Sunday, February 27, 2011

CM Kirankumar Reddy struggles with his Telugu on ‘International Mother Language Day’

On February 21, the world observed ‘International Mother Language Day’ . This is how AP CM Kirankumar Reddy marked the day - with his inimitable Telugu :) Watch the video. And the very accurate cartoon from cartoonist Sridhar on the fun. 

I am not sure if the CM can write Telugu.



Friday, February 25, 2011

TELANGANA XVII: Demerge Waltair from ECoR but not Telangana from AP!?


Today, I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine as we were watching Mamatadi present the railway budget. My friend was disappointed that a decision has not been taken regarding the demerger of Waltair division from East Coast Railway (ECoR) and merger of the same with South Central Railway (SCR). Alternatively, the division was preferred to be made a separate railway zone. Explaining the long-standing demand, my friend said the Waltair division comprising Vizag is the largest revenue earning division in ECoR but ECoR is supposedly giving the division a 'step-motherly treatment'. Apparently, before Waltair division was merged into ECoR in 2003, it was having rich funds. My friend gave few examples about depots and their budgets. These budgets were slashed by ECoR once it absorbed Waltair. In short, all revenue generated in Waltair is being moved to develop other parts of ECoR, mainly in Orissa. ECoR also seem to have extended all trains originating/ending in Vizag till its headquarters Bhubaneshwar. Waltair also seem to have lost quite a few railway engineering jobs to Bhubaneshwar in this process. And now these jobs are seen 'out of bound' for local youth as they are harassed and beaten in Bhubaneshwar when they go there for recruitment exams.


And now the issue is that ECoR wont let go of the cashcow and it is quite understandable! ECoR does not want to lose revenue by losing the 'rich' Waltair division. So despite a very prevalent demand among public, no railway minister is granting the much sought divorce.


What is not understandable is that the same friend, who is generally quite objective, does not apply the same logic for Telangana's demerger from AP and instead argues how the demand is 'regressive'. Waltair division feels discriminated in ECoR Zone and the people of that division think their division should develop and what more, they think they can survive as a separate zone. There is nothing 'selfish' about this. Nor is it anti-national to demerge from the predominantly Orissa division and merge with adjoining Telugu areas. So how come Telangana struggle is not seen through the same prism?


I told my friend that if the demand for Telangana is 'narrow-minded', so is the demand of Waltair's demerger. If Telangana movement is a hate campaign against Andhrites, so is the Demerge Waltair campaign against Oriyas. Of course, neither me nor my friend think the Waltair demand is a hate campaign. All we need to understand is that we should not over simplify these demands. They are justified demands and aspirations. These demerger decisions would bring localised focus on regional development and a more transparent scheme of things where we know sources and destinations of revenues which contributes to better planning and a faster development of resources and infrastructure.


Let us not change the logic, rationality of arguments simply because we think we will 'lose' by accepting the truth. In fact, all of this 'loss' or 'profit' is just perception. Neither me nor my friend would benefit or lose anything personally depending on whether Waltair or Telangana is demerged. So I am not sure why friend can not be objective in both the cases. As my friend said, Vizag station would remain just the way it is, despite a potential to become a central station in the south-east region, because it is not the priority of those in power in ECoR at Bhubaneshwar. However he would not agree that Telangana would remain the same because it is not the priority of those in power in Secretariat. At least, not yet. But I think it is a matter of time before he realizes. Right now, To each, his own truth!


Thursday, February 24, 2011

About the unfair trial faced by Dr Binayak Sen

The video explains succinctly to what extent the Indian government would go to punish those who strongly voice on its shortcomings and its exploitative nature. This video of Tehelka's Shoma Chaudhury is about the injustice and the unfair trial faced by Dr Binayak Sen.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Indian media's corporate affairs and UPA's 'reformist' scams

On 16 February 2011, our PM Mr. Manmohan Singh decided he will speak out, for a change, on several issues rocking the country. I watched in disbelief how easily Mr.Singh was let off by the electronic media chiefs who didn't bother to press him for serious answers for the complex issues, corruption and the inflation. Not a soul protested when the supposedly 'clean PM' equates losses due to 2G scam with food subsidies! This meeting was specially arranged between the PM and the editors of TV News channels and in hindsight, it only looks like a face-saving exercise with rigged queries and predictable answers. The meeting once again reminds us how the electronic media backed by corporate houses cares little about real issues affecting the people. They themselves, due to their corporate connections, are beneficiaries in some of the biggest economic reforms in the country. The scams which flow out of these reforms, like the 2G, naturally do not interest the electronic media. This meeting put this fact blatantly in our face.

