Govnow V1 - I3 Lowres

Interview with Justice Hegde The executive and legislature dont care for the spirit of the constitution
p.08
My Country, My Way Teenage girl does what governments dont: Tells Thackerays to take a walk
p.35
March 1-15, 2010 | Vol.01 Issue.03 | Rs. 30
Why
so costly?
p.26
is this cube
INSIGHT Former agriculture minister Sompal on how politics and industry sqeeze the farmer and the consumer
The inside story of the sugar mess
A FORTNIGHTLY MAGAZINE
contents
12 Where there is will, there is a railway station, too 22 PPP in eGovernance
Notes from a Governance Now roundtable
36 The rise and rise of Ashok Tanwar
Bring in change
now on stands
for subscription sms* GN to 56070
Governance now, a magazine and a website, reports and debates all our daily concerns, from criminalisation of politics to price rise, from green energy to rural development. And provides inputs that empower agents of change. A veritable one-stop think tank for bureaucrats, policymakers, leaders and of course engaged citizens.
The villagers of Taj Nagar near Delhi badly wanted a halt station. Railways did not find it commercially viable. No problem, said the residents, collected funds, and finally got the station built. Rogue bulls attacking passersby is a vexing urban problem. But in Ghaziabad, thanks to the municipal commissioners innovative project, they are now reformed and are even earning an honest living!
The young MP from the Congress could be a the posterboy of a new politics.
15 What the bull!

43 An area of brightness

26 The bitter truth about sweet sugar

The industry, politician and bureaucrat nexus has caused the unprecedented increase in the price of sugar. The bad news is that no solution is in sight. By Sompal Shastri
A day in Nitish Kumars Bihar, which has almost caught up with Gujarat in economic growth and has also empowered people, but in very different ways.
35 My name is Shaheen Muhammed
08 interview with

justice n santosh hegde
Wasnt it the government headed by the same prime minister that sought to dilute the Prevention of Corruption Act?
48 Overcome disability in governance Assistive technolo
gies can transform lives of the disabled, but the government needs to break policy barriers first.
Get off that phone and talk to me!
50 Last Word

40 boom for rail neither am I a terrorist nor am I afraid of the Thackreys
ways, boon for passengers
A360 WEBSITE
SABGROUP venture
*t & c apply
www.
.com
20 Reality check at the national eGov meet

The only person missing at the annual event was the common man.
Online ticket booking is one great success story in eGov, making our lives a bit easier and delivering dizzying growth for the IRCTC
For advertising details contact Gautam Navin. +91 9818125257. gautam@governancenow.com

For subscription details contact Banisha Verma. +91 9350825254. banisha@governancenow.com or sms* GN to 56070
www.GovernanceNow.com
EDITORIALS
Looking Nagpur, seeking Delhi

BJP president Nitin Gadkari runs the risk of falling between two stools
S Golwalkar, the second sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), famously remarked, We try to build life without being wedded to politics. Over time, this claim has been often tested, perhaps never so severely as now given the penchant of the incumbent RSS leadership to control the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The imprint of the RSS was unmistakable during the three-day national executive and national council of the BJP in Indore, where Nitin Gadkaris election as party president was ratified. In his zeal to put up an austere and swadeshi front, Gadkari hosted delegates in a tented tenement away from the five-star luxuries. This was intended to convey a definite political message about the partys growing chasm with people. But Gadkari seems to be choosing style
Given his inexperience, Gadkari may have to rely on a set of leaders who often work at cross-purposes
over substance. In fact, the message that emanated from the Indore executive was centred around the revival of the Ram temple issue at Ayodhya and a popular movement for Jammu and Kashmir. Though both the issues may be close to the RSS, they hardly create any resonance with the masses. Gadkaris real challenge lies in getting the BJP to capture the popular imagination. Rhetorics and antics apart, the leadership is yet to come out with an alternative model of politics or governance that can enthuse the people and reaffirm the BJPs party-with-a-difference image. Though Gadkari glibly talks about development and antyodaya, he is hesitant to project any of the BJP-ruled states as an ideal model of governance. This is surprising in view of the fact that the BJP is running the government in nine states either on its own or in a coalition. If Narendra Modis Gujarat can be showcased as an incredible growth story, Nitish Kumars Bihar can be projected as the BJPs commitment to all-inclusive growth and coalition dharma. The partys inexplicable reticence on projecting the success stories of both the states is rather intriguing. That the countrys biggest opposition has often been displaying a lack of confidence and sense of direction does not augur well for the nation. This is reflected in the fact that the BJP has been responding to the agenda set by the Congress. For instance, the strong-arm tactics of the RSS in enforcing the generational change in the BJP leadership was nothing but a knee-jerk reaction to the projection of the young and fresh Rahul Gandhi at the national scene. But unlike Rahul Gandhi, whose Nehru-Gandhi lineage evokes a pan-india appeal, Gadkari and his minions emerge as inconsequential leaders having no bearing on national politics. Though Gadkari is no doubt
handicapped by this political assessment about him, he can turn the tables in his favour if he remains unencumbered by the partys past baggage. He struck the right chord when he described himself as an ordinary worker who rose to the partys top position because the BJP is not a dynasty-driven organisation. He also won praise for his candour in pointing that senior leaders in the party must bury the hatchet and work for the cause. No doubt Gadkari draws strength from his proximity to the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. He is equally at ease in dealing with party stalwart LK Advani who still commands overweening influence over the partys cadre. Gadkari may have managed a fine balancing act between the RSS and Advani so far, but herein lies his vulnerability. Given his inexperience in national politics, Gadkari will have to rely on a set of leaders who often work at cross-purposes. At the same time, he is expected to rush to the RSS headquarters at Nagpur for every decision that he takes. In the process, he runs the risk of falling between two stools, just like his predecessor Rajnath Singh.
Choosing whisky over Gandhi

Gujarat dilutes prohibition policy, but will liquor attract more tourists than the Mahatma does?
f you check travel options for a summer vacation, what do you look for? Alcohol availability is not likely to be high on your list. People looking for a weekend getaway are not going to where they are going solely to have a binge party. But the Narendra Modi government thinks enough tourists are not coming to Gujarat because of its prohibition policy. So, to attract more tourists, the government has now opened a counter at the Ahmedabad airport and any traveller from outside the state can buy alcohol permit no questions asked. There are two issues here: tourism and prohibition policy. First, tourism. There are many ways to promote tourism and Gujarat has taken many steps, for example, promoting places associated with Mahatma Gandhi one of the two icons people world over associate with India, the other being the Taj Mahal and organising events like international kite festivals. There must still be potential to increases tourist arrivals. But alcohol is not going to give the state any USP. If anything, it can only dilute the brand Gujarat. Now, the prohibition policy. Gujarat is the only state to have a liquor ban in place, right since its inception. Not that the policy is implemented thoroughly, there are underground networks and highly sophisticated delivery systems (just an SMS will
do these days, provided you have contacts), but then ganja is also available in shady streets of Delhi or Mumbai. The point remains that a Delhi teenager will not be buying ganja over the counter and similarly a youngster in Ahmedabad will not get booze easily. No convincing case has been made so far that says the Ahmedabad teenager is losing out, as a pro-alcohol lobby would like to argue. The state is losing on revenues, investors are turning away since executives cannot relax over a peg in the evening after the plant visit, and tourism is affected, this lobby says. Letting people buy genuine stuff will also save lives lost to hooch tragedies, not uncommon in the state, it argues. But what is lost in revenue is offset by social gains: remember the cliched one-liner we hear from every non-Gujarati who has spent some time in the state: even a single woman can go home alone after a late movie show or night shift. Investors apparently have not been put off as Gujarat has remained at the forefront among the states in attracting private investments for decades. As for saving lives, about 1,500 people are killed in road accidents caused by drunken driving in Delhi alone, according to an NGOs estimate. Year 2010 is not only the golden jubilee of the state but also of its prohibition policy. High time it is practised in letter and spirit.
How not to hold talks with Maoists

