As the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government completes two years and approaches mid-term, a Citizens’ Report said the time for “verbosity” on the promises made were over, pointing out that while the country was making a global mark, the marginalised communities “have not kept pace with this growth.”

Jobs creation The report, the second one by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, an umbrella of civil society groups, reviewed the NDA government’s performance in all sectors, while pointing out that it was still wanting on its promise of setting up a Lokpal, creating a robust grievance redress mechanism, resolving the land question, creating jobs, addressing agrarian distress and safeguarding the environment, among others.

Social justice Referring to the poor allocation for marginalised communities, CPI leader D Raja, a Rajya Sabha MP, said: “We all celebrated Ambedkar’s 125th Birthday. Ambedkar introduced the concept of constitutional morality. The political idea of India is democracy. The economic idea of India is fair distribution of wealth and social justice.”

Amitabh Kundu, Economist and Professor, pointed out the “policy confusion” in the Smart Cities mission. “There has been huge allocation in the beginning but low spending. First, there was ₹7,062 crore budget, but ₹900 crore was spent. Allocation was for 100 cities. Then ₹1,000 crore allocation was made but not all was spent. This year, it’s only ₹400 crore for 20 cities. So, there’s confusion”, he said.

The report, released here on Monday and authored by 32 civil society members, said its focus was on “accountability” and “holding up a mirror to show how people’s lives have been impacted over the past year with the hope that it will contribute to strengthening accountability, deepening democracy and developing necessary processes.” 

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