CIO Article Link

http://www.cio.com/article/513613

Anarchy and Administration

Sometimes I feel we take false pride in being the world’s most populous democracy. We equate conducting successful elections and electing government’s sufficient reasons for declaring ourselves as successful democracy. The other equally important aspects of a democracy governance, rule and respect for law, equal opportunity are conveniently forgotten once parties come to power.
Three recent and ongoing incidents bring out the anarchy or lack of governance in the country.
1) DGP Rathore getting away from justice for 19 long years is a shame on the country’s criminal justice system. The way Rathore has used his power to systematically eliminate all opposition is a telling example of collusion between politicians and bureaucrats. Misuse of power by the politicians and bureaucrats has been a bane in this country. This lack of integrity in this two important bodies leads to weak implementation of the law.
2) I guess no other country is as insensitive to loss of human life as we are. Three train crashes on a single day with a significant loss of life talks about our disregard for human life. The reason for the crash is dense fog but our rail administrators do know that this time of the year there is fog and should have monitored the situation. If it is not fog it is due to fish plate’s removal, manual driver error or speeding, year on year rail crashes keep happening with less focus on safety. Railway ministry is a sought after cabinet position and heavily politicized and needs clean up
3) Anarchy in AP – Politicians and the student wings of their parties are taking Hyderabad to ransom with frequent calls for bandhs. They have no idea about the damage they are causing to the city’s brand, loss of revenue to business, loss of school time for children. It is very unfortunate that the state transport corporation takes a hit for all political issues. India should have a strong law to handle the cases of arson, similar to the law being planned for communal riots. Police forces are mute spectators to all this due to lack of independence.

Politics of separation

The sordid drama that is unfolding for a separate Telengana state in Andhra Pradesh is what afflicts Indian politics – deceit, the real issue for creation of a separate state is put in the back burner and demagogic politicians take center stage and play with the common man’s emotions.
It is true at the time of independence were created based on linguistic considerations, that was perhaps the only factor considered at that time due to lack of other compelling considerations. After 60 years of independence it may be time for a relook at the approach we have taken in creation of states.
Is there much difference in the development indices of the Andhra and Telengana regions, recent data shows that the regions of Andhra and Telengana are not much different on the UN development index scale. There is abject poverty in both regions. There may be qualitative difference, but at that level of poverty it doesn’t matter much. It is poverty anyway.
So what is the fight for. Is it water resources, real estate in Hyderabad region or mining ? It is a mixed bag of all the above I guess. Some of the demands of people in Telengana region may be genuine in terms of lack of irrigation facilities, industrialization (except for Hyderabad region) etc. Large industrial houses in the state are owned by people from Andhra region is another complaint.
Will Telengana be better off if a separate statehood is granted? Hard to say since the leadership fighting for it have to come clear of allegations of corruption against them and have not laid out a clear vision on the development objectives they want to achieve. However it may worth a try since both the Andhra and Telengana regions are suffering from pathetic infrastructure, poor govt reach malnutrition in children etc.
In principle I do believe that smaller states are easier to govern considering the administrative capabilities that out political class have shown over the past 60 years. To some extent this is proven in the case of Jharkhand and Uttaranchal where it is being said that the administration is able to reach out to the citizens with services effectively.
Finally the common man is always left out in the process, he is out of the equation. A new set of politicians will take over the new state and get richer leaving the rest of us to figure out what has happened to the promises that were made.
India is not poor because of its citizen it is due to the political class who lack the vision and determination to make it rich and powerful.

Roads to Death

One of my colleagues died in a road acccident last week. This is not the first known person i knew died in a road accident. Such incidents make one ponder on the ephemeral nature of life. India has one of the highest rates on road accident related deaths. As a country we have become insensitive to these deaths. We feel sad, ignore and move on to live another day. The state i come from Andhra Pradesh has the dubious distinction of topping the charts in the country. India as a whole i guess is number two in the world rankings.

