| Future Tense
The Planning Commission has relatively fixed Manipur's outlay for the 10th Plan period at Rs 2,804.19 crores. This is against the State demand of Rs 4000 crores. Which means that acute financial crisis will continue to dog the State during the next plan
period. Representations from the State to release more money form the next Plan period was turned down by the Planning Commission.
This should not raise any eyebrows. The Center has not been amused by the manner
in which the State has been mismanaging the funds for the last many years. What is more the nod of the Home Ministry is a must before releasing funds by different Union Ministers.
On top of this the NDA Government at the Center will not be ready to bail out the Congress led coalition. Instead the BJP leading the NDA Ministry blamed the Congress (I) "misrule" for all the ills plaguing Manipur.
Given the chance the BJP will not hesitate to topple the Okram Ibobi Government. The former BJP national; president's Kushabhao Thakre's statement that only the BJP could bring the remedial measures for all the problems in Manipur is an attempt to win support for the BJP in its attempt to capture power in the Sate.
BJP leaders both at Delhi and State will only be happy to make things difficult for Ibobi Singh and his colleagues in the Secular Progressive Front. Moreover, SPF house is not in order either. Hence Ibobi will have to do some tight rope walking.
The immediate task at hand is releasing the salaries of the Government employees. The annual plan outlay will be finalized only next month. Ibobi's survival depends on tackling effectively the twin problems of fund crunch and onslaught from the Opposition Alliance. The financial situation could not be overcome overnight. It needs some hard decision and tough measures.
Unfortunately nothing concrete has been done. Merely setting targets for realization of revenues would not help the Government in any way. It will have to get its act together and start performing. Pilferage of revenues will have to be checked. Wasteful expenditure should be brought to a complete halt.
If the Government could check wastage of petrol provided to top ranking officials on private business, a lot of money could be saved. A huge sum of revenue from forest products are lining pockets of officials. Power bills have not been collected. Even if collected a large chunk of the money has been siphoned off.
Without checking leakages and pilferages we can not hope of overcoming the financial crisis. Even if the Planning Commission is ready to pump in money the problem will refuse to go away. Everybody including Ministers seems to think that the Government will be stable only when there is a sound economy, which calls for a performing and efficient Govt.
(Courtesy: The
Sangai Express)
|
Welcome! 
International
Features
