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| The paradoxical ways of the politician | | Terming NHAI "road tax" as anti-people speaks of his lack of knowledge about BOOT | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 15: NC MLA Devinder Singh Rana, who actually used J&K Bank platform to seek his entry in NC and then "establish" himself as a politician, has termed NHAI road tax as anti-people unmindful of the fact that it is being done under BOOT (Build, Own, Operate, Transfer), a public-private partnership (PPP) project model.
Under BOOT, a private company constructs roads and other large development projects under contract with a government agency. It is the new way of developing a large public infrastructure project with private funding. The government agency may provide limited funding or some other benefit but the private partner firm assumes the risks associated with planning, constructing, operating and maintaining the project for a specified time period. During that time, the private partner charges customers who use the infrastructure. At the end of the specified period, the private partner transfers ownership to the funding organisation, either freely or for an amount stipulated in the original contract. Such contracts are typically long-term.
Rana, who scaled the political ladder with the blessings of Farooq and his son Omar, issued a statement to the press Saturday, expressing dismay over the proposed NHAI decision to set up toll posts at Lakhanpur, Thandi Khui and Ban near Nagrota. A man like him cannot be so ill-informed. All these projects were started under BOOT scheme during the erstwhile NC-Congress government when he himself was at the helm of almost every government affair. His this statement lacks seriousness of purpose and more likely seems to have been made only for the sake of remaining in news.
He said the "imposition of toll tax is paradoxical to the tall claims and dreams shown to the people of J&K by BJP". This is purely his "personal" view and it is not necessary that his party (NC) also holds the same view.
Several road projects have been accomplished by reputed private firms in other parts of the country as well. There are at least five such toll posts on the Lakhanpur-Chandigarh road as well and no one has ever opposed them, not even for political considerations. Rana is of course the first such person who has opposed the BOOT projects in J&K despite the fact that the state has always remained cash-starved. It does not have its own resources and money to take such big projects in hand. This is for his information that road tax is not charged from the people who live in the vicinity of the toll post. They have alternate roads to move on. If he is so opposed to this model of development and private funding in the construction of highways, he should have come forward with new ideas. Had the construction of highways been left on the erstwhile government of his friend and boss Omar, it would have taken 20 to 30 years for their completion.
This man was once a regular visitor to a local newspaper office where he would please even the office boys. With the blessings of its owner, he became the J&K Bank director. As director, he developed good relations with then Bank Chairman M Y Khan and chief minister Farooq Abdullah. From there started his political journey. From a small time political activist, he has over the years grown "most" powerful in the party. Courtsey: Farooq and Omar.
He has left behind even S S Salathia, who was once considered very close to Farooq family. Even senior NC leaders now stand nowhere in front of him. But before terming NHAI "road tax" as anti-people, he must keep it in mind that all these projects were started when his party was in power. Had NC been a part of the proposed coalition government in J&K, his tone would have surely been different. Instead of disapproval, appreciation would have been there. |
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