During a recent trip to Pakistan, David Cameron made the surprising admission that Britain was responsible for many of the world’s problems, including Kashmir. This was refreshing, especially coming from a British Prime Minister. The historian and Labour MP Tristram Hunt, on the other hand, in a recent Daily Mirror column concludes that Britain has little for which it needs to apologise. When the East India Company first went into India, it was because it was one of the richest places in the world.

When the British Raj left, it had become one of the poorest. Clearly, something happened in between which left India in such a state. But Hunt says little to address this. Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s longest serving Prime Minister (1947-1964) in his book, The Discovery of India, gave the most powerful chronicle of the harm done by the combined impact of the East India Company and the British Raj. Nehru’s account concluded: “Those parts of India which have been the longest under British rule are the poorest today.” Bengal, Bihar and Orissa were a few of the examples he used. There was also much concern voiced by commentators in the United Kingdom about the mismanagement of the Empire. Adam Smith raged against the mercantile capitalism of the East India Company and others condemned the British Raj for being complicit in the Bengal famine of 1943. Other examples of the mess the British left was the creation of a Pakistan, which comprised of two areas with 1,000 miles between them and a potential adversary in-between. (It is not surprising the east abandoned the west part during the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.) India was also left to deal with the princely states. These were given the option of remaining in India or opting out. This triggered the long-running dispute over Kashmir. To top it all, when independence was declared in August 1947, the boundaries of the two new states had yet to be disclosed to the general public, causing much of the panic that ensued and resulting in more than 500,000 deaths as 14 million people literally swapped countries. Many consider this episode to have been one of the worst cases of maladministration in the history of empires. Lord Moutbatten and Lord Radcliffe, who presided over the partitioning of India, have a lot to answer for. More recently, a group of elderly frail Kenyans from the Kikuyu tribe have began their High Court fight for compensation for the pain and suffering they endured in concentration camps during the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. They claim they suffered at the hands of the colonial regime after being detained and tortured by the British.

Some 20,000 people died in the camps. So I find myself defending the Prime Minister’s remarks on this subject. The history of India should serve as lesson for all of us. We should refrain from interfering in conflicts such as that in Kashmir. My grandfather taught me that history is often just the victor’s version of events. That’s something even respected historians such as Tristram Hunt would do well to remember.

Murad Qureshi is a Labour member of the London Assembly

Click here to view the full article

The Mayor announced the measures last November whereby two of London’s most polluted sites were treated with a dust suppressant solution with the intention that it would stick to the carriageway and stop the dangerous PM10 particles from circulating in the air.  The Mayor hailed this as a “wonderful contraption that tackles air quality head on” promising that it would “have an immediate impact on air quality in the most polluted areas of Central London”.

Last Thursday, the monitoring station at Marylebone Road recorded yet another “bad air day” for the 36^th time this year alone and is now up to 40.  This number exceeds the level of exceedances permitted by the EU for an entire year and comes 2 months earlier then it did last year.

Air quality in London is the worst in Europe and according to Boris Johnson himself contributes to the early deaths of more than 4,000 people in the city.

Murad Qureshi, Labour’s environment spokesman on the London Assembly, said: "The dust suppressant trial was simply a temporary measure by the Mayor to keep the EU off our backs with the threat of its £300million fine. I believe If Boris Johnson hadn’t abolished the Western Extension Zone, delayed the next phase of the Low emission zone applying to the most polluting vehicles and cancelled six monthly inspections for taxis then we would not be in such a bad state today”

Murad also says:

“ If the Mayor doesn’t take drastic action now, we are in serious danger of incurring major fines by the EU and confirming our position as the dirty man of Europe just before we host the Olympic games.  This while London risks breaching our undertaking to the IOC with regards to air quality standards during the games”

Ends

Notes

The Mayor’s scheme was announced on the 12^th November 2010

The EU exceedance is recorded on the London Air Quality Network website

Report of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the Games of the XXX Olympiad in 2012

For further information please contact Nikki Salih on 020 7983 4400

BAA advert at Baker Street tube station

I noticed  a BAA advert in Baker St tube station (and an advert in the Independent) stating that there will be 1500 extra flights from Heathrow over Easter.  l wonder how this can be possible given we are told Heathrow is at full capacity most of the time?

