Infrastructure in India : Talking Much and Doing Nothing !

Perhaps Atal Bihari Bajpayee was one such Prime Minister of India who openly admitted to the poor state of infrastructure in India and launched the visionary 'Golden Triangle Highway Project of India' with much fanfare.

Prior to that the young PM Rajiv Gandhi initiated the dream project named the 'Ganga Action Plan' to clean the River Ganga from pollution.

Unfortunately and most regrettably, it appears that the country has failed miserably in fulfilling even the dream projects announced by the top most political authority. 

It appears to the common man that the political authorities are only interested in gaining some cheap popularity by announcing mega projects and not at all interested in seeing that what they announce gets materialized ever !

On the other hand, starting from a similar back ground a quarter century ago, the neighbouring country China has progressed enviously as far as infrastructural development is concerned. It has become the number one in the world in many things during this period and is progressing forward surpassing even the glorious developed nations of the past.

Just a couple of days ago, I wanted to visit Bhilai, the steel city very near to Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh state, which is just a bit over 600 kilometers away from my present city of residence, Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand.

The need was an urgent one and I had to spend hours together to formulate my plans to make the trip.

Both these cities, incidentally come under the steel corridor of India with the largest movement materials, both finished and unfinished. Both have airports and major railways stations. They are located on the so called trunk routes of India.

Yet there are no direct flights nor daily running trains with comfortable class of accommodation. The train journey takes hardly 8 hours provided there is a train with the accommodation and the reservation. Unfortunately there is none even after this country becoming an independent nation more than half a century ago. Incidentally the major railway infrastructure as existing are all developed by the British raj whom the Indians curse perpetually for their misrule !

So there was no choice for me except to make the travel to and fro by road which are prominently marked on the maps as national high ways.

If you search the google options you may find these two cities 'beautifully' connected by a number of roads most of them marked NH (the short name for National Highways !). Google may even suggest that you can perhaps make the trip by car within about 9 to 10 hours by travelling through a combination of NHs.

Believing google, I ventured to make the travel by an SUV and finished the up journey in about 16 hours. Trying a better combination of NH for the return journey using the prestigious NH-6, my luck was more miserable. It took me 22 hours ! Remember, the total time spend for taking some rest for each of the journey was not more than 2 hours ! Had the roads be of any reasonable standard, I could have accomplished my travel easily as suggested by Google ! But then Google doesnot maintain the Indian roads !

[Incidentally, this site Map my India is more practical. They had assessed the road conditions much more practically and predicted the time of travel at about 17 hours!]

These National Highways of India are only in the maps and physically they are just some barren spaces with some signs of paving by asphalt or concrete some time earlier for most of the stretches. These NHs of India pass through some regions which are geographically endowed with good natural beauty and not overcrowded. Perhaps these green regions actually showcase the natural abundance of India ! Had I been responsible for the administration of these highways, I would have seen that these highways are maintained properly always to make my fellow citizen take pride in the country. But thats' only a dream !

But I keep wondering. How can those fellows, who are entrusted with the upkeep of these National Highways which ought to be the symbols of pride for all Indians, can ever disregard their responsibilities to such an extent that they keep these highways a national disgrace ?

There are some more things I observed about these so-called national infrastructure roads called national highways which are obviously maintained so shabbily as national disgraces.

In most places, there are no sign boards. Even if they are there, they do not follow any standards. Especially of importance is the sign boards at the junctions of two or more roads. Sign boards to give proper direction to the motorists are practically absent. If you think that the GPRS navigation will help you, perhaps it could, provided the signals reach you properly. Again do not expect, the local people would be in a position to guide you always. If you take the wrong route, it could turn out to be hundreds of kilometers of extra travel. There are chances of you getting even totally lost for hours.

I noticed some sign boards that declare the same road differently with different NH numbering. Enough for a motorist who travel using the maps to get confused and lost !

If your car develops a snag, it could be the worst situation. There are no known help in the near vicinity. Neither are there any highway patrols who are entrusted to help the motorists. That is again the Indian way of managing things in this context.

I was feeling empathetic to those hundreds of drivers who drive their heavily loaded trucks through these routes, day in and day out, helping the rest of India with the supplies. Their vehicles are always at the risk of going out of balance in these poorly maintained national highways of India. They are also at the risk of untimely breakdowns due to the uneven road surfaces for such long stretches in hundreds of kilometers. Imagine the truck owners spending such huge sums for their vehicles whose life span gets shortened by a few years just because of these roads! Imagine the more fuel they spend on the roads for transporting the goods as the roads are not energy efficient !

