Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: Vijayvaani.com
Date: August 16, 2011
URL: http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1921
If a single event encapsulates the corruption,
sleaze and political callousness that bedevils the common man today, it is
the Commonwealth Games of 2010, whose reverberations are still roiling the
polity and the ruling Congress party. Even as unending price rise drives the
middle class and poor to despair, and the Finance Ministry and Reserve Bank
insist no relief is likely, a brazen Delhi Government threatens citizens with
a staggering 60% hike in power tariffs, after having scandalously intervened
last year to inhibit a price cut that was originally envisaged by the relevant
authority.
That is the true measure of the rot wrought
by chief minister Sheila Dikshit. A necessary corrective would be to return
this essential service to the public sector, while ensuring zero protection
to power theft that makes the utility unviable. In fact, the profit allowed
to the private companies would have ensured the necessary modernization of
equipment, on which they anyway dragged their feet.
Ms Dikshit, meanwhile, despite blistering indictments by the Prime Minister-appointed
V.K. Shunglu Committee and the Comptroller & Auditor General's report
on the Commonwealth Games, got powerful protection from the chief control
of the Congress party and the fraying UPA coalition. She refused to resign,
forcing the Congress to make a dramatic volte face, from bragging about how
it secured the resignations of Shashi Tharoor, Suresh Kalmadi, Andimuthu Raja
and others caught in one or other controversy, to rallying around the impugned
chief minister. Ironically, the BJP had forced Karnataka chief minister B.S.
Yeddyyurappa to resign only so it could confront her.
Both Shunglu Committee and CAG Report brought the spotlight of corruption
on Sheila Dikshit who was in-charge of the major expenditure, totalling Rs
16,560 crore on just eight city projects (including the sub-standard Barapullah
flyover). Both found that the Delhi government overspent and wasted money
by manufacturing an artificial crisis of deadlines by delaying the start of
CWG-related projects till literally the last three years of a seven-year timeframe.
This led to 'emergency' decisions, compromising cost and quality.
Though a full year has not passed since the Games were held, a drive through
Games-related areas shows pot-holed roads, bumpy flyovers, crumbling pavements
and chipped tiles, dead or dying plants on road dividers and the peculiar
green net and stakes installed to hold the plants spilling out on the roads,
creating a traffic hazard. They should be removed without further ado, before
they cause accidents like the utterly ill-conceived and murderous BRT corridors.
The BRT corridors - another money-making consultant-driven scheme - need to
be ripped up, not extended. Even if workable in theory, the Metro makes them
redundant.
In this writer's mind, the most evocative image of the Commonwealth Games
concerns the collapse of the new foot over-bridge near Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,
just 12 days before the inauguration ceremony, critically injuring several
workers. PWD minister Raj Kumar Chauhan (recently indicted by Delhi Lokayukta
but protected by his boss), glibly asserted that the structure collapsed because
the pins were not secured properly. Then Urban Development minister Jaipal
Reddy said, "This is a minor incident. The Commonwealth Games will not
be judged by this."
But Ms Dikshit took the cake. Stupefied citizens
saw her on television, brushing aside the media with Antoinette-like memorable
words: "The over-bridge was for spectators, not for the games officials
or the athletes
" Did she mean she could bump off spectators, ordinary
citizens like us? She got away with it because the Prime Minister appealed
to let the Games happen for the sake of the nation, and old fashioned nationalism
carried the day. But in those heady months of untrammelled power, Dikshit
merrily spurned the Commonwealth Games Federation's screams over the state
of the Games Village, even as the filth of the residential towers became an
international scandal.
Actually, the Commonwealth Games was from
inception a non-government entity. Bizarre as it sounds, it was the brainchild,
not of the then ruling party, but of the then Leader of the Opposition! This
explains much of the confusion in execution, and the ability of the London-based
Federation to covertly foist Mr. Suresh Kalmadi as chairman of the Organising
Committee, keeping governmental supervision at bay (to its own regret).
The Delhi government's functioning was opaque;
selection of consultants arbitrary; standards and specifications amenable
to instant modifications, and budgets eminently stretchable. The CAG found
overspending of over Rs. 100 crore on streetscaping and beautification alone,
with average cost for projects pegged at Rs. 4.8 cr/km. By contrast, a four-lane
national highway costs Rs 9.5 crore/km; railway tracks come at Rs 4.1 crore/km!
Money was made on street lights (forget the
contract to a disqualified firm). Violating norms, tenders were restricted
to manufacturers of luminaries of international repute and higher financial
eligibility, keeping competition restricted. MCD allowed deviance from design
specifications in lighting standards, leading to larger number of poles and
luminaries on certain roads and avoidable expenditure. Bids were altered in
Phase I and II of tendering, again escalating costs.
The CAG found that the chief minister ordered
imported lighting equipments in Type A and Type B roads, and indigenous lights
for Type C roads. Besides creating a caste hierarchy of city roads, she permitted
a huge cost differential which benefitted two private firms. One firm imported
luminaries from a Gulf country at the rate of Rs 5,440/unit while charging
Rs 25,704/unit. Worse, the chief minister imperiously ordered ripping out
all tiles installed in Connaught Place as she did not like the colour!
The bottom-line is that when Sheila Dikshit won the Delhi elections again
in 2008, work for the 2010 Games had hardly begun. As decisions were to be
taken on street-scaping, road signages, horticulture, purchase of a new fleet
of buses, etc., she took direct control of all CWG-related projects costing
over Rs 100 crore (i.e., ALL projects.) Now, as the fancy and costly low floor
buses are failing (remember the brake jams and bus fires?) and maintenance
costs eat up the DTC budget, she cannot evade responsibility for her actions.
Not when we citizens are bearing the costs.
If Dr Manmohan Singh wishes to restore public
confidence in his government, he must give the CBI a free hand to investigate
the chief minister, her erring colleagues and protégés, and
bring them to book. We must know if we are a free country or a banana republic.