Of Traffic Jams, Water Transport & Mess

Couple of days ago one of my friend's father while discussing the days gone by told me that back in 1980's he used to travel from Pulwama to Kupwara and back each day. He said that he used to leave from Pulwama around 7 in the morning and reach Chowkibal (Kupwara) by 10 am. And I began to think is it possible to pull off this feat today and I concluded, only in one's dream.

Why is that when the whole world has shrunk (with respect to communication & travel), Kashmir seems to be expanding; places, people seems to be growing farther apart. Well for that credit must go to the highly intelligent people responsible for planning.

There are almost 9,08,083 vehicles registered with the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) in the state. Of these 5,60,690 vehicles stand registered in the Jammu division and 3,47,393 in the Kashmir division, but as far length & breadth of roads is concerned it is pretty much same as it was in 1980's. With every day the number of vehicles seem to be doubling, a lot of people can't help it but blame J&K Bank for this explosion of vehicles.

Now when the water has risen above our heads we are throwing our hands around. The Govt is talking about water transport, it isn't something new for kashmir. Kashmir, especially Srinagar, came to be known as Vince of East only because of its excellent and extensive water transport. What I fail to understand is how is the Govt going to revive water transport when all the channels have been filled and a road has been build over the main stream (Nallah Mar). Govt can Start water transport only along the river Jehlum and nothing more than that can be achieved. Thanks to some selfish morons the Vince of east has been reduced to a dustbin. These were the people who allowed construction around Dal lake (Boulevard) and removed the clause of mandatory approval from state legislature. Shouldn't these people be put on trial and punished for what they have turned Srinagar into?

Coming back to the traffic issue, Govt has been widening roads but it feels like that it has been going on for ever, never to complete. It feels like ages since the work for widening of Srinagar-Baramulla highway was started and there is no hope that it will be completed soon. The sopore bye-pass bridge even after more than 25 years has not been completed, has some one contacted "Guinness Book of World Record's" yet. Expansion of roads needs lot of effort but what I fail to understand is the underutilization of even the current infrastructure. What is stopping Govt from making both the lanes of all important Qamarwari-SKIMS road operational. These ill conceived and ill implemented projects rather than easing the travel of common people have become pain in the wrong place for them, besides endangering lives. Share of accidental deaths is more than violence related deaths now and people die for the need of timely medical attention because there vehicle was stuck in a traffic jam.

Govt has build flyovers which hardly serve any purpose (Jehangir Chowk) while where there is a real need for one, none is build due to funds shortage. It almost took an eternity for Hyderpora flyover to complete, oh wait it is still incomplete! Or at places (near Pattan) such flyovers were built which I personally am not too sure that they can be called a flyover, overhead foot bridges are broader then them. Shouldn't the Govt. be held accountable for such wastage of public money and people responsible for such wastage punished?

What all this gives us is traffic jams, lots of traffic jams and to add icing on the top the people who are supposed to handle & manage traffic, say that it is all because people don’t have sense of driving. Well my dear friends even God had to invent Hell to try to keep humans on the right path then how do you expect them to drive the right way when you don't punish them for driving otherwise. It is not a secret that traffic police is a namesake department in Kashmir, half a dozen people with nothing more than sticks to manage traffic of a whole state. There is no denying the fact that people themselves to some extent are responsible for this mess but at the same time authorities can't shrug off their responsibility.

Thinking of my friend's father's daily journey in 80's and how successful one would be if attempted today. If he/she is lucky enough will be caught in traffic jam at Pantha Chowk for only about half an hour but then for sure will have to spend another two hours stuck in traffic at HMT which will force him to start the return journey from there only. But why the hell will authorities care, it is not their lives which have been taken hostage by traffic jams.

(Also Appeared in "The Kashmir Monitor" http://kashmirmonitor.org/04212012-ND-of-traffic-jams-water-transport-mess-25058.aspx )

Let's Bow-wow China

India; a nation which has been presenting itself as the rising power of the East, an economic giant and above all is the world’s largest importer of weapons ! The recent leak of the army chief's letter addressed to the PM must had been enough for embarrassing the whole nation but to add to the insult the ill timed meet of the BRIC countries in the Capital city was more than enough. So again for face saving some diversion topic had to be found and it had to be implied on the visiting dignitaries that India is not weak. Thus resulting in sealing of the entire central Dehli (where meet was to be held)and increasing the visibility of gun totting security personal. Well! this worked, as nobody bothered to check whether the guns had bullets in them or whether the similar looking security personal at each turn along the root of motorcade was a for real or just a life size cardboard cutting and above all China talked peace!

