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Put an end to acrimony
Fast-tracking projects
Attend Telangana meet |
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The reality in ‘other China’
Films are too much with us
Focus on mobility: A step forward
The missing element of planning
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Put an end to acrimony
Union
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s disagreement with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer to appear before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament to answer questions on the 2G spectrum scam is enigmatic. One can appreciate Mr Mukherjee’s frustration over the BJP’s lack of cooperation in letting Parliament function and his well-meaning call to the Opposition in general to debate the issue of a JPC probe in a specially-convened session rather than persisting with the boycott of Parliament, but it is difficult to see why he should object to the Prime Minister appearing before the PAC. Constitutionally, the Prime Minister may be accountable to the Lok Sabha and not to a committee, as Mr Mukherjee has said, but if he has volunteered to appear before the PAC in keeping with his image of being totally above board and transparent, his gesture is worthy of praise. Rightly, Dr Singh has chosen not to shield himself against questioning by resort to technicalities. What is unfortunate, however, is that even the attempts by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to ensure the smooth functioning of Parliament’s budget session in February have been cold-shouldered by the BJP and its allies, though the Left has shown signs of coming round. This is not the way the principal Opposition party should behave. Parliamentary democracy is meaningless unless there is a will to discuss issues threadbare in Parliament rather than taking to the streets. The ruling UPA must also explain to the nation why it is so adamant to deny a JPC to the Opposition when its leaders like Mr Mukherjee insist that there is virtually no difference between a JPC and a PAC. The country has indeed suffered much on account of this impasse between the UPA and the Opposition. It is time they found a way out of this mess so that the real gut issue of fixing responsibility for the massive 2G scam and bringing the real culprits to book is put into action. The BJP must realise that it is losing support by stonewalling all attempts to find a solution.
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Fast-tracking projects WITH almost a year to go before facing the electorate, the SAD-BJP government in Punjab has proposed “a complete transformation” of the state. It is a little late in the day. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal told the media on New Year Day that he would focus on education, skill development and health. A day earlier Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had announced that all infrastructure and housing projects undertaken in the last four years would be completed this year. Besides, administrative reforms, initiated on the basis of the report of an expert group, too will be finished. In the last year of their tenure ruling parties often avoid taking difficult decisions and instead indulge in populism. With the Punjab treasury already almost empty due to liberal freebies and subsidies, a fast-track completion of projects is perhaps the only option left for the Punjab government. The Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP plan to approach the electorate with their report card on development. Therefore, they must have something concrete to show the voter. The refinery project at Bathinda will take off this year, helping the ruling alliance, once again, to claim credit — the long delay and heavy project cost overrun notwithstanding. The two ruling parties will be hard put to explain the state’s poor fiscal health, especially the steep rise in the debt. The debt issue may occupy the political centrestage. Corruption is another issue that may dominate the elections. The state leadership can follow the Bihar lead and pass a law to attach properties of civil servants, including politicians, if convicted of corruption. But the Badals are not known for taking hard decisions. Sukhbir Badal has hinted at making access to government services a legal right. This one is easier to do. If projects are finished and reforms implemented in the right spirit, the ruling parties may spring a surprise and secure a second term — something unheard of in Punjab’s recent political history.
