• Agra talks
  Colonialist-imperialist mindset of India’s rulers remains main roadblock to peace and friendship between India and Pakistan

• Unity of all the peoples of the North East against the Indian state is the need of the hour

• Floods devastate Orissa

• Valiant protests daunt G 8 meeting in Genoa

• Russia and China sign treaty

• A Dangerous Military Alliance

• No to privatisation of defence production!
  Oppose the dangerous course of military cooperation with the US!
  Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party India, July 12, 2001

• A "Public Distribution System" meant to starve the public

• Who is responsible for the severe water shortage in Chennai?Which is the way for a lasting solution?

Agra talks

Colonialist-imperialist mindset of India’s rulers remains main roadblock to peace and friendship between India and Pakistan

The people of India and Pakistan want peace, friendship, and the democratic settlement of the disputes, including the Kashmir problem. The peoples are tired of the atmosphere of hostility, bitterness, and suspicion that has characterized the relations between India and Pakistan ever since partition over 54 years ago. Lakhs of families divided by partition, the nation of Punjab which has been brutally divided by partition, the millions who had to abandon their homes in India or Pakistan and begin life afresh as refugees in a foreign land—all these and many more are desirous of ending the bitter legacy of partition.

In particular, the martyred people of Kashmir, divided immediately after partition against their will, with the India-occupied portion annexed by India through a combination of deceit and force, have been waging a long standing struggle, peaceful as well as armed, for self-determination. The struggle of the people of the Kashmir valley against the brutal armed might of the Indian state has brought to the fore even to the blind that there can be no peace in the region which does not fulfill the aspirations of the Kashmiri people on both sides of the Line of Control for self-determination.

The Agra talks did not produce any forward motion precisely because the Indian government was unwilling to get rid of the colonialist-imperialist mindset, the mindset of those who partitioned the sub-continent and have set the peoples of the sub-continent against each other. Flying in the face of reality, the Indian State and its ideologues and propagandists keep making out that the problem in Kashmir is the creation of Pakistan. The rulers of the self-proclaimed "largest democracy" are so shameless, they are brazenly saying that the will of the people of Jammu and Kashmir does not matter, that it will not be considered! They do not see what an indefensible position this, in the subcontinent or internationally. They do not see that such a position is not only an admission of the complete alienation of the Kashmiri people from the Indian Union, it is a chauvinist imperialist declaration that only the territory of Kashmir matters for the rulers, not the people. This is the reason that India’s rulers are willing to spend hundreds of crores of peoples’ money and sacrifice the lives of tens of thousands of army men in the cold, barren, snow bound glacier of Siachin and the Kargil peaks.

This position of the Indian rulers is based on the presumption that the might of the Indian state can be used to crush the Kashmiri people. However history is replete with instances of a people, however small they may be, fighting successfully against the mightiest of states. The Kashmir problem is a political problem, which needs political solutions. By accusing Pakistan of sponsoring "cross-border terrorism", the Indian state wishes to divert from the fact that it is guilty of resorting to a "military solution" to the political problem in Kashmir.

The Indian ruling class is pursuing a post cold war strategy to emerge as a major imperialist power and it is dovetailing its strategy with that of the US. It is approaching the problem of Kashmir, the disputes with Pakistan and other neighbours, from this narrow position of advancing its imperialist aims rather than from the concerns of the peoples of the region. This is why it seems completely out of step with the aspirations of the peoples.

The Agra talks have revealed both the strong desires of the peoples for peace and friendship, and the serious roadblocks that continue to thwart realising the same. Both countries have stated that they will strive to resolve outstanding problems bilaterally. However, the dangers of US imperialism and other imperialist powers poking their snout are very real, as revealed by the US declaration that it is willing to act as the "peace-maker". It is very important that the enlightened forces in India force a public debate on two questions—the necessity for the will of the Kashmiri people to be brought to centre stage, and the necessity to oppose US imperialist intervention in the region. Enlightened forces must also be vigilant that those who want to wreck the cause of peace and democratic solutions to problems will organise the kind of massacres of innocent people that took place in Doda and the Amarnath yatra immediately after the Agra Summit. Such brutal communal massacres are obviously the handiwork of those forces who want to deliberately vitiate the atmosphere, justify the military solution to the Kashmir problem, and remain grounded to old positions.

