|
At
the recent fifth State of the States conclave of
India Today, ten chief ministers, one deputy
chief minister and ministers from three states
debated the causes of rising inequality and the
need to push inclusive growth. INDIA TODAY
Editor-in-Chief Aroon Purie set the tone, “the
good news is that there is growth but the bad
news is that, far from being inclusive, it has
increased inequality”. INDIA TODAY Editor Prabhu
Chawla kicked off the debate. Finance Minister
P. Chidambaram, in his inaugural address,
pointed out that “every square inch of India is
ruled by states” and that the laws of economics
would work in India, but all stakeholders must
work together to find the country its place in
the world. Vice-President Mohammad Hamid Ansari
delivered the magic mantra in his keynote speech
by asking states to make “inclusive growth the
sub text of all development.”
I have tried to pick up what the chief minister
of the best state, Punjab and the deputy chief
minister of the worst state, Bihar stated at the
conclave. Punjab remains at the top and Bihar at
the bottom of ‘India Today’s survey rankings for
all the five years since the survey started. I
find both have come out with two very important
suggestions that may not be agreed upon but
could have made a lot of difference.
Parkash Singh Badal: I would request Mr Purie
and Mr Chawla to hold this meeting next time in
a village, under a tree. We talk about these
things in air-conditioned halls and even at the
Planning Commission meetings. I have requested
the members of the commission to stay for one
day and one night in a village and then they
will realize what is to be done. My suggestion
is that the prices of food grains should be
attached to a price index the same way employees
now get enhanced pay packages.
I agree with Badal. Can the chief ministers of
the states or the prime minister make the
legislators spend the days the houses are not in
session, in one or the other villages of the
state? Can the professors and students of the
institutions for agriculture sciences and
engineering or rural management bee made to
spend some nights in villages? I do also agree
with Badal’s suggestion of getting the prices of
minimum support prices of farm produces fixed on
the basis of other essential consumer items that
even farmers need to buy from the market.
Sushil Kumar Modi: I feel the Centre should
suspend all the poverty alleviation schemes and
deposit money in the accounts of the poor
directly. There is so much of corruption and so
much of leakage. The schemes have failed to
uplift the poor.
Similar suggestions have come from many
economists too. It would cut down the leakages
that constitute the major portion of the
allotment money spent on the programmes meant
exclusively to help the poor. It requires a
master list of the people below the poverty
line. And this list must be available on
websites as well as on the board outside every
panchayat bhawan for verification by the aam
aadmi and for a counterchecking by independent
agencies.
|
Comments: |
With
all due respect to the farmers in
India. They should start treating
farming as a business and do farming
through co-operatives and not be a
small time operator (farmer). The
world is getting ever more
competitive and Indian farmers are
going to have to compete with
farmers from other developing and
developed nations who are equipped
with better farming tools and a
solid business strategy. It's only
going to get tougher. Traditional
farming methods should change. Where
the Govt could add value by hooking
these farmers up to the mainstream
knowledge platform i.e. making
farming more modern and provide the
farmers the business vision. Not
just grow something and live the
rest to God.
This is why I personally support the
liberalization of retail sector in
India. What we need is a
consolidation of the sector. We need
to seriously revamp the way we
approach farming in India. -
Sanjeev Kumar (London, England) -
Oct. 4, 2007 |
|
Discussion on this topic is now
closed. |
Return to previous Page |
