NEW WRITE UP IN KANNADAPRABHA 5.12.2012

Rajajinagar now boasts of a state of the art new dialysis centre offering completely free treatment for the poor. What prompted me to think of a such a centre's necessity in my area? My feelings appear in today's Kannada Prabha (5.12.2012). Pls read and offer your comments.

S.SURESH KUMAR

LET THIS YEAR’S GANESH UTSAV BE ECO FRIENDLY

Vivekananda College’s Eco Club had invited me for a meaningful program today.

Lokmanya Tilak – the Great Patriot of this soil was responsible for the “Sarvajanik Vinayak Mahotsav” in the early years of last century. His intention was to use the celebration to spread the message of Freedom movement.

Today also, we have an excellent opportunity to become Eco-friendly through these celebrations. These are the days when we come across many Vinayak Utsavs in every area and in every street. But unfortunately, the celebrations of festival of the most people-friendly God – Lord Ganesh, are no longer eco-friendly. Chronic poison, ‘Lead’ is rampantly used in the glossy paints that help to colour the idols of Ganesh. This metal when enters the water sources, during the immersion of idols, millions in number, starts destroying the balance of the eco-system. Incidentally, Lord Ganesh is revered as “Master of intellect and wisdom”. We should be aware that his worship too reflect that intellect and wisdom. Sadly, it is the other way round, as our celebrations are anything but sound and intelligent.

The program at Vivekananda College today was an earnest effort to spread the message about the need to worship Eco-friendly Ganesh idols.  That was attempted through a student rally. The message was that only clay made, unpainted Ganesh idoAl be used for this year’s Ganesh Chaturthi and henceforth. Worship Lord Ganesh, while respecting our environment was the message. Thousands of students distributed pamphlets to the citizens in a bid to make them understand the noble motive behind this programme.

This programme should become a movement. The brain behind this healthy thinking is Prof. Sripathi Head of the Department, Chemistry (Mob-9480109221), Vivekanada College. 

Isn’t it a worthy effort for us to resolve in the like manner in our own interest?

S.SURESH KUMAR

LETTER TO HON'BLE CJI

Sri C H Kapadia
Hon'ble Chief Justice of India
New Delhi

Respected Sir

I read a news item in Sunday Times of India ( Bangalore Edition) dated 26th August 2012, with a headline "Hounding out NE youth from Bangalore brought tears" attributed to your speech in New Delhi. The news item quoted you saying " It was said because days before that young people from north east were being thrown out of Bangalore . The way the exodus was happening , it had brought tears in my eyes".

Sir, I am holding the portfolio of Law and Parliamentary Affairs as a minister in the government of Karnataka . Though it is true that thousands of persons - especially youth - moved out of bangalore for four days , it is not correct to say that they were 'hounded out' of Bangalore . The people of Bangalore and the entire Government Machinery did it's best to prevent their moving out of Bangalore. In fact, on 16th August I myself stayed at the railway station for nearly 14 hours making all efforts to prevent their moving out. When it could not give us result, we facilitated their smooth travel with food , drinking water and special trains. It may be  pertinent to mention here,  that  on 19th August,  the two honorable ministers from Assam who came to assess the situation first hand,  wholeheartedly praised the swift action taken by our government to give protection and our attempts to prevent their moving out . Even the central government has acknowledged our quick and sincere efforts in this regard .

Sir. It is essential here to mention the reasons for this temporary - what can be called as - reverse migration .

A) Most of the persons , at least 60% of those who wanted to go back have on record said that they want to be with their parents when Assam is facing serious conflict . In fact, it was the fervent appeals from their parents to return that made these youngsters to rush back.

B) Few SMSes  which were sent to this particular section created a sort of apprehension about their safety after a particular date i.e, August 20th.

C) In very few isolated incidents some individuals were threatened by some anti-social elements .

Sir, these  are the real reasons. With full humility I want to reiterate  that north east youth were neither 'hounded out from Bangalore' , nor were 'thrown out of Bangalore'. The people of our  state have full faith in the rule of law and we adhere to the letter and spirit of the Constitution of India . We have never allowed and we will never allow any such attempt to throw out any Indian - more so, persons from north east from Bangalore, because we feel all of us are Indians first.

