Jan Awaaz, a citizen's platform created to highlight public concerns, today sharply criticised the Narendra Modi-led Government, saying the promise of "Achche Din" for the poor is out of question unless a serious mid-course policy correction is undertaken.
The organisation urged the government to be "truly inclusive, transparent and accountable" as it completes one year in office.
Looking back at the performance of the government in the last year, Paul Divakar, General Secretary of National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) said that the government should address the concerns of the poor.
"Even in the case of a flagship programmes such as Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, with a budget of Rs 1.96 crore allocated for it, the focus is on creating a glossy, sanitized and paperless office and no commitment made to address the concerns of the poor or improve the work conditions of sanitation workers-most of whom are drawn from marginalized communities in particular Dalits and Adivasis," he said.
"As far as the rest of the schemes are concerned a majority of them are just on paper and the promise of Achche Din for the poor is out of question unless a serious mid-course policy correction is undertaken by the government," he added.
Speaking about substantial reduction in social sector spending, Prabhat Patnaik, Professor Emeritus at the Center for Economic Studies and Planning in Jawaharlal Nehru University, said all the explanation that the government is giving about the increase in state share of taxation from 32 per cent to 42 per cent is completely misleading as the total transfer of central budget to states had been significantly reduced from 6.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent of GDP. social activist
Social activist Aruna Roy pointed out the hallmark of the present government was to "brook no dissent; silence all civil society organizations that have even the mildest difference of opinion with the government and wherever possible adopt the highly undemocratic route of ordinance and not be accountable even to Parliament."
She went on to point out that all the rights that civil society had fought hard for over two decades such as the Right to Information "was being undermined in the most blatant manner and we are seeing a return to the days when the Official Secrets Act was used justify lack of transparency and accountability."
The non appointment of the Chief Information Officer was inexplicable and was tantamount to showing utter disregard for the rule of law, she said.
