Right to Question must be made fundamental to make Government Responsible

The three year session is closed for 'Modi Sarkar' and the leader is making five country trip take the feedback for his governance. The restlessness is visible among the leader but the others in the team is quietly following leader with blind system of believe. The media, politicians and capitalist have taken the right of the people to question, they have made questions pre-conceived to benefit the ruling parties.

The problems and issues of the people across the nations are overshadowed with debates where agenda of the parties across is overcasting the concerns of the masses. The money of the people were extracted to fulfill the coffers of the banks not as customers but as tax payers. The shadow of government over the banks have targeted the lower and middle class to get away with debts which were planned, executed and sustained by banks. The people were made to believe that they were doing service to nation when their rights as the customers were curtailed through executive orders of the governments.

Now when the impacts on the markets are negative the same banks would again start giving the additional funds to these very enterprises who never bothered to return the finance they could not return. The failure to understand the black money over black economy was huge when they were after black money the economy flourished. The corruption in the system did not go down instead the digital was deliberately used to channelize the funds to have organized crimes. Its hard for the person on the street to understand the micro economies when interest rates of the loans to SME's or households were not brought down but subsidies was passed from govt to banks through people using PMAY scheme.
The doomed real estate sector is recharged with govt. support to en cash the market using the funds when little surplus is available to govt. budget. Even if 10 percent of the households buy new house in India it would require more than Rs. 62500 crores per annum to finance loan subsidy from GoI. This is non workable beyond few years and budgeted.  
The inter-caste conflicts in the nation have disturbed not only the largest state but has potential to move the communities across the nation. Though the government wanted to derecognise the caste and community divide through slogans like Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas but little they realise the diversity of the community in India requires prudent policies and actions. The dominance of the communities over another in the name of religion is first step people in India the second step would be to target the supressed. The fears of the communities have not been addressed by the political class but divisions were sustained.

The division within the political parties ruled state have been more stark in current centre state relationships where even the BJP ruled states have stopped questioning the government. The media do not ask independent questions, the social media is filled with trollers or paid agents who would hound the celebrities for any negative remarks against the government.
The one way communication of the government through single spokesperson i.e. PM himself has done more damage to India. The government functionaries like officials, ministers etc are not responsible for peoples question but the ruling party spokesperson is responsible for answering. The media instead of confronting the government is playing the troll with party in power across the nation. They behave differently in local, state and national level, the regional parties are feared locally but muted nationally by them.
The questions posed by farmers, professionals, educationists, entrepreneurs are never replied by the government but information is provided about what is befit of the government. The election mode in which government has remain since last few years have not resulting in questions, where instead of the answer the mandate becomes the response. The ruling parties and their policies more than bridging the people's demand have imposed the thoughts of their parent think tanks. This shows the emergence of the parties were not from the people but from ideology based institutions who were supposed to be given free hand during their governance.
The right to information is more potent, but just a thinking can it be converted into right to question and seeking answers from the public organizations. Since the information has low potent where if the questions for which information is sought remained unanswered.

The Failed Nation Theory of Development

The Failed Nation Theory of Development - There is numerous definition of development based on the philosophy of the social scientists, but the most prominent were described by the professions who were deciding the fate of the nation. The political class with its objective to propagate their thought till they are in power as every thing is for the national development. Till they attain the position of opposition its failure of the development remarked mostly in the discourse for getting power in next election.

But the parties which came to power after 60 years of the nation history, and being part of the active opposition for three decades, now finds very difficult to take it forward. There idea is to reject the past with its complete trace of development history. The political discourse now a days has moved towards projecting India as nation failed to achieve any thing during past 60 years (a mere political context). The agenda of the earlier parties in power was never acceptable even though its scripted ditto by the current ruling alliance. The leaders were quick to select the points of disagreement but later found nothing can be found justified whether its, rural India, urban, agriculture, defense, foreign policy, finance etc. they found the 60 years of history must be shed to give rise to new India.

As if we have entered into the royalty the end of one dynasty saw the rise of new and changed the direction of the development flow. The groups which were rejected by the political commentators have nothing to do with freedom of India, is now seeded to power with more stronger nation concept. The believers and non-believers concept of political ideologies are promoted with the tizzy cocktail of captialist frame of development. The ruling party now wants to select and change the system one by one for the national development with very profoundly believe in the failed system of development.

Albiet the theory for the development and means or methods remains same it would be only time which would converge two political thought which might talk to integrate India with rest of world. The pain and gain of the citizens now depends upon their voting pattern, the 2016 election like 2014 may not be land mark when the change happened after 60 years of political dominance. The current ruling party in now challenged within two year. What is there in India's DNA politically is non-alligned to an ideology where there is maximum diversity which political parties urge to unite. The plural character of nation is being brought down to desire for singular frame to worship 'Bharat'. The ideal and ideologies have changed but whether the citizens who voted them to power also changed? Do not know. When the 10,000 British men can rule India for long a handful of political leaders ranging from 500-2000 committed leaders can dominate Indian political landscape.