Eminent journalist Mr. P.Sainath writes in The Hindu on how ridiculous the meeting looked. I found the article the most accurate portrayal of the meeting I found in print media. I am sharing some excerpts from that article below.


Referring to the editors representing the largely corporate media in our country today and their performance in the meeting, Mr Sainath says ".. once you've accepted the neo-liberal economic framework scripted since 1991 as wonderful and beyond reproach, then your questions get limited to asking who fluffed his lines. And as for corporate criminality, editors step on to that terrain only when left without a choice and at their own risk."


On several other critical issues, this is how Mr P.Sainath captured the conduct of the corporate media chiefs.


On how the media chiefs were covering up or deliberately digressing on the 2G scam"The first question, fair enough, was about the 2G scam and the lack of an auction in the sale of spectrum. There's something missing here, though. There was in fact an auction of spectrum — a successful one. Only it was not conducted by the government but by its corporate sector cronies who gave it away for a pittance. Having been gifted that scarce public-owned resource by the government, the cronies then auctioned it privately for astronomical sums of money."


On 'black money' and on proposed amnesty for those involved in it - "The press conference saw one abstract query and a no less abstract reply on ‘black money.' Not a single question on Indian illegal funds parked overseas in Swiss and other banks. None on why the government does not reveal the names it has in this connection. The illegal flow of such funds, according to the startling report from Global Financial Integrity, costs the nation Rs.240 crore every single day, on average. As much as Rs. 4.3 lakh crore (twice the highest estimate of the 2G scam losses) has been lost in just five years, between 2004 and 2008. And who are the main culprits? “High net-worth individuals and private companies were found to be the primary drivers of illicit flows out of India's private sector.” Seems a good subject to ask the Prime Minister some questions about. But it didn't happen."


"Nor was there a single question about the Amnesty/Immunity schemes his government seems to be planning for such criminals. This, even as it plans tougher and tougher laws for ordinary citizens, abridgement of rights for displaced persons, gutting of the public distribution system and arrests of those protesting the incredible price rise."


On Corruption, at least on those not involving 'coalition compulsions' -
"Nor, while on morality and corruption, was there a single question from the editors about the Prime Minister making Vilasrao Deshmukh Union Minister of Rural Development. A man castigated by the Supreme Court for protecting moneylenders in Maharashtra now controls rural development across the country. The Maharashtra government has even paid up the Rs.10-lakh fine imposed by the court in that case, signalling acceptance that wrong had been done while he was Chief Minister. Dr. Singh cannot plead ‘coalition compulsions' here. Mr. Deshmukh is from his own party. If he remains in the Union Cabinet after the Supreme Court trashes him, it is only because Dr. Singh wants him there. There were no ‘coalition compulsions' in brewing the CWG scam either, but that too wasn't touched upon in the questions."


On how a foreigner from CNN asked the only serious question on food inflation -
"The only serious question on food inflation, linking that to its impact on the poor in a country with 8.5 per cent growth came from a foreigner. Now our editors present knew this to be a burning issue, even for their middle class audiences. Yet Sara Sidner of CNN was the only one to raise it. "


On how the PM is unchallenged when he equates losses due to 2G scam with food subsidies! - "The Prime Minister was not challenged when he virtually equated losses in the 2G scam with subsidies to the poor. “If auctions are not taking place then what is the basis for you to calculate a loss? ... It is very much a function of what is your starting point. And also depends upon your opinion. We have a budget which gives subsidy for food, Rs.80,000 crores per annum, some people may say these foodgrains should be sold at marketplace. Will we say then because they are not sold at market prices, because you are giving them a subsidy, it is a loss of Rs. Rs.80,000 crores?”"


"Firstly, he equates plunder with the pathetic subsidies tossed at the world's largest hungry population. We rank 67th out of 84 nations in the Global Hunger Index. Secondly, subsidies for the super-rich soar each year. While food subsidies for hundreds of millions were cut by Rs. 450 crore in the last budget."


