UPA: Missed Opportunity
Posted : February 19, 2009 at 9:13 pm [IST]
As it appears from the document of interim budget, the 2007-2008 was the golden year of Indian economy with high GDP growth, huge foreign exchange reserves, and growing exports. Even after the damaging rise of crude price to over $ 140 a barrel that costs India the maximum and results in high inflation, every one appeared to be happier.
But when the going was good, the government went in sluggish mode in implementing the infrastructure projects of national importance. Nothing extraordinary was done to get power generation in fast mode. Ultra Mega Power Projects appeared for a while a great initiative, but nothing was in place to cut down the delay in starting the projects fast. Interestingly the government and the whole country were wasting all its energy to get Indo-US nuclear deal through, as if that was solutions of all the power shortage problems. Political bosses kept on telling the same lie to the people. Lalu and Mulayam also joined the corus. The nation was made to perceive the lie as truth.
The deal was certainly a landmark but for a different reason. It meant the end of the nuclear apartheid for India. India got the unrelenting support from Bush. That would not have been the reason to sort out the reasons that hold the execution of the power plant projects. According to the Budget document, ‘Implementation of Budget Announcements 2008-2009′, 7,294 Mw capacity achieved commercial operation in 2007-08 as against the target of 12,000 Mw. In the April-December period of the current fiscal, 5,893 Mw capacity was commissioned as against the target of 13, 325 Mw. Is it not a shameful situation for the much reputed management talent of the country? Why shouldn’t the officers-in-charge or even the minster be sacked? The country just added about 60 per cent of the planned capacity in the first year of the Plan period (2007-08).
Can the country take solace in the huge power capacity addition target for the 11th Plan? That again has been revised to 80,000 Mw from 78,577 Mw once. Who will ensure that the target will be achieved? Who will be accountable if it doesn’t happen? Can the voters in the next election take some commitment?
The failure is also on the execution of the road projects. With all the big talk and allocation for the roads, the national and state highway networks remain a bottleneck for the growth initiatives of the country: only about 30 per cent of state highways are two-lane, more than 50 per cent are in poor condition, and the average travel speed is about 30-40 km/h. According one analysis estimate, the economic losses incurred on account of congestion and poor roads alone run as high as $6 billion a year. It is a funny story all along. It is an extreme case of negligence and corruption all along the line of responsibility for execution right from the minister to engineers at site. Here one can see how corruptions hold the growth of the country. It has been also as story of irresponsible minister changing the head of NHAI many a times. It also says how in a coalition government the prime minister becomes helpless spectator of all inefficiency. Golden Quadrilateral and NSEW corridors are still nowhere near completion.
Basically, the government failed in taking execution aspects of the projects seriously, be it road, or SEZs or the land acquisition for the steel plants in Orissa rather in the entire tribal belt that could have brought a lot of prosperity for many. People with vested interests could put a brake on any project at any time. The government didn’t do anything significant to overcome the situation and thought as usual the time to solve which didn’t happen. It was tolerated in name of democratic right.
I don’t hope much from the new government after the next election and for all this, the people of India must take the blame. After all it is the people who elect their leaders to govern the country.
- Indra
Category: Government Policy/Administration |
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