When Phoolan Devi gunned down 20-odd people in Behmai in 1981, it took the administration 24 hours to reach the village. In Nainital district, the ill have to be carried 18 km on a cot to the nearest health centre in the absence of roads. Large sections of the population routinely hike 12-13 km to access basic services. Many rural women die while giving birth and lakhs of children perish because of lack of access to emergency treatment facilities.

Most of the intense rural poverty is also attributable to remoteness.

Roads bring the outside world to the poor's door, they also carry him there. A good road network increases people's access to social services. More pertinent, from the point of view of the economic underclass, is that roads increase the poor farmer's access to markets for both selling his produce and procuring seeds, fertiliser and technology.

Why talk of just roads? Lack of basic communication services prompts a rural outflow to towns and cities, leading to overcrowding and pressure on the already straining civic administration. Who doesn't know the "money-order economies" of Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Orissa?

Power situation is bad enough in large cities including the national capital. In the towns of Bihar, Orissa and some other states, power is a luxury that gets delivered once in a blue moon. Large pockets of population in the country live in permanent darkness after the sun goes down.

And this when we have not even begun to touch upon the havoc lack of infrastructure plays with our industries and advancement in agriculture.