"The Prime Minister wanted to know if the editors would view the Rs.80,000 crore his government commits to food subsidies as ‘losses.' Actually, most of them do. Quite a few of them would like to see all subsidies directed at the poor to be wound up. The politically correct way of going about this is to call for the “streamlining of systems,” or “proper targeting,” or “efficiency.” A demand never once made of the tsunami of subsidies given to a handful of super-rich (media owners amongst them)."


A video of the PM's meeting can be found here.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

TELANGANA XVI: How the AP media is trying to suppress the truth about Telangana

Media watchdog THE HOOT publishes this about how and why the news channels, especially Telugu channels, are blocking news about Telangana struggle and suppressing the truth. This blog post is a follow-up to one of my previous posts - Why Telugu news channels bar coverage?.

Media in a banana republic

Why are news channels so diligently following the guidelines of the NBA and the Cable Regulation Act on the Telangana issue alone? Why does a democratically elected government want to prevent media from covering a major political issue festering in the state for the last 60 years, asks PADMAJA SHAW


Nearly a year ago, on 3 January 2010, under the directions of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, Osmania University witnessed one of the biggest pro-Telangana student rallies.  Some 150,000 students with identity cards arrived from colleges all over Telangana and dispersed without incident at the appointed time after the rally. Given that this came after weeks of siege of the campus by security forces, it was a heartening exercise in democratic politics.

December 2010. In the weeks before the announcement of Srikrishna Committee report, the campus was once again locked down by special police, rapid action force and other security personnel at all access points. The neighbouring localities were put under close watch. The campus road was reminiscent of the Wagah border! But it was not the Wagah border. The FORCE was deployed to battle a bunch of impassioned young students from the Telangana districts. In the name of preventing outsiders from entering the campus, no buses, media vehicles or cars were allowed to enter the campus. The university was compelled to close the campus messes. The students still on campus had no access to food and basic necessities. Politicians and rights activists were arrested if they attempted to enter the campus.

After the Committee report was made public, the state government has invoked the Cable Regulation Act and News Broadcasters Association guidelines and warned the electronic media against covering the activities on Osmania campus. The diktat was to avoid telecast of live/repeat footage of violent incidents and provocative speeches. But the result has been to black out more or less all coverage of the ground level response to the Srikrishna Committee report by the Telugu News TV channels for a few days. According to news reports, Raj TV channel, which is being run by Telengana Rashtra Samiti leader K Chandrashekhar Rao’s family on lease, was warned several times by the government through the license holder to refrain from showing visuals of the agitation. They have taken to flashing breaking news in large font without visuals.

It is interesting that the state government has been issuing statements that there is no police on the campus. The political leaders and the representatives of AP Civil Liberties Committee have been prevented from entering the campus (by who one wonders). Because there was little visual coverage of the events, the truth about the events is not coming out in public domain.

This raises the question: Why are the 16 or so news channels so diligently following the guidelines of the NBA and the Cable Regulation Act in the Telangana issue alone? Couple of days after Srikrishna Committee report was made public, there was a mafia style killing of Maddelacheruvu Suryanarayana in the heart of Hyderabad. The Telugu news channels went to town giving saturation coverage, repeatedly showing the bullet-ridden body and the lolling head of the dead man, violating the NBA guidelines and the Cable Regulation Act provisions for moderation.

Of the 14 or so Telugu news channels only 5 are members of the News Broadcasters Association. The remaining 9 are not. The big ones have more or less been back-peddling on the Telangana issue as the owners of the media houses are from Andhra essentially backing integrationist politicians. The Hyderabad Police Commissioner, Mr. A.K. Khan, asserts that he merely wants the channels to adhere to the provisions of Cable Act. The response of the channels has been to go for an all or none reading of the statement. They prefer to see coverage as live uplinks from the OB vans, unfiltered and un-moderated or unrelenting studio discussions with rabble-rousers. It would have been both a challenge and an education for the channels to finally find the middle path of well-informed and fair reporting of a problematic issue. Two very senior journalists have expressed the feeling that the channel heads are exploiting the statements of the Commissioner to scuttle coverage.
The channels and the government seem to have come to an understanding that by bottling the campus activity and by news black out they can effectively remove Telangana from public agenda. The state administration seems to have come to the conclusion that there is no Telangana movement without media coverage! The only reports that have surfaced on the media are those that show the agitators and students as hooligans, thereby discrediting the movement and the University. It is not yet clear if the hooliganism shown is by hired political goons or by students. No political party including TRS has taken the trouble of calling for peaceful protests that refrain from attacking innocent bystanders and business establishments. Focusing on violence and ignoring the issues raised has been a tried and tested technique used against the CPI (ML) groups for decades. Media effectively deflect the issue into a law and order problem by adopting this strategy and provide a justification for the use of force by the state.

