Inheriting a huge debt, overdraft, many ailing PSUs and government initiatives, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has done quite a lot in a year in power.
A major challenge has been the ailing state healthcare system, though Banerjee has been trying her best to streamline them. After a spate of newborn deaths across the state, she has handpicked Sanjay Mitra, ex-joint secretary in the PMO, as principal secretary in the health department, and 21 sick newborn care units have been set up. Several task forces, comprising management gurus of IIM- Kolkata, socio-economists, senior physicians and paediatricians to streamline healthcare, have also established. Besides the huge shortage of 1,100 doctors in primary and secondary healthcare, the situation in medical colleges and hospitals in the city and districts are in shambles, despite the CM’s surprise visits to SSKM, Bangur Institute of Neurology, Baghajatin State General Hospital etc.
The state administration has taken a few good steps that investors were vociferously demanding during the Left regime, but threw away the advantage because of its land policy.
The government set a new benchmark in work culture by ensuring high employee presence in offices, and it is perceived that the average government employee has started working more. Paperwork required for investors has been largely done away with. For instance, earlier an investor had to fill 15 forms of around 100 pages, now s/he has to fill four forms of 15 pages.
Unfortunately, all the good work has come to a naught. The state land policy negates any role of the government in procuring land for industries. The government has been talking about big investments flowing into the state since the new regime took over. The government claimed to have attracted 16 mega investments worth Rs56,000 crore, but the details are yet to be disclosed. The singular blow to the image of the state has been the reluctance of the government to grant SEZ status to the software campus of Infosys. The same fate awaits Wipro’s campus near the proposed Infosys site.
Though the state government has taken several steps in both higher and school education sectors, most are at a planning stage. However, come 2013 and school may mean no homework, less books, no detention and learning through activity. While private tuition would be banned along with grading system, integrated learning would make its début in state schools.
The government has taken a concrete step in school education. Two years after the law was implemented in rest of the country, Bengal has now framed rules for implementing the Right to Education Act. With this, the Trinamool government took up an important task kept unattended earlier. The states initial plan of coming up with a book board and print all the school text books itself has met with opposition from local publishers who claim that the move would destroy the industry.
In higher education, too, various changes have come. The biggest boon this year would go out to Presidency University and St. Xavier’s College. While Presidency became a varsity under the Trinamool government, Banerjee has announced her desire to give a similar status to St. Xavier’s as well. Despite the promise of de-politicising higher education and coming up with the West Bengal University Laws (Amendment) Act, the colleges and universities are still not apolitical.
Finance is one department that the state government would wish to keep away from public glare. Be that as it may, state finance minister Amit Mitra setting in motion initiatives such as simplification of tax structure, assessment and audit along with large-scale introduction of e-governance.
While not much was spent in building schools, tube-wells and hospitals, government expenditure on salaries, pensions and debt repayment led to a ballooning of revenue deficit, a figure that broadly indicates the overspending of the government. All these led to the CM raising her pitch for a three-year moratorium on the interest payment. The total debt repayment obligation is so high that it eats up almost the entire state’s tax revenue.
No wonder, the state government is hell-bent on a huge development package from Bengal and three-year moratorium on the interest payment, failing which, she has turned anti-Pranab Mukherjee in recent times.