For all the security arrangements still some invincible beings managed to breach the security cordon and what is astonishing is the frequency with which they repeat the act at all sort of platforms; be it at Buddha Circuit or at cricket stadiums or at political rallies or at airports, even these beings were the first visitors of the world renowned Tulip garden of Srinagar (which boosts to be Asia's Largest) when the commoners had just to be satisfied with the sight of frowning security guard only. Our Miss Menika Ghandhi's favorite animal (Dog yes Dogs!) seem to be trying to prove the point that they can't be kept out of any action no matter on what stage it is taking place, now how could I exclude them here and run a risk of being a victim of their covert action. To me they seem to more invincible & cruel than Mossad!

Well coming back to Elephant & Dragon, one can't afford to believe the Dragon, it has often struck with its tail while smile was on its face. So the Elephant can't take it for granted that the Dragon has let this chance just go by, remember Elephants hope of exploring South China sea. Even when the Elephant was scaring the world with its tanks (good enough for scarecrows only) the Dragon had been taking large chunks of land in Laddakh region of Indian occupied Kashmir. Each time the Dragon intruded couple of Miles in the Elephants territory the Elephant was forced just to repeat the rhetoric of friendship and understanding. Well not many understood the misery of the Elephant then, but it is no more a secret.

The Dragon has been terrorizing, openly & secretly, the Elephant for long and all the owls, foxes, etc .etc, who form the Elephants advisory council had been praying to God to give them just a single chance to terrorize the Dragon back, even for a title bit. Well most of them would now be thinking that their prayers are not going to be answered in this life time. While some optimistic ones would be thinking that this is the appropriate time to hit back when the Dragon would expect it least. But hit back with what? India can ill afford a full scale war right now, it can't arm the separatists in Uighur region when it doesn't have enough arms for its own army. Well then what possibly can Elephant terrorize the Dragon.

To the respected advisory council I would Like to suggest unleashing of "Mission Bow-Wow" on China, under current circumstances this is the most feasible, cheap and a proven weapon that the Elephant can afford. Not only will the Elephant be able to terrorize the Dragon but will be able to take back the land annexed by Dragon, In addition to that there is a realistic chance that the Dragon will be forced to give up the claim of its own territory. Wouldn't it be a great win and achievement for the Elephant.

Oh! In my enthusiasm almost forgot that most of the readers don’t know about this secret weapon. Well lets not waste too much time then; this secret weapon is non other than the national animal Mexico (Xoloitzcuintli, a Hairless Dog) . They have been used as a weapon in Kashmir successfully and they have been so successful that some unverified reports are claiming that the Kashmir's are ready to give their State Subject to these angels of terror and thus their claim to Kashmir. Which means what the huge army of the Elephant couldn't do in 65 years they have done in less than 10 years, Kashmir issue resolved!

The Bow-wow brigade has been able to thrust such fear in the hearts of the Kashmiri's, who even dare one of the largest army's of the world with nothing but stones, that they don’t dare to leave their homes before or after daylight. The areas that have been claimed by the Bow-wow brigade, no one dares to tread around them. To keep their terror fresh in the hearts of these people they have made it a point to mutilate some one or the other each day. And no one dares to take action against them, unconfirmed reports claim even the no more young CM of the state doesn't dare to speak a word against them. Even If by chance some authorities try to reign the Bow-wow brigade, Menika Ghandi with some friends from New York comes to their rescue even without them requesting for it.

Now you tell me can this this mission fail? Yep that is what I said, not a chance in this world. So what is the Elephant waiting for, let's Bow-wow China.

This also appeared in "The Kashmir Monitor" http://kashmirmonitor.org/04072012-ND-lets-bow-wow-china-24148.aspx

Kashmir's Human Resources in Disarray!

A recent survey has revealed that Jammu and Kashmir has the highest rate of unemployment among the northern states of India. Unemployment in itself is a big monstrous problem but J&K, especially Kashmir is fighting against a bigger monster (violence and turmoil). More than often the state machinery portrays the first monster as the mother of the second monster, making it more important to tackle unemployment more seriously and in a proper way.

For any State which considers unemployment as its greatest nemesis the first step towards taking it head on would be setting up of an efficient and highly active Human Resource department. Well the state of Jammu & Kashmir has setup Human Resources Management units (HRM units)in five Govt. departments (Health and Medical Education, Power Development, Public Works, School Education, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control) rather than a central department. The main aim with which these units have been formed is to exclusively look after seniority, promotion, vigilance cases etc in these departments. Well I would say it is an ill aimed move in the right direction and thus a waste of a very important resource. A well designed HR tool can take care of the seniority list or promotions list, these should had been add on activities of these units rather than exclusive. A better use of this resource would be made by employing them to fine tune the HR Policies of these departments, all the ruckus that arises in different departments regarding hiring or promotions is due to wrong or unclear HR policies, it would help in nipping bud at the base altogether . Recent report in an English daily (Greater Kashmir, published from Kashmir & Jammu) has revealed that as many as 18817 posts are vacant in 18 Govt department. Well this revelation puts a big question mark on Recruitment Agencies and makes the establishment of a central HR department altogether more important. The central HR department can decide and design HR policies for all the departments, do all the HR related work and at the time of hiring they should decide requisites of any job, based on ob analysis (eg qualification, experience etc required) and then forward it to recruitment agency for hiring (PSC or SSRB). This will result in better clarity, better coordination and better accountability (no blame game).

