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The poor need practical schemes

Surinder Singla in his Oped piece, ‘Losing the race with slow decisions’ (April 6), has very correctly underlined the importance of speedy decision making at the policy formulation level in the government for quick delivery of services to the people. It will really help in cost effective implementation of projects/schemes, which in turn will help increase our GDP. However, I would like to state that along with quick decision making at the higher level, equally important is the alacrity, quickness and seriousness with which these decisions are implemented at the field-level like time-bound delivery of services such as passports/ration cards, driving licences/registration certificates and also the delivery of financial benefits to the deserving.

At the same time, delivery of these services at the field-level requires a capable and dedicated system and honest people. The people in the governance have not understood the practical difficulties being faced by the poor in getting these services. For example, the decision of payment of education scholarships to the students belonging to marginalised sections of society through electronic transfer system is good in spirit, but faulty in practice for lack of adequate infrastructure and manpower. There are hardships and wastage of precious time from opening of bank account, transfer of scholarship funds in each account from the treasury and withdrawal of money from banks located at far off places. The same is the case with the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme. Therefore, while speeding up of decision-making system, the practical aspects of implementation of these decisions should also be taken care of. For this, the systems will have to be strengthened and upgraded to meet the requirement of size and quantum of work.

PURAN SINGH, Chandigarh

Wake-up call for Cong The edit, ‘Enough of pep talk’ (April 5), is very timely and rightly warns Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of earnest action. The Congress should realise that if it doesn’t take appropriate corrective steps now, the party would be wiped out in the coming Lok Sabha elections. When Manmohan Singh became the Prime Minister for the second time in a row, people expected a lot from him. But under his regime, multiple scams have taken place. It’s high time that our Prime Minister should think of a concrete action, otherwise the electorate would not vote for him or his party. In case of a divided verdict, role of smaller parties would come into play for forming the government. It’s a dangerous trend as these parties always keep the government on tenterhooks by threatening to withdraw support if their demands are not met. Manmohan Singh still has a year to go. It’s up to him to make this year fatal or fruitful for his party. The future of the Congress will greatly depend on how it performs this year. SANJAY CHAWLA, Amritsar