Gross injustice to Orissa:Announced National Inst. of Sc. in Bhubaneswar renamed & shifted

Why I support privatization but oppose NALCO divestment by the UPA government?

Chitta Baral

I had very high hopes from a government run by Dr. Singh and Mr. Chidambaram. However, so far they both have proved that degrees from Oxford and Harvard do not necessarily make them trustworthy, fair or statesmen. The reason I and many of us who support privatization in general but oppose NALCO divestment is that we do not trust Dr. Singh and Mr. Chidambaram will use the money raised in a way fair to Orissa or other non-UPA allied states.

They have so far behaved like fiefs and partisans with respect to the Indian budget, especially the 06-07 HRD budget. Let me elaborate on it. The budget spreadsheet and the speech are available in the web and the readers can verify the points. In item 96 of the budget speech the finance minister highlights 100 crores each for University of Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai; the first two in UPA allied states and the third is the FM's home state. In item 97 he mentions 100 crores for Punjab Agricultural University, in the state where the PM spent his youth. In item 98 he mentions a Biotech Institute in Kerala, another state ruled by an UPA ally. These items are the only ones under the heading of ``Institutions of Excellence,'' as if non-UPA implies non-deserving of such institutes. In other parts of the speech there is mention of developing Paddy Processing Research Centre at Thanjavur (Tamil Nadu) into a national-level institute and renaming the existing National Institute of Port Management, Chennai as National Maritime Academy, upgrading it into a Central University with regional campuses at Mumbai, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam, all in UPA-allied states.

This is not all. In the budget spreadsheets there are more goodies for the UPA-allied states and yes, a punishment for a non-UPA ruled state. The expenditure budget volume 2, item 73 lists two IISERs (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) at 50 crores in Pune and Kolkata, again states allied with the UPA and earlier this year a third one has been announced for Punjab. These will be new institutions. The punishment part comes from removals. During the NDA government the precursors of IISERs then called NISs (National Institute of Sciences) were proposed in Pune, Allahbad, Chennai and Bhubaneswar. Among these Pune was retained and the rest were removed. While Allahbad and Chennai have centrally funded IIIT and IIT and the later was given other goodies, Bhubaneswar, Orissa has neither. Moreover, Orissa does not have any centrally funded higher education institutions such as an IIT, IIM, IISc, central university, ISI, etc., beyond one of the 19 NITs. With Bihar and Rajasthan, Orissa is at the bottom of the list with respect to higher education funding. (See details at http://equitableindia.org.) The SAC-PM chair is reported to have said that Orissa is among the two states that sends the most number of students to science research institutes. But all that does not matter. It seems what matters is that Orissa did not vote for the UPA. So it deserves to be punished by this government, and even an institute (NIS/IISER) which was announced by a former HRD minister and the current president himself (please see the links at http://iiser.blogspot.com/) and whose 45 page DPR dated May 2004 (when UPA govt was voted in) is still in the UGC website can be ignored ahead of other locations with UPA muscle.

Thus many of us in Orissa are now saying: God save the country and God save Orissa from such exploiters who put on a mask of simplicity to get good press but are rude when no press is looking; as the PM was to the Orissa MPs when he said "Money does not grow in trees". But Dr. Singh, it grows in trees when it is for Punjab or West Bengal! Dr. Singh talks about equality and equity and serving all people, but when the time comes, together with the FM and UPA allies shamelessly takes away bulk of the new HRD initiatives and punishes states like Orissa. Lest someone wants to mention the proposed new AIIMS in backward states, the expenditure budget of 2006-2007 (item 26 of sbe 46) shows that the original budget for the AIIMS in 2005-06 was 250 crores, which was revised downwards to 6 crores and the budget for 2006-07 is 75 crores.

It is shocking that the PM and FM have to be told that the Indian budget is the money for all of India, not their fief. It should be spent across India and in case of higher education it should be not only spread across India but aimed at correcting existing regional imbalances instead of making it worse, as the 2006-07 budget does.

Under these circumstances, the divestment of NALCO can only be seen as taking money from Orissa (as a big part of NALCO's profit is due to the low rate it pays to Orissa with respect to the minerals it consumes and the pollution it makes) to the center and perhaps earmarking it to UPA allied states for next year.

