STATEMENT ON THE INDIAN ECONOMY 75 India, but also because of the growing evidence of the adverse environmental implications of such a strategy, There has been a continuing degradation of our environment. Apart from illegal felling of trees, many big projects on irrigation, hydel/nuclear power, mining, etc., are taken up without effective scrutiny by the public of the environmental factors or the impact on the local population. Participation of the people in decisions affecting the environment is essential and effective institutional mechanisms have to be designed for this purpose. All of this should be accompanied by a greater degree of decentralization of economic decision making, with an appropriate devolution of financial powers from the Centre to the States and further to local level bodies, so as to further the process of development based on local resources and needs. The ability of the system as a whole to mobilise real resources would be greater, the greater is the effort to begin the process of mobilization from below and return its fruits in the form of the power to design and administer local projects. Finally, the accountability and integrity of the government must be reestablished. This requires an openness in administration and a respect for institutions and constitutional norms. We are at present told too little by the Government about economic realities, and very important decisions, with major implications for the nation's future are reached clandestinely. This must stop. The objective of self reliant development must be reasserted.