Respected Sir. I request you to appreciate  the spirit behind the words in this mail. I request you further, not to mistake me for writing this. I honestly felt that the real picture should also be brought to your lordship's notice.

With regards

Sincerely, 

S.SURESH KUMAR.
LAW MINISTER

GOVERNMENT OF KARNATAKA

AN EYE OPENOR

The recent Assamese exodus should act as an eye opener for variety of reasons. While being continuously aware of the damage that the anti social elements could cause to the Society, we as the citizens should also have a fresh perception of our responsibilities too. My views on the incident find mention in today’s Kannada Prabha.

S.Sureshkumar

AN IDEAL EXAMPLE FOR INSTITUTIONAL PATRIOTISM

I didn’t intend to write anything after I witnessed the state of affairs of the Bangalore University in Jnanabharathi yesterday. It is literally a tale of woes and a galore of loopholes. Badly maintained and blocked toilets, dilapidated hostel rooms greeted me and Mr CT Ravi, Minister of Higher Education. The ego clash between the two key players i.e., the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar is the rootcause for the present day malady. As I said, “When two elephants clash, it is the grass that suffers.” Unfortunately, in this case, the suffering grasses are the hapless students who have their own dreams but are full of night mares today.  The Institution which otherwise should have been an epitome of emulation is sadly a shocker by the state of affairs it has been reduced to.

But, what prompted me today to pen my feelings was my visit to the Direct Taxes Regional Training Institute at Bangalore today. DTRTI as it is shortly described is an arm of the National Academy of Direct Taxes which heads the training sector of the Income Tax department of India. The Institute offers training for departmental personnel from Karnataka, Goa and Andhra Pradesh.

You will never believe it is a Government run Organisation. So high is the degree of professionalism that has been infused in its working atmosphere. DTRTI is located amidst the lush green campus near Jalahalli. Constructed four years ago at a total cost of 30 crores, the whole campus is so aesthetically built, that it has everything that an ideal training centre offers. The building has six state of the art lecture halls named after philosophers from different parts of the world.

DTRTI offers specialised training in frontier areas such as e commerce, e-investigation with professional capability in core areas of direct taxation, law-jurisprudence, accountancy and attitudinal reinforcement through soft skills. These specialised courses have national jurisdiction. Training of Tax administrators of other countries too, of late has become a feather in the cap of the Institution.

So much of care has been taken so the whole campus is quite sensitive towards the environment that every existing tree has been protected and retained by designing the construction around its presence. Rain water harvesting, ground water recharging, using treated water for horticulture and flushing purposes, sensor based taps - everything is in place to make it ideal. On top of all, the cleanliness- it’s just spic and span. The zero tolerance towards dust and waste has made the whole Institute so neat and clean.

The Institute stands out, all thanks to the single minded pursuit of one person. Mrs Jhankab Akthar who heads this wonderful office is the one who has brought the reform here. Being herself, an IRS Officer, she has completely eradicated the hierarchy. She has lead from the front for the continuous upliftment of the Institute. I should mention special thanks to her relentless enthusiasm in making this Institute a truly world-class.

While I was still languishing to come out of the awful experience of yesterday, it was a refreshing feeling that assured faith in the system we are in.

I wrote in the visitor’s book this way: BOTH HARDWARE (STRUCTURE) AND SOFTWARE (ATTITUDE) ARE EXCELLENT AND WORTH EMULATING. That summed up the feelings of my visit to this excellent campus.

A SHOW OF STRENGTH FOR THE STATE'S CAUSE

It was one of those rare, but much necessary occasions. The who-is-who of Karnataka political spectrum were part of the delegation to Delhi today. CM, ten of his cabinet colleagues, Union Ministers (Sri SM Krishna, Veerappa Moily, Mallikarjun Kharge, KH Muniappa), leaders of the both the houses of legislature  (Sri Siddaramaiah, Smt Motamma), JDS(s) leaders (HD Kumaraswamy, HD Revanna, Basavaraja Horatti) and almost all the members of Parliament from the State (including the Rajya Sabha members) were there.

