Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Mamata Banerjee Leads Indian Railways to Bankruptcy

The pet rhetoric of the Trinamul Congress leader, Mamata Banerjee, and of her lieutenants has been bad governance or lack of governance of the Left Front government. She is joined by her intellectual friends in denouncing the incumbent government. She has been promising good governance to the people of West Bengal if she is elected as the Chief Minister. She has promised to bring about “administrative reforms”. Now the question is should we believe her when she says that she will provide us with a better and more efficient administration? Her sycophants say that she should be given a chance to prove her mettle. Can we, the people of Bengal, take that risk?

Not after seeing what she has done to the railways in the nineteen months that she has been at the helm of affairs at the Rail Bhavan. All the leading national newspapers and magazines are saying in unison that the railways are in the doldrums, “bankrupt” to be precise. The railway, under her, has gone completely off-track and is headed towards a sudden decline.

Indian Railways Operating Ratio (OR), which is an indicator of efficiency, has already crossed 95 percent, higher than the budget estimate of 92 percent. It is likely to be highest in recent times. This means that the Railways would be spending more than Rs. 95 to earn every Rs. 100. The best OR in recent times was in 2007-08 when it spent as little as Rs. 75.9 to earn Rs.100. The Railways reserves are at its lowest in recent years at Rs. 5,000 crore. But this does not stop the irrepressible minister from announcing one project after another involving a few thousand crores.

During the year 2007-08 the cumulative cash surpluses of the Railways before dividend had amounted to Rs. 68,778 crore. The cash surplus has been projected at a meager Rs. 1,328 crore in the Rail Budget for 2010-11. Mamata Banerjee has very deftly managed to reduce the impressive cash surplus to this paltry amount. The situation is so dire that the Railways had tried to get a five year waiver of dividend starting 2009-10. And let us not forget that when Ms. Banerjee was the Railway Minister during the NDA regime she had demanded a similar waiver. So much for her efficiency as an able administrator!

In the year 2010-11 the Railways had sought a Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) of Rs. 15,875 crore. This time they have asked to double the GBS to Rs. 39,600 crore. As per the latest official data the expenditures have gone up by Rs. 1.330 crore while the earnings are down by Rs. 1,142 crore taking the net deficit to Rs. 2,500 crore.

The Minister, has very stubbornly, refused to raise the passenger fares because she does not want to burden the common man. How is the common man affected if the fares of the elite classes of long distance trains are raised is beyond the understanding of the ordinary citizens. If the GBS demanded by her is granted by the Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, he would realize it by taxing the aam aadmi. While she does not want to burden her maa mati manus by increasing fares to improve the financial condition of the railways, she cares two hoots if they have to pay additional tax to support her populist budget before the Assembly elections. So desperate is she to grab THE CHAIR.

In the last Union Budget, Banerjee virtually starved the two critical reserves of the Railways - the Development Fund and the Depreciation Reserve Fund – used to purchase and upgrade assets and improve passenger amenities. This definitely is a sign of a bleeding organization. Yet, Ms. Banerjee has gone ahead and announced a revamp of the Kolkata Metro network at a cost of Rs. 11,000 crore.

Mamata Banerjee cannot but blame herself for driving the organization in the red. She has stubbornly refused to raise passenger fares for suburban sections and lower classes on long-distance trains even as the losses from passenger operations were projected to zoom to Rs. 19,120 crore in 2009-10. However, this has not discouraged her from announcing a spate of new trains, thus adding to the losses. Even though she had promised 1,000 km of new lines every year, she has not been able to deliver even 10 percent of that. This should warn us all not to believe any of the promises made by her to the people of Bengal. She is out to take every one for a ride just to realize her dream of sitting on the Chief Minister’s chair. She is a confused person who is driven by just one aim. Therefore, her priorities are all misplaced. She talks a lot about vision but lacks it the most. She has a slapdash approach towards running her ministry. She can only think of her short-term gains and is unmindful of its ramifications on the country.
Source: The Hindu

Ms. Banerjee is well-known for doing her own thing. She rarely, if not never, takes any advice even if it is from the Prime Minister, or the Finance Minister or the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. In the run-up to the last budget the Finance Minister, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, had raised objections to several projects since she had not got the mandatory clearance from the Planning Commission. But that did not stop her from going ahead and laying the foundation stones for those projects. Everything to garner votes in order to become the Chief Minister.

