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Hardik Vachhrajani
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Monday, May 24, 2010
Diagnosing Naxal Symptoms in Gujarat
It may sound unusual to many readers, when I write about possible ‘naxal’ movement in Gujarat. For most people and politicians of India, Gujarat has largely remained a naxal free state, enjoying seamless growth. But behind the rosy growth story of Gujarat, it seems that a horrendous ‘naxal’ type movement is slowly evolving.
When we decide to look at naxal like movement in Gujarat we have to put two hypothesizes right. First, naxal movements do not always carry red flag and two; naxal movements are socio-economic reactions to contemporary problems faces by ordinary people and has nothing to do with political ideology. Political ideologies can utmost provide voice to the anger brewing among the people and can to an extent channelize the anger to achieve certain objectives.
Idea here is not to prove that Gujarat is a naxal affected state and the movement has become widespread. But the point raised here is that the policy makers need to recognize the symptoms evident which indicate that if the matter is not taken seriously, we will add another state in that infamous list.
Gujarat is suffering from an agrarian crisis similar to the one faced by the nation at large. Voracious economic growth and industrialization has adversely affected the land, the crop and the livelihood of numerous communities across the length and breadth of the state. Soaring land (price) appreciation and inadequate water supply has provoked farmers to sell their land for commercial, industrial and residential developments. Such inorganic growth coupled with corrupt administrative mechanism has resulted in wide spread contamination of land. This has resulted in growing anger among various farming communities who have voluntarily chose to stay with farming as their means of livelihood.
Such contamination is observed almost across the state and is more evident in the areas where the pace of industrial growth is high. Farmers from Kutch have been protesting on this issue for years without any hearing from the development fanatic government at Gandhinagar.
The whole issue took a serious turn last Sunday, when villagers from a remote village of Chikhli in the district of Junagadh stormed the proposed unit of Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd. (GHCL). According to police, a mob of 1,500 villagers set ablaze the company's office which housed several equipments, including the company's tractor-trailer and electric motor worth Rs 7 lakh. The violence was triggered off after several pleas of the villagers around Chikhali to stall the construction of the GHCL unit were ignored. Villagers had opposed the salt plant, citing fears that it would turn the water bodies of their village saline.
Armed with iron pipes, bats, sticks and sickles, the assailants barged into the company premises and started destroying the company's property. Security guards hired by GHCL fired several rounds in the air to disperse the crowd. However, the move backfired as the crowd got more agitated and went about setting ablaze tractor, trailer, and electronic motor. Though the fate of the plant and the residents of the area is sill not clear, the anger among the community is growing.
Intentions of the company and government were made clear when, the firing did not find mention in the case registered by Navabandar police station on the complaint filed by the company representative.
Though, administrations can ignore such incidents by saying that they are ‘stray and few’, sharp increase in such violent outburst of people clearly indicates that there is increasing discontent among people against developmental initiatives which are not inclusive. Gujarat is not known for such incidents and unusually high-coordination shown by the villagers is a matter of deep concern. This anger can very easily be wrongly channelized. Such incidents have occurred in past and no concrete actions have been taken by authorities to eliminate the root cause of the problem. Land is distributed indiscriminately to large industrial houses for setting manufacturing plants where often the safely, environmental and social accountability standards are compromised.
Authorities at Gandhinagar need to learn lessons from such incidents and should never commit mistake of taking them lightly. Large scale naxal movements which country is facing today had similar beginning. Authorities should not forget that Gujarat has vast tribal under-developed adivasi belt which has remained prone to naxal activities. It is because of grass root non-governmental movements that have managed to keep villagers away from violence to demand their rights.
When we decide to look at naxal like movement in Gujarat we have to put two hypothesizes right. First, naxal movements do not always carry red flag and two; naxal movements are socio-economic reactions to contemporary problems faces by ordinary people and has nothing to do with political ideology. Political ideologies can utmost provide voice to the anger brewing among the people and can to an extent channelize the anger to achieve certain objectives.
