WEAK BOTTOM AND HEAVY TOP

Why and how does the system fail to deliver goods very often of late? Law and order is no exception to this bizarre development. The less said the better in terms of internal security, more specifically with extensive coverage and endangering threats to local citizens and foreign nationals residing in any part of the country from outfits such as naxalites and terrorists both from within and from across the borders. What a frequency and how stunning the way the things are unfurling day by day? Hardly a month passes without any major outbursts of violence and deaths caused in some major centre or other. The whole nation shivers at passing of each fortnight or month because anything can happen to anyone anywhere in any ways.

Intelligence gathered properly or otherwise in the field, villages, towns, district, state, metros and forwarded to higher-ups in the HQrs is often dealt with routinely and passed on to the users and decision makers from time to time methodically mainly to fill up the gaps or justify their existence. Looking to the usage of their data over a period of time the gathering functionaries take their jobs not very seriously. Such a to and fro communication loses its significance or validity invariably leading to a situation wherin both the levels lose sight of an emergency and fail to deliver the service for which they have been engaged and employed by the government. Similar is a position obtaining with the intelligence agencies of defence forces and Intelligence Bureau within India as well as Research and Analysis Wing meant for external intelligence across the borders and foreign countries.

Data Collection, scrutiny, assessment, and communication to layers both vertical and horizontal have not been streamlined and standardised from the point of view of its utility in the ultimate analysis. Reliability and accountability warranting action in the short as well as long run are also found wanting unfortunately. Terror attacks in Mumbai on 26th November 2009 are a grim reminder of such a situation prevailing in the country. It is no doubt a great eye-opener to those in charge of internal security. They have learnt at last, but of course at a heavy cost, the fact that there is a terrible mismatch or lack of requisite coordination between defence personnel and civil authorities on the one hand and similarly within the civil hierarchy among the different agencies being the equals in rank and discipline.

Over the years i.e. three-four decades down the line in the administration of the country the best in the All India Services reach and occupy the very top positions in the government of India at Delhi purely on the basis of CR dossiers cleverly and consciously built up over the years by the careerists while the most deserving and devoted or committed to their conscience and Constitution of India, genuinely interested in selfless service of the people are shunted badly and sidelined on some flimsy, rather fabricated or discriminated ground which goes unnoticed in the public domain. The action and decision of some selfish heads of state governments and their yes men / henchmen is, more often than not, challenged rarely by the regulators or the adjudicating authorities. Who is to check this trend and encourage or ensure the posting of such real and able leaders / individuals to the top positions in Delhi? If such a trend is not achieved in the near future, the third-ratters would certainly continue to rule the roost for a long time.

It is rather strange that only the political executives namely the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Maharashtra Chief Minister Deshmukh and his Home minister R.R.Patil have been sacked while none of the officials from PMO, Union Home Ministry, Defence Ministry nor from State PHQ or Secretariat have been touched or rebuked for their commissions and omissions. No action or less action or late action or no-action at the field has been investigated or commented upon openly till date. Absence of coordination and support from various quarters was pitiably manifested during the crisis period – every responsible official found busy with his evening programmes as usual. It indeed reflects the inherent qualities of the career-oriented individuals rather than those of duty-conscious or motivated personnel to public calls.

The latest and the best example is the way the “the most wanted list” of fugitives residing across the border in Pakistan was made at Delhi by the responsible officials and handed over to the Pakistan officials for expatriation.

Poverty List

The politicians and the economists in India are unable to decide and define the poverty criterion satisfactorily and scientifically so far, although the reason is not at dispute. Probably it is easier to define the richness of an Indian citizen or household than to determine the criterion of poverty. Despite pressure from the Supreme Court on the Planning Commission and the Union Government, the latter is not in a position to answer the question on the poverty line and nature of destitution prevalent in the country at present and the steps taken by the governments to address them. Rather the Union Cabinet on Thursday May 19, 2011 cleared the BPL (Below Poverty Line) census to identify the country’s poor while asking the Ministry of Rural Development to consult National Advisory Council member N.C.Saksena on certain criteria for exclusion of people from the poverty list. It means the cabinet was in a hurry to permit census without laying down the guidelines on poverty definition due to differing views expressed on the subject by the ministers. Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia is practically unprepared and helpless in this regard. That means the UPA’s cabinet supposed to be committed for ‘aam admi’ (common man) and headed by Dr Manmohan Singh has not been in a position to clearly define BPL for the last 6-7 years. But several thousand crores of rupees have been doled out in the name of the poor under various schemes so far.

