URBAN GOVT. SERVICES AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

Urban govt. SERVICES AND economic growth

In earlier societies Govt. functions were mere law & order and protection of citizens from external attacks. Origin of Kings is explained in Bible Book: Judges .Gideon’s duty was only these two. Now Democratic Govts. are of the people, for the people and by the people. Well being of the citizens is the function of the State. State has also become the facilitator of economic welfare. In this context delivery of the services by all LSGs is important. Nearly 30 crores of people of India are below poverty line and nine crores of them live in urban areas. In Kerala there are 83.6 lakhs of them in urban areas. Of them 64,556 live in the slums of cities.

More important of the services done by the urban Govt.s for eradication of poverty and slums are:  Supply of potable water and sewerage system; sanitation and public health care; housing projects; education facilities; road connectivity; good and rapid mass transport  facilities;  Solid waste management etc.

Central Govt., State Govt.s and Urban Govt.s along with different departments of these Govt.s have to coordinate their activities to provide these services.  Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) is thus a tripartite initiative of Govt. of India.  For some of these schemes they have spent in 2005-2011 Rs. One billion (100,000 crores.) We have tackled only a part of the problem.  Around Rs. 30 to 40 thousand crores per annum is required to continue this work. New services like disaster management of floods, famines, fire, Plague and terrorist activities await to be included into the group of services: for which more funds have to be found out. Rajiv Awas Yojana is a new initiative to create slum free cities.

These massive urban oriented spending is bound to be catalytic for speedy economic growth in the cities and in the country. The increase in infrastructure of the type mentioned above will certainly provide more employment, productivity and income. This ought to further catapult our growth and income multiplier times. So I am of firm opinion that this increased public expenditure is a necessity to pull India out of the low productivity syndrome to which we are just now escalating. The withdrawal of the unbearable subsidy system for food to condoms must be substantially reduced to enable the Govt.  to spent more on provision of real services to the needy in the society.

 This enormous investment cannot be undertaken by any Govt. Thus financing urban problems to eradicate poverty and slums acquire a new dimension. Three sources of financing are feasible.

1.       Monetisation of land by sale, lease or developer-execution projects

2.       Public-Private-participation projects

3.       Mobilisation of community resources.

All three face severe opposition in Kerala. Bhoo-Mafia is the cry against the first. Privatization and aiding the rich to amass more is the opposition to the second. The third is opposed by a badal organization and conflictive politics.

Kudumbashree is the largest women’s movement in Asia. It has organized nearly 38 lakhs of poor families into two lakhs neighborhood groups for self employment, health, housing, social service and so on. It mobilized among them Rs.1688 cr. and disbursed Rs. 4195 cr. as loans to 25000 women to start their production units. Janashree is a “badal “organization of recent origin. Political parties try to create exclusivism in either and consequently poke spanner in their wheels. This is another bane of conflictive politics of Kerala.

Whoever pokes such spanners into the wheels of economic growth are traitors.   Transparency International said in 2005 that Kerala is the least corrupt of the Indian States. The Bhoo-mafia, Manal-mafia, corrupt Police {Justice Benjamin Koshy said with statistics of complaints received}, corrupt politicians, bureaucracy, contractors and similar breed who roll in ill-gotten wealth are traitors of the State.    Unless we wipe the State of such traitors and the UDF-LDF conflictive politics, we cannot make the urban Govt. spending to reach the targeted population. Kerala may not come out of the phenomenon of growth less economy of high HDI.

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