Monday, October 31, 2011

Prakash Kaur, 60, began life as a foundling. Today she is mother to 60-odd abandoned girls in a unique shelter in Jalandhar, Punjab

IIPM Mumbai Campus

The woman behind the home is Prakash Kaur, who was herself left on the streets as a baby 60 years ago. Since 1993, she has dedicated her life to the noble but onerous mission of rescuing unwanted and unclaimed newborn girls and giving them a secure home and future.

Today, Unique Home for Girls has 60-odd residents who call Prakash Kaur mother. “They are my own children,” the lady says. “They are never made to feel like abandoned children.”

As we walk around the home, it is easy to see that her claim is quite well-founded. Even as her ‘family’ expands and her responsibilities grow, Prakash Kaur’s fount of maternal compassion shows no signs of drying up.

She has touched the lives of many who’ve been cruelly shunned by their own. Siya was only a few hours old when she was found in a drain, wrapped in a black polythene bag. Reva was a newborn when her parents decided to dump her near the highway off Kapurthala. Razia and Rabiya were just a few days old when they were discovered in the fields outside Jalandhar.

These girls have all found shelter in Unique Home, where they now enjoy the real family experience that their pitiless parents chose to deprive them of simply because of their gender. The girls who live here range from the age of four days to 19 years.

Unique Home is run by a trust named after Bhai Ghanayya Ji, a disciple of Guru Gobind Singh. The trust aims to raise these children as healthy individuals and arm them with all the social skills and educational qualifications that they need to face life on their own terms. The girls could not have found a better person than Prakash Kaur for the job of providing them with support and succour.

Most of Unique Home’s inmates arrive here as hapless, barely alive foundlings. So they have no recollections of how they are brought here. But those that have grown up in the life-affirming warmth of this home are proud that they belong here.

Under Prakash Kaur’s care and tutelage, these girls are all well adjusted individuals willing and able to take their rightful place in a society that still seems to harbour a strong aversion to children of their gender.

Prakash Kaur is acutely aware of the challenges that lie before her, but she has faith. “Yeh uparwaale ka kaam hai. Jab ussney yeh zimmedaari di hai to himmat bhi wohi dega. Jab aaj tak mujhe koi mushkil nahin aayee to aagey bhi nahin aayegi. Neki key kaam mein kabhi koi rukawat nahin aati,” she says. She is obviously getting on in years but she still retains the strength to make chapatis for all the inmates of the home three times a day and seven days a week.

The first thing that strikes one in Unique Home is a small hatched box near the entrance. It is called the “cradle”. Flip open the hatch and you see a shelf built into the wall. When a rescued child is placed on the shelf, it sets off an alarm that tells the staff that they have a new girl to take care of. When it comes to christening the new arrivals, names are drawn from all the religions of India. So at Unique Home, girls have Hindu, Muslim and Christian and Sikh names and faith has no restrictions.

Although we visited Unique Home without any prior notice, Prakash Kaur ensured that we were made to feel at home. Not surprising at all coming from a lady who has dedicated her life to dispelling a bit of the darkness that engulfs Punjab, indeed all of India. The girls brought to Unique Home grow up with a sense of belonging. This is the only home they know.

For a home that houses 60-odd girls, the place looks a bit too small. The rather cramped space has limited amenities for the girls, including three small rooms that serve as bedroom, dining area and playroom, in addition to a small kitchen and an office for visitors.

The room that is meant for infants has three big cradles. Each has four to five babies sleeping in them. Unique Home has now acquired a new site and expansion plans are in place.

But living space is the least of the home’s problems for the hearts here are big. This is like a huge family where the older girls take care of the younger ones. We are told by the founder that the girls go to good English medium schools like Saint Mary’s in Mussoorie. A few have since been married into suitable homes. But Prakash Kaur’s responsibility does not end there.

She continues to keep a watch over the girls even after they are married. She fights for their rights if the in-laws prove to be difficult. Take the case of former Unique Home inmate Alka. When her husband died prematurely, her in-laws grabbed all her property and threw her out of the house. Prakash Kaur intervened and fought tooth and nail. She eventually managed to secure for Alka her rightful share in the family property.

