Cyclone Ockhi 2017- points to need for Ministry of Disaster Prevention and Management

Elsewhere in this blog, the need for Ministries of Disaster Prevention and Management at the centre and in the states has been stressed. The huge loss of lives and properties in Kanyakumari district of Tamilnadu could have been minimized if such ministries had been established. This is a very important work which should not be left to be dealt on ad hoc basis by revenue and other departments most of which have not expertise or experience to handle . the disaster problems. Systems should be established which should jump into action as soon as disaster is anticipated or starts happening. The Ministry should have regular annual budget and it should also have large contingent fund from which amounts can be drawn without waiting for sanctions from concerned authorities. There should be offices of this Ministry in every district and places vulnerable to calamities like cyclones, floods, landslides, forest fires, droughts, accidents etc.

MANIFESTO FOR THE ELECTIONS TO THE TAMILNADU LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY(5)

DISASTER PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT

A separate Ministry of Disaster Prevention and Management will be established to reduce damages to life and property on account of floods, drought, fires,  strong winds etc.

ACCIDENTS

The driver’s careless, drunken, rash driving or driving while talking on phone or with passengers is one of the reasons for accidents. To minimize these,  cameras on the roads throughout the state

The bad condition of the vhicles, particularly the brakes and the tyres as well as lights contribute to the accidents. Vehicle Fitness certificates will be issued with greater care. However, there will be no harassment of the vehicle owners.

Our government will remove the dismally poor condition of the roads-(having deep potholes, slippery particularly during rainy season, being very narrow).

There will be string walls along  Ponds, lakes, wells on the roadside

Government  will impose fines for people, cattle, dogs, cats etc .using or coming on to the middle of the road

By these measures accidents will be bought down drastically.

CRIME

The Police Department will be augmented with posting of locally recruited security officers at each village and street/streets in towns at the rate of 4 security officials for population of 1000 people. Honorarium of Rs.1000/- per month will be given to them. Police Constables will be selected from among these Security Officers, by promotion as will as by limited departmental screening.

Each Police Station will be provided with a Dog Squad and visiting forensic experts.

Adequate sophisticated equipment and transport would be provided to the stations

The Police Force would be proactive. Finance companies cheating their depositors is a frequent news item for the last several years. While it is mainly the greed which makes people believe in promises of unbelievable returns on deposits, a dedicated Police Wing would follow advertisements in the media, posters etc and seek explanation from the companies as to how they would fulfill their promises. Action would be initiated wherever necessary.

Another frequent news item is the cheating by recruitment agencies, promising to get lucrative jobs in foreign countries. The Police would ask for the relevant documents from such agencies and get them verified from concerned Embassies/High Commissions.

The Police would have records of all the people – their names, addresses, jobs, approximate income, the people living outside the locality, their whereabouts, work, remittances to home etc. and the lifestyle of the people and make use of these records. Thus crime could be reduced to a large extent.

Focus will be on prevention of murders, violence, robberies, violence on women. There will be research on what makes a person violent and on how to change him /her into a good person.

Every station will keep upto date record of all the residents under its jurisdiction and those of the people of jurisdiction’s origin

TAMIL DEVELOPMENT

On the lines of Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, Vada(north) India Tamil Parappum kazhagam will be established.

English translation of Thirukural will be distributed to all new graduates during the graduation ceremonies all over the country and to all major hotels in India for the benefit of visitors.

Our government will assist in developing North Dravidian languages like Kurukh, Gondi,Bhil etc. in developing own script(now they do not have), publishing books in these languages, producing feature films in these languages.

Will establish and strengthen interaction between Tamil and these languages,publishing Tamil-kurukh etc dictionaries languages and by publishing books on the history of these languages and the people speaking these languages,

Tamil chairs will be established in universities in other states/foreign countries

Encourage research on relations between Tamil and other Indian/foreign languages.

