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Let’s celebrate the Games
Clean chit for Badals |
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Punjab’s mounting debt
Russia losing interest in Iran
Absent-mindedness Unlimited
The district administration is the cutting edge of public administration in India. Of late, the role of the District Collector (or the Deputy Commissioner) has increased manifold. As there are no deadlines in making
various services available to the people, discretion plays a crucial role in public dealings. An in-depth look
Diverse roles, hallmark of a DC’s career
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Let’s celebrate the Games
The spectacular opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Sunday is a signal that the much-awaited event is on in all its splendour and there is, after all the negative publicity, something to cheer about. Doomsday forecasters who have had a free run for weeks, damning every aspect of the Games, have had their say. It is now for the world to enjoy the sporting events as they unfold and for India to draw a measure of pride for hosting it. To deny that there were huge glitches along the way with work on the Games Village stretching right up to hours before the event would be foolhardy. But now we need to look ahead. Much last-minute effort has gone into making the facilities world-class and the Games Village by and large free of plumbing, drainage and electrical problems. Even as we absorb all the scorn that was heaped on the country for the shocking inadequacies in the run-up to the Games and seek to draw lessons from it, let us also stop to listen to positive opinion as expressed by the likes of experienced England badminton player Nathan Robertson when he said on the eve of the opening that “the village quality is very good, the food hall’s excellent — the accommodation is possibly some of the best we’ve stayed in.” Having said all this, there is no denying that there is need for serious introspection after the Games and tough action against those who were responsible for the huge organisational glitches, the substandard material used in construction, and the shoddy workmanship. Corruption has indeed touched endemic proportions in the country and those who made a massive killing on the side must be tracked down and punished. It is small wonder that the cost incurred on the Games ballooned from $100 million when it was awarded in 2003 to $ 6 billion — making it the most expensive Games ever. But first things first. For now Indian competitors must put controversy behind them and focus on doing their best at the Games. Indian security agencies must continue their vigil against possible terror attacks and all sections must cooperate in ensuring that the Commonwealth Games still becomes a showcase event upholding the country’s honour and prestige as an emerging power. |
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Clean chit for Badals
The disproportionate assets case against the Badal family was filed by the then Congress government under Capt Amarinder Singh in 2003. The Punjab Vigilance Bureau had alleged that the Badals owned properties worth Rs 4,326 crore. It moved ahead full steam as long as the Congress was in power. Then there was a U-turn when Mr Parkash Singh Badal came to power in 2007. Witnesses started turning hostile with amazing regularity. Even the senior vigilance officers who investigated the case did not support the prosecution. Finally, the judgement has come, with a special court on Friday exonerating the Chief Minister, his wife Surinder Kaur, son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, along with others. Instead, the court has initiated action against two investigating IPS officers, Inspector-General of Police B.K. Uppal and Superintendent of Police Surinder Pal Singh, who were among the 59 prosecution witnesses who turned hostile, for the probe “fiasco”. Strangely, even the 36 defence witnesses had turned hostile. The Judge has observed that these officers had abdicated their responsibility and duties and, instead of conducting proper investigations, indulged in fabricating false evidence and record. That is a strong indictment, and strengthens the commonly held belief that in Punjab, some of even senior officers are aligned with one party or the other. In the state, it is not uncommon for a party in power to slap cases on the politicians belonging to the Opposition to settle scores or to just cause harassment. The table turns when the rival party comes to power. The judgement specifically mentions that “had the case been investigated by these officers properly – it would not have ended in (a) fiasco”. The value of the clean chit given by the court would have increased considerably had the investigation been handled in a more credible manner. |
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Punjab’s mounting debt
Punjab is heading towards a debt trap. The successive governments have accumulated a debt of Rs 71,000 crore. The government pays an annual interest of Rs 8,000 crore on this loan. A former Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, raised the issue in the Assembly on Friday and wanted to know why the state debt had risen so fast to the present level when he had left the government three years ago with a loan burden of Rs 48,000 crore. The state also got saddled with a massive debt for fighting Pakistan-backed militancy. It is well known that when in power both the Akali Dal-BJP combine and the Congress contributed to the economic deterioration of the state and slowdown of its growth. Displaying reckless economic indiscipline, the present Akali-BJP government has all along followed populist, please-all policies, handing out liberal subsidies, not levying taxes when required, not trimming the bloated top-heavy administration, not reducing VIP security and crippling boards and corporations by loading them with political supporters. Political profligacy has bled the state white. When Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal suggested an eminently sensible way out of the debt trap, no one in the House came forward to support him. It is one thing to express concern, but quite another to take the issue head-on and tackle it. The Centre is willing to absorb almost half of the present debt of Rs 71,000 crore if the state government accepts certain conditions aimed at sorting out the present financial mess and introducing fiscal discipline. The conditions include cutting power and water subsidies, introducing property tax, auditing of the local bodies by CAG and raising urban development income. The Punjab MLAs greeted the proposal with silence. A bitter medicine is sometimes good for the patient’s long-term health. People may not mind fresh taxes as much if the Punjab leaders do some belt-tightening and undertake austerity measures. If Punjab has to set its financial house in order, this is a rare chance. |
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If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.
