Noted defence analyst Commodore (retd) C. Uday Bhaskar on Tuesday said the civil society should take up issues like drinking water and sanitation and exert pressure on policy-makers for suitable action.
He was speaking at a meeting conducted by Centre for Policy Studies (Gayatri Vidya Parishad) in connection with release of its 100 bulletin.
Commodore Uday Bhaskar, former director of Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, regretted that State was not fulfilling its basic responsibility to provide potable drinking water and proper sanitation. Unfortunately, he observed that the situation was turning bad to worse with bottled water industry turning into a mafia.
He said Sri Lanka and Myanmar had better sanitation system. Garbage and solid waste disposal particularly human waste was turning into a big problem in India. “Not a single city or town had a proper sanitation system in conformity with the UN mandated norms,” he pointed out.
Referring to outbreak of plague epidemic in Surat in 1994, he said it was a big lesson for the policy-makers. He observed that the water crisis faced in Delhi and other urban areas could have been avoided had there been proper policies in place.
Commodore Uday Bhaskar recalled the contribution of his former colleague and defence expert K. Subramanyam to formulation of defence strategies after and before Kargil war. “There is no dearth of reports from think tanks on defence affairs, agriculture, education, health and other fields but their implementation is still a big question mark,” he remarked.
He said there was loss of credibility on the part of all important organs of Indian democracy and referred how large section of media was serving the interest of political power or corporate power impacting badly on the democracy.
Former Mayor and eminent lawyer D.V. Subba Rao, Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University G.S.N. Raju, director of Centre for Policy Studies A. Prasanna Kumar and P.V. Sarma of Gayatri Vidya Parishad spoke.