The roads are no private property in India. The state and central governments are the sole custodians and managers of the roads. I need not to stress then who is to be blamed for this national shame.

A few decades ago, I remember the Indian roads in a much better condition than now. There were not toll tax collectors at every 15-20 kilometers as the road managers of India has made it to happen in some of the trunk routes now.

The road maintenance was entrusted to the Public Works Department (PWD) of either the state or the central governments. The roads prominently displayed the concerned PWD officer who was in charge of the particular section of the road concerned. At least the people could have known the fellow actually responsible for maintaining that part of the road. If you travel by road, you could see hundreds of workers keep working to maintain the roads. The PWD authorities kept surveying the road conditions regularly and kept doing things on a war footing that no part of the road is in such a shamefully shabby situation.

I do not know what has happened to the Indian PWD now. I do not have any idea about the authority or authorities who are responsible for maintaining the roads and NHs of India now.

The governments keep taxing the new vehicles substantially in the name of road tax. Then some short segments of  roads with heavy traffic are auctioned for maintenance by private players who are allowed to tax the vehicles for decades making much more money than they had spend in making and maintaining those roads. It is a disgrace that the authorities have allowed such privatisation of roads in some of the roads, that too in small patches that pass through the cities, just as the portion of NH-6 which passes through the city of Bhilai forcing even the local populace to pay on a daily basis to use these roads for routine commuting.

Regrettably, Indians have long forgotten to protest. Because they know that their protests no longer carry any weights. They also do not know with whom they should make their complaints or register their protests. The ruling political parties and the opposition political parties are all at par in understanding or not understanding the woes of the people. Neither they, nor those at important positions seem to be ignorant on fixing the responsibility for such sad state of affairs.

Then comes the so-called fourth estate of democracy, the media. In India, the major part of media space and time is devoted to reports of mudslinging and other mundane things not of any value to the people or the country. They prefer to do little research and provide any concrete suggestions. Media also fail miserably in highlighting the actual cause of failure of the governmental systems. They do not feel it comfortable to get to the root cause of the problems by actual pondering about an issue of national importance.

Had they been responsible, their space and time would have been filled with the stories of success, failures and other related matters concerning various developmental aspects of the country including such major issues such as about the roads and highways. There would have been regular media follow ups on such issues. Unfortunately the noted journalists of the country are paid for being in the company of noted politicians always to report and make commentaries on what they want to utter publicly, even when their private opinions could be just the opposite. I found people no more are interested in reading or listening to these stereotyped media reports. Unless the media takes up things responsibly, their days in the future might be numbered !

Are we a nation of wide mouth talkers with absolutely no regard to what we talk?

Are we a nation not interested in actions any more ?

Is it possible to create roads, bridges and other major infrastructure only by issuing plans and policies and doing nothing for their implementation?

Will it be possible to implement any project in time when experienced people are in short supply to do such activities?

Would it be possible to develop people of the right experience and expertise when there are long spells of non-activity ?

Would it be possible to do all these things just by wishful thinking without actual planning and plan implementation ?

Incidentally, I read in the news papers that the Bihar government has realized that their projects are not getting shape because they do not have experienced engineers to make the project proposals properly, including the basic engineering.

Similarly the Jharkhand government has an acute shortage of experienced clerical staff to make the reports typed in order and maintain the files properly.

If that is so, the situation in other states would be no different.

What has happened to all our responsible departments like the PWD and their experienced engineers?

Who butchered those departments ? Who butchered the expertize of India that the independent India kept acquiring all those initial years ?

Any answers ?

Any suggestions ?

What Makes You Consider (You, Me or They) As the Most Fortunate ?

Long ago, a friend of mine took me to one of his uncles living in a palatial house in the midst of the largest metro city of India.

The man was in his Seventies and was living with his old wife and a host of servants.

His house was a three storeyed one having many rooms and facilities like a star hotel. Guessing by the size of this modern house, I guessed that there would be some swimming pool too some where behind !

He was very courteous and welcomed his not so wealthy nephew and his friend warmly and took us to one of his posh guest entertaining rooms which had a mini bar at one side displaying exotic brands of liquors in various designs of  glass bottles in varying shapes and colours.

While entering the house through the security gate, I had observed a few imported cars in the compound, kept shining by regular care !

