| January 6, 2002 | Sunday | Shawwal 21, 1422 |
Armed guards: a symbol of insecurity: SOCIAL THEMES
No risk, no game: LAHORE DIARY
THE Mirani dam multipurpose project, located on the Dasht River about 30 miles west of Turbat in the Makran division, envisages provision of dependable water supplies for development of irrigated agriculture on the two banks of the river.
WE MOVE from the traditional chowkidar to private armed security guards, warranted by an inner insecurity, perceived and taken for granted. Yet, somewhat strangely it is not talked about, or discussed! Perhaps that would amount to highlighting a problem, and a failure that we choose to overlook? In the process, private security companies have emerged on the urban scene; and their number is growing.
The Dasht is a non-perennial stream whose flow depends on rainfall in the catchment area, which is spread over 7,960 square miles of hilly terrain, mostly devoid of vegetation.
The average annual rainfall for the catchment is 4.2 inches. The average annual run-off from the catchment has been estimated to be 226,000 acre feet. The total sediment load per year flowing into the reservoir would be of the order of 7,000 acre feet.
The project has been approved for implementation on a fast track basis. The ground-breaking was performed by President Pervez Musharraf on Aug 17, 2001.
To determine the most desirable conservation level of the reservoir from which water demand (114,000 acre feet) could be met successfully, an intensive reservoir operation exercise was carried out for a range of conservation levels between 244ft (AMSL) and 266ft (ASML). After examining these levels and their impact, the normal conservation level of 244 has been selected as it causes significantly reduced environmental and social effects at an acceptable economic cost and only 1,100 people will need resettlement.
The parameters of the reservoir have been determined as : Maximum surcharge level 276.2ft (AMSL); routed flood 384.313 cusecs; normal conservation level 244ft (AMSL); spillway crest level 232ft (AMSL); spillway width (clear waterway) 344ft and maximum flood peak 624,000 cusecs.
As at present, agriculture in the proposed command area is below sustenance level because of irrigation constraint. the average cropping intensity is about 5 per cent, crops grown at present include sorghum, pulses, fodder and wheat. The yields are extremely low.
Under ultimate development conditions, the proposed cropping pattern includes orchards, vegetables, fodders, wheat, etc. An average annual cropping intensity of 85 per cent — 36 per cent Kharif and 49 per cent Rabi — will be achieved. However, in wet years it will be possible to accomplish an intensity of 122 per cent. The irrigation system has been designed to meet the water requirements of the proposed cropping pattern at 122 per cent intensity.
As a result of increase in yield and also cropped area under cultivation, aggregate produce of all the crops is expected to increase manifold from the present 5,279 tons to 222,657 tons. This includes 5,286 tons of melons, 48,365 tons of vegetables, 101,640 tons of fodders, 2,663 tons of wheat and 19,174 tons of fruits. Pulses output will increase from 125 tons to 249 tons and will be a cheaper source of proteins to the farm population. Alfalfa, being a perennial crop, will also produce about 31,872 tons of fodder.
There will be a harvest of about 1,800 tons of melons and about 12,000 tons of Kharif fodder per year in the recession agriculture area. Every year about 3,000 acres will be available for cultivation due to lowering of water in the reservoir below the normal conservation level of 244ft to about 235ft from April to mid-July and September to December.
The area will be used in summer by growing, melons on 300 acres and Kharif fodder on 1,200 acres. Preference will be given o those farmers whose land will be submerged in the reservoir. This will provide job opportunities to about 200 to 250 families. In addition, inter-cropping with alfalfa is proposed in orchards till their full fruiting.
The reservoir is expected to recharge the aquifer near the periphery and will raise the water level in the karezes. Consequently, additional groundwater will become available for irrigation. Plantation of trees is proposed along the periphery of the reservoir for reducing evaporation from it. These trees will act as wind-breakers. The trees and the reservoir will have a moderating effect on the harsh climate of the area.
It is planned to produce about 500kw hydroelectric power at the Mirani dam and transmit it to the nearby villages. The power generation aspect of the project will be examined in detail to determine economic feasibility of generating hydroelectric power at this project as compared to other available alternatives.
According to the project planning study, the 127ft-high, 3,350ft-long, earth-filled dam will create a reservoir which, at its normal conservation level, will extend to about 10 miles upstream of the dam.
