The desire to be the Best or No. 1 is probably latent in every mortal throughout human history. The best child for the parents, the best student in education, the best employee, the No. 1 leader, in short, in every sphere and phase of life the desire to be right at the top is an incredible desire for most thinking homo sapiens. Settling for less seems to be getting less acceptable by the second these days as society is becoming more aggressive and competitive. Even those who consider themselves ‘fit’ have to struggle to be the ‘fittest’, nothing less.
In India and the world over, we get to see so many iconic companies which used to be hugely profit making earlier are winding up and shutting shop at the blink of the eye. Kodak photo company, Konark TV, Hindustan Motors, Life, Illustrated Weekly of India and Newsweek magazines are some very known names that come to mind instantly. Many others survive on the brink today and just might topple over any time. In politics, the demise of Swatantra Party, Janata Party and the shrinking of All India Anna DMK (AIADMK), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Akali Dal and many others prove how the new world order is merciless and unforgiving to those who are not genuine in their quest for excellence.
Therefore, while one may appreciate the desire to attain No. 1 position, the ‘means’ also seem to matter these days, not just the ‘goal’. For example, we in Orissa have been witness to the mad rush for being No.1 in everything that our Government has been doing for the past decade or so. This extreme desire to be at the top obviously involves activities that could well be in the domain of the ‘unwanted’ or ‘unbecoming’. What has verifiably happened may not have been noticed by most people who were either mesmerized by the supposed successes or those who opposed everything without any foundations. When a Government claims it has achieved a 100% success milestone in, say for example, rural road connectivity or rural drinking water projects, it creates a formidable barrier for any further future growth in that sector. Funding agencies such as the Union Government or others will be unwilling to sanction more financial assistance to those sectors that the Government claims to have achieved complete success. Paper work is usually manipulated. Inspecting and reporting agencies and their personnel are made happy through various means and a certificate of excellence is issued that does not take ground realities into account. Many a times, no work of greatness might have been executed and nothing might have been achieved. Yet, the System, understandably, functions solely based on documents prepared with great care to hoodwink that very System. Eventually, it is the common citizen who suffers because she is deprived of the development that should have reached her, had the reports and paper work been made with truth as the basis. Not driven by the quest for becoming No.1
The Urban Governance Index 2024, an award announced this past week, in which our state has been anointed at No.2 position in the country is one such example of mala fide paper work that has achieved nothing in reality. Urban centers across Orissa suffer from all the problems that no modern urban area should ever have to deal with. Poor or no street lights, non-existent sewer and sewage facilities, no system of liquid and solid waste management, virtually no clean drinking water from the taps, invisible public toilet facilities, general absence of policing and overall women’s security issues are just a few examples of terrible urban governance in Orissa that immediately come to mind. This is not intended to blame any Government but it highlights the callousness with which things happen.
A similar situation is developing in the environment and ecology management sector in Orissa. A few funding agencies along with the Government have chosen their favorites. Major projects are being sanctioned for these entities and individuals that are reportedly running into hundreds of crore each. Particularly in the fields of environmental resilience building of coastal communities, economic assets creation, mangrove plantations and a few other select critical activities that will greatly impact coastal Orissa are receiving enormous amounts of funds that are being squandered away. Records will soon start reflecting, when these projects wind up, that coastal Orissa is all set to meet the intense vagaries of nature in the future with strength and vigor. Truth is that no tangible work is getting done but documentary evidence will disprove any evidence to the contrary. A few individuals are becoming super rich and will be even more rich soon. Suffering is destined for the common citizen who will be deprived of any help in the future because records will show that the communities are fully empowered and capable to take on any natural calamity and overcome it with the assistance supplied in plenty earlier.