AUSTERITY DRIVE: MORE ACTION NEEDED

The ruling UPA at the Center has advised its ministers to exercise great caution in their spending on hotel and travel bills in view of prevailing draught situation in many parts of the country(TOI 14-09-09). The money so saved is nothing compared to our developmental and non developmental expenditure per annum. But, that is an indication of the mind set of the people at the helm of affairs and how serious the government in providing much needed relief to the needy farmers. The paradox of our democracy is that the representatives of the people are very rich and the voters are very poor. Look at the assets declared by the LS seats aspirants before the election. Details are with the Election Commission. The asset owned by them ranges from minimum of Rs 3 crores to Rs 700.00 crores. We are talking of only what is declared. If the politicians/political parties are genuinely interested in the pathetic conditions of our farmers, why can not they donate 10% of their declared wealth to National Disaster Management Fund to be administered by the PMO? The funds so collected shall be distributed to the affected districts basing on the sever ness of the draught to be monitored by the MP of the area in a transparent way.