Tough Act Needed
Call us dreamers, but we had hoped that Chief Minister O Ibobi would at least do a lot better than simply go to Delhi and beseech with the Prime Minister and the Union Finance Minister to bail the State out of the financial crisis. We had hoped that the Chief Minister would lay the cards on the table and tell the Center that there is just no way for the State to get out the financial rut and if the Center fails to extend help, it would only worsen the deep rooted feeling of alienation that runs in the psyche of the people.
The manner in which O Ibobi came back empty handed and informed the press that the Center would be deputing a team from the Union Finance Ministry to study the feasibility of granting a soft loan of Rs 560 crores and another 150 crores as Non Plan assistance came like a bucket of cold water after a hot shower. Remember, we are already into the 8th month of the year 2002 and the annual Plan size of the State is yet to be worked out.
By way of explaining the failure to finalize the Plan size, the Chief Minister, straight upon his arrival from New Delhi, told media persons that the Plan size could not be worked out as the Center and the State Government failed to find a mechanism to help the State overcome the RS 650 crores deficit incurred when the 5th Pay Commission was implemented.
The Chief Minister further said that the Center has been urged to do something concrete so that the deficit is cleared before the 12th Finance Commission. Doesn’t the Chief Minister know that this is an old, discredited promise? For a Chief Minister who can dissociate himself from the root cause of the acute financial crisis, we had expected O Ibobi to come out with something concrete, like closing down or privatizing the sick Public Sector Units.
That the Sick Public Sector units are bleeding the State dry need not be elaborated but what the Government, particularly the Chief Minister should realize is that the problem has become so serious that what is needed is not some half hearted tinkering, like the Save Hotel Imphal Project, but some acknowledgement that we can no longer afford to waste public money through these sick Public Sector Units.
This is the basic issue the Chief Minister should be addressing apart from exerting pressure on New Delhi. We do not have the figure to say how much loss is accrued through these sick Public Sector Units, but we are sure the loss is gargantuan. The goods and services provided by these Public Sector Units can easily be provided by private enterprises and suffice it to say that these Public Sector Units make no profits and in the rare event they do make some profit, we know the profit lands in the pockets of you know who.
Enterprises should be run by businessmen who know how to make profits and not bureaucrats and political appointees. And of course if enterprises start running like Government Departments, which has been the case in all the PSUs here, then we say with certainty that the process of writing its epitaph has been set into motion. To get his act going Ibobi should start acting like the Chief Minister of the State and not some Congress satraps. In dealing with the issues concerning the welfare of the people and the development of the State, Ibobi should come out from the confines of the presidentship of the MPCC (I) and start donning the mantle of a leader.
The financial crisis is serious enough and as we had repeatedly said in this column earlier, the time calls for some tough decisions. And of course along with tough decisions, the Chief Minister should also have the courage and the conviction to pressurize New Delhi to give the State its due. The task before Ibobi not with a begging bowl but with the stand the State should be given its due share.
(Courtesy: The
Sangai Express)
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