By Patricia Mukhim
Political appointments have been the bane of Meghalaya’s unstable politics. These appointments are made not for the purpose of any outcome but because elected or defeated MLAs and ruling party executives have to be accommodated and paid their honorariums and their travel allowances if they are on tour for the purpose of serving the respective public sector undertaking (PSU). In the bargain some institutions such as the Meghalaya Watches Ltd, Meghalaya Bamboo Chips Ltd, Meghalaya Phyto-chemicals Ltd and Meghalaya Electronic Development Corporation (MEDC) made such heavy losses that they became non-viable. The MEDC was manufacturing capacitors (electronic component that stores electric charge) but these have become outdated following the introduction of Integrated Circuits (ICs). The MEDC never innovated to rise to the next level. Hence it became a redundant institution.
The State Government was simply pumping in money to keep these PSUs afloat for decades. The CAG Report of 2010-11 stated that out of 11 working PSUs in the State only the Meghalaya Government Construction Corporation (MGCC) earned a nominal profit of 87 lakhs while the remaining 10 PSUs incurred losses to the tune of Rs 97.83 crore in that financial year. The bulk of the losses were incurred by Meghalaya Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) at Rs 25.07 crore, Mawmluh Cherra Cements Limited at Rs 12.54 crore and Meghalaya State Electricity Board at Rs 56.42 crore.
The CAG attributed these losses to deficiencies in financial management, bad planning, poor implementation of projects and absence of monitoring mechanisms. As on March 31 2011, Meghalaya had 11 working PSUs which included 9 companies and two statutory corporations besides two non-working companies which employed 4,989 workers, the CAG observed. On an aggregate Meghalaya’s working PSUs incurred an overall loss of Rs 96.96 crore in 2010-11,” the report said. The State Government has shown no inclination to take a call on most of these non-performing institutions, particularly the Meghalaya Cement Corporation Limited (MCCL) which has been going at a constant loss when all other private cement companies are making phenomenal profit. What’s the point in continuing with these loss making PSUs? And they all have Chairpersons at the helm that shamelessly enjoys their perks without adding any value to the PSU.
It is in this context perhaps that the Mawprem MLA Manas Chaudhuri, (at the time when he was Independent legislator) raised the issue of “unproductive appointments” in the State Assembly, hoping for a discussion on the matter. But RG Lyngdoh then in the Government jumped up to make a vociferous defence of the Government’s actions. The Deputy Speaker at the time, PW Muktieh termed the phrase “Unproductive Appointments” as unparliamentary. In the next day’s session, the first business that Muktieh took up was to expunge the words from the previous day’s proceedings. So much for raising pertinent issues in Meghalaya! You end up looking like a villain in a badly scripted movie. And the matter is buried, never to be raised again because everyone in the political dispensation has a vested interest in supporting the idea of unproductive appointments at any cost! After all they are not paying money from their pockets. On the contrary they are milking these institutions dry.
Unproductive appointments are a euphemism for political appointments. Political appointments have nothing to do with public service. They are inherently selfishly motivated to appease politicians and to seek their continued support. They are especially used by weak and vacillating chief ministers to buy the loyalty of their colleagues who are always looking for an opportunity to pull the rug from under their (CM’s) feet. I am amazed that RG Lyngdoh, a man known to be dead against any kind of political pandering and one who proposes that the MLA scheme should be scrapped, rising in defence of “unproductive appointments.” Anyway, politics is an unpredictable game so one does not know what could have prompted the reaction then.
The recent appointment of Mr WMS Pariat, former Chief Secretary as the Co-Chairman of the Meghalaya Resource and Employment Generation Council comes as a bit of a surprise since he is no politician. One can understand jobless politicians being accommodated but a retired bureaucrat? Well, it could be Dr Mukul Sangma’s way of reviving the sluggish Council which in its entire term of existence managed to create jobs only for the people who run it and the babus who have to service these ‘big shots.’ One is yet to hear of any job being created for the youth of this state who are actually running from pillar to post and knocking their heads everywhere. It is not unprecedented for bureaucrats to enjoy political patronage. Governors are a good example of retired police officers, army officers and bureaucrats being hand-picked by the Central Government to enjoy extended tenures. So Mr Pariat’s appointment may be new to Meghalaya but not if you consider other retired bureaucrats who have held office as State Information Commissioners (SIC) and Chiefs of the Meghalaya Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC). The point about the SIC and MERC is that those who head these bodies have a specific job to do and results to deliver. I doubt if there are any deliverables in the State Resource and Employment Generation Council. So far it has only served the Chairpersons and their assistants.
Many think that the media makes unnecessary brou-ha-ha about these political appointments. Politicians believe we should learn to take these in our stride. But it is public money that goes to pay the perks of the appointees and because of that the public has every right to be angry at unnecessary appointments. I recall how some of us had struggled to put together a road-map for the holistic development of Meghalaya after observing what was done in the states of Goa and Maharashtra. We lobbied hard for the legislation of the Meghalaya Economic Development Council (MEDC) with the hope that the economic policy of Meghalaya should not be thwarted by the shaky politics of the State. Alas! It required a visionary chief minister to understand the importance of the MEDC. We have not had one as yet that has understood the importance of this institution. Politicians have succeeded in turning it into an employment agency for themselves.
We the public would be happy if for instance the person heading the Meghalaya Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) provided the Corporation with a vision on how to take tourism to a new high in Meghalaya. After all we have heard it being said in umpteen seminars that Meghalaya has optimistic tourism potentials, so why are we getting nowhere? And if we are getting nowhere then what is the Chairman MTDC doing? Look at the Hotel Pinewood? The bar is a good place to turn into a coffee shop in the day time or the mornings when liquor is not served. It is a nice and sunny place that has been converted into a smokers’ paradise. The present coffee shop is dark and dingy. The décor of the Hotel needs some rejig. We need more colours in Pinewood. Just because the Hotel is old does not been it should look jaded. This is just one example. What about the others? And what has happened to dear old Crowborough? Can we have an update please? This article is not meant to needle anyone. It is meant to seek accountability from the heads of all the redundant PSUs. And they must be able to give an account of how they have served the PSUs and not how the PSUs have served them.