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Unity of all the peoples of the North East against the Indian state is the need of the hour

Two questions have come to the fore in the present situation. One is the question of how to ensure lasting peace for the peoples in the region, and the other is the question of the restoration of sovereignty of all the peoples of the region. Both these questions are intimately connected. A third question that emerges from these two and that provides the key to the solution of the above two problems is: Who is the troublemaker in the North East?

Peace has continued to elude the peoples of the North East because the Central Indian state has pursued a colonial, imperialist policy towards the peoples of this region, following on the footsteps of the British colonialists. Annexations by force and subterfuge, use of armed force and draconian laws to prevent the peoples from voicing and fighting for their unfulfilled aspirations, the deliberate fomenting of divisions on ethnic basis by a combination of the work of intelligence agencies and bourgeois politicians – these have been the main features of the policy through which the Central Indian state has established and retained its hegemony over the region. There are no indications that the present Indian state is going to give up this colonial, imperialist policy. In fact, the attempts of the Indian state to work out deals with one armed group or another are part of furthering the same policy. This must be recognised by all concerned.

The Manipuris, Nagas and other peoples of the North East have been consistently raising the question of sovereignty. This is being raised at the present time as well. Various forces are trying to equate sovereignty of Manipuris with the "unity and territorial integrity" of present day Manipur. Similarly the demand for a "greater Nagaland" within the present Indian union is being portrayed as a step towards achieving sovereignty for the Nagas. Nothing can be further from reality. Sovereignty for a people means that the people have the right to determine their own destiny. Sovereignty cannot be got by bargaining for this or that territory. It has to be fought for and won through struggle against the present Indian Union, which has been founded on the basis of depriving all the peoples of India of their sovereignty. Therefore, the peoples of the North East, particularly the Naga and Meitei peoples must be vigilant against equating sovereignty with territorial boundaries within the present arrangement known as the Indian Union. They must raise the banner of reconstitution of the Indian Union on a new and voluntary basis, making a clean break with the colonial imperialist arrangement of the present.

After a much publicised meeting of the Vajpayee Cabinet with the Chief Ministers of the North East states, the Union Cabinet has now declared that the ceasefire will not be extended beyond the boundaries of Nagaland. The propaganda in the media is that the Central government is trying to solve the problem in the North East, while the trouble makers are the Nagas, Manipuris and other fighting peoples who are sticking to their positions. This propaganda is entirely false. The trouble maker in the North East as well as all over the country is the Central Indian state and the Indian big bourgeoisie. It is the Central Indian state of the big bourgeoisie which is unwilling to give up its colonial, imperialist policy of denying the peoples of the North East their rights and sovereignty, of crushing their aspirations with its armed might and of inciting them against one another. All the fighting peoples of the North East have realised this truth at some time or another. There exists a very strong basis for the unity of all the peoples of the North East. The progressive forces in the North East have always elaborated and worked to strengthen this basis. The basis for unity of all the peoples of the North East is the uncompromising struggle against the Central Indian state. The urgent need of the hour for all the peoples of the North East is to build their mutual unity and forge unity with all other forces within the country who are fighting the Central Indian state, for the democratic renewal of India, for power in the hands of the workers, peasants, women, youth of all the different nations, nationalities and tribal peoples, and for the voluntary union of all the peoples.

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People’s Voice expresses its deepest sympathies to the people of Orissa who have been ravaged by one calamity after another in recent years.

While the people of Orissa are being washed away in floods, and people elsewhere are dying a painful death due to drought and starvation, the rulers of India have been explaining away smugly that they can do nothing when natural disasters strike, save for air-dropping food packets and allocating some funds from the Calamity Relief Fund. Many reports have proven time and again that more people die of lack of relief and starvation after a natural calamity than during the calamity itself. Even after so many calamities have descended on the people with such ferocious regularity, the rulers have not ever made a coherent policy on arming people to defend themselves against calamities.