What is expected for the leaders who try to rule (rather to serve) in democracy? A fan following who belive in the character of development, When majority were made to believe in 'failed' nation theory the lack of continuity is expected, But this would also associate the political unrest and change of sub-systems and non-cooperation from the state who do not believe in ideologies of the party who is running the national development agenda. How difficult it would be agree in future?

DECENTRALISED PLANNING – RHETORIC VS. REALITY: ANIRBAN SHETH

Excellent article regarding the decentralised planning in West Bengal. The efforts are good to incorporate the policies as well as ground level realities in the state. The planning framework in the country must understake steps to realise the dreams for the success of grass root democracy.
Here is the link for you...

https://expldev.wordpress.com/2015/02/03/decentralised-planning-rhetoric-vs-reality-anirban-sheth/

Planning Commission gone to dustbin, now 'Niti Ayog' : India reduced to blah blah development

The government must set the priority on the basic essence of Indian planning system. The proposed renaming of planning commission, has no meaning unless there is functional change. Its not clear what the government wants, just throwing away the organisation and function is not the intention. May be blindly following the US way of doing of the things means we are entering into capitalist based economic system. But this would always increase fight between the states, and center should have minimum role in planning of state. Are states prepared to open planning and policy making. Policy making at the national level had been centres task and planning commission did many good things, just before rejected due to dislike of developed state as well as BJP ruled states. The axis of development would change post congress era but whether it should go away from constitutional commitments. If not, planning commission is best option available with little reform to suit the current macro requirements. Its sad that intellectuals and politicians who had taken big and bold steps are silent on serious basis of Indian economic and development system. This also shows serious lapse on our commitment to the world bodies. Is that so simple to change the name ' Niti Ayog' i.e. Policy commission, what about five year plan, we are getting away from plan regime means we do not now talk of poverty, inequality, inclusion and employment, but talk more of export-import, national security, industries, SEZ and urbanization. The national macro priorities have flipped now till they receive some serious thoughts from planning from below.

The policy making is loose till there is some essence in planning. Many have in past talked about planning from below, which mean decentralization of decisions. India needs to rethink on the development agenda at par with the directions from the UNDP or ADB or WTO or UNFCC in order to follow the agenda of world on one hand and look for the solutions for the problems at hand. The land and agricultural policies connected with the livelihood of the masses cannot be resolved by making policy (we already have plenty). The centre needs to redistribute the funds in order to reduce the inequality amongst the states and its people. The resources in the country is not equally distributed thus making the role of centre very important to address the regional and sector based issues.

The past commission did not pay much attention to the regional needs including those of states and districts, the legislative power given to the local bodies including district authorities also needs to be enhanced. The district development plans must now be given top priority while taking for the developments. Most of the problem facing the country are felt locally and can be resolved by having the integrated development plans. The resource exploitation has become serious threat to the eco-systems, fueling the migrations trends. The justifiable development must be achieved by going towards the people centeric approach in planning.

Where is direction to the nation by changing these names, the frequency of neglect of the primary and secondary sector is serious. While growth may happen from the FDI investments but this would also destroy the synergies between the people and state. The manufacturing capacities of the Indian people and markets are understated and killed by systematic intrusion by the foreigners in our economic space. It seems we would be back to the imperialism of economic character with more loose strings now going into the MNC giants. The vested interest have taken now control of the economic systems to retain the benefits of economic growth to few and planning to leave the rest of India on its own.

Instead of reviving the public systems if governments in power in centre and state chooses to ignore them, there is going to be total chaos in social order which might be starting from below. The time might be appropritate for the citizens and working class to understand that their strengths are misunderstood in present context. India, must be awake to the changes and support where ever  these are appropriate but also be strong enough to resist the change which can hamper their economic and social prospects. 

Governments are the party's property?

After years of democratic efforts to form the government the political parties in power have realized that its party's owned government or personalities owned govt. Is this what has been enshrined in the constitution. Whether representatives of people in form of MLA's or MPs are nothing before the rule which now supersedes party and later personalities? The debate is important since the governments are now addressed as congress or BJP governments, and prime ministers becomes the proprietary of a particular party. During last months there has been several instances when spokes person of the party in power also defends the government. Any question raised to the government is defended or responded by the party in power. Is it an attempt to shy away from the constitutional clarity that government belong to everybody and its the government or its representative which are answerable to the people not the party in power. There has been opinion made to supersede the party structure and officials over the government. The party forgets that its representation of people act which allows them to functions at the tops, they represent a group of people who support similar ideologies.

The position of the highest chair in the government does not belong to a party he must be representing the government in all times till he is in the chair. In the mode of opposition the representatives from the public also started to blame the parties rather than the government. A government is not merely contributed from the representatives of the people, rather other two arms too contributes for the success and failures of the programs. The agenda of political parties are to voice the opinion in the forum where other two section has equal chance to participate in administration. In todays time there is notion of supremacy by the political class not among the citizens but also among the functionaries of the governments.