The spillway will be located on the right abutment, adjacent to the right bank flank of the dam. It will be gated, overflow, type structure having a discharge capacity of 384,300 cusecs. The waterway will consist of eight bays, each 43ft wide, with 14ft-high radial gates. The intake structure will be located on the left abutment. It will be a reinforced concrete structure, capable of withdrawing water from below the dead storage level of the reservoir during the initial years of project operation.
An outlet control structure will be provided at the end of the irrigation tunnel. It will have a design capacity of 377 cusecs, and the flows through the structure will be controlled by an eight-foot by eight-foot radial gate which will be capable of operating in any position from closed to full open at all heads up to the maximum surcharge level of the reservoir.
Water flowing from the outlet control structure into the irrigation distribution system will be controlled by an off-take structure. This structure will bifurcate the flow into the left bank canal and the right bank canal having design discharge capabilities of 141 cusecs and 236 cusecs, respectively.
The irrigation system will serve a total command area of 33,200 acres — 12,400 acres on the left bank and 20,800 acres on the right bank. The canals, distributaries and minors, aggregating a total length of about 82 miles, will be concrete-lined. For watercourses, aggregating a total length of 328 miles, upper 30 per cent length of each watercourse will be lined. Salient features of the project are given below:
Total catchment area 7,964 sq miles; average annual inflow 226,000 acre feet; maximum probable flood 624,000 cusecs; reservoir gross storage 302,000 acre feet; reservoir live storage 152,000 acre feet; average annual irrigation release 114,000 acre feet; dam height 127ft; spillway capacity 384,300 cusecs; outlet tunnel capacity 377 cusecs; command area 33,200 acres; total length of irrigation channels 410 miles; cropping intensity 85 per cent; estimated project cost (July 2001 prices) 5.8 billion and economic internal rate of return 13.08.
A four-year construction programme is envisaged. The project area is extremely backward and lacks the basic amenities such as assured drinking supplies, basic health and education facilities, electricity and communications. The project will result in a general social uplift of the project area. With the development of irrigation and other facilities such as farm-to-market roads, education and health facilities, markets and communication will also improve.
The project will not have any major adverse environmental effect in the reservoir area. About 1,100 people will need resettlement and about 4,800 acres of flood irrigated area will be submerged. Based on market value of land and replacement value of facilities, a sufficient provision has been made for covering the cost of compensation in the reservoir area.
The command area will be the direct beneficiary of the project. An area of about 33,200 acres will get perennial supply to attain an average annual intensity of 85 per cent. About 32,000 people of more than 4,400 families will benefit.
The overall positive impacts of the project far outweigh the negative impacts. These negative impacts are proposed to be mitigated. Accordingly, the project is considered environmentally acceptable as it will result in general social uplift of the area and will provide sizable economic benefits.
The total project cost, including land and water rights compensation, is estimated at Rs5,861m. The foreign exchange component of the cost is estimated at an equivalent of Rs2,297m. These costs are based on prevalent rates for such works at 2001 prices. The cost of construction component of the project is estimated at Rs3,217m. Engineering and administration cost of Rs263m and water rights compensation and land acquisition cost of Rs469m are also included in the total cost. They also include the cost of improvement and maintenance of the existing road from Turbat to the dam site and a colony for the construction staff at the project.
The tangible benefits accruing from the project are represented by the increase in agricultural production. It is estimated that incremental benefits would go up from Rs31.26m in the first year after commissioning to Rs538 million at full development.
Year-end reviews have appeared on a variety of themes, and one of them that pertains to Karachi has this headline: ‘Terrorism, bomb blasts, traffic mishaps claimed over 516 lives in Karachi in 2001”. The story circulated by a news agency is worrying enough, but it makes no mention of many things like the number of people who were injured and some of them handicapped for life. Or the property that was stolen and looted, cars and bikes that were snatched, or the unreported crimes that took place, traumatising weary citizens who keep wondering whether there will ever be a return to the tranquillity (so-called) of yesteryear.
There is, some elderly citizens insist, a restlessness in the city now which has something to do with the constant fear of crime that we dwell with.
So is this the reason why there is a steady increase in the number of private security agencies, often manned by retired armed forces officers and jawans, and possibly former police personnel. One would imagine that if there was good money in this there would be absolutely fresh recruits, and which only makes citizens curious about where and how well they are trained.
I find it strange that for all the insecurity that Karachi’s homes and offices and bazaars have (as is demonstrated by the reliance on these guards, uniformed and armed) there is not enough media focus on them.