Talk by all means but dont lower the guard and allow the rebels to regroup, re-arm and emerge stronger, as happened during the failed talks of 2004
B
4
y the time you read this the government would probably have taken a decision to hold peace talks with the leftwing extremists and worked out broad parameters within which to carry the process forward. There are good reasons to hold talks and stop the bloodbath witnessed in the past few weeks, even if the sincerity of the rebels is doubtful. Union home minister P Chidambaram, who is rightly, and for the first time since the problem erupted, confronting it as a big threat to the national security, has been at pains to explain that it isnt
a war because we dont wage war against our own people. Seen from that perspective, peace talk is a logical step to take. But there are a few lessons from the past that should not be ignored. The first lesson from the last failed attempt in 2004--when Andhras Rajasekhara Reddy government invited the rebels--is that the rebels used the opportunity to rest, re-group, re-arm and emerge a far more deadly force than ever before. In the present instance, the rebels have asked the centre to stop its offensive for 72 days as against Chidambarams offer to stop violence for 72 hours. That
should raise eyebrows but more than that it is the timing of the peace offer which raises serious doubts. Remember, it came days after rebels killed 24 Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans in West Bengal, when a counter offensive could have been expected. It was also the time when Chidambaram was planning a second round of talks with chief ministers of West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand within days of the first one in Kolkata (which Bihar and Jharkhand CMs had skipped). That wouldnt have escaped the rebels notice. It would, therefore, be reasonable to suspect that the rebels offer could be a ploy to buy time, rework their strategy and possibly relocate the militia away from the borders of BiharJharkhand-West Bengal. In 2004, the ceasefire was used by the rebels to hold public meetings throughout the state and mobilize over-ground support. Rebel leader Ramakrishna and his comrades flaunted their weapons publicly and gave an impression that they were about to take over
the state power. Local political leaders were pressurised to mobilize crowds for their rallies and funds were collected openly. A senior officer of Andhra Pradesh recalls how many traders migrated to bigger cities out of fear. He also recalls how it sent a wrong signal to the security forces and demoralised them. None of these should be allowed to happen again. While the 2004 talks were in progress, the rebels made it clear they would not lay down arms even if the talks succeeded. When it failed, Ramakrishna said: The talks are not about the armed struggle but are about efforts to solve some immediate socio-economic problems of the people. During the peace talks he and his men had asked YSR to produce proof to establish that he had actually distributed land free to the landless, which was one of the agreements to carry the process forward. Read Maoist leader Kishenjis statement (carried by PTI) offering peace talks carefully: State governments and the
The government must talk with the rebels but on no account the guard should be lowered or the forces deployed in the rebelhit areas be withdrawn. The training for security forces must continue. Only when the rebels realise that the government has a more powerful gun which it intends to use decisively, peace will break out.
centre should not indulge in violence between February 25 and May 7 and concentrate on development of tribal areas which will be reciprocated by Maoists (emphasis ours). Can you see a similarity? The government must talk but on no account the guard be lowered or the forces deployed in rebel-hit areas be withdrawn. The training for security forces, most of whom are completely incapable of handling the guerilla warfare techniques used by the rebels, must continue. So should the effort to take Bihar and Jharkhand on board in the fight against the menace. It should never be forgotten that one of the first lessons taught to these rebels is Maos famous statement: Every communist must grasp the truth; political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Only when the rebels realise that the government has a more powerful gun which it intends to use decisively, peace will not break out.
GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010
Founders Team
Gautam Adhikari Markand Adhikari Anurag Batra Editor B V Rao Managing Editor Ajay Singh Peoples Editor Anupam Goswami Deputy Editors Prasanna Mohanty, Ashish Mehta, Ashish Sharma Special Correspondents Brajesh Kumar, Trithesh Nandan Principal Correspondents Geetanjali Minhas, Danish Raza, Jasleen Kaur Correspondents Shivani Chaturvedi, Neha Sethi, Sarthak Ray, Sonal Matharu Design Parveen Kumar, Noor Mohammad Photographer Ravi Choudhary General Manager Business Development Suparnaa Chadda suparnaa@governancenow.com Sales Sr. Manager Sales Gautam Navin (+91-9818125257) gautam@governancenow.com Marketing Asst. Manager Marketing Shivangi Gupta shivangi@governancenow.com Subscription/Distribution Asst. Manager Distribution Pranay Dixit (+91-9999809095) pranay@governancenow.com Manager IT Santosh Gupta Asst. Manager HR Monika Sharma Design consultants LDI Graphics Pvt. Ltd. www.liquiddesigns.in info@liquiddesigns.in Printed and published by Markand Adhikari on behalf of Sri Adhikari Brothers Assets Holding Pvt Ltd at 24A, Mindmill Corporate Tower, Sector 16A, Film City, Noida 201301. Tel: 0120-3920555. Printed at Utkarsh Art Press Pvt Ltd, D-9/3, Okhla Industrial Area Phase I, New Delhi, 110020. Tel: 011-41636301 Volume 01 Issue 03 UPENG03560/24/1/2009-TC www.governancenow.com feedback@governancenow.com
Online
Habibullah to continue as CIC

ajahat Habibullah will continue as the chief of the Central Information Commission (CIC) till the end of his tenure in September 2010. Though he had resigned from the post in October 2009 to head the Jammu and Kashmir State Information Commission, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked him in February to continue in the central panel as the government was unable to find his replacement. There is no point in going now as
people
Interview
Robert Oates, the man who restored the Thames, has a word of advice on cleaning the Yamuna
I will retire in September, Habibullah told Governance Now, confirming the decision. Habibullah, a 1968 batch IAS officer of Jammu and Kashmir cadre, has been widely praised for his role in making the Right to Information a peoples movement. After Chief Minister Omar Abdullah invited him to head the state panel, the career bureaucrat too wanted to take up the assignment but as the search for his successor did not make any headway, he is left with little time to make any significant contribution in J&K either.
eGov
Reports from the 13th National Conference on eGovernance
Zero-rupee note for zero corruption

hey say corruption is like the weather: everybody talks about it but nobody does anything about it. But Vijay Anand is doing his bit and his weapon is a zero-rupee note. The 40-year-old head of 5th Pillar, a Chennai-based NGO, urges people to offer these zero-rupee currency notes if a government official demands bribe. Or, if a clerk at a government department is delaying your work, just offer one zerorupee note for chai-paani. The zero-rupee note acts as an effective ice-breaker and is a great tool that garners attention, Anand told a newspaper. If you want these special currency notes, Anand will readily give you some, or you can print them out from his website (www.5thpillar.org or zerocurrency.org/india.html), which also has a lot more arsenal for activists. The website has started getting many more hits after a mention in the World Bank blog in December and a report in The Economist in January.
GNtalk
Central minister Prithviraj Chavan on eGovernance from Citizens Perspective
Think Tank
Centre for Development Economics report on infrastructure sector
Chief Justice AP Shah retires, hurt

Court) or not. But I cannot pretend that I am not hurt, Justice Shah said. It was during Justice Shahs term that the high court legalised gay sex and ruled that the office of the chief justice of India too came under the Right to Information Act. The 62-year-old judge made it clear that he was not eyeing any post-retirement assignments.
Columns
Bhavdeep Kang on the new nutrient-based subsidy regime
Back Story
How our reporters finally managed to speak with development economist Jeffrey Sachs
ustice AP Shah, who as Delhi High Court chief justice wrote a series of landmark judgments, retired in February. He chose the last day in office to publicly express his sense of hurt a year ago the Supreme Court collegium had bypassed him for elevation to the apex court. It is for the people to judge whether I deserved (to be elevated to the Supreme
Parliament
Full updates on the budget session
Plus
Top stories of the day Debates Protests and petitions Bureaucracy and judiciary news Parliament updates Photo story Public reporters contributions
MP Monitor
Ajay Makens report card
Justice for Ruchika, Aradhna Gupta is not done yet

uchika Girhotra, 14, had committed suicide after she was molested by former police officer SPS Rathore. Her friend Aradhna Gupta has fought for justice in the case and now she wants to fight for other victims of child abuse. Gupta, who lives in Australia, has launched the website, www. justice4ruchika.com, which will serve as a platform to help victims of child abuse. We could not save Ruchika, but we hope other girls will not die because of the faulty system of justice, Gupta told a newspaper. Recounting the case, she writes on the website: After 450 hearings, and perhaps after running out of all possible reasons for any more delays, they came up with the verdict: six months imprisonment, and a financial punishment of one thousand rupees! The convict walks out of the court with a big smile on his face.... This is not acceptable to me! We are not done yet. The site has a blog, useful links, an online petition and much more.
RTI
How NREGS funds are misused in Gujarat
FORM IV Statement about ownership and other particulars of Governance Now under Rule 8 of the Registration of Newspapers (Central), Rules, 1956. 1. Place of Publication : 24A, Mindmill Corporate Tower, Film City, Sector 16A Noida 201301 2. Periodicity of Publication : Fortnightly 3. Printer and publishers Name : Markand Adhikari Nationality : Indian Address : 24A, Mindmill Corporate Tower, Film City, Sector 16A Noida 201301 5. Editors Name : BV Rao Nationality : Indian
Address : 24A, Mindmill Corporate Tower, Film City, Sector 16A Noida 201301 6. Name and addresses of individuals who own the newspaper and partners or shareholders holding more than 1% of the total capital: (a) Owner: Sri Adhikari Brothers Assets Holding pvt Ltd Address: 24A, Mindmill Corporate Tower, Film City, Sector 16A Noida 201301 (b) Shareholders holding more than 1% of the total capital: Gautam Adhikari, Markand Adhikari Address : 24A, Mindmill Corporate Tower, Film City, Sector 16A Noida 201301 Dated: March 1, 2010 Markand Adhikari, Publisher
6 GovernanceNow | December 26, 2009
www.GovernanceNow.com 7
people politics policy performance

