Modi Model: Fancy Myths and Hard Facts
BY RK
MISRA
Offices
of power are often breeding grounds of indestructible myths. And if the flavor
of the current Indian season is Gujarat, focus turns to this ‘model’ laboratory
where Prime Minister Narendra Modi perfected the alchemy of success.
Like the
legendary King Midas whose touch turned everything into gold, Modi possesses the uncanny ability of turning
anything he propounds into a national crusade whether it is Sardar Patel’s
statue or the nation’s state of
sanitation.
With the
Gujarat model elevated to the status of
a ‘Bible’ for administrators after BJP came to power in the country, the
performance audit carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)
on implementation of the sanitation campaign in Gujarat during the period 2008-13 (Modi rule) provides proof
of how reality is clouded to forge myths and then build castles on it. The CAG
report was tabled during a truncated two day session of the Gujarat Vidhan
Sabha last week on November 11 this year.
Interestingly
the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) was launched by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-headed
NDA government in 1999 for sustainable reforms in the rural sector through a
time bound campaign mode. Subsequently in 2012 it was renamed as ‘Nirmal Bharat
Abhiyan’ by the Manmohan Singh led UPA government.
While
the Prime Minister is now exhorting the
nation to set new standards in sanitation, his own record in Gujarat leaves
much to be desired. According to the CAG, 5000 ‘anganwadi’ centres and 4000
schools do not have toilet facility. This despite the Supreme Court having asked for separate toilets for all schools by 2012!
No
baseline surveys were carried out as mandated for preparation of project
implementation plans and though there was no dearth of funds, the expenditure
against it ranged between 43 and 60 per cent during 2008-13.The award money
received from the Centre under the Nirmal Gram Puruskar Scheme was not
distributed to award -winning gram panchayats. Fudging was also noticed as the
sanitation coverage in the state was
only 46 per cent which was much lower than the progress reported by the
department. Toilets constructed at the cost of Rs. 2.80 crores could not be put
to use due to inferior quality of structure and even lack of a soak pit”, it
noted.
The
report also provides an insight into how funds were sought to be diverted for
Modi government jamborees and the
amount budgeted in sanitation awareness
creation. “The government stated that buses were hired for transportation of public for krishi
mahotsav and as awareness of sanitation and waste management was provided here so
the expenditure was booked under IEC activities. The reply was not acceptable”,
it pointed out adding that “the
individual household latrine targets had been inflated as the progress reports were generated on funds
released instead of on actual construction”.
The
Report also busted an oft- propogated Gujarat government myth that manual
scavenging has been totally eradicated. “As per the census 2011 report, manual
scavenging is still continuing and 1408 cases exist where nightsoil is being removed by human
beings and 2593 cases by animals in various rural areas of Gujarat”, says the
CAG report on rural bodies for the year ending March 31, 2013.
Rural
Housing. “Construction of Houses under the Indira Awas Yojna (IAY) were to be
completed within the maximum time- limit of two years. In test- checked talukas
against a target of 85,063 houses 16,722 during 2008-11 remained incomplete. The
achievement did not represent a true picture as figures were not mentioned and
incomplete houses were shown as complete”, the report said.
The sad
part is that the state’s share of funds under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA)
was curtailed because the Gujarat Elementary Education Council did not use the allocated funds. This was the
period ending March 2013 when Modi had
gone to town against the Centre alleging injustice and choking of funds. Records state that Gujarat incurred a loss of Rs
296.34 crores as central assistance for development as it forfeited the general
performance grant for failure to comply with rules under the 13th Finance Commission.
“The state government needs to investigate it’s educational system as many
students are still deprived of their rights to education in Gujarat”, it said
while pointing out that the data available in government records was ‘not
reliable and inflated”.
According
to the CAG report, the model state did not have a single teacher in 57
government primary schools and only one teacher each in 383 schools. Similarly, in 223 upper
primary schools, there was no teacher and 678 ones had only one teacher each. In
every school with a student strength exceeding 150, a head teacher is needed
and in the period under review there
were 4262 vacancies against a total
requirement of 9262 head teachers. Chronic shortage of amenities in government
schools has seen parents shifting their children to private schools which is
seen by an increase of 55.87 per cent in the number of unaided private schools
between 2008 to 2013. How much importance
the state government gives to the CAG is evident from the fact that though the report was sent to the state
government with it’s observations and suggestions in August 2013, no reply was
forthcoming till march 2014. This is not an isolated case, for, almost the
entire period of Modi rule in Gujarat was replete with instances of inordinate
delay in response which led to the entire exercise becoming redundant.
This, incidentally
is the same lineage of authority, which
had busted the numerous scams of the previous government in Delhi. As far as
the Modi government in Gujarat is concerned, this is
just one among a mountain of myths-buried in government records- that has seen
the light of reality. Many more await an opportune time for exposure. After all,
the memories of men are too frail a thread to hang history from!
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