I wonder what the central government’s ministry of urban development has done all these years. India is an urban nightmare. The only solution is powerful city governments run by mayors. And, of course, “company towns,” run by the companies that set up and manage these towns. These company towns can then be run without democracy and without bureaucracy – no IAS-IPS; no elections. Take your pick. Choose to live in the city where the taxes are lowest and the facilities are the best. In such a scenario, the central government would have nothing to do with urban affairs. The central ministry of urban development would be shut down.
And indeed it should be. The news today has it that this bozo ministry has proposed making cars more expensive. The idea is to generate funds for (government-run) public transport – basically MRTS and BRT. To the “urban planner” we must add the “transport planner.”
Two quick points: One, I am extremely happy for my countrymen that they are now owners of cars. This was not the case 20 years ago. Then, we just had the planner. We Indians now have good cars because of many competing MNCs. That is, the private sector. But even then, our per capita car ownership is among the lowest in the world, averaging 13 cars per 1000 people, lower even than Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Far, far lower than Malaysia and Thailand. So which way do we go? Towards universal automobile ownership? Or back to socialist central planning? The ministry of urban development wants to take us backwards. We must oppose them tooth-and-nail.
Second: I am all for decent public transport – but in private hands. The ministry wants government-run bus and metro rail facilities in all towns. Why should entrepreneurs not be free to set up tramways in smaller cities and towns? And why must the government run buses?
It seems to me that our The State is not rolling back at all. Indeed, if anything, our The State is surreptitiously increasing its corrupt businesses. It wants to be a transport planner because it wants to be a land developer. However, land can be developed very well by roads – especially given higher car ownership today. Why didn’t the bozos do that?
Note that we are already paying taxes on petrol and diesel that are dedicated to the Central Road Fund – but we have no roads. The sad fact is that we are being forced to pay tolls on all highways – in addition to the taxes. This is double taxation. They are a government run by cheats. So, paying more taxes is NOT the solution. Demanding good roads in exchange for the taxes we already pay is.
So, if you love your car, if you desire that your less fortunate countrymen should have cars too, and if you think that the transport planner should go straight to hell – then oppose these stupid (and corrupt) ideas of the ministry of urban development.
In my book, these bozos should be given the pink slip.
There are practical problems in implementing privatisation of public transport services. Look at the Delhi Blueline buses which are known to be killer machines.
ReplyDeleteIf it is left for the private bus service to decide the routes and fares for themselves, there is a tendency to fill up the buses too much. The services are unreliable because they are answerable to no one, they may not ply on certain routes or certain timings if it is not profitable. Of course, free markets and competition could help sort these problems, but several disasters could take place before natural order takes over.