Open Letter to Hon'ble Prime Minister of India on issues need urgent attention in 2018

Open Letter to Hon'ble Prime Minister of India on issues need urgent attention in 2018

To,

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India

New Delhi

Jan. 1^st 2018

Happy New year to you and to all the citizens of India and readers of this blog.

In 2018, the challenges will be very complex both in global front and also in domestic front. This will be the most crucial year for the political governance, political leadership, and also for many states administrators before many state elections and also general elections of 2019.

With every passing day, we are adding to the list of challenges and there are many serious issues which are hurting common man very badly. Some of them are mentioned below with possible options.

Citizens of India seek the attention of people in power with a request, please address some of the following challenges or at least share your plans which are time-bound so that citizens can feel comfortable.

Factual Position:

Between 2017 and 2018, there is the addition of about 20 million people and about 20 million animal population. I understand there is also a reduction in some population due to natural reasons, but the requirements of growing population are different than people those are leaving this world.

Looking forward to the following basic challenges are:

1.FOOD and NUTRITION SECURITY: Do we have enough affordable food and feed to ensure minimum nutritional requirement for all? India needs about 20 million of additional food to meet the need of growing population. How much additional food and feed we will produce this year?

One on the side we can claim godowns are full, the fact is 30% of Indians and 50% of children of India, you may also call them future of India, are suffering from hunger and malnutrition. So any claim that we have enough food has no meaning.

Unfortunately, we have not seen any agriculture and food security policy of the government at last so many years. Can we expect agriculture policy this year to address this fundamental needs of any society? This will help in addressing the farmer's distress and consumers food inflation? My request to the policy makers, please share your agriculture and food security plans so that private capital also support your efforts in making India food secure.

Farmers Income and agro-based enterprises are all linked to government policies. Growing imports and reducing exports is clear message that people prefer to import than produce locally even for local consumption. We are spending our money on imports in place of providing extension support to local farmers.

Food inflation will remain the biggest political challenge. On the other hand, as long as interest rates are linked to food inflation, farmers will never get the price even to recover their cost escalation due to inflation. The average inflation in India was 6 to 8 % during the same time rise in MSP was about 4%. Are we removing poverty or adding to poverty becomes a serious debate.

Without a clear and visible road-map, no one can contribute to this huge challenge which country is facing. So, please release your Agriculture and Food Security Road-Map in 2018.

2. WATER CONSERVATION: To produce more food, we need more water and more land. How much more water we will save this year to meet the need for agriculture, drinking purpose and other requirements?

India is one of the few countries were water harvesting is minimum compared to rainfall we get every year. It is important that we must make water harvesting a national mission and every person must cut down its water use and wasteful requirements without compromising on hygiene. There must be a mission to design water saving technologies which can we use by every individual. We have promoted water wasting technologies in every household like RO. Can we have a better option like normal reliable filters which takes care of water wastage and deliver hygienic and safe water? This needs research priority. Can we expect some major water conservation plan in line with “Toilets Campaign”?

3. POOR QUALITY & EXPENSIVE EDUCATION: How many schools we will create this year to address the need of the growing population? Do we have any plans to meet the requirements?

Where are the teachers? Education is fundamental to democracy, civic sense and law & order in society. Do we have properly trained teachers to take care of education needs of the growing modern society? India wanted to produce teachers for the world market, but where are the plans to ensure proper teachers to student ratio within India. Is there any plan to ensure quality teachers in the country to develop responsibly and educate citizens. We can use IT technology and mobile technologies to reach the students, but where are the teachers who can address the queries of the students.

High Cost of Higher Education will kill service quality: The cost of professional education is so high that no student after paying so much cost for education i.e. fee will ever think of service to society because his first and foremost duty is to recover all the cost plus interest to ensure payment of education loans. This is a very bad policy for the country like India. Cost of professional education must be controlled if we want service mindset to develop in society. The recent examples of private doctors and hospitals charging excessive cost to poor patients is the outcome of our bad planning of higher education system.

Please also share your plan for quality teachers training in this country and also what are you planning to reduce to cost of higher education.

4.GOVERNANCE and EMPLOYMENT: Sensible governance can create better socio-economic order. Vibrant markets will create entrepreneurs and innovation. There are many laws which are killing entrepreneurial spirit in the country in the name of regulation, registration, and inspections. Why so many approvals and inspections are required in this country. Is this ease of doing business? Unfortunately, we trust our inspectors more than our entrepreneurs. This clearly reflects our colonial mindset. Why there is no transparency in inspection and testing systems in the country. Why citizens are not told how many inspections were done and what was the outcome of the work done by so many inspectors. Still, people are suffering due to adulterated foods, bad medicines, and poor education quality.

