BIMARU States must hear the warning bells?
Posted : July 23, 2004 at 8:39 pm [IST]
Today, even Pawan Chamling, Chief Minster of a small border state such as Sikkim wants the centre to think of rewarding well-administered states and penalizing those that aren’t administered well. At one time, Mr. Naidu, the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, much to the dislikes of the politicians of the BIMARU states had expressed similar views to the then NDA government.
I do not think the progressive states of South can tolerate the poor governance of the Bimaru states particularly of Bihar and UP. Both these states had been historically getting advantage of the position that they send the maximum number of MPs. In the central cabinet the Political leaders of these two states used to hold the majority of key portfolios. Many of the centrally financed projects got located in these states because of the pressure from them. Right from Jagjivan Ram, most of the Railway ministers were from Bihar. Even today, it is again Laloo Yadav who is the boss of railways and so the biggest enterprise of the country serves naturally the interest of his state better. But over the period the states performance is getting poorer and poorer. On Human Development Index, Bihar is the poorest. Population control has been ineffective. Decennial growth of population as percentage in1991and 2001 is 28.4 for Bihar- the highest among all states. Uttar Pradesh is not much better with the percentage being 25.8. The figure for Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are respectively 13.9 and 11.2. Percentage of population below poverty line in Bihar and UP is respectively 42.6 and 31.2, whereas that fro Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is respectively 15.8 and 21.1
On corruption index, Bihar and UP are at the top. With the family of Laloo ruling Bihar, one can not hope for any improvement, even though he is now the main ally of Congress in UPA. So, Bihar in the present budget has been given a package of Rs 3,225 crore. The administration is not only corrupt to the core. They can not have a vision that is required for running a state. All the time they will be looking to either Rabri Devi or Laloo Yadav for guidelines. They can not do anything that brings the displeasure of the chair. UP is fast catching Bihar. With Mulayam Singh after Mayawati, people expected things to improve. But it is proving otherwise. Mulayam is busy in fighting for his existence. By bringing in Pota- convict Raju Bhaiya in ministry, he has proven that his political priorities more important than the welfare of the people of the state. He is bent on spoiling the future of NOIDA and Greater NOIDA by merging the two upcoming townships that were competing with Gurgaon- particularly for IT industry. As a citizen, how can stop thinking about a state where you were born and where you decided to settle down for life.
- Indra
Category: Indian politics |
Leave a Comment