Political degradation
Uproars, clashes and bedlams in legislatures

The frequent uproars, walkouts, verbal and even physical clashes and pandemonium in our legislatures for the past few years only expose the level of political degradation, falling standards of parliamentary debates, growing intolerance and lack of democratic temper and morality in our political life. Take the case of the ongoing budget session of the State legislature which began with a boycott by the opposition National Conference, noisy scenes during the Governor's address followed by walkout by some members. Since then not a day has passed without such brawls, heated exchanges, unruly scenes, walkouts and frequent disruption of the proceedings of the two houses and subsequent adjournments. One can easily imagine the time lost and huge amount spent to keep the legislature function and legislators contented and happy by raising their salaries, perks and privileges too frequently, all going waste. On all accounts the State legislature has been reduced to a forum for the various political parties and their members to level charges and counter-charges, for shouting and counter-shouting and for competing in lung power. This leaves little time for any serious debate on political, economic and social issues, on the burning problems of the people and for the legislative business. Even the level of debate, if any, has gone down to a great extent. The only occasion when the members, cutting across party lines, demonstrate unanimity is when the proposals for raising their salaries and perks are placed before the legislature.
There are burning problems which the people face on day-to-day basis but these hardly find mention in the legislative proceedings. The unabated human rights abuses, ban on meetings and other curbs on people's basic rights, repression by the police, atrocities committed on innocent citizens are seldom mentioned during the debates or zero hour. There are other problems like frequent power cuts, inadequate water supply, sanitation, hygiene, sub-standard educational institutions and health services, denial of basic facilities to the people and issues related to gender discrimination, child labour, exploitation of working classes and poorer sections of the people which are rarely raised in the two houses of the bicameral legislature. Though the issue of corruption and misuse of official position has been raised in the legislature on selective basis it is never discussed threadbare by highlighting its various aspects. Even the purpose of raising the question of graft is to settle political scores and to have selected targets. The issue is not confined to a single minister but a large number of those who have occupied high offices and are involved in various acts of commission and commission. Even the ordinary legislators are not free from corruption, nepotism and misuse of discretionary funds kept at their disposal. Why don't the legislators demand the setting up of a high power commission to probe into all charges of corruption and misuse of their power by the ministers and other publicmen, both past and present. Yet another case of selective targets is the hue and cry over the followup action on the Kundal report regarding the bunglings in forest department. The report has yet to be made public and deals only about a particular aspect of bunglings and corruption. The manner in which our rich forest wealth has been looted by politicians, forest officers, forest lessees and contractors and timber mafia is not unknown. Why don't the legislators demand an independent commission to probe all such cases of bunglings in the forest department and identify the culprits? Same is true about large scale encroachment of government land belonging to different departments by the land mafia and other influential people. This too should be made a subject for a high level inquiry instead of pointing out accusing fingers at a few individuals. Still more important task before the legislators is to enact laws protecting the rights of the citizens and providing safeguards for the poorer and weaker sections, women and children.

Employment policy
Need for a comprehensive, realistic plan

The state Finance minister has stated that the government would table an employment policy during the ongoing budget session. It is indeed a matter of shame that even though politicians accuse each other for the major crisis of unemployment in this state, while in power none of them does anything concrete to address the issue. One cannot tackle the unemployment problem without assessing the kind of skills available with the jobless youth and surveying the human resource demand of the market. Any proposed employment policy has to accommodate this basic principle of employment. Secondly, it is hoped that the statement is not simply rhetoric aimed at vote bank politics, coming just months before elections, and that a holistic employment policy, that can be sincerely implemented on the ground, is on the anvil. The employment policy has to go beyond the superfluous remedy of seeking and providing or denying government jobs. Thrust of the government should be in encouraging growth of private sector and providing space for local youth there, without giving the flimsy argument that local youth are unskilled. Adequate skills, in accordance with the demand, needs to be provided to the youth. What good are a horde of polytechnics and ITI institutes that churn out jobless youth every year, if they cannot train the youth in the skills that have a market potential as well. Private sector should not simply include the usual modernized business of industry, call centres, cyber cafes and STD booths but it should also focus on the agriculture sector and related industry to provide more space for rural youth in jobs other than government departments and teaching business. A good way to promote both agriculture sector and encourage employment would be to create marketing facilities, encouraging setting up of co-operatives in rural areas for packaging and preservation of agriculture and horticulture produce. Similarly, more sectors and areas can be tapped. Though existing vacancies within government departments need to be filled, but focus of an employment policy cannot simply be on creation of unwanted posts only to accommodate eligible youth without jobs. Raising of more police battalions cannot be justified in the name of employment. Other mechanisms have to be thought of. Without being imaginative and abandoning the beaten track, the promise of an employment policy may not suffice the needs of the state. The needs and the limitations have to be taken into account.