Gobind Thukral

IT is a common knowledge that Indian judicial system is one of the laziest in the world. The number of cases pending in lower and superior courts tell its own tale. Over three million cases are pending in India's 21 high courts, and an astounding 26.3 million cases are pending in subordinate courts across the country. At the same time, there are almost a quarter million under-trials languishing in jails across the country. Of these, some 2,069 have been in jail for more than five years, even as their guilt or innocence is yet to be ascertained. This hits hard the people’s faith in the judiciary and its capacity to deliver justice. What is there to celebrate in this world’s largest democracy?
 
More than three-quarters of people in India believe that the country's judiciary system is corrupt. The “Global Corruption Report 2007” had highlighted the lack of public trust in India's judiciary, which many feel is overbearing and democratically unaccountable. Compiled by Transparency International, the report is based on a 2005 countrywide survey of "public perceptions and experiences of corruption in the lower judiciary," which was conducted by the Center for Media Studies. The survey found that 77 percent of respondents believe the Indian judiciary is corrupt. It also noted that "bribes seem to be solicited as the price of getting things done. According to this report," An estimated Rs 2,9,00 million was paid in bribes during a 12-month period. "Money was paid to the officials in the following proportions: 61 percent to lawyers; 29 percent to court officials; 5 percent to middlemen."

Shielded from public scrutiny, the higher courts of India have increasingly turned conservative. They have recently handed down judgments that abridge or abolish labour rights, dilute environmental regulations, promote big business interests and uncritically support globalization and privatization. Judicial corruption in India is attributable to a number of factors, including "delays in the disposal of cases, shortage of judges and complex procedures, all of which are exacerbated by a preponderance of new laws," according to Transparency International.

Many judges over the years have proved above the law. The appointment of lower judiciary is more less an open affair, but for high courts and Supreme Court it is all veiled.  It is true that the number of judges [13] for ten lakh populations India is one of the lowest in the world. It is also true not all are corrupt. Yet this does explain the mighty attitude where the judges are not prepared to declare their assets before the public while ordering even every other public man to do so.  Also, the system of selection and then in house checks are not revealed to anyone not even to the president of the country.
 
In India, impeachment is not possible because it requires a huge [two-thirds] majority in Parliament. India's parliamentary elections have produced hung verdicts for years. Given the nature of politics it is virtually impossible to muster the numbers necessary for impeaching a judge. In 1993, V. Ramaswamy, a Supreme Court judge, was found culpable by a court committee. But he was politically well-connected and could not be impeached. Justice PB Sawant, who headed the inquiry committee in the impeachment motion against Justice V. Ramaswami, said: “Political lobbying may rescue any judge. It has happened in the past. What is the guarantee it would not happen now? The system to remove judges is impractical, cumbersome and heavily dependent on politicians.”   Judges are considered above the law that not a single one has been impeached in independent India. And the very idea of trying to determine their assets or entertain complaints about corruption or misbehaviour can send parliament into shiver of indecision.

This freedom from prosecution and impeachment further adds to the credibility crisis of the judiciary, in particular, the higher judiciary, which in India is a self-appointing body not answerable to the legislature or executive. Only sometimes politics playing the spoiler’s role. Take the most recent case of Punjab and Haryana High Court. It was August 13, 2008, and Justice Nirmaljit Kaur had been handed Rs 15 lakh by the clerk of a senior law officer with the state government. An investigation followed, and the police found that the money had allegedly been meant for another woman judge, Justice Nirmal Yadav. Ten days later, the Chandigarh administration handed over the case to the CBI, a very rare happening for a case involving a judge. A committee of three judges set up by the Chief Justice of India began a parallel probe into the allegations. Justice Yadav proceeded on leave, on the advice of the chief justice of the high court.

In three months, the committee completed its probe, found her guilty of misconduct and recommended her removal. Yadav challenged the report and the matter has been stuck ever since. A difference of opinion between top CBI officials worsened the mess. The case seems to be as good as dead. Justice Yadav is still a serving judge and she has recently claimed that she be allowed to hear cases again ‘since nothing has been proved against her’. This case is a perfect example of all that is wrong with India’s methods of checking corruption in the judiciary.  The fact that, nearly a year on, no action has been taken perhaps explains why majority of Indians see the judiciary as corrupt.  It was for nothing that then serving Chief Justice of India, S P Bharucha had said in 2002 that about 20 per cent of all judges were corrupt. Can any one in authority answer a simple a question whose money it was and for whom it was meant and to gain what favours.             
 