The callousness attitude with which the ruling class has been treating the question of calamity relief is evident from the fact that for the entire period 2000-05 a meagre sum of Rs. 11,000 crores has been allocated for the Calamity Relief Fund. In contrast, a handful of capitalists owe the nationalised banks a staggering sum of Rs 72,000 crores, which is being considered for a write-off.

What makes the situation even worse is the knowledge that the capitalist system is responsible for creating and accentuating such calamities. In the case of Orissa, it is a proven fact that heavy deforestation and commercial prawn cultivation have been major reasons for turning Orissa’ s seacoast into an area more vulnerable during the monsoons. While there has been talk about linking the major rivers of India to divert the excess water and solve both the problem of floods and droughts, no such plan has ever been seriously implemented due to lack of funds being allotted by the rulers.

It is clear that the situation is intolerable and the time is ripe for the working people of India to take matters into their own hands and usher in a system where such miseries are not perpetrated and accentuated on mankind.

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Valiant protests daunt G 8 meeting in Genoa

Valiant protests led by young people denouncing the capitalist system for perpetrating gross social and economic injustice on a world scale rocked the meeting of the leaders of the most industrialized countries and brought into question the very viability of such summits of the richest and the most powerful.
The leaders of the world’s most industrialized nations, the Group of 8 or G 8 as they are commonly known, met in Genoa, Italy at the end of the third week of July 2001, ostensibly to discuss measures to "reduce global poverty". As is well known, the main purpose of such summits is for the heads of the imperialist nations to discuss methods to collectively address threats to the world capitalist system. So fearful are the imperialists of protests against their system that all possible measures were taken to protect their leaders from even witnessing a shred of dissidence. The city of Genoa had been sealed off and was being protected by ground-to-air missiles and specialists in nuclear, germ and chemical warfare. Genoa’s steep alleys leading down to the port where the summit was being held were cut off from the rest of the city by erecting 13-foot-high steel fences. Over £80 million in extra security measures and tens of thousands of police and paramilitary personnel were employed to deter the protestors.

But all the show of force and the protection given to the imperialist leaders only steeled the resolve of the anti –imperialist protestors. More than 100,000 demonstrators, from countries as far apart as Britain, Spain, Sweden, Greece, Norway, Canada, Ireland and Pakistan areas gathered in Genoa. Shouting slogans like "revolution is the only solution", they asserted that" We will go ahead and break into the red zone,’’ (in which the imperialist leaders were being sheltered). Many of those who came to Genoa in July, had also traveled to the European summit meetings in Sweden in the previous month and France last year to show their strength and exchange ideas with other protesters. While there were people subscribing to various ideologies among them, they all agreed that the levers of power around the world are controlled by imperialist leaders who meet in cloistered summits, by "free trade" organizations that care little about poor or developing countries and by corporations whose principle goal is to fatten their own bottom lines.

An anti-capitalist protester was shot dead by Italian Carabinieri, another was gravely wounded and 184 people were injured on the streets of Genoa on July 20. Several of those wounded said their resolve to fight had only been strengthened by the brutality to which they had been subjected. Orla Judge, a 21-year-old British student with bloodied clothes, two sets of bandages in her hair, was among the injured. "The leaders are not listening to us," she said. "The fences are just getting higher at every summit. The G-8 says it is trying to include and help people, but these fences only cut off the people. They’re not democratic. And being hit on the head for daring to say that I don’t like what the G-8 is doing is not democratic either."

After similar protests at Seattle, Prague and Gothenburg, the imperialist leaders had feared the worst, and they were not surprised. They were forced to set aside planned talks to debate the future of the summits themselves. The sheer volume of the protests, which have kept increasing at every meeting they have organised recently, the fact that strong arm tactics only steeled the resolve of the demonstrators, have caused divisions in the ranks of the G 8 as well.