— George Orwell |
Russia losing interest in Iran
An announcement in Moscow on September 22 that Russia was pulling out of an arms supply contract with Iran may be treated as a signal of the beginning of a tectonic shift in the international security architecture in West Asia or even a much wider area. Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev decreed and armed forces chief of staff General Nikolai Makarov announced that the sale of S-300 air defence system units to Iran was off. Not only the S-300s deal was cancelled, exports of weaponry like battle tanks, warplanes, combat helicopters, high-calibre artillery, warships to Iran were prohibited. Such reneging on a formal contract by the Russian leadership has astonished many serving and retired military officers inside Russia itself and incensed the Iranians. The apprehension now is that Russia is moving to the American-Israeli camp. Russia thought it advisable to dishonour the 800-million dollar contract for the supply of S-300s to Iran even if such a step meant forfeiture of one-half of the money and blackening its own face as an unreliable friend. In Washington the White House was exhilarated. An official statement said: “This continues to demonstrate how Russia and the United States are cooperating closely on behalf of our mutual interests and global security.” Global security in this context, of course, means Iran’s insecurity. S-300 missiles are defensive weapons. They are designed to protect large administrative areas, bases and control points against aerial attacks. They are no more effective than shooting down incoming aircraft and missiles at ranges of 150 kilometres at altitudes up to about 27,000 metres. With unconcealed US support and defiance of a UN Charter obligation, Israel is on a daily basis threatening Iranian nuclear installations with aerial attacks. As a protective measure, Teheran thought it necessary to boost its defence capacity by acquiring batteries of mobile S-300s. The contract with Russia was signed three years ago and at least a few of the S-300s should have been in Iranian hands by the beginning of 2010. The Iranian leadership is understandably livid. Defence Minister General Ahmad Vahidi said that Russia seemed to be caving in to international pressure. He challenged Russia to prove that it was independent in deciding its stand in international relations. The allegation of a deficit in Russia’s independent decision-making is not without basis. The White House statement contained an admission of ongoing cooperation between Russia and the US on global security issues. How did this cooperation between the parties to the long Cold War not so long ago come about? There may be a multiplicity of reasons but one of them is very clear. The Russians have bowed before plain blackmail. Two years ago, Georgia, once a constituent republic of the Soviet Union and Stalin’s homeland, now an independent state, was manipulated by the US and Israel into mounting an attack on the disputed territory of South Ossetia leading to a brief war with Russia. While the Americans looked after the diplomatic aspect of this provocative enterprise, the Israelis provided training to the Georgian army and supplied war equipment like drones. This burst of violence was a message to Moscow that if it did not stop selling munitions to Iran there might be grave troubles on Russia’s frayed Caucasian fringes. Moscow points to UN sanctions against Iran as the reason for reneging on the S-300 contract. But the fourth and latest round of the UN sanctions on Iran came in June while Iran’s impatience with Russia’s back-pedalling on the agreement was public as early as February. Significantly, President Medvedev’s annulment of the S-300 agreement with Iran was preceded by a secret visit of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to Moscow which could not be kept a secret. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was also in Moscow about the same time, signing with his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov the first-ever agreement between the two countries for military cooperation. Serdyukov talked expansively of a “transition to a new image” which would facilitate Russian purchase of Israeli weapons and technology. Perhaps, more alarmingly to Iran, Syria, the Hezbollah in Lebanon and a newly assertive Turkey too, the Barak-Serdyukov agreement also provides for intelligence data-sharing. Russia has already purchased from Israel a dozen drones. These pilotless attack aircraft of the type the Americans are using with deadly effect in Pakistan’s north-west tribal areas must have impressed the Russians as good killer machines they should also have. They did not trust their rusty weapons-making factories to make them and decided that buying them from Israel was a more reliable option. Igor Yurgens,, head of the Institute of Contemporary Development, a Russian think tank, has a foreboding that Russia may soon be importing from Israel as much as 30 per cent of the weapons and equipment the Russian armed forces need. Forces are also at work trying to integrate Russia with the Euro-Atlantic security alliance — NATO. Where do all these developments and possibilities leave Iran? The root of its current international problem is in the widespread suspicion about the aims of its nuclear enrichment facilities. Unfortunately for Iran, it does not have many friends in today’s world. On merit, its case on what is called its “nuclear ambitions” is very strong. Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, has consistently denied that it wants to develop nuclear weapons and has even proposed many times that the Middle-East should be a nuclear-free zone. But Israel and the US are constantly dinning into the world’s ears that the Iranians are making the bomb. They have not been able to show any proof of their allegation nor has the International Atomic Energy Agency found any evidence of prohibited activity. Yet the UN Security Council has allowed itself to be swayed by the unsubstantiated propaganda into clamping more and more sanctions on Iran. At the same time, the Americans also had no difficulty in mustering enough votes at the IAEA’s annual conference to defeat an Arab-sponsored resolution calling for Given the unfailing American backing of Israel and the precedent of the crippling of an experimental reactor at Ossirak in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq by Israeli war planes in 1981, Iran understandably has to do all it can to protect its nuclear facilities. Perhaps, the Islamic Republic has already got the capacity to deter any Israeli attack. S-300s could have made Iranian air defence impenetrable. Iran is trying to keep up a brave front. It is saying that the Chinese have the technology and will supply them S-300s — albeit a certain inferior variety — and Iranian weapons factories are also likely to produce one day, sooner than later, those looked-for
missiles. |
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Absent-mindedness Unlimited
Some of us have totally lost it. We have little time for ourselves and even less for our loved ones. We go about life as if we are so pressed for time that the world would fall apart if we paused to think. One fallout of this sense of totally unlimited urgency is that we have become forgetful to the core. In a tizzy at all times, we keep on losing things, forgetting appointments and naming people wrongly. When we were young, this proneness to being absent minded was associated with the really elderly. Today, we not-so-elderly people are even more susceptible to the problem. I for one have the tendency to call acquaintances named ‘Suresh’ as ‘Saurabh’ and those named ‘Vikram’ as ‘Akshay’. I have noticed though that it is easier to remember names of the female variety. The reasons for this variant to the phenomenon are not yet known. I also tend to forget meetings and appointments unless the mobile phone reminds me of them. There are times when one has to cut a sorry figure at not having reached the venue of an important rendezvous. Remembering birthdays and anniversaries is entirely out of the question. Websites like Facebook and Geni serve as important aides in such situations. Predictably, my wife is not pleased at my forgetfulness but she’s not much better herself so I get away lightly on most occasions! This malaise of absentmindedness has reached such alarming levels in our society that people leave behind mobile phones in taxis and train compartments by the hundreds. One has also heard of wallets, purses, lighters, pens, pen-drives and even laptops being discovered in restaurants by waiters who clear the tables. A friend of mine tends to look extra busy with multiple communication devices bulging out of his pockets at all times. He recently staked a claim for the absentmindedness award of the year when he met me for lunch at a restaurant. So caught up was he with all sorts of calls and emails to attend to that he put a sandwich in his pocket at some moment and noticed it only while leaving. The soggy eatable had messed up his pants to telling effect. The resultant peels of my laughter are probably reverberating inside his head even today. Another glaring faux pas occurred one day when a few families travelled together for a holiday and had much fun. So boisterous was the mood and so numerous the number of children in tow that two kids who were busy watching TV got left behind on the return journey. Their parents thought that they were in another car and it was only when the group stopped for a meal along the highway that the lapse was noticed. A recently returned cheque took the cake, however. The signatory had wanted to present his granddaughter a largish amount to mark his 75th birthday but instead of affixing the current date he wrote the ancient year of his birth on the cheque. The error was noticed when the bank’s advice arrived in the mail. It simply said ‘The date appears to be erroneous’. |
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The district administration is the cutting edge of public administration in India. Of late, the role of the District Collector (or the Deputy Commissioner) has increased manifold. As there are no deadlines in making
various services available to the people, discretion plays a crucial role in public dealings. An in-depth look The liberalisation of economy and growing participation of private sector in health, education and other sectors has not diminished the government’s role in public governance. On the contrary, this role has increased in several ways. The high economic growth rate, security concerns and new development programmes have thrown up novel challenges and enhanced the district administration’s role. In a democratic set-up, besides the political party in power, the legislature, the judiciary and the media also make considerable impact on the style of governance of a state, including the district administration. The people have increasingly become assertive and want services at the click of a button. The Right to Information Act has empowered citizens to obtain various types of information from the government. Thus, the district administration will have to be efficient, people-friendly and accountable. The Deputy Commissioner or District Collector or District