thoughts on development in gujarat

Its been lot discussed, and yet there is not enough number to convince people. I have been in Gujarat in India and then in New Jersey, so by no means I am saying that Gujarat is better than other states, but if you reading this and you are from other state you will be the judge on that comparison. I’ll provide comparison based on how it was in 90’s or 2000 and now in 2013/2014

Education

I was privileged to go to private school, thanks to my working mom and dad. However, as my mom is teacher in government public school in village since last 30+ year, so I can provide the insight in the change happened in last 10 or so years. The administration keeps the teachers accountable for lot of things, which pushes them for higher performance. They are asked to organize ‘Varshik Ramtotsav’ (Annual Games between schools), Science Fair, Cultural Activities, Short trip to near by locations and these are the things in Government Schools. Teachers are asked to go again and again in their area and check if all kids are enrolled, if not going in private schools. Schools have computer labs (questionable if all schools using, but they do have internet connection and if teacher wants to use it regularly it can bring lot of difference.), and often during the independence day celebration or some important coverage is telecast online, they asked to gather students to watch the show and provide their thoughts. Which later needs to be submitted to administration. All this things add up and you can see some positive result in last 5-6 years, though it needs to go long way in order to see substantial outcome.

(On the other note, I cannot restrict myself from giving some thought on school system in india, which has nothing to do with only Gujarat development - The major part of hurdle in pushing the public schools in any place, is the discrimination by the individual. People think that public schools are only for backward community people, and its belief and not truth. Until everyone understand that its your, as in tax payers money and you should be getting benefit from every last penny of it, it won’t be changed.)

Safety

I’ll start with one survey recently shown on NDTV -

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For anyone who thinks that this survey might be wrong, just believe me when I say that its completely safe in Gujarat, I have lived there for more than 22 years, and my family is still there. That doesn’t mean that accident, and other crime doesn’t happen there. But you don’t see that many cases of rape, harassment etc. Without touching upon the riots period, its been relatively peaceful in last 12+ years. Otherwise, there used to be curfew every few months on the day of Ganesh Visharjan when it clash with Eid, or during Navaratri or Diwali sometime. People living smooth and peaceful life apart from dealing with traffic and other routine hectic life.

Electricity

My dad used to work for GEB then, later called GUVNL which is as per my knowledge semi government company now. I remember when I was in school there used to be few hours of power cut daily or weekly, and again I am from village near by Vadodara. Its been 6-7 years now, people enjoying 24*7 electricity. My dad used to tell me stories that there were some area/villages where electricity board employees who go for meter reading and billing were not allowed, and the cost used to come on the people who pay the bills regularly. Other cases were of the ‘direct connections’, where people used to mess with the meter and steal the electricity for their home use, during functions, and other occasions. Those all things got taken care of in last 14 years, meter are replaced with completely locked and sealed one, so no one need to touch or open the meter, also the places which used to refuse to pay for electricity and used it no longer allowed to do so (might be because of private companies got ways to get the fees for the service, they are not in welfare business like most of UPA government and AAP tried little bit.) While we talking about residential electricity, lets also talk about Agriculture also. They are allowed up to 8 to 12 hours electricity as per my knowledge, and we do have agriculture connection for our own farms. Of course there are some concern on that, as the power is been given when the industry slips (businesses), farmer needs to wake up. So, obviously farmer is secondary choice, which is kind of worrisome and electricity for agriculture is the major concern in rural areas. Which I am sure situation will get better.

Roads

I don’t have actual numbers, that how many highways is been built in last 10 years, but I can say that road communication is been made much easy. I can recall that, it used to take at least 4+ hour to go to Vadodara to Ahmedabad and almost impossible to travel in car from Vadodara to Mumbai. Now it takes 1.5 hour to drive from Vadodara to Ahmedabad and 6 hours to drive from Vadodara to Mumbai, and there are daily commuters. Of course there is price for it, you have to pay the toll for it. You can certainly find the details of the progress on the completed, on-going, and future road construction projects at Gujarat State Road Development Corporation Limited

