Schemes and more schemes
It’s raining schemes these days. As Goa gears up for a hot summer, the government is promising a range of schemes which promises to turn our small State into a paradise indeed.
Schemes to utilise fallow land. Sewerage lines. An infrastructure fund. Rs 500 crores for roads in the mining belt. Medical insurance. All this and more is being offered to the citizen in Goa.
When we hear of multi-crore figures, we tend to geti mpressed. When the talk focuses on plans to launch new initiatives, we could almost believe that everything is safe in the State of Goa. But is that really so?
All these promises don’t give a hint of the leakages that happen when the government spends its money. Nor is there a trace of all the arbitrary decisions and influence wielding that is seen, when the exchequer’s funds are available for the asking.
Some years ago, the government announced a scheme to promote tourism in mansions and large homes in various parts of Goa. This earned the State a huge amount of publicity and praise for launching an “innovative scheme”. What was overlooked was that the money devoted to this scheme was just a token amount. It would be interesting to find out what benefit such plans actually had over the years, if any.
Because of the manner in which government budgets are presented in India, it is difficult to know at a glance what assets have been built up, and how productively these are being deployed.
One of Goa’s major problems on the agriculture front is the large number of fields that are being kept fallow. But, instead of taking action on this front, the government is offering one-time grants (of Rs 50,000 for two hectares). This could well act as an incentive to keep fields fallow, and claim grants. Instead, the government should take action against those claiming the benefits of tenancy rights, and yet failing to cultivate fields. But when it comes to garnering votes, logic doesn’t matter.
It is time for the citizen to be more cautious about what is being promised. There is also a need to keep track of what is officially claimed over the years, and how much exactly is being delivered.
Cyberage goes
Finally, the Digambar Kamat government has decided to do away with the Cyberage scheme, and instead strengthen computer labs in schools. Cyberage, as any parent or student wouldk now, meant distributing tens of thousands of virtually free computers — priced at a nominal amount — to students in colleges or higher secondaries.
Cyberage, despite all the hype, is now seen as quite a failure. Some households got two or three computers, as they — naturally — had more than one college-going child! Children from affluent families too could claim the almost-free computers.
Many looked at the computer gift-horse in the mouth, and treated the hardware with contempt. No wonder Cyberage added immensely to Goa’s electronic wastes. No evaluation was doneo f the scheme after years of its operation. Hardware vendors complained of questionable decisions while placing orders for the computers too. Costly software was paid for, while free educational software was not made available.
Do we need such schemes that help the vendors rather than the students? Should crores of rupees be spent without first studying what is the actual need of students, schools and colleges, or does the government just work on the basis of a hunch?
Surprising indeed is the fact that the Congress government continued with a BJP-initiated scheme, and has now un-gloriously decided to dump it sans ceremony. This reflects the official vision, that if it pumps money into any sector, it could get results. Nothing could be further from the truth; building IT skills in Goa isn’t going to happen merely by dumping hardware into young people’s homes.
