Promises not honoured

Issues are debated in the Parliament and in State Assemblies. Representatives of people ask questions and the concerned ministers are supposed to provide replies. This is all within the ambit of democratic process. The purpose of this entire exercise is to give inputs to the Government for running the administration along correct and justifiable lines. There are occasions when the ministers make commitments and promises of setting the wrong right or executing a new but urgent project of remedying an irregularity etc.  The accepted norm is that the promises made and assurances given on the floor of the house have constitutional sanctity and have to be honoured by the Government because these measures are in the interests of the people of the State.
The question is whether the promises made and assurances given are fulfilled in letter and in spirit by the concerned departments and in time. Who is to monitor the subject and in what way is the question. In order to give the measure teeth, we have the House Committee on Assurances constituted by the Legislature. This Committee is supposed to conduct survey of the implementation part of the promises and assurances by the departments concerned. The Committee has tabled its report for the period March 2006 to February 2017 and has found that in utter disregard of the established rules nearly 478 promises and assurances made by the ministers remain unfulfilled till date. Most of these promises were made in reply to the questions asked by the members of the Assembly. We have a copy of the detailed department-wise breakup of the promises and assurances made by the ministers for the above mentioned period that have remained unfulfilled. Owing to paucity of space we are not able to reproduce the entire litany of figures. However, just one example will show the extent to which the matter is treated very casually by the concerned departments.  From March 2006 to February 2017, there are 70 such commitments pertaining to the Home Department, which were made by the Chief Minister of that time but not fulfilled so far.
What is the impact of not honouring the promises and assurances? In democracy, people are the best and the ultimate judges of the performance by the Governments. No Government in a democratic dispensation can take the people for granted and incumbency syndrome is always hanging like a sword on the head of the Government and the elected members. People dislike the ministers making promises which they are unable to fulfil. The darkest aspect of floundering these promises and assurances is that they pertain to very sensitive issues that are very close to the heart of the people. Recruitment, waiver of age bars, ex-gratia relief, financial assistance to victims of calamities and militancy, medical aid to people suffering with fatal diseases etc. are the subjects that cannot wait and must be resolved within shortest possible time.
This is not a healthy state of affairs. The question is why the ministers should make a commitment if they know that they cannot fulfil it at the end of the day. The ministers should, therefore, give up the habit of making elusive and unrealizable commitments and spare the people the trauma of long expectations and ultimate despair.

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