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Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, a former Minister of Panchayati Raj, suggested that all the development funds for the poor should be routed through the elected representatives.
According to the Congress Rajya Sabha MP, the economic inequality has been growing at a breakneck speed in the liberalisation era. “Rich are growing at a 7000-8000 per cent but the poor have been stagnating at 0.68 per cent.”
At a function organised here by a Bengali TV Channel – “24 Ghanta (hours)” – Mr Aiyar said the nation would not need to grudge Rs 4,000-crore dividend income a year for Mr Mukesh Ambani or his 27-storey house in South Mumbai had the development funds reached the country's poverty stricken areas.
He said a report on Sarba Siksya Abhiyan found that only 6 per cent of the total spending actually reached school-levels for essentials such as text books and dress; rest 94 per cent evaporated.
He felt the West Bengal Government would do well if it ensured development programmes reached the right people through a decentralised economic administration.
Economist Ms Jayati Ghosh said Bengalis needed to get rid of 30 years of “victimisation stuff.”
Like many other States, development economics in West Bengal was “hugely politicised.”
“West Bengal needs a different vision. It is indeed a part of a dynamic region – Bay of Bengal and South China Sea – in terms of trade and economy. Myanmar is opening; Bangladesh is on board and the whole of South East Asia is calling,” she said.
The land-use change is imperative. Crucial is how this transformation was handled, she felt.
Mr Sugata Marjit thought there was a need for developing a “sense of social mobility among the poor. Talking about quality of education in the State, he said “in the ocean of mediocrity, you need to bring up the average”. Mr Marjit, however, disapproved of the recent trend of campus hooliganism.
Mr Shashi Tharoor thought Bengal, along with Banerjees and Chatterjees, needed a little more energy to get out of an “economic backwater.”
Former Lok Sabha Speaker Mr Somnath Chatterjee underlined the concept of inclusiveness in nation building. He reposed faith in the democratic institutions and civil society for a “great future of the nation and the State.
>jayanta_mallick@thehindu.co.in
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