For people?s sake, don?t play politics

WHAT?S IN a name? Lots, politicians would say. Take for instance Urban Development Minister Mohd Azam Khan. He has strong reservations over affixing of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru?s name to the ambitious National Urban Renewal Mission, irrespective of the benefits that the scheme entails for urban development.

WHAT’S IN a name? Lots, politicians would say. Take for instance Urban Development Minister Mohd Azam Khan. He has strong reservations over affixing of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s name to the ambitious National Urban Renewal Mission, irrespective of the benefits that the scheme entails for urban development.

HT Image

He is least inspired by the fact that the state would get 50 per cent Central grant and will have to share barely 20 per cent of the financial burden as the defunct local bodies will be left with no option but to augment their revenue to meet their share of 30 per cent.

However, the minister, who feeds politics when we need drinking water, says curtly, that too from a public platform provided by Doordarshan, “If you want us to dish out money in the name of Jawaharlal Nehru, may it be so”.

The fact that the funds would help meet the growing requirements of roads and civic infrastructure of expanding cities hardly stimulated him into action, though for every civic problem that the state capital faces, he found a readymade alibi in “Lucknow is growing up to Barabanki”. Whatsoever, the minister, who claims to be guided by the media on public issues, believes that there is no water scarcity in the state. Perhaps he has missed the reports with screaming headlines: “Riots on Water, Power”. Can he be really so naïve or is he being pretentious? Perhaps the latter, as concern over the drying up Ganga seems to have missed his eye as he quips: “How can there be water scarcity when we have Ganga, Yamuna”.

And a minister who refuses to admit water scarcity is unlikely to admit the polluted water that the people of the state are getting.

One wonders if the state government would actually stir into action if the scheme was called Ram Manohar Lohia National Urban Renewal Mission. As for the public what matter are cleaner cities, wider roads, name the scheme on whomsoever you so desire. But then politicians are known for locking horns over such petty issues – remember Mayawati and Kalyan Singh who kept renaming Hathras. She named it Mahamayanagar but it was rolled back to Hathras when Kalyan came to power.

Instances like this are galore. Do we vote for name or for work? Perhaps there the voter may have to take a stand.

It’s strange the urban development minister who can be tough on bureaucracy, if he so desired, did not touch the nerve issue of 74th amendment (dealing with powers to elected bodies), which has been kept in abeyance by successive governments. In fact, the few steps that the state had taken during Kalyan Singh’s regime were rolled back by his successor Ram Prakash Gupta leading to more chaos than before.

Not that there has been speedy movement in other states, barring Kerala and West Bengal, where the implementation was made mandatory, but UP and Bihar are the two states where the all-powerful bureaucracy has stalled the implementation of 74th Amendment despite the stream of powerful chief ministers the state had -- Rajnath Singh, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Mayawati.

Why? Answer is simple. The bureaucracy does not want financial powers to go to the elected bodies -- zila parishad chairmen in the rural areas and mayor in the urban pockets as it would undermine the authority of the all-powerful collectors.

But the political tricks played by the political parties in grabbing the gram panchayats, zila panchayats and local bodies in recent past indicates that the politicians are realising that the 74th Amendment would become a reality in the years to come.

The mayors all over the country have been active. They have not only discussed and debated the issue, but have approached the country’s prime minister, the urban development minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

They are hopeful that soon a joint session of both the Houses would be convened to make necessary amendments in the Act to make implementation of 74th Amendment mandatory all over the country.

Perhaps by then the politicians may also agree as they -- the one in power -- would have all the elected bodies under their party banner, either by hook or crook.

All of us have seen the Governor openly admonish the police for its role in panchayat elections. This speaks volumes of what goes on right under the nose of the government.