My Solutions for Delhi Manifesto

“Only when people are informed, they will become aware;

Only when they become aware, they will take action”

-Ndyakina Amooti

Wonderful words as only when people are informed, are aware and take action, can we expect CHANGE. Change has to begin and come from us – you and me...as WE, the people, are responsible. Every day WE see many types of problems in India. WE have got to discuss and find the solutions too. After all, India is OUR country...

I am grateful for this opportunity provided by BlogAdda to voice my concerns. Thanks for encouraging me to draft my own Delhi Manifesto & Solutions.

I have already shared My Delhi Manifesto.

Here’s my list of the issues and corresponding solutions to the problems that I think WE are facing that needs to be addressed for our nation’s betterment and progress:

Infrastructure Bottlenecks- More PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects need to be approved with single-window clearances so that the $1 Trillion needed as infrastructure investment as per our 12th Plan can be fulfilled. Simultaneously, strict penalties for not heeding deadlines have to be implemented so that our infrastructure gets an effective push. Monitoring of quality of construction materials and project implementation also needs to be done by say groups of eminent retired/serving engineers so that sub-standard work will be caught and punished. That will also mean- no/lower potholes on our roads and bridges that withstand rains/cyclones.

Education Problems- The largest primary school education programme in the world, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan runs in our country. To make it effective, parents' committees must be active to stop absenteeism of teachers and ensure proper implementation of mid-day meal scheme. Outsourcing of mid-day meal programme to well-audited NGOs should be done throughout the country for best efficiency. Again both school and parents' committees must go on regular checks of these organisations. Implementing Gandhiji's system of basic education whereby the child will be taught in school plus given vocational skill in the areas he/she prefers is the need of the hour. At levels of higher education also, existing colleges' standards have to be upgraded. Excess seats' removal has to be done and interest rates for education loans have to be brought down- with strict checks on purpose for which loans have been used. More vocational education centres are needed to impart skills, after which self-employment must be given a push.

Poor Health Facilities and Disease-Management- Providing basic sanitation is necessary for ensuring good health and preventing disease. R&D money spent is less than 1% of our budget. This must be increased and channelised towards developing indigenous vaccines. Jenvac is a good example and we need to encourage vaccines for malaria, dengue and other diseases plaguing India. Basic hospital equipments need to be made available in every block and district, and to tide over power availability here, solar power needs to be used in smallest government hospitals. Mobile hospitals are a great idea and government must encourage entrepreneurs and provide funding for this.

Poor Emotional Health- Societal changes need to be slowly brought about so that people are not harassed within their homes. Domestic violence and prevalence of dowry needs to be curbed. Parents must not pressure children. Ragging needs to be stopped. Liquor, cigarettes and illegal drugs should be prevented from being accessed by people. All such measures if also given a push by government, will lead to better emotional health and fewer suicides.

Environment-Unfriendly Acts- Destroyers of our forests must be caught using small unmanned aerial vehicles indigenously developed. Strict implementation of Environment Acts relating to non-use of plastics, prevention of air/water/noise pollution need to be done. Officers found lax must be punished with salary cuts. Best incentives to states recording increase in tiger count or bringing poachers to book or improving forest cover must be given.

Extreme Hunger & Poverty-Just as an Act, Right to Food is no use. Its implementation needs to be done well. People must be encouraged to go for more roof-top gardening or growing vegetables in small patch outside their homes which will also simultaneously manage problem of solid organic waste generated from kitchen. Food inflation can thus be brought down if most households take this up. Government needs to popularise this.

Food Wastage-Criminal charges should be pressed against those ministers and officials under whose caretaking the grains in godowns will rot. First of all we have few godowns and even those are not taken care of. Storage of grains out in the open should be banned- rather laws be made for immediate transfer of such grains to the poor under their Right to Food or Antyodaya Anna Yojana or sent for mid-day meal scheme. For tracking the movement of grains, technology and e-governance must be used.

