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Apr 06, 2007

Jharkhand women gain self-reliance with poultry farming

Seelam (Jharkhand), Apr 6: Women of Seelam village in Jharkhand's Gumla District have set an example for their rural counterparts by becoming self-reliant.

This has happened with the support of Mahila Mandal, a self-help motivating group.

Established in 2000, the group initiated poultry farming in the village. It mobilised a group 16 enterprising women who have now become a household name in the village.

On identifying their potential, Pradhan, a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) collaborated and helped them with loans from banks to go ahead with lucrative projects.

Apart from incentives, each woman was provided with a loan of rupees 10,000. And since then, the quality of life index of the villagers has changed.

Unemployed youth of the village today have a job. They no more need to worry about migrating elsewhere in search of greener pastures.

"Financial condition has improved. We are sending our children to good schools with an aim to provide them good education. Our standard of living has also changed. We are very happy. Earlier, we had to go to Delhi and Himachal Pradesh to work but now we stay in the village and are engaged in poultry farming," said Sunita Devi, member of Mahila Mandal.

Women have set up poultry farms where each of them has at least 300 birds. The Mahila Mandal has installed machines and engrossed even the men folk who prepare feed for chicken.

"We prepare good quality feed for the chicken," said Vandna Bilung, Co-ordinator of Mahila Mandal.

The village women earn about rupees 3,000 to 4,000 per month from poultry farming products. And, almost every household engaged in poultry farming have a television set and life insurances in their names.

"One woman earns at least rupees 2,000 to 3,000 in a month. Even when one works hard, there is earning up to rupees 4, 000," said Dr. Pankaj Das, Advisor of Pradhan.

These women also visit various poultry farms where they demonstrate the usage of vaccine and healthy breeding procedures.

The chickens and eggs are sent to Ranchi, Jamshedpur and many other places. Beyond Jharkhand, these poultry products have a ready market in Chhattisgarh and often as far as Nepal.

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/131435.php/Jharkhand-women-gain-self-reliance-with
-poultry-farming

Training to bolster tribal youth bombs

Ranchi, April 5: Unbelievable, but true. Only 10 youths qualified in the state civil services examination and 12 became clerks after the Jharkhand government drained around Rs 70 lakh for over five years to train Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Scheduled Caste (SC) aspirants!

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reveals that of the 320 students enrolled in the pre-examination training centre run by the government at the Tribal Welfare Research Institute (TWRI) between 2002 and 2005, only 27 qualified for various jobs. Worse, the centre could not fill up all the seats every year. In 2004, it had only 14 students against 25 seats.

The report shows that huge funds available for the tribal students were either being frittered away or not being used fruitfully.

Out of the Rs 2.08 crore available during 2001-06 for pre-examination coaching, the government spent Rs 66.29 lakh (32 per cent only). The funds were tripled from Rs 22.48 lakh in 2002 to Rs 64.33 lakh in 2005-06, but the utilisation declined from 68 per cent to 22 per cent. The reason for the under-utilisation of funds was due to poor performance in meeting the target, the report stated.

Under the scheme, enrolment of ST girl students was 30 per cent during 2002-05 but the percentage of successful ST girl students in 2003-04 was 19 per cent.

The state government's poor execution of various schemes aimed at improving the representation of SC/STs in government jobs, and thereafter perpetuating the reservation policy, might aptly justify the Supreme Court's remarks that the Constitutional privilege was being used as vote bank.

Ironically, TWRI director Prakash Oraon attributed the poor performance of the centre to the attitude of tribal students.

Beni Ekka, the director of Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), pointed out the difference of attitude between general and SC/ST students as one of the reasons behind the dismal performance of the centre. The lecture method of teaching could also be blamed for the students not coming out in flying colours, he added.

The state government, two years after the scheme bombed, has decided to hand over the pre-examination coaching centres to private agencies and non-governmental organisations.

Welfare secretary N.N. Sinha said the centre performed poorly owing to lack of experts and irrelevant courses.

Seven other schemes launched to enable the SC/ST students to pursue their education and get jobs were also far from effective. Pre-matric scholarship scheme, post-matric scholarship scheme, book bank scheme, coaching facilities, hostels, cycles, computers and uniforms have failed to enthuse the SC/ST students, the report stated.

