Editor,
It was good know that the police personnel on routine night duty along the Barik-Civil Hospital line were able to apprehend reckless drivers and penalize them at the right moment thus preventing the loss of precious human lives. It takes even greater courage and determination to equally penalize government vehicles that often violate the rule of law endangering pedestrians and other vehicles on the road. As readers and observers we appreciate the alertness of the traffic personnel. However, coming to clamping of cars for un-authorized parking along certain stretches of the city it would be more practical to have a regulated parking time and set the number of cars through proper signage and deployment of local volunteers who can help regulate over parking and also the flow of traffic. The other way would be to increase the parking fees in prime, designated areas. Another complain is the careless and illegal parking of STPS buses near the MSI showroom of Rani Motors at Mawblei, which often disrupts the flow of traffic, to the extent of obstructing incoming vehicles at the edge of the petrol station at Mawblei. It would be appreciated if the traffic branch at Madanrting takes a serious look at this obstructionist attitude of the STPS buses.
Yours etc.
Dominic S.Wankhar
Shillong-3
Budgeting Objectives
Editor,
Come Feb 2015 and the FM will present his Budget in Lok Sabha. He will allocate thousands of crores of rupees to different ministries , for spending during 2015-16.
He may even increase / decrease their allocations based on , to what extent ( % ) did they manage to actually ” spend ” their current year’s allocations. The one and only emphasis is on ” spending ” ! As usual , no MP will ask : ” But , what exactly did the Minister concerned achieve by spending this money ? What physical / measureable targets did the Minister succeed in reaching / exceeding , with that money ? Where / What are the OUTPUTS ? Why is it that no targets were set in advance , before the start of the year ? How come, Minister was allowed to shoot first and then draw concentric circles around the hole afterwards ( at the end of the year ) , to claim BULL’S EYE ? ”
In the private sector , shareholders / bankers do not hesitate to sack the CMD / MD / CEO , if he fails to deliver on promised profit. Then , why are Ministers allowed to retain their posts ( – or even get kicked upstairs ! ), despite failing to deliver ? Mr Jaitley MPs should know that YOU cannot answer these questions , simply because , at the time of the Budget Exercise , no physical OUTPUTS got fixed for each Minister What did get fixed , were only EXPENDITURE TARGETS !
Simply because MPs passed the Budget without fixing targets such as following for 31 March 2015 :
* Finance Minister
> GDP 6 % ….. [10 % improvement ] > CAD ( – ) 5 % ….[ 20 % improvement ]
* Commerce Minister
> Exports…….. $ 350 Billion … [ 10 % improvement ] > FDI… .$ 50 Billion… [ 20 % improvement ]
* Railway Minister
> Lengths of Tracks…… 125,000 Km….. [ Up by 10 % ] > No of Passenger Trains / day….. 10,000… [ Up by 10 % ]
* Health Minister
> Chronic Hunger and Hunger Related Deaths- 8 Million / year …. [ Down by 20 % ]
> Under-nourished people….. 200 million….. [ Down by 10 % ]
* Social Welfare Minister
> Dowry Deaths / year…8,000… [ Down by 10 % ]
>People without Toilets…….. 500 Million…. [ Down by 20 % ]
* Agriculture Minister
> Farmers Suicide/ year….. .. 14,000…………… [ Down by 20 % ]
> Food Grain rotting / year….. 5 Million tons….. [ Down by 20 % ]
And so on and so forth for each Minister
Some caution / suggestions:
* Ignore the numbers given above. I could be factually wrong. Focus on the concept of ” Management by Objectives. Overcome the fear of ” failure to meet the targets “. Overcome the fear of ” being ridiculed ” ! Don’t chop off the neck that dares to stick out ! Only failure is, not fixing the targets ! Actual vs Targeted achievements must be measured , on an ongoing basis, by totally independent THIRD PARTY agencies. Ministers / Finance Minister and these Agencies , must agree in advance , how the Agencies will go about ” measuring ” the Actual Achievements. The method of measurement must be transparent and well publicized in advance. Agencies shall have no role in fixing of Annual Targets.
That is best done by the Prime Minister – the CEO , MakeInIndia. There must be at least 10 performance parameters for each Minister. Parameters themselves could be selected / prioritized , based on an ONLINE PUBLIC SURVEY / OPINION POLL , from Govt web site. If conducting such an ONLINE POLL for the forthcoming budget is
too late , same could be done on a printed form , by current MPs / MLAs / Rajya Sabha Members. Results of the SURVEY / POLL , must be published
I hope readers will contribute by passing on this message to all of their friends / relatives / acquaintances / colleagues and as many legislators whose email IDs they can find. Arun Jaitley’s email ( [email protected] / [email protected] )
Somehow , we must bring pressure on Lok Sabha Members , NOT to approve the forthcoming budget , unless TARGETS are set in advance
Yours etc.,
Hemen Parekh,
Via email