By
Randeep
Wadehra
Among the various natural disasters that periodically hit our
country, nothing lays bare the quality of governance in India as the ones
induced by monsoons. Invariably, every year, their arrival exposes the all
pervasive indifference, corruption and incompetence. The revelations are
equally stark when monsoons fail. In both the situations, the aam aadmi suffers.
Monsoon failure results in parched fields in drought prone regions across the
country. Until just a couple of months ago, about 12000 villages in Maharashtra
were reeling under severe drought conditions, raising the specter of famine. Thousands
die of hunger and thirst during droughts. Millions migrate to urban areas to
eke out a living from menial jobs, which are hard to come by even at the best
of times. Worse, being outsiders, they are treated with suspicion as potential
criminals and, ironically, local predators criminally exploit them in a manner
that should mortify any self-respecting polity. But mortification is one
expression that has been missing from the visages of those at the helm. CM
Vijay Bahuguna blamed the “cloudburst” for the tragedy. True, 370 mm single-day
rainfall is heavy. But, in 1995, Tehri-Garhwal had over 400 mm in one day and
in 1965 Dehradun had 900 mm in 24 hours, with no comparable destruction
reported.
But this time it is not about just the drought, but floods
too, which have wrought havoc within the first week of the monsoons’ arrival
this year. Even before the Uttarakhand tragedy shook the nation, familiar headlines
and images on television and print media’s front pages had started making their
presence felt. For example, on 17 June,
there were reports of floods in Haryana’s Yamunanagar district, washing away at
least two kilometers of roads and inundating several villages, with scores of
people stranded, needing the army’s help. And yes, once again, “Delhi was taken
by surprise” as New Delhi’s IGI airport was waterlogged, forcing passengers to
wade through knee-deep water. Mind you, this phrase “taken by surprise” has
become the most transparent fig leaf ever worn by any government anywhere in
the world as far as coping with vagaries of nature is concerned. In India, the
administrators do it regularly and brazenly even in such “ultramodern
townships” as NOIDA, Chandigarh, and Gurgaon etc.
True to this great Indian tradition, Mumbai too was “taken by
surprise”, as we saw buildings collapse and roads disappear under rivulets of
water. On June 21, an apartment block, which was not old by any standards,
collapsed, killing ten people with many more trapped. We will never know the
actual death toll there. The administration responded by arresting “some
builders”. But why only builders? Who were responsible for ensuring that the
relevant laws and bylaws pertaining to the quality of construction were obeyed?
How was such “shoddy construction” allowed in the first place? Will the
concerned bureaucrats’ and ministers’ heads roll? If you are betting on it, you
lose. In fact, this tragic charade, this horrendous bloodbath, is played out so
regularly in Mumbai and other parts of the country that the real news would be
if no life is lost, no building collapses and no road disappears due to a
rainfall. The governmental incompetence and indifference is news no more. It
would be news if government agencies act in time to see that life and property
remain intact even in severe rainfall. After all, the elemental fury is no
stranger to us. It has been there for millennia. Experts have pointed out that
the entire country is flood prone. There is a need for addressing this by
resorting to appropriate measures that would not only harness the various
rivers but also modify town planning accordingly. This is both possible and,
considering the annual losses, economically feasible in the end. It is the
administration’s job to ensure that town-planning, building-architecture and
various quality related actions are performed while keeping relevant factors in
mind. This does not happen. In a polity where every calamity is an opportunity
for making that extra fast buck, you would be an incorrigible optimist to
expect conscientious governance.
Every year, there is a massive loss due to droughts, flash
floods, cyclones, avalanches, torrential rains, hailstorms and snowstorms. It
is true that we cannot prevent these natural phenomena. But it is equally true
that enough technology exists to ensure that life and property are protected
against their onslaughts. Even resources for the purpose are not a problem; the
problem lies in the paucity of political will and integrity. Actually, one
disaster should be enough for a government to come up with effective systems
and structures that would ensure that there is no repetition. But in a country
where our legislators and municipal councilors go abroad to “study” garbage
disposal techniques and end up in the red light areas there, expecting them to
apply their minds to good governance is indulging in utopianism of the most
gullible kind indeed. And yet, we need to raise our collective voice against
this persistent display of administrative irresponsibility. The Uttarakhand
tragedy being the most recent and glaring example of this.
It is well known that landslides are common in the Himalayan
region due to the fragile nature of rock formation, especially in the lower
Himalayas. The only way to prevent landslides, and consequent loss of life and
property, is to avoid deforestation because roots of the trees as well as other
foliage, including grass and shrubs, hold the soil together. And, it is
precisely in this region that reckless deforestation has been allowed in the
name of development. Incredibly, more than seventy dams have been sanctioned in
Uttarakhand, apart from over one hundred mining projects. The use of dynamites
has become so common that environmentalists have been repeatedly warning of
massive catastrophes if this is not stopped. Unfortunately, all efforts to
declare the state’s vulnerable areas as ecologically sensitive zones have been
thwarted by powerful vested interests. Since it is not a case of governance
deficit but complete absence of it, disaster prevention has become well nigh
impossible. The state of disaster management is even worse.
The National Disaster Management Authority, constituted under
the DM Act 2005, enshrines this National Vision on its website’s homepage: “To
build a safer and disaster resilient India by developing a holistic,
pro-active, multi-disaster and technology-driven strategy for disaster
management through collective efforts of all Government Agencies and
Non-Governmental Organisations.” We await its translation into concrete and
sustained action.
Published in The Financial World dated June 27, 2013
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