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The
Finance Minister promised to upgrade ITIs. He
also promised to repair and renovate all the
water bodies spread all over the country in his
first budget in 2004. He promises again for the
same two items in this budget without telling
the people of India how many of the promised
water bodies have already been renovated or how
many of ITIs have been upgraded in last three
years. Why can’t he appreciate that the country
need 5,000 or perhaps 20,000 ITIs to cater to
all the students who after class XII don’t go
for higher education in specific subjects? He
also promised to cut down the time delays in
procedures for doing business to make India
attractive for businessmen from abroad. He never
gives what he and his government have been able
to achieve. The finance minister keeps on
promising on outcome against outlay such as Rs
10,671 crore for Sarva Shiksha Aviyan, Rs 288 or
more for teacher training, or Rs 7,324 crore for
mid-day meals, but never practice it himself. He
has, however, promised this year to give
employment to two lakh more teachers, to build
five lakh additional classrooms, and to provide
1,00,000 new annual National Means-cum-Merit
scholarships. Will it ensure that the over 1.3
crore children who are still out of school will
attend school, 31,468 habitations that do not
have a school will have one, and 6,647 schools
that have no teachers will get at least one
teacher? Will he report on the achievements
against this year promises while presenting the
next year budget?
And let us see how the railway and its minister,
who has mastered the management tricks to become
expert to deliver advices to the students of IIM-A
and IIT-KGP as well as those from Wharton and
Harvard, keep on coming in media with promises.
According to the media report, the railway
signed some agreement with ICICI Bank to issue
tickets from the branches of the bank and also
talked of providing ticketing facilities at all
the petrol pumps and post offices. Nothing has
come till date. This year he promises to have
6,000 automatic ticket vending machines in
metros, and to provide lower births for senior
citizens and women above 45 years of age. Why
doesn't the on-line e-ticketing faculty of the
railway function properly? Why can’t the
software system be more robust and fast? Just
last week, after failing to get my ticket booked
through broadband Internet even after getting
the ticket money debited from my account, I had
to go to Brahmaputra Market to get the tickets
for Varanasi for a date in April. Being senior
citizen, I asked for lower birth, but couldn’t
get it. One can go to the reservation center at
Brahmaputra market complex in Noida and see the
teeming crowd at the counters fighting to each
other. Why can’t this work be outsourced to a
private agency? Why should any person wait for
more than 15 minutes for his ticketing? Can’t
the system be put in place in a month time? And
the same minister promises to transform 200
railway stations to world class standard. Why
has he not been able to bring that
transformation to railway stations in Delhi or
in his hometown Patna?
And now look at the most critical of the
infrastructures, power situation of the country
without which no progress is possible,
particularly in manufacturing sector.
Energy-hungry India will become an electricity
surplus country in next four-five years, Power
Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde promises Rajya
Sabha on Monday. Can any one take this
seriously? The Economist reports,
Bureaucrats sit complacent in their offices and
keep on planning for perfecting the delaying
tactics for the execution of the promises. And
the result becomes devastating. Let us look at
one example of the infrastructure that affects
agriculture sector so critical for 60% of the
population. “Cost overruns due to delayed
irrigation projects have cost the Centre and
states over Rs 1 lakh crore. A total of 205
irrigation projects, whose original estimated
cost was Rs 20,000 crore, would now cost Rs
1,16,242 crore, according to the ministry of
water resources data. The delays range from one
to six years. The projects include 62 large and
49 medium scale projects. Many of these were
started in the 5th and 6th Plan periods.” Will
the proposed hike in the outlay for the
Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP)
in this year budget make any difference?
Bureaucrats themselves and the inter-ministerial
and the center-state battles further delay the
executions. The Dadri power project announced by
the political bosses of UP as the largest single
location power project that would have been on
the way to completion by now, has not yet
started construction. Why can’t the bureaucrats
be paid and promoted based on the performance?
Why can’t they move out of their offices to see
what have they planned and why is it not getting
implemented?
And then the media of the country is too happy
with Nithari, Nitin, Jessica, and Mattoo
covering all details in pages after pages with
colourful photographs. Why should not it put its
reporters in rural India where more than 60% of
the people are toiling, and where the major
allocation of the government is going in the
name of inclusive growth? Why should not it
reserve at least 10% coverage for the rural
India, if not 50%? Why should it not cover the
educational institutes for work being done in
science and technology?
New York Times, Business Week, Newsweek, and The
Economists may be covering the issues of India
better. ‘Business Week’ has a special issue this
week on the infrastructure of India- ‘The
Trouble With India’ with an interesting cover
page. It is revealing with number of features-
‘India’s Infrastructure Challenges’, ‘Building
Opportunity in India’, ‘Building The Future’, ‘A
Long And Winding Road’, ‘The Miracle-Worker of
the Delhi Metro’, and ‘India: Where Shipping Is
Shaky’.
It is strange that the media abroad can come out
with such an analytical issue whereas our own
media are shy of it.
Why should we require Ravi Bhatia to come out
with his infrastructure prescription for the
double-digit growth? It will be interesting to
know what he said. Ravi Bhatia, Editor,
Economist Intelligence Unit said while making a
presentation on 'India 2010: What the future
holds,' "The Indian plane is flying high, but
one plane is flying even higher and that is the
Chinese plane. Indian economic world is growing
because the term 'emerging markets' has become
redundant. India, Japan and China have together
overtaken the US economy. India and China are
playing a big role. India ranks third after USA
and China in the economic field. But this growth
is held back by lack of infrastructure,"
Even Gajendra Haldea, an adviser to the federal
Planning Commission, says, “Economic losses from
congestion and poor roads alone are as high as
$6 billion a year.” Jagdish N. Bhagwati, a
professor at Columbia University, figures gross
domestic product growth would run two percentage
points higher if the country had decent roads,
railways, and power.
Why can’t that be expedited when there is no
crunch on financial resources at least for road?
Why are the GQ and NSEW corridors running years
behind the schedule? Why shouldn’t the
electorate ask these questions? When will the
electorate be enlightened enough to put these
questions? Why can’t the bureaucrats responsible
for the projects be sacked?
Alas! We are to live with and tolerate the
ministers, bureaucrats, and media that we have.
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