Come to think of it:

Sept 06/2011: Life is so very busy these days that one fails to see the very obvious in day to day affairs. Many complain things are not going in their favor. Others in larger numbers, however, are a happier lot. Happier are those who feel the deal has not been too raw in their share. Both ways, many a simple and mundane issue is lost from vision. And that too at great cost. 

Take for example the case of private hospitals, schools, colleges and such other establishments. The few named and so many others not mentioned are all profit making business bodies. They are mints that work whole time for churning out considerable amounts of wealth for their corporates or inpidual owners. Such are their riches that no one dares find out how and in what manner it is all amalgamated. 

The flip side of the coin is that in states like Orissa, almost all these institutions depend on government largesse. Starting from the most crucial item--land--these organizations have no hesitation to swallow all that the state can give. Apart from land, they demand subsidies in energy, water, municipal taxes and every other conceivable facility that the government could offer. In the name of 'development', the government does dole out benefits. Those are all, one has to remember, at great cost to the tax payer. Sadly, the handing over is usually done in such a manner that once rolled out, these benefits become the permanent assets of those setting up the establishments. The tax payer or his representative, the state, has no further say in the matters of administration, help to the needy or participation in the development of the periphery. 

New industries coming to the state seem to have no obligations to anyone, least of all to the people whose lands and livelihood they rob forever. Those mega projects crush and mutilate any force that demands justice for the people. They rush to Bhubaneswar where there are people waiting patiently and ever willing to lend ears to listen to their woes. But none to bother about the local people of this state who have, forcibly, sacrificed everything for the promotion of a fuming polluting industry. 

Similarly these hospitals, educational establishments and such type enterprises also go scot free once they are given land, the most precious possession, in the middle of growing and extremely valuable urban centers of this state. 

Let us compare what happens in Delhi, for instance. While a well known corporate hospital from the south of India got a huge plot of land for a mere 1 rupee in the national capital, courtesy former Chief Minister late Saheb Singh, yet it was compelled to notify and mark out 15% of its beds that it had to offer free to those indigent but who dared to come there. Not many do. Yet the government has made a provision and the establishment has no means to escape. 

Interestingly, a Delhi Court had ruled, basing on a PIL, that not only a committee formed by parents and civil society will oversee the working of private schools, the institutions will also have to have their accounts audited by an auditor chosen from a panel of professionals that will be nominated by the state government. Further, for transparency the audited balance sheet and profit and loss accounts certified by a state nominated auditor would be put up in the website of that institute. Since the government had delayed in nominating the panel of auditors, in the early part of the first week of September 2011, the Delhi High Court came down heavily on it and has asked that the NCT government give a reply by Sept 08 showing reasons for the delay in taking action. This issue had been raked up due to a phenomenal rise in school fees that private educational institutions imposed on students without informing reasons to parents and guardians. 

This scenario must be sounding so very familiar to the situation prevailing in our State. Not only exorbitant fees that have made schools a profitable business in Orissa, corporate promoted hospitals and even social and voluntary non government organizations have become powers unto themselves. Once they manage government benefits, they do not bother to do anything that would label them as being socially responsible. 

Now it is opportune time that the State Government of Orissa start thinking and acting in lines with what is happening in Delhi. If institutions that have received government benefits in Delhi could be brought under an umbrella of transparency, why not in Orissa. Here, institutes of different natures could come close and instead of waiting for a Court judgement or a whip from the government they could, on their own and from their side, ask for an audit by government. This may not be considered governmental interference in private management as, in the days past, all of us have seen not only deaths of young students that the school managements vehemently deny but also stories of how cadavers were detained for days in hospitals till relatives and friends managed to muster the wealth to pay for the dead man's treatment bills. A clean upbringing could help in matters. While giving land, energy, tax and other such benefits, the government too should start institutionalizing, through the MoU, the idea of independent audits that would make matters totally transparent. Now is the time to start.