One is not aware as to how much of a sum would be spent on BPL census both in urban and rural areas. We are just through a decennial comprehensive population census at a colossal sum of money. Now again another census! Another announcement is still more damaging i.e the census be used to enumerate castes to collect figure of OBCs for the first time which they probably failed to do in population census. OBC’s leaders have welcomed this decision but generally speaking it is a regressive step in the country’s development because we are supposed to move away from a caste-ridden society to a progressive caste-less society. Unfortunately in the name of castes we are dividing the Indian society further and more, even after 64 years of independence, to create tension and misunderstanding between the people. The best course would be to select the economically backward sections or individuals and help them in several ways.

Long Wait for Govt. Jobs?

The number of the applicants who registered their names and kept alive on the live register in the state of Tamil Nadu as on March 31, 2011 are about 67 lakhs including 36 lakhs women. The number of post-graduates stood at 3 lakhs. In the last quarter (October-December) of the year 2010 only 7096 persons could be placed as against the fresh registration of 92,959 during the same period. A random enquiry from the applicants reveals that almost 40-50 per cent of them are already employed in the private sector but the reason for the renewal of their registration for years is to get a government job – may be due to the attraction of security of the job and the surety of the full and fair pay.

But then what is the big use of keeping an entire machinery of National Employment Service? - just meant to register only the aspirants and being unable to serve as the sole source of employment to govt. jobs both in the central and state governments as well as the public undertakings except of course for recruitment to All India Services through U.P.S,C and class One services for state governments through State P.S.Cs.

The Directorate General of Employment and Training, New Delhi had directed the employment exchanges in the country to sponsor candidates @ 5:1 to the vacancies notified by the employers till the year 1983 but due to the initiative taken by the Directorate of Employment and Training, Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh headed by the undersigned, the DGE&T revised the formula and enabled the agency to sponsor as many as 20 candidates to every one vacancy reported by the employers. But the heavy load of aspirants is ever on the increase due to the old policy being followed by Tamil Nadu Government for the state government offices and their establishments.

It at all this employment service is to serve as not only a registering authority but also a recruiting agency, it should be made compulsory for all the employers both in the private and public sector to notify their vacancy to the exchanges first and utilize the service for obtaining the lists @ 20:1 before advertising in the media. The names of those applicants who got two chances of sponsoring to two different employers could be deleted from the live register so that the balance list could be a manageable one.  Only a few exceptions could however be granted from such compulsory notification by the Governments as and when necessary. Or else the government can wind up this net-work service and entrust the work of registration to some other wing of government already under-utilised.

B.P.L and the Planning Commission

As is true of many other aspects in Indian administration, the definition of the people living below the poverty line (BPL) is still elusive and unrealistic. No wonder the Supreme Court of India has expressed its displeasure over the Planning Commission for its inability to guage and define the real and practical definition of BPL families in the country. Many welfare schemes of the Government of India and state governemnts have been formulated and taken up for execution by the authorities on the basis of such a definition given by the Commission. Unfortunately a near total chaos prevails all over and the planning apparatus has no time to do the needful on its own without an order from the Apex`Court.

For instance the Public Distribution System of cereals and other foodstuff through the Fair Price Shops is based on such a definition. Lack of proper definition has led to all sorts of malpractices like black-marketing, hoarding and smuggling. The present definition of BPL namely Rs 20 per head in urban areas and Rs 15 per head in rural areas (2100 calories and 2400 calories per capita per day in urban and rural areas respectively) is nowhere comparable to the real situation in the present day context. Hence the announcement by the central government on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 to release some Five Million tonnes of wheat in two weeks from government godowns to prevent starvation deaths and malnutrition.  

Lokpal Bill

After hanging fire in the air for the last 40 years, the so called Lokpal bill is likely to see the light of the day and thankfully going to be implemented due to the initiative and leadership provided by Sri Anna Hazare, a Gandhian from Maharashtra in the form of a hunger strike unto death. Sri Anna Hazare otherwise known for his crusade against corruption in the State of Maharashtra seized the right moment to fight against corruption in the form of a demand to introduce and pass the Lokpal Bill as defined and expected by the Civil society headed by him. The country is badly shaken up and the conscience of the well wishers of Indian democracy has been hurt by a series of scandals and scams unearthed by the Supreme Court of India through C.B.I. It had also created an opportune moment for Hazare and others to take the lead at this juncture.

Although the Government of India has inducted 5 Central Ministers as members of the newly formed Joint Committee entrusted with the framing of the Lokpal Bill, the other 5 members of the joint committee from civil society viz., father-son duo of Bhushans, Santhosh Hegde (Lokayukta of Karnataka State), Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare himself are facing criticism on their past behaviour/deeds in their respective fields. Well, one can dent holes in others' integrity and conduct in some way or other. One shouldn't deviate attention from the main goal of appointing a decent but powerful Lokpal to instil fear in the minds of both political executives and permanent executives at higher levels and ensure punitive action of the highest order in the shortest possible time.