PRE- ELECTIONS - BEST TIME FOR WE THE PEOPLE
By Ruma Dubey
Elections are good for the people. Forget the new Govt coming in place; what is good is the frenzy at which infrastructure build takes place just before the polls.
Travel anywhere around the country today, major cities, almost every road is dug up, new bridges are being built at a frenzy, monorail and metro projects which were stuck in a quagmire of red tape, suddenly get all approvals. Yes, today, we are stuck in incessant traffic jams causing tremendous amonts of inconvenience but be thankful to the polls ahead – at least we will get some roads and bridges before the elections.
Data from National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) shows that the quarter of January-March 2014, will witness commissioning of 24 highway projects worth Rs.156 billion. Six highway projects worth Rs.52 billion have already been commissioned this Q4, adding a highway road length of 412 km. By the end of March, NHAI would have completed 30 projects totally, adding a highway capacity of 1658 kms.
So we will see 30 projects in Q4 alone as against measly 11 projects till end of 9MFy14 and they added a road length of just 872 km. Clearly, this is the ‘magic of elections’ at work.
Another example – Maharashtra, which has been almost dead in terms of infra build for some time now, during this current Q4 will commission 28 infra projects worth Rs.194 billion of which 5 projects, all to do with road building have been completed. There are 23 projects which are rushing ahead to be completed before end of March. The biggest investment is in the railway infrastructure services followed by power and road infrastructure services. This also includes the much awaited and much delayed 11 km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar (VAG) Metro corridor project and Anil Ambani’s Rs.43 billion Mumbai metro.
This apart, people are being wooed with a lot of freebies and things are being made cheaper though the Govt can ill afford it, like the increased subsidy on cooking gas and then the cut in prices of natural gas used for transport and domestic purposes. Political parties promise the sky and earth, which if at all implemented could bleed the country to death.
People know that this is the time when all their woes could actually get resolved and politicians might really 'listen' to their problems. So to get that water line fixed, the street lights work done, to get a park for children – this might be the best time to visit your local politician and he will take up your issue with a zeal and enthusiasm akin to fighting for freedom.
Elections are good for the economy in general – apart from the infra build up, it brings out all the black money collected by politicians to fund their various rallies and freebies. This is a time for others, the supply chain for these politicians to make money. the banner amkers, the trucks needed for campaigning, the posters, an entire suppoer system for the elections gets money. Newspapers and the entire digital and electronic media will make the maximum money now through the various advertising campaigns. The embarrassing Rahul Gandhi campaign which we see splashed around all over India has an over Rs.700 crore budget; can you imagine such money ever coming out from the coffers but for these elections?
When we see the frenzy of road building and major stalled projects taking off, it does make us wonder whether it would be a good idea to have elections every four years? It will make the political party more accountable as they have to work at least from the third year and it would also mean more frequent airing of the black money in the system.