The operation difficulties and understanding of the sectors are limited within the political parties but the latest tradition of enforcing the decision to functionaries of the government is not healthy. The recent cases of health disaster where targets are given by the secretaries are often enforced to the health officers leading to negligence by the doctors while performing their duties. Whether the officials have power to say no? There is amount of fear and anxiety when the voice of the functionaries other than the political class is not heard.

There is total take over of the government by the political class which in many a times not bound to take decision for the interest of the citizens. Often the political class is bound by the ideologies which binds the thoughts, which may not be rationale for implementation of the schemes. The recent cancellation of the planning commission, low lying knowledge commission, and missions by earlier government also points out that there will not be now policy consistency when the government is changed and ruled by different parties.

Majority must prevail in action, but this must also bring the political uncertainity and paralysis more frequent in the country. How does the development planning and schemes going to suffer in such frequent change of governments run by the political parties?

Scope of Urban Planners on Election Eve

Country is going through an election phase which is rolling information and data on the status of various states regards to the development. The basic needs of the humans have not met in many constituency and need of hour is to understand the importance of planning and implementation. Most of the political leaders lack ideas and plan for going about conducting development works in their respective areas. The failures of the urban governance at large in providing the basic urban services and satisfying the citizen has resulted in performance of ruling party. The election to election vision of the party is different than the organised planning procedures adopted in the planning mechanism. The discussions across the board shows the concerns of all to improve the situation, irrespective of the political parties. Very few have distinct agenda for the change, the system of governance relies on the delivery, and urban services depends on efficient management. Most of the cities in India lack the efforts, despite the scores of reforms and financial aid given in last decade.

The problem lies in unwillingness of the political class to provide for the services, where on the ground its divided on the basis of class, vote bank, religious groups and power centers. The services provided in the cities are not uniform, one or the other areas are neglected not because of efficiency of the local bodies but priority which is not granted over the others. The decision makers are often people's representatives who if lucky to be in ruling party gets hearing and priority over those who are from opposition. This selective development framework of the leaders and ineffective the outreach of the services which are responsible in the state of mess in our cities.

As a professional, there is need to understand the political notion of the development for the cities, where the systems and law does not distinct the service delivery on the basis of its political support. The apolitical work of the professionals should be taken up for understanding the need of the service area. The plans so made should cater to all the section of the society without any prejudice. There are cases on the most of the cities where old areas, slums, minority areas, and urban poor are not serviced with the basic need. Cities like Mumbai, Ahmadabad, Surat, Varanasi, Allahabad etc has not been able to provide for the needs of the people in terms of the urban services.

The posh and hip city areas are provided with good road, gardens, clubs, fountains and other urban amenities which envy the poorer section which often creates a social division by the way of differential development efforts. The planners would have scope to reduce the gap of development efforts by the urban local bodies. The people often see the government from the prespective of the services they are able to receive, till the local issues are resolve it would be hard to imagine that elections would be fought on the national issues.  

Carrying Development beyond elections too...

These are election time and people are discussing the development, and political parties are claiming to be one who can perform and deliver the development to the people. After the elections the parties interfere in the functioning of the police, judiciary, independent agencies and influence the reports to rake up their performance. The National Development Council (NDC), where all the CMs are the members are often used to bring the view point which are politically motivated and used to point finger at the Centre and State.

The people have the right to know about the functioning of the departments and their performance. India has yet to see a day when most of the department publishes their progress in tasks, money spent and results achieved. If we all can understand that, the system of governance is independent of the political class in its day to day activities it would be better. The people representatives were given enough rights to represent the people and head the departments to oversee the development works, even then the leaders fail to deliver in most of the cases.  The parties once win the election are not seriously bothered about the constituency they are elected to serve instead people who are not chosen as minister often show little interest in the works of various ministries. The absence of MPs and MLA from their respective assemblies during the functioning shows the real development works which can be carried out.

Out of the 365 days the Corporators, MLA and MPs have less than 90 days of contact hours with the policy making we all can assume the seriousness of the development agenda in the years to come. The system which does not have grievance redressal system has to depend upon the leaders to listen to the voice of the people. With the improvement in the system and service delivery (which is an ongoing process) the development would be more or less would be free from political interference. Most of the interaction of the executives with the departments needs to be accountable and transparent to have assured delivery mechanism, the need for the political class to serve the people would be more directional.

The poor monitoring and decision making system does not allow the development works to be planned, monitored and executed well by the concerned departments. The state does not have full idea of the projects in the districts, and district misses the consistency in the development projects in the habitations (both rural and urban). The central government is virtual entity which has except the union territories have little control over the functioning of the state. With devolution of the powers of the Centre and State it would have been wise all to understand that who are supposed to work on the development and which agency is responsible for facilitating. The central and state governments are more to be working as facilitators for the local bodies, the pitty issue of cleaning street, supply and managing the water supply, drainage and others are the task of local bodies. Where is the question of Prime Minister and Cheif Ministers to look for the such demands of the people. People do not attempt to raise complain on the day to day problems in the localities to respective ward or panchayat offices instead they try to use the powers of the ministers for the petty works.

