They: Our lords, inheriting the power corridors of Delhi
Us: The subjects, always taken for granted, and so treaded and trampled at will
Take 6:
They: The toilet saga doesn’t
end at Montek’s Loonomics. The recent report of CPWD bungling into the billed
amount of Rs. 35 Lakh for the Planning Commission toilets doesn’t absolve
him. 60 smart cards were issued and access
system was installed that cost around Rs. 10 Lakh. After the controversy, use
of the access system through these smart cards was scrapped. Now who is
answerable for this 10 Lakh? Also, reports say there were plans to install CCTV
cameras to check pilferage in the Planning Commission toilets. Can you believe
it?
Another
brilliant example has been set by the former chief minister of Goa, Digambar
Kamat. He got a single public toilet built in his constituency Margao. He
emphatically used the chief minister’s seal to clear Rs. 20 Lakh for this
‘air-conditioned’ public toilet with sensor-operated air-conditioners.
It
was his constituency’s public park and our lord did what pleased him. No
questions taken!
Us: To promote hygiene and
sanitary practices across the length and breadth of India, the government
provides a sum of Rs. 2,200 to every needy household to build a toilet. Now
that much can’t even fetch 500 bricks if we count the numbers by the prevailing
market rate. In a country where 65 per cent of the population is living below the
poverty line, it is nothing but a cruel joke.
And
it seems cruel jokes sound like pleasure nodes to our lords as they keep on throwing
more and more of them.
After
much criticism, the government is considering to increase the amount to Rs.
9,900 per household. By this new benchmark, the Margao public toilet could have
helped the government build toilets in 200 needy households and Montek could
have helped the country with another 350 toilets.
A
recent joint monitoring report of WHO-UNICEF for the Millennium Development
Goals (MDG) tells 60 per cent of world’s open defecators are in India and the
pace with which India is working on the problem it will not be before 2054 that
India specific MDG sanitation goals are achieved.
Gosh!
The
situation is rightly reflected in comments of one of the lords (Jairam Ramesh)
- "It is more important than the
launch of Agni missiles. If there are no toilets then Agni is of no use"
he said while launching bio-toilets produced by DRDO.
Spilling
over, isn’t it?
Hail
austerity!
According
to a report published in daily Pioneer, none of the austerity drives announced
in India have been officially withdrawn yet. But then they typically operate in
the typical Indian way – the way our lords devise, based on their comfort level.
Austerity elsewhere – large scale cuts are
announced – both at public and government level – it gives rise to mass
protests, sometimes turning violent like it has been happening recently in
Greece – it brings about structural reforms like happening in Eurozone crisis
countries – it brings down the government like Sarkozy lost for being an
austerity advocate
Austerity in India – At best a lip-service –
do lip syncing to look sounding sincere – announcing silly measures like the
current 10 per cent cut in the non-plan expenditure and keep that, too,
discretionary in nature – the cut announced by the finance ministry in this
case excludes almost 72 per cent of India’s non-plan expenditure - so anyway such austerity measures don’t leave
any groundbreaking impact on the economy or on fiscal deficit of US$ 91 Billion
than being silly overtures of looking sincere
And
they proudly continue with their tradition. Here are some more takes on the
tradition:
To
continue..
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
