NEWS ANALYSIS: The case of North-East


By Kartik Lokhande
Mr Amit Shah, National President of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is ruling at the Centre and in several states, must be appreciated for his latest statement that rampant corruption is hampering development of North-Eastern states. For, despite pumping in thousands of crores of rupees in the past several decades, much has been left to be desired as far as development in the North-Eastern states is concerned.
During his speech at Chumkedmia Police Complex near Dimapur a couple of days ago, Mr Shah rightly pointed out, “Developmental policies and funds provided by the Central Government for developmental purposes do not reach the people.” Of course, he is not the first person to have made such a statement. Right from political leaders to surrendered militants to retired bureaucrats to military officers to national-level policy planners, many have spoken about the issue of rampant corruption in the North-Eastern states and its adverse impact on development there. However, not many of them spoke of the issue when they were in power or in service.
The nature of corruption is indeed the same as it is in other parts of India or the world. However, whenever the issue had been raised with specifics, the previous Governments had been more inclined towards pushing those under the carpets, for the fear of militants in North-Eastern states taking advantage of this and stoking the ‘anti-India’ sentiments of local people. Thus, corruption, or, shall one say, exposing and punishing the corrupt elements in North-Eastern states has got a security dimension. Still, over the years, with enhanced people-to-people contact, the people from the North-Eastern states have developed a collective will for development, and have started speaking up against corruption.
The corruption in these states is mainly in the form of diversion of public fund to private pockets. This diversion -- or, leakage of developmental funds that Mr Shah referred to -- is effected through a complex nexus of militant-politicians, politician-bureaucrats, contractors-politicians, contractors-bureaucrats, contractors-militants and so on. In several cases, crores of rupees pumped in for various projects, found way to militants. From this fund, the militants got weapons to terrorise local people and fuel ethnic clashes. There is favouritism too in allocation of work. And, in the process of this siphoning of of the funds meant for development, several local leaders including some surrendered militants have assumed for themselves the tag of ‘neo-rich’. And, common people of the North-East have continued waiting for development so that their standard of life could improve.
There was, and is in certain parts, subversion of rice, salt, kerosene, wheat etc meant for Public Distribution System (PDS) and sale of these items at higher than PDS prices to common people later on. In some cases, wheat landed at the flour mills controlled by militants, and then this wheat-flour was sold at almost double the price of wheat. Around the year 2000, this entire ‘system’ was estimated to have involved a transaction to the tune of more than Rs 50 crore, in Assam alone. Similarly, it was estimated that between 1992-93 and 1998-99, of a total of Rs 1,165 crore pumped in under the head of rural development, only around Rs 400 crore was utilised on ‘legitimate’ schemes. This may indicate just the quantum of corruption.
There is no dearth of funds supply for the North-East, from the end of the Government of India. However, there is problem with proper percolation of these funds to achieve the set goal. During a visit to a couple of North-Eastern states in the year 2012, one of the local acquaintances had told this correspondent, “We receive hundreds of crores of rupees for horticulture development, but only a part of it is utilised for the stated purpose, and rest of it is shown as ‘utilised fully’ in official reports. As a result, situation does not change much on ground though utilisation of funds is 100 per cent.” A former MP brought to fore another dimension of the story -- despite audit reports pointing at corruption, there was general lack of political will in North-Eastern states to punish the corrupt.
Sadly, there is one more dimension to the story. In case of Arunachal Pradesh, spread across a length, if a political leader has to reach out to people, he has to spend a lot of money and time only on travel, as there are no cheaper and faster means of transport. Wherever he takes halt at night, people start asking him for monetary help. Being a peoples representative, he has to oblige the people.
This may sound to be a story everywhere in the country. However, in case of North-East, the problem is compounded because of lack of adequate opportunities of gainful employment. For, there is not much of economic activity due to lack of infrastructure development. And, while extending monetary aid to people during almost every visit, the political leader has to also strike an ethnic balance. And, to fulfill people’s ‘expectations’ in this regard, he has to ‘earn’ that much money himself. How does he ‘earn’ it? Everyone from the remotest corner of the North-Eastern state to Delhi’s power corridors know the answer.
Of course, there has been palpable change in the situation with rising aspirations of people of the North-East. With increased education and exposure to other parts of India, the people of North-East have started speaking up boldly against corruption and favouritism. This is a good sign as it will change the situation for the better.
What they need is support from a decisive political leadership that will punish the corrupt and put fast-track development on its agenda. On this count, the statement of Mr Shah definitely offers hope for the North-East. 

(April 19, 2015) 

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