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In the past few
years, the TDP government in AP led by Chandrababu Naidu has been claiming to
have introduced electronic rule in the state. Hailed by the World Bank and
imperialist media as the first ever electronic government in the country, it is
said to have achieved the computerisation of the various government offices,
such as the registration office, employment exchanges, market yards, commercial
tax offices and so on, through its much-acclaimed APSWAN (State Wide Area
Network). ‘The Economist’ — the mouthpiece of international capital, in
its May 22, 1999 issue, hailed Chandrababu Naidu as "the visionary Chief
minister of AP (who), is trying to make government more transparent and
responsive by making it electronic".
All the 23 district
headquarters are now connected to the state secretariat in Hyderabad through
computers making it possible for the chief minister or the state level officials
to conduct video conferences with the district collectors and other
officials.This electronic network has been hailed as bringing about a
revolutionary transformation in the method of governance by linking up various
district headquarters with the state capital and various departments with head
offices. It is claimed that ‘red tapism’ would be done away with and will help
the people to get the required information through the computers whenever they
need; that corruption will have no place under the eyes of the computers; that
there will not be wastage of time; and, that efficiency and skills of various
government departments will improve due to speedy transactions, so on and so
forth.
But all this
propaganda about the first electronic government in India revealed its real,
ugly, and anti-people features when the AP government came out with its proposal
to offer public services to the people through private companies by trying to
introduce what is known as APVAN (Value Added Network). The government, however,
had to hastily withdraw its plans due to the united and determined protests by
the non-gazetted officials. What the government had planned to achieve through
APVAN was to surrender 20 government services to the private sector and to
foreign companies. The computerisation is intended to aid privatisation of
public services and to create a market for the computers and software of the
TNCs and MNCs that have been glutting the world market.
The wily politician,
Naidu, who came to power by back-stabbing his father-in-law, NTR, and often
described as the CEO of AP Inc. by the business circles and media, is no doubt
serving as one of the most loyal managers for World Bank-IMF and imperialist
capital in general in AP, apart from all his cunning manipulations for power and
aggrandisement. Bowing to the dictates of the imperialists he sold out the
public sector companies under the control of the AP government one by one ever
since he came to power in mid-’95 through a palace coup. Thousands of workers
have been thrown into the streets either due to the closure or privatisation of
industries like Allwyn Auto, AP Scooters, Republic Forge, AP Construction,
Handicapped Corporation, Fisheries Corporation, Nizam Sugars and even some
routes in the RTC.
Now, what is still
worse, through computerisation of all public services, the APVAN scheme intends
to collect money for every service that was hitherto free. APVAN is a joint
venture of a Singapore consortium that is formed by three companies — Singapore
Network Company, National Computer Board and National Computer Systems, and the
participation of the AP state government. Among the board of directors of this
APVAN, 4 represent the AP government, 4 from the Singapore Consortium and 3 from
private companies. The government entered into agreement with the Singapore
companies to transfer the management of 20 public services in 6 government
departments: transport, commerce, registration, employment creation,
electricity, water works. A big propaganda campaign is unleashed by the
govermnent that once the APVAN scheme comes into operation, the people need not
go to every government office for their work since all the services will be
available at one place and that through intemet and direct dialing facilities,
most of their needs will be met.
All these services,
of course, come with a rider: one has to pay a fee for every service, including
registering one’s name in the employment exchange. Thus even the unemployed will
be squeezed for registering their names through the computerised service.
Virtually every service, from registration of new vehicles, renewal of driving
licences, transfer of ownership of vehicles, issue of passports, assessment of
sales tax, land registration, payment of property taxes, lists of court cases,
compilation of judgments, putting up market rates etc., now have a fee. Even to
obtain birth and death certificates, one has to pay these foreign companies a
price. The state government plays the role of a comprador and ensures that 50%
of the fees is paid to the Singapore companies.
An unemployed person,
for instance, has to pay Rs. 16 as fee for registering his/her name in the
employment exchange which had been free till now. With four lakh registrations
in the employment exchanges in the state every year, one lakh updatings (i.e.,
registering the new degrees obtained by the unemployed in the year) and 9. 5
lakh renewals, the foreign companies will be sqeezing out Rs. 17 crores from the
unemployed alone every year. Besides, computerisation leads to the closure of
most of the existing 39 employment exchanges in the state leading to even more
unemployment.