This week parliament was seized of this subject and the prime minister had promised to bring in a law that would end corruption and make judiciary more accountable. But it was a lame law which the minister wanted the parliament to quickly pass. The opposition did the right thing by forcing the government to defer the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill. The Bill, which seeks to extend the principle of accountability and transparency to the higher judiciary, falls short of its intent in the present form. The Bill makes it mandatory for judges to disclose their assets before a designated authority, but doesn't allow the disclosure to be made public. A contentious clause in the Bill prevents any citizen, court or authority from questioning the disclosures. It says "no judge shall be subjected to any inquiry or query in relation to the contents of the declaration by any person". The opposition has objected to this provision and termed it a violation of the Constitution. The objection seems valid as one leading newspaper wrote. What the clause does is to treat the judiciary as a advantaged class with special rights that no other group of citizens enjoys. No other category of public servants has such immunity from public scrutiny.  This clause certainly violates the republican principle that all citizens are equal before the law.  India urgently needs to end the contempt law and being judiciary under public scrutiny without compromising its independence.

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Potentials of exports of agro-products from Punjab to Arab countries

Dr S. S. Chhina

DEMAND as well as supply of agricultural products is less elastic and prices have little effect on them. Sometimes the exports could not be made not because of lack of demand but lack of supply, as it happened in case of cotton from India. As international trade is carried on the principle of comparative cost, so competitiveness of the product is the basic criteria for export. Punjab being the leading agricultural state of India has poor performance in the field of agricultural export, though the competitiveness has never been a problem for its agricultural products. The table 1 shows how little the export of rice and food articles was there as compared to the other products.

The food production of the state was 25.18 million MT in 2005-06, which was more than ten per cent of total production of India that was 208.60 million MT, this ten per cent production was from only one and half per cent area of India shows the remarkable productivity in the field of agriculture. The table 2 shows per ha output of certain important crops in Punjab and India. This production is much higher even from many developed countries of the world. The assured prices and marketing are assigned as reasons for this higher productivity but productivity of certain crops. Where no incentives and assured prices were provided for the products, the higher productivity was also observed than that of other states of India. Per hectare Production of groundnut was 865 kg, mustard seed 1119 kg, sunflower 1639 kg, potato 17030 kg etc. Even the production of certain fruit products is also much competitive. In the year of 2006-07 production of kinnow was 4.14 lac MT, guava was 1.42 lac MT, pear was 52 th MT and grapes 3699 th MT. Similar is the case of other fruits and vegetables. The main objective to present these figures is only that Punjab is having a very good potential for export of its agricultural products and the reasons not to exploit this potential is not lack of demand and supply but these are somewhat else.

Punjab being the food basket of India, where it had been contributing about 60 per cent of the food grains in the national food stocks. So the area under wheat and paddy had been around 70 per cent of the total area of the state. Recently it was 77 per cent and even among the rest of the cropped area the major crop was fodder because most of the agricultural and non agricultural families are keeping milch animals that are why Punjab is having the highest per capita per day milk availability in India which is still increasing. It was 541 gm in 1981 which increased to 939 gm in 2006-07. As more of the area is occupied by wheat paddy and fodder, the more desired export products like fruits vegetables, oil seed and pulses are having much less area for their production.

It is always in the interest of the consumer that he may pay the reasonable prices and producer may receive the highest share in consumer rupee. Some of the countries are importing certain items because those are cheaper to import than to produce themselves. Arab countries can be a good destination for exports of Punjab. There is need to identify the agricultural products in those countries except Egypt most of other countries are importers of many agro-products from other countries. Some of products are being imported from European and American countries at much higher prices. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Israel can import certain Agricultural and dairy products at much cheaper rates from Punjab than European and American countries. The favourable state policies for these exports should have to be adopted in Punjab simultaneously with the provision of adequate infrastructure in Punjab. Similarly Arab importers have to build a confidence regarding speedy transactions and pay back. About six - seven year back govt of Punjab had established agro-export corporation but it did little to promote the exports from Punjab as the data has shown. Even it could not provide the in formation regarding perspective buyers and identify the goods.

Recent reports reveal disturbing trends about sustainability of Punjab agriculture. 98.8 percent of cultivable land in the State is already under plough. The present agriculture cropping pattern in the State is dominated by the wheat- paddy rotation (77%) causing degradation in soil fertility and fall in the underground water table. Therefore there is an urgent need to diversify the crop base to include basmati, vegetables, dairy, poultry, fruits, oilseeds, and pulses. High yielding and processable/ short duration legumes, basmati, vegetables and fruits varieties should be identified and promoted for export purposes. Therefore there is a need of taking advantage of the growing importance of vegetables and fruits, animal and fishery products in world agricultural trade and increasing the share of these commodities in our export.

Due to the limited peak level of the productivity, high value produce and value addition of agricultural commodities is very important to increase the income of the farmers and to boost the economy of the state. The integration of production with processing of agricultural products will not only add value to the crops of farmers but will open up big employment opportunities also. Modernized private industries can be developed to produce bread, dalia, atta, maida, suji, biscuits etc in place of whole wheat. Transporting processed wheat products is much more effective than transporting whole grains. To produce value added milk and milk products for the urban centers of northern India dairy industries can be promoted. Basmati rice and vegetables can be taken on the priority list. There is increasing demand for quality seeds in the state. There fore promotion of seed industry is becoming a serious need in Punjab.

