Ministers Sirs! Keep Promises
Posted : May 30, 2009 at 10:36 am [IST]
I have a bad impression of Mr. Chidambaram, the former finance minister who right in his first budget in 2004 started with the promises of renovating all the water bodies of the country and upgrading all the ITIs. I kept on writing about his promises. I hardly got any response. I don’t know how much of the work has been done in the five years of UPA-I. ITIs, polytechnics, and for that matter all sorts of vocational training centres can bridge the gap of the unemployment, education and employability to a great extent.
It is strange that Mr. Chidambaram has been the first to come out with a promise in the second inning of UPA too. He promises to issue the multipurpose national identity cards (MNIC) to all residents by 2011. Can he take up the population called BPL (Below Poverty Line) on priority? However, I am not sure if there is any consensus on the definition of BPL.
Some more ministers have come out with their promises after they got their portfolios allotted.
The oil minister has promised to make cooking gas available in more villages and creating a source of income at the grassroots level. I wish he provides a numerical target.
The health minister plans to fast track the construction of six new AIIMS-like institutions and 13 other medical institutes, and aims to complete them in three years. I wish he puts it on his website and get the status updated.
The transport minister’s focus would be on implementation of projects on the ground rather than making big plans. “Sadkon ko napi jaati hai, plans ko nahin (roads are measured and not the plans). Performance is evaluated on the basis of kilometres of roads that are built. Will this efficient and relatively younger minister be able to get the GQ and NSEW corridor expressways (6-lane) completed in next three years? Will he get included one more expressway between Kolkata and Mumbai? Will he ensure that the roads to all the major ports be completed for easy export? Will he press for putting the estimated date of completion for each road project by NHAI that was dropped through an instruction by the previous minister?
HRD minister got down to business calling for files relating to the Right to Education and Foreign Education Providers Bill. Will he take a target to get the bills through by the year end? But more than that, will he get all the promised institutes of higher education including Nalanda University going in its own campus in next three years? Will he visit all the institutes himself and look into the infrastructure facilities, be it hostels or the labs? Will he take positive steps to increase the interactions between the academy and the industry? Will he facilitate and incentivize these institutes to compete for global ranking?
Unfortunately, I didn’t hear and read anything from the power minister who is to work all 24 hours to get the target set by him in the last ministry met? He missed the target for the first two years already, and he has only three years to complete 78,000 MW.
The Telecom minister has not come out with a date to clear 3G spectrum allocation, and I don’t know who will be responsible to connect each of the village with broadband in the next three years promised in Congress’s manifesto.
I am tempted to put one more promise with a time frame to establish a vocational training centre with sufficient capacity at least one in every block of the country, as I don’t know who is responsible for this. Is it the responsibility of labour ministry or HRD? I wish the prime minister takes this as priority and let the people know it.
Will the prime minister, party head or the heir apparent watch that the promises are met?
If these M’ men keep the promises, the nation will vote them back again.
- Indra
Category: Government Policy/Administration |
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