"In our country all money generated from our cities and towns from variety of local taxes amounting to lakh in small towns to tens of crore of rupees in big cities daily, are poured into the coffers of the State governments which also receives one-third of central revenue. The State Governments in turn wastes a major share of all the money it receives in maintaining oversized bureaucracies and sick PSUs leaving only municipal and water tax to the cities and towns barely enough to pay the salaries of municipal employees
." -Krishanu Dutta
This is an interesting letter. The letter seems to blame the State Govt. and all its waste as opposed to putting the onus on the citizens (of Guwahati) for electing better city managers. But the letter goes on to say citizens "put up with all discomforts with exemplary fortitude" and "many think that they are ordained to suffer".
The question that comes up is, have the citizens just given up hope, and taken the attitude 'kopal ot ji ase' attitude?
BTW: I too have taken a 'kopal ot ji ase' attitude with the hurricane - only difference is I have made all efforts (within my means) to put up a good front (boarding and duct taping) - inspite of Alpana's 'less than encouraging' confidence in my handiman abilities :)
--Ram
'Whose City is it Anyway' — A Flawed Column
This is in reference to the column 'City Light' by Jivraj Barman in The Sentinel dated September 5 and titled 'Whose city is it anyway'. Mr Barman is totally wrong in blaming the citizens of Guwahati for being 'in deep slumber' and not having 'any sense of belonging to the city'. He may be having a temporary lapse of memory as there are ample instances of localities of the city putting up roadblocks on roads in dilapidated condition for years and organizing fishing programmes on large potholes.
He is however correct in stating that Guwahatians can "put up with all discomforts with exemplary fortitude" and "many think that they are ordained to suffer" but this is true of people all over the country. If Mr Barman has found the condition of Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, so disgusting he should visit other towns of the State which, except for Nagaon (courtesy Prafulla Mahanta) and Tezpur (courtesy Army and Air Force), are in far worse state. He expects "people to rise up and confront the babus/ministers" when in fact there is no need to do so if the required system, i.e., properly empowered local self government is in place, a fact which has never received support from our scandal hungry media with the only notable exception of Ms Tavleen Singh, the only journalist genuinely interested in civic affairs and good governance.
The city and town councils of western countries are powerful institutions receiving significant share of revenue generated within the city/town and so are capable of keeping the western cities and towns spick and span on their own. In our country all money generated from our cities and towns from variety of local taxes amounting to lakh in small towns to tens of crore of rupees in big cities daily, are poured into the coffers of the State governments which also receives one-third of central revenue. The State Governments in turn wastes a major share of all the money it receives in maintaining oversized bureaucracies and sick PSUs leaving only municipal and water tax to the cities and towns barely enough to pay the salaries of municipal employees.
The corporations of our metropolitan cities are reasonably powerful with annual budgets running into thousands of crore of rupees capable of running municipal schools and hospitals but still grossly inadequate by Western standards. The State level bureaucrats and politicians have powerful vested interest in not establishing adequately powerful and wealthy local self governments as they will have to share power and funds with city councils and councillors which would become a third tier of power.
Our very own Mr Kushal Sarma, the last mayor, expressed his anguish at not being able to do enough for the city because of bureaucrats of Dispur with whom he claimed to have running battles. This should have been highlighted by the local media. Pardon me for saying this — the tragedy of our towns and cities is that the media and journalists of our country are either ignorant or are not genuinely interested in the root cause of civic problems.
The only salvation for urban India seems to lie in the judiciary — if a PIL is filed in the Supreme Court to implement power decentralization and genuine local self governance.
Krishanu Dutta,
Lachitnagar,
Lane-7,
Guwahati-781 007.
Lachitnagar,
Lane-7,
Guwahati-781 007.
'Whose City is it Anyway' — A Flawed Column
This is in reference to the column 'City Light' by Jivraj Barman in The Sentinel dated September 5 and titled 'Whose city is it anyway'. Mr Barman is totally wrong in blaming the citizens of Guwahati for being 'in deep slumber' and not having 'any sense of belonging to the city'. He may be having a temporary lapse of memory as there are ample instances of localities of the city putting up roadblocks on roads in dilapidated condition for years and organizing fishing programmes on large potholes.
He is however correct in stating that Guwahatians can "put up with all discomforts with exemplary fortitude" and "many think that they are ordained to suffer" but this is true of people all over the country. If Mr Barman has found the condition of Guwahati, the capital city of Assam, so disgusting he should visit other towns of the State which, except for Nagaon (courtesy Prafulla Mahanta) and Tezpur (courtesy Army and Air Force), are in far worse state. He expects "people to rise up and confront the babus/ministers" when in fact there is no need to do so if the required system, i.e., properly empowered local self government is in place, a fact which has never received support from our scandal hungry media with the only notable exception of Ms Tavleen Singh, the only journalist genuinely interested in civic affairs and good governance.
The city and town councils of western countries are powerful institutions receiving significant share of revenue generated within the city/town and so are capable of keeping the western cities and towns spick and span on their own. In our country all money generated from our cities and towns from variety of local taxes amounting to lakh in small towns to tens of crore of rupees in big cities daily, are poured into the coffers of the State governments which also receives one-third of central revenue. The State Governments in turn wastes a major share of all the money it receives in maintaining oversized bureaucracies and sick PSUs leaving only municipal and water tax to the cities and towns barely enough to pay the salaries of municipal employees.
The corporations of our metropolitan cities are reasonably powerful with annual budgets running into thousands of crore of rupees capable of running municipal schools and hospitals but still grossly inadequate by Western standards. The State level bureaucrats and politicians have powerful vested interest in not establishing adequately powerful and wealthy local self governments as they will have to share power and funds with city councils and councillors which would become a third tier of power.
Our very own Mr Kushal Sarma, the last mayor, expressed his anguish at not being able to do enough for the city because of bureaucrats of Dispur with whom he claimed to have running battles. This should have been highlighted by the local media. Pardon me for saying this — the tragedy of our towns and cities is that the media and journalists of our country are either ignorant or are not genuinely interested in the root cause of civic problems.
The only salvation for urban India seems to lie in the judiciary — if a PIL is filed in the Supreme Court to implement power decentralization and genuine local self governance.
Krishanu Dutta,
Lachitnagar,
Lane-7,
Guwahati-781 007.
Lachitnagar,
Lane-7,
Guwahati-781 007.
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