Huge Incompetence

Lack of regulation and transparency has been a bane for India's growth for long, this is true in a lot of areas in our nation's functioning.

Look at the way we execute our National highway and state highway projects. We see roads being laid alomost every year and back under repair within a few months. What do the contracts specify interms of quality, longevity of these roads ? Is the issue in terms of quality standards or collusion between contrators and public works officials.The later is definitely the reason. Do these engineers signoff the quality of execution of these roads then why are they not being held accountable ? Are the quality standards poor then why not adopt higher standards. If the rates offered by the govt for laying these roads are not competitive they need to be relooked at too.

Road works are a big money spinning machine for corrupt Govt engineers, they keep issuing tenders and keep the money engone running. I am not sure if the National Highway Authority is doing anything on this front. Shame on us we cant even lay proper roads. Solution is review of quality standards, transparent online tendering system and strong regulatory body to check quality standards.

Coming to the nest topic - blame the monsoon for every thing. While it is true that we are by far dependent on monsoon for our drinking water and agricultural needs it is also time to take a step back and evaluate how we are managing our water resources. Our Planning commission by now must have come with volumes on how we should manage our water resources and projects that need to be taken up to conserve water.

The problem is not so much with the volume of water but how we use it to meet our agricultural needs. Vast areas in our rice and sugarcane belts across the country are flooded with water every year which is a sheer waste of the natural resource. There might be challenges in implementation of programs like drip irrigation and other technologies but did we try enough, for success stories look at Isreal they have done it. Again lack of political will and strong regulatory body is the reason. Look at the way state governments look askance when thousands of us drive borewells and damage the environment, poor regulation is again the reason.

It is the responsibility of the Government to provide basic necessaties to its citizens and unfortunately our governments both at state and central fail to do this. Wake up India.