P Chidambaram urges colleagues to overcome policy paralysis, says Rs 7,500 cr investments stuck in red tapism
3 NOV, 2012, 03.58AM IST, SOMA BANERJEE,ET BUREAU (PUBLISHED IN ECONOMIC TIMES )
NEW DELHI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has urged his cabinet colleagues to "get together" in order to overcome policy paralysis, pointing out that 700 projects with investments of Rs 7,500 crore are stuck due to delays caused by the absence of regulatory approvals. The finance minister, who was making a presentation to his cabinet colleagues, said the delays were o account of the absence of environmental and other regulatory approvals as well as problems stemming from land acquisition, difficulty in arranging financing and and arranging fuel supply.
"If the 78 of us can get together for the next five months, 2013-14 can be a happy year," Chidambaram is learnt to have told his colleagues, while making the presentation on the "Current state of the economy" on Thursday. The government is particularly concerned about investments, from domestic and foreign, drying up. The recent surge of reform measures, many of them procedural in nature, is aimed at breaking the logjam and removing hurdles in investment flows.
In a rare admission by the government, the FM has acknowledged that projects stuck across key sectors as on September 2012 had reached the highest since 2005, when the number of such delayed projects was less than 100. Policy paralysis and bureaucratic delays peaked between September 2011 and June 2012 - a period in which Pranab Mukherjee, now the President of India was the finance minister - when as many 300 projects came to a halt with approvals held up at various government departments.
Chidambaram was speaking to members of the reconstituted cabinet. Parts of the presentation, notably the fact India ran the risk of being downgraded to junk by rating agencies if the government did not get its act together were reported by the Times of India in its Friday edition.
Elaborating on how public and private sector investments have both plummeted, the finance minister cited data collated by the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE) showing that in the third quarter of 2012 new investment proposals were less than Rs 2000 billion ( Rs 2,00,000 crore), of which government investments were down to less than Rs 500 billion ( rs 50,000 crore) . The slide after December 2010 when new projects were Rs 4,000 billion ( Rs 4,00,000 crore). CMIE uses a statistical technique known as rolling or moving averages for its calculations.
The worrying fiscal deficit numbers have added to the government's woes as revenue collections have been below expectations and dwindling investments meant that the immediate future was bleak, according to the presentation. The finance ministry has already revised the targeted fiscal deficit numbers to 5.3% from the figure of 5.1% in the 2012 budget presented by Mukherjee. The fiscal consolidation roa
dmap unveiled by the FM on October 29 calls for reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.8% for the fiscal ending 31 March 2014 and to 3% by 2016-17.
The news on the trade front is even worse. While the trade deficit is projected to be a negative $180.3 billion, the current account deficit is expected to touch a negative $ (-)70.3 billion by the end of this financial year.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called upon his cabinet colleagues handling the ministries of environment, coal, power, oil and gas and the regulatory authorities to fast-track approvals and gets the stranded projects back on track within the next five months of the current fiscal to get the economy back on the growth trajectory.
Sau Cuhe Mar kar Billi haj Ko Chali
President of India , earlier Finance Minister of India who is responsible for current economic mess , is now preaching sermons
2 NOV, 2012, 09.14PM IST, PTI
No vilification in the name of fight graft: Pranab Mukherjee
NEW DELHI: Amid raft of corruption allegations, President Pranab Mukherjee today cautioned against "vilification campaigns" to defame or destroy reputations in the name of checking graft.
Inaugurating the an all India Lokayuktas Conference, Mukherjee said anger against the "bitter pandemic" of corruption was legitimate as is the protest against the "plague" but insisted that it should not become an excuse for an assault on the country's democratic institutions. ( Comment : When corruption is a plague and he admits it, what he has done during past eight years when he was in government , what Congress Party has done during last 50 years of rule )
"It must be ensured that in the name of checking corruption, vilification campaigns are not carried out to defame or destroy reputations. False allegations aimed at impugning reputations are bad," Mukherjee said.
