Floods in Gurugram, Bengaluru: 'Blank cheque' attitude to public funds must be punished

The monsoon-rain-induced flooding of Gurugram — the so-called millennium city — led to miles-long traffic gridlock last week throwing normal life out of gear. It was a symbolic display of what a corrupt, decadent and incompetent administration can do. If the city that houses hundreds of multinational companies, a city that is located in the National Capital Region, and more importantly, a city that is the milch cow for the Haryana government, witnessed such dismal civic maintenance, one can only imagine the criminal neglect of the civic amenities in the smaller cities of the state. This situation has a lot to do with the incompetence of the state authority as much as the defalcation of public money. If thousands of crores of rupees spent ostensibly for the planning and upkeep of cities have gone down the drain, then the leaders of the state should be held accountable. Some of them should go to jail. [caption id=“attachment_2924026” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Traffic chaos at a flooded road after heavy rains on Friday. PTI[/caption] But what is actually happening? Hardly a fortnight before the mayhem due to the waterlogged streets in different parts of Haryana, we were given the big news: Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has decided to gift himself, at public expense, a Toyota Land Cruiser worth Rs 1.35 crore. The Times of India report said that another Rs 35-40 lakh would be spent for bullet-proofing the car. When the ‘humble’ and the ‘austere’ chief minister was confronted with this news by the newspaper, he had this to say: “I had not made any demand that I want this car or that one. It was decided by those officials who look after matters related to the chief minister.” Well, the officials decided on a two-crore-rupee bonanza for their chief and the ‘obedient’ boss ‘reluctantly’ accepted the decision! The RSS pracharak, who was catapulted to the chief minister’s chair after the BJP’s victory in the state elections last year, is not alone in this sordid display of hypocrisy. His predecessor, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the Congress chief minister, who must take a larger part of the blame for the corruption and incompetence that the Haryana government has come to symbolise (he ruled the state for 10 years) had also trotted out a similar explanation when he decided to switch from a Honda CRV to a Mercedez Benz (costing Rs 95 lakh plus bullet-proofing cost) around five years ago. “My security officers take all such decisions,” he had curtly said. As a matter of fact, Hooda bought for himself two Mercedez Benz S-Class cars, one for movement in Haryana and another in the National Capital. Khattar is bound to follow suit, as he is turning out to be just an extension of the diabolic Hooda version in the Haryana politics. When the chief minister decides to splurge on himself, can other ministers be far behind? The Haryana cabinet ministers had earlier been given Maruti Dzires or Ciaz. But when Hooda bought himself a Mercedez Benz, they also insisted on an upgrade. It was granted; each of them was given a Honda CRV or a Toyota Fortuner. But that was not enough to satiate them; each minister demanded a second car for the family. Again, that was granted; they were given a choice for another CRV or a Fortuner. The BJP government, that had claimed to usher in a different era, has been following the exact footprint of the Congress; it has continued the practice of two luxury vehicles for each of the ministers. All these leaders being driven around in luxury sedans have forgotten about the man on the street; that explains the chaos in the streets of Gurugram and other cities that we witnessed last week. Another city that was in the news in the last week’s flooding of the streets was Bengaluru, the much-touted India’s Silicon Valley. The metropolitan commissioner of the city who travelled to the affected areas last Friday had this to say, “Our priority is to move residents from low-lying areas to safe places, after which storm water drains will be widened to clear water-logging.” Why on earth were the storm water drains not widened before the monsoon set in? The official did not have an answer. The fact is that hundreds of crores of rupees were routinely allocated and officially it was spent for the civic planning and maintenance, but evidently it went into a few pockets, which is why large parts of the city turned into a lake last week. The political leadership must be held accountable for the malfeasance. Some of them ought to go to jail. That should include the state leadership of the BJP that ruled for five years and the Congress that has been in power for the past three years. But have these leaders been punished for the siphoning of the public money on their watch? On the contrary, they have been rewarded with better perks and bigger amenities. In the past six years (2010-16), the Karnataka government has bought 217 luxury cars (Toyota Camry and Honda CRV) for its ministers, of which 94 were bought during 2010-13 (BJP rule) and 123 were purchased during 2013-16 (Congress regime). [caption id=“attachment_2924208” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] File image of flooded roads in Mathura. PTI[/caption] BS Yeddiyurappa (BJP) and Siddaramaiah (Congress) have turned out to be birds of the same feather as far as misusing large sums of the public money for the private comfort of a few leaders. The taxpayer would not possibly begrudge such self-indulgence of the leaders if the latter performed their duty honestly to give the former his or her due as a tax-paying citizen. But as the events of the last week demonstrated — and there are many other incidents to corroborate it — the political class just looked the other way when the taxpayers’ money was siphoned off the public works that were not carried out or, at best, only a make-believe job was done. We, the taxpayers, should demand criminal action against such leaders who have a ‘blank cheque’ attitude towards the public money.