SIKKIM OBSERVER         April 28, 2012

China seeks package solution for Sino-India boundary issue

Beijing, April 27: Seeking a package solution for the boundary issue through a negotiation process, China on Saturday said it would like to work with India to build up consensus in order to settle the problem at an early date.

"China always holds that the two countries should seek a package solution of the boundary issue through negotiation based on the spirit of peace, friendship, equality-based consultation, mutual respect and mutual understanding," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said.

"It serves the fundamental interests," Liu told PTI in response to questions on Arunachal Pradesh Governor Gen (retd) JJ Singh's reported comments that India should "move away from its non-negotiable stand on the border dispute with China."

However, the Arunachal Pradesh Raj Bhawan said that media reports about Gen Singh's statement on border dispute with China "have been purportedly taken from a speech and the comments have been quoted out of context."

Liu, on his part, said that "China would like to work with India to build up consensus and speed up the framework negotiation process in order to settle the boundary issue at an early date."

Surprisingly Gen Singh's reported remarks were not carried by the Chinese official media which in the past few days was more focused on the successful launch of Agni V and its implications for China.

Anna to visit Sikkim next month: NASS

Gangtok, April 27: Anti-graft activist Anna Hazare is likely to visit Sikkim next month to lend his weight behind those struggling to lead an anti-corruption campaign in the State.

This was revealed by members of the Nagarick Adhikar Suraksha Sangathan (NASS) who recently participated in Anna-led daylong hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

NASS members – Rudra Khatiwara, Basudevh Adhikari, YT Lepcha and ML Niroula – who participated in the hunger strike said they have submitted documents and CDs to Team Anna on alleged rampant corruption in the State administration. They met Anna and Arvind Kejariwal in New Delhi during the hunger strike organized by India Against Corruption, according to reports.

Those who participated in the meet said Anna and his team will visit Sikkim next month to campaign against corruption in high places in the State.

Charges against Karmapa dropped

New Delhi, April 27: Indian officials said on Tuesday they had dropped all criminal charges against a top Tibetan Buddhist monk seen as a potential successor to the Dalai Lama.

Police in the northern State of Himachal Pradesh filed conspiracy charges against Urgyen Trinley Dorjee, the 17^th Karmapa last December, after authorities found more than $1 million in foreign cash, including Chinese yuan, stashed in his monastery.

The discovery led to allegations in the Indian media -- vigorously denied by the 26-year-old Karmapa -- that he was a Chinese spy, AFP reported.

"We have decided to drop all criminal charges against the Karmapa," state Home Office official S.P. Singh told AFP by telephone.

"The police and the government lawyers thoroughly investigated all the charges and found no real evidence to pursue a case against him," Singh said.

The Karmapa is revered by his followers as the 17th incarnation of the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

He fled Tibet in 1999 at the age of 14, reaching India after a perilous eight-day winter journey by foot and horseback over the Himalayas.

Recognised by both China and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the Karmapa is seen as  having the highest profile of a cast of young lamas who might fill the void when the Dalai Lama, now 76, dies.

Since fleeing Tibet, he has mainly lived at the Gyuto Monastery in Dharamshala, the northern Indian hill station that is the seat of the Tibetan government in exile.

Officials at the Karmapa's office welcomed the decision to drop the charges.

"We had full confidence in the rule of law, and knew that the government would eventually conclude His Holiness was not involved in anything criminal," spokesman Gompo Tsering said.

The Karmapa's office had always insisted that the money seized during a police raid on the monastery in January 2011 was accumulated from "offerings by devotees" from around the world.

Editorial

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

The Vicious Circle

   Emergencies, disasters, and catastrophes are not gradients, they are separate, distinct problems that require distinct strategies of response. Disasters are events distinguished from everyday emergencies by four factors: organizations are forced into more and different kinds of interactions than normal; organizations lose some of their normal autonomy; performance standards change, and; more coordinated public sector/private sector relationships are required. Catastrophes are distinct from disasters in that most or all of the community built structure is heavily impacted; local officials are unable to undertake their usual work roles; everyday community functions are sharply and simultaneously interrupted, and help from nearby communities cannot be provided.

   Climate change is a multifaceted (from drought to flood) and multidimensional (from local to global) hazard that has short, medium-and long-term aspects and unknown outcomes. What we do know is that climate change is intensifying the hazards that affect human livelihoods, settlements and infrastructure. It is also weakening the resilience of livelihood systems in the face of increasing uncertainty and frequent disasters. Climate change can increase vulnerability to unrelated, non-climatic hazards. An urban earthquake, for example, hitting when the elderly population is already suffering from the kind of heatwave that claimed 35,000 lives in Europe during 2003, would be much more stressful for such vulnerable groups. Alternatively, an earthquake during a drought may come at a time when reservoirs and water pressure are too low to combat fires adequately.

