RLPP.
Contents
- Background
- Introduction
- Overview of EAS.03
- An Example: EAS.03 over Waters of Narmada Dams
- Advantages of EAS.03
- How EAS.03 will reduce poverty?
- Privatization of Waters
- Managing network of canals
- Draft of the act to create procedure EAS.03
Background
The purpose is to reduce poverty, without taxing the rich. How? By ensuring that every citizen gets equitable share in the "rent" or "deemed rent" of natural resource. How? I have proposed several laws to enable that. EAS.03 is one of these proposed laws.
Introduction
Around 1995, I formulated a Dogma, that EVERY citizen has equitable right over the state-owned natural resources. And that EVERY citizen should get equitable amount of the royalties that the State/Central Governments collect from the natural resources owned by the State/Nation. I named this Dogma as ESONR-Dogma --- Equality over State Owned Natural Resources.
Back then, I believed that ESONR-Dogma was my ORIGINAL discovery. But later, around year 2000, I came to know that one of the Three Greatest Thinkers world has ever produced, Thomasbhai Painejee had stated the SAME Dogma in his legendary essay Agraian Justice in a different way. Nevertheless, I can rightly claim that I re-discovered this Dogma independently on my own.
But why did Painejee's landmark work did not come to my notice till 2000? Mainly becuase intellectuals of India, and all over the world, have filled the textbooks of economics and political science with 100s of worthless ideas, and have deleted Painejee's work from texts. Why? Almost ALL intellectuals these days believe that royalty from natural resources MUST NOT go directly into commons' hands, but should be devored by neta, babus, intellectuals and elitemen of the country. As a result, most professors=intellectuals are hostile to even mentioing the name of Painejee's landmark essay to their students. So few students, including myself, ever got a hint to read that essay, or even know about its existence.
It was only when I published my work on EAS on internet, an unknown friend told me about Painejee's essay which rhymed with ESONR-Dogma.
Now I have a firm request to the reader --- you must be clear with yourself :
- Do you support ESONR-Dogma that EVERY citizen should get equitable control/royalty over state owned natural resources? OR
- Are you hostile to the above idea, and believe that ONLY neta/babu and intellectuals should have control over state owned natural resources and only they should decide how royalty-money should be spent?
Almost ALL inetellectuals I met so far in my life, whether they were rightists or leftists or centrists or Gandhians, were exteremely hostile to the idea of giving even a penny of royalty-money to the commons. Almost all believed that royalty money should be spent on educational institutes (i.e. fiefdoms of intellectuals) or some such GoI-venture.
However, most of the rustics I met by and large approved the idea, except that they were spkepitical if one can make administrative procedures to distribute royalty equitably.
If you believe that royalty money MUST not be doled out to the commons, I can assure you that will find my EAS.01 proposal an extremely repulsive idea and every subsequent of 10-15 EAS proposals will appear to be more repulsive than EAS.01.
But if you believe in ESONR-Dogma, EASes are perhaps your dream coming true. Not only EASes ensure equitable distribution of royalty over natural resources, it provides FAST way to reduce poverty in India.
There are some 15 EASes, each deal with a specific natural resource. Understanding ALL of them is easy --- you understand EAS.01 and you will understan all. I request the reader to thoroughly read and understand EAS.01.
Now EAS.01 deals with distributing underground water. Likewise, each EAS deals with a specific natural resource.
EAS.03 deals with ground water resources such as lakes, dams and rivers.
Overview of EAS.03
- For each major water source, the Assembly/Panchayat will need to pass a SEPERATE legislation dealing with that water source. The minor water sources can be left for Panchayats to decide.
- Demarking zones : Associated with EACH water source like lake, dam or river, the citizens will need to decide the region which will own that water source. If the water source, such as dam/pond is huge, the citizens residing in several near-by districts will have ownership of the water. If the water source is small, only the citizens residing in 1-2 districts may be the owner.
- The citizens of those region will decide the per capita water allowance in that region for a given water source. The ownership may be unequal --- the residents who are close to source may have higher Allowance than those who are farther away.
- RLPP for allocating water : A citizen can specify the individual whom he wants to allocate his Allowance of dam/pond/river water. He may change user any day. The procedure is self-funded.
- Procedure for appointing Water Guard : The CM/Mayor will appoint the Water Guard. The Water Guard will have necessary powers to ensure than a user is drawing only the amount of water as per the Allowances he obtained from the citizens.
- RLPP over Water Guard : A citizen can walk to Registrar’s office and specify (at most) 5 candidates whom he approves for the position of the Water Guard. If over 25% of citizens have Approved a specific candidate for the position of Water Guard, the Mayor/CM will replace the existing Water Guard with the Approved candidate. For details, please see "Replacing Officer By RLPP". The procedure is self-funded.
- Jury over a staff member : If prima facie facts against a staff-member’s behavior is established, 10 citizens from the District/City/State chosen at random will hear the complaint, examine the witnesses and evidences and hear the defence. If over 7 citizens declare the staff-member "misfit-to-serve" citizens, the Mayor will expel that staff-member. For details, please see "Expulsion by Jury". The procedure is NOT self-funded by low-cost.
