CAPITAL VIEW
A wilting citizenry
The citizenry of Delhi is wilting under the intensity of not just anunusually warm spring sun, but an inordinately high price spike. Withthe ogre of food inflation refusing to go away, the month of March hasbeen cruel for Delhites. An early summer notwithstanding, it is thezero tolerance against rising prices due to the inefficiencies of theCommonwealth Games Organising team that havethe hoi polloi in a tailspin. Monthly budgets have gone for a toss asa double whammy of the Union Budget followed in quick succession bythe Delhi budget have dealt body blow after body blow to the alreadyshrinking pockets of the middle class. While the Union Budget tooksome harsh decisions like raising Cenvat rates and restoring duty cutsand cess on petroleum products, the Delhi Budget has very nearly beena death blow. A combination of a large hike in diesel prices, partremoval of subsidy on LPG, even a hike in CNG and of course the large hikein VAT rates has made the cost of living in the capital go upsubstantively.
Why? Because all of us in the capital have to pay for the time andcost overruns of the much vaunted Commonwealth Games. It is now moreexpensive to eat out and make ordinary purchases of householdconsumable items, as also pay more for a LPG cylinder or using dieseland CNG fuels. With India being a diesel economy since all goods areferried on diesel transportation, it would have a cascading effectacross the board on all items. The diesel hike with VAT being redrawnfrom 12.5 to 20 percent has meant a Rs 2.37 rise. And soon after theDelhi budget came the Bharat Stage 4 norms and another 50 paise hikein diesel and petrol prices. The hike in value added tax stems fromthe fact that revenue collections are down and someone has to pay tofinance the Commonwealth Games. After the Union and Delhi Governmentshave pumped in thousands of crores, why should the common man man paymore for tea, coffee, cutlery, school bags costing more Rs 300,compressed natural gas for transport, wood and timber, dry fruits anddesi ghee, all of which have become more expensive? To financethe Commonwealth Games which were awarded to India as far back asNovember, 2003 in Montego Bay. For seven years, we have been deeplyensconced in the arms of Morpheus as multiplicity of agencies and highprofile satraps has meant a tardy pace of work.
What the Delhi Government does not realise is that business willactually begin to fly out of the city as Delhites cross seamlessborders and make purchases of consumables from Noida, Gurgaon,Faridabad and Ghaziabad, all now part of a homogenous National CapitalRegion. While the Commonwealth Games are undoubtedly a prestigiousevent to host, people have had it up to their ears with thecomplications due to it. Budgets have escalated as goal posts haveconstantly been changed. With less than six months to go, Delhiresembles a gigantic war zone, its innards lying open as the race tocomplete the projects seems never ending. Already touted as the mostCommonwealth Games, costs have shot through he roof.
There is empirical evidence to support the argument this. All told,the Games are going to cost the exchequer as much as a stiff $13.5billion. I am including all Games infrastructure and city developmentcosts in this figure. Which means the new Metro lines, new airport andessentially all civil works to make the rajdhani an internationalmegalopolis. With practically no financial oversight existing for mostpart of this journey, costs have gone haywire without anyaccountability whatsoever.A combination of greed and mismanagement responsible for this sadstate of affairs. Meanwhile all we have is assurances. Take theCommonwealth Games Village which was genuinely delayed because of aSupreme Court stay, from a budget of Rs 465 crore in 2004, it hasjumped into the stratosphere at Rs 1400 crore. NDTV reported the otherday that traffic and communication infrastructure budget also saw ahuge leap upwards - Rs 40 crore to Rs 80 crore in 2010. The budget for11 stadia was Rs 1200 crore in 2004, it has risen to Rs5000 crore and construction is way behind schedule.
NDTV also reported that, "Work on flyovers was altered mid-way severaltimes and now, new unplanned additions have been made. The budget: Rs1,650 crore.Streetscaping is another unplanned expenditure with a budget of Rs 1,000 crore.Security too has been an added expenditure with a budget of Rs 370crore, but that’s because of the terror scare that has pitched inrecent times. Naturally, in the light of delays, events planning isalso suffering.What was to cost Rs 920 crore in 2004, now has a budget of Rs 2307crore." And so the litany of woes goes on. In the end, it is thecitizenry which pays through its nose.
From a thanksgiving budget last year where no new taxes and levieswere imposed as Sheila Dikshit thanked the city's electorate forreturning her as CM for the third time, 2010 will go down as the yearwhen the common man pays for the sins of Suresh Kalmadi and Co.
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