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Attend Telangana meet THE decision by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to boycott the January 6 meeting in New Delhi convened by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram to study the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee Report on the current situation in Andhra Pradesh is irresponsible and totally unacceptable. It shows their spirit of intolerance and refusal to respect the due processes of democracy. Their opposition to the Centre’s invitation to two representatives of each of the eight recognised political parties in Andhra Pradesh to the New Delhi meeting is illogical. “This is like encouraging political parties to give divergent views”, says TRS supremo K. Chandrasekhar Rao. However, he fails to understand that as the opinion in the state is sharply divided over Telangana, the Centre wants to know the differing views among the legislators about a unified Andhra Pradesh and separate statehood for Telangana on the basis of the Srikrishna report which will be made public after this meeting on Thursday. Given the surcharged atmosphere in Andhra Pradesh today, the Centre has taken a mature and conscious decision to convene the meeting so that a consensus could be evolved on the Srikrishna report. Democracy envisages free access to facts, to all facts and opinions and not only to one set of facts favourable to those leading a movement or setting them forth. It encourages dissent, informed opinion and debate. Effective interaction and consensus building are indeed the essence of democracy. When people, the MPs and the MLAs are divided on Telangana, the Centre had appointed the Srikrishna Committee last year to study the situation. Creditably, it completed its mandated task within the deadline of December 31. As the report is said to have examined various options to address the problem, the Centre thought it proper to consult all the political parties at a meeting before placing the report in the public domain. Unfortunately, political parties like the TRS and the BJP, instead of helping the Centre to resolve the Telangana issue peacefully across the table, are resorting to cheap gimmicks for narrow partisan ends. If an all-party meeting is not the right forum for debate, do these parties plan to fight it out on the streets? The state is on the edge. Political parties should refrain from doing anything that will foment passions and trigger violence. They are indeed duty-bound to strive for a peaceful resolution of the problem.
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Why do men seek honour? Surely in order to confirm the favourable opinion they have formed of themselves. — Aristotle
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The reality in ‘other China’
Recently, I was in Taipei to speak on India’s perspective on the rise of China, one giant eyeing the other. What struck me, however, was the unmistakable reality of this being the “other China”, an open and liberal society, a successful multiparty democracy with a free Press and a vibrant culture of debate. There was no skirting of difficult and uncomfortable questions, including the sensitive issue of cross-Straits relations with an increasingly powerful China. The economic embrace of China is becoming pervasive. It is now unlikely that the island’s destiny can ever be decoupled from the Chinese mainland. The looming presence of China is manifested in the growing dependence on China-related trade and investment, the rapidly expanding number of Chinese visitors thanks to direct air and shipping links and the domination of mainstream media by developments across the Straits. This is generating a conflictual ambivalence about Taiwan’s future which hangs like a question mark over the island, despite its first world prosperity, its strengths in technological innovation and the obvious excellence of its higher education. A comment which one came across frequently, whether in conversations with KMT leaders, government officials and even defence personnel, was that the political status quo would continue even as Taiwan moved ahead with the rapid expansion of trade, investment and people-to-people relations with China. In other words, Taiwan was not ready to consider reunification with China even with a very high degree of autonomy. When I was asked to comment on this, I pointed out that one could not, for any length of time, insulate just one part of the relationship from all others and that, too, its most significant component, when other elements were getting rapidly transformed. One was also not certain that China would accept an indefinite deep-freeze on the political and highly emotive issue of Taiwan returning to the motherland. To these comments there was usually no answer, though some argued that the greater exposure of mainlanders to the virtues of Taiwanese democracy would help remake China in the image of Taiwan, rather than the imposition of the current Chinese brand of political authoritarianism on the island’s population. I believe this is mostly wishful thinking. The Americans and the Europeans were once convinced that with prosperity and globalisation, China would inevitably be refashioned in the Western image. They harbour no such illusions today. The audience I addressed was made up of mostly university students, academics, senior journalists and former and serving diplomats. There was a fair sprinkling of Chinese exchange students and visiting professors from universities on the Chinese mainland. Some of the questions were revealing as were the