Magistrate, generally an IAS officer, is the head of the district administration and the state government’s principal spokesman in the district. Besides being the head of the land revenue administration, he looks after law and order (along with police authorities), supervises several welfare and development programmes and disaster management and coordinates the activities of different departments. The 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution have led to the formation of municipal bodies and Panchayati Raj Institutions as third-tier of governance at the local level. They have powers to handle developmental activities and thus play a crucial role in public governance at local levels. The district administration provides a large number of services to the people according to well defined rules and guidelines. Some of these services relate to land records, ration cards, PDS, driving licenses, arms licenses, registration of documents, certificates of birth and death, registration of vehicles and sales tax. These are broadly classified as regulatory functions. As there are no fixed deadlines for these services, often discretion plays a significant role in public dealings. The number of citizens seeking such services has been increasing with time and dealing with large numbers has become a major task. The most effective way of dealing with such services is to use information and communication technologies (ICT) extensively and to simplify forms and procedures. This calls for an elaborate administrative re-engineering and well-defined pre-requisites and checklist so that no official has any discretion to reject or seek additional information. For every service, time schedule should be fixed. Several states and enthusiastic officials have tried to improve the delivery system. Huge investments have also been made, but the ICT's utilisation is not up to the mark. Quite often, such reforms have remained person-specific and are not adopted by the system. In short, e-governance and administrative reforms must be brought to the centerstage of public governance. To make reforms sustainable, the relevant rules should be amended. South Africa has enacted a law for the introduction of ICT in government. The Centre and the states, too, could enact a law for time-bound delivery of services. Another major function of the district administration is to supervise, monitor and facilitate implementation of a large number of development and social welfare programmes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the National Rural Health Mission and the Sarva Shikshya Abhiyan with large allocations. Their effective implementation requires elaborate planning, continuous monitoring and supervision. The Deputy Commissioners and other senior officers spend a lot of time on such programmes, sometimes at the cost of regulatory functions. The existing administrative structures are unable to cope with the demands of programmes most of which require, at the operational level, young and dynamic persons with technical skill-sets according to the programme’s needs. There is a need for professionalising personnel management for effective programme implementation. Disaster management has now acquired high priority. To meet emergencies, the district administration has to remain in a state of preparedness at all times. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) with pin-pointed responsibility are required. While there is increased participation of gram panchayats in the implementation of a number of programmes, they do not have a single full-time official. Normally, there is Gram Sachiv for a group of panchayats. There is need for a multi-skilled general-purpose official for every panchayat to help handle all paper work properly and fix responsibility. The role of the police is crucial for maintaining law and order, especially in the context of security issues. There is a dire necessity for building credible intelligence system and for improving public-police relationship. The first step in this direction is to have a system for hassle-free registration of first information report (FIR) and winning the people’s trust and confidence. The Deputy Commissioner’s role has been the subject of considerable scrutiny. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission has suggested that he/she should handle regulatory administration and law and order and coordinate the activities and programmes of various departments at the district level. Irrespective of the democratisation of the local bodies, the DC would continue to play a pivotal role at the district level. Redress of public grievances should be given top priority and effective IT- enabled monitoring system should be introduced. Sometimes, grievances also provide valuable information about the functioning of government agencies. The officers, especially the DCs and SPs, should be easily accessible to the public. They must tour rural areas, see how department(s) are performing and listen to the public. This would help them build a healthy relationship with the public and take more informed decisions and not to go by the advice of their junior officials only. The writer, a former Chief Secretary of Haryana, is currently the State Election Commissioner, Haryana |