One might add, after several rounds of recent High Court judgments, there is no attempt to implement the Cable Regulation Act by constituting advisory committees at the local and state level to monitor media and deal with complaints arising from the telecast of objectionable matter.  The Act does not empower the Commissioner to unilaterally decide on which content to regulate. The Act prescribes a process through which this is to be done. But the Police Commissioner found instant success in controlling the coverage of the Telangana issue just by holding a press conference and a few strategic phone calls! If media houses accept this for short-term gain, the spectre of this will haunt them in days to come.

Thanks to Ratan Tata, today we have a re-popularised phrase to describe what’s happening not only in our polity but also in our media – Banana Republic! As in a typical banana republic, the media in our democracy are ‘allowed’ by the state to show lumpen entertainment, crime, gore and sex bordering on pornography. When it comes to important political issues like the securitization of large parts of the country in the name of maintaining law and order, corporate-politician nexus that brutally suppresses people’s protests, the state plays a highly proactive role in ensuring that no civil rights groups or media are around to bring alternative perspectives into public view.  Denial of the existence of an issue by insulating it from public gaze can only result in bringing untold misery to the people, and escalating it to unmanageable proportions.

For about a week, by turning the Osmania University campus into an open-air prison, and by disallowing any information to come out of the campus, by repeatedly invoking the Cable Regulation Act for this, the state has once again proved itself to be a banana republic and not a mature democracy. The media houses, in their self-interest, do not seem to recognize that it is a banana republic they are helping build and profiting from.

Subsequent to this, partly inspired by the protests of rights groups and senior journalists, the channels have formed a Telugu News Broadcasters’ Association. This was followed a day or two later by the formation of Cable Operators Association. Both the associations have vowed to provide the best possible coverage of the Telangana movement. It would be a great step forward for the Telugu news media if these new initiatives pave the way for independence and self-regulation, Cable Regulation Act or not.  Given their entrenched economic and political interests, it is to be seen if media houses can transcend the urges of self-interest to self-regulate and stop playing footsie with the state.


Friday, February 18, 2011

The SKC Scandal 4: AP High Court calls the SKC report a pack of lies!!

Now, Is there something worser than the High Court calling the SKC report 'full of blatant lies'!? Well, of course the shameless plutocrats and the tyrants in power in Hyderabad wouldn't give two hoots to the comments. But for the lesser souls who care for democracy, constitution and propriety, here is what the High Court said after it went through the 'secret' chapter 8.


According to the ToI, the court said the secret contents full of lies and mind-boggling descriptions of non-existent things. It further said "It is unfortunate that this report and its related exercise was presided over by a former judge of the Supreme Court,", "This committee has spent Rs 40 crore of public money for preparing its report. Any person with a semblance of faith in the system of democracy would lose faith in it. The report prepared by the front office of an MP would have been more sensible than this report. Even the high command of a political party would have hesitated to prepare such a report,".


According to the Indian Express, the high court said the report's secret 'chapter 8' should be put before the public to make them know the kind of committees that are being appointed by the government.


Wait, there is more shame, according to Deccan Chronicle, "On being persuaded by the judge, the ASG also read the last two pages of the report and agreed that the committee need not have gone into all this." So the Additional Solicitor General of India who is representing the GoI himself agreed the SKC exceeded its brief!


In short, the High Court said the so called secret part of the report should be placed before the public not because it is important but because it is so dangerously ridiculous that people should know the levels to which governments stooped to appoint incompetent committees!!