reactions of the mostly Taiwanese audience to my responses. A Chinese professor referred to India’s failure to eradicate poverty through rapid industrialisation as China had done, moving away from traditional agriculture. He cited a media report that an Indian farmer had got his land back from the government, which had acquired it for building road infrastructure, by going to a law court. If this continued, he said, India’s development would be significantly slow and the gap with China would increase. My reply was that most people in India and other democratic countries which value individual rights would applaud rather than bemoan the farmer’s success. This remark was greeted with approving applause and soon thereafter a young Chinese student addressed the same professor and asked whether China should not learn from India in this respect. There was another question relating to India’s GDP growth rate compared to that of China and whether India was not apprehensive that despite doing well, it was falling behind its giant neighbour. A follow-up question wondered whether the Chinese model would not be more appropriate for a developing country like India rather than the now discredited Western model. I said that while there was much for India to learn from China and that we admired China’s remarkable successes, we did not believe that people in India would accept the Chinese brand of political authoritarianism combined with economic liberalism. My sense was, I said, that Indians would happily sacrifice a couple of percentage points in GDP growth if this were the price to pay to retain their hard-won democratic freedoms and individual rights. This, too, was greeted with approval by the assembled crowd. There was a question from a Taiwanese official about the Dalai Lama. He asked for India’s advice on how to treat the “big headache” that His Holiness had become for the Taiwanese authorities, because he had many devotees in Taiwan but the government did not wish to annoy China by allowing him to visit Taiwan. I said that India did not regard the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan community in India as a headache. His Holiness was a highly respected spiritual leader and teacher. Again there was a wave of approval from the audience. The last question was poignant and reflective of the mood of resignation that one sees in some sections of Taiwanese society. A young student asked what India’s reaction would be if Taiwan became a part of China and its democracy was “snuffed out “ in the process. My answer that it was really for the people of Taiwan to decide their own destiny, that we wished to see democracy everywhere, seemed inadequate and even insincere. The truth is that Taiwan has now embarked on a journey from which there appears slim prospect of turning back. China is becoming Taiwan’s future, unmistakably, relentlessly and there is very little that the world can or will do to help it write a different
script. The writer, a former Foreign Secretary, is currently Acting Chairman, RIS, and a Senior Fellow at the CPR.
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Films are too much with us WHEN asked, “Who was Beethoven?” most young Americans about to enter university last year replied that he was a dog. Not their fault. A film titled Beethoven showed that a large group of puppies are stolen from a pet shop by two thieves. A puppy manages to escape from the thieves and sneaks into the home of a Newton family which tries to name their new-found dog. The name struck to them observing the puppy’s continued barking when Emily, the youngest daughter of the family, played a portion of Ludwig Von Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The dog was named Beethoven. In a school at Shimla, the history teacher had asked students to write a short note on Prithviraj and that by one of them read: “Prithviraj was the pardada of Ranbir Kapur, the present heart-throb of young damsels. His Saawaria did not do much on the boxoffice but Ajab Prem ki Gazab Kahani was a super duper hit. Prithviraj had three sons — Raj, Shammi and Shashi Kapoor. The great-granddaughters of Prithviraj are Karishma and Kareena — also called Lolo and Bebo. Karishma is called Lolo because her mother had liking for the Italian actress Gina Lollobrigidia. Prithviraj did many roles but his dramatic style of acting suited him best in the role of Mughal-e-Azam. He had received the highest accolade in Indian cinema — Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 1971 — posthumously.” Could the teacher cut marks? I was in a medical college recently. The Principal and the staff were discussing various hurdles that come across in running the college vis-à-vis the apathy of the government. “We are eager to run it properly but the government pulls its hand when it comes to providing resources,” one of the managers told me. Stealing words from Mughal-e-Azam, he added, “The college is like Anarkali living between Salim and Akbar — one would not let her die and the other would not let her live”. In a recent cricket series when Indians were not able to get Sangkara out, my friend watching the ODI on the TV said, “We need Ajit, yaar.” “Who Ajit?” I asked. He said, “That villain of olden days. He would have asked his hanger-on Robert, ‘Raabart, during drink break, connect me to Sanga.” When connected, he would have told Sangkara, “Get out immediately otherwise jaan lo tumhari maan hamare kabze mein hai… (Your mother is in our possession)”. “The film is too much with us; late and soon, / Getting and spending, we lay there our powers:” Sorry,
Wordsworth.