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Diverse roles, hallmark of a DC’s career THE district is a crucial area of administration where the people look up to the District Magistrate for redressal of their grievances. In this capacity he has to perform functions relating to revenue, criminal administration and development. While performing duties in the three areas, the district head is generally called the Collector, District Magistrate and Deputy Commissioner respectively. Every IAS officer looks forward to his posting as District Magistrate because this is one of the most challenging, satisfying and learning experiences of his career where he can do a lot of good for the people. It is like a laboratory where he can experiment with his ingenuity and see the results himself. Easily said, no IAS officer is complete without his experience as District Magistrate. So much so, the understanding and experience of working in a district is of paramount importance for his performance in the latter part of his career, as Administrative Secretary to the Government. With the passage of time, the duty as the development head of the district is becoming more and more pronounced because of the vast panorama of the development schemes launched by the government. The Deputy Commissioners are becoming more and more absorbed in development planning and execution of such schemes in their districts. And yet, there are a number of other important and arduous but interesting duties to be performed. Take a typical district like Karnal situated midway between Chandigarh and Delhi. It is an ideal spot to halt and refresh oneself. Besides, the district is quite famous for shopping many things like basmati rice, handlooms, shoes/chappals and dairy products. It also has a number of places for sightseeing. However, the district head need not go around in the district for this purpose as it is invariably done while accompanying important visitors. It also takes care of the inspections which he can carry out side by side. Another duty to be performed by him is to train young civil and police officers posted in the district. It is here that you can mould an officer into a good or a bad officer and the district training forms the foundation thereof. If the DC takes interest in the training, he can assign any number of duties to the young officers. Most of them are enthusiastic and bristling with confidence but sometimes their over-enthusiasm creates problems as well. There was a young officer who wanted to put an end to eve-teasing. He went in civil clothes to a pan shop. While a girl was passing by, a person standing at the pan shop asked for a cold drink. The language used was such that it was misunderstood by the young police officer. So, he promptly arrested the man on grounds of eve-teasing and soon thereafter, in protest, the shutters of the entire market were brought down. The Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police had a hard time in getting the matter sorted out. As the Deputy Commissioner of Karnal, I got installed the first community biogas plant in Haryana. But non-availability of sufficient gobar (cow-dung) was a problem. It required full-time supervision to arrange regular supplies of gobar. We looked around and found a young officer who was undergoing training in the district. He was immediately despatched to the village and was told in a lighter vein that his performance was, among other things, going to be judged by the amount of gobar he could arrange for the plant. Arranging matrimonial alliances also sometimes falls in the lap of the district head not only for the weaker sections like the deserted women of Mahila Ashrams and short stay homes but also for those who do not have their parents’ blessings. There was the case of a young boy and a girl whose marriage was got solemnised by the Superintendent of Police at the police station because their parents were unwilling. Soon thereafter, a room was booked for them in the tourist complex for their honeymoon. Or take the case of an unmarried probationer for whom we had to answer so many matrimonial queries from various quarters. Ultimately, a meeting was arranged between the probationer and the prospective in-laws and all the arrangements regarding the marriage were finalised. Accidents on GT Road are, by no means, uncommon. They are indeed unfortunate. However, this also leads to close acquaintance and long lasting friendship with a variety of people. There was the case of a tragic accident in which the driver of the Government vehicle of Himachal Pradesh died on the spot. The Financial Commissioner and his family who were in the vehicle, however, escaped unhurt and we looked after them in the hospital and the rest house. He remembered this gesture throughout his career. If your district happens to have a number of good astrologers or palm-readers, the district gains its importance and invariably you have to arrange private interviews for important people. As the district head, one needs to respect the sentiments of the people and involve himself fully in the events happening in the district. After a major fire accident, the day before Diwali in which a number of people died, after consoling their bereaved families and arranging for their funerals, we, too, did not celebrate Diwali. Every day in the district brings fresh events and experience to light and it is one of the most vital and challenging assignments that an officer gets in his career. On the completion of the district tenure, one gets immense satisfaction if he successfully steered his district and left his mark there. The writer is the Home Secretary, Government of Haryana |
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THE district administration has a unique role in the entire gamut of public governance and administration. It is the government’s principal set-up in districts with a direct interface with the public, and which is responsible for providing most government services to them as well as for implementing government programmes and schemes.