Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Bharat Mata Ki ....

Once again the stupid common man in India faced the sharp sword of government in the form of steepest price hike of second most commonly used liquid after water that is Petrol. Though oil companies has its own rational behind price hike but I cant rule out the fact that there is no control on hike by the government. Its very simple, when there is an election going on, even there is a boom in crude oil cost or blah blah, you wont see any price rise until the election is over. So if the government says that the oil companies are independent to decide the price, it is just an eyewash. I am neither a big economist nor I have thorough knowledge of how our indian economy works but despite that using my common sense there are many question came to my mind which i could not find any answer for it. One of my good friend tried to justify the price hike with some facts, but let me pen down few of the question for which i am seeking some good rational answer. Also few days back, there was a little hike in railway fair, but it was rolled back due to blackmail by a certain leader citing that it is a burden on poor and hungry indians. The fare hike was minimum and was supported by million of indians and could have helped indian railway to breath little easy, but due to compulsion it was rolled back. But now the Rs. 7.50 hike in petrol per liter is not gonna kill anyone as per the government standard and it is not gonna effect any poor and hungry indians.

Let us step back to sometime back when petrol price was not deregulated. Government of india has started many scheme to benefit the stupid common man viz. Employment guaranty scheme (which guaranty minimum wage to the workers even though they are not working), Mid day meal scheme (to attract more children to school) and many such schemes. When the oil prices was not deregulated, lot of money from government use to go to the oil companies (to compensate the loss) and that money government use to get from public in the form of direct and indirect taxes mainly on petrol and other commodities. Now when the petrol price is deregulated (which means the oil companies are free to decide the price of petrol and government is no more liable to pay any loss occurred by the oil firms), but government still levied the same amount of tax on public and those money now used by government for other purpose instead of paying the oil firm for their loss. Now there is a situation here, a common man has to pay the tax as as well as oil firms are free to rise the price of petrol as a result of which we see the price hike in every quarter in petrol citing various reason.


 Now lets see how the other scheme has ruined india and also triggered rampant corruption. The schemes like rural employment guarantee scheme, mid day meal scheme are ambitious (This schemes are mostly run on the money which are collected in the form of taxes on petrol, and this tax money were paid to oil companies before to minimize their loss when the Petrol price was not deregulated as per our PM in one of the interview said indirectly) . But in India, when public get something for free, they simply forget the motive of it, and start abusing it. This is there in the blood of indian people and it cant be changed.

Let me start with Mid day meal program that has been started many years ago to woo childrens to join school. I really feel pity on the public and government which is trying to say indirectly, people of india are hungry, just feed them and they will come to school for study. No doubt it is able to attract many students to enroll for studies but the real purpose of it is not achieved. When I think about school, It comes to my mind a wonderful infrastructure where students are being taught by teacher. But contrary to that our government school are pathetic in shape. No rooms, no electricity, no sanitation, no toilets, no teacher. Government gives computer to the school which does not have room and electricity. They don't have qualified teachers to  teach computer. School are built at remote non reachable villages and it is expected that the teacher would go there daily and teach students at salary around Rs.1500 to 2000. In 21st century, no human would like to go to such place in the name of job where there is no communication, no water, no electricity for teaching students. Same is applied to doctors too. There will be health center inside a jungle and they expect a doctor   should go there and treat patient. The school are no more a place where education is being given to the students but it is a place where the teachers are more busy in preparing food for students. I was just speaking to one of the teacher recently, he was saying our school has 700 students to whom we have to serve mid day meal program on daily basis. We have only one cook who gets Rs.600 month and the teacher has to arrange for fuel and grocery to make sure students are being fed properly. Just imagine 700 students are fed in a school on daily basis and the whole thing has to be coordinated by the teachers. And it is expected that they should educate children. Recently there was a news covered at front page in bangalore, In one of the school near by bangalore,  students collect water from toilet for cooking their mid day meal, and there was no fuel that day to prepare food, so they have to use the wooden door of the class room as fuel after breaking it. This is india and bharat mata ki jai.

Only point here is, does it make any sense to have such programs wasting money? I know there is lot of corruption going on in these programs in the name of mid day meal. You want to educate students in school or want to run hotels to feed hungry children. Can education be given in this circumstances. It is a whole waste of money, food. Government wastes money in all these schemes but it does not have money to build cold storage to save food grain. Every year tons of food grain are being wasted due to lack of cold storage and our minister sharad pawar have enough explanations to justify the waste. Had this money and food grain been utilized properly, it would have controlled inflation to a large extent. And unnecessary taxes would have been reduced on fuel prices. If government really want to educate people, it can good infrastructure like roads to reach school, so that both students and teachers can reach the place. Provide better amenities in school like water, electricity, hiring good teachers, also support private educational institutes for provide better education to students instead of making the schools as a hotel in the name of mid day meal program.

This is one of the classic example in india how the tax payer money being wasted and how it is led to rampant corruption. I am sure there are many such scheme which is being run as a charity by government of india. The money should be utilized in creating jobs but not to distribute to public at free of cost. Tax payer money can be utilized to build roads, infrastructure to create job instead of giving pension to labors as employment guarantee scheme. You have to pay tax for all item you purchase also you have to pay toll tax on all the highway you travel. This is india, and how it runs.

Bharat mata ki .......

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