Thats all. These TRIVIAL self-funded or low-cost administrative procedures are sufficient to ensure that common citizens will get royalty from state-owned water sources, such as river, lake, dams, ponds etc.
An Example : EAS.03 over Waters of Narmada Dams
As an example of EAS/03, I will show how EAS over Waters of Narmada Dam can be coded.
Suppose, as per the agreements amongst various states, Gujarat is to get say 5000 crore liters every month from the Narmada dam. Now inside Gujarat, who/how should decide which farmer/factory would get how much water? This as per EAS.03 can be coded as follows :
- The CM will appoint a Registrar.
- Each citizen will have 1 Allowance.
- Any water-user (farmer/company/co-operative etc) which wants to buy the water can register himself as an Allowance buyer.
- A citizen can walk to any office designated by the Registrar and specify which buyer he wants to transfer his monthly Allowance using by RLPP (details are similar to Allocating Allowances in EAS.01). The buyer may give the citizen cash/food in return ; this will be a private deal between the citizen and water-buyer.
- The Chairman of Narmada Corporation will allocate the waters to the water-users in the proportion of the Allowances they got from the citizens. The citizens can replace the Chairman using RLPP.
Advantages of EAS.03
- landless too get the economic advantage of the waters
- even the citizens residing the areas where the Dam’s water does not reach get the benefit of the Dam.
- EAS.03 reduces poverty.
How EAS.03 will reduce poverty?
How will this Equal Allowance System provide cash to poor without taxing the rich? Consider following scenario:
Say total amount of water given to Gujarat = 10000 crore liters per month
Gujarat’s population = 5 crore.
If each citizen has 1 Allowance, there will be 5 crore Allowances.
So volume of water with each Allowance = 2000 liters.
say cost of distribution = Re 1 per 1000 liters
say value of water to the user = Rs 20 per 1000 liters
In that case the water-users may offer as much as Rs. 19 per 1000 liters or Rs 38 per Allowance. Thus a citizen will get Rs. 38 per month. This will reduce his poverty.
Deciding regions of a water source
One important question is -- to whom does the water of a dam belong to? The citizens of District alone? The State or the entire Nation.
The answer can only be arbitrary, and any answer will be as arbitrary as any other answer. In case of small dams/ponds, it should be District. and in case of large dams/ponds it should be State (including neighboring States with some Share), but not the whole nation. At individual level, the individuals who have been forced to vacate the land should be given more Allowance to compensate for the loss.
The most complicated task will be dividing the waters of the rivers.
But please note that these issues have NOTHING to do with EAS.03. The EAS comes into picture ONLY after the citizens have decided which District/State gets what fraction of the water from a perticular water source.
Privatization of Waters
Many states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhatisgadh and Maharashtra are privatizing waters into few hands.
Maharashtra government is officially selling dams, ponds and canals. Only Indian companies can bid, but these companies later may sell the waters later to NRI and US companies or Indian companies who are subsidiaries of US companies. This way Indian as well as foreign companies will own the dams. Now water owners may force the farmers to sell their land or farm without water.
In Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu worked an extremely smart way of privatizing water. Naidu has formed so called "Water Users’ Group" which took over the canal management from the government officers. The Water Users’ Group consists of farmers who own the land, and in reality is a mafia gang of big farmers. Essentially, the canals along with water that flows into them, has become private property of these big landlords. Now these big landlords are using their "ownership" over canal to force small farmers to sell their lands. By all means, Equal Allowance System is much better way of distributing waters.
In Chhatisgadh, CM Ajit Jogi sold an entire river to a private company.
The EAS.03 is privatization of waters, in a way that EVERY citizen gets control/royalty over water. While the privatization-schemes of AP, Maharashtra, Chhatisgadh etc is privatization of waters into few hands. So I request the reader to support EAS.03.
Managing network of canals
In case of waters from Dams, Ponds and Rivers, an additional issue comes up ---- managing a network of canals and pipes to distribute the waters. This canal/pipe network is essentially a monopoly. This monopoly can be managed using administrative procedure OR.02. The procedure EAS.03 ONLY deals with how waters’ RIGHTS can be equitably divided amongst citizens.
Draft of the act to create procedure EAS.03
To enact EAS.03 over water sources, the citizens will need to pass a seperate EAS for each major major water source in the State in the Assembly. For minor water sources, citizens can decide as District/Tahsil Panchayat level.
An an example, I have drafted the text for "Equal Allowance System over Narmada Waters Act", which if passed by Gujarat Assembly will enable citizens to get royalty over Narmada Dam's waters. The draft of the Act is given here.
Now citizens can ask MLAs to pass this Act. But IMO, it will be wiser for citizens to first enact procedure LM.02 in Assembly, and then use LM.02 to pass this EAS.03 WITHOUT any help from MLAs. To know about procedure LM.02, please click here.
If you have any other question, please mail it to MehtaRahulC@yahoo.com. Thousand thanks in advance.
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