Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 21 (IANS) A year on into its second avatar, the Congress-led ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is grappling with issues as diverse as its coalition — from food security bill, implementing universal right to education to operalization of civil nuclear bill with the US.
On May 22 last year, the UPA came back to power on a numerically stronger footing but far short of a majority in the Lok Sabha. Flush with the success of the rural employment guarantee scheme and the path-breaking Right To Information (RYI) Act in its first stint, the UPA promised to bring in many ambitious legislations in its second stint.

Here is a snapshot of the troubled issues of governance facing the ruling combine and UPA measures that are yet to achive their objectives fully.

Food Security Bill: If the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the RTI Act were two path-breaking legislative measures of UPA-I, the Food Security Bill was touted as the most ambitious legislation of UPA-II.

The Congress manifesto promised to enact a Right to Food law under which every family below the poverty line (BPL) would be entitled for 25 kg of rice or wheat per month at Rs.3 a kg.

A year later, the government is yet to decide on the number of BPL families that will benefit from the proposed legislation. The draft bill is still being discussed by an empowered group of ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Right to Education: The right of children in the 6-14 age group to free and compulsory education under the act, which came into force April 1, will benefit about one crore (10 million) children who are out of the school system. An estimated Rs.1.71 lakh crore (Rs. 1.71 trillion) would be required over the next five years to implement it.

However, states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have told the central government they do not have enough funds and have sought financial assistance.

Energy security: The Congress manifesto promised that the country will add 12,000-15,000 MW of energy generation capacity every year through a mix of sources and increase the share of nuclear power following the civil nuclear agreement signed by UPA-I.

However, the government has not been able to operationalise the civil nuclear agreement with the US as the nuclear liability bill has not yet been passed by parliament. The government introduced it on the last day of the budget session after being forced to defer its introduction in the Lok Sabha in the face of stiff opposition.

Women’s reservation bill: The government got the women’s reservation bill passed in the Rajya Sabha in the face of stiff opposition by the Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal. The two parties immediately announced withdrawal of their support to the UPA. The government has so far not been able to bring the bill in the Lok Sabha.

Maoist violence: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has repeatedly termed the Maoists the country’s biggest internal security threat. Despite Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s efforts, the leftwing rebels have repeatedly hit back at security forces.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh caused a flutter by calling Chidambaram arrogant and disagreeing with his anti-Maoist policy. But the home minister won the BJP’s support.

Highways construction: Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath set an ambitious target of constructing about 20 km of highways every day, especially in the northeast and remote areas. But progress has been slow. The government last month downscaled the target to 12-13 km a day for the present fiscal.

Unique Identification Project: The ambitious project to give a unique number to all those residing in the country based on their demographic and biometric parameters is yet to get its full team in place as some posts have not been filled.

Ministerial differences: Union ministers Jairam Ramesh and Kamal Nath sparred over environmental clearances to road projects. Ministers Prithviraj Chavan and Sharad Pawar differed with Ramesh over his stand on commercial production of Bt Brinjal. Ramesh embarrassed the government by criticising the home ministry’s policies towards Chinese companies while touring Beijing.