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Climate Justice To Uttarakhand People

By Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava

18 September, 2013
Countercurrents.org

Uttarakhand government has recently published advertisements that it has constructed many new structures, educational institutions and other infrastructures in the flood affected Kedar valley and surrounding areas. Uttarakhand government has also decided to constitute a regulating body for the pilgrimage of Kedarnath Dham on the lines of the Vaishno Mata Durbar.

These are no doubt welcome administrative decisions but the sad point is that these decisions are being contemplated after the grave loss of the human, cattle and other organism’s lives besides destruction of the natural resources, environment in and around the area where the tragedy occurred. It has also destroyed the emotional environment of those families whose members have been victim to this unfortunate tragedy.

The major point which needs to be concentrated, is related to the different aspects of the human tragedy leave alone the destructions experienced by other living forms. The moot point is those who have been affected by it can not compensate their loss by these delayed administrative decisions and decisions, though the future ones will definitely be benefitted.

In such cases the blame is shifted to nature that it has caused the tragedy but the proactive role in prevention-management of such disasters and relief management role in post tragedy phase lie in explicit manner on the government which is ultimately responsible for the safety of the people.

In this respect one thing needs to be taken note of, the primary task of the government is to maintain the law and order situation. It can easily be assumed that protection of life of any individual is therefore the sole responsibility of the government. If anyone is likely to be affected to the extent of the loss of life by any reason, needs to be protected by the government.

Usually governments fail on this count, then justice to the individual is denied. Hence climate justice is to be assigned an important role in such type of events. It is true there are many climate disasters which may occur without any prior warning as cloud bursting but equally true is that there are many which can be managed and human loss can be reduced effectively.

The flood event in Kedarnath area was a manageable event but administration did not take the adequate steps to contain it. If administration had acted in proactive terms, situation would have been better .Thus pro activism needs to be emphasized but the sad story is that Indian administration and political regimes have not responded to it.
Different types of administrative models are being conceptualized to uplift and improve the administration in the country. New Public Management, Public Choice theory and many others have been discussed. These are not any panacea to the persistent illness of the Indian governance.

Hence these new concepts which emerge from the developed countries can not be implemented in the administrative system of the country. Instead there is greater need to emphasize certain other important policy tools which have become more important after the Uttarakhand event.

In all cases government need to be more proactive, sadly on this count there is no signal of improvement. Government went to improve laws related to women after the Delhi gang rape case and in Uttarakhand constructions and improvements are being undertaken at massive scale only after the occurrence of the disaster.

Related to this is matter of sensitizing the administration and government at every level from centre, state level to local bodies to be more concerned about the issues of the natural calamities. Indian administration of today has no serious understanding about the climate problems. This has a wider scope; it may include the problem of pollution, deforestation and even the sanitation in the cities and other areas. There is much need to expose the administration to these newly emerging areas.

Finally the time has come to implement the concept of the climate justice. It regards the interests of the affected people as the most important one and the administration be made responsible for any such particular event, which could have been prevented or the loss could be minimized. A great need has arisen to conceptualize this concept in a legal framework and be treated as serious as the law and order problem.

Climate justice also emphasizes that only compensation is not sufficient to redress the grievances of the affected people but stricter mechanism be devised so that the people who are responsible to manage these affairs are always alert to avert, tackle and manage any such mis happening.

The Kedarnath flood event has brought into focus one more important fact that destruction of the natural resources and the natural ambience is a continuously going on in one or other form. This aspect also needs to be incorporated in the climate justice. Those who are affected not only be allowed to initiate the legal cases against such destroyers but also the government must seriously act to nab them.

The message from the Kedarnath event is clear that absence of such conceptual-legal framework has placed a barrier on the administrative efficiency. The Climate justice if had been part of the Indian law, it must have acted as deterrent on the administrative inefficiency. The recent decisions by Mr. Bahuguna’s government are welcome steps but the need is to include climate justice in every policy model.

The other states, which are more prone to climate changes and natural disasters must incorporate it in their policies. Central government may act to highlight this issue in more effective manner so that awareness among the people may be enhanced leading to improvement in the functioning of the administration on natural disasters and climate related issues.

Dr. Vivek Kumar Srivastava has twenty years University level teaching experience, presently Assistant Professor in CSJM Kanpur University[affiliated college],Vice Chairman CSSP, Kanpur a think tank and educational hub for deprived section of society, has presented papers in Chile, Australia, Finland, South Korea, Sweden etc., regular contributor to Mainstream Weekly, has been published in Dainik Jagran, AJ newspaper.



 

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