We, the thinking people of West Bengal, will have to see through the game plans of the TMC leader who also happens to be a Cabinet Minister. She has played havoc with the railways in just nineteen months. Should we allow her to do the same with our state? It is time we pondered on this.


Source: Indian Express, India Today, Business Line, Economic Times

An Agenda to Discuss………

Mindless killing of innocents in Jangalmahal (spread across West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia) has left the rational man astounded. Blood shed in the name of any ideology is unacceptable and deserves criticism in the severest terms. Landless tillers, marginal farmers and daily wage earners have been systematically butchered by the Maoists in their self declared mission of attaining a class-less society.

How do the poor, who find it difficult to manage a square meal a day, serve to perpetuate the existing exploitive social order is indeed difficult to fathom. More bewildering is the fact that those owing allegiance to the Left Front have been at the receiving end of the Maoists who swear in the name of revolution and pledge for emancipation of the downtrodden. The prime target of the great peasant war against imperialism, feudalism and the bourgeoisie in West Bengal have been hapless village teachers and marginal farmers. Not a single incident has taken place where the CEO of a Multi-National Corporation or for that matter a clerk or a gate-keeper working there has been victimized by the Maoists. Not a single moneylender or landlord has ever fallen prey to the bullets of Maoists in West Bengal. Interestingly, this party believes in the annihilation of class enemies. Who then, according to them, are these class enemies – are the poor villagers, who live a hand to mouth existence, the class enemies that they are out to annihilate? What is striking is these Maoists have never been visible in any struggle against liberalization, privatization and globalization.

The Maoists claim to be fighting for the rights of the tribes in the forest belt that contains rich deposits of minerals which are of interest to mining companies. Though this argument may be true to some extent in states like Chhatisgarh, Orissa, Bihar and Jharkhand, it does not hold water in West Bengal. The affected districts here do not boast of any mineral reserves. Even though this region is not rich in natural resources, it was considered as the red bastion of West Bengal. The people living in this region have traditionally been left supporters. The Maoists, along with their allies, have, therefore, targeted this region to wean the people away from the Left. The supporters and workers of CPI (M) and their allies have been targeted and killed in the most brutal manner. The primary objective is to convey to the villagers, in no uncertain terms, that they should stop supporting and voting for the Left Front. A weak Left Front in these districts will pave the way for the extreme right-wing parties to spread their tentacles. But what is intriguing is the unholy nexus between an ultra-left organization and an extreme-right party. What common ideology could they possibly have? What could be their meeting point? A fascinating aspect of this bonhomie is that one does not believe in democracy or votes and the other speaks about democracy does not believe in practicing it.

The other cause that has been attributed to the growing influence of the Maoists is that the government has done little for the poor who have been deprived of the fruits of development. This hardly is the truth and presentation of a half lie can be dangerous for any attempt to establish peace in the troubled area. The Maoists, who talk about lack of development in Jangalmahal, has consistently ripped apart roads and destroyed schools. The question now arises, what according to the Maoists are infrastructure. Do they not consider roads and schools as part of developmental projects? Which ideology drove them to blow up the vehicle carrying a doctor and a nurse?

West Bengal is one of the few states where the focus of development has predominantly been on the poor and the underprivileged. Panchayati Raj system in the rural areas has ensured participation of the masses in development work in the villages. Establishment of successful three tier panchayati system serves as a watershed in the field of decenralisation of power. The success story of panchayati system in West Bengal is discussed and praised even by the detractors of the Left parties. That it has left a significant and a progressive impression on the rural socio-economic scenario is established beyond question. Effective transfer of power to the three tier panchayat bodies and allocation of meaningful resources to the rural bodies of self governance are giant strides taken by the Left Front government in making the rural people self reliant.

