The govt must stick to its course for development: Bhartruhari Mahtab

Make in India is just a slogan. Nothing much has happened because of various other factors that affected our economy.

Swachh Bharat has definitely created awareness and major funding has been done to build toilets and it also in a way empowers women. But despite efforts, the target has not been met. However, water consumption has increased manifold.

I have seen that those villages that were declared Nirmal Gram during the UPA regime had open defecation. Similarly, the Swachh Bharat campaign has also not given the fully desired result.

One has to go stage by stage — first provide toilets with regular water supply, second have community toilets, third put in place solid waste management which many urban bodies do not do have, and finally keep the water bodies clean.

Under PMJDY lots of accounts have been opened, but still, in my State there are many gram panchayats that do not have adequate banking facility. Jan Dhan account is used for direct benefit transfer.

But, where such an account is not in operation due to lack of banking facility, how can the DBT work? Most of the unprivileged sections of the society are unable to get the benefit which comes with the PMJDY.

MUDRA of course is a new nomenclature, but essentially an old wine in new bottle. My fear is that under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) — loans up to ₹10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises — ‘Shishu’, ‘Kishore’ and ‘Tarun’ — is provided without any collateral, and so it may end up like another bomb to explode with rising NPAs.

So, unless adequate steps are taken the whole amount of money will go down the drain. Besides, whatever is being said about the number of people who have benefited through this scheme I have my doubts because the figures do not match.

PMAY was one of the major declarations of 2014 when Narendra Modi government came into power — to provide pucca houses to every household.

But full utilisation of the budgeted money has not happened. Also, the utilised money has not been accounted for.

I feel that it is a good programme which needs to be sustained and provided adequate funds for some more years.

What about Smart Cities Programme?

The development of smart cities depends on how much an urban body can bring in from different sources of the government. The Union Government thinks there will be competition by doing so. I think it is not conducive to our environment. There are some well-to-do urban areas and there are certain cities which are economically not viable, where Union government’s support is necessary. If you leave most of the urban areas to be on their own you cannot develop smart cities.

But, the good thing is that in the smart cities that have been identified, a consciousness has developed. The negative part is that it is bureaucracy-driven. Until and unless people come forward and the bureaucracy extends its supporting hand we cannot develop smart cities.

Besides, after GST has come there is no provisioning for providing funds for the development of cities. It is only the State and the Centre that is appropriating the tax. The entry tax that was collected for the development of urban areas does not exist any more. So there is a necessity that the Finance Commission, while distributing the devolution of funds, should also suggest devolution of the funds for urban areas.

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