Corruption Crusader
Photos: ashish sharma
INTERVIEW
Justice N santosh Hegde
Wasnt it the government headed by the same prime minister that sought to dilute the Prevention of Corruption Act?
or a self-declared toothless tiger, Justice N Santosh Hegde has acquired a remarkable reputation for bagging his prey with relentless regularity. The 70-year-old Karnataka Lokayukta, who heads the bestknown anti-corruption force in the country, spoke about his work and his concerns in an exclusive conversation with Ashish Sharma. Edited excerpts:
You are often described as the only functioning Lokayukta in the country. How do you see your role?
Let me first give you a little background of the institution of the Lokayukta. The first administrative reforms commission, set up in 1966 and headed by Morarji Desai, concluded
that the anti-corruption bureaus were not functioning as they were intended to. So this commission recommended the establishment of Lokayuktas in states and Lokpal at the centre for redressal of citizens grievances by investigating the administrative agencies and the public authorities. Both the institution in the states and the person heading it were to be called the Lokayukta. The idea was to create a new mechanism for checks and balances within the system in keeping with the spirit of the constitution. The Lokayuktas and the Lokpal were to function independent of the governments concerned and supplement the judicial institutions. The concept of the Lokayukta was, of course, borrowed from the Scandinavian model of the ombudsman,
which incidentally celebrated its 200th anniversary in Sweden last year. It is perhaps not a coincidence therefore that the Scandinavian block of countries is considered the least corrupt in the world. But here in India we didnt set up the institution of the Lokayukta even immediately after the administrative reforms commission recommended it. And it was not until Ramakrishna Hegde emerged with his value-based politics and assumed power in the state that the Karnataka government moved the Lokayukta bill in 1984. As recommended by the administrative reforms commission, the job of the Lokayukta was to look into the complaints against administrative actions, including cases of corruption, nepotism, arbitrariness and
ONE-MAN ARMY: Whereas Lokayuktas in most other states are dormant, Justice Hegde strikes fear in the minds of corrupt officials in Karnataka.
indiscipline in administrative machinery. After considerable debate, it was agreed that a former Supreme Court judge or a chief justice of High Court should head the Lokayukta. So the Lokayukta bill was moved in 1984 and the instituion came into being two years later, in 1986. But it remained a sleepy organisation until the fourth Lokayukta was appointed in the state in 2001.
Thats when your predecessor, Justice N Venkatachala, took charge. That means, Karnataka has been twice blessed in this respect.
Well, that is the difference just one individual can often make. The institution of the Lokayukta suddenly sprang to life because of one proactive man at the helm, who would
personally lead raids and traps. Suddenly the leader came into focus and the institution emerged out of the shadows just because of him. I have just carried on his good work, but of course in a very different style of functioning. I never step out of office myself for raids. I just get everybody to perform their individual duties. The Lokayukta police have been doing a tremendous job here. Last year alone, the Lokayukta police laid 305 traps and conducted 52 raids across the state. In the process, they caught a legislator, besides senior Indian Administrative Service officers and Indian Police Service officers. In 2008, the tally was 272 traps and 92 raids. To return to your first question as to how I see my role, let me say that as the leader of the team I see myself
mainly as a motivator. Often people ask me whether I deserve all the publicity that I get. I am always in the media glare while it is the policemen who conduct the raids and devise traps against officials suspected of corruption. I just point out that most police officers who come to us on deputation dont do so out of choice. But if they soon get motivated enough to be able to act against their own seniors and other senior administrators on behalf of the common citizen, some credit must go to this institution and the person heading it. Our collective work has successfully projected this institution and its functioning. That is what I consider my own, and our collective, duty as well as achievement. Let me also point out that while our anti-corruption work gets maximum
GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010

Corruption Crusader
The prime minister has said that investigating agencies should do more to catch the big fish and that the conviction rate must improve. My question is simply this: who is responsible for this state of affairs? Who passed the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2008 on December 23 in Lok Sabha without a debate? Wasnt it the government headed by the same prime minister that sought to dilute this legislation?
publicity, it constitutes just 10 percent of our work. As much as 90 percent of our work is to facilitate good governance, for example to attend to complaints regarding old age pensions, working of panchayats, functioning of corporations and schemes meant for the welfare of poor people. The media takes much greater interest in our anti-corruption work, which is understandable because people love it too; such is the hatred against corruption among public officials.
who is responsible for this state of affairs? Who passed the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill, 2008 on December 23 in Lok Sabha without debate? Wasnt it the government headed by the same prime minister that sought to dilute this legislation? First, it did away with the provision to prosecute any official who, through his decision, gets pecuniary advantage to a third party without any public interest. Second, it made the governments sanction mandatory even for prosecuting retired officials.
Lokayukta Act. Why is that so?
Why is it, though, that you have managed to succeed while most of your counterparts in the other states have not?
One reason may be that the legislative enactment may not be as effective elsewhere as it is in Karnataka. I have not done a thorough study myself but I believe there are considerable variations in the Lokayukta Act in different states. Madhya Pradesh, I am told, has a pretty similar legislation to ours and the Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta has done some good work as well, even though their focus is mainly on anti-corruption work. The rest of the states, it is true, have not managed to do much of note. In our case, on average we get 35 to 40 complaints a day. We have cleared more than 12,000 cases over the past three years and provided relief to around 65 percent of the complainants.
Yet, you have famously characterised the Lokayukta as a toothless tiger and repeatedly called for an amendment to the Karnataka
I have always argued that the Lokayukta cannot be as effective as it ought to be unless it is granted suo motu power to enquire. As per the legislation, the Lokayukta cannot initiate an inquiry against any public servant without a written complaint. In the absence of suo motu power to act, therefore, the Lokayukta is toothless even in cases where there is sufficient reason to suspect malpractices. Written complaints in the prescribed format are obviously not readily available in most cases because the officials concerned wield positions of enormous power. That is not the only lacuna. Another hitch is the Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which requires prior sanction of the government for prosecution of any public servant. In practice, this means that the government can shield any misconduct, and it does so as a matter of routine. Then, even in cases where we conduct inquiries and establish misconduct on part of the officials concerned, we have no power to punish the wrongdoers. We can only make recommendations and it is up to the government of the day to take action. While I agree that the power to punish must remain with the courts, the Lokayukta can become much more effective if it gets the power to initiate an inquiry. That will keep the officials on their toes, check corruption and ensure better governance.
misconduct that you repeatedly bring to light?
That remains my biggest grouse against the state government. Even in cases of serious misconduct, the state government rarely acts on our recommendations against the officials concerned. In cases of senior officials, the government simply refuses sanction to prosecute. That is precisely why I have been saying all along that the Lokayukta Act needs to be amended. What is most absurd is that the state government even refuses to pass on the request to prosecute central government officials functioning in the state. I keep telling the state government that it is just a post-office in such cases. If you dont have the power to grant, how can you assume the power to refuse? It is simply illegal.
Besides that, you have long argued that the law itself is loaded against prosecution. Please elaborate.
How would you describe the attitude of the government when it comes to such cases of corruption or any other
I maintain that the British jurisprudence that we follow is outdated in evaluation of evidence and dispensation of justice both in terms of gravity and volumes of crimes being committed. I believe a fair chance must be given to the prosecution. The burden of proof should not be on the prosecution in most cases. We also need to give up the belief that it is better to acquit nine guilty persons than to convict one innocent person. The prime minister said at a conference of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that investigating agencies should do more to catch the big fish and that the conviction rate must improve. My question is simply this:
If the judiciary managed to retain some faith of the public, it was clearly by default because people had completely given up on the executive and the legislature long ago. The executive and the legislature dont even understand what the spirit of the constitution is. However, the judiciary too lacked moral courage to confront the black sheep within its ranks. The judiciary too sought to sweep issues of misconduct and outright corruption under the carpet. As a result, the instituion of the judiciary too missed the bus and the credibility of the judiciary has suffered as well. When I took over as the Lokayukta on August 3, 2006, for a five-year term, I immediately made details of my assets and liabilities public online. There was no legal requirement to do so, but I felt this would enhance public trust in the institution. I am saying all this in the context of the eroding public trust in judiciary as much as the executive and the legislature.
Given your view of the executive and the legislature, then, would you say the judiciary has done a relatively better job of discharging its duty and upholding the spirit of the constitution?
Vidhana Soudha, the seat of Karnataka legislature. Governments and legislatures just pay lip service to the cause while shielding themselves from prosecution.
in fact, a rarity even until early 1970s. Yes, there were a few well-publicised cases but these were exceptions to the rule. So who could be indulging in corruption way back in 1947? Clearly, it could have been the bureaucracy or the judiciary. But judiciary was almost free of the malaise of corruption until much later. At Independence, therefore, the law was meant primarily to rein in the bureaucracy. However, politicians joined in during the 1970s and the judiciary appears to have followed suit over the past decade or so. In my view, the fault for increasing prevalence of corruption lies with the society itself. We have willy-nilly accepted maladministration and corruption. Society has lost its sense of discrimination between legitimate and illegitimate means of acquiring wealth. As a society, we accord respect to anybody who manages to acquire wealth and we dont seem bothered whether this has been achieved through nefarious means. What should happen instead is a social boycott of the corrupt. The corrupt need to be ostracised. Until this happens, we will have to live with endemic corruption in our society. There is a huge racket in almost every public department and every public welfare scheme. Institutions such as the Lokayukta can only touch the fringes of the problem and at best have a marginal impact. That remains my biggest disappointment. n
As somebody who confronts corruption on a daily basis, how would you explain its increasing prevalence? What could have led to this state of affairs?
Remember, special laws are always enacted in response to the prevalence of certain crimes. The fact that the Prevention of Corruption Act dates back to 1947 tells us that corruption was an issue even at the time of Independence. Mind you, that was a time when political corruption was almost unheard of. Political corruption was,
10 GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010

