The flooding of Kosi has brought to fore the apparent lack of focus government after government has had towards Infrastructure development. Lemme explain why.
The Kosi it seems has been changing course every year that it flows above the danger mark- apparently due to high level of silt. The only water flow management in its entire course is a barrage in Nepal- which has become inaccessible to Indian Engineers.
I ask these simple Questions:
– How could we the fastest grpwing economy rely on a dam in Nepal to control floods that affect 20 Lakh people regularly. This year the scale is higher, but fact remains that Kosi has been flooding every year. If our people are affected by floods we need an instrument developed managed by us, to control the nature’s fury.
– The changing political conditions of Nepal, should have provided us enough more cues that we can no more continue to assesrt ourselves on our Himalayan neighbour.
– How can there be floods drought in the same district? As reported in Breaking News – about this distrcit in Maharastra.I spoke to a few villagers in western UP- they said “Saare nahar to angrezon ne banwaye the… unmein se bhi jaydatar band ho gaye hein”- Most of the canals were built by the Britishers and most of those also are now dysfunctional. Even if I discount what they are saying by 60%, the fact remains that in the eyes of the common man, the infrastructure growth has not been in line with expectations.
Look at the few achievements we are all proud of
– Golden Quadrilateral has added thousands of Kms of highways and it has surely reduced surface transportation delays BUT various mini projects are marred with controvesy over corruption and delays.
– Delhi Metro is now the preferred mode for many of us Dilliwallas BUT the traffic congestion has only increased in the Capital.
– We bagged the Venue for Common Wealth Games some want us to bid for Olympics also. But the reality is that we are no where close to providing the visitors with a facility which is par-excellence.I dont know why we have failed so miserably in Infrastructure, but the time to get our act together is now. Coz good infrastructure is the foundation for a thriving economy.