I want to suggest that there is a very good potential for export of Agri- products like fruits and vegetables, processed goods, food and dairy products. Arab markets are the nearest available market, even the products can be air lifted in the shortest period. The products are to be identified in the perspective markets. Such a work can be done by a govt agency like state Agri-export Corporation. The farmers can not export their product directly but the cooperative marketing, govt agencies and private traders can help and guide to produce the items, those may be competitive regarding prices and quality. The new items like honey, mushroom etc are not appearing in the market because of lack of demand, in spite of the fact that those can be produced efficiently in Punjab. The liaison between Punjab govt and bilateral chambers of commerce of Arab countries can be helpful to explore and exploit these potentials of exports from Punjab.

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More subsidies for fossil fuels in recovery plans

Stephen Leahy

DESPITE the economic slow down; growing numbers of world leaders are calling for urgent action on climate change while many governments used their economic stimulus packages to increase subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. Consider Europe, with the strongest public commitment to reduce carbon emissions that are causing climate change.

In the past five years, 8 billion U.S. dollars of public money went to Europe's fossil fuel companies mainly to the natural gas sector. And in May the European Parliament approved an additional 3.35 billion dollars in subsides as part of Europe's 225 billion dollars economic recovery plan, according to a new research report by Friends of the Earth (FOE) Europe.

"We Europeans are supposedly leading the world on the path to a new green economy but we're putting billions of euros into fossil fuel sector that's taking us in the opposite direction," Darek Urbaniak of FOE Europe.

"Its complete hypocrisy," Urbaniak told IPS from Brussels.

Perhaps recognising this fact, global business leaders at the World Business Summit on Climate Change that concluded May 26 called on governments to "strive to end the current perverse subsidies that favour high-emissions transport and energy".

Speaking at the opening of the summit, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "Continuing to pour trillions of dollars into fossil-fuel subsidies is like investing in sub-prime real estate." And he concluded: "We must direct investment away from dirty energy industries."

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has recommended that one third of the around 2.5 trillion dollars worth of planned economic stimulus packages worldwide should be used to 'green' the world economy, as this would help "power the global economy out of recession".

Instead the European parliament decided the 5.36 billion dollars dedicated to new energy projects be split so that the source of the climate problem, the fossil fuel industry got 3.35 billion dollars while green solutions like wind, solar, biomass energy sources receive just 2 billion dollars in new funding, the FOE Europe analysis ‘Public money for fossil fuels in the EU’ reported.

"Wind only received a half billion euros (670 million dollars) while 1.25 billion (1.67 billion dollars) is being used to subsidise research into carbon capture and storage," Urbaniak says.

Canada has spent more on oil and gas subsidies than all of its climate change programmes in the past three years, says Albert Koehl of Ecojustice, a Canadian environmental NGO.

Indeed since Canada first agreed to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 to reduce its carbon emissions, it has spent more than 2 dollars in tax subsidies to the industry for each 1 dollar spent on action to implement the accord.

"It’s a pure windfall for the oil and gas industry. Taxpayers are paying for the industries' pollution," Koehl said in an interview from Toronto.

"We're trying to build a new green economy but much of our money is going to a dinosaur industry."

Canada is evidently not very interested in going green, spending 13.7 times less per capita than the U.S on renewable energy notes John Dillion of Karios (see sidebar).

Although nowhere near the one-third that UNEP recommended, the Obama administration has earmarked some 70 billion dollars out of its 787 billion dollars economic stimulus for greening the U.S. economy.

Of this 32 billion dollars is for clean energy production, including at least 4.4 billion dollars for carbon capture and storage (CCS) research and development, according to an analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense, an independent and non-partisan NGO based in Washington DC.

That's a surprising turnabout. After investing billions in CCS projects such as FutureGen, a private-public partnership to build the world's first near-zero emissions power plant, even the fossil-fuel friendly George W. Bush administration abandoned the effort as too costly.

Whether there are additional subsidies to the fossil fuel industry in the rest of the economic stimulus, the research simply hasn't been done in the rush of bailouts, budgets and new legislation says Janet Larson, Director of Research at the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental policy NGO in Washington DC.

Taxpayers for Common Sense haven't analysed the 1,500 page stimulus bill yet either. But in last fall's 700 billion dollar bailout for the U.S. financial sector they noted there were some new tax breaks worth 2.2 billion dollars through 2013 for the oil and gas industry.

And of course there haven't been any significant reductions in subsidies although President Obama's proposed budget for 2010 does.

"There is awful lot money in the stimulus bill," Larson told IPS. And alternative energy is getting some of it. But one fact remains clear: "Alternative energy is never going to catch up to what the fossil fuel industry has received."  [Courtesy IPS]

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