Just Me - India

There has been lot of talk about Private Sector participation in infrastructure projects in Bangalore in recent months. This surprises me.

Let's see what kind of participation is being asked of from the Private Sector by government and others:

• Investment in terms of Money in building Roads, Fly-overs (bridges), preventing water logging, resolving traffic woes, other public utility services etc.
  
• Investment in terms of Time in doing the same things.
• Investment in terms of participation in planning exercises around these activities.

Sounds good ?

No. This is stupid because:

• It is essentially the job of the government and the dedicated ministries.
  
• There are people already being paid to do exactly these things - the bureaucracy and a very long list of government servants. If they fail to deliver - they should be questioned ! Instead the approach being taken is - its ok to be lackadaisical - we will have someone else do this job while you can relax.
  
• Tax is being collected by the government for this very purpose. Isn't it? Well, not just tax, but many types of tax over and above the basic one - which are termed as 'cess'.
• Private enterprises exist for the sole purpose of doing business, generating employment in the process - and paying the necessary taxes to the government. They do not specialize in building infrastructure for cities - it is not their job. Their job should be to be pay taxes, do business legitimetely, and perhaps generate employment in the process.
  

This kind of talk exists only because government has been singularly incompetent in getting it's act together w.r.t infrastructure. Almost nowhere in the world, are business enterprises expected to spend their time and money in building infrastructure - haven't they already contributed by means of paying taxes, generating employment ?