BW Communities

A Home Truth

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[PEOPLE CONNECT: Chidambaram has brought Sivaganga’s villages under the aegis of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme It’s just past noon and a group of men gather in the elegantly-built Chettinad house at Kandanur in Tamil Nadu. An old man in his 70s from rural Chettinad approaches Finance Minister P. Chidambaram with a handwritten petition and then retreats to the entrance of the house to wait. Chidambaram, sitting in his ancestral home, patiently reads it. The old man’s request — to set up a petty shop — may seem too trivial an issue for a man who helms a trillion-dollar economy growing at a 9 per cent clip, but the pressures of retaining his seat as a member of Parliament from Sivaganga necessitates that Chidambaram leave aside the burdens of the budget or a wildly oscillating stockmarket and voyage from Delhi to his homeland to tend to his flock. On his most recent visit, this correspondent has travelled along with the finance minister’s entourage, visiting Sivaganga, Karaikudi, Kanadukaathan and Kandanur in the region. Chidambaram politely declines BW’s request for a chat despite our assurances that it has nothing to do with the budget. “Ask the people,” he quips when we query him on how he assesses his own performance as an MP. In less than 12 hours, Chidambaram undertakes a whirlwind tour of his constituency attending six programmes, which included several events organised by banks to give away loans, a wedding (of a district party leader’s son) and the inauguration of a local panchayat office. It is difficult to reconcile the Harvard graduate, prominent advocate and current financial whiz who grew up in an affluent family, with Sivaganga — a backward and resource poor area in the Chettinad region in Tamil Nadu and worlds removed from the heady circles of power and prestige that Chidambaram moves in. Yet, on this trip, the finance minister shows that he belongs, exhibiting an easy familiarity with his constituents, chatting in fluent Tamil, patiently listening to their concerns and offering an audience to their complaints. His much-vaunted attention to detail is no different here as he soaks up the intricacies of de-silting tanks and making coir products, from the locals. How has Sivaganga fared under Chidambaram? This primarily agrarian district has added 19 bank branches since 2005, taking the total to 155 — a significant development for a backward area such as this. A main road in the town boasts of a banking complex with ATMs inside it. Adding to this has been a considerable increase in the access to finance, according to Lead District Manager of Indian Overseas Bank, P.L. Gnanapandithan. Advances in the district have grown 67.7 per cent to Rs 1485.5 crore between March 2005 and 2007 (see ‘State Of Finances In FM Land’ on page 130). A Road Less Travelled Chidambaram’s main focus area in his home region has been education loans and advances to women self-help groups (SHGs), and these have also shown dramatic improvement. Education loans have grown from Rs 3.57 crore in March 2004 to Rs 25.76 crore in March 2007 and advances to SHGs from Rs 73.35 crore in March 2006 to Rs 91.35 crore in March 2007. Also, conserving water in Sivaganga is an important issue as farming in the region is mostly dependent on rain-feed, and Sivaganga has 4,000 tanks — the second highest in the state — to accomplish this. A Rs 200-crore World Bank-funded project to de-silt tanks and strengthen bunds in Sivaganga has given the community a major boost. While politicians are known to curry favour with their electorates by doling out concessions and sops, Chidambaram is far more principled. He introduced a first-of-its-kind loan scheme for goldsmiths in Karaikudi, but when interest defaults rose, he stopped it. Locals anxious to reap its benefits petitioned his office in Delhi but help came after a while. Chidambaram wanted his constituents to understand that it pays to be a good borrower. “I could have ordered the bank to give loans,” he tells a packed audience in Kanadukaathan. “Since it is a nationalised bank they would have done it. But it would have been an unfair order. People all over the country have similar demands. Only if you repay properly you would get more loans,” he reminds them, revealing his renowned plainspoken directness. Funding Their Dreams For a resource-starved area flush with agricultural workers, perhaps the most valuable benefit that Chidambaram has brought to it is ensuring that the 1,400 villages of Sivaganga be brought under the aegis of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), the UPA government’s flagship programme. With a central grant of Rs 72.83 crore, the scheme is on in 445 village panchayats benefiting more than 100,000 families, according to local Congress leaders. Even his critics in the constituency grudgingly admit that the scheme is helping the rural folk who would normally