    Another major aspect of combating disaster and catastrophe, particularly in underdeveloped countries is the corruption factor. The local administration realizes that disasters and catastrophes offer an opportunity to earn a fast buck. This leads to overstatement of losses to lives and properties during disasters. Using the mass media, particularly the electronic media, the authorities paint a dismal picture of damages caused by disasters to impress higher authorities and financial institutions to pour in the much-needed funds to meet the situation. Corruption does not end there; officials and concerned parties pocket huge amount of money while implementing various projects related to the disaster. Haphazard work done in these projects inevitably leads to future disasters and the vicious circle goes on and on.

INTERVIEW Of the Week

TENZING BHUTIA

TASHIDING HYDRO PROJECT CASE IN SUPREME COURT

“Project violated applicable laws”

    Construction of hydropower projects in Sikkim is again making headlines these days mainly because of strong anti-dam protests in West Sikkim led by ‘SAFE Sikkim’ against the 96 MW Tashiding Hydropower Project.

‘SAFE Sikkim’ and Platform for Joint Action against Hydropower Projects recently jointly organized a successful rally at Gyalshing, headquarters of West Sikkim, demanding scrapping of the project

The movement against Tashiding Hydropower Project took a new turn when Tenzing Bhutia, former editor of The Sikkimese, an English newsweekly published from Gangtok, raised the matter in the apex court recently.

 Bhutia filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court (Writ Petition (Civil) No.101 of 2012) raising some important issues related to the project. Sikkim Observer spoke to Tenzing Bhutia on his submissions to the Supreme Court. Excerpts from the exclusive interview:  

Sikkim Observer: ‘Safe Sikkim’ together with many other organizations have been consistently pressurizing the State Government to abandon the Tashiding Hydropower Project. Why did you approach the Supreme Court?

Tenzing Bhutia: The State Government has not taken any proactive action to wipe out fears from the minds of the people of the project area.  It has also failed to convince the people that dams and hydro projects under development in Tashiding does not create disasters in Sikkim. The State Government may not want to interfere with the power policy of the Centre which wants to convert the North East States into a “power house” of India. Sikkim has become a victim of those who are exploiting its river resources. Despite our continued protests the authorities have remained silent. This has forced us to approach the apex court to decide on the legality of the issue.

S.O: What is the legality of the issue?

TB: According to the Wild Life Division, Ministry of Environment and Forest regulations, no project can be set up within a 10 KM radius from the boundary of a National Wildlife Park. In this case, the Tashiding project is being constructed at a site which is within a 10 KM radius from the boundary of Kanchenjunga National Park. On this aspect alone, the project should be scrapped and no permission should be given by the National Wild Life Board. The regulatory authorities seem to have looked the other way and by their deliberate inaction they have allowed the project to continue to violate applicable laws relating to religious sites as well as to the environment and ecology.

S.O: What is the stand of your writ petition on the Rathong River?

TB: For all of us, the Rathong is a symbol of Sikkim’s faith and culture. The unique Bhumchu ceremony of Tashiding is deeply rooted with the Rathong. The construction work on the Tashiding Hydropower Project is destroying the natural flow of the holy river to a great extent thus defiling Bhumchu. The State Government is taking a double stand on the Rathong. You remember, on 20.08.1997, the 30 MW Rathong Chu Hydro Project was cancelled by the State Government to protect the Bhumchu ceremony. Chief Minister Pawan Chamling at the time of cancellation had made a press statement stating that he would honour and uphold the sentiments, religion, and culture of the Sikkimese people and to save the environment. The Rathong Chu Hydro Power project was scrapped because of these reasons.

 If the Loharinag-Pala hydropower project on the Bhagirathi River can be cancelled under the pressure from Ganga Mahasabha on religious ground, why shouldn’t Tashiding Hydro Project be cancelled on similar ground?

S.O.: What are the other issues highlighted in the writ petition?

TB: There are several instances where funding agencies like World Bank or Asian Development Bank stopped financing hydropower companies in view of mass protests against such projects. The Power Finance Corporation of India, Rural Electrification Corporation of India and a host of other public financial institutions provide funds to power projects in India. Keeping in view of the prospect of these projects a large amount of public money is being spent for the Tashiding project, which is essentially anti-people. The writ petition has made a submission to the apex court to issue a writ in the nature of prohibition restraining the financial institutions and all other public financial institutions from investing in the Tashiding Hydropower Project.