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Focus on mobility: A step forward
AT a recent global conference in New Delhi, most participants drawn from different countries spoke about mobility needs and public policy. The use of the term ‘urban mobility’ in preference to urban transport is itself a step forward in thinking. Mobility focuses on people; transport is preoccupied with vehicle types and choices. New Delhi as the National Capital manages to extract huge funds from the Central Government and other sources for improving urban transport. When it
felt the financial pinch a few years ago, the Commonwealth Games came as a bonanza. But what about other cities? Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad are building one or two metro lines but in all these cities buses will continue to be the mainstay of the city's mobility. The Wilbur Smith study commissioned by the Urban Development Ministry published in 2008 and based on data from 30 cities underlined proliferation of private vehicles, decline in public transport share in total transit from 75 per cent in 2006 to 45 per cent five years hence creating congestion and decreasing average speeds. At the Delhi conference, the Centre for Science and Environment drew attention to the fact that Delhi adds about a thousand motor vehicles per day of which two wheelers are about 550 and private cars 350. Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad follow suit. The annual addition to motor vehicles is about 4 lakh in Bangalore, 2,20,000 in Chennai and 1,20,000 in Hyderabad. A new beast prowling city roads in India is the Sports Utility Vehicle called the SUV. The only sport that an SUV engages in is the guzzling of fuel and preemption of road and parking space. In the reports of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the word SUV does not appear but is concealed between various sub-definitions of passenger cars. Out of 2.4 million cars produced in 2009, SUVs numbered at least 1,13,000. It is often said that the only way to discourage private vehicle growth is to improve public transport. This is partly true but not entirely so. A person does not buy an SUV because he does not get a seat in the local bus. The SUVs are often the third or the fourth vehicle in the family garage. Simply, the purpose is display of wealth. It is also claimed that since the SUVs accommodate seven or more passengers they are very useful for long distance trips. So be it, but there is no reason why they should take up road space within the cities. Singapore has been a place of pilgrimage for several years for city planners in India in search of good practices. Yet the critical instrument of vehicle quota system in practice in Singapore since 1990 has eluded our planners. Singapore decided to cap the annual increase of its vehicle stock to 1.5 per cent. Vehicles beyond a certain age are compulsorily retired. Persons intending to purchase a new vehicle should get a certificate of entitlement costing about 23,000 Singapore dollars which is higher than the price of the car itself. There is an additional congestion price levied on private vehicle entering the central parts of the city. Of course, Singapore has established an extensive public transport system, comprising 180 km of rail transit, 4,000 buses and 25,000 taxis taking care of three, four and one million trips respectively. Public transport fares are kept well within affordable limits and below the per km expenses for a private vehicle. Shanghai has a similar system of vehicle quota licensing. The price of a license is determined through monthly auctions and exceeds the price of a new car. According to a story carried by Shanghai's Global Times newspaper on May 22, 2010, 16,324 people bid for 8,500 licenses at a price averaging US dollars 6187, higher than the price of many new cars. In the past few years, Shanghai has been able to reduce its private vehicles stock by 1.5 million and its daily growth to 380 as compared to Beijing's 1030. Congestion pricing in London costing about eight pounds was introduced in the year 2003. Contrary to apprehensions, the average speed has increased, ridership in buses has improved and retail business has also risen in volume. Many European cities are planning similar mechanisms. All this confirms the realisation that it is clearly unsustainable to permit ever-increasing private cars and to keep adding to road space by building more roads or flyovers. It is officially admitted that Delhi's 35 flyovers have not resulted in any appreciable increase in traffic speed. On the other hand, they have only shifted congestion from one point to another. The proliferation of private vehicles is clearly unsustainable, threatening both energy and environmental security. Putting a cap on additions and levying a new vehicle license fee nearly equal to the price of the car as in Singapore or Shanghai make eminent sense. But given the reach and influence of the automobile industry in India, it is unlikely that a cap will be accepted. The vehicles should at least pay a fair price for the use of road space. In most Indian cities, the road tax levied on passenger cars is absurdly low. In some cases, the incidence of road tax is more in the case of buses. Until recently, Delhi levied Rs 4,000 to Rs 12,000, as a one-time tax at the time of registration. From November 15, 2010, this has been increased to 4 per cent of the cost for cars priced up to Rs 6 lakh and 7 per cent for cars in the range of Rs 6 to 10 lakh. As for SUVs most of which cost Rs 10 lakh or more, the tax is 10 per cent. The Delhi government hopes that the increased rates will discourage people from using private vehicles. Will this really be so? Will a person willing to spend Rs 12 lakh to 15 lakh on a vehicle be deterred from buying it because of a 10 per cent tax? More important, the one-time tax ignores the rising cost of road upkeep. The tax should be levied annually so that the yield offsets, at least in part, the subsidy that premium, luxury and SUVs enjoy on diesel. If our value system has come to such a pass that flaunting wealth is a major yardstick of public behaviour, government action should be geared to deal with it from the interests of equity as well as reducing the emissions. SUVs and luxury cars are not essential to show off a ‘Shining India’. If they are, they should at least pay the right taxes. Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh who has spoken against the SUVs will do well to give some attention to the blatant distortions in the road tax system. The writer is Chairman, Centre for
