THE 'SAVE KERALA' INITIATIVE

THE 'SAVE KERALA' INITIATIVE

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Rotten Dreams

It is a tradition in Kerala to elect communist (LDF) and congress (UDF) led governments alternatingly. And we the people have seen how it takes the new government almost 3 years of their term to undo all the good things the previous government did (including shuffling officers and posting their loyal slaves in key posts), and dedicate one year to corruption, frauds, scams and scandals. The last one year is spent on damage control in view of the ensuing elections, and is a busy period of free offerings, gratuities, and incentives. The current government is completing three years and lets see where some of the projects we pinned whats left of our hopes on.

This is a list of key projects that we wrote on this blog in December 2005; projects that we thought will bring in the much needed change to Kerala.

Vizhinjam International Port: After much fanfare of getting central government clearances, the project is muddled in local bickering. Whether its due to the inefficiency of our government to even execute tenders professionally, or if there is a political-financial scam involved (as alleged now), the project does not look like it will materialize in the near future. The only people who benefitted are the real-estate folks who sold plots around the port and made crores. Land mafia or real-estate mafia or land grabbers..whatever you call them, you can be certain its only our politicians who have gained even while the state is rotting.

Smart City: The current government toiled hard to ensure that this project does not happen during the previous governments tenure. And after getting into their power seats, though they gloated over the fact that they signed a deal with the Dubai based builders, nothing has transpired even after 3 years, except for bickerings.

Technocity off Technopark: After the initial enthusiasm over 9 leading builders of international repute bidding for this several-hundred crore project, thanks to our "celebrated" labour unions and selfish, short sighted, politicians, the IBS fiasco has ensured that no sensible IT company will risk their money and assets in Kerala.

Capital Development initiatives: The only development in the capital city, which I visited recently, is the number of union meeting arches (which is banned in the city apparently!!), party flags, and banners of scums on the walls. A fly-over (just one!) in the city, planned probably a decade ago, is still "under construction" for the last 5-plus years. And ofcourse, the number of thugs and criminals have gone up.

Trivandrum International Airport Expansion: Thankfully, this is a central government project, but our leaders have been successful to the extent that it will not open on the last revised dates for inauguration. The expansion, first planned in the 90s, when completed, will ensure that we need another expansion since the airport will not be able to handle the traffic of the airport by 2010.

Vallarpadam Transhipment Terminal: The work for the proposed international container terminal is yet to begin. The land acquisition was opposed by a group called "Janakeeya Samithi". This samithi is probably a group of 4-5 people with vested interests and political leanings, but thats all it takes to stall any darn project, mega or minor, in Kerala.

We also dreamt about an LNG Terminal, "Apparel City", Express Ways, and what not. The only way highway and road development funds (worth crores) are spent in our state is by repainting the medians and dividers. The rest is probably shared.

Our leaders are good at just making deals for themselves in the name of the poor, whether its fleecing the tax-payer who toils to earn his living or acquiring land and then giving it away through shady deals, and assigning consultancy projects worth crores for every single thing (perhaps if we had educated people in the government, this wouldnt have been so necessary!). They are also very good at doing nothing and letting the state collapse. Talk about the state going to the dogs.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Unless the people of Kerala start questioning the government over its actions (inaction rather ), we cannot foresee any improvement in the lives of the people.However as long as the "party" is taking care of today , who cares about tomorrow ? The people who keep comparing us with Bihar are the worst offenders . We shouldn't be comparing ourselves with Bihar - with that 100 % literacy we should have been in a position to compare kerala with Dubai or Singapore . Laughable, but that's the bitter truth. Unless the people of kerala wake up and realise that they are being taken for a ride , we can only keep gloating over the fact that we have 100 % literacy .

scorpiogenius said...

The only development happening in Kerala is the real estate development, thanks to the sweat and blood of the NRI mallus. Even that has run into a turbulent waters because of the global economic collapse. :(

The so-called 'last bus' of development is long gone and Achumama and co can walk all the way to the grave with the state. The opposition is as good as a dead body; and I'm certain that many of the projects you've listed will be still paper tigers at the end of Achumama tenure. And when they step down they will make sure that nothing will happen again for the next 5 yrs by blindly opposing everything.

Ah, we've seen a lot havn't me MC, and we are still waiting for that agile hands who can steer our state to prosperity. Smart City, Vizhinjam and co will eventually be realized, but I dont know if it will happen in our lifetime.

Raj said...

Selflessness has to be nurtured among all. Selflessness is not always painful as everyone think.
BPO work from home

Anonymous said...

We have to talk what actions we are going to take to come out of mess. Dont we think we need a change. How long you will vote of kommie and Kongress..Why dont we all for a change start working for BJP. ( An ex-Kommie)

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