More to do, Mr Prime Minister

When the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance started its second stint after winning the 2009 parliamentary polls, it had an ambitious agenda. “The people’s verdict tells us that above all else they crave honest and capable governance and decency in public life. We must not disappoint them,” Sonia Gandhi had said after being elected the chairperson of the new Congress Parliamentary Party on May 20, 2009.

Noting that the UPA had got the people’s mandate for “inclusive growth,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had stressed that equitable growth would continue to be a priority. At the same time, he had also noted that ensuring inclusive growth would not be possible without new investments and economic reforms. “This requires revitalisation of agriculture and acceleration of industrial development. We have to continue to keep our savings and investment rates high and become globally more competitive so that we can face global economic challenges.”

One-and-a-half-years later, as one scam after another has put Singh’s government in a tight spot, the UPA-II also finds itself not performing well when it comes to delivering on the promises it started with.

Food for thought

Take the case of much-hyped National Food Security Bill (NFSB) for instance. The Bill was intended to provide underprivileged sections of the society with legal entitlement to specific quantities of rice and wheat at very cheap prices every month. It was projected as the UPA’s next landmark initiative after Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), which it enacted during its 2004-09 tenure. It was also a key poll promise of the Congress.

Though 21 months have passed since the UPA-II Government assumed office, the NFSB is yet to become a reality – particularly due to differences between Gandhi-led National Advisory Council and Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council headed by eminent economist C Rangarajan.

The NAC, which was constituted to set the UPA Governments’ social sector agenda, had recommended that the Food Security Bill should ensure legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains for at least 72% and 75% of the country’s population in two phases – first phase in 2011 and the final phase in 2014. Dividing the beneficiaries into two categories, the NAC sought monthly entitlement of 35 Kg (equivalent to 7 Kg per person) of grains for priority households (46 per cent in rural areas and 28 per cent in urban areas) at the rate of Re 1 a kg for millets, Rs 2 for wheat and Rs 3 for rice and 20 Kg (equivalent to 4 Kg per person) for general households (44 per cent in rural areas and 22 per cent in urban areas) at a price not exceeding half the existing Minimum Support Price for the grains.

But the expert committee headed by Rangarajan pointed out that it would not be possible to implement the NAC recommended food entitlements for either of the phases, as the total foodgrain availability with the government in 2011-12 and 2013-14 would be 56.35 million tonnes and 57.61 million tonnes respectively.

NAC persistent

Though the Rangarajan Committee said that the projection of foodgrain availability was based on current production and procurement trends, the NAC members did not find it convincing.

The NAC dug its heels in and is moving ahead to draft the proposed legislation, almost brushing aside the reservations of the Rangarajan Committee, ostensibly to offset the impact of the taints that the serial scams left on the image of the Government.

If the MNREGA and Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, gave significant political capital to the UPA-I, it is now being squandered away with the full benefits of the landmark initiatives in many cases not percolating down to people whom they were meant for. In case of MNREGA, several critical issues have come up, including delay in payments, inadequacy of mechanism for redressing grievances and poor quality of the assets being created by the programme. The Forest Rights Act, intended to undo the historic injustice done to the tribal people and forest dwellers, was weighed down by dismal performance of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in overseeing its implementation. A study revealed that it had not yet been implemented in as many as 11 states. Though the main intention of the Act was to promote community participation in management of forest, the study showed that community rights over MFPs had been recognised only in negligible cases.

Aam Aadmi totters

While the Government boasts of high growth rate of the economy, it hardly has any meaning for the Aam Aadmi, who has been hit hard by spiralling prices with no significant rise in his income.

 The Government also failed to expedite the implementation of Bharat Nirman, which includes the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, Indira Awas Yojana, National Rural Drinking Water Programme and Rural Telephony, let alone plugging the leakages in its scheme of giving loans to farmers at subsidised interest rates.

Several key measures for economic reforms like opening up the country’s insurance sector to greater foreign participation or opening up the multi-brand retail for foreign direct investment were also put on the backburner.

Though the Prime Minister lauded Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last week for presenting what he called a growth-oriented budget with clear signal of the reform agenda of the Government, many feel the UPA-II needs to do much more.

Inputs from Aditya Raj Das

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