Will the TCP amendment bill serve any public cause?

The HP Governor has acted as a saviour...so far

Politics does indeed make strange bed fellows. Those in power and those who are in the  opposition shout and fight with each other almost tooth and claw in the assemblies and the parliament. But we have all seen sudden and an unbelievable bonhomie and mutual cordiality between them when a bill raising their salaries, pensions and perks is to be passed. With what incredible speed such bills are passed  is only too well known to all of us. A similar instance of the same has been in evidence over the controversial Town and Country Planning Amendment Bill passed by the HP assembly in the monsoon session this year. With an eye on the vote bank the bill seeks to regularise as many as 25000 unauthorised structures in the state. This also includes constructions in the 17 green belts of Shimla and many illegal buildings  in our would-be smart city Dharamsala. Shedding all scruples and propriety (does this elite class have any, anyway?), the party brass from both sides of the divide have been reported to be knocking on the doors of the Raj Bhawan and trying to woo the governor to give his nod.   

What makes this unholy exercise so disgusting?

       1. Passing of such a bill would be against the spirit of law as the HP high court has already decreed that the proposed amendment is unconstitutional. Can the executive be so arrogant as to overrule the court of law? Yes it can be when it is a matter of self-interest.

        2. The bill doesn’t serve any public good. On the contrary it goes grossly against it. How?

i. While these towns are already so congested and choked by jungles of concrete, this ill-conceived move will only compound the mess and aggravate ecological degradation.

ii. It would be a slap in the faces of the law-abiding citizens who, in deference to the law, have avoided such encroachments and unauthorised expansions of their buildings/structures. On the other hand, those who flout rules would rejoice at their cost. What message would this step send to the aam aadmi? What lesson would he/she draw?

     3. Authorising such constructions would greatly imperil the lives of lakhs of people in the wake of a major natural calamity, mainly an earthquake as Shimla and 16 other districts of Himachal Pradesh fall in high seismic zones(iv and v). Thus as rightly emphasised by the eight-member committee of experts appointed by the NGT, a tragedy worse than the catastrophes that visited Kathmandu and Uttrakhand could not be ruled out. More unplanned, unsafe buildings potentially imply more deaths…more destruction.

      4. Frantic efforts to push through the bill by the political class do not stem from any holy or noble ideas but are aimed at obliging the high and mighty in the well-known practice of you-scratch-my-back-I-will-scratch-yours. After all it is the powerful people who have the necessary clout and therefore the licence to violate law and get away with it. And who knows even the law-makers themselves of all hues, or their parties, may be seeking to get their own buildings regularised through the proposed amendment? Their desperation suggests so. तो फ़िर क्या इस हमाम में  सब नंगे हैं ?

The whole matter can be better understood and appreciated  by recalling the rather hackneyed but very apt saying: अगर बाड़ ही फ़सल को खाने लग जाए तो फिर बेचारा किसान क्या करे?  In other words, if the lawmakers themselves become abetters and connivers in flouting rules and regulations, what will the poor law-abiding citizen do?

But, let’s take pride and solace in the fact the governor hasn’t buckled under the pressure so far. Let’s all therefore stand up, applaud and salute him, who, with the court ruling to back him, has stood firm. The people of Himachal Pradesh would be eternally grateful to him for this great act of preventing ecological disaster, safeguarding the lives of millions, giving a moral boost to those who respect law, and a snub to those who don't, even if powerful.

Also, there was but one single politician who has stood tall on this issue.

Guess who?

…

 Perhaps time for me to change course. 
So, here are a couple of  pictures of our beautiful Dhauladhar lording over our Kangra valley- to savour and relish with  a few lines scribbled to go with it...

           देखो तो कितनी सुन्दर है यह पर्वतमाला धौलाधार 
           इस घाटी की जीवनरेखा, जनमानस की पालनहार 
           कलकल बहते  नदियां नाले, हरियाली, और बारिश की कभी रिमझिम  बौछार 
           यह सब कुछ देती धौलाधार, हैं इससे मेरे जीवन में सब खुशियां और बहार 

Quotes

 "A special place ought to be reserved in hell, I thought to myself, for                  planners who build with such reckless disregard for their                                    surroundings."
                              - Amitav Ghosh in 'The Great Derangement'

 "Being a woman is a beautiful thing."
                                 - Vidya Balan, Bollywood actress

 "Whom should I follow, the people or politicians?"
                                 - Bihar CM Nitish Kumar about his support for demonetisation

 "I am too shy to educate my children about sex."                                                              - Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood actor

 "Ranbir Kapoor is a better kisser than Ranveer Singh."(Koffee with Karan)

 "Castration only way to deal with those sexually assaulting women."
                                        - Meera Jasmine, Indian actress
      

News clips

• Australian woman locks 14 cats in house until they ate each other
• Police stop bus carrying 120 live cobras in central Vietnam
• 4 in every 10 women in India face harassment before attaining age of 19
• Pune: Six-yr old girl gang raped by four minor boys(aged 14,13,13 and 10) in a slum in Chinchwad (The Indian Express)
• 1.4 billion jobs depend on pollinators:report (About 1.4 billion jobs and three quarters of all crops depend on pollinators[such as bees, birds and butterflies]
• Hrithik Roshan (Indian actor) polled as third world's most handsome face
• Depression may affect stomach, and anxiety the skin (The Indian Express)
• Beware: Repeated jet lag may increase liver cancer risk (Economic Times)
• Protein-carbohydrate combo good for gut health
• ज़मीन के नीचे उगने वाली सब्ज़ियां ना धोने पर मिरगी का ख़तरा (Amar Ujala) 
• Scientists step closer to halting spread of lung cancer

                                                              ***

                         Bye  for now, see you next week!

                         Love and regards...take care