A sample scrutiny said that no student succeeded in secondary examination during 2001-02 from the ST Residential School, Dumka.

In Dhanbad, Dumka and Ranchi districts, five hostels for 450 students were occupied by lady constables and police pickets evens as a few hostels were overcrowded.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070406/asp/jamshedpur/story_7613255.asp

Woman dies in BSF firing

RAIGANJ, April 5: Tension prevailed in Goalpokhar block of North Dinajpur district over the death of a tribal housewife allegedly in BSF firing at Kokradaha border out post last night.

The victim was identified as Manika Soren (35), a resident of Pokharia village of Goalpokhar. It is alleged that Manika Soren was returning home with her husband Palus Hemran around 9.30 p.m. through the border road at Kokradaha BOP after attending a function at her relative's place. Two BSF jawans of the 47 battalion allegedly intercepted them near the BOP and started to beat Palus Hemran. When Manika tried to dissuade them the BSF jawans shot her from close range and she died on the spot. BSF officials thereafter brought the body to the MGM Medical College and Lions' Hospital in Kishanganj, Bihar, where the lifeless body of the woman lay the whole night.

When news of the incident that led to the death of a tribal housewife spread in Goalpokhar, numerous residents from different villages of Goalpokhar armed with bows and arrows turned up at Pokharia vilage. The irate villagers gheraoed the Kokradaha BOP demanding that the BSF handed over Manika's body to the family members without delay.

The villagers also demanded that the BSF authorities hand over the alleged culprits who killed the woman to them.

The BSF took immediate action to save the situation from worsening. Arriving at the spot BSF DIG, Panjipara range, Mr Rabi Kumar Panth issued temporary suspension orders against the jawans who were on duty when the woman was shot to death. Congress MLA from Goalpokhar Mrs Dipa Dasmunshi said from Kolkata over telephone that the victim had alleged been raped before she was shot.

The villagers are also angry with the fact that the crime was committed in West Bengal and the woman's body had been taken to Bihar where it lay unattended throughout the night. The victim's body was shifted to Islampur sub-division following the BSF DIG's intervention today.

Mr SB Purnapatra, SP, North Dinajpur, said police reached the spot before the agitated villagers could converge at the Kukradaha BOP and saved the situation from turning seriously unpleasant

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&theme=&usrsess=1&id=152254

Keeping the creamy layer out

Caste-based census was given up after 1931 even though caste-based discrimination is a fact of life even today. Hence, the government has to depend on those projections to prove that OBCs form 54%.

THE recent Supreme Court's order staying the operation of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act 2006 has triggered a variety of reactions. The political leadership in Tamil Nadu, for instance, registered its protest against the judicial decision by calling for a statewide bandh, leaders of the 'national' parties seem to be in a state of shock. And the reaction has been characteristically knee-jerk and calling for a legislative intervention.

The non-political class too has articulated its view. They are all out there celebrating the injunction. Justices Arijit Pasayat and Lokeshwar Singh Panta, in their eyes are noble men who will be remembered for their no-nonsense approach. Rather than seeing it as merely an injunction, the intelligentsia seems to perceive the apex court's stay as a final verdict against caste-based reservations. And in this they see a judicial endorsement of their opposition to the idea of reservation for OBCs and the obsession for 'merit.' Well. The truth or the real story is something else.

The two-judge bench of the apex court has stayed the operation of the Act on two grounds: That the quantum of reservation for OBCs (27% in this case), the judges felt, was based on some arbitrary consideration; the premise that the OBCs constitute 54% of the population is based on projections made from the census of 1931, could be faulty according to the judges. In their view, this figure was arrived at without accounting for the demographic changes over the years.

The stay was granted on another ground and this indeed is substantive. The two-judge bench observed that the non-exclusion of the 'creamy layer' from the reservation bracket in the Act is against the Constitution. The Act, in this sense, seeks to determine social and educational backwardness only on the basis of caste; and hence violates the law as upheld in the Indira Sawhney versus Union of India and others case in 1992.

