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Alarm bells set off as Economic Survey predicts negative growth for Maharashtra

Prashant Hamine
By Prashant Hamine

@the_news_21

@prashanthamine

Mumbai: Any seasoned, astute politician with foresight should be hearing the Alarm bells going off as the 2020-21 Economic Survey has predicted a negative growth of 8%. Although the Agriculture and allied service sectors are expected to register a positive 11.7% growth due to good monsoon last year the negative 8% overall growth impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic is bound to pull down the overall growth rate.

The spike in Corona cases in Mumbai and elsewhere in Maharashtra is certainly not good news for a state that was hoping for a revival of the economy. Kerala and Maharashtra happen to be the very few states that have been once again witnessing a rise in Covid-19 cases.

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It is little wonder that the Centre has rushed its teams to Maharashtra as the spike is going to hurt the overall revival of the nation’s economy. Definitely there have been avoidable instances of poor planning when it came to the vaccination drive.

It is not just the failure of the administration to be proactive in anticipating the spike or managing the c it is also the ‘who cares’ attitude amongst some people that is also causing the spike. Clearly, plain requesting people to wear face masks is not working. A severe crackdown or strict enforcement of appropriate Covid-19 behaviour seems inevitable.

Besides this it was expected that the government would have reworked the office hours, staggered them sector wise so that the public transport system is not over-crowded as usual

The full effects of the migration of casual, daily wages workers back to their native states and regions during the politics are now being felt as works on infrastructure projects in Mumbai have slowed down.

States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have devised plans to retain these daily wage workers by employing them in local infrastructure projects. Haryana has gone ahead in reserving 75% quota for locals in the private sector jobs. Unfortunately, Maharashtra appears to have no such plans.

Coupled with this the politicisation of infrastructure projects has also sent adverse signals to investors. Already the state has slipped to the fifth position behind Haryana, Telangana, Karnataka in terms of per Capita Income of states for 2019-20. Covid-19 pandemic came much later.

Also Read: Leadership crisis afflicts all across the board in these turbulent times

Instead, what the people are being treated to are pointless debates over Babri demolition or who is more saffron than the other. The perpetual election mode that the nation finds itself in, this time assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and union territory of Puducherry serves perfectly well for the political parties to deflect public attention from burning issues.

More than the ‘Job do’, what is needed is ‘Jawab do’. Even in that what we tend to overlook is that opposition to or raising objections to infrastructure projects is in short opposing job creation or employment opportunities. Then we want to ask questions as to why there is no employment.

What no government or ruling alliance would tell is who is responsible for the rising fuel prices. Neither the Centre or the state governments are guilty of keeping state taxes as high as 36% in some states that is causing the fuel hike.

We have become so immune to or say brain dead in discussing irrelevant issues that a China backed cyber attack cripples Mumbai’s power grid in October 2020. Here too the state government goes public over the issue, rather than the Centre which should have as the issue is under its jurisdiction.

What many tend to overlook is the often-hidden agenda of external forces push through like the October 2020 Mumbai power grid failure, the controversial Toolkit or attempts to hack into systems of our vaccine makers or funding pointless agitations against mega projects is in fact an attempt to slow down our progress, makes us dependent on others. We do not mind playing politics even if it causes self-damage in the long run.

The government might not want to re-impose the lockdown, but certainly it can crack the whip and impose a stricter imposition of guidelines. European countries have reimposed lockdowns to bring the pandemic under control. While the world is in praise for our goodwill gesture in supplying the vaccine, we are yet again busy politicising it ignoring the fact that it is meant to save human lives.

It is no denying that states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and others are fast catching up with Maharashtra in terms of infrastructure development, industrial growth that attracts labour and above all investment. Constant bouts of elections and agitations are also proving to be a drain on the exchequer.

Just priding over being the most progressive, urbanised state in the country is not going to be enough any longer. If the message goes out that the state is somewhat allergic to mega infrastructure projects like Oil refinery at Nanar, Metro 3 car shed at Aarey Milk Colony, Jaitapur nuclear power plant, Bullet train project, it is already forcing investors to search for greener pastures elsewhere in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and other states.

Merely paying lip-service to protecting the livelihoods is not going to be enough, emphasis should be on job creation and it is the duty of the government. The pandemic globally has made big Tech giants and other industries shift their production base out of China. Question is are we ready for it or are going to let the opportunity pass by indulging in needless, pointless arguments. The Alarm Bells are surely ringing loud and clear, but is anybody listening or is pretending to be deaf, dumb or blind?

Prashant Hamine
Prashant Hamine
News Editor - He has more than 25 years of experience in English journalism. He had worked with DNA, Free Press Journal and Afternoon Dispatch. He covers politics.
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