Idea here is not to prove that Gujarat is a naxal affected state and the movement has become widespread. But the point raised here is that the policy makers need to recognize the symptoms evident which indicate that if the matter is not taken seriously, we will add another state in that infamous list.
Gujarat is suffering from an agrarian crisis similar to the one faced by the nation at large. Voracious economic growth and industrialization has adversely affected the land, the crop and the livelihood of numerous communities across the length and breadth of the state. Soaring land (price) appreciation and inadequate water supply has provoked farmers to sell their land for commercial, industrial and residential developments. Such inorganic growth coupled with corrupt administrative mechanism has resulted in wide spread contamination of land. This has resulted in growing anger among various farming communities who have voluntarily chose to stay with farming as their means of livelihood.
Such contamination is observed almost across the state and is more evident in the areas where the pace of industrial growth is high. Farmers from Kutch have been protesting on this issue for years without any hearing from the development fanatic government at Gandhinagar.
The whole issue took a serious turn last Sunday, when villagers from a remote village of Chikhli in the district of Junagadh stormed the proposed unit of Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd. (GHCL). According to police, a mob of 1,500 villagers set ablaze the company's office which housed several equipments, including the company's tractor-trailer and electric motor worth Rs 7 lakh. The violence was triggered off after several pleas of the villagers around Chikhali to stall the construction of the GHCL unit were ignored. Villagers had opposed the salt plant, citing fears that it would turn the water bodies of their village saline.
Armed with iron pipes, bats, sticks and sickles, the assailants barged into the company premises and started destroying the company's property. Security guards hired by GHCL fired several rounds in the air to disperse the crowd. However, the move backfired as the crowd got more agitated and went about setting ablaze tractor, trailer, and electronic motor. Though the fate of the plant and the residents of the area is sill not clear, the anger among the community is growing.
Intentions of the company and government were made clear when, the firing did not find mention in the case registered by Navabandar police station on the complaint filed by the company representative.
Though, administrations can ignore such incidents by saying that they are ‘stray and few’, sharp increase in such violent outburst of people clearly indicates that there is increasing discontent among people against developmental initiatives which are not inclusive. Gujarat is not known for such incidents and unusually high-coordination shown by the villagers is a matter of deep concern. This anger can very easily be wrongly channelized. Such incidents have occurred in past and no concrete actions have been taken by authorities to eliminate the root cause of the problem. Land is distributed indiscriminately to large industrial houses for setting manufacturing plants where often the safely, environmental and social accountability standards are compromised.
Authorities at Gandhinagar need to learn lessons from such incidents and should never commit mistake of taking them lightly. Large scale naxal movements which country is facing today had similar beginning. Authorities should not forget that Gujarat has vast tribal under-developed adivasi belt which has remained prone to naxal activities. It is because of grass root non-governmental movements that have managed to keep villagers away from violence to demand their rights.
Gujarat’s SME Corrugated Industry: Caught between Devil and Deep Blue Sea
Gujarat’s SME Corrugated Industry: Caught between Devil and Deep Blue Sea
Sandwiched between the kraft paper mills and large consumers, the SME corrugated industry of Gujarat is in dire strains again.
The industry’ major raw material, kraft paper, has been recently subjected to multiple, prohibitive and unprecedented price increases, resulting in making the corrugated packaging dearer by almost 25 per cert and the paper mills are planning for further hikes, in the coming weeks. Condition of SMEs is tougher as they have not been able to pass on the prize hike to customers.
To aggravate the situation further, the prices of all critical inputs of this industry have shot up substantially. The starch prices have more than doubled in the last one year. The price of stitching wire has also gone up almost 40 percent, primarily due to hikes in the cost of steel. The cost of labor has also gone up substantially and most of SMEs also find it difficult to get the labors for the job. We are in loose-loose situation says and entrepreneur from Ahmedabad.
It may be noted that corrugated packaging is required for safe transportation and distribution of almost all products of everyday use by a common man, be it milk, fruits and vegetables, engineering goods, textiles, consumer durables or medicines.
