Two recent decisions of the Mohan Majhi government made me ponder whether they serve any public good. Good governance always means that any decision by the government should be in the larger interests of the public.
It’s amazing to see the first announcement of the state government to go for another secretariat building and assembly building in Bhubaneswar along with an auditorium with seating capacity for 10,000 people.
Earlier Rajiv Bhavan was constructed and major departments like Water Resources, Agriculture were shifted to the new building. Few years back Krushi Bhavan was constructed which houses the Agriculture Department and all the directorates under it. Again very recently Kharavela Bhawan has been constructed behind the old secretariat building as an annexe and some departments have been working there. Now there’s no dearth of space in Lok Seva Bhawan , the oldest and the main secretariat building.
In a recent visit I observed a huge space provided for the office of Advocate General in Lok Seva Bhawan . I wonder whether it’s appropriate or not when AG has a huge establishment on the premises of the Orissa High Court in Cuttack. Similarly, a large hall has been constructed behind the Assembly building to accommodate ceremonial functions.
There’s absolutely no need for another Assembly building in the state. Shall we blindly follow the example of a new parliament building in Delhi?
We should not forget that these buildings are iconic heritage buildings bearing historic significance. When Bhubaneswar was made the capital of the state, foundations were laid for these buildings. They are now part of our heritage and the so-called ‘Odia Asmita’, Sardar Patel Hall in front of Lok Seva Bhawan, which was earlier used as Assembly Hall is now in a dilapidated state and requires renovation and preservation as a heritage building.
I also don’t find any logic for a huge auditorium in Bhubaneswar when we have a state of the convention centre in Lok Seva Bhawan which no other state boasts of. The Kala Mandal complex near Sainik School could not be completed in decades. It could very well serve the purpose with multiple halls of different sizes.
Do we have any meeting in Bhubaneswar with participation of ten thousand people except political rallies?
The construction and upkeep of such a large auditorium would be too expensive and prove an avoidable luxury. When I solicited the opinion of some retired Chief Secretaries and their counterparts all of them unequivocally rejected these ideas.
According to them, the government should focus more on social and economic infrastructures instead of undertaking such projects at the cost of the public money.
Each day the state government is making some sorts of announcements without proper homework and planning. One such is to construct 30 guest houses in Bhubaneswar for thirty districts with one hundred capacity each. When the Odisha Bhawans in Delhi and other states, State Guest House in Bhubaneswar and the Circuit Houses in the districts are poorly managed, who will manage these thirty guest houses?
As I understand in spite of huge funds pumped in for the Odisha Bhawan in Bengaluru it is yet to be completed after so many years. Who will fix it? From my own experience I have seen how the Odisha Bhawan in New Mumbai is mismanaged. A few years back during my visit, the VIP rooms were found with torn door screens.There was no hand wash or mosquito liquid for the guests. It was explained that the Home Department does not provide adequate funds for this. This is the precarious situation of our guest houses.
In such a situation is it necessary at all to go for construction of 30 guest houses in Bhubaneswar for the people of thirty districts? It’s in the analogy of having a guest house of each state in the union capital at Delhi. I don’t think it is applicable here. This will be a waste of government money and the land resources. I am afraid ultimately these will be misused by the politicians in power and their cronies. Someday it may catch the headlines in the newspapers for wrong reasons. It may not be required to elaborate further.
Needless to say successive governments are found to be eager to go for mindless construction work simply because it serves the vested interests of many including engineers, contractors, bureaucrats and politicians.
However, it costs the state exchequer and the taxpayers of the state dearly. Are these ideas coming from some enterprising engineer- contractor lobby blessed by some equally ambitious bureaucrats and politicians in power? What public good will it serve? When we have thousands of villages without motorable roads, drinking water, electricity, primary education and healthcare facilities even after seventy five years of independence do we justify ourselves in going for such luxuries? The Chief Minister is heading the Finance Department himself. How’s it he agrees to such proposals when the state resources show an alarming downward trend?
A good finance secretary should be able to say a stern “no” to unproductive and wasteful expenditures. We have to use the resources in a most productive and sustainable manner so that the state is able to continue its economic growth and development agenda in core sectors.
I must end this article with the wisdom of Dr U Saratchandran, one of the architects of Odisha’s financial reforms as Finance Secretary twenty years ago. ‘This is a totally unthoughtful, irrational and unwise use of scarce resources. These funds should be productively used in the areas of agriculture, education, health, rural infrastructure etc. Hope the finance department examines it using a cost benefit analysis of alternative use of the resources for the good of the economy. These are ways by which states get into financial distress. Good that as someone actively involved in the state’s finances you have brought it to the attention of people and decision makers.’
(Views expressed in the article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or positions of Odisha Bytes)