He made us sat on the luxurious sofas comfortably and sat by our side. He was making extra efforts to make me feel at ease with his magnanimous gestures.

Yet there was that unmistakable guise of artificiality in all his gestures, which had become part of his personality as a successful business man over the last few decades.

Within minutes an young lady, brought in to a few sparkling glasses in a tray. Obviously tea or coffee were for those lesser mortals. And he was not one of that kind !

I commented and appreciated him for his fortunes and worldly achievements of wealth !

But he seemed not content with his achievements.

He told me that he was a very unlucky man and a dejected father.

Unlucky because another business man of his city of his age, who had nothing a couple of years ago when he had millions, was now marching forward to become one of the richest in the world !

Dejected father because his only daughter who had become a doctor of eminence had rejected to accept the wealth he had amassed in his life and refused to look after his business empire in India. She had migrated to a foreign country !

For nearly two hours he kept telling us many things. Obviously he wanted some one to share his mind which was nearly absent in his palatial mansion like home !

In between he told me that the chair I was sitting was occasionally occupied by the first citizen of the state who was a close soul mate of him.

When I said he was a very fortunate bureaucrat he denied that and told us some real stories to prove the misfortunes of his soul mate.

Obviously this enormous wealth this old man and the enormous political power of his old friend were not making them fortunate in their own assessments during those years when they got the time to do the self assessments !

I was in doubt now. Should I benchmark my self with these so-called fortunate individuals who evaluated themselves as not fortunate !

If I do not, then how can I work out a standard for measuring my 'fortunes' or any one else 'fortunes' ?

I want to ask those who read this, about their views on this.

What makes you feel fortunate in life ?

[I no longer consider benchmarking wealth or power with any one. Nor do I consider possession of these by any one to be regarded as some thing fortunate in life. Instead, wealth and power, in the hands of any one as a great responsibility. A great responsibility to do greater service to others. If this responsibility cannot be taken up, wealth and power is a burden. If wealth and power are used for personal enhancement of pleasures, they would eventually become agents of destruction causing much distress and pains some time later. 

At this point I am compelled to quote a few things from my favorite book- the Urantia Book- which narrates the incident when a rich Roman citizen approached Jesus for his counselling regarding the use of his wealth. For brevity, I am reproducing only some select portions from the original narration:

After many intimate conferences this wealthy citizen asked Jesus what he would do with wealth if he had it, and Jesus answered him:

“I would bestow material wealth for the enhancement of material life, even as I would minister knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual service for the enrichment of the intellectual life, the ennoblement of the social life, and the advancement of the spiritual life. I would administer material wealth as a wise and effective trustee of the resources of one generation for the benefit and ennoblement of the next and succeeding generations.” 

But the rich man was not fully satisfied with Jesus’ answer.

He made bold to ask again:

“But what do you think a man in my position should do with his wealth? Should I keep it, or should I give it away?”

Jesus then decided to advise him some more as the rich man was willing to listen to his advice.

"As steward of inherited wealth you should consider its sources. You are under moral obligation to represent the past generation in the honest transmittal of legitimate wealth to succeeding generations after subtracting a fair toll for the benefit of the present generation. But you are not obligated to perpetuate any dishonesty or injustice involved in the unfair accumulation of wealth by your ancestors. Any portion of your inherited wealth which turns out to have been derived through fraud or unfairness, you may disburse in accordance with your convictions of justice, generosity, and restitution. The remainder of your legitimate inherited wealth you may use in equity and transmit in security as the trustee of one generation for another. Wise discrimination and sound judgment should dictate your decisions regarding the bequest of riches to your successors.

Everyone who enjoys wealth as a result of discovery should remember that one individual can live on earth but a short season and should, therefore, make adequate provision for the sharing of these discoveries in helpful ways by the largest possible number of his fellow men. While the discoverer should not be denied all reward for efforts of discovery, neither should he selfishly presume to lay claim to all of the advantages and blessings to be derived from the uncovering of nature’s hoarded resources.

As long as men choose to conduct the world’s business by trade and barter, they are entitled to a fair and legitimate profit. Every tradesman deserves wages for his services; the merchant is entitled to his hire. The fairness of trade and the honest treatment accorded one’s fellows in the organized business of the world create many different sorts of profit wealth, and all these sources of wealth must be judged by the highest principles of justice, honesty, and fairness. The honest trader should not hesitate to take the same profit which he would gladly accord his fellow trader in a similar transaction. While this sort of wealth is not identical with individually earned income when business dealings are conducted on a large scale, at the same time, such honestly accumulated wealth endows its possessor with a considerable equity as regards a voice in its subsequent distribution.