The indicators which testify the success rate of Panchayati Raj in West Bengal:

(i) Out-migration from villages has virtually stopped and begging in the towns or cities by the villagers is hardly found.
(ii) While in most Indian States, the percentage of rural non-workers has gone up, in West Bengal it has come down.
(iii) Agrarian production has virtually doubled in the last ten years, thereby exceeding all-India average. Bengal today is indeed greener than ever before.
(iv) West Bengal is the only State where the percentage of male agricultural labour in workforce has declined.
(v) The process of polarisation and pauperisation also appears to have been reversed in West Bengal.
(vi) Studies show that the agricultural labourers and the poor peasants in West Bengal have fully profited from the development work of the Panchayats.
(vii) Panchayati system has considerably eradicated village poverty.

Sustained efforts have been made to bring more area under cultivation. At present 78.42 lakh hectares of land is under cultivation and more than 75 % of this area is supported with irrigation. With planned development in agriculture, the state of rural economy has undergone a sea change since the Left Front has assumed power in West Bengal.

The recent times have seen a concentrated attack on the village system in West Bengal. Schools are being burnt, teachers are being shot in open daylight and even the students are not being spared. Elected representatives of village panchayats are killed regularly and many are driven out of villages by the Maoists in the name of effecting change and betterment of rural Bengal. Clearly the developments that have swept across rural Bengal are the cause of discomfort for those who had hitherto called the shots in the villages. The landlords and the moneylenders, for whom the farmers were nothing more than bonded labourers, exploited, underpaid and violated them in every other means. The present state of democratization through village panchayat and the granting of ownership of land to the farmers are state of things that they want changed. Through this chink in the armour walked in the Trinamool Congress Party, who commissioned the so-called revolutionaries into performing the role of private army of the landlords to usurp the rights of the people that they had acquired under the Left regime. TMC is in cahoots with the Maoists to be able to win a few seats in Jangalmahal in the forthcoming Assembly elections. Their desperation to win has blinded their judgment to the extent where they have no qualms about hobnobbing with that force which has been declared as "the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country", in 2006, by none other than the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh. The leader of TMC, Mamata Banerjee, has from an open podium declared that all political prisoners in West Bengal would be released after she became the Chief Minister. It was a clear signal to the Maoists to help her in becoming the Chief Minister in exchange of the freedom of all those Maoists and their sympathizers who are currently behind bars.

In the name of effecting “change” mischief mongers are fomenting trouble for realizing their narrow political gains. Conspiracies are being hatched with sections with vested interests to dislodge the government which believes in the power of the people. It is therefore time for the rationale minded to sit up and assess the nature of the change that is being professed so vociferously .The direction of “Change” has to be critically assessed before we fall in line for “change”.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Indian railways bankrupt under Mamata

From India Today
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/127266/Special%20Report/indian-railways-bankrupt-under-mamata-banerjee.html


The Indian Railways has become a loss making entity
Indian Railways is on the brink of bankruptcy. The ministry has asked the Government to double its budgetary support to Rs 39,600 crore. The Finance Ministry has responded by saying, "Railways need to have a certain discipline." Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee can't blame anybody but herself for putting the organisation in red. Under her stewardship, Indian Railways has registered a sharp decline in earnings and a steep rise in expenditure. She promised 1,000 km of new lines every year but has not been able to deliver even 10 per cent of that. Expenditures have gone up by Rs 1,330 crore and earnings are down by Rs 1,142 crore, taking the net deficit to Rs 2,500 crore. The Operating Ratio (OR) of the Railways is likely to be the highest in recent times. It would be spending Rs 95 to earn every Rs 100. One of the best ORs in recent times was in 2007-08 when the organisation spent as little as Rs 75.9 to earn Rs 100. The Railways' reserves are at its lowest in recent years at Rs 5,000 crore.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia are a worried lot as Banerjee takes no advice. At a meeting with Manmohan and Mukherjee earlier this month, she asked them not to insist on a fare hike. Poised to present what she hopes will be her last Railway Budget, she has asked for a free hand. Banerjee knows it is also her last chance to woo the electorate in West Bengal. So it is going to be another bout of populism: more new lines and trains for her home state.

