Although in the excitement generated by the mminent assembly elections in several states and the general election scheduled for next summer, it has gone off the headlines, government corruption is — or should be — a live issue at the hustings in the states and at the Centre. Two recent incidents in Maharashtra — India’s most industrialised and second most populous (112 million) state — underline the grave dangers posed by pervasive, unchallenged corruption. On April 4, an eight-storey residential building collapsed like a pack of cards in the township of Mumbra, a suburb of Mumbai, killing 74 people including 28 children and injuring 62. A post-mortem has revealed that the construction was wholly unauthorised, with public safety officials including municipal corporators bribed by the unqualified builders to turn a blind eye, even as every public safety norm — shallow foundation, substandard materials etc — was breached. Subsequent media investigations have revealed that 90 percent of residential buildings in Mumbra (pop. 9 lakh) are unauthorised and/or unsafe for human habitation. Preliminary data relating to Mumbai itself indicates that a large number of residential and commercial buildings in the nation’s commercial capital are also unauthorised and/or unsafe. The second incident which has caused untold misery within India’s most industrial state, is a manmade drought — the worst in 40 years in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. The callous reaction of deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar to this tragedy which has prompted mass migration and over 228 farmer suicides (in the past 10 months), and to a 55-day fast undertaken by an aggrieved farmer protesting the state’s refusal to release water from the Mula dam, was to contemptuously dismiss the protest fast, and sarcastically enquire whether people should urinate into the dam to originate water. This coarse remark was made even as accusations are intensifying against the state government for diverting water for sugarcane crops and factories run by the powerful sugar cooperatives lobby dominated by mysteriously wealthy politicians. In this context it is pertinent to note that last year the office of the comptroller general and auditor had excoriated the state’s ministry of irrigation for spending over Rs.70,000 crore to build dams and create a network of water distribution canals with little to show for it by way of completed projects. It should be noted that Pawar has held the irrigation portfolio in the state government for over a decade. In the circumstances, the paramount national interest demands that the public — especially the media and intelli-gentsia — doesn’t take its eyes off the corruption issue during the heat and noise of the run-up to the 2014 general election. In particular Anna Hazare’s Lok Pal Bill should not be allowed to fade quietly into the night, due to official neglect and public apathy. By all indications, the mainstream Congress and BJP parties are too steeped in corruption to reform and redeem. There are other political parties in the fray. It is the duty of citizens to seek them out and vote…
