A Nirbhaya here, A Nirbhaya there

Surrounded by the hungry wolves, I am afraid to walk down the lane,

Please don’t touch me, I am just a human, but my requests fall in vain.

I was taught to be kind, gentle and sweet,

Was it because there were hungry wolves longing to eat?

I love to play on swings and roam in park,

But my parents don’t allow me after dark.

I love to dress up the way I like and have fun singing in the night,

But I refrain from my desires to not catch an ugly sight.

I never thought my father, my neighbor would rip me apart,

Did they not remember they lived in my heart?

The moment I entered the world, I was lucky to be born alive,

To have parents who loved a son and daughter alike.

I love to fly aeroplanes and striking goals in football,

Then why teaching is only career choice of my parents after all?

I wish to marry my love one day,

But why they say our caste comes into play?

Why my parents ask me to leave home one day,

Being a girl I am made to pay.

Why my in-laws call me outsider and my parents an outlander,

Making me feel like a homeless refugee punished for my gender.

Give me love and some share of your care,

And I will keep away your life from despair?  

I am the creator of life, your daughter, your wife,

All I want you is to shield me from all strife. 

My topsy-turvy auto ride

All done…check Samsung Galaxy…check Nokia…check wallet…check stoll…check eyeliner…check keys…done. Its already 10 minutes late and am still stuck at my place. A single minute more and I will screw my roomie’s life...required she is there. Huh…if she wouldn’t have fled to her sister’s house for that chicken biryani. Oh…am wasting my time on cursing her. Let’s catch the auto first or I will be stuck in that killer jam for hours. Oh I forget to remove the faded nail-paint on my toes. No time for that.

All rapped up in my Sarojini Nagar stoll, I took the overcrowded auto on the verge of busting. I stuffed myself in the 6-inch space besides the fat aunty for the hour long journey, otherwise a 20 minute drive given the road is devoid of the killer jam…impossible. Pity on the guys who feel like peeing on the roadside in their hour long bike ride to their offices…moreover it is morning time…not all have a fixed body clock that ticks on time.

I have to save enough to replace my Blackberry with an Apple. I also need to buy green bellies as I have enough number of clothes in the same colour to match with. Ufff…I think all sort of things on my way to office…stupid timepass. The mind of a girl errr human is like a pollen grain that can be carried by the air in any direction. Huh what a dead example!

Moreover, to fill up for my maximum irritation limits, the autowallahs play the outdated depressing numbers from the retro era early morning. Some painful ones include “Bewafai ka sitam” and all sort of bizarre songs which shouldn’t have been penned and sung in the first place. I wonder why a girl would like to have a boyfriend like them. Smokers with shoulder-length oily hair parted from centre and an eye-burning ghastly fashion sense. 

And so much of dust on the road! Will the Chief Minister ever take this road and have a taste of Rajasthan brought to life in Noida. It takes 15 minutes to refurnish myself in the office loo. All the efforts of my neem face, apricot face mask and pineapple bleach go waste, courtesy Delhi and Uttar Pradesh government. Moreover braving the 21 speedbrakers wrongly built where they were not needed at all grind the sugar-free biscuit I took along with the sugar-free tea my p.g. aunty makes for me sulking about the soaring vegetable and LPG prices.

Finally I reach office without my green eyeliner which I lost among the many things I keep on leaving here and there. So, I am there on my hotseat to kickstart the day. Oops! I forgot my tiffin in the auto. Ughhhhhh! This is just not done. I had left my Andamans umbrella two months back in an auto. The day is already messed up. Still I am looking forward to my possible date in the evening. Hope it turns out worthwhile. 

Mining Demon feeding on natural resources

The menace of mining has spread its tentacles deep into the Indian soil and in each and every corner of the country. The biggest revelation was made on March 23 when a CAG report leaked to the media exposed a mind boggling coal scam worth Rs 10.7 lakh crore and estimated to be the biggest in the history of India. 

Why large scale mining corruption in India?

Since the government allocates the coal blocks to the people but there is no criteria of how deep one can dig into the earth in search of a natural resource remains the major reason behind the exploitation of the minerals. The mining mafia in greed of extracting more and more natural mineral from the soil digs up deep and even on more than the allotted area.

Secondly, the unlimited possibilities of extracting the natural resource lure the power holders, mining lords as well as the administrative officials. This breeds the mining scams which often go unchecked due to the combined participation of the two pillars of the democracy.

Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said on August 15, 2011 that it is impossible to curb illegal mining without the help of the state governments. He directed the states to take stringent actions against the defiant people under MMDR Act, 1957.

Swami Nigamanand’s sacrifice yet to reap results

The mining scams have consumed several lives so far including Swami Nigamanand who died while fasting against illegal mining and stone crushing along the Ganga near Haridwar. Following the footsteps of the young monk who sacrificed his life for the Ganga, the fasting saint Swami Sanand or GD Agrawal ended his fast on March 23 after an assurance by the government to adhere to his demands. However, how far the Centre will stick to its promise remains in doubt.