So far Prakash Kaur has organised the marriages of 17 of the Unique Home inmates. While a few of these girls graduated from college before they got married, the remaining tied the knot after passing out of high school. However, several of the older girls here have decided not to marry and instead dedicate themselves, like Prakash Kaur, to the service of Unique Home.

April 24 is a very special day at Unique Home. It is the day when the children here collectively celebrate their birthday. A huge 100-kg cake is cut and the day is marked by much merriment. That apart, once every year, during the summer holidays, the inmates of Unique Home go on a trip to Darjeeling.

On our visit to the home, we ate lunch with the children. The food was simple but delicious: rice, chapatis and aloo gobhi. Prakash Kaur made fresh chapatis for all the 60 children.

“We don’t want to give our kids up for adoption. People come to us but we refuse,” says Prakash Kaur. Although she did not give us any specific details, she told us that she knows of many cases in which adopted girls have been ill treated.

Prakash Kaur herself has no idea who her parents were. She was found abandoned and grew up in a Nari Niketan. She describes the work she does today as “the lord’s work”.

Asked if she ever faced any mistreatment in the Nari Niketan where she grew up, she smiles and says: “I will never allow my daughters to work as maids anywhere.”

The most essential part of this home is that the children are aware of the fact that their real parents have abandoned them because they are obsessed with boys. But this poisonous truth has only strengthened their resolve to prove themselves. Sheeba, who studies in a convent school in Mussoorie, wants to be a successful neurosurgeon.

“I want my real mother to know that the daughter she threw out of her life is well established. I want to be very famous. I want to prove to her that girls are not a burden,” she says. Sheeba has always stood first in her class with A-plus grades. She is determined to make it to a good medical college.

Lucy is 19 years old. She wants to be a professor of English. “I believe that education is the only way forward in this society which discriminates against girl children,” she says.

Punjab has one of India’s most skewed sex ratios. The percentage of women in the state’s population keeps dipping every year. A growing shortage of marriageable girls has forced men here to find partners in different cultures and states.

“When French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni came to India, they prayed for a boy. I was shocked. I used to think that Westerners treat both genders equally. He could have asked for a girl. It would have sent out a message to the people of India. It’s rather sad,” says Prakash Kaur. The French first couple prayed for a son at the Fatehpur Sikri dargah of Sufi saint Salim Chishti.

Female foeticide is on the rise, especially among the educated class and in higher strata of society. It has assumed alarming proportions. According to NGOs working with issues related to women, every year, 10 lakh cases of female foeticide take place in the country with the help of gender determination tests. The death of young girls in India exceed those of young boys by over 300,000 each year and every 6th infant death is specifically due to gender discrimination.

According to Anjalee Shenoy of Sama Resource Centre for Women and Health, new techniques like PGD (pre-implant genetic diagnosis), a method that involves producing embryos through IVF, cannot just help you decide the gender of the child but the colour of skin and hair. And there is no effective law in place right now to stop this practice. “This falls under the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, but it is going undetected,” says Shenoy.

But there is hope yet. If only Prakash Kaur’s selfless spirit would rub off on society at large.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri

IIPM: What is E-PAT?
"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here

Friday, October 28, 2011

End this culture rightaway

Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM

The evil of violence extends beyond determining who gets to enjoy power, it destroys a society

The sporadic but widespread bloodshed in West Bengal today is causing genuine worries among commoners as most of the victims or casualties are youths, bubbling with energy and potential but nipped in the bud by a ruthlessly violent political machine. They are being killed in the villages and towns, on the top of the hills or in the middle of the jungles, inside colleges and immediate neighbourhoods. People play the role of onlookers as if the young people – killed or injured – do not belong to the society.

The malaise is deeper than the episodes where social conscience is in a semi-comatose state. The society is in grave jeopardy. The disease of inequality, corruption and misuse of power is ruling the roost. Both state and non-state actors have used violence like it will bring magic solution to all problems. The somewhat normal life and livelihood of people in the villages, whose lives have been caught up in this conflict, have been shattered.