Now if the Prime minister and the cabinet were to shed their arrogance and correct their mistakes starting with announcing that the earlier announced NIS/IISER will indeed be immediately established in Orissa, correcting regional imbalances by creating new IITs or IIT cousins in states without them (Note: Even the so called fair process used by the new IIT committee ignored the NITs. So now 4 of the 5 institutes selected are ranked worse than many NITs, including NIT Rourkela in Orissa. See http://newiits.blogspot.com/), opening central universities in backward district clusters across India and promising that the money generated by divesting 10% of NALCO will be spent in building Orissa's long neglected infrastructure then I would be fully supportive of the proposed divestment. But as it stands, I have no faith in the PM or FM, as their actions so far tells me that they are going to again exploit Orissa.

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Following is the original article that I sent on June 27th 2006.

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I had very high hopes from a government run by Dr. Manmohan Singh
and Mr. Chidambaram. However, so far they both have proved that
degrees from Oxford and Harvard does not necessarily make a person
good, fair or a statesman.

Its shocking, and outrageous that this year the bulk of the new
budget of the HRD ministry has been allocated to states such as
Punjab (where the prime minister spent his youth; through an IISER
and 100 crores to Punjab Agricultural University ), Tamil Nadu
(where the Finance minister comes from; 50 crores to Univ of Madras
and more), West Bengal (the state whose MPs have the UPA government
on choke hold but yet profess their love for equality; IISER in
Kolkata; 50 crores for University of Calcutta), etc. Please see the
details in http://chitta.googlepages.com/2006budget1

God save the country and God save Orissa from such exploiters who
put on a mask of simplicity to get good press (but are rude when no
press is looking; as the PM was to the Orissa MPs when he said
"Money does not grow in trees"; but it grows in trees when it is for
Punjab or West Bengal) who talk equality and equity and serving all
people, but when the time comes shamelessly hijack bulk of the
budget to their own state or to their allies and punish the other
states. Have not the PM and FM, and now the health minister who
wants one of the health institute in his own state, heard of MPLAD.
If Punjab or Tamil Nadu needs something special, why don't they use
their MPLAD? The Indian budget is the money for all of India, not
the fief of the FM, PM or the CPI-M. (The only fair person in the
cabinet seems to be Mr.Lalu Yadav, who although put a bit more
Railway money on Bihar; spread the rest nicely and fairly all around
the country.)

Under these circumstances, the divestment of NALCO can be seen only
as taking money from Orissa (as a big part of NALCO's profit is due
to the low rate it pays to Orissa with respect to the minerals it
consumes and the pollution it makes) to the center and perhaps
earmarking it to Punjab/TamilNadu/WestBengal /etc. for next year.

Now if the Prime minister and the cabinet were to correct their
mistakes and announce that the earlier announced NIS/IISER will
indeed be established in Orissa; make other amendments such as
upgrading NIT Rourkela to one of the IIT-cousins (as 4 of the five
that are selected for upgradation are ranked below NIT Rourkela; see
http://newiits.blogspot.com/), opening central universities in KBK,
etc. and promise that the money generated by divesting 10%
of NALCO will be spent in building Orissa's long neglected
infrastructure then I would be fuly supportive of the divestment.
But as it stands, I have no faith in the PM, FM or the Indian
Cabinet, as their actions so far tells me that they are going to
again exploit Orissa by taking this money and investing it in the
states they come from or have ties to.

Thus I am supportive of Orissa resisting this divestment until a
central govt that is fair to Orissa is in power or until the current
govt proves its fairness towards Orissa through its actions (not
just words). I am proud that this time, all parties in Orissa
(Congress, BJP, BJD, etc.) have seen through the evil eyes of the
center and are collectively resisting it.

So Mr. PM, FM and the central cabinet, first prove that you are fair
to Orissa, and only then we will believe you that you are going to
use the disvestment money fairly and not just hijack it to your own
constituency.


sincerely

Chitta Baral (ps -- Anyone who would like to argue that
the UPA govt has done this and that, please look at
http://chitta.googlepages.com/2006budget1 and tell me what you think
how the HRD higher education allocation were made and how fair it
is. Or do you think Orissans don't need higher education; they are
fine as coolies, and the central govt has been generous to give them
work for 100 days a year under NREGS.)

# posted by chitta @ 9:42 PM