The nine-judge bench, in 1992, had gone into the rational of excluding the creamy layer and established a clear case, both in the legal and ethical sense in its favour. It is worth citing the relevant portion from the judgment: "After excluding them alone, would the class be a compact class. In fact, such exclusion benefits the truly backward."

The judges had underscored, in that instance (and later in 1999 while dismissing an Act passed by the Kerala Legislative Assembly that sought to negate the concept of creamy layer in that State) that the Constitution provides for positive discrimination in favour of backward classes and not castes; hence, the bench ordered, the exclusion of the creamy layer from among the castes identified as backward and that it will constitute a class only then.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/Keeping_the_creamy_layer_out/
articleshow/1867941.cms

Minority loan plan on track

NEW DELHI: Despite Reserve Bank of India's reservations, the government has not given up on its plans to increase the flow of loans to minority communities.

In a fresh plan being drawn up by the finance ministry, the government intends to ask state-owned banks to concentrate on districts where minorities formed a significant part of the population.

Sources said that districts where non-Hindu population was less than 50% would automatically be taken up for the special drive.

Based on the last Census numbers, there are 85 districts where Hindus accounted for less than half the population.

In addition, there are more districts that are proposed to be taken up, whose number is yet to be finalised.

While the finance ministry wanted the coverage to be extended to an additional 44 districts, the minorities affairs ministry has suggested that the number should be enhanced to 104.

The focus of the programme is going to be on Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians, Jains and Buddhists.

According to the Census data, 46 districts in the North-East, 14 in Punjab, 12 in Jammu & Kashmir, four in Jharkhand, three in Kerala, two in West Bengal and one each in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar islands had minorities accounting for over half the population.

While the government had earlier hoped to implement the scheme, based on Sachar Committee recommendations, ahead of the elections in Uttar Pradesh, RBI and the Indian Banks' Association threw a spanner of sorts saying the proposal was difficult to implement.

RBI had cited lack of sufficient data as the prime reason for its reluctance, an official said. "They have now asked banks to submit data while the government is also working on a plan," an official said.

Though sources said the government was keen to implement most of the recommendations of the high-level panel, the move on enhancing credit is being seen as a fresh initiative to woo Muslim voters, who have in the recent past moved to vote for parties other than the Congress.

Through the package, which is still in the works, state-run banks will be asked to set up special cells to deal with loans for minorities besides an increased drive to get them on the list of borrowers and ensure that they get a certain share of the priority sector lending by banks.

But there are already concerns that with a special scheme for minorities along with the existing ones for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, there will be a demand from the backward classes too to get a slice of the pie.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Minority_loan_plan_on_track/articleshow/
1862975.cms

What's good for Bihar is good for India

A Stanford-India Mirror Conference took place in Patna this week. It was part of the state government's programme of confronting the state's challenges with an open mind to best practices from around the world. The conference brought together a team from the Stanford Center for International Development, members of the state government, researchers from area universities and thinktanks, members of the global and local Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and other members of civil society, to discuss policy challenges for Bihar.

The focus was not so different than the kinds of general questions that policymakers in India have on their minds: what policies would accelerate inclusive growth? Nick Hope (Stanford) made a presentation on lessons from China, Anjini Kochar (Stanford) on education policies, Ward Hanson (Stanford) on IT and growth, TN Srinivasan (Stanford) on employment generation as well as centre-state relations and AN Sharma and Pinaki Joddar on povert. We spoke on public private partnerships and investment climate.

The Chief Minister of Bihar summarised the reform and legislative initiatives over the last 15 months, and laid out his vision for the coming years. The deputy CM, ministers of HRD, RCD, energy, rural development, science and technology, apart from the chief secretary and commissioners of HRD and finance, among others, provided insights into Bihar's current strategies. Ramesh Yadava, a charter member of Silicon Valley TiE, also brought out the importance of accelerating the pace of implementation of the multiple commitments made in its recently launched Approach Paper to the XIth Plan. The theme running through all sessions: given the pressing needs, administrative challenges, and constrained financial and human resources in comparison with the task at hand, what steps deserve priority?