The work towards the poor and down trodden is often forgotten since they seldom have access to the political masters after the election. They have to wait till eternity to get satisfactory demands of their development needs. Why does the political leaders assume supreme authority in clearing all the doubt of people that they only can deliver once it comes to the development needs of the people? The lack of public education and knowledge are creating a situation where even after corruption at local level the people are made to think about the national level mismanagement, They instantly forget about since corruption upto certain amount was proved to be tolerable in the election debates. Leaders are talking about corruption of Rs.500 rupees instead they should talk about Rs.500 crores.

Post elections lets not forget about the need for the 'development' discussion with all the stakeholders and try to bring the reform in the service delivery by the local bodies. The state and central government together should facilitate the local level functioning and make the 'development' fruits accessible and achievable for the people of India.

Development Debate: Circus by the political class

'Everybody loves Good Draught' by P.Sainath, tries to explore the dimensions of developmental reality and fate of depressed class in the post independent India. The political class though estrainged with many criticism often look away from the reality. The national parties are claiming for the development models are far from the reality. The people who decide on the government programs, often forwarded by the political class do not belong to either of national parties. The programs are made to feel that people would get some doles from the government exchequer in turn to democratic favour of electing parties into the power. When would people in India understand the governance, and realise that the they need to come forward and participate in governance. The political class often take over the claims, unless privately they are in favour of few individuals, either from their friends, family and business. The unholy nexus is known and many state government particularly in western India, colluded with the corporate to the advantage of the business over the people.

The numerous promises made by the political class often is limited to corporate, the pledging of government land, providing cheap infrastructure and absolute guarantee of the cheap labour by the states encourages the corporate to exploit the land. The encouragement of the state capital by infusing the investment by the state to create companies under the Acts that suits the governments to divert the tax payers money to business ventures. These companies are no more labour intensive public sector units and babus paradise, but a corporate run company managed by the government employees as its managing director. Government becomes a share holders which keeps the money to fuel the state domestic product. Even the social institutions, para goverment institutions and organisations formed by the governments are often used to divert the functions and budget of the standard government to the run an exmarital affairs with the business world.

In many cases the funds are diverted to run a pro government campaign often helps the party in power to play its role in getting the cheap funds for promoting the agenda more closer to the leader. Thus making the circus of the development efforts. Often the leader of the government becomes the ring master who drives the others to fall into the line or tame the opposition to be a quite puppy.  

Political parties and personalities taking over the government today...

The constitution of India a document people of India gave to themselves to decide the future of India and manner in which the stakeholders should be behaving has done well during last six decades by inching towards the progress. The progress so made now also have credit takers as well as those who demonize the development also give credit to political class. The 'government' so defined constituted the four estates, executive, legislative and judiciary. In addition 'media' as forth estate constitute what government was supposed to be in democracy. Some may also cite 'people' community or mob as a part of the fourth estate. But during these last 60 years India's democracy is now fully taken over the political class by claiming government as their own, the government's are now titles as 'congress government' 'Janta Government' or BJP Government, and more brazenly as Manmohan's Government, Modi's Government, Mulayams Governments, Vasundhara's Government etc. It so feels now that we are returning backing to feudal system of governance. The lordships have divided the country among themselves and trying to get control of more territories by claiming victory over the opposition territory. The political class conveniently run the government (as they claim), and asks the people to go to long sleep and slumber till before the next election.

Such is the desire of the political class, that they create the political lobbies in the other estates like in executive, judiciary and media. They are often used to target the opposition, and often purchased by using ill gotten monies from the political slung matches. The furious fight is for the people to believe that they are enemies but as true to their class they do not mind to come together for their own self, or political benefits. The same opposition parties becomes a part of the common minimum program to run the ill mandated governance. The fate of nation though not really being planned by either of the political parties they use the other estates for their own political benefit. The system so builds takes care of the orientation of common citizens towards the political debates and the interest of them takes back seat. It takes few more people to join the political bandwagon to claim government of their own. Democracy in such conditions often fails to address the needs to people (who are not aligned to the ruling parties). The societies across are polarized between the political camps often prevails to feed their political masters and class.

 The dance of democracy from the political claimant's continues till the upcoming election 2014 in India, the political rivalries on the street also tends to friendly affairs among the seasoned politicians. The country divided into the political views ultimately has to follow the constitution, its hard to believe how one can clean the system unless its changed often. 'Swaraj' or 'Self rule' by the people was the essence of the Indian democracy but political class or emerging political class stops short of addressing the people or they themselves have accepted the political masters. Let the parties divide the nations, societies and communities by polarizing the political lines and keep people divided to run their democratic governments. Whether the political class have taken over the governments? we need to be more cautious in understanding the manner in which India's democracy would mature.  

A tale of two cities by CSE, New Delhi

I could not resist to relay story by CSE, New Delhi worth reading by fellow planners, Thanks to them..

