Sunday, May 1, 2011

A Responsible Budget

From Dr Athiqul H. Laskar, Chennai, 20 April 23, 2010
To The Editor,
Sir,

A Responsible Budget
A responsible budget, which takes a holistic view of the needs of all sections of society, is the hallmark of a successful Democracy. This is a time-honored sentiment that pervades the minds of literate and informed citizenry of India, the world’s largest Democracy. However, what happens when all the efforts of arriving at such a ‘responsible budget’ gets caught midway in the mess of corruption, and ends up being nothing more than an eye-wash? What use is it when a huge part of budgetary allocations is siphoned out to fulfill personal agendas of our political leaders, rather than expanding to meet intended developmental purposes? With no accountability for public money, and with insignificant public participation, such a budget fails its very purpose of ‘rescuing the economy’.
To give a perspective, it is no secret that Assam has extremely high levels of unemployment. In such a scenario, year after year, the state budget promises that funds would be directed towards alleviating the unemployment crisis. However, amidst these well-meaning directives, the actual goings-on at the grassroots level are totally different. How? A simple example is the glaring discrepancy between the actual wages that daily wage workers receive vis-à-vis the amount that they are officially made to sign against.
Moreover, in a state like Assam, where child abuse, women trafficking is the highest amongst other Indian states, more than ever, child issues are heavily neglected in budgetary considerations. Compare this to US directives that allocate substantial amount of funds to combat juvenile delinquency, and rehabilitate these delinquents. A case in point is the allocation of USD $397,000, in the 2010-11 budget, to check international drug trafficking that ultimately gives rise to such delinquency.
On the whole, it is high time our political leadership absorbed valuable lessons from the above, and aimed to arrive at a more streamlined budget. This is possible only if they pulled up their socks against systemic corruption. Otherwise the noble intention behind a ‘good budget’ will remain restricted to being a mere gimmickry, a yearly ritual of running pen on paper. Yours etc. Dr. Athiqul H. Laskar, Chennai.

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