Some consensus did emerge:

Learn from others' experience. There's no need to re-invent the wheel in all cases. The world is full of relevant experiences, both successes and failures, to learn from. On SEZs, for example, much of the debate has focused on comparing India and China's fiscal policies. Nick Hope brought out the importance of an exit policy to wind up any special preferences once their purpose is over.

Given the many pressing needs, administrative challenges, and constrained financial and human resources in comparison with the task at hand, what steps deserve priority?

But tailor this experience to local conditions. Nick Hope's presentation on China's development strategy raised a number of suggestions that would need to be tempered to suit India's democratic setting. China's differential treatment of coastal and interior provinces, for example, would not be feasible here as a way to focus resources. Our session on mobilising investment discussed an adaptation of the strategy focus on enabling 'infrastructure clusters' like office parks, small-store retail malls, or time-share equipment shops that any citizen with an entrepreneurial bent could access, no matter how small the enterprise. These could balance the benefits of focus with the need to avoid shutting any group out of development at first.

And take advantage of India's conditions. Democracy might look like a 'constraint' when policies fail to reach consensus, vested interests block reforms, or people occupy land intended for a power plant. But it is actually an advantage in other ways. The freedom to protest provides information about preferences and needs. Confidence in challenging government policies also lets citizens act as monitors of service quality better than if they were subdued by authority. Active community groups, a byproduct of an open society, could complement governments in providing infrastructure and services.

Take unintended consequences into account. Anjini Kochar's presentation on education pointed out that education policies' focus on creating access to education by localising the school system seems to also have affected the level and variance in quality. Schools designed to serve small localities effectively become segregated when there is residential clustering. Localisation also means that school size is determined by population density more than efficiency. In the end, Professor Kochar recommended an adjustment of the policy to take these multiple dimensions into account: place pre-schools in localities to draw people into the system, but then aggregate students to the efficient scale for higher grades.

Leverage technologies to create change. India's development efforts, especially its rural policies, are taking place in an era where ICT can (in theory) mean the 'death of distance'. The challenge: to develop the content to be diffused through this network and ensure greater access. We discussed in our session the need to create an open-access rural Internet backbone to support government programmes (like agricultural extension) as well as any other applications and services that private entrepreneurs can dream up.

Rework institutions to enable change. Sessions looked at not only the state's institutions, but also the state's institutional context. TN Srinivasan emphasised the importance of rationalising intergovernmental transfers, reconsidering the role of the Planning Commission and restructuring the mechanism for Centre-state relations.

In the end, implement. Policy pronouncements are just words and aims. Changing outcomes takes concerted actions, coordinated by pragmatic strategies. In all of these areas, Bihar is not alone or unique in India. What is good for Bihar could also be good for India.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=160321

Bengal commercial bank disbursals set to exceed target

Commercial banks in West Bengal are expecting to disburse around Rs 10,581 crore against the annual credit plan of Rs 10,925 crore for the state in 2006-07.

During April to December 2006, the banks disbursed Rs 6,373 crore, which marks an increase of 24 per cent over the disbursement of Rs 5,154 crore during the corresponding period of the last year, said P K Gupta, chairman, United Bank of India and State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) said.

The banks sanctioned 1,00,168 cases under different self employment schemes registering a growth of 19 per cent over the 83,836 cases sanctioned during April to December 2005.

The banks also made savings linkage to 87,407 self help groups and credit linkages to 70,639 groups during April to December 2006.

The state government had expressed increase in credit deposit ratio up to 65 per cent. The credit-deposit ratio in the state for priority sector has improved against 61 per cent of the previous year.

The state wants the banks to raise the CD ratio of rural, semi urban, and urban areas by five percentage points during the next financial year.

State finance minister Asim Dasgupta has also advised the bankers to extend credit to two lakh unemployed youths through employment guarantee schemes during 2007-08.

Dasgupta had suggested for setting higher targets for agriculture, and small scale industries for 2007-08 with special emphasis on financing to small and marginal farmers, oral lessees, patta holders and small entrepreneurs keeping in view the requirement of the state.

The SLBC members also formed a sub-committee to look into the feasibility targets set by the state finance minister for lending exposure in agriculture and industry.

