Dear Kalyan:
Thanks for your response.
>I entirely agree with you, Chan Mahanta. The priority No. 1 in this
>entire exercise should be to ameliorate the enormous human tragedy
>which results from floods not only in Assam, Bihar and Bengal but
>also in Bangladesh and the entire North-east region. I hold no brief
>for the inept bureacracy of Bharat. There has been a colossal
>failure in attending to the enormous human problem.
*** I don't think it is enough to put the blame on an inept bureaucracy and
move on. That has been done for decades, but nothing changes. I would
submit, the bureaucracy is made up of individuals who are fairly
intelligent. They are aware of what goes on, and the popular discontent
over their apparent failures. While it is believable that there are bad
apples in their ranks, ALL could not be bad, or apathetic or inept. The
problem is that the system is faulty. It does not support the doers, it
does not encourage creativity and initiatives, while it rewards the
sycophants, the corrupt and the inept. It promotes secrecy, not
transperency.
It is a political problem, and it is systemic. The question is how you will
change it?
>The statistics
>do not even estimate the irreparable loss to society by the loss of
>human lives and loss of cattle wealth. The numbers are just
>staggering, one estimate (for whatever it is worth) puts the annual
>average damage at more than Rs. 10,000 crores. Atrocious inaction on
>the part of 150+ years of British rule and 50 years of Independent
>Bharat. No excuses should be accepted for this gross failure in
>governance.
*** I hear you, as do the victims of flooding. But again it is no consolation.
Sympathy is cheap.
So you might ask what my point is. My point is that, the intelligentsia,
people like yourselves, must actively take part in the management of your
public concerns -- by controlling the people you entrust to govern you.
They are YOUR servants, not your RULERS. But it means nothing if you have
no say over your servants' performance of their duties. Nor does it mean
anything when you act like mushrooms, you know ---when they keep you in
the dark and feed you bullshit?
The river-linkers are doing exactly that. Are you upto asking the questions
you need to ask, and hold your servants' feet the fire? Are you willing to,
instead of lapping up whatever they diss out ?
>I have been making this
>point every time I get an opportunity in public fora pleading with
>these people to put up a website with all the technical details and
>all data about the links, the feasibility studies done so far during
>the 20 years employing over 200 engineers per year, the costs and so
>on. Hopefully, some action is getting initiated. Suresh Prabhu's
>article is a good beginning, though many questions will be raised
>and will have to be answered.
*** I wished I could share your optimism. I saw nothing in Suresh Prabhu's
pronouncements that tell us anything of any substance. His article is not
worth the paper it is written on. He has not addressed a single relevant
issue involving river-linking.
But I am willing to admit I could be wrong. That I could be a born cynic,
even though I am not. So show me and others what YOU saw as hopeful, as
promising to be different, in Prabhu's article. What did he tell us that we
don't know? And tell us why he does not tell us what we want to know.
>The success of this project will depend entirely upon the
>opportunity seized to launch a developmental programme for the north-
>east and for Bangladesh on a war-footing. Bharat should take the
>lead and offer her help to Bangladesh without any reservations.
*** Credibility is built by small, incremental successes. The center can
build its credibility by doing litttle things, successfully. It does not
have to go solve Bangladdesh's problems. Let it solve its own first, even
tiny parts of it.
Prove its intentions and its abilities.
Why has it been absent for so long?
What makes you think it is any different this time, when they wouldn't even
tell YOU what its 'pre-feasibility' studies determined ?
>You know well, Chan Mahanta, that Brahmaputra is a gigantic, sheerly
>gigantic river. At Manas in Arunachalpradesh, it is as wide as 14
>kms. and changes its course every year. In two months (Feb. and
>March) alone, the enormous waters of this river, together with
>deritrus brought from the Himalayan mountains, fills the entire
>command area of 2 lakh sq. kms. raising the river bed levels and
>eroding the embankments, ravaging the villages out of existence.
*** Kalyan, I am willing to give you a lot of room to maneuver on the
conceptual aspects, of intents, of this scheme of river-linking. But I
can't on the details:
For starters, the Manas is NOT in Arunachal. It comes down from Bhutan,
into WESTERN Assam, seven eights of the way west from the easterly
boundaries of the Brahmaputra valley, just a short distance away from
the Bangladesh borders.
It is an important detail, because EVEN if you brought the entire Manas
and its feeder tributaries under complete control, you still have done
little to put a dent into the MAIN aspects of the Assam floods, which
happen farther to the east.
Another important detail is that the wide flood-plain of the river
is not entirely a negative. The floods also deposit nutrient rich
silt on the ground. The inhabitants have learned to live with
periods of high water followed by dry periods of highly productive
agriculture on the fertile flood-plains. If you go dam up the river,
you will also dramatically impact the livelihoods of all those who
have adapted themselves to living in the flood-plains.
The challenge therefore, is NOT to alter the environment dramatically,
but to control the unpredictable high waters at times when they are
not expected, thereby causing damage to lives and crops. And for
that you don't need to go dam it up.
Neither the Brahmaputra, nor the Manas, nor any of the other
tributaries flood in February or March. This is DROUGHT time in Assam.
The driest of the seasons. The first whiffs of the monsoons do not
arrive till mid-April. The snow-melt of the Himalayas do not begin
to trickle down until late March or even April. Assam rivers are tame
until June. I don't blame you for the misinformation, because I too
saw these unadulterated nonsense in the govt. handouts dutifully
regurgitated by a compliant media.
These are critical details that fly on the face of the so called
experts' pronouncements on how they will take flood waters out of the
Brahmaputra when the rest of the country is parched - in February,
and March. What utter bullshit! Assam rivers are dry too. And they
flood when the Ganga and its treibutaries do. Just go look up
some old issues of newspapers Kalyan, and you will KNOW.