We went with a common objective to secure Central Assistance in a horde of issues;

a) 24 of the 30 districts (123 out of 176 Taluks) have been reeling under severe drought conditions. In many villages, drinking water has to be supplied through tankers. There has been severe shortage of fodder for millions of cattle and the same is being procured from long distances. Farmers have faced huge crop losses.

b)  Further to the memorandum submitted to the Central Govt last December, the State today submitted an updated request for Rs 5800 crore assistance.

c)  Prices of very many crops like Tur Dal, Ginger, Onions, etc., have collapsed due to market fluctuation and the farmer needs market support.

d) Thanks to the severe reduction in the import duty on Silk, from 30% to 5% by the Central Govt, silk is generously imported from China causing inexplicable damage to the state's farmers who contribute about 50% of the national produce.

Apart from these issues we reiterated the long standing demand for amendment of the Constitution   (Article 371-d) to grant special status to Hyderabad Karnataka region comprising Bidar, Gulbarga, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal and Bellary districts, to give more thrust to Education, Employment and Development in this historically most backward area.

Then we also sought Central Govt's nod for NAMMA Metro's Second Phase which may cost Rs 26,000 Crores.

WE met Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjea and Hon'ble PM Dr Manmohan Singh.

It was heartening to see all these leaders speaking in one voice, forgetting all political differences for a day, with just the interest of the State as paramount.

This is one experience, I will cherish for long.

S Suresh kumar

SAKAALA's success story

It's 22 days since the my ambitious program SAKAALA was launched all over the State after one month of pilot in four different districts.

Today, I reviewed the progress with our SAKAALA mission team. I am happy to submit that the rate of delivery of services is 98.4% of the total 6,47,500 applications received so far. Nodal officers for all the departments both at the State and the District level have been appointed. Every day, our SAKAALA mission contacts 4 persons in each district, two applicants who have been delivered their respective services and the other two awaiting theirs.This is to gain a feedback and also to gauge the satisfaction index among the citizens.

At the end of this month, a folder containing the details of the progress made in each department, corrections / improvements needed and suggestions received so far will be brought out to spur further quality delivery.

Out of 151 services listed, strangely there are 21 services which are yet to receive a single application. Few of these are seasonal services like retotalling of PUC and SSLC answer sheets.

At the end of the review, our team exuded confidence that delivery rate will go beyond 99% in the coming weeks.

As of today, the best performing districts are
a. Bijapur (Where the pending applications are just 0.80% only)
b. Chitradurga  (Where the pending applications are just 0.81% only) and
c. Dakshina Kannada  (Where the pending applications are just 0.89% only)

SAKAALA is progressing with full vigor thanks to your wishes. Will keep you posted.

S SURESH KUMAR

WISHING THE WELL KNOWN KANNADA POET SRI KS NISAR AHMED A SPEEDY RECOVERY FROM HIS AILMENT

A couple of days back; I had called upon the ailing Kannada poet Sri Nisar Ahmed at the Sagar Apollo Hospital. THE NITHYOTSAVA KAVI as he is fondly identified by every Kannadiga, is a prominent poet of our times. His contribution to Kannada literature is immense, as he is known to have provided a new impetus to Kannada poetry. Recipient of many awards including the Prestigious Padma, the achievements have never belittled him. People living in South Bangalore would have spotted the great poet walking simply along the busy roads of DVG road all alone for himself.

 

The sight of him lying on the hospital bed was most agonising for me. While wishing him a speedy recovery, it was just spontaneous for me to enquire with the doctors about the approximate cost of the medical expenses and to tell them that his medical expenses would be borne by the Government. I didn’t have an inkling of awareness that the poet might have needed monetary help from someone to sail through the torment that he was undergoing.

