the project SPV taking into account current and planned production facilities and commercial plans of the existing NALCO Smelter Unit adjacent to the proposed project site.

9 The aspect of current pollution level at the Angul Talcher Area shall be critically considered while assessing investment proposals and arriving at the final Project contours

Update: The San Jose Mercury News has a long article on this and talks about how it happened and what the future plans are. I hope other expatriate Odia groups in different parts of the world will make similar efforts.

Following is an excerpt from a report in a Cupertino news paper.

Reflective of Cupertino’s growing Indian population, the city is getting a new sister city in Bhubaneswar, India, thanks to a major push by citizens, Rotary Clubs on two continents, and the blessing of the City Council on Tuesday night. The Bhubaneswar Sister City Initiative, a committee of local citizens, told the council that residents from both cities are anxious to establish a connection. Committee member Mahesh Pakala said Bhubaneswar is “considered the cleanest and greenest city in India,” and like Cupertino is home to high tech companies and has a strong interest in education. Mayor Gilbert Wong visited Bhubaneswar, a 2,000-year-old city on the north east coast of India that serves as the capital of the state of Orissa, earlier this year. Bhubaneswar will be the fourth sister city for Cupertino. Two active committees promote relationships with Toyokawa, Japan, and Hsinchu, Taiwan, Republic of China; the city has a less active relationship with Copertino, Italy.

The official web site of Cupertino, CA is http://www.cupertino.org/. Cupertino’s wikipedia page is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupertino,_California. Following is an excerpt from its wikipedia page.

Cupertino is one of many cities that claim to be the "heart" of Silicon Valley, as many semi-conductor and computer companies were founded here and in the surrounding areas. The worldwide headquarters for Apple Inc. is also located here in a modern complex circled by the playfully named Infinite Loop. Apple has also announced that it plans to build a new 150-acre (610,000 m²) second campus between Interstate 280, N Wolfe Rd, E Homestead Rd and along Tantau Ave one mile east of the old campus. The different (nine) properties (50-acre (0.2 km²) south of Pruneridge Avenue were bought in 2006, the property (100-acre (0.4 km²) north of it in 2010 (from Hewlett-Packard).

As per the wikipedia page, as of today, three of its top five employers are: Apple (34,300 employees in the area), Oracle (8,000 employees in the area) and HP (3,000 employees).