But remaining ignorant of the details, or trusting the expertise of
govt. engineers and planners to tell you only the truth and nothing
but the truth, you are only helping perpetuate what you SHOULD know
must change.
>The option is to bring at least some of the flood waters of that great
>Lohitya to the thirsty people in other parts, other rain-shadow
>regions of Bharat.
*** The people of Assam are not so mean as to withhold a drink of life
giving water from the thirsty peoples of the sub-continent. If anything
they have been far too trusting, much more than even you might be, and for
much too long. Their simple-mided trust and faith in their fellow men has
been their undoing. They were taken! And they continue to be taken.
Best,
Chandan
At 2:23 PM +0000 8/27/03, S.Kalyanaraman wrote:
>--- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> Dear Dr.Kalyanaraman,> > Thanks for reading and responding to *my*
>perspective on Assam's concerns> and interests... Where is the
>ingenuity of twety-first century Indian engineers and> visionaries>
>in developing designs for and implementing this huge annual problem
>of> flooding in Assam? Or Bihar, or Bengal? I would submit it is a
>much higher> priority for these areas than riverlinking for selling
>water.
>>
>> If Indian planners and technocrats had demonstrated a desire and
>an ability> to take that problem on with perceptible results, the
>idea of riverlinking> might not appear that outrageous to the
>region, even though it holds the> potential for causing enormous
>harm in more ways than one.
>
>
>I entirely agree with you, Chan Mahanta. The priority No. 1 in this
>entire exercise should be to ameliorate the enormous human tragedy
>which results from floods not only in Assam, Bihar and Bengal but
>also in Bangladesh and the entire North-east region. I hold no brief
>for the inept bureacracy of Bharat. There has been a colossal
>failure in attending to the enormous human problem. The statistics
>do not even estimate the irreparable loss to society by the loss of
>human lives and loss of cattle wealth. The numbers are just
>staggering, one estimate (for whatever it is worth) puts the annual
>average damage at more than Rs. 10,000 crores. Atrocious inaction on
>the part of 150+ years of British rule and 50 years of Independent
>Bharat. No excuses should be accepted for this gross failure in
>governance.
>>
>> Since you seem to be well informed on the administration's
>activities,> would you be kind enough to tell us why the secrecy
>involving the> 'feasibility studies'? Have the planners made any of
>the routes of the> linking mechanisms; the proposed method of
>linkage ( canals, pipes,> whatever); and cost benefits studies,
>public?
>
>I am sorry if I gave the impression that I am well informed on the
>administration's activities. I am not. I am a layman, only
>interested in seeing a developed Bharat. Again, I agree with you,
>Chan Mahanta. The bureacrats and technocrats should be more
>transparent, than they have been so far. I have been making this
>point every time I get an opportunity in public fora pleading with
>these people to put up a website with all the technical details and
>all data about the links, the feasibility studies done so far during
>the 20 years employing over 200 engineers per year, the costs and so
>on. Hopefully, some action is getting initiated. Suresh Prabhu's
>article is a good beginning, though many questions will be raised
>and will have to be answered.
>>
>> Would it be resonable to expect to have the servants of the
>people -- the> planners, engineers, bureaucrats--make it available
>to their employers--the> inhabitants of the regions?
>
>The success of this project will depend entirely upon the
>opportunity seized to launch a developmental programme for the north-
>east and for Bangladesh on a war-footing. Bharat should take the
>lead and offer her help to Bangladesh without any reservations. The
>stats. brought out by CSO do not include the devastation caused by
>floods year-in and year-out. There is an excellent ESCAP report on
>the impact of floods on Bangladesh economy. I think I gave the
>website reference in the document I put up on the files section. If
>not, please let me know; I will give the URLs.
>
>> > Lastly, I would like to be educated on the trustworthiness of
>the 10%> quanity and HOW that is going to alleviate flooding in
>Assam, by how> much, at what cost to the geology, geography,
>environment and inhabitants> of the region?
>
>You know well, Chan Mahanta, that Brahmaputra is a gigantic, sheerly
>gigantic river. At Manas in Arunachalpradesh, it is as wide as 14
>kms. and changes its course every year. In two months (Feb. and
>March) alone, the enormous waters of this river, together with
>deritrus brought from the Himalayan mountains, fills the entire
>command area of 2 lakh sq. kms. raising the river bed levels and
>eroding the embankments, ravaging the villages out of existence.
>With determination, the river can be tamed and a command area of
>irrigation set up for the north-east including Bangladesh. I am no
>engineer; let us trust our engineers to produce the required
>alternative strategies. After all, they have over the last 50 years,
>increased the command are of irrigation in Bharat from 22.5 mha to
>90 mha contributing the achievement of increase in food grains
>production from 65 million tonnes to 200 m.t during the same period
>to feed the 100 crores people (without resulting in a Bengal-type
>famine and without resort to PL-480 begging). This has been done
>thanks to the projects such as Bhakra dam, Nangal dam, Pong dam,
>Hirakud dam. Nehru called them the modern temples of Bharat.
>
>Yes, indeed. Problem of floods cannot be allowed to continue as
>sagas of sorrow and misery for crores of Bharatiya-s. Just as the
>problem of drought cannot be allowed to continue. We cannot after
>all relocate the people of Vidarbha or Telangana or Ramanathapuram
>to Brahmaputra valley which is only a small strech of land mass. The
>option is to bring at least some of the flood waters of that great
>Lohitya to the thirsty people in other parts, other rain-shadow
>regions of Bharat.
>
>Thanks again and regards. Kalyan
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
_______________________________________________
Assam mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
