Nevertheless, like the whole lot in India, there’s a twist within the story, for whereas what he stated was certainly appropriate, but he was additionally not so.
By Srivatsa Krishna
India is the one nation on the planet the place we fortunately disagree on information, not simply on opinions; disagree on not simply what the longer term shall be, but additionally on what the previous was! Nitin Gadkari’s humorous, incisive and pungent remarks on the delays within the building of the NHAI’s personal new constructing have gotten him eyeballs within the media. Nevertheless, like the whole lot in India, there’s a twist within the story, for whereas what he stated was certainly appropriate, but he was additionally not so.
Gadkari conveniently forgets that whereas the identical NHAI which took 11 years to assemble an eight-floor constructing for itself—certainly stunning and reprehensible—additionally took highway building from beneath 10-km to 30-km per day, within the not too distant previous, which he himself has touted round! So, why this unusual dichotomy and what explains selections and indecisions within the system?
On the outset, let me unequivocally concede that the NHAI has had its share of excellent and horrible chairmen. And having eight officers in a span of seven years neither helps continuity nor effectiveness. A few them, are sadly nonetheless secretaries to the federal government of India, are afraid of their very own shadows to approve even a day’s informal go away utility with out organising a committee to whet it—whereas each the incumbent chairman and the secretary, Street Transport, and a earlier one from Haryana, are dynamic go-getters who acquired monumental work achieved throughout their comparatively transient stints.
The IAS, following the Bell Curve, is the house to the great, the dangerous and the ugly. Below the management of an impressive woman officer of the 1986 batch, Karnataka acquired 400 clearances throughout 17 unconnected central and state bureaucracies—the NHAI, Railways, Authorities of India (Forests and Surroundings), Railways and Karnataka—in file time, which enabled the Karnataka Fuel Pipeline to signal an MoU in Could 2010, begin building in November 2010, and Toyota, the primary buyer, purchased gasoline on February 19, 2013! We even have many ‘saints’ (who’re personally trustworthy, however would additionally not exert themselves to do something of consequence) and ‘criminals’ who could make each Mallya, Choksi and Kalmadi seem like Mahatma Gandhi, with sufficient wealth to turn into a fund of funds for a lot of personal fairness funds! So, we have now all types, and infrequently one sort is masquerading as the opposite, particularly on the social media.
Within the present case, the NHAI seems to have made some dangerous selections and indecisions. First, it determined to assemble the constructing itself, for which it had no expertise—as a substitute, it might have been given to the NBCC. The contractor went bankrupt, the scope was modified, and so they went to arbitration. Let’s not neglect that the NHAI has a number of contractors shut to each main politician in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, whose major vocation is to get extra money by arbitration than by building. Second, as soon as it goes into arbitration, most ‘good’ officers play protected and don’t prefer to take dangers to get the undertaking going, lest it upsets their retirement planning.
Not too long ago, in Chhattisgarh, in an IT undertaking the unusual converse occurred. Discover was given, penalty levied and partly collected for non-completion of a undertaking by two successive IAS officers. However then their successor waived the penalty and returned what was collected, in all his knowledge. He might have achieved this within the curiosity of undertaking completion or for ‘different’ concerns or pressures.
If an IAS officer levies a penalty in India, it’s nearly assured that it received’t get collected and can go into everlasting arbitration which stalls the undertaking. What ought to a superb officer do? If he imposes a penalty for non-performance, he could be known as vindictive, and if he doesn’t impose, he could possibly be accused of nepotism—you will need to make the omelette with out breaking the egg! So, even a well-meaning, decisive IAS officer who decides to waive penalties in return for ensures of undertaking completion will face criticism.
It is usually not an unfair query to ask what did the political govt, upon seeing the constructing being caught for 11 years, do to resolve issues? If it allowed inactions of sure chairmen and members of the NHAI, does it imply that the minister doesn’t have the center or the flexibility to watch and overrule dangerous selections by dangerous officers or indecisions by ‘saintly’ officers? In actual fact, one hears that, even on this case, the NHAI needed to penalise the contractor, however wasn’t allowed to. Allow us to not neglect that the identical ministry, the NHAI, officers and contractors, utilizing the identical algorithm, beneath a phenomenally sagacious and trustworthy minister BC Khanduri (together with Santosh Nautiyal, IAS), created the Golden Quadrilateral, a landmark in India’s historical past.
This has been a ‘good’ pandemic for coverage, and India has come out with some world-class ones in agriculture, schooling and labour—which each and every commentator of each hue (with or and not using a masks to cover their present political hypocrisy) has been demanding for lengthy, however implementation stays the important thing problem. Why don’t the ‘saints’ within the IAS, for a change, be the change they profess to be on the social media? Why doesn’t the political govt, throughout political complexions, result in drastic paperwork reforms? And never collude with the ‘criminals’ within the IAS and have interaction in rampant corruption on each tender, improve competitors by extra lateral recruitment coupled with fastened contractual tenures after the preliminary 15 years within the IAS, submit the proper officers (the instruments) on the proper positions on the proper time, and take measured dangers themselves, to allow IAS officers to observe the lead? That would be the remaining frontier to be conquered for a ‘new India’.
The writer is an IAS officer. Views are private
Twitter @srivatsakrishna
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November 11, 2020 at 07:20AM
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