migrate out of the region in search of employment. “The scheme has increased the purchasing power of people,” admits a local CPI (M) functionary. While there is also talk of irregularities in the muster rolls, the Rs 80 per day work for 100 days has brought in large-scale employment and relief in this opportunity-starved district. {mospagebreak} However, many of his critics in Sivaganga —largely from the Left — feel that these efforts are mere drops in the ocean compared to what could have been done for the area by a person of Chidambaram’s influence. One major grouse among some of his detractors, such as Sivaganga’s CPI-elected representative to the state assembly, S. Gunasekaran, is that he has not used his clout to bring the much-needed industry to Sivaganga. Apart from an LPG bottling plant set up at a cost of Rs 50 crore and a few paper mills, no major industrial units have been set up in the region in the past four years. Others point out that, in fact, industrial and infrastructure development in the district is at the same stage as it was many years ago. While there is evidence of patchwork jobs being done on roads in a few places, the road network within the district seems to be in poor shape. Though allocations have been made, works to improve several National Highways cutting across this vast constituency are yet to commence in a major way. In the area of social development, Chidambaram, as a national representative of his constituency appears to have fared poorly. Apart from a Kendriya Vidya Bhavan that was recently built because of Chidambaram’s efforts, Sivaganga does not have a single hospital or school of reasonable standard or scale — both essential to any area’s ambitions of development and relative prosperity. To add to Sivaganga’s woes, the region has also seen a recent unravelling of co-operative lending institutions. In 2005, the Sivaganga District Central Co-operative Bank (SDCCB) slipped into financial distress. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed restrictions on SDCCB, restraining it from accepting or renewing deposits that year. “Ordinary farmers depend only on co-operatives for loans. But in Sivaganga the co-operatives have become sick,” says A.R.K. Manikam, district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Vivasayigal (Farmers’) Sangam (Association), in Sivaganga. Of the 124 primary agricultural co-operative banks (PACBs), 95 are not functioning leaving farmers in the lurch, says Manikam. “PACBs are directly linked to farmers’ lives,” he states. The poor health of these co-operatives has been a major sore point in the state and was a hot political potato, with the then Chief Minister Jayalalitha accusing Chidambaram of “hurting people in his own constituency”. While Chidambaram can hardly be blamed for all of this, his standing as one of the country’s most astute finance ministers is a startling paradox to the widespread failure of lending institutions in his own constituency. Still, there is little that Chidambaram can do in a region where the farmer’s fortune depends on seasonal monsoon rains. Recovery, or repayment of loans remains a problem, say officials. Efforts are underway to revive some of these moribund institutions, says N. Sundaram, Chidambaram’s constituency manager, who represents Karaikudi in the state assembly. For instance, the defunct PACB in Alampattu village has been revived, he says, and co-operatives are being given a fresh lease of life by infusing about Rs 200 crore into the SDCCB. The Man And The Minister As a politician, Chidambaram doesn’t come close to the allure of larger-than-life leaders of Tamil Nadu such as an Annadurai or an MGR or even a Jayalalitha. However, his qualities as a simple down-to-earth person have endeared him to his constituents, and his iconic status as finance minister whose advice is sought after by leaders both in the political and business realms make him especially invaluable to Sivaganga. While Chidambaram has won six out of seven elections contested from Sivaganga since 1984, the majority of his victories have come from riding the crest of anti-incumbency, anti-corruption or sympathy waves, rather than on his own merit. The rest of the time he has been forced to forge alliances. His loss in 1999 is significant since he came in a distant third, winning only around 20 per cent of the votes. Many observers suggest that this percentage is his actual core support base and without the help of the major Dravidian parties he would have difficulty winning his seat again. In next few days, Chidambaram will be consumed by all matters pertaining to the presentation of the Union Budget. Still, considering the sobering realities of his electoral vulnerability and the dependence on political alliances, the finance minister would do well to pay more attention to the pressing demands of his constituents for more infrastructure and social development. m.allirajan@abp.in (Businessworld Issue 25 Feb-3 Mar 2008)  