While U. S. imperialist chieftain Bush and U. K. Premier Blair were among the few who dared to publicly attack the demonstrators, saying that they "embraced policies which locked people into poverty", many of the other G 8 leaders were forced to adopt other postures publicly. Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, broke ranks with G8 leaders and said that he would not have objected to his son joining the demonstrators in Genoa! He said that most of them were peaceful people with ideals who were justified in protesting that the world’s wealthiest nations were doing too little to help the poorest. G8 countries had long ago committed themselves to spending 0.7 per cent of gross national product on aid but were in fact spending barely 0.2 per cent. He also said that G8 summits had grown into an "extravagant and excessive machine... this kind of siege atmosphere can hardly help us tackle humanity’s greatest and most widespread tragedies such as poverty and disease."

The organisers of the G 8 meetings are now finding it difficult even to find a city willing to host the next meeting! The city of Alberta in Canada has declined. It is expected that they will choose a remote and inaccessible location such as the Canadian Rockies where it will be easier (?) to protect imperialist leaders! The choice of a mountain resort would signal the end of G8 summits as they have been held for the past quarter of a century.

The brutality with which the Italian government, hosting the G 8 summit attacked the heroic demonstrators, martyring one and seriously injuring hundreds of others, has been extensively condemned throughout the world. Militant demonstrations have been held especially outside Italian Embassies and Consulates as well as in other prominent public places, vigorously denouncing the fascist attacks on the fearless protestors in Genoa and voicing solidarity in various cities of U. K. such as London, Manchester and Edinburgh; in Gottingen, Bielefeld, Frankfurt, Münster, Hannover, Leipzig, Nürnberg, Bremen and Berlin in Germany; in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal in Canada; Boston, Berkley, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Hartford and New Haven in the U. S. A.; Buenos Aries in Argentina, as well as various cities in Finland, Belgium, Greece etc.

It is becoming apparent to more and more people every day that it is the imperialist system that is responsible for all the ills, which besiege mankind. People’s Voice hails the valiant anti-imperialist protestors from all over the world who have so compellingly endeavored to bring the concerns of the exploited and disadvantaged peoples and nations to the centre-stage.

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Russia and China sign treaty

Composed of 25 articles, the treaty joins Russia and China formally in opposing the United States’ missile plans and places Russia more firmly behind China’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. It also strengthens military cooperation between Beijing and Moscow while rejecting the intervention that NATO undertook in 1999 in the Balkans.

The treaty sets forth the deep concerns shared by Moscow and Beijing about a new world order dominated by the United States and its European allies.

In a joint statement, the two countries said that they were hoping for a "just and rational new international order" and that the merger of their interests enshrined today were "not directed against third countries." But the treaty signed today requires Moscow and Beijing to coordinate their response closely in the event that either is subjected to pressure or aggression from another power. "If a threat of aggression arises," the treaty states, the two sides "will immediately make contact with each other and hold consultations in order to eliminate the emerging threat."

In addition, it elaborates on Putin and Jiang’s opposition to the so-called principle of "humanitarian intervention", established in the NATO Balkan campaign. The pact says Russia and China "uphold the strict observance of generally recognized principles and norms of international law against any actions aimed at exerting pressure or interfering, under any pretext, with the internal affairs of the sovereign states."

On missile defense, the two leaders expressed their opposition to unilateral US decision to develop the missile defence shield. They said, "Russia and China stress the basic importance of the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which is a cornerstone of strategic stability and the basis for reducing offensive weapons." Both countries "speak out for maintaining the treaty in its current form," the pact adds.

In a news conference that followed the signing of documents, officially called the Treaty on Good Neighborly Friendship and Cooperation Between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China, Jiang said: "We believe that more active cooperation between our countries in discussing missile defenses and disarmament will enhance our efforts in building a multipolar world and establish a fair, rational international order".