Who is responsible the citizen or the state ? Yes as citizens we lack basic road driving etiquette in India, we are not considerate to pedsetrians,chidren and the old. Every one is in a hurry to reach their destinations. So the citizen is surely at fault. But does the state have a role ? I think it has an even important role in laying the law and regulating and providing the necessary infrastructure. Every state including the central government have failed miserably in getting their act together with respect to road safety.

Talking about law India has laws for everything so no problems with that, but what about regulation. Polieman standing at street corners and cutting traffic tickets is not regulation. The aspect of road safety needs to be addressed in a wholistic way. 1) Infrastucture (Roads and grade separtors, lane markings, functioning street lights and traffic lights) 2) Licensing regulations 3) Continuous education to drivers 4) Related Infrastructure ( Foot over bridges for perdestrians etc) and enough Manpower to monitor this very important function.

I guess the government knows about the above requirements i discussed above, infact they have experts in traffic engineering so they know better on what needs ot be done. What gets the goose is what are all these Ministers of Roads and Buildings, Bureucrats and Engineers doing about roads and safety of citizens using the roads.

I am sure that when a Roads and buidings minister goes to work every day he must be seeing main roads with out lane markings, potholes, broken road separators, no zebra crossings, dysfunctional traffic lights etc what does he do once he is in office. Does he ignore the plight of the poor citizen or what do these guys do actually?

We citizens we are under the strangle hold of governments inaction and will continue to suffer for all its faliabilities.

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.

Play by the rules

The hue and cry about Continental folks frisking President Kalam is overdone. That too coming from our MP's is laughable. They cannot expect every other country and agency to behave like themselves 'i.e' riding roughshod over all rules and regulations.
Full marks to our former dear president for having taken the incident in his stride. A true professsional he is.
We Indians always suffer from a false sense of hurt and waste time accusing others of wrong doing. Yes Continental would not dare to do this for a Margaret Thatcher or Vladmir Putin or a former Chinese president. The reason is obvious guys these are rich and powerful countries. We will be treated like second class folks in the International arena as long as we are poor and underdeveloped. Power respects power,hence let us focus our energies on taking the country on a faster developement path. 60 years after Independence we cannot even build proper highways,take care of basic needs of our citizens etc etc this is all due to the lopsided policies developed by the wise men in the parliament.
Let India play by the rules, same rules for every one, that is the day we will be marching faster towards a developed and equitable society.

Statues etal

Statue Frenzy -
Here’s a suggestion for Mayawati which will ensure a place for her in the annals of history. Instead of spending time and effort installing lifeless statues why not spend all the money and more of it in building a "National Museum of Dalit History". Such an effort will be helpful in educating the world on the history of Indian dalits. This can serve both as a museum, education and research center.
The rigor she is showing in ensuring erection of these statues should be channeled in the right direction. UP has one of the worst track records in primary education and infant immortality in the country. If she can put the same rigor and ensure every child goes to school the impact on dalit empowerment would be larger.
Anyways the statue mania is by and large a problem in this country with statues being erected for all and sundry. Most of these obstruct traffic and add to the urban mess in the country. I guess there should be a nationwide ban on statue erection.
Water, Power –
The yearly monsoon drama and blaming monsoon for lack of water and power looks stupid.
We are a huge country blessed with natural resources both coal, water and others. Why could not we set up mega power plants over the past 60 years, lack of privatization in the sector, poor planning and a phlegmatic bureaucracy are the reasons why we are always in a catch up mode.
A country which aspires to a super power cannot give 24 x7 power (forget about water) to its capitals’ denizens. That is the reason we are not considered serious contenders to super power title, china is.
Need of the hour is implementing river catchment protection, water conservation, ground water protection legislations in spirit. I guess there must be plethora of policies around these by now both at the center and state levels. Most of these environmental bodies are populated by bureaucrats with no energy for implementation of these policies and are swayed in their decision making by their political bosses.
River pollution is another area which lacks required focus. Again take the example of the Yamuna in the capital. Successive governments are failing to take into cognizance the need for de-polluting the river, clearing the catchment of encroachments and beautifying it. Same is the situation with all the cities in the country which are on the banks of rivers. They are an ugly sight for the beautiful names they have.
There are a plethora of problems on the water and power situation in the country and its time for governments to act.