Now l am not bemoaning the right of people to get away but an extra 1500 flights with the constraints around Heathrow must either mean more night flights and/or mixed mode operations being undertaken at the airport which are very strictly regulated.   Both options would have an adverse impact on those local residents deciding to stay at home over the Easter break.

Interestingly l am not the only one trying to work out how this all adds up, as pilots also find themselves asking the same questions on the Professional pilot rumours Network (PPRuNe).  They’ve also seen the same adverts that l have on the Underground and the broadsheets.  Quite frankly, where this additional capacity has suddenly sprung from is a mystery to them as much as me after inspecting major carrier schedules.

So while the pilots think there is a little bit of an exaggeration in the advertising, l’m left wondering what if it’s true and how will this impact on Londoners living near the airport?  With an extra 1500 flights, it will proof even harder for local residents to get a decent night sleep or the chance to relax over the few days off we have over the Easter break.

At London’s Marylebone Road monitoring station, the number of "days in exceedance," when particle pollution levels breach permitted limits, reached 36 today, according to the London Air Quality Network website. That’s more than the 35 failures permitted for the entire year under EU rules. The so-called PM10 particles measured derive mainly from vehicles, factories and construction.

The U.K. risks a 300-million pound ($500 million) EU fine for London’s repeated breaches of air pollution targets, said Murad Qureshi, spokesman on environment in the London Assembly for the opposition Labour Party. The European commission last month gave Britain until June 11 to meet the standards.

"It doesn’t bode well if, at the beginning of the year, we’ve already exceeded our annual allowance," Qureshi said today in a telephone interview. "Air pollution was a big issue at the last two Olympics in Athens and in Beijing. We don’t want it to be a problem here in London."

London has the nation’s worst air quality and the highest levels in Europe of PM10 particles, Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee, a multi-party panel of lawmakers, said last year. Air pollution from traffic and industry kills as many as 50,000 people in the U.K. a year, it said.

Mayor’s Problem

London Mayor Boris Johnson should fight pollution by improving public transport, raising standards for taxis and replacing more buses with hybrid and hydrogen-fueled versions, Qureshi said.

"The mayor is already taking action to improve London’s air quality with cleaner buses, tougher standards for the Low Emission Zone and the first ever age limit for taxis," Johnson’s office said in an e-mailed statement. "Since the beginning of 2011, we estimate that more than 75 per cent of air pollution episodes have occurred when pollutants have been blown in from Europe."

Johnson should also erect signs in polluted areas to warn people when daily recommended amounts are breached, Qureshi said. That task should fall to the central government, Johnson’s office said.

While the Olympic Games will be mainly sited in east London, where there are fewer breaches of pollution standards, events including archery and beach volleyball competitions will be held in the center and west, and many Olympic visitors will be staying in downtown hotels, Qureshi said.

Click here to view full article

The Marylebone Road air pollution monitoring station this morning reported 36 breaches of legal air quality limits. The maximum number of breaches permitted for each monitoring station for the full year is 35. 

Just last month the European Commission in Brussels gave the UK a temporary reprieve until 11 June this year to give the Mayor of London time bring down levels of the dangerous PM10 pollutants to a safe standard.

Today’s breach could prompt the Commission to instigate legal proceedings in the European Court of Justice, fast tracking the UK to stage three of a six-stage process leading to the fine.  And under the government’s Localism Bill, the £300 million fine would be passed to London taxpayers.

Labour London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi said: "London’s air quality is responsible for over 4,000 premature deaths each year.  We were given a temporary reprieve by the EU but Boris has done little to comply and avoid this fine which Londoners simply cannot afford. 

“The Mayor’s tactic has been to blame European air blowing over to the UK, but what about the polluted air which blows over to Europe from the UK?  Londoners are facing a catastrophe both financially and in terms of their health, Boris needs to stop the blame game and take control of this rapidly deteriorating situation”

Ends.

Notes

The exceedance is recorded on the London Air Quality Network website

Murad Qureshi is a London-wide Assembly Member and is Vice Chair of the Assembly’s Environment Committee

Murad questioned the Mayor about the fine and stressed the urgency of taking measures to avoid the EU fine at Mayor’s Question Time last year in June.

For further information please contact Murad Qureshi on 07795616821

Labour London Assembly Member Murad Qureshi said: “It goes without saying that if in practice it is to be an NRB Bank, then a majority of sponsor shareholding must be by NRBs, by a clear figure as well.”

