FORAY | Sunday, June 14, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Two acts of omission
Chandan Mitra
This is the abridged version of my speech in the Rajya Sabha on June 8 during the discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President for her Address to both Houses of Parliament on June 4 to mark the inauguration of the 15th Lok Sabha. My speech focused on two subjects inadequately addressed by the President.
I endorse the Government’s commitment to improve the quality of life of the ordinary citizen of this country as reinforced in the Address to Parliament by the Hon’ble President of India on June 4, 2009. Experience of the past five years suggests that while some of these programmes have a transformational quality, their implementation on the ground is littered with loopholes as a result of which good intentions have not translated into tangible gains for the intended beneficiaries. I find that the President’s speech does not address this concern: There are few concrete ideas for ensuring proper implementation of many landmark schemes like NREGA, PMGSY, which have floundered in many regions despite the vast outgo of funds from the Centre.
But I will come to that later. My prime area of concern is the absence of a political vision and the apparent unwillingness to tackle some festering sores in the system. I refer particularly to the prevailing situation in J&K, which continues to cause frequent eruptions and disturbs the polity.
Following the successful conduct of Assembly elections in December last year and the Lok Sabha polls in April-May this year, amnesia appears to have gripped the Government on the outwardly tranquil but internally tense situation in this crucial State. J&K finds only two passing mentions in the Hon’ble President’s address. I had expected that in light of the serious conflagration that erupted last year over the allotment of land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, there would be some emphasis on the approach to secure permanent peace in the State. Even as I speak, the Kashmir Valley is virtually on the boil. Normal life has been paralysed since June 1, when the Hurriyat Conference first gave a call for a general strike over the Shopian incident. Disturbances have only mounted thereafter. The State Government has not succeeded in calming the situation while the Centre remains oblivious to the rising tensions. I had expected the President’s address to contain some indications of the Government’s thinking on how to ensure peace and prosperity for the State wrecked by violence for 20 years.
The present disturbances only underline the reality that mere conduct of periodic elections is not a permanent solution to the difficulties we encounter especially in the Kashmir Valley. It proves that separatist forces retain their power to create mischief even if Pakistan’s capacity to sustain the proxy war has declined in recent months as a result of its internal problems. I must point out that there exists a fundamental conflict of interest within the ruling alliance in the State, which is why the President’s speech should have addressed the larger issue. The dominant party in the incumbent coalition still insists on full autonomy for the State, in effect seeking return to the pre-1953 status when the State had not only its own flag and legal system but was also bestowed with a tenuous federal arrangement with the rest of India. The junior partner in the ruling alliance, namely, the Congress, on the other hand insists there can be no return to such a large measure of autonomy.
But the Autonomy Resolution, adopted by the State Assembly when the present Union Minister of Renewable and Non-conventional Energy was Chief Minister of J&K still hangs fire. Now that the dominant party in the Union Government is a partner of the same party that steered the Autonomy Resolution, will that Resolution get revived? The country would like such grey areas to be clarified because the post-Assembly poll political arrangement in the State has created a new situation. For several years, the previous Government at the Centre engaged in meaningless dialogue with a few sections and parties in the State. It is pertinent to ask, what was the outcome of the controversial Round Table meetings conducted by the person who incidentally, is at present Governor of the State? Was a report prepared at the conclusion of these meetings? If so, was the report unanimous or did some participants reject the proposals? Why have the contents of the dialogue not been made public yet?
Although the level of cross-border terrorism has declined thanks in part to the vigilance of our brave security forces and partially on account of our western neighbour’s internal preoccupations, it would be foolhardy to assume that Pakistan has abandoned its dream of dismembering India. The recent statement of its Prime Minister following the outrageous release of the Lashkar-e-Taiyyaba chief by the Lahore High Court is proof of Islamabad’s continuing determination to sponsor terrorism in J&K. The country needs to be reassured that the present status of J&K, which is an integral part of the Union, will not be altered in any way, whether on account of the pressures of regional coalition politics or at the behest of foreign powers, particularly the United States.
Now I turn to the second issue arising out of the Hon’ble President’s address. While reiterating my appreciation for the detailed outline of the Government’s plans to revive the economy and push forward various poverty alleviation schemes, I have to express my disappointment at the cursory manner in which the crucial matter of road development has been approached. While a large number of Government schemes have rightly been detailed, I am sad that road building, which holds the key to economic progress, has found just a passing mention in para 33 dealing with infrastructure. Highways have been clubbed with other infrastructure issues with a cursory promise to remove bottlenecks in their implementation. The Leader of the Opposition, in his speech on Friday, June 5, pointed to abysmal delays in completing projects like the Golden Quadrilateral, North-South-East-West Corridors and NHDP Phase III.
It is my contention that if the last UPA Government abjectly failed in one key area, that was with regard to highway construction and building rural roads. It is shameful that nearly 200 km of the Golden Quadrilateral, initially set to be completed in 2004, has now been abandoned. Hardly 40 percent of the N-S-E-W Corridor is complete although it was supposed to have been fully operational in 2007. Sir, anybody travelling by road from Delhi to Lucknow will testify to the snail’s pace at which the four-laning of this important highway has progressed. It was recently reported that the World Bank had threatened to withdraw funding of the project because flyovers are yet to be operational, vast stretches of the road are in a pathetic state and road widening has not even started in the segments where it passes through towns and cities.
The Delhi-Dehradun highway is in such an appalling condition that most people nowadays prefer to travel on the single-lane, British-built Irrigation Department road running along the Upper Ganga Canal. These are just two examples of the lack of seriousness on the previous Government’s part; such examples can be multiplied many times over. I have raised several queries in this House about the state of these proposed and under-construction highways, but the answers have been utterly skimpy, even misleading. I would, therefore, not only urge the new Minister of Highway Development to reverse the slothful approach of his controversial predecessor who is (I would think fortunately) not a member of the present Cabinet, but also announce new timelines for completion of these crucial projects.
Finally I want to focus attention on the development of rural roads under the PMGSY scheme. A brilliant idea initiated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the pace of progress has been very slow and varies widely from State to State. As a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development, I have had the opportunity to study the progress of PMGSY in several States. Wherever the project has taken off, villagers have benefited immensely. Connectivity has enabled farm produce to reach towns and fetch proper prices for farmers. Shops and commercial outlet have come up, opening huge opportunities for unemployed rural youth.
I have often urged that other rural development programmes such as NREGA could be dovetailed with PMGSY to accelerate road building in the countryside. In that context, I am very happy that the President has expressed the Government’s desire to converge NREGA with other programmes and enlarge the scope of NREGA beyond unskilled manual labour, which is rather restrictive in nature.
I also urge the Government to take up PMGSY completion on a war-footing and expand it to cover even small villages with a population of 500-plus. This is allowed only for hilly areas at present, but extending the same norm to the plains will ensure that over 90 percent of India’s 6 lakh plus villages can be fully integrated with the national economy. Further, the revolutionary ‘Dial 108 for Ambulance at your Doorstep’ scheme has yielded massive benefits wherever implemented by forward-looking State Governments. Early completion of PMGSY projects will ensure that 108 Ambulances can cover every nook and cranny of the country, save lives, help pregnant women reach hospitals and otherwise immensely contribute to the nation’s overall health record.
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