Ever since the end of the bipolar division of the world, China and various countries have been actively working for a multi-polar world in opposition to the US vision of a uni-polar world. Even as the US and China have increased their engagement with each other in the trade arena, the US continues to put pressure on China. The dispute earlier this year over a US spy plane forced to land in China after a mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter, the Bush administration’s pledge to help to protect Taiwan, and the testing of the missile interceptor in the wake of world-wide opposition to its decision to create a missile defence shield, have added to Chinese misgivings. For Russia, the treaty with China will strengthen its bargaining position with the US in the G8. Russia is worried about NATO’s inexorable eastwards expansion. Putin took a swipe at NATO, insisting that instead of expansion the alliance should consider disbanding. "The problem should be simple. In the West everyone says: ‘We don’t want new divisions in Europe, we don’t want new Berlin walls.’ Good. We completely agree, but when NATO enlarges, division does not disappear, it simply moves towards our borders. The divisions will continue until there is a single security area in Europe."

These developments must be seen in the context of the increasing inter-imperialist contention over Asia now. The working class needs to take note of these developments and maintain utmost vigilance.

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How should the working class of India look at these developments?

In spite of denials by the US that ‘substantive’ defense ties with India was not aimed at either Pakistan or China, US strategy is to encourage stoking up India’s ambitions to be a world-level imperialist power, directing it against China and the Arab peoples as part of its ‘Asia plan’. This ‘Asia plan’ is activated in the context of Asia becoming the major arena of rivalry for world domination as numerous other events show. India’s ruling class is showing great willingness to be co-opted into this game. A series of gory events in our country as well as in other countries all around are already bringing in the results of this plan. The working class and people are however thoroughly opposed to this game plan to make India a big imperialist power and turn Asia into a bloody battlefield.

Why should we allow the US to entrench itself with the affairs of the region? US interest may be served by an armed conflict in the region, which may also promote the interest of its weapons industry but at the expense of bringing untold misery to the people of the subcontinent. By building military and intelligence links with the countries of this region, the US will be in a better position to manipulate the situation in the region. Already, the US is working out arrangements to sell their air-borne early warning planes and other high technology weapons to India.

Similarly, if the Indian people wanted to adopt a different direction for the economy or wanted to establish a different political system that serves the people better, it may come in conflict with the interests of US monopolies. In that case, the US entrenchment in the country (in terms of its intelligence agencies and its links with military, etc.) will be used to sabotage such changes. It is pertinent to remember that military links and presence of US secret agencies was responsible for the overthrow of an elected government in Chile in the early seventies, only because, the Chilean government dared to pass some reforms that were not acceptable to the US. The US engagement in Chile resulted in the installation of the Pinochet regime, which protected the interests of the US mining companies and crushed all democratic struggles of the people with its military fascist might. There are numerous other similar examples of blatant interference by the US in difference parts of the world.

Building friendly neighborly relations with all the countries in the region is a step that will serve the interests of peace and prosperity here. Rather than "engagement" with the US, disallowing the US and all other imperialist powers from interfering in the region is essential to ensure peace.

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No to privatisation of defence production!
Oppose the dangerous course of military cooperation with the US!

Statement of the Communist Ghadar Party India, July 12, 2001

On May 9, 2001, the Union Cabinet decided to open up the defence sector to 100% private capitalist participation, and Foreign Direct Investment up to 26%. This was received with a storm of protest in all quarters, not only among the defence sector workers. It is a question of the very sovereignty of the country!

What should be the motive driving the production of arms, ammunition and other needs of the Defence Sector in India? Should the defence of national sovereignty be the motivation, or should it be the maximisation of profit in the hands of private owners? This is the fundamental question.

The situation in the US and European capitalist countries show what is in store if defence production is privatised. In these countries where private capitalist corporations dominate arms production, what is known as the military-industrial complex exercise decisive control over the political affairs of that country. Arms production and sale is one of the most profitable sectors of the economy in these imperialist countries, and the arms merchants need wars in order to increase their profits—civil wars within countries as well as wars between different countries.

From 1947 till May 2001, arms production in India has been the monopoly of the Indian state, which has meant that private capitalist companies could not enter and take over this sector of production. This meant that the ruling capitalist class as a whole controlled the defence sector. Even under such an arrangement, too much of the resources of Indian society was being consumed for unproductive war related purposes, relative to the fulfilment of the basic needs of the masses. Privatisation would open up further space for Indian and global giant corporations to reap super profits from an expanding military-industrial complex in India, further draining social resources and increasing the danger of war in the region.

