People participation to be crux of P4 success

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has been pitching for P4 model for speedy development of Andhra Pradesh. But what is P4 model? It certainly is not any kind of magic wand to usher in development. It requires serious participation by people willing to play vital role in developing the state for the benefit of their future generations and it needs to be done on large scale and in shortest possible time since the state needs to repair and reconstruct the state from the exploitation that took place when YSRCP was in power between 2019 to 2024.

‘P4’ stands for Public, Private, People, and Partnership and it can bring in happiness and the well-being of every family, which would ultimately help society and make it zero poverty state,` the Chief Minister strongly believes. Well some of his detractors have been making fun of the P4 model but what needs to be remembered is there was lot of criticism when Naidu came up with his vision 2020 document during late 1990s. But now when the results are clearly visible in regard to development of Hyderabad as a global city, people keep praising that vision of Naidu, Hyderabad has become a global city and has gone into auto gear mode. To implement vision 2020, Naidu opted for P3 model, ‘Public Private Partnership.’ Now he has added people’s participation as well.

But then how is P4 different from P3? The best example of P4 model is the biggest land pooling exercise that was taken up during the TDP regime in 2014-2019 where the government in shortest possible time succeeded in acquiring 33000 acres of land for construction of Amravati capital city. People voluntarily came forward to part with their land for future development and benefits. In lieu, the government offered them some short term and long benefits.

For every acre or 4,840 square yards of wet farming land on the banks of Krishna river, a residential plot of about 1,000 square yards and commercial plot of 450 square yards would be given. In the case of dry agricultural land, the size of the commercial plot would be smaller at 250 square yards. In addition, the government agreed to pay an annual rent of Rs 50,000 per acre of wet farmland and Rs 30,000 per acre of dry land. This rent, with a 10% increase annually, was set to continue for 10 years from the date of entering the pooling scheme.

Such participation by people reduces the burden on the government to spend huge amount of money on acquiring land. The Centre would pitch in by giving necessary funds both as grants and loans of which the state government will have to repay only 10 percent of the loan amount and centre would take on the burden of the remaining 90%. The private sector can play a major role in the development of the capital city by setting up industries which in turn can generate direct and indirect employment. This would result in greater wealth generation and improve the quality of life of people.

This is just an example of how P4 model can be a successful model. This type of model can be replicated in many other areas including education and health sectors and can help in achieving the sustainable growth. The intentions are certainly appreciable. What is required is to see that people understand such concepts. The major threat in this direction is some opposition parties like YSRCP who have myopic view and believe in politics of destruction and suppression who could utilise their social media platforms to spread wrong and negative information.

In fact it is high time, the Centre too comes up with some strict rules and norms where those spreading false and baseless information on social media could be punished. Technology should be used for betterment of human life and society not to pollute it.