The Planning Commission has asked Indian Railways to cut its losses from passenger operations, which are at Rs 14,000 crore per year now. The losses were being subsidised by increasing freight charges, which too had come down by Rs 700 crore. The Railways does not have enough money to put into its two critical reserves-the Capital Fund and Development Fund, used to purchase and upgrade assets and improve passenger amenities. The Railways failed to put even a single rupee into the Capital Fund last year too, a sign of a bleeding organisation. Yet, Banerjee has announced a revamp of the Kolkata Metro network at a cost of Rs 11,000 crore.
Payments to suppliers have been held back for the first time in the history of the Railways. "It was bad enough last year when payments to contractors were held till after the budget, to present a relatively better picture. This year, payments to regular suppliers of crucial equipment such as cables used for signalling and fishplates for tracks have been withheld. Many suppliers have complained, saying that even they are running an industry and have to prepare balance sheets," says a senior Railway Board official.

The board has asked all 16 zones to send details of their carry-forward liability. Officials in the budget and finance departments have been trying to figure out how to best present the least scary picture of Railways finances. Here too they are constrained, working without a head. The whimsical minister has not appointed a finance commissioner (FC) since Sowmya Raghavan retired six months ago. Banerjee's handpicked official, additional member Samar Jha, is overseeing budget preparation. "She decided to go ahead with the budget without an FC since it is the official's job to question unnecessary spending and projects. Didi is definitely in no mood to have anything questioned or scrutinised," says a Railways ministry official.

Raghavan had said in March 2010 that "if the trend of spending more and earning less continues, not only the internal generation of funds suffers but there is a very serious threat of the ministry defaulting on the dividend-payment liability". She also said the fund balances have all been utilised, so there are no savings to meet shortfall in internal generation targets. According to Raghavan, unless the Railways controls expenditure and increase earnings on a sustained basis, "survival of the organisation will become a difficult proposition".

Apart from the FC, the Railways has been functioning without a Member (Traffic)-a post vacant for more than a year now. The Member (Traffic) is arguably the most important official, responsible for policy formulation, management of passengers and goods traffic. At a time when the Railways is losing revenue in carrying passengers and goods, the importance of the post can't be undermined.

Another flagship project of the Railways-Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC)-is on the verge of derailment. Manmohan had laid the foundation stone of the project in 2006 but it has not gone beyond that stage. In the last budget speech, Banerjee had promised to get the project on track by revamping the DFC Corporation, in charge of executing the project. Nothing has moved in that direction. In fact, even the position of the managing director (MD) has been vacant after V.K. Kaul was removed five months ago.

Similarly, the Rail India Technical and Economic Services has been functioning without an MD for three months. "Banerjee is just not interested in these day-to-day tasks of running the ministry. Apart from her apathy, crucial decisions get delayed because she rarely comes to Rail Bhavan, functioning out of Kolkata," says another official. "All the files have to be sent there. Since those are important, most of the times, senior ministry officials, including Chairman Railway Board, have to personally take the files to Kolkata. As far as Rail Bhavan is concerned, she is the non-resident Railways minister."

In the run-up to the last budget, Mukherjee had raised objections to several projects which Banerjee had proposed since she had not got the mandatory clearance from the Planning Commission. Subsequently, the prime minister had written a note to Banerjee, making certain suggestions about running the Railways (see box: Prime Concerns). Obviously, Banerjee is in no mood to implement them.
Banerjee flags off the Singur-Howrah Express

An Indian Railways spokesperson defends the organisation's financial mess as something beyond the control of the ministry. Citing figures, he says the Railways had to dish out Rs 55,000 crore over the past three years as arrears and pension under the Sixth Pay Commission. Indian Railways lost Rs 2,500 crore for non-loading of iron ore from Orissa and Karnataka, and another Rs 1,500 crore on account of Maoist and Gurjar protests. The multiple hikes in diesel prices also cost the Railways Rs 1,000 crore. The organisation had to shell out Rs 1,500 crore under the modified assured career growth scheme. "It is a question of increased working expenses. The Railways will be able to overcome the impact in a year or two," he said. Reality defies such optimism.

