Shiv Kumar Padha
Every Indian, irrespective his religion, faith and belief, waits eagerly for celebrating the festivals of his religion with gaiety and fervour. As Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Christian wait impatiently for Ramzan, Navratras, Gur Parvas and Christmas respectively, the bureaucrats hold their breath till the month of march is reached. For the layman this month is as important and meaningful for them as other months of the year, but this month provides a gold mine and a golden opportunity for the bureaucracy and their accomplices to mint money under the pretext of development at the eleventh hour.
For the emerging and the developing societies in the world development means a nonstop, perennial and never ending phenomena which prove an asset and not a liability for it. The development should be well planned, viable, sustainable, long lasting, result oriented and concrete which can be easily gauged and assessed on the ground. The ultimate aim of the development is to ensure all round and multipronged development without any partisan consideration, biasedness or discrimination on political considerations.
In Jammu and Kashmir State the word development sounds strange, alien and meaningless to the ears because it is hardly visible on the ground, and even if it is there, it is going on with snail’s pace. Instead of accelerating regular and uniform developmental works throughout the year our bureaucrats prefer withholding the grants and accumulating the development works till the month March every year. In this month the swarms of the contractors start buzzing around the bureaucrats in order to grab the work order at all costs. Taking the benefit of the huge rush of the so called contractors the officers start fishing in the troubled water. The works are allotted to the blue eyedes, belonging to the casts or religion of the MLAs or to those who pay in high denominations to the heads of those departments. In reality there is Ram Naam Ki Loot Hai Loot Sakey To Loot because the works are not allotted as per the requirement of the people but with intention of earning as much as they can during these 31 days of the month. Not to talk of quality of work even the authorities are seen compromising with quantity. In the absence of planning and specifications of the work the persons executing the work do it in their own way in a haphazard manner which hardly lasts for one year only. It is seen the same streets lanes and pathways are either repaired or reconstructed every year, while many other needed lanes, streets, retaining walls and buildings remain untouched for years together. It seems as if the departments do not care to keep record of the completed works with the result the contractors are given free hand for pick and choose or undertake only those works which involve little expenses and huge savings.
In towns and big cities one can see the offices of all the departments quite in disarray as the files and the furniture are littered all over the floor due to the white wash and the repair works taking place simultaneously. There is great noise caused by the repair work being carried out by the masons and the labourers on war footing. In the absence of the ombudsman there is no problem of quality because this is negotiated at the time of allotment of the work. The final outcome of the works completed in the month of March are short lived, shabby, short of skill and workmanship which brings tears in the eyes of an honest man whose money has been doled out to the mafia in the name of developmental works. If all this means development then hell with it. The persons who are responsible for this huge wastage of nations money is an enemy of mankind which should be identified, made accountable for the lapse, embezzlement, misuse of public funds and punished under criminal laws of the land.
The State Government should wake up from the deep slumber and tighten the noose around the erring officers and bureaucrats who siphon out the public money under the pretext of development of the State.