Grabbing Good Governance
Danish Raza / Gurgaon
he booking clerk at the New Delhi railways station knew what we were talking about when we asked for two tickets to Taj Nagar. Wahi jo gaonwaalon ne banvaya hai (the station that the villagers got built themselves)? he asked, giving us tickets to Patli, the station next to Taj Nagar, since the new halt station near Gurgaon, about 50 km from Delhi, did not figure in the railways fare table. However, a majority of the passengers in 2 MNR, the train we boarded for Taj Nagar, were unsure about its location. As were we, till we reached the small village in Haryana, less than 10 km off the Delhi-Jaipur highway. It has put our village on the countrys map, says Jaswant Singh, 64, referring to the railway station that has been built entirely from money collected by the local people. Taj Nagar residents had been demanding a halt station since the 1980s. The two nearest stations were each at a distance of about four kilometres. We could have travelled that much, but there was no road connectivity and no public transport to those stations. Our own halt station was the only solution, says the retired Maruti Udyog Limited foreman. But the solution evaded them for years. Local authorities said they did not have any say in the matter and that the villagers should approach the railways. The villagers filed an application for a halt station in the Bikaner divisional authority, which was then under Northern Railways, but is now part of North-Western Railways (NWR). In the last 10 years, we have made at least 100 visits, if not more, to various railway offices, says Khem Chand, 62. While speaking
Where there is will, there is a railway station, too

The villagers of Taj Nagar near Delhi badly wanted a halt station. Railways did not find it commercially viable. No problem, said the residents, collected funds, and finally got the station built.
to us, he touches the display board at the station reading Taj Nagar and checks if the paint has dried. It is Taj Nagar, not Taz Nagar, as some people call it, he clarifies. Their application was one among hundreds that the railway ministry receives each year. These applications are scrutinised for commercial viability, operational efficiency, availability of funds and other parameters. They want a halt in every other lane, says Anant Swarup, chief public relations officer of Northern Railways. It is surely not possible to approve every application, he adds. In 2002, the railways rejected Taj Nagars appeal saying there were already two stations, Patli and Jataula Jauri Sampka, in the vicinity and constructing a halt station between the two was not viable. But that did not deter the spirit of the 800odd families in the village. Several panchayat meetings later, they again approached the railways. This time the application said the villagers would bear the expenses of the construction of the station. In every subsequent letter, we said that the money part would be looked after by us, said Khem Chand. The residents also rejected the argument that there were two stations nearby. If Delhi can have stations at places like Vivek Vihar, Patel Nagar and Sadar Bazaar, which are four-five kilometres apart, why cant Taj Nagar have one, they demanded. Railway officials were eventually convinced and in November 2006 they sanctioned a halt station at Taj Nagar on the
Delhi Sarai Rohilla-Rewari section of Delhi division, subject to availability of shramdan (voluntary work) and without any capital investment. The railways also asked the villagers to submit Rs 5.8 lakh for deploying a supervisor to oversee the construction work. Enthused, the villagers soon got down to work. They formed a committee of 15 people called Gram Vikas Samiti to monitor the finances. Jaswant Singh and Khem Chand took the responsibility of looking after day-to-day affairs. Over the next one week, the committee collected money from every house in the village. We had no idea how much money would be required to make the halt. We fixed a minimum amount of Rs 3,000 per family. But some of them contributed in lakhs, Singh recalls. As people generated funds, the railways readied the station in 18 months. The cost: Rs 21 lakh. Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjeet Singh inaugurated it on January 5, 2010. Das hazaar log aaye theyteen bori cheeni ke laddoo bane thhe (10,000 people came, three sackfuls of sugar were used for laddoos) recalls Ram Ratan, 66. Ratan, who retired as warrant officer with the Indian Air Force in 1998, also contributed to the cause from his savings. The ticket counter and the arrangement for drinking water at the station came up with his money. He, however, would not disclose the amount. I did not do it for fame, he says. And the station has changed the villagers lives. On a typical morning, you will see people labourers, schoolchildren, women walking hurriedly through the picturesque mustard fields to reach the station. Once there, many of them turn to the ticket window and ask the same question, Dilli jaanewaali train kitne baje hai (what time is the train to Delhi)? Those who can read go through the timetable written in hand, put up near the counter. Around 500 people use the halt station daily, where 14 trains, seven each in either direction, stop for about five minutes each. The biggest beneficiaries are students and farmers who
Photos: Ravi choudhary
How villagers can get own railway station

Shivani Chaturvedi
small halt station with peoples participation is entirely possible within the railways rulebook. Northern railway chief public relations officer Anant Swarup explains the procedure: If there is a demand to start a halt station, people should send a letter to the divisional office of the railways. This letter from the panchayat should be addressed to the divisional railway manager or commercial wing or operational wing of the department. Divisional level officers will examine the proposal from the operational and commercial points of view. If it is viable, the proposal is referred to the zone and from there it goes to the Railway Board. At the zonal level
a feasibility study is carried out. Finally the board carries out a study and once it is satisfied, the go-ahead is given. When the board gives the green signal, the division replies to the panchayat that the railways agrees in principle to the proposed halt station and invites the villagers to discuss the plan. The division also informs them about the estimated cost. Then people have two options: they can either hand over the full estimated amount, or they can take care of the labour themselves by doing shramdan (voluntary work) or by employing workers. And this has been done before. A station at Balwant Pura Chelasi, between Sikar and Churu in Rajasthan, was funded by people in that area, says North Western Railway CPRO Lalit Bohra.
Lighting arrangements and more benches on the platforms are also on their agenda. Pending works notwithstanding, Ratan Kaushik, who studies in class 10 of a government school in Gurga, is happy. Now, he does not have to wake up early because he boards the train from his village and not from Patli, where he used to go earlier. Its hardly a distance now, grins Kushik. Sometimes when you need good governance, you have to grab it. n
have to travel to Gurgaon or Rewari. A journey to Gurgaon by the Haryana roadways bus costs Rs 18. By train, it costs just Rs 4. That means a saving of around Rs 400 per month, says Shivtaj, 42, who runs a garment export unit in Taj Nagar. People from 23 nearby villages are also benefiting from this halt. They all come here now, he adds. However, for the people of Taj Nagar, there are still things to do. The halt has to get registered in the computers of the railways so that people can buy a ticket for this station and not the next or previous one. Once that happens, people can buy monthly season tickets as well, says Shivtaj.
12 GovernanceNow | January 26, 2010
Subscribe now to
toavailofour Special
Innovation In Governance
Photos: shivani chaturvedi
Photo: shivani chaturvedi
35%Off
InauguralOffer
Governance now represents a pioneering effort in our country to initiate an informed public debate on the various issues pertaining to governance in India. By providing equal opportunity to the policy makers, the implementers, the activists, and the citizens, to participate and have their voices heard.
T O S U B S C R I B E S M S* G N T O 5 6 0 7 0
Inaugural Offer (Jan 10-Apr 10)