This industry is based completely on the recycled fibre base and has been adequately servicing the packaging needs of the country by successfully substituting the wooden packaging and contributing to the environmental protection and ecological balance.
Another problem with most of SMEs of the state is that they have recently invested heavily in technology up gradation. A leading corrugated box manufacture of Rajkot shared with the condition of privacy that they have invested around 2 crores in technology upgradation of machines imported from China and processes in last couple of years. These uncertain times are making it difficult for them to even pay back the installment commitments of the bankers.
The woe of the industry is both micro as well as macro. There is a worldwide shortage of fibre that go into the making of kraft paper, due to the closure of pulp mills in Chile due to the recent earthquake. The severe winter and snow in the North Americas have also put a lot of pressure on the availability of waste paper which is the main input for the local recycled paper mills in the country. Rising power tariffs and poor quality of supply are making things worst.
Local as well as national manufacturing associations have been trying to raise voice to the central government with little success. The industry has been appealing to the Government of India to allow import of Kraft paper at nil rates of customs duty and tide over the present crisis and also to give an opportunity to the industry to upgrade the quality of their products to international standards. Till now, all the appeals have fallen to the deaf ears. In all these uncertainties SMEs especially feel left out as there is hardly anyone who is representing the voice of SMEs.
There is sharp pessimism evident in hundreds of SME units of Gujarat where day to day survival is a challenge and entrepreneurs have stopped thinking about issues of quality and competitiveness in the wake of current situation.
Sandwiched between the kraft paper mills and large consumers, the SME corrugated industry of Gujarat is in dire strains again.
The industry’ major raw material, kraft paper, has been recently subjected to multiple, prohibitive and unprecedented price increases, resulting in making the corrugated packaging dearer by almost 25 per cert and the paper mills are planning for further hikes, in the coming weeks. Condition of SMEs is tougher as they have not been able to pass on the prize hike to customers.
To aggravate the situation further, the prices of all critical inputs of this industry have shot up substantially. The starch prices have more than doubled in the last one year. The price of stitching wire has also gone up almost 40 percent, primarily due to hikes in the cost of steel. The cost of labor has also gone up substantially and most of SMEs also find it difficult to get the labors for the job. We are in loose-loose situation says and entrepreneur from Ahmedabad.
It may be noted that corrugated packaging is required for safe transportation and distribution of almost all products of everyday use by a common man, be it milk, fruits and vegetables, engineering goods, textiles, consumer durables or medicines.
This industry is based completely on the recycled fibre base and has been adequately servicing the packaging needs of the country by successfully substituting the wooden packaging and contributing to the environmental protection and ecological balance.
Another problem with most of SMEs of the state is that they have recently invested heavily in technology up gradation. A leading corrugated box manufacture of Rajkot shared with the condition of privacy that they have invested around 2 crores in technology upgradation of machines imported from China and processes in last couple of years. These uncertain times are making it difficult for them to even pay back the installment commitments of the bankers.
The woe of the industry is both micro as well as macro. There is a worldwide shortage of fibre that go into the making of kraft paper, due to the closure of pulp mills in Chile due to the recent earthquake. The severe winter and snow in the North Americas have also put a lot of pressure on the availability of waste paper which is the main input for the local recycled paper mills in the country. Rising power tariffs and poor quality of supply are making things worst.
Local as well as national manufacturing associations have been trying to raise voice to the central government with little success. The industry has been appealing to the Government of India to allow import of Kraft paper at nil rates of customs duty and tide over the present crisis and also to give an opportunity to the industry to upgrade the quality of their products to international standards. Till now, all the appeals have fallen to the deaf ears. In all these uncertainties SMEs especially feel left out as there is hardly anyone who is representing the voice of SMEs.
There is sharp pessimism evident in hundreds of SME units of Gujarat where day to day survival is a challenge and entrepreneurs have stopped thinking about issues of quality and competitiveness in the wake of current situation.
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