IPS Narendra Singh killed by Mining mafia

The latest casualty which trembled the political corridors is the alleged murder of IPS Narendra Singh in Madhya Pradesh. The valiant hero was ruthlessly crushed by a dumper at a mining site leaving behind a pregnant IAS wife. The state can expect to be least hopeful of putting an end to the menace as the former Congress government headed by Digvijay Singh and the current BJP government with Shivraj Singh Patil as the Chief Minister remain mute spectators to the uncontrolled mining activity.

A massive iron ore mining scandal worth Rs 5,000 crore scam  involving Congress leader and MLA Sanjay Pathak in the Sihora region of Jabalpur district came to light in 2011, where he was alleged to have illegally mine out 50 lakh tonne of iron ore and export it to China between 2007 to 2011, the lease for which expired in 2007 and also these mines were alleged to be a forest land which were converted into revenue land by notesheet order signed by then CM Digvijay Singh.

The Yeddy Mining scam in Karnataka

The mockery of the Indian democratic system can be gauged form the fact that the saviours of the nation clad in white are the main stakeholders in the crime. Removed former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa who blackmailed BJP to reappoint him on the coveted post was found to be involved in the Rs 60,000 crore iron ore mining scam in the state. In the CBI probe, Yeddyurappa even admitted that over three crore tons of iron ore worth Rs 12,000 crore was illegally shifted out of Karnataka. In 2009-10 alone, 71 lakh tons of iron ore was illegally shipped out of Karnataka.

A report in 2008 by the Lokayukta uncovered major violations and systemic corruption in mining in Bellary , encroachment of forest land, massive underpayment of state mining royalties relative to the market price of iron ore and systematic starvation of government mining entities.

The search for iron in Bellary has led to eradication of the forests, soil pollution and river pollution. While the mining mafia has bent the law in its interest, the police and other authorities are mere players in the crime.  

A Lokayukta report in 2011 indicted Yeddyurappa and four ministers in the scam, saying it has caused a loss of Rs 1,800 crore to the exchequer in 14 months from March 2009.

YSR heir Jagan churns crores in Andhra mining scandal

Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Jagathi Publications and other sister firms with no income that accumulated losses of Rs 250 crore in four years got a total investment of Rs 1,246 crore in a very short time. Jagan, son of former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, declared assets worth Rs 365.68 crore, making him one of the richest politicians in the country whose income grew 350 percent after the 2009 elections.

Mining permits were issued to Rakshana Steels, linked to Anil Kumar, the son-in-law of Y S Rajasekhar Reddy for over 137,000 Acres of land in Andhra Pradesh. The A P Mining development corporation entered into a joint venture agreement in 2009 with Rakshana Steels for mining iron ore in Khammam and Warangal districts.

Aravalis disappearing in Rajasthan

The open and uncontrolled mining in the Aravali range is no hidden fact but amid the hullabaloo over the menace of illegal mining digging a hole in the Indian treasury, the then Environment & Forests Minister, Jairam Ramesh said, “We do not have a regulatory system that is effective enough to stop this illegal mining.”

Rajasthan is also being continuously ripped off its treasure of Makrana stone and the activity fails to draw any attention of the authorities.

The Vedanta episode

However, a drop in the ocean was seen when Jairam Ramesh struck down a controversial mining project to build an open-cast bauxite mine in the Niyamgiri Hill range in the state of Orissa in 2010 by multinational company Vedanta which threatened the fate of tribes compared to the stars of film Avatar.

Recently, the BJP has demanded CBI probe into the alleged Rs 100 crore scam in the Maharashtra Small Scale Industrial Development Corporation in Nagpur.

The unlimited and uncontrolled mining demon consuming the mother earth needs to be contained at the earliest as the consequences and losses may be far from calculation.

Coal-gate turns darker and murkier as UPA-Opposition clash worsens

Ruling the national headlines, the surfacing of the gigantic coal scam or Coal-gate has dampened the smiles of many controlling the coal sector in the country. 

The recent raids conducted by the CBI at 30 places in 11 cities of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and other states have exposed a greatly interlinked nexus of coal miners, bureaucrats, politicians and business giants.

The ongoing debate over the heart-wrenching CAG report exposing huge loss of Rs1.86 lakh crores which rocked both the houses of the Parliament seems to be far from over as the oxytocin charged Opposition continued to halt the Parliament demanding the PM’s resignation who refuses to take the responsibility for the loss.

The latest statement of BJP senior leader Sushma Swaraj accusing Congress –led UPA government of swallowing ‘fat funds’ in the coal scam has added fire to the government versus opposition clash on the coal allocation scam.

However, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prefers to maintain silence rather than clearing the air on his failure to check the coal scam which breathed under his nose when he was holding the additional charge of the Coal Ministry.  

With former Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader Madhu Koda already lodged in jail for his involvement in corruption charges, his aide Vijay Joshi’s links to the Jaiswal family owing more than half of the coal blocks under question has hinted to the bigger involvement of politicians and business houses owning coal blocks.

Moreover, CBI has filed fresh FIRs against Congress Rajya Sabha member Vijay Darda and brother and Maharashtra Health Minister Rajendra Darda for their direct involvement in the Coal-gate. This hints at more red-beacon holders to be named in the dark scandal. 

With the depletion of coal mines falling prey to mining barons’ unquenching thirst for more, the UPA government and BJP led opposition are passing the ball in each other’s court by alleging lack of transparency and flouting of rules in the coal block allocation policies put in place by their previous governments.