Term Cover 3 years (72 issues) 2 years (48 issues) 1 years (24 issues) Price 3,600 2,400 1,200 Discounted Rate 2,500 1,800 1,000 Savings 1,100 600 200
Institutional Subscription - 100 copies and above - 35% off Coverprice

Please fill the form in CAPITAL LETTERS. Name ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Address ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Mobile ............................................... City ....................................................... Pin ...................................................... State ...................................................... E-mail .......................................................... Birthday .............................................. Anniversary ............................................................................................................ Occupation ..................................................................................................................... Please find enclosed DD/Cheque for Rs ........................................................................................................................................................ Dated ..................................................................................................... Cheques/DD payable to "Sri Adhikari Brothers Assets Holding Pvt. Ltd. and send to Business Development, Governance Now, 24-A, Mind Mill Corporate tower, Sector 16A, Film City NOIDA - 201301, U.P ., India For Subscription related enquiries contact Banisha Verma. banisha@governancenow.com. +91 9350825254. or SMS* GN to 56070
Terms and Conditions: 1.This is a limited period offer. 2. Governance Now will not be responsible for postal delays, transit loses or mutilation of the forms. 3. All disputes are subject to laws of India and exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi. 4. Governance Now reserves the right to extend or terminate this offer at any point or to accept or reject any or all forms at its absolute discretion without assigning any reason whatsoever. 5. Allow 3-4 weeks time for processing of the subscription. Subscription would be processed only after realization of payments. 6. Payments can be made through Cheque/DD payable at par . Cash payments will not be accepted.
Rogue bulls attacking passersby is a vexing urban problem. But in Ghaziabad, thanks to the municipal commissioners innovative project, they are now reformed and are even earning an honest living!
What the bull!
Shivani Chaturvedi / Ghaziabad
s the day breaks, Dharmatma and Sajjan have a hearty meal and get down to work. The powerfully-built duo turns a turbine continuously for two hours. In the evening, it is the turn of Sadhu and Dulara to do the same. Between these four, and their other two team members Raja and Chhotu, who get to rest by turns, every day they generate 30 kilowatt electricity. This is Ghaziabads Nandi Park, where these stray bulls are being harnessed to earn their keep. Apart from generating electricity, they are also being deployed here for cutting
chaff and powering tubewells. Power thus generated is used for lighting up the six-acre park, tubewall water is used for irrigation and as drinking water for bulls and oxen living here, and straw which is cut is used as their fodder. Visiting the park situated on National Highway No 58, on the road to Meerut, one can see a herd of bulls cutting chaff from the field, another group drinking water from storage, others relaxing under the shed and two bulls moving the turbine. There are about 20 people in the park to look after these animals. A veterinary doctor also visits daily. The park maintains records of each bull, including details of its characteristics. Municipal Commissioner Ajay
Where Dawood turns into Sajjan
he bulls at Nandi Park are named according to their characteristics. A bull which was earlier called Kaalu has been renamed Dharmatma; Dawood is now Sajjan and Sanki is now called Pappu. Kyunki in pashuon mei bahut sudhar aaya hai, inka naam bhi inke vyavhar ke hisab se badal diya gaya hai (as there has been a drastic change in these bulls, their names have been changed according to their behaviour, said Sarvesh, an 18-year-old caretaker at the park. They changed their behaviour within a month or so after arriving here, he said. They were given shelter, food and water, and if required they were kept tied. Thats what has made them the way they are now, he added.
SABGROUP venture
*t & c apply

Innovation In Governance
Shankar Pandey not only put rogue energies to novel productive use but also rehabilitated history-sheeter bulls in the process. These bulls had unleashed terror in the region by attacking people in the residential areas. For the municipal corporation, it was fast becoming a challenge to rein in these rogue bulls. These wild bulls were an increasing cause of concern, says Pandey, There had been several road accidents too because of these animals. We were in a fix because unlike cows bulls dont have an economic utility and there are few takers for bulls. These concerns motivated me to come up with the idea of Nandi Park. I felt unruly bulls should be caught and accommodated at one place where they should be transformed, said Pandey adding, While I was thinking about the bulls park, it occurred to me to get these animals trained and put them to some productive work. Nandi Park thus came into being in 2007. The first-of-its-kind project costing Rs 30-35 lakh has given 265 stray bulls and oxen a home to live in. Initially, a squad was formed to catch bulls in the city. Top 10 bulls were identified on the basis of accidents and harm they caused to passersby, and were brought to the park and were given shelter and fodder. Pandey said that when this scheme started people from nearby regions including Delhi used to leave stray bulls here. I wrote a letter to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner that Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation is ready to officially accommodate stray bulls of their region in Nandi Park, but they should stop dumping them here. He said that after accommodating the stray bulls in Nandi Park there was a plan to utilise their energy and then he thought of the Nandi Shramshakti Yojna, which was launched one year ago. As I had worked in the Non-Conventional Energy Development Agency (NEDA), Lucknow, I used some of the techniques in this project, he added. A generator and a turbine have been installed in the park and at a time two bulls are deployed for moving turbine to generate electricity and powering tubewell, said Pandey. Currently, six bulls are deployed for the work and more of them will be
Ghaziabad Municipal Commissioner Ajay Shankar Pandey at the Nandi Park, where stray bulls have reformed themselves.
They were called Dawood, Sanki and what not in their past lives. Now they have mended their ways and are known as Dharmatma, Sadhu, Pappu...
deployed depending on their fitness and capacity. These animals are given training and then pressed into the field. They work for one-and-a-half to two hours twice a day. Animal rights organisations had initially opposed the project but now they have changed their views. Ashima Sunil, president of the People For Animals (PFA) organisation, Ghaziabad, said: If stray bulls are being looked after properly and are given food and shelter, its okay if they are made to work for some time. In this way they are doing exercise too which is necessary to keep them fit. The project is even making these stray animals productive. The corporation has now suggested to the Uttar Pradesh government to replicate the scheme elsewhere. The proposal is under consideration, said Pandey. Pandey said the corporation spends about Rs 1 lakh a month in recurring costs on these bulls. But it has also worked out ways to make the scheme economically viable. Manure is made from bulls dung and used as biofertilisers by the corporations horticulture department. Besides, there is a distribution centre at the park from where other government departments can procure biofertilisers. Farmers can also purchase manure from this centre. Municipal corporation authorities say that residents are also relieved thanks to the project. The number of complaints regarding damages caused by bulls has come down, civic officials say. As per the corporation records, there were 161 complaints of damages and other problems roaming bulls caused to public in 2005, the number icreased to 175 in 2006, while in 2007 it came down to 94. Only 63 complaints were received in 2008 while in 2009 there were only 13 complaints. In January this year two complaints were reported. The number of complaints of deaths and severe injuries to public by bulls was 21 in 2006, 14 in 2007, six in 2008 and in 2009 there was just one such complaint till November, the records say. Whats more, mortality rate of the bulls in the park has come down, too. As per the corporation records, the last time a bull died in the park was at 8 am on August 31, 2009. n
Balance in use of fertilizers and subsidy
policy
Bt Brinjal: not on our menu
he Manmohan Singh government has shown some resolve to give a push to reforms and fiscal discipline. The cabinet on February 18 approved a nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime for fertilizers from April 1. The government says the new scheme will help increase agricultural productivity
by promoting balanced fertilizer use while at the same time reducing the subsidy bill by an estimated about Rs 44,000 crore a year. The new scheme replaces the product-based regime, in which the fertilizer companies received subsidy as difference between the production cost and the government-controlled sale price. Thanks to the companies
commercial interests, farmers have little choice in choosing from a variety of fertilizers. The new regime promotes innovation and opens the choice for the farmers. The move came amid opposition from some cabinet ministers including, ironically, chemical and fertilizers minister MK Alagiri. Is this an indication of some bold reforms in the months following the budget?
nvironment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh on February 9 decided to put the introduction of genetically modified Bt Brinjal on indefinite hold. The decision comes after much debate and the ministers public consultations across major cities. Ramesh had made it clear all along that the final say in the controversial matter would be his alone, and thus he overruled his own ministrys Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC), which had given the green signal to Bt Brinjal. This is a major victory for civil society that had campaigned for a ban on Bt Brinjal, which would have been the first GM food item on Indian menu. However, Ramesh is facing criticism from a number of his cabinet colleagues Kapil Sibal, Prithviraj Chavan and Sharad Pawar. Chavan said it slogan shouting and protests (that is, civil society) should not be allowed to cloud scientific vision. Pawar then said that we need technology to ensure food security.
Fundamental rights cannot be diluted

