Absentee Chief Minister, paralysed state: UPA presses pause in Jharkhand

Nothing seems to be moving in Koda’s Jharkhand. Files are stuck and projects are held up while money meant for development is lying unused. Less than a year after it was formed, the UPA coalition government in Jharkhand has developed cracks and the ministers are displaying their restlessness in public.

At the last meeting of the state Cabinet here, Tirkey was not the only minister to speak out. Hemendra Pratap Shahi, too, blamed Koda for stifling development in the state.

A look at the projects that are stuck will show why the ministers are screaming:

• The Sarva Swasthya Mission, a public -private partnership for health care, with Rs 25 crore provided by the Tata group as seed money, has not gone beyond an announcement made last year.

• Under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna, the state government had Rs 1,500 crore in its bank account on April 31. Yet not one rural road was constructed.

• The Ranchi Regional Development Authority had conceived a mega project for a bus terminal in the capital. The state government released Rs 9.5 crore in 2002-03. But the terminal is yet to be constructed.

• Under the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification scheme, 19,807 villages in the state were to be electrified during 2007-08. But only 31 had been provided electricity until July 1.

• Since the the state government has not notified its resettlement and rehabilitation policy, none of the Rs 2.50 lakh crore investment plans including the greenfield steel plants of Tata, Jindal and L N Mittal have taken off.

The list is long. There are inter-district highways that literally lead to nowhere and bridges and culverts that have not moved out of files in the state secretariat.

The mess is not just about development. For the first time in six years, the Auditor General, in an affidavit filed at the Jharkhand High Court last month, indicted the government for not furnishing financial records of more than Rs 40,000 crore.

Worse, the state has failed to utilise funds meant for development.

For instance, against the plan outlay of Rs 6,500 crore during 2006-07, it spent just Rs 2,714 crore.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal (2007-08), the state spent less than Rs 130 crore against the plan outlay of Rs 7,539 crore.

Asked why money was not being spent on projects, a senior official said there was lack of coordination between the staff and ministers. “To make use of the public fund, decisions have to be taken and implemented rigorously. But nobody is willing to do that due to low-trust environment,” he said.

“We have instructed the drawing and disbursing officers to ensure the development fund is not surrendered this year,” said Principal Secretary (Finance) Mukhtiyar Singh.

But Chief Minister Koda, whose critics say he spends more time in Delhi than Ranchi, says everything is on track.

“During my tenure, the process of development has been fast-tracked. Take, for instance, the state capital project. It was launched and abandoned during the previous NDA regime. But I got it revived. The tender to prepare its blueprint is going to be out soon. So is the case with several other projects such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for which we have set up a state-level body to implement,” he said.

But Koda’s colleagues don’t agree. The coalition has shown enough signs of cracking. RJD’s Annapurna Devi and Congress MP Furkan Ansari have already hit out at Koda. RJD’s Dhirendra Agrawal has repeatedly criticised Koda and has even sought his dismissal.

“Despite repeated appeals, he could not do anything to expedite development,” said Ansari.

Koda shrugs off the dissent. “In a democracy, everybody has the liberty to express his opinion. In coalition governments, such things are inevitable. But then I have tried my best to adhere to the dharma of coalition politics and never reacted (to such comments),” said Koda.

YOUNG STATE, BIG MESS Part-I

• The Sarva Swasthya Mission, a public-private partnership for health care has not taken off despite Tatas putting in the initial Rs 25 cr

• 1,500 cr in bank for the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojna, but no rural road has been built so far

• 19,807 villages were to be electrified in 2007-08 under Central scheme. Only 31 were provided electricity until July 1

• No resettlement and rehabilitation policy yet, so 2.5 lakh crore investment plans including the greenfield steel plants of Tata, Jindal and L N Mittal held up

• Against Plan outlay of 6,500 cr for 2006-07, govt spent 2,714 cr. In the first quarter of the current fiscal (2007-08), state spent less than 130 cr against Plan allocation of 7,539 cr

(Tomorrow: Crime graph soars, bureaucrats queue up to leave)