To take another
instance of how the government intends to loot the people in collaboration with
foreign companies through the APVAN, is the issuing of driving licences. Of the
30 lakh-odd vehicles in the state, over 25 lakh are commercial ones. For the
renewal of the driving licences Rs. 10-20 have to be paid every year as fee; for
the registration of private vehicles, Rs. 30; and for the registration of 20
lakh commercial vehicles every year, Rs. 300 has to be paid.
In the electricity
and water works departments where one crore services are in existence, Rs. 5 per
service is sought to be collected on average. The 85 lakh domestic (home)
consumers, 17 lakh agricultural consumers and 4800 commercial consumers have to
pay Rs. 511 crore as fees to the Singapore company. In the water works, the
government has been collecting Rs. 2000 crores annually from the consumers.
According to the new scheme, the foreign companies will henceforth conduct the
services and collect one percent as service fee from the concerned departments.
Moreover, these companies will take up the task of purchasing stationery,
machinery, computers, furniture etc. All these will throwout the staff working
in the purchasing and other departments of the government which may even be
closed down altogether.
The details of the
APVAN scheme, that have serious repercussions on the fate of government
employees, have been kept a secret from the people, the employees, and even from
the higher officials and the legislators. Why has the government kept the
details secret ? It is due to the fact that the very first condition of the
agreement that was to have been concluded on February 24, 1999 (but was
postponed due to protest by goverrunent employees), was that in the next five
years the services in these departments should not be undertaken by anyone
except APVAN. The scheme which, with a capital of just Rs. 20 crore (!), would
gradually control every government department and aims at conducting a business
worth Rs. 3600 crores over the next five years !! It also intends to penetrate
the countryside. The rural cooperative banks too may have to be closed down as
it is only the big foreign banks that have the means to conduct business through
electronic means.
Though the APVAN
scheme is temporarily shelved due to public protest, government is trying to
bring it into operation by hook or by crook just as was done with the APSWAN. It
is trying to mould public opinion in its favour by propagating the lie that all
the people will be benefited.
The so-called
‘electronic’ government introduced by Naidu is a cruel joke and a big fraud on
the people of the state, the vast majority of whom are reeling under acute
poverty and starvation, unemployment and illiteracy, famine and disease. While
keeping the oppressive semi-feudal relations in the countryside in tact, the
imperialists and the comprador bourgeoisie are conspiring to step up the loot of
the natural wealth and labour in the states and increase their assets and
profits at an even faster rate by the use of hi-technology. At the same time, to
fool the people, various populist schemes are being floated such as Janmabhoomi,
DWCRA, Prajadeevena, and so on. Another mega-fraud that is being bandied about
in recent months is Vision-2020 — a product of an imperialist consultancy firm,
McKinsey — which is hailed by ‘The Economist’ as a report "that offers
an inspiring picture of what AP might be like in two decades, a state free from
poverty and illiteracy, by a government made responsive and efficient by
hi-technology, a business environment that beguiles investors."
And the same
mouth-piece of imperialist capital, further concludes: "the sort of
revolution Mr. Naidu is aiming for in AP — a managerial, not an ideological one
- is exactly what India needs."
During his
4-year-rule in AP, Naidu has already proved himself to be the most loyal and
trusted manager of imperialist and comprador capital in the state. The spate of
foreign collaborations and proliferation of foreign companies in AP such as:
Rolls Royce, General Electric, Flo Daniel, Signode Corporation, Hambrecht &
Quist, Thomas and Bells, Mobile Petroleum, Petro source, International Finance
Corporation etc., from the US; ABB, Rethemir, Roche/BASF, Refractories
Consulting, Lurgi etc., from Germany; National Power, Davy Mackee, Associate
Coffee etc., from UK; Itochu Corporation, Matsushita Electric etc., from Japan;
and several other companies from the Netherlands, Italy, Demnark and even from
Singapore and Malaysia, show why the imperialists are so much enthusiastic about
the introduction of hi-technology and electronic rule by Naidu.
Needless to say, this
will only lead to further fleecing of the people of AP in more sophisticated
ways, resulting in greater poverty and drain of the state’s resources. The
‘electronic’ rule is only to facilitate the imperialist plunder of the state and
has to be opposed.
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