in the aftermath, some issues to ponder
Now that the dust is settling down somewhat on the matter of residents' rights, it is perhaps time to ponder some of the issues that would come up again in the future.
The matter of infrastructure development by invoking private investment is crucial for India and is in fact the only way capital starved state and central governments can cater to growing needs. Foreign direct investment, privatisation and novel approaches to financing can be sustained only when early successes are established.
So this ECR chapter in the emerging infrastructure development story in India, should probably become mandatory reading for business school faculty and students, planners and policy makers, civil servants, private investors, consultants and most of all, the higher echelons of that dominant player, IL&FS, India.
The basic issue as far as the tolling of ECR is this: Is it an ill-considered, hasty project that will continue to ride the stormy seas or is it one that was stymied by residents wanting a 'free lunch'?
This page will list the issues and leave you to consider the answers.
1- The first question for the entrepreneur --in this case TNRDC and through it, IL&FS-- is whether he can commit a huge investment based on the security of a government being its partner or must he go deeper into possible future political and legal risks that no government in a constitutional democracy can underwrite. ECR project bristles with issues that may even be taken to a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. All it takes is a single committed individual with the passion, time and money to make a mission of it. And there are many in India -- thank God-- with that kind of commitment. Did TNRDC err in thinking that once it had a GO it was 'home and dry'? The 'chalk and cheese' equivalents of environments for private investments in public works are China and India. The first can be managed by diktats but the second only with accommodation.
2- Is implementation by stealth a guarantee for success? The origins of the Tolled ECR project is shrouded in mystery. Who proposed it and who approved it are unavailable information. So are information on its finances and cost heads. The agreement between TN Govt and TNRDC has never been made public. One day frenzied civil works began and on another it concluded, with a charmed press gawking as would yokels on a trip to the city. Through out all this, many experts and consultants arrived and went unnoticed, but not a single resident or leaders of local governments was ever consulted. In late March,2002 TNRDC convened first and only citizens' meet -- to announce the tariff. There has since been no official contact. The ECR Project is a classic case of top-down planning. It appears to have assumed that there were no citizens along the tolled area, and if there were, they were likely to be unaware of their rights and if they did, they were unlikely to have the means or energy to press for them.
3- The matter of rights and legal issues are likely to be locked away in the closet, now that some sort of peace appears to have descended on the ECR, thanks to the Chief Minister's intervention on July 5,2002. But the issues can tumble out someday, in some other context. What are they? There are four issues that can be decided only by courts of law: 1- Is Article 19 of the Indian Constitution offended when citizens are asked to make a payment to go to their homes? 2- When a 'free public road' is sought to be converted into a 'priced private road', aren't the Easement Rights of residents offended? 3- In the absence of an alternative or price-benchmark aren't residents' Consumer Rights of choice and value offended? and 4- Did TNRDC violate the Environmental Directives of the Central Government about fellin trees and wideneing the road? These questions are alive and can expose TNRDC to risks in future.
4- The rub is, the ECR is not a newly created facility but an 'improvement and maintenance' asset [?]. Can it be replicated within cities and elsewhere? If not, why not? A toll-able facility is always an alternative of advantage in terms of time, money and or convenience. A newly created facility like say the Bombay-Pune Freeway offends no Constitutional, Easement or Consumer Rights. It is exposed solely to business risk. The ECR Tollway can --if we seek to give it some reason to exist-- possibly be attractive to intercity travellers between Chennai and Pondicherry. As long as TNRDC refuses to see this inescapable logic, it will continue to sit on a pile of risks.
5- In the course of the debate, a frequently tossed line was: "There is no such thing as a free lunch." If this was intended to be a punch line, it carries none. For the glib converts to privatisation in government, press and business, here are some counter-questions: "Aren't all lunches to be priced evenly and equitably? Why don't priced lunches begin at Tiruvanmiyur? Why are bicycles, two-wheelers and bullock-carts given 'free lunches'? Why are politicians and judges and 'dignitaries' exempted whereas school buses and senior citizens are included? On what business might a judge travel the ECR with a justification greater than that of a citizen who has conducted his daily life along it for as long as he can remember?" The honest answer to these is that the minds that proposed the tariff and exemptions, were dishonest; they were not exercised by law or fair-play but only by expediency. They 'served' free lunches to buy peace and room to operate.
6- Then there is the culture at TNRDC that needs a new coinage: the Purdah Style of Management. The Purdah Style consists essentially of, 'you can not see me but you will hear my diktats'. Throughout the simmering crisis, Mr. Rohit Modi was nowhere to be seen. He was in the end, more inaccessible than even the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Yet his hand was discerible everywhere in every decision. The management style was in fact put together from a bag of tricks: not to acknowledge a single letter; to make Plaza staff to lie in front of vehicles in order to provoke a citizen to implicate himself; to intimidate the weak, the elderly,the illiterate, the poor or the ladies with threats of towing away and impounding their vehicles even when TNRDC had no power to do so; to convey to the public that the toll was being collected 'for the government'; to drip arrogance and tell the residents to either shift residence or take to a two-wheeler if they wanted to be exempted from toll; to convey to the agitating citizens that it was "a game of who blinks first and let's see who wins"; and finally in a monumental blunder, to trick the police into believing that serving TNRDC to collect revenue was indeed serving the government's purpose. Are these management styles prescribed or approved by IL&FS? Or are is its delegatory culture so far evolved that it will not monitor field practices. Problem is IL&FS is something of a pioneer and a monopoly. Its success is crucial for India to attract more investments and it is also a 'fund manager' for its investors and therefore prone to haste and expediency. If it recruits officers with Mr. Rohit Modi's skill sets, IL&FS will soon find itself in a mess with both the Indian public and its investors. And our government's plans of development through private funding will have been destroyed.