EDITORIAL: A tale of two cities 
by Sunita Narain
======================================================
I travelled to two different cities in two different states last week—Indore and Guwahati. I came back with images identified by common distinctions: piles of garbage and glitzy new shopping malls. Is this our vision of urban development? There is no question that cities are imploding; growth is happening faster than we ever imagined. Construction is booming and expansion is gobbling agricultural land.

But the quality of life is no better. In most parts there is traffic, dust, air pollution and most of all the chaos of unplanned growth. Road expansion is eating up lines of shady trees—in Guwahati I saw the most majestic trees hacked down mercilessly. The city’s lungs are going, and so are its sponges, as waterbodies are making way for buildings. In Indore its residents will tell you that the names of the colonies are the names of the lakes they are built on. In Guwahati, the airport has been built by killing the grand Deepor beel. First a road was built (obviously without culverts to channelise the water), then as the waterbody died, it was filled to undertake new construction. This year, as always, Guwahati airport was flooded and air traffic disrupted.

The two cities are different ecosystems, so they should have had different water and waste issues. One is located in the relatively dry Malwa plateau and the other in the high-rainfall region on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra. But both cities have acute water stress, even as rain leads to swamping of cities, disrupting life and destroying property. Both cities have no water culture. Both are drowning in their waste.

Indore, because of its location, had a rich tradition of lakes. Rain water was harvested and stored in structures, which recharged groundwater. Then, in 1977, the city brought Narmada water from some 110 km to the city. Indore should have had enough to drink and to swim. But 35 years later, the water has still not reached all distribution pipelines. Over 50 per cent of the 172 million litres per day of water it sources is lost in distribution, which means there is far more costs but far less water to supply. The city water utility has no money to repair and extend its water system. It spends all it has and more in just electricity costs of bringing the water. Politicians are vying with each other to bring the water from the Maheshwar dam. The recent jal samadhi by the Maheshwar dam-displaced has met with enormous anger from Indore’s power elite. They say they need the dam’s water at all costs. They do not care if the people, whose land has been submerged by the dam, have not received compensation or been resettled.

The same power elite never demand systems to deal with the sewage they flush out of their homes. In Indore, the sewage system was constructed in 1936 at the time of the Holkars. Independent Indore has added to it insignificantly. The bulk of the sewage pours into its rivers, Khan and Saraswati, and Piliyakhal Nullah, untreated. It forgets that the Khan pollutes the Kshipra; the main water source of the neighbour, Ujjain.

Guwahati is no different. When I went in early October, floods were still ravaging the city. This was the third pulse of flooding, which began in early June. Residents explained that the intensity and duration of floods had made life impossibly difficult. They also spoke of desperate water shortages in this region of plenty. Worse, life-giving water is now the cause of diseases—death by dengue fever was top news in Guwahati.

This is when both cities have options to do things differently. They are yet to build all their homes, roads and water and sewage systems. They can execute a plan, which allows them to modernise but with quality of life intact and even better. This requires not to want to grow in the way Delhi, Mumbai or any other “old-growth” city has.

For instance, they should not repeat the mistake of allowing fleets of cars to take over their roads. Indore was an enlightened city to plan for a bus-based future. Some years ago it invested in new buses, rationalised routes, created systems for efficient operation and put GPS in place to track and inform customers. Now cost of bus fuel is up, fares have not been revised and buses are losers. Still the majority of the city population rides or walks, even though the city’s footpaths are long gone. Indore is now building a bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor. It has a many foreign and Indian consultants to design the system but the people of Indore have no idea what is being proposed and why BRT is important. So they already hate it.

Guwahati’s footpaths are gone as well, taken over by mounds of garbage. The city has taken the route of its bigger cousins. It has put the task of garbage disposal out to a concessionaire, who, it hopes, will sweep the city clean. It does not. Instead, Guwahati could collect, segregate and compost garbage at the household level. It could reserve areas in colonies for environmental services. This way it would not have to first collect and then transport the waste. It would not have to live in filth.

In the end Indore and Guwahati will be the creations of their people. The only question is whether they will be dreams or nightmares. 

You can post your comments on this editorial online at http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/tale-two-cities

Pre-conditioning for Election: Early risers

Strange Indian Politics have been observed during last six months, national parties preparing seriously for elections schedule well two years from now! the confidence of the parties seems to be little on accepting the challenge at the right time. The spending on elections or related propaganda materials are on full swing. This is a shift from the politics of yesterdays in past when few months before election political parties would come and work for elections.

The state elections are here and so is the choice for National elections, there is chance for early risers to fatigue out once the national election approaches or Is our national schemes of development targets run election to election, (we might not have five years plan then!!). Let planners work under leadership of PM (elected) and party president in power to plan for country. The state level CMs can also have plan to fight elections from day one once they get elected, (since that seems to be reality) which would make really interesting to be very objective.