The second step would be to have a proper recruitment policy (in other words, hiring policy, which becomes first step of HR dept.). By recruitment policy I mean a proper well defined rules, who should be hired for what, which should be backed by logic & reason and should not be based on whimsical thinking or should not be twisted and turned for the benefit of near & dear ones. One can find umpteen number examples where the existing policy (in J&K) was twisted to give undue advantage to certain people. And at other times due to lack of clarity wrong people were (are) hired. It is said that the hardest part of job of a HR professional is to find an appropriate person for a job and hiring him. Well in J&K we seem to ignore the importance of this very basic fist step. It can happen only in Kashmir that for a post of labor officer candidate having a degree other than MBA-HR (one who has studied Labor welfare & law)is given preference or where for teaching a management subject the corporate experience is given no importance Or where a student from Barkatullah University (localy known as BOPO) or Dehradun is given preference over a student from Kashmir University or Jammia Millia or Jammia Hamdard or Aligarh Muslim University etc ! More recently the J&K public service commission advertised for the post of Court Manager and MBA set as the required qualification. But again due to lack of clarity problems seem to arise, the PSC authorities are very reluctant in accepting applications from candidates who have PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management) which is approved by the AICTE ( All India Council for Technical Education) . MBA degree can only be awarded by a University and PGDM is awarded by autonomous education institutes, even the IIM's don't award MBA they too award PGDM! This needs to be addressed immediately.

Let us try to understand the recruitment procedure (mostly followed by SSRB, Universities, Colleges, Schools and other Private Companies in J&K) for any post in any department in J&K; be it Govt, non-Govt, Permanent or contractual. The first step of the recruiting agency is to advertise for the post, in the notification itself it is mentioned that the selections will be on the basis of merit and then details the distribution of Marks for different aspects are listed as such:

Degree Marks

Phd 5

M.Phil 3

B.Ed 15

Masters 10

Interview 20

Now when the response in form of applications come in overwhelming numbers, the recruitment agency has to come out with a short list (merit list) as to who have qualified for interview. Now it seems to be a good policy, but what we don't pay attention to is how this short listing is done. For short listing they take in to consideration the percentage of the qualifying degree, with out taking into consideration from which ( college or university) the degree has been earned from . Well we all are well aware and understand that all education institutions can't stand on the same pedestal in terms of their student selection process or education imparted there after. So now I ask you is short listing on basis of only percentage (when students of Prist etc have marks %age well above 80 even 90, while students from reputed college only lay between 70-80 ) a good way of gauging talent. Now let me put it this way, can a student who competed on all India level to get admission in a certain college be held equal to a student from PTU (Punjab technical University) or PRIST or any other such institute, wouldn't it account to being unjust. I am not saying that students from PTU etc are not good enough, what I am trying to convey is don't mix cream with rest because after wards if you try to search for cream it would be same as searching for a needle in heap of hay. The process directly reflects in the quality of the employees that are being hired by different department, these are same people who are entrusted to serve the public in general, Teach our kids in schools & Colleges, sit in chairs of high responsibility and decide what is good for us and what not. Now taking into consideration the far reaching effects that a wrong person can have on the society at large, who would you want the responsibility to be bestowed on?

A better way to deal with this problem is by clubbing different college or universities into groups (Tiers) (A,B,C,D). Then at the time of short listing or selection process giving preference to the students from upper most tiers. Now you would say that the process of forming this list (Tiers) is time consuming and needs discretion as to which college should be included into which tier. To all those people who have this question in mind would like to tell them, well somebody else has already done this hard work for us we just need to compile. NAAC & AICTE (many other private bodies) give recognition and ratings to colleges and universities. We can make use any one of them or a mixture, but the thing that needs to be kept our mind is what ever we choose should be able to satisfy our needs, if not completely then most of our needs. Later on when the Human Resource Department of our state is competent and efficient enough we can make our own list. Where ever need for screening test is felt & is feasible, it can be included in the whole process.

This will increase the quality of the new hires drastically thus slowly having an affect on the over all working of the whole Govt. and Non-Govt. apparatus. This will make the whole procedure more just and transparent. To make this system more effective it needs to be communicated in a very robust way to all the stake holders. And hopefully we will see less litigation after any selected candidate list is released, thus time and resources will be saved. The bright minds will stop cursing themselves for working hard and getting admissions in good colleges and Universities. I am not claiming that this is the Solution of all that is wrong but over all this can be the first step towards the adoption & implementation of the world renowned Human Resource Policies in J&K.

This Article also appeared in "The Kashmir Monitor" http://www.kashmirmonitor.org/kashmonitor/04012012-ND-kashmirs-human-resources-in-disarray-23803.aspx