In today’s era of information revolution, catching such theft is a game of left hand. Through satellite surveys, the implementation of every project can be completely monitored and theft can be detected to a large extent. But if any member of the bureaucracy does the work of detecting theft, he will hide the truth for many reasons. If the same monitoring work is done by reputed voluntary organizations or individuals across the country, then there will be considerable success, if not complete, in stopping theft.
The central government has been giving thousands of crores of rupees to the provincial governments to make barren lands, deserts and dry areas green. But the district officials and leaders, in collusion, siphon off a lot of money from it. False figures are sent to the Central Government through the provincial government, but experts on this subject cannot be misled by paper figures. Today, by looking at the images of the land of every state from satellite cameras, we can ensure that wherever the claims of turning dry land green are true, they are true.
Actually this is nothing new. Thousands of crores of rupees have been wasted like water by the provincial governments over the years in the name of development schemes. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s statement that out of every rupee sent by the Centre, only 14 paise reaches the public is now outdated. Even the Right to Information Act will not be able to tell the public how many crores of rupees of development has been done on every yard of land around it in the last 70 years.
Be it road construction or sewerage, tree plantation or digging of ponds, tube well planning or flood control, health services or education campaigns, billions and trillions of rupees have been spent on paper. But the situation in the country is not improving even at the speed of a tortoise. The public is struggling for two square meals and the bureaucracy, leaders and mafia have progressed thousands of times. Anyone who becomes a member of this club, barring a few exceptions, grows by leaps and bounds. Central Vigilance Commission, CBI, Lokpal and courts are not able to stop him even a hair.
The government officials who make plans in the district make plans with a view to reduce the work and get higher commission. They get the protection of local MLAs and MPs of every party. That’s why these leaders keep announcing big schemes in newspapers every day. If the cost of their announced schemes and the work done on the spot is investigated, then milk of milk and water of water will be revealed. The media should have done this work. Used to do it earlier also.
But now the leader keeps getting his statements with big claims published prominently in the local newspapers by making hidden payments at the rate of column centimeter. The news of those who do concrete work in the same area does not become news, but fake statements are continuously published with a bang.
These corrupt officers and construction companies are exposed when highways or expressways built at a cost of billions of rupees, just a few days after their inauguration, either sink or get badly damaged due to lack of quality. It is not that such fraud happens only on road routes. It has also been seen when railway tracks caved in and a train accident occurred.
On the other hand, a huge network of professional consultants has been established from the district to the province and from the province to the centre. These consultants charge fees from the government ten times their capacity and return up to 90 percent of it as commission to the officers and leaders who provide them the work. Without surveying the area, without knowing the local expectations, without evaluating the success of the project, DPR (Detailed Action Plan) is made only for the sake of fulfillment. Even if J.N.R.U.M. Be it MNREGA, DPR of Tourism Department or rural development, the percentage of fraud in all remains very high. This is the reason why a lot of plans are made, a lot of money comes in, but the situation does not improve.
In today’s era of information revolution, catching such theft is a game of left hand. Through satellite surveys, the implementation of every project can be completely monitored and theft can be detected to a large extent. But if any member of the bureaucracy does the work of detecting theft, he will hide the truth for many reasons. If the same monitoring work is done by reputed voluntary organizations or individuals across the country, then there will be considerable success, if not complete, in stopping theft.
Not only the Minister of Rural Development but every Minister should take the help of technological revolution. A simple way to prevent haste in planning is for the District Magistrate to put his plans on the website and ask the people of the district to register their objections and suggestions within 15 days. The correct suggestions of the public should be implemented. Only meaningful, useful and concrete plans should be sent to the Central Government and the State.
Pictures of weekly progress of implementation of schemes should also be posted on the website. So that its shortcomings can be exposed by aware citizens. This will help in keeping an eye on these schemes among the general public at every level and will strengthen our democracy. Then there will be no need for people like Baba Ramdev or Anna Hazare to awaken the people against the governments.
Today, the credibility of every government, whether central or provincial, has fallen significantly in the eyes of the public and if the situation continues like this, the situation will worsen further. The country and state governments will have to change their entire thinking and understanding. Information about any officer, expert, professional or voluntary organization which has done exemplary work in any field across the country should be disseminated repeatedly among the public, on government initiative. This will provide inspiration and knowledge to the rest of the country also.
Then the virtuous powers will increase and the country will develop properly. There is still scope for improvement. Along with achieving the target, attention should be given to quality. Only time will tell whether the claims made as a result of these announcements live up to the quality standards? Since corruption always spreads in such schemes? In such a situation, will the leaders who claim to serve the public interest actually be able to serve the public interest?