In every cities number of flyovers been built for easy commute, ring roads in Ahmedabad and Surat (Vadodara is yet to see that development) which goes round to the city and connects to the express ways for easy exits. Separate bus lanes, AC booths at bus stops, you can find more information here. Recently New Bus Station been opened in Vadodara, worth checking the pictures of it. One criticism, it took almost 4 years to build it and make it ready, though relatively very good output. One strategy I can see for this new services and venues is, government been very meticulous about generating revenue at the same time and maintain the usefulness of the place. e.g. there is nominal fee if you are not traveling and want to come to bus depot, and I am not kidding its indian culture that ~5 people go to say bye to one person at bus stand, ~10 goes to say bye to one person at train station and ~20 would go to say bye to one person at airport. It really makes so much sense to charge for the service and generate some money for city/state. Similarly at the Kankaria Lake in Ahmedabad, its also been developed for the tourists and people of Ahmedabad, but to maintain the facility there is nominal fees. I haven’t got chance to visit, but I have heard way too many positive reviews for the place.

Water

Enough water supply to everyone in my village and Vadodara. In my opinion Sardar Sarovar Dam is been very helpful for the state to solve all the water problem. Its not been used to serve the whole state, but its been enough to cover the good amount of part of the state. You can find the numbers on the page. I tried to look for the historical ground water situation in Gujarat on Central Ground Water Board, but they have obsolete information. I have tried to reach out to them to get historic data as well as current. Though here are some other state which I was able to find it on Gujarat Water Board site, describing Ground Water situation in Gujarat -

A study conducted by Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR) for National Institute for Rural development (NIRD) has provided the following impacts of WDP -

Corruption

By no means I can say its been reduced, as probably when I there till 2006, I didn’t encounter that many instances. In last few visits though I have seen that people try to take advantage of their position and delay the work. The only meaning I can derive from it, that either they are not happy with the administration that they making them overwork or they want money from me. I still see so many people wasting way too much time for things like papers for land, houses or any property related things. At the same time, office for electricity board, phone services, airports, offices for passport and aadhar card and few other are been very helpful and turn around time for those is very quick. Lots been done on the making information available electronically, and lot can be done. At large, I haven’t come across the strong cases, but there is definitely so many places where change is required. But can’t blame government for that, its individual’s responsibility. Here, I have some thought on corruption if you like whatever I have wrote so far, give it a read - AAM Aadmi can’t blame KHAS Aadmi for corruption

Other

Criticism

There is way too much development in terms of roads, malls, new companies, residential property, villages migrated to cities so crunch for the space, hunger to make more money by individual as well as builders and people who got strong positions. In all this, you can find the cases where people doing wrong things, and justify their actions knowingly or unknowingly.

Talati offices and property dealings still got regulation issues, which should be resolved with quick process and strict rules. Now and then you will see corrupt people shamelessly asking for bribe in different ways.

Electricity to farmers is point of concern, and government is working towards it.

Rehabilitation of affected after Sardar Sarovar Yojna concern on land acquired by Government of Gujarat for GIDC.

For the new roads construction they want to follow the old bills in which they need to pay only the Jantri Value, whereas center has declared new bill which gives good price to farmer, almost 2 times Jantri value in city area and 4 times Jantri value in villages. So, its kind of blurry where government is trying to defend that the deals which is already been done, they can’t do anything. I don’t think there is any correct answer to this. (In my opinion this might have to do with the card played by central government in one of their vote bank politics tactic, though if Gujarat government agree to pay the price declared by central government it will jeopardize the existing projects as the land acquisition cost itself will surpass the project cost.)

I would love to add more data to this, and I will update as I am able to find it. I have also reached out to some of the government organization for the historical data, so might claim some of the argument with data in few days. While doing this search, I found compelling need for the data portal like Socrata which makes it easy for government to publish the data and people to consume it in transparent manner. I have tried to avoid picking data from some of the news sites instead tried to take numbers from the reports submitted by govenment, considering it might have been compromised.

Open to the answer if you have any question, feel free to tweet me @jnptl

References

DISCLAIMER - Currently I don’t live in Gujarat, its been 7 years I moved to USA. I visit every 1.5 year or so, and I have family living in village near by Vadodara. Views are my own, arguments in this article supported by data and personal experience.

 
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