Gupta would head the committee. The other members of the committee were Allahabad Bank chairman A C Mahajan and Uco Bank chairman V Sridar.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) would also guide the committee. The committee would submit its report within a month.

In the recent state budget Dasgupta had raised the lending targets for banks significantly.

For the agriculture sector, the target was fixed at Rs 5,500 crore in 2007-08 as against Rs 3,800 crore in 2006-07. For the SME and SSI sectors the target had been raised to Rs 3,000 crore from Rs 1,500 crore.

http://www.business-standard.com/banking/storypage.php?tab=r&autono=280318&
subLeft=1&leftnm=2

Reliance agri-retail seeks Bengal licence

KOLKATA: Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries' Rs 2,000-crore agri-retail venture in West Bengal may hit an air pocket. Reliance, with the go-ahead from the West Bengal government, has in recent weeks privately-acquired close to 270 acres from farmers for its mega agri-retail rollout.

But such land acquisition may be of little consequence since the West Bengal agri-marketing department has thrown a spanner in RIL's works by holding back the all-important APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) licence. Without an APMC licence, Reliance will be unable to re-sell any agricultural produce in West Bengal that it originally purchases from state farmers from designated APMC yards.

Reliance officials declined to divulge the transaction details of the 270-odd acres acquired from the state farmers in blocks of 10 acres each. But when contacted, senior company executives told ET: "RIL had applied for APMC licences in 16 state locations from the West Bengal State Marketing Board, in step with the provisions of Sections 13 & 17 of the West Bengal Agriculture Produce Marketing (Regulations) Act, 1972.

We have not heard from the state government since October 2006 when we had put in the licence application. We did point out that without an APMC licence, the entire feasibility of Reliance's Rs 2,000-crore agri-retail venture in West Bengal was uncertain."

Elaborating, they said: "Though we have privately acquired 270-odd acres from farmers in multiple state locations, the agri-retail venture cannot get off the ground if we do not get the APMC licence which is necessary to re-sell agricultural produce purchased from farmers."

The West Bengal government confirmed that it has received an APMC licence (for 16 locations) application from Reliance. But it has a very different take on the issue. For starters, it claims that the board, which is under the state agri-marketing department, is not the competent authority to issue an APMC licence.

Here's what Mr Bimal Pandey, principal secretary in the state agri-marketing department, had to say: "I am aware Reliance has put in an application for an APMC licence to re-sell agricultural produce procured from farmers.

Let me confirm that the West Bengal State Marketing Board is not the appropriate authority to issue such a licence. All APMC licences in West Bengal are issued by some 46-odd regulated market committees (RMCs) in the respective service areas."

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Agriculture/Reliance_agri-retail_seeks_Bengal_licence/articleshow/1862922.cms

Hyd-based firm plans Rs 6,000cr port in Orissa

Navayuga Engineering Company, a Hyderabad-based company, has proposed to construct a Rs 6,000 crore port at Astaranga, a fishing jetty between Paradip and Puri in Orissa.

The company would also build a 50-km railway line linking Astaranga with the Howrah-Chennai main line on Khurda Road with an investment of Rs 400 crore on public-private-partnership mode.

C V Rao, chairman, Navayuga Engineering Company, discussed the proposal with Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik yesterday.

Jayanarayan Mishra, Orissa minister of state for commerce and transport, said the company would develop the port in the Devi river mouth in three phases on a build- own-operate-share-transfer basis with an investment of Rs 1,500 crore in the first phase.

The second and third phase of the project will comprise Rs 2,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore, respectively.

Mishra said the company would require 5,000 acre at Astaranga where it has also proposed to set up a 1320 MW (660 x 2) captive power plant besides a fly-ash brick unit and desalination plant separately.

http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag
=IN&autono=22155

Lost in transit

Over the last 55 years India has spent around Rs 3.5 million crore in implementing its 10 five-year plans and several annual plans. This period also saw an explosive growth in population, dissipating developmental efforts over ever-increasing numbers. Until the end of the 1980s, growth was not even visible amongst the poor, making Rajiv Gandhi lament that not even a quarter of development expenditure reached the people for whom it was intended. No economist dare calculate as to what incremental output this massive outlay should be producing now.

