The forgotten “L” in “J&K”
…or how fair is Rs 125cr for Leh and Rs 1000cr for Nehru stadium? I stumbled upon this post by Rajesh Kalra yesterday. It is shocking…and sad. Read on (emphasis mine):
The devastation brought about by the flash floods, basically flood of wet mud, in Leh has resulted in untold misery for its residents. Almost an entire section of the old town seems to have been flattened with the river of mud wiping off everything in its way.
Now, Leh, among the highest inhabited town in the world, never boasted a civil infrastructure that would do justice to a district headquarter anywhere else, but the exceedingly peaceful and spiritual residents of the city have hardly complained. It could be for two reasons. One is that so used are they to the harshness of nature that they are prepared for anything, and two, and this seems more plausible, is that they know most of their appeals and prayers would fall on deaf ears as far as administrators and politicians are concerned…
My expectations soared, however, when Dr Manmohan Singh visited Leh on Tuesday to check for himself the devastation
Image courtesy: Leh District Council
But he let us all down…Everyone knows reconstruction is a huge task, involving man, machinery and loads of funds. The effort, and cost, doubles, even quadruples if it is in the hills, especially in the remote areas such as Leh with extremely limited, and seasonal, road connectivity. For the prime minister to then announce a piffling Rs 125 crore for rehabilitation of a devastated city is not even a joke, it is absurd.
Come on Sir! Your ministry of urban development spent Rs 1000 crore on renovating a single stadium in Delhi. Can you see the comparison sir? A thousand crore to renovate a single stadium and Rs 125 crore to reconstruct a devastated remote town!
I honestly expected better from the prime minister who loses sleep when certain sections of our population are in trouble…
…but then Rajesh forgets that the “Games” are a matter of “national prestige“. As for Leh…Leh? What’s that?
Related Post: The forgotten “J†in J&K
There is a total disconnect with the people of this govt.You may like to read my post “LETTER TO PM: http://www.indiaoftomorrow.blogspot.com
At the time PM was announcing aid to LEH,his colleagues were busy spending Rs 300 crores on advertisements on the birth anny of Raji gandhi.
Thank you Chowla-ji…shocking..
More than Rs11500 crores have been spent on CWG away from its original estimate of Rs 655 crore.
Read more: Rs 28,000cr Games expense sounds like wrong priority: Premji – India – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6435358.cms#ixzz0yGODkF67
Hi
Indians as a nation and as a people have its priorities ALL WRONG!
Consider this:
Hundreds of Indian workers are BUILDING INFRASTRUCTURE in……Afghanistan.Wasteful expenditure.
Leh gets 125 crores when more than 1 billion dollars are being spent on Afghanistan.
Sad.
People who vote a party like Congress into power and worship the dynastry with starry eyes deserve just this ; just this and nothing more. You mark my world ; after all this kicks in the face of the Aam Admi and thousands to suicide , the rotting grains in face of death due to hunger and all insanity of this govt, they will still be voted into power by stupid Indians. So you reap what you sow
Oh, yes, you guys are forgetting 25 million of aid to Pak. Hell, if using that money just 5000 bucks are donated per head per year basis in Kalahandi, at least 5000 people would live to see the next year. mmmm….I need to correct that. Tomato is going Rs. 50/- per kg in my village, even Heins tomato ketchup is cheaper than that. And the head of the state is supposed to be an economist of high repute.
This price rise is baffling me. It is like the whole India is setting itself to very skewed demand-supply cycle. If the demand side is so skewed against the supply side, one has to conclude that suddenly a lot of people are eating too much or supply is really weak. Now given that we are not Americans given to over-eating and there was no news of aggro sector being very weak or badly hurt, there must be some other factor that is helping inflation. Shantanu, can we get a post on that?
@ashok
Absolutely correct.
The Congress haven’t given anything except inflation to the country.
The GDP of those states are higher where there is non-congress government like BJP ruled Chhattisgarh,Gujarat,Uttrakhand,Orissa……..
sorry Orissa is not BJP but BJD ruled,but still its not the congress
The same applies to the CWG spending and non-approval of retd defense staff pension parity petition, now pending for over 25 years.
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This Govt. like the successive congress governments in the past does not have it’s priorities right. Had the priorities been right, the state of Kashmir would not be what it is today.
And, I am myself amazed at Govt. spending an amazing amount of money on CWG, etc or sending aid to Pakistan, or even other countries in the past, but spending it wisely on the people of this country.
shantanu et al,
you might find the below link interesting.
http://savingladakh.wordpress.com/team/
yesterday’s feel good factor created by rituals and thoughts on Janmashtami evaporated in a jiffy after reading about the neglect of Leh. someone said if you owe the bank $100,000, you have a problem. if you owe the bank $1 million, the bank has a problem. If you want a write off on your loan, all you have to do is urge your people to take to the streets, throw stones and pretend there are no jobs for the youth… that way you get on TV and your loan gets pardoned. If you are honest, satvic and expecting the government to due its duty, the wait is going to be endless… I am sure you all heard about India routing its money through UN to Pakistan so as not to offend the sensibilities of Pakistan’s public??? Where is our self-esteem?
@sat (#12),
If you are honest, satvic and expecting the government to due its duty, the wait is going to be endless.What did we do to elect our government or reform governance? Absolutely nothing. If we have taken part in governance, governance would have cared. A party comes in the power with vote from 25% of the population, so they would only care for themselves. It is only natural.