The decision to privatise the defence sector has been taken by the Cabinet without any consultation with the people whatsoever, not even with members of Parliament. At the same time, this decision has been taken after consultations with top military and political leaders of imperialist powers, including the US! Following the decision, the top brass of the US Armed Forces have begun to visit India and there is talk of close military cooperation between the US and India. Defence Minister Jaswant Singh has made an extremely provocative statement hinting that the Government of India may even permit the US Armed Forces to operate bases in India.

At a time when the imperialists are contending for domination over Asia, and the threat of war is real, the course being pursued by the Indian bourgeoisie is extremely dangerous and could result in grave disasters for the peoples of South Asia.

The Communist Ghadar Party of India calls on the working class and people of India to condemn the decision to privatise Defence production and call for its immediate reversal! It also calls on all Indians to oppose the course of military and geo-political collaboration with the US!

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A "Public Distribution System" meant to starve the public

Besides these two decisions the Ministry has also proposed to reduce the prices of cereals for the below poverty line families as well as for those distributed in the food-for-work programmes. Announcing these measures, the Finance Minister cynically clarified that these were extremely temporary moves to clear the existing stocks and the prices would revert to the original prices once the stocks were off-loaded!

These decisions have been taken after over 60 million tonnes of foodgrains accumulated in the FCI godowns have been permitted to rot and decay for months on end. There was just not enough storage space left in which the government agencies could stockpile more! The start of the rabi procurement season in April deepened the crisis of storage and with the kharif procurement about to start in a few months, the Central Government had no other option but to lower the stocks.

At very conservative estimates, at least 25 percent of Indians suffer from chronic under-nutrition and need a regular supply of food grains. The government has all along been letting millions of tonnes of food grains rot and be devoured by rats, rather than feed the nation’s millions of underfed and malnourished people! Now, the government’s hands have been forced not out of consideration for the malnourished millions, but by the sheer impossibility of finding more space for storing the food grains, and because falling food prices throughout the world made exports of these food grains unviable. Can there be a more telling indictment of the man-eating capitalist system?

The PDS fiasco is one more instance of the liberalisation measures of the Indian bourgeoisie wherein the interests of the people of India have been subjugated to the interests of big capitalists and monopolies. The reason why such a situation has come to pass is that the off take by consumers who are not below the ‘poverty line’ has almost reduced to zero because better quality grain is available in the open market at lower prices. Succumbing to the pressure from the World Bank and the IMF to reduce PDS subsidies, the Indian ruling class decided to shift the subsidy burden onto the backs of the people. The withdrawal of subsidies drove up the prices of cereals to levels that were out of reach for the vast majority of consumers who were dependent on the PDS for their daily rations.

The PDS fiasco highlights the fact that the bourgeoisie is concerned only about its own interests and gives a damn for the needs of the society at large. It is high time that people take the question of food security into their own hands and utilize the produce of society to satisfy the needs of the producers first and also work out a viable strategy for extended reproduction of goods and services that can meet the constantly increasing material needs of society. The working people should vigorously oppose any attempt of the bourgeoisie to shift the burden of their crisis onto their backs. Neither should they accept the proposition that the procurement price offered to peasants should be cut in order to reduce the prices of PDS cereals. It is only the strength of the unity of the working peoples of town and country that can defeat the anti-social offensive of the bourgeoisie.

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Who is responsible for the severe water shortage in Chennai?

Which is the way for a lasting solution?

According to official statistics, more than 20,000 rural habitations in India are yet to be covered with at least one source of potable water. About 1,66,832 habitations, i.e., about 11.73 per cent of India’s villages are only partially covered. According to official statistics, a village is partially covered if its habitations have access to a hand pump or a well within a certain distance. What the statistic fails to capture is whether the pump is in working condition and whether there is ground water for the pump to work on. Thus, according to official statistics, all habitations in Uttar Pradesh have access to potable water, but who would believe that!