I have discussing on this blog on how blatantly the report lied, suppressed truth, justified discrimination, encouraged constitutional violations and rued how the report makes right-thinking individuals to lose their faith in the system. I felt a relief hearing the court's comments and can only thank god we still have some institutions like the judiciary that reposed the faith in us now and then.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

SKC Report Review 2: SKC lies on how BIG and IMPORTANT public employment is for Telangana!

Here is a study by Subhash C. Reddy, Ph.D. on what the SKC report said on public employment   and how the violation of the related safeguards affected Telangana.


The Srikrishna Committee exhibited extreme lack of comprehension of important Economic and Labor Concepts and Issues such as Local Economy, Labor Force, Employment and unemployment Rates, and Organized (Formal) and Un-Organized (Informal) Sectors of Economy. SKC also bared its ignorance of the significance of Organized Sector Employment with relation to the employment of people in professional, technical, college educated, and skilled trades. The Committee also has exhibited its total lack of appreciation of the size and the role of Unorganized Sector in employment. They have amply displayed their ignorance in the skills of statistical data calculations and interpretation.

But, the most important thing to realize is that as a consequence of these academic and scientific deficiencies the SKC has totally misrepresented the facts and figures and worse, didn’t even know that employment or unemployment rates are not calculated on the basis of Total Population of the Community but on the basis of Active Labor Force of the community. Also, the employment or unemployment of skilled and highly educated labor is separate and different from the unskilled labor force and, therefore, should not be mixed up.

SKC also didn’t seem to know who constitute the Labor Force and who doesn’t. By now national and international standards, Labor Force comprises working age population. For India that would be persons above 15 years of age and below 59 (Indian Retirement age is 58 years) years of age, excluding those who are in Armed Services, and persons incarcerated (jailed).

Please allow me to present to you all, some samples of nonsensical and absurd statements, assertions, and inferences SKC made in their Report:

1. “…Is public employment a big issue statistically ? The entire population of public employees in Andhra Pradesh in 2006 was about 1.7% of the total population in 2001 and about 3.6%of the working population in 2001.…The point is that, public employment constitutes a very small percentage of the working population of the state and an even smaller percentage of the total population.”


SKC further reported: “per the figures of Census 2001, the population of Andhra Pradesh was 762 lacs, out of which the working population was 348.65 lacs. The Employees Census, held in 2006, put the figure of total employees under the state government (or in public employment) at around 12.9 lacs.

Do the exalted members of SKC, who happen to be IAS, Vice-Chancellor, Chief
Economist, and a Professor of Delhi University, understand that Public
Employment includes not only state government employees but also employees
working for Public Sector Industries, Panchayats or Mandals, Municipalities, and
quasi-government organizations. There are almost 1200 Mandals (approx) and
more than 16 Municipal Corporations whose employees are not included in the
state government employee census. In fact, state government employees
constitute only half or less than half of ALL Public Employees. In other words,
we can double the number of the total state employees to get the full Public
Employment population. Then how could SKC equate state government
employees to total public employee number? Either SKC didn’t care for accurate
data or they had already made up their mind about their conclusions on the
subject.

What was the objective of calculating the proportion of public employees to the
total population of the state? Does it convey any inference or relationship in
economic terms? Is that how employment statistic calculated by Economists and
Social Scientists? Then SKC makes a most baffling conclusion: “The point is
that, public employment constitutes a very small percentage of the working
population of the state and an even smaller percentage of the total population.”
Perhaps you could make the same conclusion by comparing the number of
government doctors to the total population of the state. I am sure, the percentage
figure will even be more diminutive (tiny). But what am I conveying? That I can
calculate a most basic statistical measure – the percentage? I am impressed at the
mathematical prowess of SKC members but what then? And what exactly are
they asserting by asking “Is public employment a big issue statistically? ” What
do they mean by “big issue” and by “statistically”? Oh, I get it. If it is not a big
issue statistically then it is not an issue at all. But, what does “big” mean in
statistical terms? Or what number is BIG? Well, they could also ask the same
question about the number of farmers who committed in proportion to the total
population of the state. Even if 2 lac farmers committed suicide Is It a Big Issue
Statistically? After all, it calculates to 0.28% (2 lacs/722 lacs). If 1.37%, stupidly 
calculated on the basis of total population, is NOT Big the 10% is big? According to 
SKC, this 1.37% is equal to 12.9 Lacs. For the Public employment to reach 10% of 
the population then the number of total government employees will have to reach 94 
Lacs. Even then will SKC consider it as big statistically?

