Prithviraj Chavan is one of those Congressmen who enjoys the confidence of both the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi and carries a heavy load of work in UPA II. He was Minister of State (MoS) in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) through the first term of UPA, and Dr Manmohan Singh was reluctant to let go of him when the UPA came back to power. Sonia Gandhi was keen for him to continue in the Department of Personnel, which oversees the work of the CBI among other things. And yet there was the problem of keeping him on as a minister of state, when his contemporaries were being elevated and he had performed well. As a result, Prithviraj Chavan finds himself in a curious position today. He is MoS PMO and MoS DoPT and MoS Parliamentary Affairs, and all three positions are powerful and critical for the UPA in its new avtar. In addition, he is Minister of State (independent charge) of Science and Technology and for Earth Sciences, and is one of those who has a grasp of economic, political and scientific matters. And he is known for his upright image. A Maratha - his family have been staunch loyalists of the Gandhi-Nehru family over the last 40 years and more – his name was in the reckoning for Chief Minister of Maharashtra at various times when the party was contemplating removing Vilasrao Deshmukh. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) laid claim to his constituency in western Maharashtra in the alliance forged between the two parties. Prithviraj Chavan, who is a member of the Rajya Sabha, was among those who had made a case for the Congress going it alone in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Maharashtra. He spoke with Neerja Chowdhury on the tasks before the government:
CURRENT: Your party came to power this time raising expectations of better governance. What do you propose to do to meet these expectations?
Prithviraj Chavan: What we successfully delivered in the first term, we now have to continue it more vigorously, try and plug the loopholes, and extend those programmes.
For example, on NREGA, one option that is on the table is to increase the number of days (for which employment will be given instead of the present 100 days).
The Rural Health Mission may be extended to urban areas. We are also thinking of extending the mid day meal scheme to secondary schools. We will expand and deepen whatever worked well and smoothen the rough edges.
Then there is the National ID card, which will work as a common ID for all purposes.
To determine who are really below the poverty line is a difficult exercise. But we are not shirking it. The idea behind it is to ensure that the subsidies are better targeted.
The right to information (RTI) comes under you and there has been apprehension in certain circles that the government may dilute the Right to Information Act. There was this whole controversy about not making notings on files public….
The RTI was the most revolutionary and successful enactment of UPA I. Although earlier there was the right to freedom of information act, it was repealed and RTI brought in. The underlying sentiment of the Act was the citizen’s right to all information in government except what is related to national security.
There is a dispute whether the file noting should be shared. Activists feel that the government is dragging its feet, and that the proposed amendment was to deny file noting. But the government acted proactively. Once and for all it set to rest the apprehensions of activists, and the file notings are to be given and an office order was issued a month ago.
There is also a legal infirmity in the definition of the commission in the RTI Act, whether the entire commission can sit together or can a subset or a small number sit together in constituting benches or can a single member take a decision. The DoPT took legal opinion and it said that unless specifically permitted, you can’t form a bench. We need to correct this anomaly and explicitly allow the setting up of benches.
I would like to assure the rights activists that the UPA government which enacted this historical legislation will never allow it to be diluted. We will ensure that the citizen gets all the information except that which impacts national security and personal privacy.
We will strengthen the law not dilute it.
The government also proposes to enact a new law so that the data generated through public funds is made available to other government departments and to citizens under certain regulatory conditions. Currently it is difficult for data created by a department to be accessed by another department or by citizens.
For example there is poverty data, or on income tax or on national incomes or data about who topped a board exam, so that the students could be contacted. Then there is the Met data. Why keep it secret? For example the telephone directory used to get printed with all the telephone numbers except those who paid to get their numbers unlisted. Why not get mobile numbers of people if not then it has to be justified why not. We are now going to make a policy which will be upfront that every department has to declare what is secret and what can be made available.
All this is in line with widening the concept of the citizen’s right to information. There is today the map policy. Open maps show only 60% of the area for defence reasons whereas you can download everything on the internet.
What about the women’s reservation bill?
The Standing Committee to look at the Bill is being constituted which will take the Bill further. A political attempt is also being made to bring about a political consensus. Mrs Gandhi is very serious about it but the standing committee process has to be gone through.
How long will that take?
A couple of months.
You had advocated that the Congress should fight elections on its own in the forthcoming polls in Maharashtra. Will there be an alliance with the NCP?
Our ultimate position on the alliance for Assembly elections will come shortly. The state unit is carrying out a sampark yatra to assess the mood of Congressmen. The Congress High Command will take a call about the strategy of our party.
What is the update on the monsoon, to what extent will it affect the food situation in the country, for prices of food items have been spiralling, and what is the government doing to prepare for the situation?
The Department of Earth Sciences and the Indian Meteorological Department is tasked with the prediction and measurement of the weather. The Indian summer monsoon is a very complex phenomenon. It is linked with the sea temperatures. There is the El Nino effect over the Pacific Ocean. We still don’t understand the physics of the interaction. But based on the various computer and super computers, we are able to come with a medium range forecast. We also have access to information from other nations and world meteorological organisations.
Our second estimate made towards the end of June predicted the overall rainfall for the entire country to be 93% of the annual average, which is termed below average. However in the north and western regions that is Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and western Uttar Pradesh the seasonal prediction is 81%.
In June the rainfall was 5% of the normal. We expect July and August to make up for some June deficiency. But the IMD s sticking to the June end estimate.
What mitigating strategy to adopt in case of deficient rain fall is being worked out by the respective states and the ministries of power, food and agriculture, that is whether to import or not, and what to do about the minimum support prices. The PMO and the Cabinet Secretariat are constantly monitoring the situation and coordinating with all the ministries.
But it is a worrying situation…
Yes. But I can assure you that we have a carryover of stocks and there should not be worry on the food front.
After the PM’s visit to France and with Hillary Clinton’s visit here, how are things working out on the nuclear fuel front?
We already have imported sufficient fuel to run our nuclear reactors. The agreement with France is to install nuclear reactors at Jaitpur in Maharashtra and that is proceeding on track. The PM’s visit to France further consolidated that relationship.
The visit of the US Secretary of State will help us move ahead on the American relationship. We are interested to create at least two nuclear parks, the location for which will be cleared in the Cabinet soon.
Newspaper reports have talked about them being located in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh?
We have a site selection committee of the Department of Atomic Science which has identified certain coastal and certain inland locations.
You are looking after Jammu and Kashmir on behalf of your party. There are reports of differences between the NC and the Congress and within the Congress party…
We had some unfortunate incidents in the Kashmir valley recently. Due to the series of elections to the state Assembly and the Lok Sabha, drawn out over a long period, the development works appeared to have slowed down. The NC and the Congress are firmly committed to carry on the good work done by the Central government for J&K and soon you will see the impact of these policies.
There are reports that some Congress leaders, unhappy with the NC have been talking to the PDP again…
The Congress party is firmly behind the NC, and we want the government to run for six years. There appear to be some differences within the Congress as a result of the recent cabinet expansion, may be because there were many aspirants for a few seats. The unfortunate episode of Amarnath is finally behind us and the state is looking forward to peace and development with dignity. Therefore the incident in Shopian was very unfortunate and it probably got mishandled. The PM is worried and feels we cannot have instability in Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolution following the recent meeting between Manmohan Singh and the Pakistani premier has indicated a definite shift in the Indian stand by de-linking composite dialogue from Pakistani action against terrorists responsible for 26/11. Many believe this was done under pressure from America?
I don’t think so. The PM has already explained the government’s stand on India-Pakistan relationship in Parliament.