Other than the president and the prime minister we should not be obliged to house anyone. Everyone else must live as we do.

One of the reasons why we have officials who are unsympathetic to the travails of ordinary citizens is because they do not have to go through the nightmare of finding affordable accommodation in cities like Delhi and Mumbai. If they did they would understand what real life is like in this country that they like to boast of as the world’s next economic superpower.

They would see the open drains, the uncollected garbage, the state of public amenities and they would quickly discover what a long way we have to go before we become an economic superpower.

So please let us pay them salaries that have parity with the private sector but on the condition that they agree to give up government accommodation. And, on the condition that, as in the private sector, they agree to lose their jobs if they do not perform. For those who deliberately delay major projects we need to do more. They must be made to pay for the delays they cause through the rigmarole of red tape in which they have clothed the simplest procedures.