Infra problems continue to dog MP in 2010

Though it claimed better financial management and a handsome growth of nine per cent during 2010, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had no clue how to manage the precarious power outage and infrastructure during the year 2010. His government tried to make a few attempts to do a makeover through enacting a Bill, Public Services Guarantee Act, and global investors’ summit at Khajuraho. The commoners, particularly in rural Madhya Pradesh, remained the worst sufferers.

Last week, a farmers’ agitation near the chief minister’s house exposed his government’s claim of better governance through public participation in contrast to the government’s claim of ‘most significant legislation guaranteeing timely delivery of services to people’. During the previous government regime, farmers were yet crying for frequent power cuts, poor irrigation facilities and low credit to agriculture sector. Besides, Bhartiya Kisan Sangh-a Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh affiliated organisation alleged the market remained increasingly flooded with fake seeds and fertilisers and the government had made no efforts to control incidences of such crime against farmers.

“A 72-km moon-surfaced patch connecting Bhopal and Hoshangabad takes a two-and-a-half hours drive, isn’t it self-evident to the claims of the government that it had made significant efforts to overhaul the roads,” says an ex-bureaucrat on conditions of anonymity. The government seems to be taking social agenda in its hands like organising mass-marriage drive like Kanyadan Yojana, Atal Bal Mission, Aap Banaye Apna Madhya Pradesh (let’s build a better Madhya Pradesh) and Swarnim Madhya Pradesh, in contrast the government machinery remained elusive at the delivery points, the official added. “If the government has made some efforts then why does Madhya Pradesh top the malnutrition figures among children and high child mortality rates?” the official asked, “While on one hand, the chief minister launched his Vanvasi Samman Yatra, on the other hand, an eviction drive is also effective in various forest ranges to oust Vanvasis (forest dwellers). The most glaring example is how ineffective the government is when the chief minister had to intervene in a matter of forceful selling of tribal land in the Panna district.”

Denying such claims, a senior government official said, “The construction of memorials of tribal martyrs, 30 per cent royalties on minerals for local development, minimum support price for few minor forest produce, appointment of 80,000 teachers, 30 per cent of profit from timber to members of forest protection committees, skill development campaign for tribal youths, one per cent Mandi tax on cotton were the outcome of a feedback during the Vanvasi Samman Yatra.” The official further said, the global investors’ meet in Khajuraho was a highly successful business event in terms of investment commitments. This witnessed the announcement of a new Industrial Promotion Policy 2010.