The loss to the society has two dimensions that interpenetrate each other in terms of tragedy. Certainly, those who were killed for no fault of themselves cause a loss to the micro-society they lived in. But the damage is more penetrating for the youths that were not killed but related to the dead souls. The differential social impact on the extinguished and the combusting ones makes its unstable presence felt here. One pathos pierce another, along with avoidable escalation of mutual hatred that hampers the social texture of normal times. It’s not that just the academic milieu gets vitiated; the we-feeling among the youths is seriously fractured.

These acts of bloodsheds, in the guise of intra-party and inter-party rivalry or by any other name, are not natural as such violent episodes are aberrations in normal societal life. Lost are social assets in most of these deaths. Political parties are trying to cash in on these killings. The more the number of deaths, the more buoyant get their political and material benefits, albeit in the short term.

When those youths were alive, political leaders and the parties never knew them. After their deaths, political parties politicise the funerals of the victims, organise processions with dead bodies and make them martyrs in their political interests. Even if they do not openly preach and teach violence, they are not shy of reaping the profits of violence. In fact, all political parties have ‘blood on their hands’ today. They not only reap the harvest of deaths but instigate and pitch in their part. It is the political leaders who create malice among members of Gen-Next and make them kill one another.

They are engrossed in shameless ‘parliamentary cretinism’, seldom caring for the society of electorates or the well-being of the youths in general. These people did not matter so much when they were living than what their blood-stained bodies are worth. The society is at dangerous crossroads though the political class has already crossed it. The wounds are inflicted on the whole society and the entire society bleeds. And for that, we the elders, the parents, the common people – who are sometimes afraid to raise their voices in fear of state reprisal – want this to be stopped. We demand that all the political parties give patient hearings to what we have to say.

Use of violence as a means of grabbing power is not just true for West Bengal. It’s a global phenomenon. Violence is made into a culture. Now a large part of the world is looking back at the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, who never compromised with violence even at the cost of the country’s freedom. He once said, “I cannot teach you violence as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one, even at the cost of your life.”

Political consciousness today is a vague and misleading concept as the democratic polity is injured and social commitment is tragically scarce. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the conscientious ex-Governor of West Bengal, stated very aptly: “Violence is crime’s signature. And that signature, in its many twists and loops, grows. And it often becomes oblique.” Violence is a hindrance to democratic life and normal social growth. It is time to disapprove of violence in every form. Violence is introduced by the state, we have learnt that from history and are witnessing the same in our daily lives. Anything that throttles the freedom of life – not just freedom of expression, association or the Press – is to be opposed. But that protest should have no room for violence but should be conducted in a benign and communicative way.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill
IIPM: What is E-PAT?
"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Male over female

'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here

Tamil Nadu female foeticide: Many districts in Tamil Nadu show a skewed sex ratio

Secondary sex ratio (also called sex ratio at birth) in Tamil Nadu is declining at an alarming pace, reveals recent data. While the standard sex ratio at birth should be 952 females per 1000 males, it is 939:1000 in some rural parts of Tamil Nadu.

While various socio-economic factors can be attributed to this decline in the secondary sex ratio, activists point out that advancement in technology has facilitated this decline. It is very easy now to determine the sex of the foetus through ultrasonography. The mushrooming scan centres in the state bear testimony to the fact that the business is flourishing. Jeeva, a member of the core committee of the Campaign Against Sex Selective Abortion (CASSA) points out while talking to TSI that there are 3560 pre-natal scan centres in Tamil Nadu, and though they all claim that they do not reveal the sex of the foetus to anybody, the declining sex ratio at birth tells another story.

“There are 1530 primary health centres (PHC) in Tamil Nadu run by the government. According to the data available in 2008, at 689 PHCs the sex ratio is below normal,” adds Jeeva. Besides, as many as 434 primary health centres recorded a shocking sex ratio at birth below 900 female children per 1000 males.

“Earlier it was female infanticide. The districts of Madurai, Theni, Salem and Dharmapuri were particularly notorious for this. But now with the advent of scan centres it has transformed into female foeticide. This practice is prevalent in other districts also. This inhuman trend is being noted in about a dozen districts in Tamil Nadu,” says Balasundari, state convenor, CASSA.

