Rural business hubs failed as the corporate sector is selfish, Panchayati Raj Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar tells SREELATHA MENON
You were a part of the GoM (group of ministers) which finalised the biofuel policy. Does it ensure a balance between edible grains and biofuels?
We are not supposed to use foodgrains for biofuels. But people may divert land for biofuels as the policy offers subsidies and MSP (minimum support price) for biofuels which are not there for foodgrains. The issue did come up in the GoM. We can’t dictate farmers what to grow. At the same time, there is a recognition of the need for food security. Fortunately, we have reached a stage where we have enough foreign exchange to import foodgrains, if required.
But I don’t think the answer to food security lies in imports. We have to maintain some kind of a balance. Instead of being stopped from going forward by apprehensions of what might happen, it would be better to go forward but keep these issues alive in our minds to put in place restraints if these things happen.
The Administrative Reforms Commission, headed by Veerappa Moily, recently suggested that your Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) be wound up.
I am completely in disagreement and many members of the North East Council (NEC) are also opposed to it. The Moily commission should have recommended a clearer definition of the functions of the ministry and its relations with the central ministries involved in spending funds for the North-East. It should also have focused on how the statutory requirement to make the NEC a regional planning body is to be translated into practice.
Other North-East states feel it (the ministry) benefits only Assam.
That is untrue. It is curious that Tripura makes this charge and yet one of the greatest beneficiaries of the activities of the ministry is Tripura. After all, the North-East Industrial Investment Policy has been promoted by the ministry and the biggest single beneficiary of the policy is Tripura. So I don’t see what the real ground of opposition is, unless it is political.
There was opposition to the budget of the Commonwealth Games in the GoM you were a part of.
That’s an old story and I am very happily relieved of those responsibilities. Personally I have changed none of my views. Fortunately, the government of India doesn’t bother about them any more.
There is a move to amend the NREGA (job scheme) to ensure 100 days of employment for every nuclear family rather than every household. Do you agree?
The concept of defining the household as a nuclear family is a good step.
Won’t this take up the expense further?
What about people’s hunger? Why are you talking about expenses?
Are you happy with the way the scheme is being implemented?
The only point I want to make here is that Prof Mihir Shah, in a recent essay, says that his scientific studies indicate that wherever panchayats have been empowered to perform their statutory functions, the implementation has been efficient, and wherever they have been denied this statutory role, their performance has been below par. I intuitively felt that and now these studies validate that.
What is happening to the rural business hubs (RBHs)?
The RBHs have certainly not reached the degree of maturity I anticipated. This is largely because the corporate sector is dragging its feet . We are now trying to set up gateway agencies to locate entities and partner with the cluster development programme of the Ministry of Medium and Small Enterprises (MSME). This is going to the Cabinet soon. That is our single biggest hope and by partnering the MSME, we will achieve much more than we have through our attempt to promote RBHs through the Confederation of Indian Industries.
Why did they fail?
It was for the corporate sector to partner our panchayats. We gave them a list of more than 1,000 blocks or entities that had indicated the areas in which our panchayats would welcome the participation of the corporates. But corporate work is based on the principle of selfishness and greed and so long as ethically we don’t move to the Gandhian paradigm, perhaps it’s too much to expect from the corporate world. We started our scheme after a well-established corporate sector had come into existence and after the government gave it every support. It (the model) was trying to fundamentally bring the corporate sector into the world of people’s governance but it has proved difficult. But I am not unhopeful. Even if the big entities are self-regarding, I think we can promote a new segment of the corporate sector, the rural industry.
You wanted the urban local bodies to be brought into the panchayat system.
Rajiv Gandhi had made it abundantly clear that although the 64th and 65th amendments were different, it was his intention to bring panchayats and nagar palikas under a single regime. He first launched the Jawahar Rojgar Yojana in panchayats and then the Nehru Rojgar Yojana in urban areas. I asked him how he could have two yojanas after his grandfather. He said Mani, don’t you understand that when the two come together, we have a single Jawahar Lal Nehru Rojgar Yojna.
So immediately after the 74th and the 75th amendments, in 1992, I met Sonia Gandhi and pleaded that there should be a common ministry of panchayats and nagar palikas. She did inform the then prime minister. But 16 years on we still don’t have a common ministry to promote democratic local self-government in our country
You said that 250,000 panchayats would get cyber connectivity.
We set up the BK Gairola committee, which gave a report that providing cyber and satellite connectivity to every gram panchayat in three years will cost Rs 8,000 crore. We have prepared a draft note, which has gone to the ministries concerned. We wll approach the Expenditure Finance Committee soon and move it through the Cabinet.
But you would not have begun the process before the government exits.
Inshaallah we would have. And in any case it is our government that will come back in 2009 and there will be continuity.
When do you expect the first village in India to get power from nucler energy?
I completely agree with Rahul Gandhi that bringing power to the people, not in the Leninist sense, but lighting up every home should be a high priority. The same Lenin said that Communism equals Soviets plus electricity. They understood so well that economic development translated into inclusive growth only when there is light in every home.