human rights of a citizen for fair and impartial investigation against any person accused of commission of a cognisable offence, which may include its own officers. The bench, disposing of a batch of cases filed by the West Bengal government and others, ruled on February 17 that the Supreme Court and the high courts have the power to order a CBI probe without a states consent.
he fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution are inherent and cannot be extinguished by any constitutional or statutory provision, the Supreme Court has held. Any law that abrogates or abridges such rights would be violative of the basic structure doctrine, said a five-judge constitution bench, headed by chief justice KG Balakrishnan The state has a duty to enforce the
Khurshid reiterates idea of CSR points
inister for corporate affairs, Salman Khurshid, has reiterated the idea of making Corporate Social Responsibility quantifiable and urged corporates to debate the possibility of establishing a CSR exchange to deal in CSR credits. Launching the FICCIAditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence in New Delhi on February 17, he spoke about his vision of an exchange mechanism through which companies would be able to trade in CSR credits,
somewhat like to trading in carbon credits. Khurshids suggestion, if implemented, would mean a company that does not want to do CSR activities would have to purchase CSR credits from companies that have them. Khurshid also urged corporates to ponder over the conflict of interest when a company produces consumer products that are deemed harmful. If there is a business that is inherently destructive and unwholesome, a way has to be found to offset the negativity of that business, he said.

Chasing A Dream
In this file photo from the early years of the republic, women build a well and the platform around it.
began in Palakkad district of Kerala that has shown arguably the greatest commitment among all states to decentralisation and grassroots democracy.
Kannadi Gram Panchayat, Palakkad
Statute Book self-governance

and two colleagues, working for Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF), a Delhibased NGO, set ourselves on a search for a well-functioning gram sabha in late 2008. By the standards of local self-governance, a gram sabha should meet regularly and collectively decide all issues of development and social justice in its jurisdiction, leaving the elected and unelected panchayat functionaries to merely carry out its decisions. Gram sabha should also decide without being dictated to from the
A hunt for a well-functioning gram sabha, the Holy Grail of local selfgovernance, is like a wild good chase. It exists only on paper.
top -- how the funds available to the gram panchayat should be spent, exercise supervision over local government functionaries and monitor project implementation. Such a gram sabha would be a model of citizens direct participation in the governance of their areas and a step towards realising Gandhis ideal of Gram Swaraj. In reality, however, gram sabhas, which are recognised by state laws that flow from the 73rd constitutional amendment, have been little more than rubber stamps for the decisions taken by panchayat members and bureaucrats. State Panchayati Raj laws provide for small-time functions and powers for gram sabhas, such as drawing up lists of beneficiaries of government schemes and approving the decisions taken by elected and unelected functionaries. Across the country, meetings of gram sabha either do not take place at all or are held as inconsequential rituals. The three-tier system of panchayats (village, block and district) thus only pretends to be local self-government for the rural population while actually being a model of unaccountable (and largely corrupt) governance that hardly allows any citizen participation in decision-making. The Panchayati Raj legislation of Kerala and Madhya Pradesh, however, endow gram sabhas with much more powers to influence decision-making. Our quest for an ideal gram sabha
I
Kapil Bajaj
Declared in 2007 the first fully electrified gram panchayat of the state, Kannadi seemed to have a smart president in P. Radhakrshinan who gave us an idea of Keralas Panchayati Raj system. Since Kerala has large-sized gram panchayats (GPs), with average population of 27,000, each GP is divided into 8-10 or more wards. So a gram sabha is actually a ward sabha that elects its own ward member, each of whom sits in the panchayat board. Ward members elect president and vice president from among themselves. Kerala allows political parties to participate in elections for local governments, which means state-level political formations influence local politics. Keralas GPs are richest in the country, handling annual budgets to the tune of Rs.1 crore or more, thanks to the state governments commitment to devolve 40 percent of its Plan funds to the threetier panchayat system. Panchayats are also able to generate their own revenue by levying taxes and fees. Radhakrishnan told us Kannadi had its own fund of Rs.25 lakh. (In India, an important determinant of true local self-government would have to be whether it enjoys untied funds to spend on its own projects as opposed to money tied to the flood of schemes flowing down from the central and state governments.) The GP office was a well-equipped building where the panchayat secretary, the top government official of a village panchayat, danced to the tune of Radhakrishnan, his boss. By this time, we had learnt some of the history of Keralas experiment with grassroots democracy, particularly the big bang effort by the LDF government in 1996 to introduce peoples planning. The idea that panchayats and municipalities should start preparing their plans for development, which should be consolidated by the District Planning Committee (DPC) into a district plan is a part of the Constitutional agenda (74th Amendment); Kerala is one of the handful of states whose local bodies engage in their own planning that gets consolidated at DPCs. We were told the gram sabhas first meeting of the year is devoted to the planning process. Radhakrishnan also said that the gram
sabha (or ward sabha) was convened at least four times in a year, but extraordinary meetings could happen if it was called upon to decide the lists of beneficiaries of welfare schemes, such as Indira Awas Yojana and NREGS. The process of selecting beneficiaries of government schemes, however, did not seem to be the exclusive domain of an open meeting of the gram sabha. A committee of 14-15 people, comprising representatives of political parties, ward members, union leaders, and experts, draw up the list, which is then presented to the gram sabha. The gram sabha can ask for additions and deletions, which are incorporated, Radhakrishnan told us. Who decides the agenda of a gram sabha meeting? we asked. The panchayat board, he responded. Since the start of the year in April until November 2008, only one gram sabha (or ward sabha) meeting had taken place, i.e., 14 meetings of citizen assemblies corresponding to 14 wards of the GP. The attendance was usually 100-110 people, i.e. about 6 per cent of the average population of a ward of about 1,700. We also learnt that attendance at gram sabha meetings across most of Kerala had been on the decline. We met the agriculture officer of Kannadi GP, who also happened to be an official completely under the control of Radhakrishnan, making us realise that there were at least five-six public services, including agriculture, animal husbandry, schools and health centres, and its officials that the state government had made subservient to village panchayats. Imagine, for example, a University graduate, English-speaking official working under a semi-educated or barely literate panchayat president -that would be nothing short of a great achievement of democracy. We had begun to suspect by this time, however, that the schemes of the central and state government had been taking up a large part of the time and energy of the Panchayats, regardless of whether people needed them or not.
Eruthenpathy Panchayat, Palakkad
At Eruthenpathy too, we learned, one ordinary and one extraordinary gram sabha meetings had taken place since the start of the year. Here too, the attendance in gram sabha meetings had been declining. Many people said they went to a gram sabha meeting only if they hoped to get the benefit of some government scheme. And no one sounded as if the first gram sabha meeting had been
an especially important event because it passed the local plan. We gathered the following outline of the peoples planning process: *Thirteen working groups corresponding to 13 services, such as agriculture, roads, healthcare and education, are created in the first week of April. *Each group creates the first draft of the plan, which is presented to the gram sabha in its first meeting of the year. *The gram sabha is then divided into 13 groups corresponding to the 13 working groups that separately discuss each of the draft plans. Then the leader of each of these discussion groups addresses the gram sabha about what their group feels about the plans. All this is recorded in minutes of the meeting. *The group meets again to tweak the plan in line with the observations of the discussion group and the Gram Sabha. *The panchayat board considers the plan and comes up with a draft plan. *Day-long development seminars are held at GP level across Kerala, attended by local MLAs, working group members, two members nominated from each gram sabha, panchayat board, and members of block and district panchayats. Draft plans are considered and can be changed at this stage if needed. *The panchayat board meets again to review the decisions taken at the development seminar. Final plan is ready. *Projects coming out of the final plan are sent for approval to the Block Technical Advisory Group/District Technical Advisory Group (depending upon the cost of the project), which give a technical sanction to the project; the projects then go to the District Planning Committee (DPC) for administrative sanction. The projects can be rejected by any of these bodies with reasons. The panchayat can appeal the rejection at the State-level Coordination Committee. That process, taking about eight months, looked too complicated to be called peoples planning. Gram Sabha neither initiates the process nor finalises the plan. No wonder most people had no recollection of their engagement in this momentous event. The capacity of a gram sabha to make its own plan had also been undermined by the absence of any untied funds. Money came to panchayats either tied to a plethora of government schemes or with so many guidelines that there was no scope for people to make their plans. The Eruthepathy panchayat office looked like any government office, where scores of people lined up to submit applications and complaints hardly a picture of Gram Swaraj.n