The largest employers in Hyderabad are the Andhra Pradesh Government and the
Government of India with 113,098 and 85,155 employees respectively. SKC 
reported 12.9 Lacs state government employees as the total public employment. 
But that is only half of public employment. So, the total public employment 
would be 25.8 Lacs (12.9 lac state govt employees plus 12.9 lac employees of 
Mandals, municipalities, public sector industries). SKC didn’t even mention this.

Let me shed some light on the subject of Economics, Demography, and Social Sciences of which SKC attempts, failingly, to make use of. In India and the state of AP or any other state, the total employment of the labor force (working population) is provided by two sectors of the Economy. One is Organized (Formal) Sector and the other is Un-Organized (Informal) sector. The Un-Organized sector is ten times larger than the Organized sector in terms of total number of people employed. Let me offer definitions or explanation for these two sectors.

Organized Sector: “The National Accounts Statistics (NAS) uses the
classification of `organised' and `unorganised' sectors in presenting national
income data and what is indicated as `unorganised' in NAS is not the same as
`uninc' or non-company forms of organisations."

Generally, all enterprises which are either registered or come under the purview
of any one of the acts like the Indian Factories Act 1948, Mines and Minerals
(Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, the Company Law, the Central/State
Sales Tax Acts, the Shops and Establishment Acts of the State governments, are
defined as part of the organised sector. Also included are all government
companies, departmental enterprises and public sector corporations. "Similarly,
forestry, irrigation works, plantations, recognised educational institutions, and
hospitals which are registered as non-profit making bodies are also classified as
organised sector.

Un-Organized Sector: “All unincorporated enterprises and household industries
which are not regulated by any acts of the above mentioned type and which do not
maintain any annual reports presenting the profit and the loss and balance sheets
are classified as unorganized sector." This includes agricultural farms, domestic
labor and such.

I shall show why and how these two sectors have an important bearing on this
subject of Public Employment for Telangana people. But, first consider the
statements and assertions of SKC in this context. I quote:
“During the last two decades (1990-2010), as the Indian economy has undergone
structural changes, a great many areas of employment opportunities in the
private sector have opened up, pushing public employment, both in numbers as
well as in importance into the background. In an era when the state is
withdrawing from many areas, accompanied by increasing privatization or publicprivate
partnerships, employment under the state can no longer be viewed as a
panacea for unemployment.”

Now, here are the real truths and facts and figures which will disprove SKC’s
above assertions and expose their ignorance of the subject matter and their
arrogance in making such categorical statements which are utterly false and
farcical.

“The organized sector in India consists of 293.77 thousand industrial
establishments. Out of these, 172.34 thousand are public sector enterprises while
121.43 thousand are in private sector. Since 2004, an increase of 1.4% has been
recorded in the number of establishments in the organized sector. As on the 31st
March, 2005 the total employment in the organized sector was estimated to be
264.58 lakh while in 2004, it was 264.43 lakh…The public sector employs about
180.7 lakh persons while the private sector employs 84.52 lakh persons.”…. the
employment in public sector decreased by 1 percent while private sector increased
by 2.5 percent.” 

And the chart below shows that the quasi-government and local governing bodies
together employ slightly more employees than the state governments. Altogether,
the total public employment is twice as much as the employment provided by the
State government alone. State government employment decreased by only 1
percent in Andhra Pradesh. 

According to the results of the National Sample Survey (NSS) conducted in 1999-
2000, total work force as on 1.1.2000 was of the order of 406 million for all of
India. About 7 % of the total work force is employed in the formal or organized
sector (all public sector establishments and all non-agricultural establishments
in private sector with 10 or more workers) while remaining 93% work in the
informal or unorganized sector. As per that survey, there were 44.35 million
enterprises and 79.71 million workers employed thereof in the non-agricultural
informal sector of the economy. Among these 25.01 million enterprises employing
39.74 million workers were in rural areas whereas 19.34 million enterprises with
39.97 million workers in the urban area. Among the workers engaged in the
informal sector, 70.21 million are full time and 9.5 million part times. Percentage
of female workers to the total workers is 20.2 percent. These percentages could be
logically applied to Andhra Pradesh state employment scenario.
Source: http://www.industrialrelations.naukrihub.com/organised-andunorganised-
labor.html

Let me summarize:

1. Organized Sector ONLY provides ALL the professional, technical,
administrative, office clerical and skilled jobs that require secondary
and tertiary (high school, college and professional education). These
are the jobs that pay highest wages.