Minimising Violence in the world

All over the world, murders, loss of lives and properties, other violent acts as also accidents leading to the loss of lives and properties, are increasing. Holding religious and moral classes in schools and colleges is one way of correcting violent tendencies. The other way is to minimise the instincts for violence. In general, males are considered to be aggressive, callous, insensitive, cold-blooded, crude, violent and sexually promiscuous. These are the traits that lead to violence including violence against women, murders, physical harm. On the other hand, females are said to be compassionate, gentle, calm, peaceful, sexually loyal etc. If men acquire some of the natural traits of women like peaceful nature, sexual loyalty etc. to some extent, all kinds of violence can be reduced. In this context, there is need to undertake intensive research in several countries, on whether through some hormonal treatment of all children, male children can be made to be less aggressive and less violent and female children, more compassionate, more peaceful etc, so that incidence of violence may be reduced when the children grew up to be adults. By making the world less violent and more peaceful people will be happier and more care free. Hormonal treatment of all children should not be difficult as already, all children are now given vaccination/
inoculation against certain illnesses in most of the countries. In the case of accidents like road accidents, females are considered to be more careful than males, thus causing less accidents.

His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi had claimed that through transcendental meditation in certain jails, he has reformed murderers and other hard core criminals. This transcendental meditation should also be tried, though this meditation cannot be taught to all the people in the world.

Life Expectancy in India and neighbouring countries

Life Expectancy at birth in India increased from 58.5 years in 1990 to 64.19years in 2010 but it is still below the world average of 67.88 years, according to UN POPULATION PROSPECTS 2010. India ranks 146th among 198 years.All the neighbouring countries have higher life expectancy than India as seen below.

India 64.19
Pakistan 64.57
Bhutan 65.79
Nepal 67.42
Bangladesh 67.84
Sri Lanka 74.25
Maldives 75.55

Japan with life expectancy of 82.73 years ranks no.1.Life expectancy depends on diet, medical facilities, accidents, climatic conditions etc. The fact that some people in India live upto 100 years shows that climatic conditions are alright in India.

India’s per capita production/ availability of food grains is only around 200 kg per year (260 million MT for 1270 million people) while the world average producion is over 350 kg/per head/per year. India should stop thinking that it is surplus in food grain production.

Though India has excellent medical facilities in several cities,the overall expenditure on health in India is only around 4% of GDP while Sri Lanka and Maldives spend around 8% of their GDP on health. Japan and other developed countries spend around 10% of their GDP on health.It is to be noted that per capita GDP in India being lower than than in Sri Lanka and Maldives(less than half), in absolute terms expenditure on health per person in India is very very low.

If life expectancy at birth in India is to go up substantially, food grain production should increase and per capita expenditure on health should increase significantly.

India- Land and Density of Population

Excerptfrom “Simple Alternate Development Strategy” 1997

“Land and Density of Population

While in population India is the second largest, according to FAO statistics, in total area of land it is only the 7th largest… …However….. in 1991’…..India had 77% more ARABLE LAND than China, the most populous country…..It is seen from the above table that while density per hectare of arable land in India at 5.27 is higher than the world averge of 3.99 by about 32%, it is less than the Asian average of 7.51 by about 30%. Compared to more populous China,whose density is 12.39 per ha of arable land India’s density is just 32% of China.. In less poulated countries of Egypt Bangladesh,, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia Pakistan, former West Germany, UK, Italy and Netherlands, density per ha of arable land is higher than in India.Thus it is apparent that India’s density per ha of arable land is not at all high and hence reduction in population growth should not be a high priority issue for the planners at the moment. The high priority concern should be to provide employment to all able bodied ersons… However, as the land available for cultivation is limited, at some stage or the other the populaton growth has to be curtailed-if the growth continues at the present rate.But that stage will come not in 5 years or 10 years but in 50 years or 100 years i.e. when the population doubles/trebles but then, it is possible that new methods would have been evolved to increase the yield of foodgrains by 100% oe 200% or even higher…

As of now it is clear from the foregoing that India is not over populated …..If China with 93 mllion ha of arable land can feed 1.15 billion people, India with an arable land of 165 million ha should be able to feed 2.00 billion people, but the present population is less than one billion.

India should not treat the population as a liability. It is an asset which should be fully utilized. The casualness with which the authorities treat deaths due to disasters like floods, diseases, accidents can ultimately be traced to the attitude that lives of human beings are not very important……”

Though the figures have changed since 1991, the conclusion that India is not overpopulated remains correct. In fact it is supported by omythe fact that almost every sector of the economy faces shortage of labour. Of course, this is not due only to expansion of the economy but also to the fact that a sizable section of the population manage to live with working for 5-10 days a month with the free things they are getting from govenment.