Monday, July 12, 2010

Guest post by Menon: Where Is The Money?

Introducing Madhusudhan Menon, he of many loves and many interests..any thinking which is new on any subject is of keen interest to him...

Where is the money I ask? Every day I pick up the pink papers, the Government has raised more money by selling spectrum, increasing oil prices, increasing taxes, GST, Vat, Service tax etc etc and more. Plus they are selling stakes in PSU s to all and sundry at prices at which even seasoned Investment Banks are balking to take the mandate.

I would have thought that with all these resources that are being raised we can see better infrastructure, better security, better standard of living for everybody, education, health care, unemployment insurance. There are so many wise and pressing ways to spend the money. But wherever I look, any new investment or infrastructure is all private..So you have swanking new airports being built with private money, roads being privatized and tolled to death, new private and expensive schools ( when is the last time the Government built a school, or hospital for that matter?)


And if you have the misfortune of having no choice but to use Government schools or hospitals, God help you, cos they are not spending money there either. Armed forces are ill equipped and the police force have weapons that they stole from Noah's Ark. They announce big schemes with impossible acronyms like NREGA and JNUURM, and no one knows where it is spent. Because if anything is built it is being built with private money and political patronage.They are doing less and less and it is costing us more and more..

So where is the money going?
Is it gone?


19 comments:

  1. Oh, it is busy filling the pockets of that oily neta from Jharsa. He just went on a foreign jaunt en familie to study the drainage system in EU.

    And there is even a scam behind bullet proof jackets that only an RTI could uncover? How sad is that!

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  2. Till date, a total budgets have been of a value of 2 LAKH CRORES.
    Do we see that money spent?
    Poor are still poor.
    Rich have become richer.
    Where is the money.
    It is in Swiss banks.

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  3. So rightly said, u are really unfortunate if u have to use the govt schools or hospitals.

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  4. they have decided to use all that money to increase their salaries! they claim they cannot survive on the present salaries!!

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  5. Well, the money is going where it should not be going!! :(

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  6. Verry hilarious yet thought provoking.By the way acronym you have mentioned is actually JNNURM(Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission),though mistake suffice the concern.

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  7. There is so much wrong with so many things and so many people...but we are a young nation and the young do mature eventually...so lets be the change we want to see and ask these questions on a regular basis...the more we ask, more the change.

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  8. Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

    Suman Kaushik

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  9. I echo what Purba says-the money's there,happily filling only some particular pockets..but yes-in places like Gujarat,I do see a vast difference now, compared to,say 10 years back..expressways,roadworks,road widening,better railway platform(read'cleaner'),etc...I guess the changes come in a slow and steady way.

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  10. Thank you everybody for your comments.The idea that we are paying and putting up with so much and getting so little in return, needs more attention than what it is currently getting.
    Of course I have no answers and have just raised the questions.The fact that we are a young nation and examples like Gujarat give hope but we have been young for over 60 years and not getting anywhere..and gujarat is relatively prosperous in spite of the many governments and their policies, because of the private entrepreneurship of its people.
    Of course we cannot give up, and have to continue to hope..
    Thanks again..have never received so many responses to something I wrote.

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  11. True Purba,

    It seems the taxes we pay are getting sucked into a black hole! I've gone past the 'being angry and frustrated stage' to being numb

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  12. wonderful post...a nd totally agree with the acronym thing... all are synonyms of Swiss banks...

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  13. our country is a still "young country" can't be an excuse ... if this continue it will take another 60 years to upgrade our so called young country ... it's sad !!

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  14. Agree with Menon on this post, well about 95% of the economy is probably controlled by the top 5% rich people I guess, the rich are always getting richer, the fun part is the richest people here pay only as much taxes as we commoners do, more than half the money is un-accounted for I believe

    and Purba, nice new template

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  15. Valid question. Many times i wondered. Government can have private participation in roads and many big projects involving tolls. Why can't they make use of private participation in basic amenities sector.

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  16. People keep talking about this being a young country and so on and so forth and that the young people would, if not today, then tomorrow, be able to devise means in which they might take this country forward.
    The only problem is, this is only partially true in all practicality. Some of the best young minds join the IAS and other administrative services (administration being what we are talking about here) and solely because of that, whenever senior politicians and bureaucrats are responsible for anything wrong that happens, the blame is thrown onto the erstwhile young people, as they are 'irresponsible'. The truth in most such cases is, they are inexperienced to deal with such slander, but certainly not irresponsible.
    Like in the army, young people start by following orders. It is very few, the cream of the cream, that have the will and the initiative to break forward without any support whatsoever.
    So please do not think it is only the young people that can do anything for any kind of improvement. Young and senior need to work together and form the balanced team.
    As for where the money is going, nobody knows. And none probably would know. But yes, it's certainly not going anywhere it should be going. To the eyes of the common citizen, it's disappearing without a trace and we can only ask these questions.

    Interesting post, Purba. :)

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  17. But Rohit, we can continue asking questions and demand answers. The Government should be held accountable for squandering our hard earned money.

    Rajlakshmi..Even stealing money is an art perfected by our netas.

    Sharmila...Young nation is a pathetic excuse.

    Nithin...Exactly, things will be far better managed.

    The Analyst..Glad you liked the new template :))

    D2...A very valid argument, it's not just the youngsters, but we as a nation who can make a dent in the corrupt, rotting system.

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  18. Do we still need to figure out the ques.. where is the money going??

    its going in the pockets of the richie rich or the netas... they have the monopoly over everyone's purses...

    as for spending our taxes goes.. did you read the recent report on how much is spent every month on maintaining security of not the politicos but also so called celebs!

    Opposition will ques party in power and then visa-versa will happen..

    Mayawati has crores to make statues of herself all over the state and yet more to make a palace in Chanakyapuri... If she is minister and still has so much wealth isn't it obvious from where its coming, obviously it is not just her menial pay.. is it?

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