Comment

The news from Delhi is that they are shutting down schools for want of funds (and selling the land to the highest bidder in a public auction to convert them into shopping malls).

The news from Mumbai is that the Vilasrao Deshmukh administration spent 0 per cent of the funds allocated for minorities’ development. Yes, you read that right. Zero per cent.

The Deshmukh regime was just inefficient. It also spent 0 per cent of the allotment for Law and Judiciary, 6.5 per cent of the budget for Housing, the same percentage for Employment, a mere 10 per cent of the funds sanctioned for Technical Education and a pitiful 17.5 per cent on Medical Education.

Other departments did better, but only in comparison. Agriculture spent a quarter of its budget and Tribal Development a third (which was the same percentage as Rural Development). Less than half of the allocation for Water Supply was spent and only 56 per cent on Public Health. That was the same sad percentage spent on Women and Child Welfare… By the way School Education did much better, having used up 72 per cent of the allocated amount.

Here’s an idle thought: if the 28 per cent not spent on school education were to be sent to Delhi, it could possibly save its schools rather than going back into the Consolidated Funds of India. That, of course, is asking for the moon. When state governments put on such a poor show of spending money on the essentials of their own poorest departments, what hope is there that they will reach an agreement to send it to rescue another state in financial straits? None, none at all.

Here are some more distressing examples: After what happened on 26/11, everyone realised how ill-equipped our security forces were. Not enough guns, certainly not the sophisticated kind carried by the terrorists, not enough ammunition, poor quality bullet-proof vests and helmets etc. Some of this was true while some of it was not.

For example, when the QRT (Quick Response Team), did reach the sites, the team’s members carried with them only their revolvers. Left behind at the Naigaon training grounds were the 140 AK-47s which are part of the QRT’s arsenal.

We have also read about how the Centre is engaged in increasing the budget for national security, including the elite NSG (National Security Guards) seen in action at Nariman House, the Taj and the Oberoi hotels. It shows us that when faced with a national emergency, the government could act really fast.

But, here’s an interesting little statistic: the central home ministry does not believe in spending money allocated to it, much like the Maharashtra government. Of the Rs 715 crore budgeted for police equipment this year, only Rs 77 crore has been spent so far, which works out to a mere 11 per cent.

Even the NSG hasn’t used its money: of Rs 15 crore that was meant to be spent on new bullet-proof vests, holographic reflex sights and hi-tech communication equipment, it has spent only Rs 4 crore. Last year’s budget was smaller. But no matter: of the Rs9 crore meant for equipment, the NSG spent only Rs6 crore, returning Rs 3 crore to the Consolidated Funds of India. Similarly 80 per cent of the IB’s allocation of Rs50 crore for capital expenditure has so far not been spent. Eighty per cent not spent!

Go out to sea today and in the heightened security atmosphere, you will be asked to stop by the Coast Guard. But if you speed away, the guards can’t do much. Their boats look like fishing dhows. Yet of the Rs 130 crore allotted for the Coastal Security system last year (April 2007 to March 2008), more than half was surrendered to the government because it could not be spent. In short, the government’s intentions are never backed by any real effort from civil servants and ministers.

The talk of new equipment is hogwash. The men on the job will continue to lose their lives because the men sitting in official chairs in Delhi and elsewhere are never ever on the job.

The writer is a commentator onsocial affairs