Our focus on health, education, says JP

Lok Satta founder interacts with public on various issues

Kakinada: Calling upon the youth and women to spend their leisure time for the social good, Lok Satta founder president N. Jayaprakash Narayan on Wednesday said that there was no need of political positions to render something useful and beneficial to the society.

“Now, we have chalked out a six-point programme to enable public get works done by the government. Our prime focus is on education and health sectors, which will be followed by local self-governance and strengthening the farm sector,” he said while addressing a press conference here. As part of the ongoing ‘Janam Kosam JP’ programme, the former politician arrived in the city and interacted with a cross section. Stating that the Lok Satta Party was closed down owing to the prevailing money-centric politics, he said that the Lok Satta was functioning as an NGO and working for the common people.

Reacting sharply to a question on his public appearance just a year ahead of the general elections, Dr. Narayan said that he had every right to undertake campaigns for the public and his intention should not be questioned. “I have done a lot to the public and the Lok Satta was behind a series of orders issued by the government for the public good. Though the party was no more, I have been with the public in the last three years doing ground work for this campaign,” he said.

Fund allocation

Highlighting the discrepancies in the spending of the public money, Dr. Narayan said that the Centre was allocating 51% of the revenues earned from taxes to the States, whereas the allocation by the States to the local bodies was less than 1% of it. “The statistics are showing disgusting realities and the local bodies are fund starving. The State government should allocate at least 10% of the Central grants to the local bodies, so that the marginal issues at the ground level will be addressed without much delay,” he said.

Referring to the education and health sectors, he said that though the government’s spending was high on education sector, the quality of education was not up to the mark. “The standards of education is poor even in the private educational institutions,” he observed. He highlighted the need for making proper use of the funds earmarked for the health sector and focus on developing infrastructure in the government hospitals. He said that the movement launched by the Lok Satta would infuse confidence in the public about their rights and make the government responsible towards the citizens.

Courtesy: The Hindu