They are, somehow, there as necessary fixture, and do not make citizens reflect as to where this psychological insecurity is going to take them. Is it going to get worse? Will there be more security required to live in Karachi and can the ordinary private citizens really afford it?
There are also occasional advertisements that appear from these private security agencies reminding us of the truth of insecurity that we would rather not talk about.
But here is an advertisement that attracts our attention. It appeared in Dawn on 31st December and was released by the National Police Foundation security services. It says: “Come what may the job is done ... efficiently, reliably and dependably.” The Foundation has offices in all the four provinces and it assures that you “will feel secure with professionals”. They are available for the “security needs of organisations, financial institutions diplomatic missions, private residences and business concerns,” and consultancy is free. The rates are competitive.
Good, it makes you wonder about the fact that we have reached a stage where the police alone in this society are not good enough to provide the security that we need. So the Police Foundation has to step in, and in the process, make money as well. Good again.
Now these private security guards are not found only in our affluent and so-called posh areas of the city. Of course a growing number of homes in Defence, Clifton and the KDA Scheme I, or even in other areas of the city have these security guards of varying descriptions and statures. But even in the less- developed or low-income areas of the city there are such guards, hired and posted as a matter of precaution and safety.
That criminals, dacoits and terrorists have struck despite these men is another matter. Or that there is suspected some connivance between the guard and the criminal.
I stopped in Paposhnagar recently to buy some ‘mithai’, and right behind the salesman who was handing out the “ladoo” was an armed guard, almost ready to fire. It improved my insight into the state of fear that we live with. It is not just in the Zamzama Boulevard, and Park Towers or The Forum in Clifton that there is this obvious fear. The apprehension that criminals may strike is uniformly spread out in the Sindh capital.
I stopped for some groceries at Nagan Chowrangi in Ramazan, and an overweight, clumsy-looking guard with a weapon stood on duty, outside the store. Someone says “it is providing employment in a society where there is a growing joblessness”. True?
Of course, the Sindh capital has prospered and it is somewhat aptly called the city of lights. But underlying this prosperity there is a consistent insecurity that the Karachiites face daily. What can be more telling than the fact that schools, colleges, universities and hospitals have to be placed under armed guards, or rangers, to ensure normalcy, discipline and law and order.
How revealing and symbolic is the fact that the new year’s eve celebration in Karachi last week had to be “held” under a heightened degree of presence, and vigilance of the law-enforcing agencies.
Which makes it pertinent to mention that this year it appeared that both the “revellers” on the roads, the law- enforcing agencies on duty realised that they had to coexist, and it ended without all the fears coming true, save that one car blast near the Marina Club.
The winds of nostalgia blow as one thinks of the days when the chowkidar was good enough for the office and the home. The bazaars and the banks. Now whether it is an apartment or a bungalow, or whether it is a fast food restaurant or a corporate setup, families and corporate managers have picked up the armed guard option. Even newspapers, reminds a colleague, have made it difficult to enter their premises!
The situation on the borders has reportedly taken away some of the rangers from various points in the city and replaced them with policemen. What does this mean? Should reliance on the armed guards be enhanced?
THE caption on a Dawn photo last week said the ‘funfair’ was one of the at least six public places in the city offering unregulated gambling, not just an illegal activity, but also since 1979, an offence under the Hudood laws. A picture, it is said, is worth a thousand words. Coming as a follow-up to a 1,000 words report, it reportedly persuaded the Punjab Police chief to seek their closure. No case was, however registered against anybody.
Remember the flurry of public relations activity after allegations of poor taste at a fashion show? The town Nazim had issued a notice to the hotel management for hosting the show without a prior written approval by his office — a no-objection from the precinct police notwithstanding — withdrawing it after an apology was tendered and an assurance on future restraint given. The city Nazim, prompted possibly by some advisers, had then got in on the act and asserted that he alone could sanction fairs and festivals. So, the question about the role of the local administration now becomes: where was the city Nazim?
Organized gambling, of course, is about capitalizing on people’s interest in games of chance, sometimes their addiction to it. Wherever sanctioned by the law, it is, therefore, heavily taxed and strictly regulated. The report said the odds on various games at the funfairs were astronomical. Given the protection implied by the presence of uniformed law enforcement personnel, somebody was clearly making a tax-free pile. Since the money was being siphoned off from the city’s investment starved economy — it still does not grow on trees — the citizens are entitled to know just who the beneficiary was.
