Thanks to the tireless efforts by thousands of army and IAF personnel, the rescue work should be completed within next few hours. The question is what next?
Our politicians would announce numerous relief packages of hundreds of crores which would turn out to be scams of hundreds of crores few years later. Numerous studies would be commissioned and so-called intelligentsia would be employed to churn out meaningless reports. These reports would then be rubbished by the rival groups and then the incident would be washed out of the public memory - Kahani Khatam, just like a nice movie / novel which one watched on news channels or read in newspapers.
But, what about thousands of people who have suddenly become homeless, jobless and grief stricken from the loss of their loved ones by this blow from the Nature. They would keep rotting in over crowded relief camps which provide no relief. They would be completely ignored and forgotten soon except for once in a while, when some enthusiastic journalist would cover their story - that too will happen only if it gets good TRP.
The state needs action, immediate and well-planned action to resurrect and rebuild Uttarakhand - action to fight the adversity, action to create opportunity. In my mind, there can be several initiatives right from ground level to the highest level.
Firstly, Uttarakhand administration needs to gear up to this challenge. They can learn from people who have handled similar situation such as in rebuilding parts of Gujarat after 2001 earthquake. No, I am not making Narendra Modi, the messiah rather I am counting on the various Secretaries and Chief Secretary of the then Gujarat Government (most of whom would have joined services and been promoted under Congress governments). And, I am sure there would be similar experience of rebuilding and rehabilitation elsewhere in the country as well as abroad. Uttarakhand government should immediately build a task force led by such people. And, the action plan must be implemented a the level of every district, taluka and village through collectors, block officers and sarpanchs respectively.
Secondly, the government should reach out to the big corporate houses such as Tatas, Birlas, L&T, etc. with a request to build large industrial townships / economic centers in Uttarakhand. It will provide long term sustainable employment to thousands of people, promote community living and restore peace. Such centers can create tier-1 / tier-2 towns such as Jamshedpur and Bokaro in Jharkhand. The corporate should be incentivized with proper long term financial sops for their good work. The Govt. on its part can make the path easier by providing the right leadership and support through actions such as all regulatory approvals for such plans within 30 days.
Thirdly, the Govt. must refrain from any knee jerk reaction of making environmental approvals more cumbersome for the industry in the region. If the govt. takes any such regressive step, it would completely paralyze the economy of the state. There should be proper environmental care and control but no red-tapism and bureaucracy since that will achieve nothing other than scaring the industries away and filling up the coffers of the corrupt.
Rehabilitation delayed would be justice denied - this disaster if not rehabilitated properly will send the state back by a few decades. It will destroy many youths, many childhoods...we must save it.
Our politicians would announce numerous relief packages of hundreds of crores which would turn out to be scams of hundreds of crores few years later. Numerous studies would be commissioned and so-called intelligentsia would be employed to churn out meaningless reports. These reports would then be rubbished by the rival groups and then the incident would be washed out of the public memory - Kahani Khatam, just like a nice movie / novel which one watched on news channels or read in newspapers.
But, what about thousands of people who have suddenly become homeless, jobless and grief stricken from the loss of their loved ones by this blow from the Nature. They would keep rotting in over crowded relief camps which provide no relief. They would be completely ignored and forgotten soon except for once in a while, when some enthusiastic journalist would cover their story - that too will happen only if it gets good TRP.
The state needs action, immediate and well-planned action to resurrect and rebuild Uttarakhand - action to fight the adversity, action to create opportunity. In my mind, there can be several initiatives right from ground level to the highest level.
Firstly, Uttarakhand administration needs to gear up to this challenge. They can learn from people who have handled similar situation such as in rebuilding parts of Gujarat after 2001 earthquake. No, I am not making Narendra Modi, the messiah rather I am counting on the various Secretaries and Chief Secretary of the then Gujarat Government (most of whom would have joined services and been promoted under Congress governments). And, I am sure there would be similar experience of rebuilding and rehabilitation elsewhere in the country as well as abroad. Uttarakhand government should immediately build a task force led by such people. And, the action plan must be implemented a the level of every district, taluka and village through collectors, block officers and sarpanchs respectively.
Secondly, the government should reach out to the big corporate houses such as Tatas, Birlas, L&T, etc. with a request to build large industrial townships / economic centers in Uttarakhand. It will provide long term sustainable employment to thousands of people, promote community living and restore peace. Such centers can create tier-1 / tier-2 towns such as Jamshedpur and Bokaro in Jharkhand. The corporate should be incentivized with proper long term financial sops for their good work. The Govt. on its part can make the path easier by providing the right leadership and support through actions such as all regulatory approvals for such plans within 30 days.
Thirdly, the Govt. must refrain from any knee jerk reaction of making environmental approvals more cumbersome for the industry in the region. If the govt. takes any such regressive step, it would completely paralyze the economy of the state. There should be proper environmental care and control but no red-tapism and bureaucracy since that will achieve nothing other than scaring the industries away and filling up the coffers of the corrupt.
Rehabilitation delayed would be justice denied - this disaster if not rehabilitated properly will send the state back by a few decades. It will destroy many youths, many childhoods...we must save it.
2 comments:
Agree with most except that corporates should be given sops to participate in reconstruction and rehabilitation. Thats like saying you will donate for an 80G certificate. It is their duty to come forward and help in money, management and personal time. The government should ensure the corporates are allowed to do real work rather than their effort getting lost in bureaucratic hurdles.
Sops in terms of tax breaks do lead to movement of new projects to select geographies such as SEZ, Uttarakhand (in the past), etc. I do not think this is akin to donation from corporates - this is more like a tax break for directed investments such as long term infra bonds.
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