Lok Satta News: February 2016

Loksatta founder Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan attended a 2 day India conference at Harvard University on the 6th and 7th of February. Speakers at the conference included several top politicians, business leaders, bollywood celebrities, artists, NGO leaders, and Faculty of leading US universities researching on various aspects of India’s development. Over 750 students and participants were in attendance. Dr. JP was a key note panelist at the conference along with Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for IT and communications, and Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda a four time MP from Orissa belonging to the BJD party. The panel spoke to all the attendees on the topic of ‘Indian Politics at the Crossroads’.

In his highly regarded and enthusiastically received speech, Dr. JP said that India is such a large country that anything we say about it is both true and untrue at the same time! While the country has made enormous progress, we have been blind to some basic needs of our people. The rest of the World wants India to succeed because of China he said, amidst applause. We cannot continue to languish in 19th century politics aspiring to live in the 21st century economy. There is an increasing gulf between aspiration, policy, and outcomes. For example, in education, our focus has been on student enrollment numbers without attention to the quality of education. Several international and internally conducted studies like the PISA study by the OECD have ranked Indian education quality at the bottom of the World he said.

In healthcare, it is well known that India’s spend including both public and private spend is less than 4% of GDP which is about 4 times lesser than the US and at least twice as low as most developed and developing countries.

While candidates battling for party nominations in the US are debating education and healthcare policy there is no such public debate on ideas by political leaders in India he pointed out drawing huge cheers from the attendees.

While in the past we had strong state governments, we now have creeping centralization of state powers into the center. Our democracy has been reduced to voting and shouting.

He concluded saying we need to do three things urgently. One, limit Delhi’s power to Central and international topics. Two, states must get more choice to decide their own manner of governance, and even system of governance. They should make local governments more powerful. Today, only 7% money goes to local govt. This is making citizens professional protestors and mendicants as they have no self-governance. Three, refine the bureaucracy and make them work for the public good by asking them to specialize, and by introducing a transparent system of accountability.

Extending greetings to TRS party and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for the "super victory" in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections, the Lok Satta Party urged the State government to bring a 'Service Guarantee Act' to curb corruption and provide services to the people in a stipulated time. In a pressnote here on Saturday, Lok Satta Party Telangana State president Dr Panduranga Rao and GHMC party president D Ramu have said the TRS has succeeded in convincing the Hyderabad voters as against the past. "It shows the votes are not anybody's own asset. It is good sign that the people cast their vote to other parties and this development will strengthen the democracy in a great way", they said, asking the TRS party to fulfill the assurances it made before GHMC elections.

Welcoming CM KCR’s statement during celebrations on Friday evening that his government would take steps to curb corrupt practices, Panduranga Rao and Ramu said there was a need to bring 'Service Guarantee Act' to pay ex gratia to the customer in case delay takes place in extending services to the people. They said corruption would not be curbed with assurances, slogans and warnings and it was only possible with a deterrent Act. They urged the government to bring in Service Guarantee Act in the coming Assembly session to curb corruption not only in Hyderabad, but also across the entire Telangana State.

The Lok Satta, which was striving for Service Guarantee Act since 1998 by preparing Citizens Charter first, leaders have said they were ready to prepare a Bill for Telangana State as was prepared for the nation, which was pending in Parliament. The Lok Satta leaders said the Hyderabad voters cast their votes in traditional political manner though the Lok Satta, CPM, CPI, MCPI and MBC came under one roof and floated an alternative force in the name of 'One Hyderabad' Alliance and entered into the GHMC election fray with a manifesto of Service Guarantee Act, one call center for all problems and power to local people. Panduranga Rao and Ramu said they will review the verdict of the people given in GHMC elections and will move forward correcting their mistakes.

Courtesy: Siasat Daily