It is only since the 1990s that there has been a notable change in the lifestyles and living standards of people, with a perceptible decline in poverty levels. This is in great measure due to the heroic efforts of our maturing youth and the sudden burst of successful entrepreneurship, helped by policies that favour competition.

While the percentage of population living below the poverty line has declined, the acuteness of poverty has increased. The unchecked suicides by farmers, the brutal attacks by Naxalites, the increase in the number of pavement shops, and the lack of state control in almost 100 districts of the country either dominated by militant separatist outfits or Naxalites, show that there is something fundamentally lacking in our delivery systems of public goods and the reach of welfare programmes intended for rural India, particularly the poor.

Poverty in India now is more an outcome of the lack of responsiveness, accountability, inefficiency and corruption of the state institutions at the field level, rather than due to lack of resources. This is compounded by ineffectual supervision by senior bureaucrats who are content to issue directions, satisfied with paper figures that are out of sync with reality.

It is not sufficient to say that growth reduces poverty. How does this growth percolate to the poor and in how much time? The current type of economic growth makes a billionaire out of a millionaire within a few days, as he is able to buy up an ailing foreign company with the support of the banks that add to his assets. It takes decades, if at all, for this growth in wealth to percolate to the poor in a district like Kalahandi or Jhabua. They are not even assured of daily bread and shelter. The administration in the country is more concerned with the Ambanis and Mittals getting their clearances in double-quick time but not so much with the fruits of government expenditure getting delivered at the right place, to the right people, at the right time.

Planning Commission statistics show an impressive growth in the number of schools, with a corresponding number of teachers and thousands of kilometres of rural roads built in all these years. Yet, literacy is nowhere near the levels of other south-east Asian countries, even after half a century of planning.

Malnutrition, curable blindness and communicable diseases still haunt rural India. Mass migration of poor tribals during summer from the districts of Jhabua, Banswara and Kalahandi (to cite a few examples) in search of employment — with children tagging along having abandoned schools and old people left behind to fend for themselves — is a heart-rending sight. How many times has the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission or its members visited a village in the remote tribal districts to study at firsthand what their plans for inclusive growth have achieved? They seem more content to discuss the theoretical aspects of inclusive growth rather than waste their time listening to a bhil from Banswara in Rajasthan or a Maria from Dantewada in Chhattisgarh who does not know who will look after her old parents when she migrates to Punjab in search of labour.

TN Seshan, when he was secretary in the ministry of environment, toured the interior villages of Bastar that were affected by a proposed hydroelectric project on which a large sum of money had already been spent. After patiently listening to the views of the tribals as to how their daily lives would be affected by the project, he refused to grant approval to the project. The dam was never built.

Urban India has also not treated its poor well. Growing numbers of the poor now occupy pedestrian pathways in metropolitan cities, eking out a miserable living. Land is acquired in no time, even with the use of force, for an industry or an SEZ — but not for constructing shops to accommodate the footpath merchants. There is a commission on the informal sector, with an erstwhile economist bureaucrat as its head. After three years of existence, what has it done for these footpath merchants?

What the finance minister fails to report in his action-taken report, which comes along with the budget documents, is physical achievements in terms of benefits delivered and quality of work executed in the field. His report does not throw any light on where the thousands of crores of agricultural credit have been used and, consequently, how much production has actually increased.

How does the budget delivery system in India actually work? The amounts allocated in the central and state budgets first go to the HODs (heads of departments). They, in turn, are dependent on their underlings — including the financial administrators (FAs) and accounts officers (AOs) — who, in the absence of anything else to exercise their authority over, raise every objection in the world before sending the allocated amounts to the states or field officers.

In the states, things are even more arduous. Allocations are placed at the disposal of the HODs sometime in May…if things go well, that is. This money now has to go to the divisional level officers and then, on to the implementing officers in the districts. If the expenditure has been approved, they can continue and spend it. Else, they have to go through another protracted process of administrative and financial sanctions. In such cases, by the time the procedures are over, the year is usually coming to a close.