Immediately upon my return, I met the Hon’ble CM, requested for it and yesterday a cheque of 1.80 lakhs drawn out of Chief Minister’s relief fund was sent through my officer to hand it over to him. While it was a sense of satisfaction for me that the work was done as promised and as fast as it could, I didn’t have an idea that my little    effort could render me to one of the biggest embarrassments. What I learnt from my Officer who visited him, would be a proof of what I was intending to tell you.

The veteran poet was somehow in dire need of money to meet his medical expenses. While he and his wife were shocked to see the bills that were given to them earlier by the Hospital, his wife is said to have consoled him that something would surely happen that wouldn’t leave them in lurch. It was just accidental that I visited them on that day, and more coincidental that I assured, his medical expenses will be borne by the Government. They too must have rubbed off my assurance like any other persons’.

I learnt the poet is said to be all his tears when he saw the cheque that was given to him. He is said to have told, his faith in the system has got a fresh lease of life by an incident like this.

S.SURESHKUMAR

ITS PAINFUL

Advocate friends have demanded my Resignation along with my colleague Ashok's.

I am an Advocate since 1981. In fact the immediate past President of Bangalore Advocates Association Sri Putte Gowda and myself were enrolled on the same day. In my capacity as the Law Minister I have  always tried to positively respond to the needs of the Courts and Advocates and I think my friends in the Bar will agree with me.

I was really sad to read about the demand of my   Resignation from  the the delegation of Advocates Association. What are my omissions and commissions?

On 2nd March, which can rightly be termed as Black Friday what should not have happened became an unfortunate and tragic reality. On that day  I had left  by road  at 5-30 am to reach Kalasa (Chikmagalur) for the Election meetings, as I have been given the responsibility of the district in the ensuing Bye elections.  At the time of my leaving the capital I did not have any premonition that troubles of that magnitude would erupt on that day. Even as I reached Kalasa at 12-00 pm, I came to know about the war like situation. I spoke to Police Commissioner, DGP, Home minister and Chief minister.( may not be in the same order). One knows that Kalasa is at a distance of nearly 350 kms from Bengaluru. Even as I came to know about the ghastly happenings, I started my return journey. On that day I traversed around 700 kms. I reached CM’s residence straight and discussed with him about the situation. By that time CM had completed few rounds of meetings with Home department officers.

On the following day High Court had announced a sort of holiday to all the courts in Bengaluru. Incidentally, a Lawyer friend of mine who is the President of Tumkur Advocates Association had lost his wife on the previous day. I went to his place. It was an ironic death. His wife who was a well known Doctor, after finishing her customary rounds entered a ward, sat on a cot and felt a little uneasiness. Before medical help could reach her in her own hospital the Doctor passed away. And she was only 42. My friend was inconsolable. He hugged me and broke down saying 'she has left me an orphan'. I was really disturbed. After making feeble attempts to calm him down, I left that place one hour later. Both Home Minister and I along with our officers continued our deliberations to diffuse the situation. The one thing that I should have done and failed to do was meeting the injured(both advocates and police) in different hospitals. As High court had announced holiday, I could  not go to City Civil Court Premises too.

On Sunday, Hon'ble CM, Home Minister and myself decided to attempt to bring both Advocate fraternity and Media friends to a negotiating table. Time was also fixed. I spoke to many senior Advocates including the past Advocate Generals, members of the Bar Council etc., All agreed that this meeting is much needed and accepted to attend. Similarly I spoke to my friends in the media field. (both from Print and Electronic) Very well known personalities in the media appreciated the effort and agreed to be a part of this meeting. But Alas. The 6-00 pm meeting could not take place as the president of the Advocates Association could not make it.( He was in his native place apparently for his father's ceremony)

Yesterday again we continued our efforts. I met our Advocate General. Then had discussions with two Hon'ble Judges of High Court one of whom is the Administrative Judge of Bengaluru. A formula was envisaged. After discussing with our State's Chief Secretary, I and Sri Ashok met The Hon'ble Chief Justice.  We explained our preparedness to move forward to end this conflict by implementing around 7 points immediately that are felt necessary.

