Taking exception to the Legislative Assembly’s move to refer to the privilege committee a complaint by three MLAs against the former Chairman of the Task Force for Recovery of Public Land and its Protection V. Balasubramanian, Governor H.R. Bhardwaj has said that if this is the manner in which bureaucrats are treated for doing their duty, days are not far when people will take to the streets to protest against encroachers.
Speaking after conferring the Rani Channamma University’s honorary doctorate on Isher Judge Ahluwalia, eminent economist on Saturday, the Governor said the task force had detected encroachment of thousands of acres of government land. If a privilege motion was moved against Mr. Balasubramanian, how could the rule of law prevail, he asked, and advised the government not to do anything that would cause public outrage.
Coming down heavily on money and communal/caste considerations in elections, Mr. Bhardwaj said that in the recent Legislative Assembly elections, candidates paid Rs. 500 to voters in some constituencies and how could the common man expect good governance from them. Prof. Ahluwalia said urbanisation played a major role in alleviating poverty, but economists had not understood it. The growth would not have been 7 per cent without urban development in the country, she said.
Service delivery
Prof. Ahluwalia said that unless service delivery in cities, including tier-two and tier-three ones was improved, development could not be expected.