The government has decided to set up a new bank that is owned equally by non-resident Bangladeshis and locals. The NRBs will provide Tk 400 crore in paid-up capital, while the rest will be raised through a public offering.

The central bank has also published a set of criteria to evaluate the application forms.

Qureshi welcomes the government initiative taken for the NRBs. “We now need details. The details need to be sorted out.”

“It is very important to appropriately set up the NRB bank so that the NRBs can continue to assist in the development of the Bangladesh economy,” said Qureshi, whose parents are from Sylhet.

“For it to be a proper NRB bank, the NRBs have to make up of majority shareholding. The nature of the bank demands it as most of its customers live abroad, not here. It needs more than 50 percent ownership from people living abroad. It could be 60 percent or possibly 80 percent.”

An avid cricket fan, Qureshi lives in Central London and was recently in Dhaka to watch the World Cup matches.

He said the minimum shareholding stake of Tk 100 million is far too high for any sponsor living abroad, particularly in the UK.

“Some people in Bangladesh may have Tk 100 million, but NRBs do not have that amount of money. NRBs living abroad are doing well, but they have probably about a million taka to invest.”

“If you go any higher than a million pounds or dollars, you will get fewer shareholders from the NRB community living in the US, Europe or the Middle East,” he told The Daily Star in an interview.

He said the investment threshold should be lowered. “I think realistically. Many NRBs will not have a 100 million taka. What is more realistic is one million taka. This figure can attract people living in London and other parts of the world.”

The Bangladesh Bank circular says sponsors’ contribution to the share capital of the proposed bank will be required to be out of net worth declared to the concerned tax authorities, contribution out of borrowings shall not be acceptable. It also says tax returns and certificates have to be submitted. He said these clauses would be unnecessarily prohibitive.

“The documentation process will be difficult for many to arrange, as the deadline for submitting their applications is by the end of May,” said the 45-year-old.

He said tackling these governance issues now would, in the long run, make sure that NRB remittance inflow is usefully targeted into productive investment, like roads and highways and the energy sector, via the bank rather then domestic consumption.

“With these improvements, I am sure many NRBs around the world will apply and happily work with the government of Bangladesh to improve their ancestral homes.”

Qureshi said the condition of NRBs in the Middle East is a matter of concern to every one. “I think they should be assisted by every means possible,” he said, referring to thousands of Bangladeshi migrant workers, who were forced to flee Arab countries, such as Egypt and Libya, following mass uprising.

He said billions of pounds and dollars flow into Bangladesh. “It is useful for the government and it is important for us to use the funds economically.”

More than 70 lakh Bangladeshis live abroad. Remittance added up to nearly $11 billion last fiscal year.

Qureshi said much of the remittance is spent on consumption. “The NRBs must develop a habit of investing on major infrastructure. This kind of a thing is critical. It will help Bangladesh achieve 10 percent GDP growth from 6-7 percent growth, if we can make sure the money enters productive sectors, such as energy, transport, and roads and highways.”

“There is a huge inflow of remittance into Bangladesh. You need to better use the money,” said Qureshi, who holds an MSc degree in Environmental Economics from University College London.

“When I went to Sylhet to my grandparent’s home by car, I remember that the road from Dhaka to Sylhet was very dangerous.”

“Not only should the Dhaka-Sylhet highway be developed, but also other highways in the country. This is something, which I think, a lot of people living abroad would be happy to invest in. I think this is where the NRB bank would be very, very useful.”

The application fee of $15,000 is also a hurdle, he said. “I however will accept that as the money will be used to conduct appropriate verification of the applications.”

He said the bank should focus on clientele, who will have different needs from others, as most live abroad. “The bank’s clientele have to be dealt with differently. The task will be to help them invest in Bangladesh.”

Qureshi, a board member of BRAC UK, an international non-governmental organisation that is a part of the Bangladesh-based BRAC family, said he would be talking to other NRBs to find ways to invest in Bangladesh. “If we can get the details right, it will make a big difference.”

“We will be able to tell you clearly what is needed for the Bangladeshi communities in Rome, London, New York, Paris, California and Washington, if we have major shareholding by NRBs,” he said.

“This could a very good example to show to the rest of the world.”

fazlur.rahman@thedailystar.net

Click here to view the original article