Common Man and e-Governance
Reality check at the national e-Gov meet

Samir Sachdeva ver thought of a conference centred around citizens with no participation of citizens? This was the case with the 13th National Conference on e-Governance that was held in Jaipur on February 18-19, 2010. Its theme was e-governance from citizens prospective. The conference invited participation from across the country netas, bureaucrats, technical officers from NIC, academicians and representatives of IT companies, the only person missing at the conference was the common man. There were brilliant arrangements at the venue, excellent food and catering, good ambience but something missing was the content on e-Governance. The conference panels were assisted by top consulting organisations of the nation as knowledge partners. But the panel discussions did not throw up something substantive except the viewpoints of a few individuals that have been repeated year after year. The participants in the 13th conference were the same set of people as in all e-Governance conferences with minor additions and deletions and therefore the noble aim of creating awareness nationally through this event was sacrificed. Not just the participants but the panelists and the exhibitors were repeated; it appeared as if the department of administrative reforms is organising the national conference year after year for the same set of people at different tourist destinations. Jaipur, Goa, Hyderabad,
The event has the same participants every year, but the common man is missing
Kochi, Bhubaneswar, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai were the places where the conference was held in past. But never has the national conference been organised in a rural area where an e-Governance project has actually made a difference in the lives of people. West Godavari, Dhar, Taragram orThiruvarur could have been ideal locations for the national e-Governance conferences as the places could have not only showcased success (or failure) of e-Governance projects but also the true India to the policy planners and their consultants. No doubt that on day two of the conference the Birla Auditorium at Jaipur was just scarcely occupied with majority of the participants and award winners on siteseeing trips to various locations in the pink city. In fact, the government of Rajasthan also organised a sound and light show at the Amer Fort along with the meet. However, it would have been more fruitful if the IT department of Rajasthan government had facilitated a visit to a Rajiv Gandhi sewa kendra or an emitra centre. The conference had limited to no citizen participation. Despite all claims of inclusive e-Governance, the government had to face tough questions from Prateek Agarwal, a visually handicapped participant, on inclusiveness in the e-governance agenda. The government could have made the conference more participative by ensuring more participation from youth, women, the disabled, students and villagers by funding their travel and stay to Jaipur to attend the conference. The government gave away the national awards to 18 projects during the conference
but all the awards went to the government departments or officials, as if to convey that there had been no contribution of the private sector in these initiatives. The awards were given away with much fanfare by Rajasthan Governor Prabha Rau but there was no sharing of knowledge on the projects with the audience. Though a brochure on awards was published, it definitely was short of direct interactions or presentations from the awardees on their projects. Did the organisers feel that the 18 award-winners did not deserve half an hour each to showcase their achievement or were they scared that the truth will be out of the box? The website for the national rural employment guarantee scheme, www.nrega.nic.in, was adjudged the best website from among the 5,000-odd government websites. However, the website does not follow the full guidelines for the government of India websites as released by department of administrative reforms in the 12th National Conference on e-Governance. These guidelines lay down compliance with level A of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as mandatory, according to which websites should be designed in such a way that they are accessible to the people with disabilities. The websites of DARPG (http://darpg.nic. in) and DIT (www.mit.gov.in) do not match those guidelines and neither does www.nrega.nic.in, the winner of best government website award. The awards for the best stall in exhibition and the best paper went to the IT department of Rajasthan (shared with CISCO) and the IT secretary of Rajasthan, respectively. The union government probably gave these two awards to Rajasthan as it might have faced pressure from the media at Jaipur in case Rajasthan did not get a single award. However, was it appropriate for the Rajasthan government to accept the two awards when it was hosting the event and was part of decision-making and evaluation? The fact that 12 of the 18 national e-Governance awards went to the non-UPA -ruled states need further analysis. Is it that the UPA-ruled states are falling behind in implementation of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) despite liberal funding from the centre? Another notable absence in the event was no release of the e-readiness assessment report. The department of information technology started a process of conducting a study of all the states and central departments on their level of preparedness for e-governance and released a comparative study for few years. However, for the past three years the annual report has not been released. The e-readiness assessment
The conference invited participation from across the country -netas, bureaucrats, technical officers from NIC, academicians and representatives of IT companies. The only person missing was the common man.
of state governments is important as it gives a benchmark for what is the level of preparedness of various states on e-Governance. Further, there is a need of an assessment to understand if the individual projects implemented and awarded by the government are achieving the desired result for the citizen or not. Only citizens can say if these projects are beneficial and not the jurists sitting in their air-conditioned offices in the absence of any impact assessment study. It may turn out that these projects are just about software being developed by a technocrat or a solution proposed by a bureaucrat. In most cases it appears that the projects which were awarded were selected based on documentation and not a ground level reality check. The government may shy away from publishing the e-readiness assessment report but globally it is a fact that India has fallen by six positions, from 113 to 119, in the 2010 global e-Government ranking conducted by United Nations (report to be released shortly). The fall in Indias global ranking is evidence enough of the success or failure of the NeGP. The absence of the secretary, IT of the government of India at such an important event and no representations from the UID Authority of India was also discussed in whispers by a few in the sidelines of the event. It was important that the conference should have invited compulsory participation from the IT ministers and IT secretaries of all states. It could have given a platform for all the stakeholders to interact and exchange their views. However, the silver lining to the conference was the single award conferred to Prateek Agarwal, for the best question. He was the only common man awarded in the conference with the theme of e-Governance from Citizens Perspective. n

Governance Now Round Table
PPP in eGovernance: What private players want

n 2006, the central government launched the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) to use IT in the delivery of government services. Aimed at taking government services to the doorstep of every citizen, the $6 billion NeGP was to be executed in partnership with private players who had the knowhow and technology. Called public-private-partnership (PPP), the model became the buzzword in the industry, and for a while, it really seemed this was the only way to carry eGov projects forward. Four years down the line, the jury is still out on the PPP model. Has it taken off at all, let alone beeen a success? While some projects like MCA 21 (an initiative of the ministry of corporate affairs to provide online company registration) have proved to be a runaway success, the record on Common Service Centres (CSC) has been dismal. Governance Now brought together different stakeholders for a roundtable on PPP in eGovernance: How to make it work. Here is a synopsis of their individual presentations:
PPP is the only way for eGovernance

dramatic transformation. The government is reticent to let go of control. People want local governance. CSCs dissipate power but the government has vested interest and doesnt want to let go of the power. Ninety-five percent of India cant be cajoled to use the internet. What the citizens want from CSCs are caste certificates, birth certificates, loans for next crops but they are missing in CSCs. The Indian bureaucracy has doggedly underestimated the citizens ability to absorb environment. Onus is on the government and industry to create the environment. The $60 billion worth IT industry in India is making peoples lives better around the world, but not in India. Our own adoption of IT is very less. We dont need to go anywhere in the world to learn. We are teaching them. Do we have an India 2020 vision? We dont have a road, every day we have new directions. But the problems and solutions lie within us. In Madhya Pradesh, the bureaucracy was very helpful. Every district in MP has gained from it. There are 2,400 online kiosks running which are financially sustainable. We were able to do it in Andhra Pradesh because there was Chandrababu Naidu. There should be solutions to address the digital divide. Instead of measuring how many people have internet, we should be assessing how many of them have email IDs and access internet through cyber cafs. Capacity, thinking and ability are the key. Governments should have their mindsets open to best practices. There is a conscious effort to move from IT to measure of IT. We need to deal with mindsets, it is not an issue of technology.
Building viable business models is an issue

