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Since
last year the Finance Minister is trying to
patronize some institutes of higher learning in
his budget. He also started announcing setting
up and upgradations of some institutes of
advance learning too. In last budget, he
announced a grant of Rs 100 crore for Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore to help develop
it into a world-class institution. It is other
matter how much has actually been done with that
money during the last 12 months. Some of the
initiatives this year in his words are as
follows:
1. A Central Institute of Horticulture will be
established in Nagaland.
2. Government will also set up the National
Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship
and Management.
3. The Paddy Processing Research Centre at
Thanjavur will be developed into a
national-level institute.
4. During 2006-07, Ministry of Tourism will
establish 4 new institutes of hotel management
in the States of Chhattisgarh, Haryana,
Jharkhand and Uttaranchal.
5. The existing National Institute of Port
Management, Chennai, has been renamed as the
National Maritime Academy, and it is proposed to
upgrade it into a Central University under an
Act of Parliament. The University will have
regional campuses at Mumbai, Kolkata and
Visakhapatnam.
While I am heartened to hear about these
institutes, I can’t understand why all these new
institutes are coming up only in the states that
are already very much developed. Why can’t the
hotel management institutes be established in
UP, Bihar and Assam or any NE states? Why can’t
the Maritime Academy locate regional campus in
Orissa? Why can’t Paddy Processing be located in
Bihar?
FM has also provided a separate heading for
‘Institutions of Excellence’ in his budget that
says:
- Last year,
I made a beginning with an unprecedented
grant of Rs.100 crore to the Indian
Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore to
help develop it into a world-class
institution. This year, I must recognize
another historical event. Three great
Universities have entered their 150th year.
These are the University of Calcutta, the
University of Mumbai and the University of
Madras. I propose to mark the beginning of
the 150th year celebrations with a grant of
Rs.50 crore to each University for a
specified research department or a research
programme in that University. On the
conclusion of the year, I intend to make
another grant of Rs.50 crore to each of
them.
- I propose
to make the special grant of Rs.100 crore
for an institution of excellence to a
distinguished institution, the Punjab
Agricultural University, Ludhiana, in
acknowledgement of its pioneering
contribution to the green revolution.
- If
agriculture is an ancient Indian skill,
biotechnology is the new frontier that India
will conquer. In order to foster research
and development in biotechnology, the
Ministry of Science and Technology has
decided to accord the status of an
autonomous National Institute to the Rajiv
Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology,
Tiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
All these
institutes of excellence are located in
Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Punjab and
Kerala. Is it because the politicians of the
states or the bureaucrats are in decision-making
bodies? Can FM or some one in the government
provide a rational justification for this
discrimination? Let me tell you that I felt bad
also when Lalu as railway minister decided to
locate a wheel-making factory in his
constituency that does not provide any technical
advantage or when I find many new trains
starting or ending at some odd stations of
Bihar.
I was not surprised when I read a news item that
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar feels that his
state has been ignored in respect of major
projects and funds in the Union Budget for
2006-07. I suggest Nitish Kumar requests to get
located the National Institute of Food
Technology Entrepreneurship and Management in
Bihar.
With all the liberal views, one can’t but feel
about this discriminatory behaviour. I feel the
intelligentsia of the states such as UP, Bihar,
Orissa, and Assam must protest.
I wish, politics wouldn’t have been behind these
announcements.
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Comments: |
I am
totally with Indra on his comments
on the Union Budget 2006 on
allocation of educational funds by
the FM.
While I appreciate the writer's view
I would also like to be very
unbiased in my comments that the
Finance Minister must not have
totally been partial to the
developed states and ignored Bihar.
I believe that since the new
government has been in power with
new hopes and promises it must be
given time to harness public
confidence and the confidence of
other states.
Union budget represents contribution
from all states in form of central
taxes and other cesses, it would be
commendable that micro level
initiatives are taken at state
levels first and after we have made
the basic needs of the people of
Bihar available to them.
I have hopes that if the current
Bihar government stands by its
promises of development then I see
no reason as to why in the next
union budget Bihar is not given its
due share of development money from
the Central Pool, not only in the
educational areas but in many other
areas where investment is required.
- Sanjay - Mar. 2, 2006
This is a very pertinent topic.
Right from the time of independence,
Govt of India has been extremely
miserly when it comes to money for
Bihar. Every five year plan has seen
Bihar get lowest per capita share.
Some of us might have seen the
analysis of the economist Mohan
Guruswamy where he argues how if the
share of Bihar had been the same as
the country average, the state would
have got Rs 100,000 crore of
additional investment since
independence. One can only imagine
what position we would have been in.
Many other states have had
corruption and terrible law and
order. Lavish lifestyle of
Jayalalitha and huge amassing of
wealth by Pratap Singh Kairon did
not deter the progress of the states
when investment was allowed to keep
flowing.
We just saw the vicious spectacle of
Lalu being grilled for being partial
to Bihar when all he had done was
introducing a few trains. Closer
analysis would reveal he was just
being equitable to Bihar as much as
to other states.
Unfortunately, P Chidambaram would
be allowed to go Scot free in his
blatant neglect of Bihar. Let us not
forget, he is the same politician
who made a Lallu of Lalu in 2004. He
first promised a special grant of Rs
5000 Cr in Parliament and then
blocked the transfer of a single
paisa out of this. Most pathetic was
his explanation for doing the same
when he pretended he did not promise
this.
Everywhere in the world, governments
make special provision to make the
regions left behind so that they can
catch up. It is only in India that
we have allowed the central
government to get away with the
neglect for so many decades.
If we do not take this seriously,
Chidambaram and his ilk would again
find a way to block the increased
allocation that the scholarly Montek
Singh Ahluwalia has earmarked for
the annual plan for Bihar. -
Thakur Vikas Sinha - Mar. 3, 2006
Announcement of such schemes are
always welcome. But now we should
concentrate on its implementation as
well. If all the announcements that
our FM makes each year are
implemented India will be counted in
the category of Developed Nation
within next 10 years. We have
plethora of programs and schemes for
poverty alleviation and generating
employment but rural India has not
changed as yet. All these IRDP, NREP,
RLEGP, JRY funds are being diverted
into private pockets. Rajiv Gandhi
talked about going 15 paisa to the
actual beneficiaries in 1985. I
think things have gone worse now and
all 100 paisa are going in
contractors and middlemen's pocket.
Govt of India must now act tough and
evolve some mechanism so that
corruption is checked and programs
are implemented on time. - Anjum
Parwej - Mar. 3, 2006 |
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