 
PRIME CONCERNS
  • ABSENCE OF A LONG-TERM VISION: Railways planning is not guided by a clear vision of where it should be 10 to 20 years from now. It should fix specific targets.
  • CAPACITY AUGMENTATION: GDP growth of 9 per cent requires total transport to grow at 10 per cent per year but the Railways is growing at only 7 per cent, leading to a steady loss of freight to roads. Its share is abnormally low at 30 per cent.
  • TECHNOLOGY MODERNISATION: Globally, passenger trains reach 240 kmph, but the average speed of our Shatabdi is 80 kmph.
  • RATIONALISATION OF TARIFF STRUCTURE: The next budget must include a minimum increase of 10 to 15 per cent in Class II passenger fare with no increase in freight. The unbalanced fare structure, with high freight rates and low passenger fares, has several adverse consequences. Indian Railways has consistently resisted the Planning Commission's proposal to set up a statutory regulator to fix fares.
  • LAND ACQUISITION: A disturbing development is the Railways being told to avoid land acquisition and instead "negotiate" with farmers. Unless this is quickly resolved, we can expect long delays.
  • PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: A decision on the role of Public-Private Partnership is urgently needed. The Railways has been reluctant to adopt the PPP model.
  • DEDICATED FREIGHT CORRIDOR: Immediate review of the status of Dedicated Freight Corridor with clear timelines and fixing responsibility.

 

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Aam Admi martyred by Food Inflation watched by Maa Mati Manush


Some time ago it was being suggested by the know-alls that the reason for the rising food prices in India is the increasing purchasing power of the rural people who have benefited immensely from MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act ).

The reason being put forward for the massive increase in the price of essential commodities was the success of the “pro–poor” schemes of the government which reflected in increased demand for food. How ridiculous is that? The most badly hit by the sky rocketing food prices are the aam admi ( maa mati manush ). A similar callous and preposterous statement was made at the World Economic Forum, Davos, by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, when he stated that the recent increase in petrol prices was justified. He did not stop at that. He went on to say that diesel prices would also be decontrolled and increased in the near future. We still do not know what Mamata Banerjee, who touts herself as the messiah of the poor and the marginalised, and her party, TMC, thinks about these issues.
The real reasons that are behind the northwards journey of food prices are very different from what we are being made to believe. The common man is facing the brunt of the neo-liberal policy pursued by the UPA II government of which TMC (the champion of maa mati maush) is the second largest partner. TMC has so far never spelt out its economic policies. Does it have one? Do they know that each political party has to have an economic policy based on which it frames its policies which are then pursued by its government? 

As measured by the WPI (Wholesale Price Index) the inflation rate in India has been rising continuously over the past three years. The overall inflation has been driven by the inflation in food.
 WPI Inflation ( year – on year )
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10
7.99 5.979.0714.52
Source: Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GoI


The latest data reveals an overall inflation of 8.4% in December 2010 while the food inflation stood at 17.05% in the week ending 22nd January 2011. In India where the population is growing at a rate of 1.3% per annum, the demand for food will naturally grow. However, neither food production nor its availability has grown commensurately. The annual per capita cereal availability, in India, in 2008-09 was only around 165 kg. What is intriguing is that the amount is the same as was available in 2000-01. During the same period, i.e. 2008-09, the per capita cereal availability in China was over 290 kg and in the US it was over 1000kg. As if, this was not enough. During 2009-10, despite high GDP growth the per capita cereal availability in India fell to 161 kg.

Even though the know-alls insinuate that the higher purchasing power of rural India is driving the food inflation upwards, the reality is dreadfully different. Both the income and consumption growth is getting disproportionately concentrated with the 10 to 15 percent of the creamy layer of the population. This section of the population is the sole beneficiary of the GDP growth. According to the Arjun Sengupta Commission report, 77 percent of the Indian population spends less than Rs. 20 per head per day. How someone with such meager purchasing power drive the consumption level high is any body’s guess.

The immediate reason causing the sudden surge in the prices of specific food items, like onions, is illegal hoarding to create a simulated scarcity to fleece people. Speculative activity or future trading has also created pressures on the market. Unscrupulous traders, powered by a bumbling government, are responsible for this.

The PDS, which can play a very critical role in moderating such food price escalation and controlling inflationary expectations and tendencies of hoarding, has been deliberately weakened. In most states, the role of the ration shops, state agencies like the NAFED etc. and consumer cooperatives in food distribution, have been whittled down.