The preference for male children over female has resulted in skewed sex ratio. Although determination of sex before birth through pre-natal diagnostic techniques is illegal, not many diagnostic centres abide by the rules it seems. Nevertheless, there are monitoring authorities at various levels.

“I feel the government should be more assertive and strict when monitoring the scan centres,” says Kavitha Ganesh, editor of the magazine Penne nee, adding, “The menace of dowry in society is still haunting the female child. It affects her even when she is in the womb of her mother. On the other hand I see that more girl students are being sent to schools and colleges, which is a positive trend. More awareness should be created in the society about the opportunities created for girls.”

S.P. Sarguna Pandian, chairperson of the state women commission, stresses the need of the society to be aware of the value of a female child. “When we kill a female child, whether in the womb or outside, we kill a mother who can give birth to many boys. Those who run scan centres should take a pledge that they would never disclose the sex of the child,” she says while talking to TSI.

She also highlights the steps the state government is taking to discourage people from killing girls in the womb. “Now Tamil Nadu government gives more economic help to girls from their education to marriage. Besides, it has brought law to make female children to be the legal heir of the family,” informs Pandian.

The statistics show a healthy sex ratio among the educated sections. So probably the answer to the problem lies in education and awareness.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill
IIPM: What is E-PAT?
"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Former Andhra CM suddenly talks of farmer welfare

IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS

Andhra pradesh politics: Naidu's changed tone

When Nara Chandrababu Naidu sat on an indefinite fast for the sake of forlorn farmers of the calamity-hit coastal Andhra, taking the public amnesia for granted, the farmers were happy to see a changed Naidu. The former CM's eight-day hunger strike is nonetheless a medical miracle as he is a severe diabetic.

“How could anyone believe that Naidu’s indefinite fast was meant for welfare of farmers,” housing minister Kanna Laxminarayana wondered while talking to The Sunday Indian, taking a dig on Naidu's allegedly anti-farmer policies. “Naidu’s much hyped Vision 2020 programme did not have any significant provision to rehabilitate the farmers,” says PCC Kisan cell chairman, Kodanda Reddy.

Naidu received flak from all quarters for neglecting farmers and labourers during his tenure. Farmers were asked not to produce more rice as the state had no place to stock it. They were encouraged to shift to commercial crops such as tobacco, cotton, chillies and castor seed. This forced shift led to more suicides as the ill-equipped small farmers were no match for the big players ruling the market. The commercial crops required huge investments which the small farmers could not make.

Naidu became more unpopular among the farmers and labourers when his government refused to sanction ex-gratia to the bereaved families arguing that it would induce farmers into a suicide spree. Owing to his lopsided views on agriculture, he paid heavy price during the 2004 general elections.

Now, Naidu, who paid little attention to agriculture and irrigation facilities and turned a deaf ear to the plight of farmers when they were struck by, is ironically projecting himself as a messiah of farmers. “I feel the criticism on our leader’s views about agriculture is biased and unilateral. Even if that criticism on his past actions was valid, will it take away his right to voice for the welfare of farmers now? Don’t you allow any revision and re-examining of thoughts and views?” Nannapaneni Raja Kumari, a Telugu Desam MLC told TSI when contacted.

According to the senior political analyst, B.C. Sekhar, Naidu is not a changed soul. “His consistent objective is to promote the commercial interests of the agribusiness companies, foreign financial institutes, international bankers and the IT hardware units. When there has been a drastic change in the world scenario and when agriculture has again come into the centre stage, Naidu has tuned himself accordingly,” says Sekhar. According to him, Naidu developed sudden affection for agriculture when World Development Report 2008 called for greater investment in agriculture in developing countries. Thus, Naidu consistently dances to obvious tunes, this time around it's in the name of farmers!

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill

IIPM: What is E-PAT?
"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Manipur cops rub scribes the wrong way

The arrest of a respected editor on an allegedly trumped up charge sees journalists cease work

No newspaper was published in Manipur for six consecutive days as scribes protested against the arrest of A. Mobi, editor of Sanaleibak. Mobi, who is also the vice-president cum spokesperson of the All Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU), was arrested on the charge of being an activist of the proscribed Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), Tabungba Group.

