Case for southern chief ministers to work together...

In preparing for the seminar on the effective utilization of natural gas from the KG Basin, I was struck by the lack of coordinated action among political leaders of the south to safeguard and advance regional interests. The gas grid for south is a case in point. For one thing, the reserves are really large and production bountiful. Thus there will be enough and more for meeting the needs of several states. There is no need for any single state to be concerned about non-availability. The only issue is the level of preparedness to consume the gas.

It was thus a fit case for the chief ministers of the southern states to come together and make a common and strong demand for a fair share of the large production.

Just think of the force and impact of Kerala's V S Achuthanandan (CPI-M), TN's M Karunanidhi (DMK), Karnataka's B S Yediyurappa (BJP) and AP's K Rosaiah (Congress) making a demand on behalf of 28 crore southern population to give priority for constructing the southern gas grid and for allocation of a sizable portion of the large production, expected at around 200 mn cubic meters per day!

Such a unified voice would also help mobilize the large funds needed for constructing the pipelines in quick time. After all, Reliance has demonstrated this in good measure in constructing the 1382 km pipeline from Kakinada to Baruch in a short time.

Such unified action can also prepare the states to work on special industrial corridors of the Delhi-Mumbai type: why not a Vijayawada-Chennai-Bengaluru and a Chennai-Coimbatore-Kochi high speed rail cum industrial corridor?

There are several such areas where there is potential for coordinated action.

IE suggested several years ago the southern chief ministers' meeting by rotation in one of the towns in each state 'informally' to discuss areas of common interest.

Such interactions will also help resolve, in course of time, more contentious issues like sharing of inter-state river waters.

Activate the zonal and inter-state councils

I met at Thiruvananthapuram, senior civil servant V Ramachandran (VR). He was just fresh after completing the monumental task of preparing 16 voluminous reports of the second Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Veerappa Moily. VR has had wide ranging assignments in national and international postings apart from serving as the chief secretary of Kerala. VR pointed to the zonal council and the inter-state council not meeting for a number of years. These are effective institutional mechanisms that had been a great help in the resolution of conflicts before issues became intractable. Such fora provided for discussion to resolve differences, he pointed out.

VR also pointed to the beneficial results flowing from Prime Ministers and heads of states of G-15 and Common-wealth countries regularly meeting. Such meetings help set aside differences and focus on issues of common interest.

The south seems to suffer from a particular disadvantage: physical infirmity of the leaders at the helm: Achuthanandan (86), Karunanidhi (85), Rosaiah (76) and Yediyurappa (66) may not have the energies for such activities. Even for the crucial and rare NDC meetings, states are content to depute a junior minister to represent the CM.

Unstable equilibrium…

One should also take into reckoning the unstable equilibrium: for weeks, poor Yediyurappa had to battle for survival as the chief minister due to revolt by the powerful Reddy brothers of Bellary. The BJP, that used to pride itself on party discipline, had to pay a price for its over-dependence on the money power of the Reddy brothers. For AP's Rosaiah, the problems were different. Right from Day One of his chiefministership, he had to face the discontent and non-acceptance of his leadership by his cabinet colleagues. The Telangana agitation had further compounded the problem.

There is no such danger for the DMK leadership. The party has also been continuing with its spree of victories in successive by-elections. With better tax collections thanks to the succession of brilliant finance secretaries and a good record in industrial development with focus on education and public health, there has been the scomfort for the DMK leader to spend time more liberally on matters related to his pet subjects of films and Tamil literature.

CII partnership summit returns to Chennai

The Telangana agitation has resulted in CII shifting the venue of the annual Partnership Summit held in January from the earlier decided Hyderabad to Chennai.

TDP's Chandrababu Naidu revelled in actively involving himself with the CII meets. Several national and international conferences were conducted at Hyderabad through the joint efforts of the AP Government and CII. For four years in a row, CII held the Partnership Summits at Hyderabad. These efforts helped make Hyderabad a familiar, fast growing IT, business and financial centre winning global recognition.

Chennai will be hosting the Partnership Summit after a gap of over a decade. I remember Karunanidhi as chief minister and M K Stalin as the first elected Mayor of Chennai, actively involving themselves in the lastSummit. The Nehru Indoor Stadium was converted for the first time to hold such a prestigeous event. CII, which has grown in stature manifold in this interim period, can be expected to stage yet another grand event.

‘Yellow Peas Dhal’ only at Rs. 26 per kg...

This ad was widely promoted by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in Delhi (where else) newspapers! This was intended to meet the soaring demand for pulses, particularly toor dhal, whose prices have skyrocketed.

Pulses are produced only by very few countries. Sensing the demand, Canada is reported to have entered the fray with alacrity. Since pulses are a short term crop, production could be organized in a short time. It is gathered that farmers in Canada who did not know much about toor dhal, raised a lentil crop they have been familiar with. Its colour matched with that of toor dhal; hence the promotion of the yellow peas dhal and offering it at a price that is around a fourth of that of toor dhal!

One wishes Sharad Pawar to get such a quick substitute for sugar as well.

Chennai, the beautiful…

TN deputy chief minister M K Stalin deserves praise for the several initiatives he has been taking to beautify Chennai and to ease traffic congestion. Singara Chennai (Beautiful Chennai) was dreamt by him even while he was the first elected Mayor of the city in the 1990s. Chennai Metro has witnessed a welcome massive face-lift given to hundreds of parks and, most importantly, its unique endowment, the Marina Beach.

Stalin also deserves credit for constructing a number of flyovers during 1996-2001 and in the current regime of DMK. The interesting feature relating to these is the construction in a remarkably short time and well within cost and time estimates. This notwithstanding the hassles involved in land acquisition with attendant litigation.

Two major projects launched, in particular, deserve praise: the first, to make the Cooum River clean and navigable. For decades the river has the notoriety for the un-hygiene and stench, largely the result of hundreds of sewage lines ending up in the river. A massive scheme to arrest this and connect these to the underground sewage system and pumping stations has been planned. Simultaneously encroachments on the banks are boldly cleared with alternative accommodations provided to those living on the banks for years. Any popular government will hesitate to take drastic action to clear such encroachments. If Cooum, and in quick time, the Adayar passing through the city cold be made clean and navigable, they would add massively to the beauty of the city.

The quick construction of the Metro Rail targeted for completion in just around four years should be another feather in the cap of Stalin.