Year on Year Scam

Laying/relaying roads in the cities, towns and state highways is perhaps the biggest scam in India that is going on for decades. Roads are laid that get washed away at the lightest of down pours. If the rainfall is incessant the roads become un-motorable and are similar to unpaved dirt roads in the country side. All these are constructed again to get washed away during the subseqent rainy season.

Bureaucrats/engineers and contractors collude to do a shabby job of maintaining and construction of roads year on year and share the bounty, we hardly hear about cases of corruption being registered against any contracting agency with respect to quality of road construction. Does that mean all quality standards are met? Where are the state and central vigilance commissions?

Even the capital city is not spared, look at the condition of roads in New Delhi after this year’s monsoon. Do we really deserve the tag of an aspiring super power? We can’t get the basics right – roads, drains, footpaths, water supply etc. Corruption is breaking the back bone of the country.

With 2.1 million miles of roadways India has the third largest road network, imagine the amount of money that gets allocated for new construction and regular maintenance, it must be staggering. Not sure what percent of this changes hands as “baksheesh”.

There is no need of an RTI application to get details about quality of Road construction it is too evident, poor engineering, indifference to quality and corruption are the reasons.

Roads are the backbone for a vibrant economy and our administrators fail to get it.

Parliamentarians and Pay hikes

Our MPs have decided to give themselves a 300% hike to their compensation along with other emoluments like 30+ business class return airfare, free first class train fare for their families, medicals etc...etc there is still a demand to make it 500% by some members. It is easier to do that for this privileged class since they themselves decide whether it should be 300 or 500%, there is no pay commission to deliberate or like in the private sector performance based hikes. 30% for public servants and 300% for themselves looks plain selfish (there are arguments that the base is low, however if we add up all emoluments the cost to the tax payer is painful).

It would be unfair to brush every parliamentarian as corrupt and undeserving but it hard to erase the general perception about them being dishonest, venal etc. There are no hard numbers available on number of parliamentarians who are corrupt and have criminal back grounds, but it is said about 40-50% do fall in this category. Then why do we give hikes to this bunch. Do the likes of Lalu Yadav who are involved in scams deserve hikes?

The issue of cost to the exchequer does not arise in these undeserving hikes, in case of hikes to the public servants and armed forces govt is prompt in establishing committees to look into the matter and take years to decide.

How many policy wonks do we exactly have in the parliament who actually debate issues of national importance and legislate? It is mostly commotion and partisan behavior that the public get to see in the parliamentary proceedings. Parliamentarians are expected to debate and contribute to policy, since for most of them contribution in this area is dismal the do not deserve an increase in pay.
Shouldn’t there be a third party assessing each of the members and recommending hikes based on their performance ( attendance, contribution to policy, right use of constituency funds, participation in debates, raising issues of national importance etc).

This is one more instance of insensitive behavior by our parliamentarians, while the common man is fighting inflation. With all the above I would still say please take care and pay well for those Parliamentarians who are trying to make a difference, not to the majority who are not.

A faltering UPA -2

The UPA magic is waning a year into the second term, the administration looks more fragile than ever. Infighting amongst the cabinet ministers, Kashmir situation, Maoist violence, Foreign affairs goof ups, Price rise and to top all these the brazen Common wealth scandal.

Dr Man Mohan Singh’s much applauded strengths of cool, calm and collected are becoming his nemesis, he is appearing indecisive as days pass by, how can he let the Kashmir situation get out of hand. It is sad to see the Hurriyat dictating terms to the center. It is a meek response to the challenge at hand. The usually smug Home minister appears lost. Where is the promise to create more jobs to the Kashmiri youth, jobless men will throw stones and do whatever is necessary to kill time.

One can agree Kashmir is a difficult situation to handle with a myriad of complexities but the incoherent response to the Maoist violence shows lack of conviction on part of the Home Minister. His colleagues do not agree with his assessment on handling the violence. The iron clad defense of Mr. Chidambaram on critical issues is breaking.

The Aam aadmi slogan is fast appearing a mirage. Price rise is killing the Aam admi and there seems to be no clear strategy to check the price rise. PDS is in shambles, FCI is letting the food grains rot in godowns. Where is the promised efficient administration? It is a crime to let people go hungry while food stocks rot. Sharad Pawar has other priorities.

Less said about handling foreign affairs with Pakistan. Pakistan seems to pull a fast one on us on every occasion. We should stop complaining to US and the whole world on Pakistan exporting terrorism to Indian soil, what is our response, just complain?

Young but not wise enough

Like me most Indians would have felt relieved when Farooq Abdullah gave away the J&K chief ministers post last year to his youthful and energetic son Omar Abdullah. It was expected Omar with his clean image and youthful energy would reach out to the masses and change the mood in the valley.

Alas, what a mistake it was, the recent happenings i
n the valley show Omar has no idea about the ground situation, feelings of the people nor has complete administrative control. He is simply a helpless observer looking towards New Delhi for direction. A huge let down from whom a lot was expected. Omar needs to be moved to the center into some listless ministerial role, his father was a better option to run the state to maintain status quo. Omar is creating a mess in the valley.

Another youthful MP Naveen Mittal was not far behind in disappointing every one with his stance on Khap panchayats in Haryana. Though real politik would have forced him to support Khaps, he has shown poor choice of words in supporting the Khap panchayat's stance on various issues.