Mobi, who is 55 years old, was picked up at around 9.30 am on December 29 by police commandos in civil dresses who came on a pedal rickshaw. The police claimed to have recovered “extorted” money amounting to Rs 50,000, two mobile handsets, a LML NV scooter bearing no registration number from Mobi's possession. Section 17 and 20 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act were slapped on him and the police filed a case under FIR No 575 (12) 10 IPS. He was remanded to police custody till January 5 and was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Imphal.

As news of the arrest spread, scribes gathered at Manipur Press Club and discussed the charges levelled against him. Standing firmly behind the editor, AMWJU labelled it as a frame-up. Setting the record straight, AMWJU said that Mobi was in his office room when police commandos arrived in a rickshaw under the guise of KCP members and arrested him.

Apart from being the vice-president of AMWJU, Mobi shouldered the additional responsibility of being its spokesperson to mitigate the various threats that the media in the state is routinely subjected to. With the state police unable to instil a sense of security amongst the media professionals and instances such as sending bombs to media offices, threats issued by armed groups or physical attacks on the offices of the newspaper on the rise, AMWJU turned to Mobi. As Mobi was the contact man of AMWJU, the banned KCP had contacted him some time back for a meeting between them and the Manipuri media outside the state. Since the matter was sensitive, it was kept a secret and not spelt out to all AMWJU members.

However, as AMWJU had no provision to bear the expenditure involved in the travel of journalists to meet the underground cadres, KCP agreed to foot the Rs 50,000 bill. They said the amount would be delivered to Mobi’s office at 9:30 am on December 29. Accordingly, Mobi waited for them at his office.

Mobi received a call in the morning that the sum of Rs 50, 000 meant for the travel expenditure of the media persons has been dispatched and that he may collect the same from two people in a pedal rickshaw parked outside his office.

However, when Mobi went out of his office to collect the money, the two people outside pulled out guns. He tried to fight them, he thought they were underground cadres. But the two identified themselves as police commandos. At that very moment, Mobi received a call from a KCP pointsman who called to enquire whether he had received the money. The police team forced him to say yes. When AMWJU representatives met him in police custody in the evening, Mobi told them that he had not even seen the amount which the police claimed to have seized from his possession. At the time of his arrest, he only had Rs 2000 in his pocket. That amount was seized along with two mobile phones and the keys of his scooter. AMWJU has refuted all charges levelled against Mobi as nothing but a blatant frame-up. The Rs 50,000 which the police claimed was seized from Mobi, was actually brought by the police commandos, AMWJU says.

To settle the matter, AMWJU representatives wanted to meet chief minister Okram Ibobi Singh in the evening of December 29. They were denied permission but nonetheless submitted a memorandum to the chief minister. It highlighted the fabricated charges levelled against Mobi and demanded his unconditional release. The same copy was also submitted to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, seeking his intervention in the matter. A memorandum went out to the Governor of Manipur Gurbachan Jagat too. A 10-member AMWJU team met with the chief minister on December 30. The CM said that the police had a different take on the matter and assured the delegation of needful action after consultation with the DGP and other top ranking police officers.

However, the words of assurance did not translate into real action. The journalists decided to strike to mark their protest. Rallies and sit-in demonstrations were part of the agitation that continued till January 4. No newspaper was published in the state of Manipur from December 31 to January 5. On January 5, Mobi was freed on bail at around 3.30 pm. Scribes resumed work from that very day.

Even though scribes resumed their duties, they decided on a media boycott of ministers and MLAs of Congress and CPI, partners in the SPF government, and all functions and events they were taking part in. Journalists also would not entertain press releases and statements of these two parties. Additionally, newspapers would not publish police statements including those highlighting their achievements till the demands of AMWJU was met by the government, said AMWJU president Khogendro Khomdram.

Mobi was granted bail in consideration of the fact that Sanaleibak daily might remain out of print if its editor continued to remain under police custody. It would amount to denial of information to the people. The health condition of Mobi was taken into account as well. Mobi was released with a surety bond of Rs 50,000 along with a directive that he should report to the investigative officer every Sunday.