Policy Research, New Delhi, and a former Secretary to the Government of
India, Ministry of Urban Development
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The missing element of planning THE Twelfth Five-Year Plan projects India to attain a GDP growth level of 10 per cent with the major part of the growth coming from the secondary and tertiary sectors, namely manufacturing and services. As the bulk of these activities take place in urban areas, a rapid urbanisation is accepted as inevitable. The existing urban population is already around 300 million or 30 per cent of the total and the pattern around the world suggests that this will reach around 60 per cent before stabilising. Thus, the urban population of India is expected to reach 500 million by 2021 and around 800 million by 2051 with the number of Class 1 cities (population: 1 lakh) increasing from 301 in 1991 to around 800 by 2021 and the number of million plus cities being in excess of 50 by 2021. The rapid pace of urbanisation that is already upon us, will throw up great challenges in the planning and development of townships and the provision of urban services. An important area, requiring serious attention, is the manner in which we plan for people to move and travel within these urban conglomerations. Urbanisation leads to greater travel demand and as the population of a town increases, the demand for travel expands exponentially, both in terms of trip lengths and trip rates. The level of congestion and chaos witnessed on our city roads would seem to indicate that our response so far has been failing to meet the urban transportation needs. While efforts are now on in a number of cities to provide different modes of mass transit systems, these appear very inadequate and too little too late. Thus, billions of man hours are being lost with people stuck in traffic jams caused by the huge explosion in the number of motor vehicles jostling on the roads for the limited available space. The lack of suitable public transport systems has meant the increased use of personal vehicles thereby contributing to congestion. There have been some efforts towards land use planning in urban areas within the town planning departments in the states and major cities. Unfortunately, however, transport planning has not received the extent of attention it should have while drawing up strategic and land use plans. There is a failure to link transport planning to land use planning and to prepare integrated master plans that internalise the features of sustainable transport systems. It is important to channel the future growth of a city around a pre-planned transport network rather than develop a transport system after uncontrolled sprawl has taken place. In designing the transport plan for meeting the travel needs of the population of an urban conglomeration, different modes of transport have to be perceived in an integrated manner. Experience world wide has shown that based on peak hour trips in a corridor, the modal selection can be made between road-based bus systems, bus systems with dedicated bus ways, light rail or mono rail and heavy rail systems. Finally, some road systems like ring roads with free flowing entry and exits can be provided for dispersal of motor vehicular traffic from one area to another. The entire transport system of a city needs to be on an integrated basis so as to facilitate easy transfer from one mode to another. Some steps are being taken in a few cities to provide mass transit systems in the form of rail based metros and dedicated bus lanes, but the demand continues to far exceed the provisions being made. This reflects the lack of adequate transport planning skills within the urban planning and development bodies as also the absence of an institutional mechanism for an integrated look at the different transport mode within cities. While the responsibility for the management of urban areas and consequently urban transport is with the state governments, it is imperative, having regard to the economic importance of urban transport, that the Central Government play a pivotal role in ensuring the creation of institutional mechanisms for the integrated approach to urban transport planning. Central support would also be required for devising and financing of schemes of urban transport. The National Urban Transport Policy fully recognises the issues involved, but the time has come for some urgent action. Transport plans for major cities should now be prepared on the lines of guidelines and directions incorporated in the policy and put out in the public domain for widespread discussion. The funds available under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission launched by the Centre have to be used as catalyst for this action. The writer, a former IAS officer, was Chairman, National Highways Authority of India
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