We are hopeful to see both media and advocates who have their respective issues through their representatives at the negotiating table today. We have asked the CM to reach Bengaluru canceling all his engagements from his tour. It may happen only if our friends are ready.

These being the hard efforts made in the prevailing situation, I really do not know the reason of my Advocates friends' demand. I am ready to accede to that demand for resignation, if that facilitates smooth functioning of Courts thus putting an end to lakhs of litigants and also facilitates the healthy relationship between the Advocates and Media. My sincere appeal to both the responsible professions of our society is this "When two powerful Elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers".

Please announce a full stop. The mudslinging is not doing good to either party. Black coat should not be humiliated in the manner as being done as this BLACK COAT has produced thousands of First rate Patriots. Similarly Independent Press of our country is responsible for our many rights getting protected. We have to relax our rigid stands in the interests of our larger society. I appeal once again.

S. SURESHKUMAR

AND HENCE - SAKAALA - TOOK SHAPE

My sojourn of over three decades from the grassroots level of a corporator to a cabinet Minister in the Government system was at an all time high today in terms of satisfaction. My most ambitious project, SAKAALA has been unveiled.

It was four and a half months back, I and the Chief Minister Sri Sadananda Gowda were discussing about the immediate need to make the government machinery more accountable to the people. With every government department becoming a breeding place for corruption, more often, we see an all round disgruntlement when it comes to functioning of this system in our society. Our discussion cantered on how to bring a pro people change here.

There are few states like Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh etc which have thought constructively in this manner. They have gone on to implement an act called Right to services for ensuring time bound delivery of government services to the people. While our discussion zeroed in on emulating the right to services implemented in those states, it also set a mood how to better it. The Chief Minister assigned the task to me with a desire to come out with the best.

You will appreciate, that myself and a team of Senior Officers were so obsessed with the purpose that we must have conducted over a dozen interactions before we came up with a strong bill. Just in a couple months the bill came up for a lively debate in both the houses of legislature and it was passed with highest concurrence. Not just that, every legislator, cutting across party lines was full of praise for it.

It was a journey we undertook to Bihar later to meet the Chief Minister Mr Nitish Kumar with an intention to know how effectively the act has been implemented there. So happy he was, that his utterance that Karnataka should implement the act more effectively thanks to its better administrative culture still lingers in my mind. Apart from meeting the Deputy CM, Mr Susheel Modi, we also visited 2-3 blocks in Bihar to ascertain the practicality of implementation. It bettered our confidence and a resolve to implement more able Act, grew stronger.

And today, was the day I yearned for. SAKAALA – right time, suitable time and within the stipulated time has hit the notes finally. Today four Sri Harikotas in Karnataka have formally projectiled the weapons for the service of the common man. Aurad taluk in Bidar, Puttur taluk in DK, Dharwad and Chitradurga taluks have started functioning as pilot places for effective implementation of the act. Jayanagar in Bangalore saw the formal inauguration by the CM himself. April 2^nd will see all the departments and all the places implementing SAKAALA.

While Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab have as fewer citizen services as 50 and 60, Karnataka is set to give as many as 151 services of eleven departments in stipulated time frame to the common man.(This number is bound to increase). This number of services is at least three times more compared to other states. While our intention is to minimize the point of interaction of common man with officials so that corruption recedes, it is our endeavor to punish the guilty too.

Getting government services is the right of every citizen, which this bill will surely ensure. I thank the Chief Minister whole heartedly for reposing faith in me in handing over this responsibility. My special thanks also go to all the Officers esp. Sri K Jairaj, Additional Chief Secretary, Dr Shalini Rajnish, Principal Secretary (DPAR), Pradip Singh Carola, Commissioner, Commercial Taxes and Dr Amita Prasad, Principal Secretary, Rural Development.

It’s a process designed for continuous improvement. Your suggestions will also be heard. You can call on 080-44554455, a designated call centre for any query and suggestions. You can email me too as always.