Listing measures being taken by the government to contain corruption, he said one must be able to distinguish between bonafide errors of judgement from corruption and civil wrong from criminal intent.
"We must also distinguish bonafide errors of judgment from graft and corruption, civil wrong from criminal intent and the need to have swift and effective sanctions against corruption from the imperative of protecting the innocent." ( Please do not try to protect corrupt in the name of honest . Past record clearly speak that the UPA government is protecting corrupt and killing whistle blower and sending individuals to jail on flimsy ground who cry against corruption and black money)
Noting that various "institutions" are the visible pillars the Constitution, the President said graft cannot be tackled by destroying them but by re-engineering them so that they become "stronger" than before.
Admitting corruption was a major issue facing the nation, Law Minister Ashwini Kumar said the UPA government has a "non-negotiable commitment" in the fight against graft. At the same time, he said utmost care must be taken to ensure that reputation of people are not tarnished.
He said the fight against corruption cannot be allowed to be hijacked by those who want to exploit it for their political gain.
"We need to find a lasting solution. We need to think out of box," he said also favouring inculcating moral values among children in schools. PTI
Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State in Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy listed the steps taken by the government like brining of Whistleblowers' Protection Bill and a bill on timely delivery of services to citizens to contain corruption and bring transparency. He said government would ensure passage of the the Lokpal Bill in Parliament.
"I assure this august house that Lokpal Bill will be passed," he said. The Bill has already been cleared by theLok Sabha and a Rajya Sabha Select Committee is examining it and is likely to give its report in the winter session", he said. (Comment : He means to say about the same Jokpal Bill which made mockery of Janlokpal Bill proposed by Team anna. He still advocates powerless Lokpal in line iwth CBI and /cvc so that ministers can force them to dance as their puppet )
Mukherjee said institutions are visible pillars of the Constitution and efforts must be put in to strengthen them further.
"Institutions are the visible pillars of our Constitution and if they crack, then the idealism of our Constitution cannot hold. Our institutions may have suffered from the weariness of time. The answer is not to destroy what has been built but to re-engineer them so that they become stronger than before," he said.
Describing the institution of Lokayukta as an ally of good governance, he said Lokayuktas must at the same time remember that their duty is not just to indict public functionaries when they are guilty but also to protect them when nothing is found wrong with their conduct and to correct wrong perceptions about them with equal force and earnestness.
He said the Constitutional scheme of the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary, in recent times, have given the country the Right to Information, legal aid, autonomous investigation agencies and a host of beneficial legislations.
"The Lok Pal Bill is before Parliament. New laws for imposing sanctions for bribery by foreign agents, transparency in public procurement, citizens' grievances redressal etc are also under consideration. All these must strengthen existing institutions of accountability not displace them or undermine them", he added. ( Comment: When PRANAB DA was in government for 8 years and specially when as FM, he made no such efforts)
2 NOV, 2012, 08.30PM IST, PTI
Passport forgery threat to national security: Delhi High Court
NEW DELHI: The forgery of passport is a threat to national and international security, the Delhi High Court said today while dismissed the bail plea of a woman, arrested for allegedly running an organised crime syndicate and a fake passport racket.
Justice Manmohan made the remark while denying bail to one Honey Sharma, facing trial for allegedly committing various offences under the Passport Act and the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
"A passport is a government property and is given by the state to its citizen so as to provide him with an identity proof. In the court's opinion, any endeavour on the part of any individual to forge, falsify or tamper with any passport has serious consequences in as much as it constitutes a threat to not only national but international security also.
"It also diminishes a national symbol as well as the value of identity papers issued by a particular country and results in every citizen of that country being subjected to much greater scrutiny and harassment," the court observed.
Sharma, evading arrest since 2009, was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in January this year. The police had arrested other accused including her husband Vipin Sharma in 2009.
The court denied her bail accepting prosecution counsel Manoj Ohri's argument that she is a member of an "organised crime syndicate" along with her husband, brothers and brother-in-law.
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