Pathetic state of Airports in India!

Rediff has published an excellent article by Govindraj Ethiraj "On a wing... without a hope!" highlighting the very sorry state of our airports! Everyone (irrespective of whether he would use the airport in the future or not) should read that article! Though I have used Chennai Airport only once, I had very bitter experiences at almost all stages of boarding and deplaning the flight. Immigration official forgot to stamp my passport, the custom officer forgot to handle me some papers (No traveller should be expected to remember these procedures. The officials are after all paid for carrying forward these duties properly) and in the security check, the official failed to manage the crowd properly. Little wonder that frequent travellers have a lot of such bitter experiences, when I, who has used the "facility" called airport just once has so much to lament!

But I simply don't understand, why our netas and babus often go on foreign tours to visit airports, study infrastructure etc, but never come back and implement them. Money is definitely not an issue. It can be mopped up through proper budgeting. They just don't want to improve the facilities. They just want to live a life of heck and don't want to provide better facilities to common men. Just imagine, when public facilities like Roads, Railways, Roadway transports, Airports etc are in such a pathetic condition, how do we intend to be among developed nations in the future, if not the near future?

I guess, as I have said earlier many times, as long as Left is at the Centre, The Government may hesitate to take any positive steps ahead to reform the existing situations. One shining example is that of Foreign Direct Investment in Retail. FDI in retail must have come long back (when countries like China, Malaysia etc opened up their retail trade) and it is already too late here. But still, left doesn't want to allow FDI in retail. I completely don't understand, why they don't have the maturity that even I exhibit? I am sick and tired of shopping in kirana and annachi shops where they dictate the rules more than me (a customer asking for a bargain). I want big shops to be setup, which can in general improve the infrastructure in retail, like international class supply chain management, cold storage, export of surplus Indian goods to countries where demand is high and bring in moolahs to our exchequer. China has greatly benefitted out of this, and figures like $15 billions are quoted to be China's exports in retail just by the top retailers out of China (Walmart, Tesco etc). So Who are these communists who are stopping me from having an international shopping experiences at bargain prices? Don't I have the right to choose whom should I shop at? Why should they dictate? First, UPA should cleanse itself and unfetter itself from the left, call for fresh elections, project themselves better and then emerge single and victorious. Left should be left in the roads. Then, I wish Manmohan and Chidambaram can go ahead and proceed with more reforms. LEFT SUCKS BIG TIME!!