Patricia Mukhim
The above is a question triggered by the recent letters in this newspaper pointing to the large scale benami business in the MUDA complex, right under the nose of MUDA officials and of course the Ministers in charge of the Department. The stalls are allotted in the name of tribals but are illegally sub-let to non-tribal business persons. In any case sub-letting was never part of the deal at the time of allocation of those stalls. It is almost as if MUDA sanctions this illegal trade and defies the very law that is passed by the state. Out of over one hundred stalls only one-tenth are run by actual owners. Most stalls are owned by relatives of politicians who have held charge of MUDA in the past or were in the Government or held some free-loading post such as chairmanship of some obscure institution. It is learnt that one politician who was told that there would be a sales-tax verification in the MUDA stalls and whose relatives had sublet the stall to someone else actually came and stood in front of the stall to ward off the tax officials. This is how cheap some of our politicians are!
The other day someone asked me if there is one outstanding entrepreneur in Meghalaya who launched into his/her own business strictly using venture capital. I couldn’t name any. All the big moneybags of today started their business journeys as food-grain stockists/wholesalers/ fair price shop owners who sold off large chunks of the grains in the open market. This was possible because of the inflated non-existent beneficiaries shown to be recipients of food-grains from particular fair price shops. Now that things are more stringent that era of laissez faire is perhaps over but there are other businesses that are just as sleazy in Meghalaya. So only when these Government appointed food agents had made their megabucks by pulverizing the system through collusion with politicians and bureaucrats have they now diversified into what some would call “clean” business, such as car retailing et al. But how clean is clean is anyone’s guess.
Then there is the case of the outsider wanting to make quick investments in Meghalaya and also getting back quick returns and then exiting the scene. Most have done so in the industrial estates of Meghalaya and left after they creamed off the transport, capital and power subsidies and other tax holidays under the North East Industrial Promotion Policy (NEIPP). Much money has gone into promoting businesses that were never meant to develop the state but just a few individuals.
At present there are many film makers coming in from Mumbai, Kolkata etc., and many more are likely to come from other states as well and maybe even Hollywood someday soon, with or without invitation and perks from the Government. They come because they are attracted by the locales and the stories attached to this place. What they actually want is a single-window clearance system so they don’t have to waste time running from pillar to post. But that is yet to happen in Meghalaya. People always need to depend on sifarish (patronage). So they have to find someone who is ‘close’ to the Chief Minister or the DIPR minister or the Industries minister and such dalals always make a cut out of fixing deals. One wonders if the Chief Minister is even aware of how many people make a quick buck in his name. Unfortunately such people are part of his inner circle. Wish I had an emoticon to indicate how bad this is for his image.
In Meghalaya, however, we are so used to the culture of rent-seeking that everybody who is a somebody,like a member of a students’ body or some pressure group, exercises clout to get rent out of all and any business. That such rent-seekers also jump into politics sooner than later is what sullies the governance in this state. These guys don’t know what governance means because they haven’t even governed themselves. Picking up issues selectively such as uranium mining or the ILP is highly suspect. Look at the condition of our roads today. Are they even motorable? Now, the third class patch- work on roads is going on and it is going to last only for a few months. Isn’t this the biggest ever scam in Meghalaya? Who is creaming off the PWD funds? Can we find out? Can’t these sundry groups file a PIL in the law court against the PWD? I learnt that someone has filed a PIL on Health and the Government is in a tizzy to answer the court. If only so-called pressure groups who claim they love this state were to file one PIL after another on the mis-utilisation and misappropriation of funds in Meghalaya!
Journalist Rajshekhar who just won the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards, spent three months in Mizoram in 2015 and reported on a range of processes shaping the state, from populist policies, weak state finances, shrinking funds for health programmes to crony capitalism. Rajshekhar reported that Lal Thanzara, the brother of Chief Minister, Lal Thanhawla, held shares in a company that was getting road contracts from the state government. The story resulted in Lal Thanzara having to step down as cabinet minister and as MLA. And look at us in Meghalaya! For three years the Public Works Department was held by a businessman/contractor who owns a construction company. Should this conflict of interest have been allowed? Ironically it was only after constant griping and bitching by this newspaper about this particular case that the PWD Minister was changed but guess what? He was given the Power Portfolio. This is a portfolio requiring a massive overhaul and hence someone with little less of personal business interest and more public interest would have done a better job. But the man happens to be in the Chief Minister’s camp hence wins either ways. And what about the Chief Minister? Does he really have the interests of the state at heart by shuffling around ‘his’ men to hold important portfolios?
The other day while in a conversation with MP, Vincent Pala I pointed out to huge corpus of funds amounting to Rs 15000 crore lying unutilized in the Union Finance Ministry even while infrastructure in the state is so woefully deficit. Pala said that the State Government often fails to send DPRs that are viable and technically feasible and at other times does not have the margin money of 10% of the project cost which is compulsory in order to avail central grants from the NLCPR. Then he also pointed out that projects meant for central ministries are arbitrarily changed and others pushed in their stead. This results in confusion when he tries to follow up the progress of the projects. When asked about the Umroi Airport and the avoidable delay inn its commissioning he said that two land owners have gone to court since both are claiming ownership over the same land that is to be handed over to the Airports Authority of India for expansion of the runway. My next question therefore is this. Why is every land deal be it New Shillong or some land acquisition deal somewhere always mired in corruption and rent-seeking? Why is there not a single straightforward deal? Who in the Government is benefitting from these land transactions and why are they never punished? In fact most politicians are reelected because our people have become greedy for instant gratification during elections.
It is good that Ronnie V Lyngdoh is beginning to clean up the cobwebs in MUDA left behind by his smart and not so smart predecessors. What we expect from the Minister is to clean up the mess in the MUDA shopping mall and sanitise it from benami traders. He is also expected to streamline the leasing of JNNRUM buses and maxi taxis so that the State Government does not become the stupid dummy having to pay for the repair of those buses while the contractors pocketed all the money from running the buses! Can’t think of a stupider deal!
As for the Chief Minister, I would only want to pose one question before him. What has happened to the proposed Social Audit Bill? Has it become too hot a document to be passed by the Assembly? Meghalaya wants to know!