Round The States

New Delhi, 1 October, 2016

Kingdoms of Swachcha

TINY STATES SHOW THE WAY

By Insaf

On the second anniversary of India’s Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan tomorrow Prime Minister Modi has much to be pleased about. Two tiny States Sikkim and Himachal have put to shame their larger brethren by notching up the title of being the Kingdoms of Swachcha. Pertinently, both have the maximum percentage of villages that are ‘open defection free’. Surprisingly, three cities in drought-hit Karnataka coastal Mangaluru, Udipi and Mysore too boast of similar credentials. Sikkim topped with all its four districts being squeaky clean followed by Himachal with a score card of 55.95 per cent. Other better performing States with village level achievements are again small Haryana and Meghalaya with 41 per cent each, Gujarat  37.58 per cent, Chhattisgarh 24.91 per cent and Rajasthan 23.83 per cent. In fact, Mysore has topped the list of clean cities since this Abhiyan started and with Mangaluru snapping at its heels. On the household toilet front Kerala leads with 19.92 per cent. However, performances of other States have been abysmal. The less said the better of Kejriwal’s Delhi which perhaps will go down as the filthiest Capital in the throes of Dengue and Chikungunya.

This is not all. The BIMARU States: Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh seem to have turned a new leaf and are the torch bearers of urban municipal reforms. A finding by the Union Urban Development Ministry after 23 States and Union Territories submitted their claims for 436 of the 500 cities covered under the renewal mission, AMRUT. It was found that these four States topped the charts vis-a-vis e-governance, double entry accounting, water and energy audit and 90 per cent collection of municipal taxes and user charges. The icing on the cake for these States is a reward of Rs.400 crores under the aegis of the Indian Sanitation Event. Also, UP’s Lucknow, Allahabad and Mathura, Madhya Pradesh’s Raipur and Dewas alongwith Chandigarh, Surat, Thiruvananthapuram, Vijayawada, Aizwal and Cuttack showed a collection of 90 per cent in municipal taxes. Add to this Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat topped the clean chart among big States as best performers. The competition for betterment continues.

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Rajasthan For Belt Tightening

Tighten your belt is the clarion call resounding in Rajasthan wherein Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has cracked the whip in the face of an acute revenue deficit and a Rs.10,000 crores burden of the seventh pay commission. The State Government plans to rationalise posts in each department by merging unnecessary jobs. Towards that end, the Administration intends increasing the use of technology thereby reducing the dependence on manual labour. Undeniably, these measures will not only help reduce the bulging salary bill but would also make cash available for schemes for people’s betterment. But this is easier said than done given that the bureaucracy is not willing to eliminate posts, instead they would like additional personnel. However, crippled by a revenue shortfall of over Rs.15,000 crores the Chief Minister refuses to play ball with her officials. Her mantra: if there is no money in the State exchequer how can I implement your pay hike, seems to have worked magic.

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Rampant Power Theft In Punjab

Amidst the power tussle in the run-up to the State Assembly poll in Punjab, power of a different kind has tripped many senior Akali leaders. Scandalously, the State has lost over Rs.880 crores in two years due to electricity thefts in areas under the control of the ruling Akali Dal legislators  Worse, the constituencies of the State’s First Family Badals’ have reported the biggest losses. Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal’s constituency suffered around 32 per cent distribution loss much higher than the State’s average of 12.71 per cent and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir’s area too reported a loss of 31 per cent. More shocking is that bureaucrats are refusing to take action against SAD leaders indulging in power thefts given that an enforcement team was assaulted and locked up in State Finance Minister Majithia’s constituency but no FIR was registered. Predictably, this has added fodder to SAD’s political rivals specially the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress. Additionally, the BJP too is red in the face over cutting a sorry figure when it comes to promoting the NDA Government’s radical power sector reforms with an aim of lightening every home in the country by 2019.  It remains to be seen how it will cover up this loss of power!

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Jobs Not Azadi In Kashmir

There is a ray of new hope in strife torn Kashmir. With the valley’s youth preferring police jobs to stone pelting and cries of Azadi. Boasting of high unemployment and sloganeering not putting food on their tables the harsh reality of life has led youngsters to line up for jobs to improve their prospects. Many of the slogan shouters have applied for post of Special Police Officer, a temporary position with a start-up salary of Rs. 5,000. So far over 26,000 youth have applied for jobs in the Kashmir Police Force even as the Government weeds out hardcore pro-secessionists students. The State Government has its fingers crossed that this is the first break through in the violence which has griped the State in its vicious tentacles. Will a desire for jobs banish cries for azadi?

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Kerala Politicos Kill Dogs

After the hullaballoo over the carcasses of cows in Gujarat and UP, Kerala is in the eye of a novella storm by its politicos showcasing and parading the carcasses of stray dogs. This comes on the heels of the death of a woman after she suffered dog bite last week along-with another old lady being devoured by stray canines in Capital Thiruvananthapuram. Led by the DGP Kozhikode angry workers of the Youth Front (Mani) killed ten dogs and took out a rally in Kottayam even as Union Women’s Minister and dog lover Maneka Gandhi cried foul. Till date this year over 51,000 people have been bitten by dogs and four deaths have been reported. According to the Youth Front President should dogs take precedence over humans? All eyes are on how Kerala deals with the canine menace! ----INFA

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