2. Un-Organized Sector provides all the agricultural, non-agriculture, and
domestic labor jobs that don’t require even primary education (upto 8th
standard). These are the jobs that pay lowest wages.

3. Employees of the State government comprise only HALF of the total
Public Employment. And Public Employment is still THE MAJOR
EMPLOYMENT SOURCE providing TWICE as much employment as
the PRIVATE SECTOR. Public Sector provided 181 Lac jobs while
Private Sector provided only 85 Lac jobs (2005).

4. Therefore, Public Employment is VERY VERY BIG Statistically.
Public Employment is THE PANACEA for professionals, people with
secondary (high school diploma) and tertiary education (college).

5. SKC did not collect the required statistical data but made seriously
incorrect or false statements. It is Patently Untrue and Absurd what
SKC said: (IT IS A LIE! )

Thus, it is proven with supporting data, facts, and figures that all the assertions
made by SKC are false, untrue, and actually LIES. Yes, SKC LIED!
Not only Public Employment is the single largest source of employment but also
THE source of providing well paid, privilege laden, secure, authoritative, and key
positions of power to the people. Public Employment is IMPORTANT not only
because it provides huge number of well paid jobs but also because it is twice as
large as the Private Sector in terms of employment.

Key Role of Public Employees:
And Public Employment is even more Important to a community because:


1) Government employees play a major role in planning, formulating, and
implementing Public Policies, Educational, Economic and Developmental Issues,
and Facilitating Citizens interactions with government agencies. These public
employees include IAS cadre, IPS cadre, IFS cadre, high level administrators like
Secretaries to the government, District Collectors, Joint Collectors, Mandal level
executives, Magistrates, Tax Officers, etc.


2) When MOST government employees belong to only one region then it is obvious 
which region benefits and loses out. Just about everyone knows that the Cabinet 
Ministers are totally dependent on the civil servants to provide all the facts and 
figures and the Truths. That is, the ministers, greatly, are deaf, blind, and dumb 
without the input of their civil servants.

3) The civil servants (govt employees) are the Eyes, Ears, and Throat of the Ministers. This includes the Law and Order wing of the government which basically imposes the will of the government on the people instead of the will of the people on the government.


No wonder, people of one region (read Telangana) are always oppressed and shut out from participating the democratic processes of self governing.

Let me use an analogy here. Let us say there is a public function being organized
to dole out free lunch, free drinks, free clothes, and free shoes. A committee is
appointed by the organizers (govt). The members of the committee decide who is
informed about the free dole out function, who is invited and what is doled out and
how much and to whom. And all or most of these members belong to only ONE
locality, or ONE Community. Guess who will be the beneficiaries? Is it hard that
the Locality or the Community that benefits MOST is the one to which these
members belong?

In other words, the system is rigged to deny citizens of one region and dole out
most benefits to people of the other region. And that's what has happened and
that's what Telangana is Complaining! The way our 54 year old legitimate,
democratic, and just struggle has been totally sidelined and misrepresented
because of this lopsided control of the state's entire machinery in one region
(Andhra) is the Issue. Thus it obviously functions as an Exploiting Colonial
Power just as the British Colonial Power did.