The severe water shortage in the metropolitan city of Chennai presently affecting 5.5 million people is among the most glaring illustration of negligence and callousness by those in power. This year, two of the rain-fed lakes that meet the city’s needs – Poondi and Red Hills – have almost zero levels of storage due to the failure of both the south west monsoon (June-September) and last year’s north west monsoon (October-December). The third lake Sholavaram is entirely dry.

The water supply to Chennai during years of normal rainfall is around 313 million litres per day (mld) which works out to 78 litres per capita per day (lpcd). Metrowater, the government agency responsible for supplying water to Chennai, supplies 250 mld, including 50 mld for industrial use, every day at normal times. During drought years, the availability drops down to as low as 127 mld working out to 32 lpcd. Metrowater now distributes water through 300 tankers that make over 2000 trips a day. The Southern railways runs ‘water specials’ to Chennai from other districts, Chengalpattu and Erode. Each train carries 10 lakh litres in 50 wagons every day.

However, the actual availability of water varies enormously across different social segments. According to a study undertaken in 1993 by the Centre for Environment Planning and Technology, Ahmedabad, while the average gross availability of water was 69 lpcd, it was as low as 8 lpcd in slums, i.e., not even half a bucket of water per head. Thus, the poor and working people, the majority of them living in slums and crowded colonies, are the worst affected by the water crisis.

Private contractors and truck operators are having a field day selling water at exorbitant costs to the people. A tanker-load of water sold by private operators costs Rs. 900 today. At nearly a rupee a litre, it is a most expensive proposition. Ground water is the city’s major water source now and it is fast getting depleted. According to the Central Groundwater Board, 80 per cent of Chennai’s groundwater has been depleted and any further depletion can lead to salt water ingression, making the water unfit for consumption.

Chennai’s water storage and distribution system was designed in 1911 when its population was only half a million. Despite its population having increased over ten-fold since then, this has since remained static with no major augmentation over all these ninety years! The only addition has been the efforts to tap groundwater from 1965 leading to severe depletion in groundwater resources over the years. When the rains fail, which is quite often, the government adopts "emergency measures" which cost many times more. Had the money been spent in a scientifically planned manner in upgrading the city’s drinking water sources and introducing efficiencies in water storage and distribution, the results would have been much better. However, those in power have been continually issuing pious declarations and concocting half – baked schemes.

The Veeranam Water Supply Scheme that was launched in 1968 to bring water from the Veeranam lake, about 250 km from Chennai, produced not even a drop of water after gobbling up crores and crores of public money. There was a scheme announced in 1996 to spend Rs 1000 crores during the following five years to strengthen the distribution scheme, but the plans remain on paper. The Krishna River Water Project, popularly called the Telugu Ganga project, on which work started several years back is also yet to take off.

There are also moves afoot in many states to corporatise urban water storage and supply on the lines of the energy sector, which has met with severe resistance from the working class and from the users. Bangalore has begun the corporatisation of its water utility, the Bangalore Water Supply and Drainage Board (BWSSB). As in the case with public sector disinvestment, in the water sector too, the best of the functioning boards in terms of profitability has been chosen for privatisation. In a widely opposed move, the former J.H.Patel government in Karnataka had signed an M o U with a Malaysian firm Biwater, for privatisation of distribution of water. Just like the model for the energy sector, the water board will have to lift all the water supplied by Biwater at a fixed tariff with a huge profit margin built-in. Any proposal for privatisation as a solution to the water crisis has to be vigorously defeated as a ploy of the government to wriggle away from its primary responsibility of ensuring the well being of all in society and divert development funds into the pockets of the rich.

The new government formed by Jayalalithaa’s AIADMK, has promised to provide "potable water to all citizens". The government has promised to revive the Veeranam project, desilt the tanks, and construct reservoirs on the outskirts of Chennai for water storage. It is the united front of the working people which can ensure that they are not taken for a ride once again. Every day Chennai witnesses water riots. This anger of the people, instead of getting spent in sporadic riots, needs to be gathered into a single, powerful stream that can compel the rulers to provide one of the most basic needs of the people, the right to have access to adequate clean water.

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