The Bangalore Metro Reporter
ALL ABOUT PPP!
HARD ON CITIZENS, EASY FOR GOVERNMENT, THE PPP MODEL IS BECOMING A POLITICAL EXCUSE.
Since one decade everybody is chanting public private participation as the sole criterion for the development of the country. Fortunately, the PPP frenzy has not touched the governance of the country yet, and now, people are realising the danger of PPP. In our state the PPP has reached a ridiculous level ever since the then CM SM Krishna heralded the PPP regime. The words contracts/privatisations have been replaced by the word PPP and it has made private firms, contractors reap in billions.
In our state, the PPP has crossed all limits. The finest example is the BMIC project, also known as Nice Road Project which would reduce Bengaluru to Mysore distance by about 25 kms. The Nice Company which is executing the project has made thousands of crores, without constructing a single km of Express High Way Road for the last 16 years. All it has done is to build the Peripheral Road from Tumkur Road to Hosur Road, a distance of 35 kms. Even though BMIC road needed around 4000 acres of land, it was given 27,500 acres of land. The company is collecting lakhs of rupees every day on the Nice Road as Toll fees which are highest in the country.
Obviously, the powerful politicians are backing the NICE owner Ashok Kheni. In 2001, he had no money to pay the 10 crore deposit to the KIADB towards acquisition cost, let alone constructing the road. The government gave guarantee to raise Rs.150 crore loan from ICICI Bank and today, Ashok Kheni is one of Karnataka’s richest. As per the scheme, Kheni has to handover the road and other infrastructure to the government after 30 years. The agreement also stipulated that the toll can be collected only after completion of the BMIC Express Highway, but, he is collecting the toll from the last four years.
Another glaring PPP model introduced was the computerisation of the Registration process. The government had developed the Software ‘Kaveri’ and even though the registration department could have implemented the computerisation, the government entrusted the contract, nay, PPP to CMS and ECIL Companies. These companies had to install necessary infrastructure in the Sub Registrar offices like computer systems, scanners, printers etc and provide the operators too. The work involved scanning the documents, saving the scanned images in the CD and the hard disk. It consisted of taking the thumb and photos of the parties, making necessary entries in the document, generating the receipt and endorsement. All these would have costed not more than three rupees per page at that time including the salary of operation, but the government awarded the contract at Rs.30 per page.
The contract was for a period of five years after which they had to handover the infrastructure they created to the government and the department was to continue the same task thereafter. Instead the companies have managed to continue the contract by getting extensions after extensions. The five year contract has now entered its tenth year!
There are about 600 operators of the companies who few months back, stuck work demanding the government to absorb them in the department as regular employees. The government has no connection with them as they are employees of the contract companies, yet, they held the registration and public to ransom. Fortunately, the government has not yielded to their demand.
The next PPP is the case of licensed Surveyors. To clear the huge pending survey work, the government has given license to hundreds of private surveyors. And to provide them good earnings, the government also obligated for survey sketches for registration of agricultural lands. The government has also fixed the fees to be charged by the licensed surveyors, but, they charge many times the stipulated fees and the public have no choice but to get the survey done by the licensed surveyors.
Last year the licensed surveyors were on indefinite strike demanding to be taken in the government service resulting in pending of thousands of survey works. Even if they are taken to the government service, there is no guarantee of the government getting sufficient number of candidates from SC/ST, OBCs etc. The government can only fill the vacancies through selection process which is a complex procedure.
The recent PPP which has put the government in dilemma is the 108 Health Services being implemented in the State. The company which bagged the contract is running ambulance services throughout the state and provides nurses and drivers to the same. Four month back, the drivers of the ‘108’ service went on an indefinite strike demanding better wages and government jobs. Arguably, the better wages and working conditions are the look out of the company. How could the drivers of this company be provided with government jobs? Their strike caused serious damage to the health services and there were reports of few deaths in the absence of timely medical assistance.
Few days back, the operators of Nemmadi Kendras too demanded to be absorbed by the government. The government after developing the Bhoomi Sortware, entered into an agreement (that is PPP) with a company to run the Nemmadi Kendras by deploying its operators. These operators used to provide IL, RR, RTC, Mutation and other revenue records to the land owners after collecting the prescribed fee. The company which obtained the contract committed many serious blunders and the government recently decided to terminate the contract and run the centers on its own. Now, the operators are demanding that they be given government jobs for their experience in providing revenue records to the public!
Arguably, the PPP has eaten into the veins of the government and administration. Even though the government has stopped recruitment and has opted for outsourcing, that is another name for PPP, the recruitment has come back through the backdoor, where some of the outsourced employees got regularised in the departments or institutions. This PPP is striking at the very root of the governance.
Today, the PPP is entering the vital fields like roads, ports and even Airports, which are crucial for the security of the country. In our state, the government is proposing to execute the major roads through PPP on the pretext that it has no money! This is only a lame excuse as the government can mobilise any amount of money. At the end of the road, it is the people who have to pay through their noses. And this is PPP for you, me and them.
That is all.
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