The state elections such as in Gujarat is perceived to be mini elections or referendem on the personality or cult politics shaped by leading national parties. Development debates take back step against the managerial and operational issues. Fight along with media lobbies carries forward the warring parties to the people. Opinion makers are brought and sold via media to facilitates electors mind, though suitable marketing techniques are also used to bring home the points.

Public service or working for the larger masses goals of the politicians have transformed into the power - capturing strategies typically corporatization of Indian political system. A series of corporate efforts are made to achieve the targets set by the national committiees, do we need to confirm with democratic setup of parties. Democracy if taken for granted as conceived by early learders through our contitution has recieved its setback recently. Why do not we think to encourage or change the system (may be presidential form ) to accept the reality thrown by globalisation of Indian politics. We are aping the west (now extreme west, USA) for political behaviour.

Least the behaviour of politicians is coming up like fighting WWF sportsmen, with thumping of chest with war cry makes the politics helarious with one challenging others to take the ring and have fight (though political). Ideological differences are not accepted but abused and scolded openly against the political differences. The media is happy to receive 24 hours content and politicians at the national and state levels are eager to supply the bites required to hoodwink the governance over the political ideologies. The character of nation as enshrined in constitution suffers serious setback.

Politics of Decentralization and Center

The nature of citizenship offered by India is universal and sub-nationalism was in background when India  adopted new constitution and emerged as a nation state decades ago. The nationalism was fueled by the then freedom fighters and decision makers at the national and state level politics. What ever may be their party affiliation  the concern for nation for the priority, the states were not developed to have become an independent economic strength. The national priorities were together and distributed across the nation with clear mandate to provide boost to economy- including agriculture and industry dedicated to the nation. The national goals are set by the then leaders and obidiantly being followed till the rise of new India post 1991.

The decentralisation of power with centre leaving the development turf to the state, and state governments joining the free market economy to take charge of their development. It was so good to feel the new power of the state, but it also added downfall of the centre both economically and politically. As a nation state the control of centre is limited and state's are running for the money. But till this time all states were not ready for the freedom it has taken almost a decade for the poor states to rise from the ashes.

The states like UP, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan has increasingly being now prepared to join the league of developed states like Tamilnadu, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana etc. Much needs to be done in order to be attractive for the outsiders, instead the growth in these states would arrest the mass exodus of population to the developed state. In more cases, the developed state might loose some shine due to initial labour shocks.

The politics of nation is also allude the centre-state relationships with little over 10 states, leaders have no ambition to join national politics, its marred with difficulties, its now very tough to be raise a national party. Except, Congress and BJP to an extent has been successful in holding the turf, but badly challenged in their respective party ruled states.

Development policies of centre is more advisory then authentic show of nationalistic flavour, and states often do not offer centre favourable ground, central agencies across states find it difficult to work with state governments. Railways is best example to show the politics of decentralisation and hurdles both sets of government puts to one another.

A state leaders no matter how good they are in administrator or being popular in public finds very difficult to find acceptence at the national level. Its difficult to find national leaders acceptable at the state politics, take case of communist leaders (central and states) they are different roles and destinations.

Party politics for long has used the state has ground to work as national leaders, the nation logic has been used to promote the party ideologies, but in practice the state's across the nation had become laboratories of such ideologies such as Gujarat, Kerala, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Tamil Nadu. Most of the these ideologies ruled by different parties find it difficult to be adopted at the national level.

May be time has also come to review and research on the subject.

Low Unemployment and Heavy Investment Strategy for Gujarat?

The latest reports of Ministry of Labour Government of India, projects Gujarat as least unemployment in country. This is also contrast to high investment opportunity being offered in the state. How sustainable would be investment in absence of labour shortage. Given the huge investment promises and related land utilization or intention to use 1000 ha of land for the projects in leiu of the employment where are the labour. There is feeling in the state that too much capital flow in absence of manpower, can spell disaster for the state. Given the migration flows, even declining from across the states in country, a huge rural-urban population shift has happened since 1991 till 2011 where is scope for further demographic adjustment in next decade. A urbanisation fueled by investment in infrastructure courtsey the JnNURM and UIDSSMT scheme the migration to cities from the rural hinterland has been rising high. Moreover there is talk of setting up the Special Investment Regions (12-13) in the state to serve the special economic zones and also to act as independent cities, where are the people? The government is invested a bit high on the much talked Dholera SIR, but prospects for the 'peopling' i.e., shifting of the people to these destinations seems to be weak. What than is the task ahead for the Government and industry investors given the shortage of labour as predicted by many? The over reliance on the external migratory tendency would be misjudged as too ambitious given the development projects, and investment happening in rapid pace in neighbouring Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Gujarat needs to look some where else to source labourer or the industry needs to be prepared for the high labour costs.

A big change in the income levels due to rise in investments and surplus for disposal in the developed districts of the state is indicator for the line of actions government should be ahering before its too late. Gujarat remains now less attractive given its falliability to eminent crisis in future. It would be interesting to revive the argument in the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat.