Please show us one department where due to inspectors things have improved and that sector is producing world-class products, consumers are happy and there is no allegation of corruption.

Fire in Mumbai Pub is just one example of corruption in all related departments dealing with people and establishments. So, the claim that there is no corruption is far away from reality. The facts are ways and means of corruption has become more sophisticated.

How many laws and procedures will be reviewed this year to minimize the overheads due to paperwork and corruption on enterprises? Can we try to create at least one department free of inspector raj? Ask industry associations to take charge of quality if they need government sponsorship of their programs from taxpayers’ money.

Creation of new enterprises will create new jobs. In the present regulatory regime and governance system, it is difficult for the start-ups to sustain in the prevailing inspector raj. The current system does not encourage innovation and out-of-box thinking because outdated knowledge base of inspectors decides what is right and what is wrong with society ensure meaningful engagement of the youth of India. The current governance structure will only create more demand for MNREGA like schemes?

The fact is it is better to import and trade in India than manufacture in India. The growing import is clear example for policymakers to understand this basic concern.

5.HEALTH CARE: Health is wealth and without proper nutrition and without proper healthcare no country can ever become a developed nation. Per capita GDP is a fictitious number in a real sense when 50 to 60% population suffer from health-related disorders.

Balanced nutritious food availability is the first step in good health. We must ensure this. The way our food supply and food security plans are managed, I don’t see any hope that load on health management system will ever be less.

The cost of healthcare is increasing and accessibility is also going down. We must encourage health for all in every institution and establishment so that rest of the society can use public healthcare facilities.

Let corporate be allowed to create their own medical and education facilities under CSR to support the needs of their own employees and their families. If they want they should be allowed to extend the same to the other members of society. Education and healthcare policy must address this and with less procedural hurdles and no inspectors. Let the management be accountable for outcome and safety and quality of beneficiaries. When defense forces can manage their hospitals and schools, other institutions and corporates can also do the same under the guidelines of respective guidelines issued by the authorities.

6.LAW and ORDER: How many police personnel will we add to ensure law and order? This is a growing challenge. Can’t we think of involving civil society in law and order?

Why RWA and local community groups cannot be allowed to meditate and take a decision in ensuring law and order in Civil cases in their area like issues related to parking, street markets, wine shops, local disputes, etc. The local bodies must place their decisions and reasons behind the decisions in public forum so that citizens can give a final verdict. A website of the city or local police station can be created to ensure that all disputes are addressed by local bodies and police can just guide them in mediation, if required.

An innovative approach is required to address these law & order issues in civil matters so that crime rates can be controlled and pressure police can be reduced and they can only handle criminal cases.

7.DELAYED JUSTICE: In criminal and civil cases, there must be an attempt to deliver faster judgments. Why government cannot create more courts and fill all the posts of judges so that people can focus on their work and help in creating GDP in place of wasting time in courts and police stations. This also leads to corruption because money and muscle power are used to settle the case outside courts.

Investors and small entrepreneurs also lose hope if there is no timely judgment. They reduce investments to avoid inspectors and prefer not to hire more people because who will address their complaint in time bound manner if any.

Reduced investments in a country with growing population and market is a clear message that investors do not trust the governance and justice system.

It is important to address, what should be the per capita budget to ensure justice and time-bound redressal of the complaints. If required, complaints should be graded to decide jurisdiction, to save the resources. Officers and Inspectors filing wrong complaints without evidence should also be made accountable under the same law.

8.PUBLIC TRANSPORT: It is sensible to run few empty buses than to have traffic jams all the time on the roads in cities. Training of drivers and conductors and timeliness of the public transport is must to develop faith in public transport systems. All cities with more than one million population must have public transport system and every car owner must contribute to parking charges which should subsidize public transport facilities.

There must be premium small capacity public transport facilities which should be one-third of the price of petrol consumed in cars for the same distance. This will motivate car owners and ladies to prefer luxury public transport at a lower cost than cars and also reduce traffic congestion. The pilot should be initiated in few cities.

Unless we make the life of common man better there is no way she or can understand that quality of life has improved. Quality and cost of food, education, healthcare, and social and personal security are the priority to check the governance in any society.

Every other parameter is secondary. I hope 2018, can give a new beginning in the priorities for the governance and this will need out-of-box thinking.

Sir, 2018 will be a crucial year before the national election of 2019. There are many expectations from your leadership in 2018. I know these are huge tasks but someone must address these issues in the public interest. This will be the test of leadership as well in the eyes of citizens of India.

I wish you all the best for the challenging tasks in 2018.

With best regards,

Vijay Sardana

Citizen of India

PS: If you feel these are important issues, do write your views below and share with your friends / network.