In March there is a mayhem in the offices of the HODs, where all the field officers and grant-in-aid institutions line up for release of funds. Where the funds go, when they are released at the close of the financial year, is usually anybody's guess. Sometimes, they get spent on the purchase of goods. If the allocation is for roadwork, bitumen is purchased and orders for the supply of metal are placed. Work itself will probably start months later, by which time the metal and the bitumen have deteriorated, or been partly damaged, or even stolen. The result is incomplete roads of poor quality, without side berms.

Irrigation and other construction projects are no exception. Lack of supervision by senior officers — of the quality of the roads, maintenance of buildings and irrigation works — results in the wastage of public expenditure and offers scope for corruption. If the quality of the works is bad, action has to be initiated. The supervisors do not want to do this as they themselves may be partial beneficiaries of any commissions paid by the contractors. So they avoid taking action in cases of poor delivery of benefits.

In the case of an ashram school providing free education for the benefit of the tribals in Kathiwada, a remote forest village in Jhabua district, teachers' salaries could not be paid for one whole year because the commissioner did not release the grant till this author intervened with the chief secretary. The author also reported to the chief minister on the deficiencies observed in a major project during his walks along the canal banks, as requested of him by the irrigation minister. The result was that he was never asked again to continue the work —even though the minister appeared to be aghast at the deficiencies.

The recent controversies about the Rs 35,000 crore expenditure on irrigation projects not producing desired results — increase in areas under irrigation — is an example of the shoddy delivery and supervisory system in India in every department.

Teachers are appointed to work in remote rural areas with no basic amenities for their stay. Soon, with the help of powerful politicians, they get attached to schools in urban and semi-urban areas. The rural schools' rolls show a higher number of teachers than those actually available to teach. In Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh, where the population is 83 per cent tribal, about 35 per cent of the population of over a million migrate with their children, starting March, every year. Consequently, the retention rate of children, even in elementary classes, is very low.

The hospitals in Jhabua also show far more doctors on their rolls than are actually available to work. Many are attached to other city hospitals. A private cancer foundation that does yeoman service in this region, has more than once pointed out the growing incidence of certain types of cancer due to lack of hygiene, malnutrition and a host of other preventable causes. The collector laments that he cannot do anything about this as nobody listens to his complaints. The field officers, including the collector, get transferred within a year or at the most, 18 months.

The system of delivery at the field level and supervision of the activities by senior officers have all but failed. No one is held responsible except in some high-profile cases. The author, who had the privilege of working with the prime minister, had brought to his notice the miserable situation in Jhabua, and suggested solutions. But these too have gone unheeded, despite the fact that a former collector of Jhabua sits in the prime minister's office (PMO). If nothing is done before long, Naxalism will spread to this area.

Justifying regression In order to improve the public delivery systems it is necessary to:

n Prepare a district-wise plan for delivery of health, education, water supply and sanitation services, with specific targets.

n Identify the officers responsible, train them adequately and assign responsibilities, as per capacity, to deliver. Assigned officers should not be transferred till the goals are achieved. If they need to be promoted, the promotions should be in situ.

n Allot funds for programmes at the beginning of the financial year.

n Have an independent monitoring unit that will continuously appraise implementation and give feedback to supervisory authorities.

n Have an expert agency evaluate the accomplishments at the end of each year.

n Based on evaluation and monitoring, take corrective action in programmes.

n Establish a chain of communication among all levels of government and amongst professionals and institutions.

n Set up separate maintenance organisations to ensure proper maintenance of all buildings, roads, water supply schemes, irrigation works and equipments, with adequate resources.

n Reward and punish implementing and maintenance staff, on the basis of transparent objective criteria of achievements.

This will require reorganisation of the existing district administrative setup and would include the elected bodies – for purposes of assigning roles and responsibilities. At the state level, the delivery system – with respect to issuing all kinds of licences, registration of documents, granting of permission for construction of buildings, electricity connections, etc., should be brought under e-governance.

The government's administrative reforms commission (ARC) is involved with high profile issues rather than public delivery systems that affect the common man. India is unique in being the only country that has not reformed its civil service and delivery systems in order to make them more responsive, responsible and transparent.

http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/book/export/html/905

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