MUP Admissions, APIED, VV Nagar

Bhaikaka Centre for Human Settlement, APIED,

Sardar Patel University (V.V. Nagar) ANAND

Masters in Urban Planning

(Recognized by Institute of Town Planners India, ITPI, New Delhi)

Applications Invited from eligible candidates for the Masters in Urban Planning (MUP) full time course. Following are the details;

Course Duration : two years (Four Semister)

Eligibility: B.Arch/B.E.(Civil)/MA/MSC in Economics/Sociology/Geography or other equivalant degree specified in admission brouchure.

Tentative Admission Schedule: Application Acceptence: Last week July/Admission - 1st Week Aug.

For More information call

Shashikant Kumar

Course Coordinator (MUP)

09898353419

www.apied.edu.in

State Vs State Politics of Bandh

The bandh called by opposition parties in India has now active support of the state governments, the states ruled by the opposition parties irrespective of the nature of call, are glued to party ideologies rather than responsible state governments. The state v/s state in the fight between centre and state parties led to division of polity and marred with illusion of the governments across the country. How can state government support a bandh called to opposed a central government decision? How does the tier of the government functions? Is democracy is responsible for these incidents. Whether you are in support of the price rise or against if you happen to live in the opposition ruled state the chances of you doing normal business during 'bandh' call is null. There is no opposition to such an directives in the state, the system in the states like West Bengal, Orissa, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu etc would support such bandh. Does this mean we are still living in draconian era of British raj? The polity of nation, with such a polarization has gone too far in addressing the needs of 'common men'. The losses suffered by the state would be much larger than the profits to be earned by the petroleum companies. The taxes (VAT) levied by state itself on the petroleum products show no respite in bringing down, thus making this support to nationwide strike an hoax.

What more you can ask from the central government, despite the deregulation on the pricing of the petroleum, the politics of the nation since 1970s revolves around controlling it. The magnitude of the problem is not the price rise per se, but the manner in which it was bending to the demands of the marketing companies. The international performance of the Rupee against the dollar might also trigger the reduction in the profits of the oil companies in long run. There is no doubt on the concerns of the opposition parties, but this is time to rethink on the policy of state support to such bandh.Whether we like it or not these strike once supported by the opposition ruled states shows the extreme polarisation and real loss of communication between the centre and states. The idea of using non-conventional energy sources for the majority of the activities needs to be promoted and also the reduction in consumption of fuel needs to be encouraged.

The politics over the petroleum products would take undue turn in case there is real crisis in terms of balance of payments, governments would be in fix in order to bring regulation in the market. The large share of oil imports would become negative to the political climate in country with more control on the products such crisis as of today i.e. 31 may 2012 can not be ruled out. Tomorrow what happens when centre deregulates the pricing of petroleum products, the politics of nation would be less spicy. What to say, can we afford the state vs state fight in infringe on the governance system where centre and state has to support each other on the key policy matters. Let the political parties debate on the rise but calling or supporting the bandhs by the states should be regarded as unconstitutional!!

New Political Dharma of NDA

The NDA seems to have been wearing shoes of Communist Party of India (M), while the nation grapples with the price hike (though we thought the NDA agreed to decontrol the petrol prices by Government of India, the sector is still in the clutches of government. Given the decontrol regime the prices of the essentials are well within control, the petroleum sector now dominated by major corporates even NDA would not be able to live without pleasing its corporate funders. The comparative prices of the petroleum products under the free market economy is controlled by the corporates. The subsidy components offered to the citizens of India were to be phased out, but could not happens sans the political will of the parties in power and opposition.

Now after recent hike the NDA would be on the roads, and so would be our 'poor' middle class. The traditional congress bashing and credit of price rise would be going to core group of Government of India. From Corruption the country is diverted to petrol price hike..do you see politcal angle...let the new poster boy of BJP handle the situation, and leave the sulking grand old man of BJP aside.

Hail the champion of 'Party with Difference'

Truth Prevails..or Ignorance

Development issues or those concerning the masses are seldom being discussed in the public domains where commons are more busy about looking life and beyond the ordinary life. The recent TV show Satyamev Jayate hosted by Amir Khan holds discussion and brings issues common to the concerns of those into the development works. The tasks scientifically performed by organisations such as Population Councils, Planning Commission, Pollution Control Board etc who seldom produce the results in the language most understood by the men on the street. The TV show is welcome step towards looking at the issues from the different prism. Many concerns related to society which remains to be driven by highly technical talks by the experts needs to be told to citizens of the country. Their concerns and activities goes beyond nominal corruption, the people are poorly aware about the functioning of parliaments, operations of MNC, trading of stock, banks, insurance companies. The bottom line is that many of these functions are poorly managed and some times people ignore the realities behind the scenes. The ignorance of the people or deliberate omission of the resposibilities acts like a twin sword on the development agenda.

How many of us know that urban local bodies needs to conduct Area Sabhas (like Gram Sabha) to take opinion of citizens on development issues?

Crores of Rupees are spend on the cities and citizens are charged through taxes but we have not bothered to ask questions on how and why such an project?