Food production, in India, has not kept up with the growing population. Agriculture is in deep crisis. The government is not doing enough to raise agricultural productivity. There has been a deceleration in agricultural growth. The reason for this could be that the economists who are running the government apparently believed that the food demand would not, or may I say should not, increase much even in periods of significant income growth and among a population that has some of the worst nutrition indicators in the world. And may be because of this they did not see any need to work towards increased supply of food. The annual average farm growth which was 4.72 percent in the 8th Plan Period (1992 – 97) has slowed down to 2.13 percent in the 10th Plan Period (2002 – 07). “The primary answer to food price inflation lies in improved agricultural production,” said C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. The cuts in fertilizer subsidy and hikes of diesel prices are also contributing to the rising food inflation.

The know-alls argue that the only solution to the problem of high food prices is to bring in FDI in retail. They would like us to believe that this will reduce wastage in storage and costs of transport of food items, cut out the intermediaries in distribution and provide food more effectively to consumers at lower prices. However, this argument does not hold water. If the traditional supply chains are so deficient, why is it that such enormous hike in food prices did not happen earlier? Despite equally rapid GDP growth and the same system of distribution that is now being faulted, why was food inflation relatively low in the period until 2006?

If the problem is inadequate cold storage facilities and inefficient distribution network from the farm to the market, why proactive steps were not taken to correct the ills? The government would like us to believe that the only solution to these problems is the involvement of corporate retail (FDI).

International evidence indicates that corporate monopoly in food trade typically increases distribution margins rather than reducing them. The stalwart leaders of the ruling Congress make it a point to talk about the aam admi at every given opportunity. They would want us to believe that their “pro-poor” policies have worked wonders to the lives of the have-nots of this country. But the stark reality is that they are trying every trick in their knowledge to pave the way for FDI in retail food market. Corporate retail will drive the small retail out of business. If Wal-Mart and other global and local corporate are allowed to enter the retail sector, many farmers will be driven off land, into debt or suicide. The much talked about Second Green Revolution, as envisaged by the government, will be brought about by Monsanto and Wal-Mart, will undermine our farmers’ livelihoods and our food sovereignty.

TMC in general and Mamata Banerjee in particular have not said much on this burning issue, which directly affects the lives of the poor, other than blaming the state government. Has anyone ever heard Ms. Banerjee spell out what she would do, if she became the chief minister, to control the rising prices? Has anyone ever heard her enunciate what she would do to assuage the untold sufferings of the common man who are the worst sufferers of escalating food prices? Has any one ever heard her defining her party‘s policies in allaying the difficulties faced by the small and marginal farmers? She makes a big show of her empathy for maa, mati manush at every opportunity that she gets. Scandalous amount of money is spent in putting up banners and hoardings to pay homage to maa mati manush. Books are written and paintings are done. But when it is time for her to come out in support of that same maa mati manush she is busy calculating her chances of becoming the chief minister. Hence she cannot afford to take a position which might antagonize her coalition partner and ruin her chances of making a grand entry to the seat of power. What is more worrying is the lack of any particular economic policy of this party.

We, therefore, need to be very careful while electing our next state government. We have to elect a party which has a very clear economic policy. We have to keep in mind, while electing, that the government is genuinely pro-poor and will work for the welfare of the common man and not pander only to the privileged few. The people of West Bengal should be very vigilant and keep opportunistic political parties at bay. Parties like the TMC, which are not governed by any ideology or programmes, are out to fool the public to further their own narrow agenda. We should be on our guard and not allow these opportunists to mess up our lives and livelihoods.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Welfare of the people as defined by the Trinomool Congress Party

Trinomool Congress Party (TMC) swept to power in the 141 – ward Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) with 95 seats in June 2010. Sovon Chatterjee, a loyalist of party supremo, Mamata Banerjee (better known as ‘Jol Sovon ’, since he was the mayor in council in charge of city water supply between 2000-2005) was chosen by the later as the mayor of kolkata. With Chatterjee’s elevation to the post of the mayor hopes were raised, and rightly so, that the water distribution in the city would improve. But in the seven and half months that he has been at the helm we did not hear much about the water supply in the city. Of course, he made headlines by not attending the meetings convened by the state Urban Development minister, by leading a procession to the Bhowanipore police station, by declining to install water metres, by gracing various inaugurations and foundation stone laying ceremonies of the Railway ministry and for various other reasons. He also made it to the headlines of all leading newspapers when he was ‘playfully’ pushed into the swimming pool by his party chief or when he splashed around at the Ganga Sagar. But rarely have we seen or heard him hitting the headlines doing the job for which he has been elected by the people.

