Poverty creation - Maharashtra ishtyle

Time was when Maharashtra used to be one of the best-governed states in India. Bombay, though overcrowded, was a great place to live in, and one did not hear too many complaints from the other cities either. In the rural areas, the people actually looked healthy and happy. The migrants to Bombay came from other states, not from rural Maharashtra. The Bombay Municipal Corporation was one of the richest city corporations in the country. And though corruption was a universal presence, work got done, things happened.

This year, Maharashtra is up for grabs as the worst-governed state. Vilasrao and gang seem to be well on the home stretch, without trying too hard. His vice-captain, R.R. Patil, is making sure of that.

In December last year, the Govt. took action to transform Mumbai into Shanghai. About three lakh people had their meagre homes destroyed, and were told to ‘go back where you came from.’ As bulldozers demolished around 70,000 slum dwellings, the city Corporation requested that the names of the newly homeless be struck off the electoral rolls. State Home Minister R. R. Patil was quoted in a newspaper saying, “When we launched the (demolition) drive, we never thought of their rehabilitation. Legally speaking, that is not the responsibility of the Government.” The state of Maharashtra, in its drive to beautify Mumbai, blatantly abdicated its responsibility toward a segment of its residents, who may have come from outside, but whose labour, nevertheless, contributed to the state’s economy.

Then came the Bar Girls’ saga. Reacting to the case of a young man who had murdered his grandmother for money to lavish on a bar dancer, R.R. Patil announced that all the dance bars in the state would be shut down, throwing 75,000 bar dancers and innumerable other people – waiters, cooks, cleaners, etc., out of work. The Govt. did make some noises about rehabilitating the girls and providing them with alternate employment, but when educated people don’t have jobs, what can the Govt. do for these semi-literate girls? One of the bar dancers declared unequivocally on TV that they would have no option but to turn to prostitution if the bars were closed down. So much for moral policing!

But it is a quiet, unglamourous legislative initiative that will really push Maharashtra to the forefront in the Poverty Creation stakes. On April 16th, the State Assembly passed the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Bill. It was the last day of the Assembly Session. Around sixteen Bills were brought in to be passed that day. This Bill came up at 6 p.m. The Bills could not even be read through, much less debated upon, and were passed by voice vote. Some salient features of the Bill are as follows:

1) Massive hikes in water charges. The new rates will reflect ‘full recovery of cost of irrigation management, administration, operation and maintenance,’ and ‘partial recovery of capital investment.’

2) In some regions, farmers will be forced to adopt expensive drip or sprinkler irrigation methods.

3) Farmers with more than two children will have to pay one and half times the new rates.

4) Of the three full-time members of the Regulatory Authority, not even one is required to be a farmer.

5) Breaking these laws will invite six months imprisonment and a fine of ten times the annual water charges.

Seen against the backdrop of last year’s drought and the consequent suicides by farmers in some regions of Maharashtra, this Bill is truly monstrous. For farmers who are already deep in debt, unable to pay even the old charges, the provisions of this Bill are a death-knell. Agriculture, the poor farmer’s only source of survival, will become totally unviable. Small holdings will be gobbled up by rich landowners, and thousands, maybe lakhs of people, will be rendered landless. And no prizes for guessing where many of them will end up in their quest to earn a living.

I refuse to believe that these possibilities would not have struck Vilasrao and gang. And if they have gone ahead in spite of knowing all this, then there can be only one answer. They must be having an ulterior motive – one that is really worth endangering their future electoral chances. I can think of one that will fetch them great personal profits and transform not only Mumbai, but also rural Maharashtra, into a glittering urbanscape.
The huge project of privatizing Maharashtra.

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The question is, will the burgeoning numbers of the poor, continue to agree to remain invisible, as all good poor people should? Maybe Vilasrao will enlighten us in due course.