S.SURESH KUMAR

ARGHYAM- BRINGING POSITIVE CHANGES TO THE SOCIETY WE LIVE

Smt Rohini nilekhani, who is heading an organisation very appropriately named ARGHYAM made me to visit Mulbagilu town in kolar dt yesterday. Mulbagilu is a place where the great DV Gundappa, popularly known as DVG was born. He is  the creator of MANKUTHIMMANA KAGGA - the kannadiga common man's Bhagavadgeetha.

Although, Mulbagilu has known live water source nearby, the town’s water resources were dried up thanks to its mismanagement. ARGHYAM has rightly selected this town, to come out with a model to every habitat of Karnataka. Arghyam concentrated on four main issues of water, ground water discharge, rain water harvesting, solid waste management and sanitation. In my available two hours of visit to the town, I visited a community toilet, a revived kalyani  and a place where the local community participated in solid waste management.

The public toilet was abandoned years back as no one was there to maintain it. The voluanteers of ARGHYAM motivated local families to ensure that the people stopped public defecating and ensured they started using this toilet. Today, not only the toilet is maintained very well by one of the members of the community, it is being used by fifty families surrounding it. People voluntarily pay a small sum of Rs 50 a month against which an identity card is issued to them. No one is reluctant to pay the amount, as everyone is sure of a clean atmosphere there. The toilet houses bathing facility too.

Kalyani is a word almost extinguished in present days. It was a popular and a holy water body usually attached to a temple or similar place. There are over 8 kalyanis in mulabagilu. One such kalyani has been revived jointly by ARGHYAM and the local TMC. Today the kalyani boasts of containing 9 million ltrs of water in it. This has happened in just a span of a year.

I was told a small anecdote. The then municipal president who was a muslim readily accepted to participate in reviving this kalyani attached to a temple. This surely sent a message in the days when the word called secularism remained just a slogan. The story of community participation in solid waste management was still more encouraging. The local deputy superintendent of police was all praise for ARGHYAM's initiative. He was telling about the changed atmosphere today thanks to active community participation. Each family pays Rs 10/- for the collection of garbage and the garbage is segregated at the house level itself.

After successful initiative, ARGHYAM has decided to hand over  the management of these works to the local body as it believes that till now it has served the role of a felicitator and the local empowerment and good governance coupled with proper planning is the manthra. Now, everyone is crestfallen about the news of moving over of ARGHYAM from mulabagilu. People here want ARGHYAM to continue further and guide them in these endeavours.

You all very well know, Mrs. Rohini Nilekhani is the wife of Mr Nandan nilekhani who is heading the central government’s gigantic task of UID. It was just amazing to see this lady's enthusiasm to bring change to the society we live. My kudos to her.

S Sureshkumar

A story to be emulated

It was a video conference of all the Deputy Commissioners that I took part with Hon’ble Chief Minister in CM’s official residence Krishna, today. Implementation of Our Government’s ambitious project, Right to services and a review of drinking water scenario in the state were discussed in the meeting. Many senior IAS Officers were with us.

The ambience for setting up of a video conference meeting needs a lot of planning and preparation. Any little problem would make the whole event a failure. With the Chief Minister himself around, one can understand the anxiety of the technicians who are working behind its success. The moment any district is named by Chief Minister that particular DC with his team will appear on the screen.

In Chief Minister’s office, here is a person called Mr Srinivas, an Engineer who looks after the functioning of every video conference event. The conference scheduled today at 2.30 was a smooth sailer, thanks to this youngster. He was all around before the meeting kicked off, silently checking for proper working of every connection.

You might wonder, how the story of this youngster matter to this. Yes, it has connection. It was his day of wedding and he was here bothering about the meeting’s success. So involved was he, that it was his cheeky request that prompted me to write all this. He humbly came up to me at around 5 pm with a request to relieve him for the day as he had his marriage reception in the evening. Dumbfound by his duty consciousness, I couldn’t resist my appreciation for him before everyone. I introduced this youngster to all the senior officers only to let them know the “duty consciousness” of this young engineer. It was a big applause from every one around.

While I wish this youngster a happy married life, I also hoped his duty consciousness is emulated by every one who works in the Government system.