Attacks on our Cultural Treasures- People caught meddling with our monuments' beauty must be fined heavily. Also neglected monuments need to be revamped, otherwise we will forever lose our treasures- these old monuments dating back centuries are our real treasure and heritage.

Negligence to Tourism-Give a boost to eco-tourism by training village youth in computers and manners. Empower them to attract tourists to their villages and states.

Gender Inequality & Women’s Safety Issues-Recognise women as equal stakeholders of society by first of all respecting their right to speedy trials. Nirbhaya case was a landmark, but what about thousands of other Nirbhaya cases still waiting perenially for justice? Strictly punish offenders of women and cut salaries of police who do not register FIRs.

Communal Tension & Violence/Peace-Disruption- Insulating civil servants from politicians' strangle-hold is a must. Else, communal tension continues while the police just sits on the sidelines. Laws must be made that if a communal situation is not controlled within 24 hours, then the state government will be dismissed automatically.

Unemployment –Encourage self-employment after skilling the youth. Also make domestic industrial policies more investor-friendly, as our domestic investors are now preferring to invest abroad rather than in India which is a shame for our government, which instead goes to foreign conferences and asks for investment.

Power and Fuel Problems- Renewable energy needs a big push. Further incentivise wind and solar power producers. Make rural places lighted by solar lights. Give more thrust on local power generation to prevent T&D losses and simultaneously spend on researching for better material to lower T&D losses. Underground power cabling is necessary to prevent losses of towers due to natural disasters. Do NOT give free power to big farmers, as it is a drain on our limited resource. Stop subsidies to the rich on LPG, instead encourage solar cooking.

Poor Sanitation–Give incentives to families who build toilets in their homes or go for rainwater
 harvesting to get their potable water. Ensure that contractors for water projects who do not adhere to guidelines will be fined heavily/have their pay reduced.

Poor Values, Morality, Ethics, Transparency, Accountability… leading to Corruption, Nepotism, Black Money, Dishonesty…- E-governance is the best way to ensure accountability and transparency and pending projects must be implemented quickly, with sharing of already developed projects with other states willing to adopt them, so that the process is faster. Lokpal bill needs to be passed, so that effective checks on corrupt politicians can be done. Processes need to be simplified as much as possible.

Criminal-Politician-Bureaucrat Nexus- State election funding is the need of the hour. Thorough background checks for every nominee must be done, and Election Commission must have a guideline that people with charges like rape, murder etc. against them must not be allowed to contest. Ideally political parties needed to have such rules, but since they wish to run as private organisations with no accountability to the public under RTI, hence Election Commission must write and ask for responses of all parties/MPs/MLAs on such guidelines and frame them. CBI's financial independence at least, must be granted for more efficient investigations.

Justice-Delivery System- Immediately appoint judges to fill about 4000 vacant seats so that lakhs of pending cases can be sorted faster. Funds did you ask? Every convicted politician/official must pay back the extent of his corruption money, which would be used to strengthen justice system. Example: Laloo was just fined Rs 25 Lakhs, rather he should have been fined Rs 39 Crores which was his personal booty from the overall Rs 930 Crores of corruption money.

Violation of Child Rights & Human Rights- Give strict punishment to human traffickers for they violate fundamental right of citizens given by Constitution. Build more public humanity platforms to encourage people who help in empowering poor and disadvantaged people.Immediately bring in machines for preventing manual scavenging.

After setting our own house in order as ‘charity begins at home’, India can then look outside-

Soft Foreign-Policy- Use every international forum to project India's strengths. Against Pakistan and China, make best deployment of surveillance technology to never be caught off-guard. Retaliate immediately and firmly with words. 

According to me, the above are some pressing issues…

My answers to them are also given, and I now need a strong decisive ethical government to pursue the above solutions in the best interests of India, rather than selfish interests of those few in power. 


This is My Delhi Manifesto in association with BlogAdda.com