The moral sanction against gambling, derived largely from revealed religions, eroded fast after religion was ‘nationalized’ in the ‘70s and reduced to a function of the state and discarded in the ‘80s when the establishment found it to be too tricky and cumbersome for its simplistic tastes. While the statutes remained, the executive insisted on keeping the power to grant exemptions ‘in public interest.’ Who stood to gain from the arrangement was never much of a secret. After much foot dragging and double talk on the question, the doctrine of necessity was invoked to protect capitalism’s key tool, interest. Its condemnation as evil, going on simultaneously, helped create a remarkably pragmatic and amorphous casuistry.
On the gambling front in particular, the prize bonds were protected as a low-yield savings scheme. The opportunity created by it was too good, of course, to be neglected. A group of ‘investors’, has duly attached itself to the scheme like the barnacle. It started with some prize sharing schemes and has progressed to launching its parallel schemes. Having failed in all its attempts to shake it off, the government is finally resigned to sharing the dividends with the parasites. Given its lure, and, therefore, the effectiveness, the morality of lottery, even state lottery has been questioned in the west. In Britain, it is universally condemned by progressive and welfare groups despite the transparency of the operation and the fact that the proceeds are spent on projects of public nature for which the government is unable to raise funds through taxation. The governments also justified raffle to raise funds for charity (Fight TB) and their favourite projects (SAF Games). The question, whether it was kosher to raise funds for noble causes through slavery or drug trade, was largely ignored.
There is this issue then about equality before law. Can there be separate laws for the rulers and the ruled? Charles I, whose claim to fame has more to do now with what was done to him than what he did, certainly believed so. “A sovereign and a subject are clean different things,” he is on record telling the Regicides. The point has been debated endlessly and, on account of the peculiar nature of a monarchy, some people tend to agree with Charles. Well, what about a republic where sovereignty rests with the people? Can the state, or its proxy, the government, arbitrarily arrogate to itself the right to be above the law? Can it claim exemption every time it violates a rule and still insist on penalizing the errant citizens? As Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma bomber, famously pointed out, there is something terrible about a state that must answer the question in the affirmative.
Culturally, gambling has been a rather respectable pastime in the subcontinent, more ancient indeed than history. Even those not inclined by nature are urged to indulge themselves occasionally. Tradition has it that those failing to join in even on Holi, the feast of colours, are condemned to be born in their next incarnation as monkeys. The explanation, of course, is simple. Living with an extremely limited knowledge base necessitated a lot of decision making under uncertainty. Erring always on the side of caution, therefore, was a huge disadvantage. The occasional abandon of reason was thus not just exciting, it also brought evolutionary advantage. The success succeeded inevitably and ingrained the utility of the strategy in the mass subconscious. There was, however, always the danger of getting addicted. Taken to extreme, the intoxication resulted in the tragedy of Raja Nal who lost his beloved wife in a gamble.
Also, as times changed, the increasing knowledge tilted the scales in favour of calculated strategies. Only the poorest and the most illiterate — the wretched of the earth — are its adherents today. Ironically, its not just the odds against their winning that are increasing, it is also getting harder for them to benefit from their gains should they ever win. Billa, who has a tanoor near Dawn’s Lahore offices, squanders away nearly 50 per cent of his meagre income on betting. Several Dawn staffers and God knows how many other well wishers have failed to persuade him to quit, even to control the fraction of his income devoted to gambling. There are hundreds of thousands of people besides, who claim they just want a start in life and would quit after their first jackpot. Some of them openly declare that gambling is evil and, in the words of Prophet Yousuf’s brothers, would be good once they get the vital breakthrough.
There are already signs that this is increasingly a national trait. How else can you explain the fact that every swindler seems to find easy prey? What else can explain the housing frauds, the notoriously volatile stock exchange, the cooperatives and the finance company scams? The canker is eating away the work ethic and an increasingly larger number now see a favourable throw of the dice as a substitute to good old hard work.
On another scale, what do you make of our governments’ decision making on Operation Gibraltar, or nationalization or more recently on privatization, on Kargil, on Lt-Gen Ziauddin’s ‘appointment’ as chief of army staff? Equally, what do you make of India’s 1962 attack on China, on Kashmir, on the BJP, even the attack on its parliament? The world today is so complex and entangled, an explosion in New York can literally cause deaths in Central Asia. A gamble too many, frankly, is a frightening idea. — ONLOOKER