After he was released, Mobi called his arrest a sign of danger for media persons. He said, while in police custody, he was forced to sign papers admitting to the charges levelled against him. Apart from this, he was subjected to harassment. No food was provided to him on his release day. He further added that scribes in the state were working under pressure from both the state government and the underground groups and that the police was doing nothing to protect the journalists. He also said that he would give up journalism if the charges were found to be true.

The Ethno Heritage Council (HERICOUN), the All Communities United Front, Manipur (ACUF), National Federation of Newspaper Employees and other civil society bodies strongly condemned the editor's arrest.

One of the oldest regional political parties, the Manipur People's Party (MPP), has also stood by the editor. Party chief Y.Mangi told TSI that the arrest was an attempt to blot the image of journalists working in the state. “Such conduct of the police has raised suspicion as to whether the state government is trying to gag the media,” he said.

Recalling the instances of underground elements being arrested along with arms from the quarters of ministers and MLAs some years back and the killing of SDO Dr Thingnam Kishan and Imphal Free Press' Rishikanta, Mangi demanded to know what steps the government has taken in these cases.

In the memorandum submitted to the Manipur Governor, AMWJU stated that the media was being targeted by the state police for its role in exposing the alleged fake encounter at BT Road on July 23, 2009, which is under CBI investigation. Several police officers were allegedly involved in the incident. So far four scribes have been gunned down by police and underground groups. There have been countless attempts on their lives, numerous arrests, many instances of harassment. Some journalists survive with bullet holes.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill
IIPM: What is E-PAT?
"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

MLAs' demand for pay and perks hike faces legal hurdles

IIPM: What is E-PAT?

Orissa legislators' salary: Time for a hike?

“Our salary is less than that of a class-IV employee of the state government,” said Pratap Sarangi, an independent member of Orissa Legislative Assembly, during a discussion on the hike of salary and allowances of the lawmakers. Sarangi was not a lone voice. Ruling Biju Janata Dal's Pradip Maharathy and Congress’s Santosh Singh Saluja also expressed similar views on the floor of the house. Cutting across the party lines, a majority of the legislators demanded a pay hike for themselves. An Orissa MLA at present takes home Rs 21,725 per month with the salary band at Rs 5,000.

Leader of BJP legislative party K.B. Singhdeo says, “Our counterparts in other states are getting much more than what we get. The amount given as constituency allowance, too, is very nominal. How could an MLA manage his public life with such a meagre amount?”

Subrat Tarai, a BJD MLA, expresses similar views. “Apart from their personal needs, a public representative has to meet public expectations too in day to day life. Poor people from our constituency frequently visit us for financial help for school admission fees of their children or treatment of any person or donations for social and religious functions. It is difficult for us to meet those demands with this pay,” he says.

A cabinet committee comprising of ministers for finance, law and parliamentary affairs was formed to look into the issue which has recommended to hike MLAs salary to Rs 90,000 per month. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also given his nod to the recommendation, and had instructed the finance department to give final shape to the proposal, but a legal hurdle has come in its way. A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed by lawyer activist Nishikant Mishra in the Orissa High Court against the proposed salary hike. Making all the major parties a respondent, the petitioner has pleaded that the proposed hike is against public interest and will have cascading effects on the state's fragile economy.

Prasad Harichandan, chief whip of Congress legislative party, holds a different view. “Since the MLAs are lawmakers, they should not be given a free hand to increase their salary by passing a bill themselves. An independent commission consisting of non-political persons and intellectuals should be formed to review our demand. This, I think, will be a transparent process,” he suggests.

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM ranks No 1 in International Exposure in the 'Third Mail Today B-School Survey'
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri Dean Business School IIPM
IIPM Excom Prof Rajita Chaudhuri
Kapil Sibal’s voters want Jan Lokpal, not Government-proposed Lokpal Bill

"Thorns to Competition" amongst the top 10 best sellers of the week.
IIPM RANKED NO.1 in MAIL TODAY B-SCHOOL RANKINGS
'Thorns to Competition' - You can order your copy online from here
IIPM Mumbai Campus