Methodology I used:
I have obtained Labor Force Statistics from Nationmaster.com website which
supplied data for India and applied to A.P. state.
(http://www.nationmaster.com/red/country/in-india/lab-labor&all=1).
We have already learnt from authoritative sources of data that Ninety-three
percent of Indians are employed by the Un-Organized Sector of which nonagricultural
labor is 27%, and agricultural labor is 61%. Organized Sector
employs only 7% of the Labor Force. Let us use a round figure of 10% for
Organized Sector and 90% for Un-Organized Sector.
The data from authoritative sources: Source of Labor Statistics:
http://www.nationmaster.com/red/country/in-india/lab-labor&all=1

Source of Demographics Data:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India (not the cooked up data
SKC presents) shows that only 9.5% of the Labor Force possesses Secondary
education (high school diploma only) and just 4% of the Labor Force possesses
Tertiary education (college education).
force with primary education > %of total 35 %
force with secondary education > %of total 9.5 %
force with tertiary education > %of total 4 %
Data on population demographics of India (closely related to AP) is as below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_India
0-14 years: 31.1% (male 190,075,426/female 172,799,553) (2009 est)
15-64 years: 63.6% (male 381,446,079/female 359,802,209) (2009 est)
65-over: 5.3% (male 29,364,920/female 32,591,030) (2009 est)

Also, the same source informs us that more than 50%of India’s population is
below the age of 25 and more than 65%hovers below the age of 35. (let us
take it as equal to 50% instead of "more" than 50%).

Just on this basis alone, 10% of 348 lacs Labor Force, reported by SKC, is ONLY
34.8 lacs. Therefore, the total Labor Force for Public Employment is 34.8 Lacs.
Public Employment in AP is 25.8 lacs (doube the 12.9 lac state government
employees). Then, Percent Public Employment in AP is number of public
employees / Labor Force for Public Employment = (25.8 x 100) / 34.8 = 74.1%.
The remaining portion of this Labor Force (34.8 – 25.8) of 9 Lacs would be
employed by the Private Sector. These numbers closely match the proportions 
of public and private sector employment as reported by earlier for India.

Conculsions:
Thus, Public Employment is 74.1% based on the Labor Force for Public
Employment and NOT 1.7 or 3.6% as SKC presented dishonestly. We,
Telanganites, are ONLY complaining about Organized Sector’s Jobs and majorly
about Public Sector’s jobs. Thus, SKC deliberately misdirected the issue and
misrepresented the facts.

Let me present to you the same calculations based on SKC’s data of 348 lac Total
Labor Force that is employed by both Organized and Un-Organized Sectors.
The data from authoritative sources already cited earlier (not the cooked up data
SKC presents) shows that only 9.5% of the Labor Force possesses Secondary
education (high school diploma only) and just 4% of the Labor Force possesses
Tertiary education (college education). Almost all government jobs require at
least Secondary education and a portion of those jobs require College education.
Therefore, we should only consider that part of Labor Force which possesses the
required qualifications of Secondary and tertiary education. And that would be
9.5% +4% = 13.5% of the Labor Force that should be considered in the analysis.
Then, 13.5% of 348 lacs = 47 lacs is the total Labor Force eligible for government
jobs.

So, Total Public Employment (12.9 lacs state govt employees plus 12.9 lac
employees of panchayat, municipal and public sector corporations) = 25.8 Lacs.
Even by this calculation the total population of Public Employees of 25.8 Lacs is
55% of the Labor Force (47 Lacs). SKC cooked up the numbers 1.7% or 3.6%
like a magician pulls out rabbits from his hat – from nowhere just imaginary!
If Private Sector employs half of all public employees (12.9 lacs) then the total
number of employees employed by the Organized Sector will be 25.8 + 12.9 =
38.7 Lacs.

Therefore, government employment (jobs) becomes a substantial factor for the
Labor Force of Andhra Pradesh and of Telangana. Thus, 8.3 Lacs of the Labor
Force with Secondary and tertiary Education is unemployed which is closer to the
figures reported for India (actually lower). Let us look at how equitable hiring for 
Public Employment in Telangana would have affected the Employment (or) 
Unemployment situation as applied to the Telangana people who have Secondary 
and Tertiary Education. We already have the data we used in previous calculations.

Of the total of 25.8 Lac public sector jobs, Telangana should get 40% (based on
population) and that would be 25.8 x 40/100 = 10.3 Lac public sector jobs. Half
of this, 5.2 Lacs, would be Private Sector Jobs making a total of 15.8 Lac jobs in
the Organized Sector.

This would mean Telangana will be fully employed and then some more if done
equitably and fairly. But it did not happen. That is why Telangana is fighting for
separate State so its people can receive their due share of employment.


My previous SKC Report Reviews:
SKC Report Review 1: Recommendations at Variation with Analysis