Participation of citizens for the development projects remains to be just beneficiaries only, the people who are left out has not much concerned to the activities or planning for their own cities. Do we mean all these money or expenditure done by the governments, people have no role?

Prices of properties across the cities are rising steeply. Do we think the middle class even with the monthly take of 10,000-25000 would be able to purchase property in metropolitan cities?

Answers are difficult to find, there are layers of activities, it would be wise for the TV shows to inform the public on truth behind the scenes. Rest let them be ignored for their own plight.

Development Planning: Repeating Mistakes

Many people on the media and elsewhere commented about failure of the 'wada na todo' abhiyan wherein Governement of India aka the Planning Commission took help of civil society in generating the mood of participatory process in planning for the 12th Plan. The activists, intellectuals and organisations who participated in the activities cried foul the way the approach paper dealt with the issues concerning serious for the effective and 'inclusive planning'. Given the election centric planning in India what more could have be apt to follow what politics of the nation dictates. We the people of India were repeatdly promised moon even though we fail to generate enough food and water for our people. India is going to urbanised and industrialised further in the coming periods, we fail to address the need for the food security except the pending bills, the spatial planning through the regional approach takes back seat, where in budgetory planning remains at the peak.

One can only assume the economist centric planning strategies has limitation even though they might claim to have reduced poverty which is statistically remains insignificant given the failure to reduce the income disparity. The HDI report suggest the improvement in the vital indicators but experts have suggested that we might miss most of the Millineum Development Goal (MDG) target set for 2015. The lagging states even though have steamed up their performance much needs to be done to eradicate abjuct state of apathy in many socio-economic indicators. Why developed states like Gujarat performs poorly in education and health where as the lagging state move faster to bridge the difference. The theory taking roots that economic development does not guarentee the social development, then what more the planning approach is going to acheive. The declining small and medium town through out country presents grim picture for the ever increasing urbanisation in the country. The lack of development for the improvement in the quality of life in these urban centres are bringing the investment elsewhere for creating new urban areas adding to the urban chaos.

Planning commission needs to leave certain planning to the state and local bodies let the spatial planning for the regions being made based on the scientific investigation before any investment plan being materialised for the region. The huge program investment in the way of MNREGA or the watershed development cannot happen without specific planning for the region, otherwise planned efforts would have negligible impact.

Nurturing Growth through innovation

Innovation has lost its face in upcoming globalization, due its efficacy in converting the idea to identifiable products. The imperfaction in the market machanism does not allow the innovator to turn their ideas into profitable business. Often the big businesses turn to innovators to germinate and take advantage of such ideas. The increase in the design competitiveness shows uneasy practices, lacking support to the budding enterpreneurs who are from the Small and Medium industries and onslought of the big leaders. Often the external markets does not reponse to such innovation unless the product itself is taken with mega investment and convert the small idea into big within very small time.

The capital intensive investment and lack of confidence of the financial institution on the innovators is due to declining risk taking abilities of such institutions and organisations. The established businesses and ideas take priority over the new and innovative ideas. Yet people like late steve Jobs could measmerise give the size of capital owned by him and Microsoft leveraging on the ideas or just buying the young companies killing and taking over the innovation at the initial stages.

Such a march of capital in the countries like India and its developed states like Gujarat should be taken as warning to the small and medium enterprises, struggling to innovate or simply following the large enterprises for thier business channel. Its always risky given the share and command of these large industries over the segments, like auto giants would risk and poorly compensate their illfated decisions to their channel supplier mostly SMEs and innovators vying for eye of mega industries. Such a situation and associated risks are never transfered to mega industries as SMEs would have desired, thus killing any desire to think new and big.

The creation of entry barrier now by state in assisting the mega industries, kills the nurturing process of SMEs instead they become scape goat in the globalised economies. The watch dog regulatory bodies would take little action to manage the affairs.

Politicians fight back by shaming civil society

What an idea sirjee?? Politicians are hated in this country exactly for the reason understood better by the organisation called India against Corruption. Initially even thought of good work was gone into the gutter once the stories about their action which tarnished their image to be stringent standards makers for corrupt people. We have forgotten the story, to let down the voice giver to society in same manner, we tend to acknowledge not the voice but the person behind it. The corrupt politicians are scoring brownee points by making 'Anna and cos' look real culprits which saving their #$*& against peoples movement. What has happened in central India was state repression against the people who where up in arms against the similar attiude of government. The government lead by the politicians (of course we have choosen them amongst us) have always shown us that they are the masters not the servants of the society. While the country pay taxes to upkeep their pockets. Who runs the government? The present masters dominated by party ideology has forgotten the constitutional mandate while they decide against or in favour of x community, Y village/city and their supporters. Those who are in power cling to them with a tight rope, we the citizens have given them this rope too. The team Anna has to fight back, though they may also think to reply politically. One thing would be clear they are not the third front in the country, some one in leading party is playing with their idea of India. God save this nation ...a million time.