No mortal who knows God and seeks to do the divine will can stoop to engage in the oppressions of wealth. No noble man will strive to accumulate riches and amass wealth-power by the enslavement or unfair exploitation of his brothers in the flesh. Riches are a moral curse and a spiritual stigma when they are derived from the sweat of oppressed mortal man. All such wealth should be restored to those who have thus been robbed or to their children and their children’s children. An enduring civilization cannot be built upon the practice of defrauding the laborer of his hire.

Honest wealth is entitled to interest. As long as men borrow and lend, that which is fair interest may be collected provided the capital lent was legitimate wealth. First cleanse your capital before you lay claim to the interest. Do not become so small and grasping that you would stoop to the practice of usury. Never permit yourself to be so selfish as to employ money-power to gain unfair advantage over your struggling fellows. Yield not to the temptation to take usury from your brother in financial distress.

If you chance to secure wealth by flights of genius, if your riches are derived from the rewards of inventive endowment, do not lay claim to an unfair portion of such rewards. The genius owes something to both his ancestors and his progeny; likewise is he under obligation to the race, nation, and circumstances of his inventive discoveries; he should also remember that it was as man among men that he labored and wrought out his inventions. It would be equally unjust to deprive the genius of all his increment of wealth. And it will ever be impossible for men to establish rules and regulations applicable equally to all these problems of the equitable distribution of wealth. You must first recognize man as your brother, and if you honestly desire to do by him as you would have him do by you, the commonplace dictates of justice, honesty, and fairness will guide you in the just and impartial settlement of every recurring problem of economic rewards and social justice.

Except for the just and legitimate fees earned in administration, no man should lay personal claim to that wealth which time and chance may cause to fall into his hands. Accidental riches should be regarded somewhat in the light of a trust to be expended for the benefit of one’s social or economic group. The possessors of such wealth should be accorded the major voice in the determination of the wise and effective distribution of such unearned resources. Civilized man will not always look upon all that he controls as his personal and private possession.

 If any portion of your fortune has been knowingly derived from fraud; if aught of your wealth has been accumulated by dishonest practices or unfair methods; if your riches are the product of unjust dealings with your fellows, make haste to restore all these ill-gotten gains to the rightful owners. Make full amends and thus cleanse your fortune of all dishonest riches.

The trusteeship of the wealth of one person for the benefit of others is a solemn and sacred responsibility. Do not hazard or jeopardize such a trust. Take for yourself of any trust only that which all honest men would allow.

That part of your fortune which represents the earnings of your own mental and physical efforts — if your work has been done in fairness and equity — is truly your own. No man can gainsay your right to hold and use such wealth as you may see fit provided your exercise of this right does not work harm upon your fellows.”

If you have read this much, you possibly have understood what I concluded earlier!

Would you consider writing your own feelings here using the comments tool?

By any means did it occur to you to consider knowing more about the Urantia Book and reading it ?

If so click this Urantia-India website link.



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Ellanora: The Story of the Woman who Valiantly Resisted Lucifer !

Would you like to read and know about a valiant female who lived in a distant planet, not belonging to our solar system. We have been told about her achievement by some one who knew about it precisely. She is introduced to us as the lady named Ellanora who became the leader of the people of this planet called Panoptia.

I can imagine how your mind might have reacted to the above. I know, it is difficult for us, human beings of earth to imagine some one like us living in some distant planet because we do not have the so-called scientific evidence.

Well, if I say that this is just a fairy tale, perhaps you might continue reading. Now that option I leave it to you. You are at full liberty to judge it the way you like.

Ellanora was successful in making the people of her planet not to become followers of a deceitful celestial ruler named Lucifer and his celestial aids.

The name Lucifer is known to us human beings. He is also known in other names here as Satan, Anti-Christ, etc. But in this narration, I would like to treat them as separate personalities as per the latest information available to us.

Lucifer has been a brilliant celestial personality. He belongs to the order of celestials called the Lanonandek Sons of God. His order was created by the Creators of the Universe, perhaps millions of years ago, to function as efficient celestial administrators and rulers of the numerous groups of material worlds inhabited by intelligent lower order life forms called mortals similar to the human beings of earth.