But Sovon Chatterjee has endeared himself to the people of his ward and ensured his sixth election to the Corporation by gifting the residents of his ward four fountains at the Parnasree Lake. Make no mistake – they are no ordinary fountains. Three of these will float on the lake while the fixed one will fill our ears with musical tones all day long. In days not too long ago floating fountains graced only the world’s majestic places like royal palaces and state buildings! (So much for ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’!!) Installing these fountains would cost a whopping Rs. 3.5 crore. According to a senior official of the KMC parks department, the Corporation would have to shell out, on a moderate estimate, Rs. 80 – 90 lakh per year for the maintenance of the fountains including electricity charges.

Three months after assuming office, Chatterjee decided that he would need the services of two brand new Scorpio SUVs in order to serve the people of Kolkata. As if this was not enough, fresh orders to buy three luxury vans were placed in the month of October to the KMC motor vehicles department.  One of these luxury vans is a 10-seater. The other two vans, as per the instructions of the mayor, were converted into video-conference coach. Even by a moderate estimate the Trinamool run Corporation has spent Rs. 65 lakh of taxpayers’ money and that too within just five months of assuming office. Now the question which is bothering us is what purpose will this fleet of super expensive cars serve? Well, the citizens of Kolkata are being treated to a hitherto unusual sight of a long mayoral convoy with most of the cars tagging along. Chatterjee reasons that the Scorpios are a part of his security (strange the previous mayor, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, a Senior Advocate of Calcutta High Court and the ex – Advocate General for the state of Tripura, did not require such elaborate security arrangements). He said that the two luxury vans would be used for on-road video conferences with KMC officials under “special circumstances”. The mayor sees nothing wrong in this acquisition or in the expenditure. Mamata Banerjee, who likes to portray herself as the epitome of simple living and the lone crusader against all wrongdoings is very mysteriously silent over the whole issue. Or should we assume that it is her way of indulging or repaying Sovon Chatterjee for having remained loyal to her when all others had deserted her? Whatever may be the reason the fact remains that taxpayers’ money was wasted to fulfill the whim of the mayor.

The water from the river Ganga is filtered at great cost and supplied to the citizens of Kolkata as drinking water. 35 to 50 percent of this filtered water flows down the drain, literally. That means almost 10 million gallon of filtered water is wasted daily. The financial implication is wastage to the tune of Rs. 4 lakh daily. Even though the mayor is not willing to concede to this amount he had no way out but to accede to the fact that transportation of water from Palta causes a lot of leakage due to the faulty pipelines. Each and every pipeline would have to be either repaired or replaced and it would involve huge money. The Kolkata Municipal Corporatio has money to install and maintain floating and musical fountains to entertain citizens but does not have enough money to repair and replace pipes that distribute drinking water to the people of the city! The mayor has money to indulge in his fad for SUVs and luxury vans but KMC does not have the money to repair or replace the century old pipes to stop the wastage of filtered drinking water that is processed at a huge cost. ( So much for ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’!!)

Shouldn’t maa, mati, manush shudder in horror to think what lies in store for them if TMC, of which Sovon Chatterjee is a very important component, brings about the “ poriborton ” in the forthcoming assembly election? Can this party be trusted to provide better governance than the incumbent government? A party with misplaced priorities and no sense of governance cannot be trusted with running the state. A party, which talks about the ordinary people only to garner votes, but has scant regard for their welfare, cannot be trusted with the reins of the government. A party which is all sound and fury and no substance can not be entrusted with a responsibility that affects the lives and livelihoods of crores of people. Running a government is not about making tall promises. It involves a certain amount of insight and genuine compassion for the ordinary people which the TMC and its leaders lack. Fiery speeches do not make a great and compassionate administrator.

Sources : Times of India, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Tara TV