Even though he is a super intelligent son of God with higher qualities and abilities than mortals and many other orders of spirit beings , he was  required to undergo various levels of experience and training before he could be entrusted with higher responsibilities of ruler ship.

Being very brilliant and dynamic, he was getting more and more impatient to assume higher responsibilities commensurate with his abilities. So finally that was accomplished. Some thousands  of years ago, he took charge as the sovereign ruler of a system of planets which included earth too.

His system of worlds had about 600 odd spheres, all in various levels and stages of material life development and homes to various kinds of mortal life similar to the men and women of earth. In the future course of time more and more planets elsewhere in this part of the universe are  also destined to be attached to his system of planets to make his system to its maximum designated strength of 1000. All these planets are physically suited for material life which evolved under the guidance of other orders of celestials in accordance with the universal laws of God.

When Lucifer became the ruler of the system, he had many juniors of his order to assist him. Satan was his trusted assistant, also a brilliant celestial son of God, similar to Lucifer but a little less experienced.

Lucifer ruled from his headquarters named Jerusem. Jerusem in fact was a cluster of specially designed globes much larger than earth and with its own superior life forms and activities.

Individual worlds in his system like earth have been entrusted with administratively efficient juniors of his order. The one in charge of earth is named Caligastia. This lower level son of God, who is invisible to human beings came to earth some 200,000 thousand years ago when primitive humans fairly established their activities on earth, being made to evolve from lower material life forms.

Lucifer had a fair amount of freedom to rule his system. But on certain issues he was subordinate to his superiors who ruled from the head quarters of various constellations, the latter being an administrative unit consisting of 100 systems. The rulers of the constellations are known as the Most Highs. The Most Highs in turn functioned under the Local Universe Sovereigns. The local universe to which earth belonged is named Nebadon. The Creator and Sovereign of Nebadon is a  Son of God originating from the Universal Father God, the First Source and Centre of all and everything in the whole of the universes. Nebadon is a relatively younger universe which contains now only about 3.8 million worlds similar to earth though ultimately, perhaps in another few million years time,  it is destined to hold another 6.2 million worlds.

Lucifer is no more our system sovereign. Neither is Caligastia presently our celestial ruler of earth.

They were removed from their coveted positions due to their over ambition. They conspired a type of rebellion some thousands of years ago  to become whole sole rulers without any kind of superintendence. Even though they were quite brilliant and super intelligent, over ambition and selfishness caused their superior minds to ignore certain fundamental truths.

They forgot that God is the provider of those essential things without which they cannot sustain their functions forever.

They forgot that they had superiors because of certain higher wisdom of God which is not yet understood by them.

They forgot that there is a superior wisdom of God prevailing in the way the universes are being organized and administered.

Just as there are many orders of life like many orders of celestials and the various types of mortals who are much below them in ability and intelligence, there also existed superior personalities. They failed to recognize this fact.

They devised false notions and tried to propagate it to all under their supervision and jurisdiction.

In the history of the universe this is recorded as the Lucifer Rebellion against the will of God.

Though the head of the system rebelled, just only 37 worlds in his system of 619 worlds became supportive to the rebellion.

Our earth was unfortunately one among this 37.

Ellanora's Panoptia could have been the 38th. But she was a determined mortal to lead her whole planet away from the rebellion sponsored by a high authority.

Through her, Ellanora became dear to the higher celestial authorities who function in the universes to prevail the will of God in all worlds.

Panoptians too got a special status in the universe. They have become eligible to advance their lives beyond the mortal existence. The Panoptians who are dead long ago are all living now in the system headquarters worlds with special duties assigned to them.

One of their duties now is to look after the prison world of the system head quarters where the ex system sovereign, Lucifer and his supportive associates, are detained awaiting final judgement on their fate from the higher authorities.

Incidentally, their supporter and celestial ruler of earth, Caligastia and his supporters, though not in the seat of power, are not yet imprisoned. They are moving freely on earth, invisible to human eyes, planning their nefarious activities and making those willing human beings pawns in their hands to work against God.

Even without much power, they are too egoistic and willing to accept extermination orders rather than repent and accept God's mercy and pardon.

Ellanora and her fellow mortals of planet Panoptia were not brilliant immortal beings like Lucifer, Satan and their celestial supporters. Yet they did not come under the influence of the latter and became known in the history of the entire universes !

They were not known to us earlier.

But their valiant story has been told to us.

Just in case we learn some thing useful from that !

[Adapted from my favorite book of universe history having super mortal origin]

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