viable business models. As an open-source technology we approach the companies which are involved in eGovernance, as it could bring down the capital expenses. This would be a great boost to a projects viability. The technology is of little consequence to the beneficiaries, what matters more is the service it delivers - all applications of the technology to be delivered. As a citizen I am not concerned with the technology used, I want all the services it facilitates. An urgent need is the identification of the right players and the right model before a project is initiated.
Involve private sector during conceptualisation
Sudhir Aggarwal Senior vice president and head of Government Initiative, Sify
Sandeep Sehgal Director, Government Vertical and ISV, Red Hat India Pvt Ltd
ven as PPP is at the stage of conceptualisation, the government seems to think there are no private partners involved. The plans that are developed thus seem wonderful on paper but are not sustainable in the long run as business models. The revenue-support model doesnt work in different local contexts. In some cases, SREI Sahaj had to literally support the government financially for the implementation of PPP projects we are part of. One of the other reasons why the PPP model for CSCs is deficient is that there has been no real financial inclusion across the country. Many of the VLEs (village-level entrepreneurs) we engaged do not have bank accounts. The lending and borrowing is still informal and as a consequence, debtors problem arises. A better way to go about PPP for the government would be to take the private sector into confidence to to ensure viable business plans. The government largely plays a monitoring role. What it needs to do is periodically engage with the private sector to evaluate the business models. An appreciation of the challenges both sectors face is required. Another impeding factor is having to deal with diffused structures of government. A lot of private sector companies that qualify for many of the PPP projects end up facing practical bottlenecks. Where we
Sumanta Pal Senior vice president, Strategic Marketing, SREI Sahaj e-Village Ltd
need the private sector to come in is much earlier at the conceptualisation stage. PPP needs to go beyond the monitoring from the governments end, and move to discussion on challenges. Otherwise, the entire process is just public versus private instead of being public-private partnership. The questions appreciating inadequacies and a far more aggressive dialogue between the government and the private sector need to be addressed. A popular misconception with many VLEs I have met is that if their businesses dont run well, they dont have to pay back loans. The assumption that the
CSC is government-mandated for them and is a right, frees them of their sense of obligation. It is understandable given how these things have an aspirational appeal in underdeveloped areas in rural India. The complexity of these aspirational appeals and assertion of this-was-my-right attitude is difficult to deal with, while surprisingly, the context out of which these notions arise are fairly simple and understandable. The need is to instil that missing sense of reciprocation. A lot of educated, unemployed youth have turned VLEs -- so have a lot of people who already had a job. This is nothing more than a secondary or tertiary income source for them. This necessitates an urgent addressing of the question of financial inclusion. We found an opportunity for participation for VLEs when they approached us saying that they didnt need what was on offer at the CSCs. Each area had unique needs that the CSCs could address. The mismatch between what CSCs offers and what the locals need keeps changing according to geographical contexts. A mechanism needs to be developed where the VLEs identify priorities, the modalities of which the private sector works out. I think this is where we need the government to step in to assess local needs. Given the huge scale, it is important to think through the model of partnership most suited.
pen-source is similar to PPP in the sense that our business development model requires partnerships. Technology plays a small role the bigger issue in eGovernance is that of building
he biggest challenge is institutionalising e-governance in the country, transforming of government through e-governance. To expect government servants to be change makers is too much. The main change should be to change the working environment. We still have a 200-yearold environment in the country. We still have thanedar rules. The government needs to move out of the socialist mindset. But the younger bureaucracy is realising that it is difficult to not follow the PPP model. The civic amenities that people want are being benchmarked as per the global level. The government should become real time. There should a change in the way they govern. MCA21 does way with corruption. Who will you ask bribe from if no one is coming to your office? From proposal to implementation, the work is happening in pockets but there is sheer absence of holistic approach. The work is happening only in silos. The ministry and the departments are playing a turf war. IT leverage can bring
Industry should not fall prey to its own greed

a couple of hours. This is the time for consolidation, as more and more projects under education and healthcare are going to come up under PPP. Therefore it is proper to take a holistic approach and also take stock of the situation and then move forward. PPP is the only answer to eGovernance. It addresses the change of mindset in the government. While we are talking about the change of mindset from the governments side, we should make sure that the industry does not fall prey to its own greed. The industry should see the opportunity in eGovernance as a means to an end and not the end itself. It should shoulder its responsibility properly while selecting a project and implementing it by rising beyond its greed. Another critical point is the choice of the player. We allow a consortium, but that does not add value to the project.
Tanmoy Chakrabarty Vice president and head of Government Industry Solutions Unit, TCS
n the last decade, one good thing that has happened in PPP is that it has become viable. About a decade back, that was not so and therefore there were no takers. Today, a lot of thinking goes into a project before it is thrown in the market. But as far as the evaluation of PPPs goes it is the same as that of a construction project. I have participated in the evaluation process. You cannot evaluate four business plans in

Governance Now Round Table
We have a deficit of learning...we are way behind the curve

phenomenal. We are still about five or six generations behind the rest of the world including the US and Europe. We missed out on learning from those who created these technologies. We started learning by doing. In learning by doing we wasted a lot of money. We enjoyed doing things and learnt a great deal but we still remain way behind. There is a reason for this and that is that even if a good thing is given to us, we take time appreciating it. We need to go through a learning curve to go through how good a thing is and why. The world is created by those who see the future. Those who see 20, 30 or 40 years or generations ahead. Gandhi was a great leader because he saw India becoming free 40 or 50 years before it did. Others were not so great because they were constrained by their own ambitions. Is it our aspiration to give Indian citizens good governance? If that is so, we will use technology in a certain way. Or is it our idea that we will create a unique ID that is totally meaningless, does not add any value, does not give governance and is a waste of resources? Having said that, there is a vision in even this project and let us see how it plays out. My critique is that we have a deficit of thinking to begin with. We have a deficit of learning experience to begin with. We dont even want to understand how those who create a technology globally use it. Even when we want to know that, we are way behind the curve. Even if I want to know, I cannot know. Because there is learning constraint with something we did not create. We have to accept cognitive constraints as given in this matter. Is there a map of citizen-government interaction today? It has been about 15 years we began thinking of it. At the beginning I had counted some 240+ points of interaction between the state and the citizen. That is not a constant and will continue to evolve. At some point in time we look at the dynamics of the citizen-state relationship and begin mapping from that point of view, may be we will have a starting story. If you ask me, we have not even created a starting chapter. How can we use technology? We have not looked at how the 95 percent people in the country will study. We have not paused to understand the meaning of the limited number of internet users in the country. Is it any more significant than telephone was some 15 years ago? So what is the impact of eGovernance today? Not much more than the relative use just 15 years ago. So we have to create a cellphone as a metaphor, the kind of transmission and how technology can help. How will citizen-state interaction lead to good governance? That will not change because of the PPP which will keep us more or less in the same space. A guy working in the private sector may be a bit more efficient than the government guy. The attitudes may also be different but all that does not take us very far. Take for example the immigration form. In the past 25 to 30 years I have seen 30 changes. But there has been little attempt to learn from the rest of the world so even now the form will not pass muster as anything more than grade 1 of governance process. Why are we so far behind on this one? If we cannot create an immigration form, how can we create technology-based governance?
Please-all Gadkari plays it safe
Satish Jha President & CEO, OLPC India
he newly installed Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari sent mixed signals at the partys threeday conclave in Indore. First, he did a me-too by aping Rahul Gandhis strategy of lunching at a dalit home. Next, he stated that he wanted to increase his partys vote share by 10% by reaching out to the rural population, the youth and the minorities as
well. But he followed it all up by appealing to the Muslim community to allow a Ram temple to be constructed at the site of the demolished Babri mosque. He appealed to the Muslim community to voluntarily give up its claim to the Ram janmabhoomi in return for a grand mosque that he promised the BJP would help build at an alternative site. Within three days, then, he managed to walk the tightrope from point A to point A.
look at the public and the private as part of the same space. I dont see there is a great degree of differentiation in skills, quality of knowledge that comes from PPP. In attitudes, yes, but not in the skills. When you think of creating value out of PPP, you need to see beyond, that is, 20, 30 or 40 years ahead. Unless you are able to see what it will deliver in future we end up recreating the past. In umpteen number of technologybased governance initiatives that is what has happened. The amount of learning that we have had to go through is
politics
Rajya Sabha question hour procedure changes
Government officials have become new-age zamindars

There is no dearth of schemes at the government level but implementation of the projects requires active cooperation between several departments. The bureaucracy is huge and a person has to deal with layers of officials which makes it difficult to properly inject the programme. Some of the schemes are designed, developed and conceived very well. But they fail in implementation. So you need private sector skills to manage the project. There is a need to look into the private sector as it is more flexible and innovative. In all PPP projects you need huge advocacy which is a missing
Dinesh Kumar Tyagi CEO (Community Service Centres), IL&FS
here is a failure in implementing PPPs from the government side because of its own structural set-up.
component at present. I think the government does not have skills to network. They can issue advertisements but they will mess it up. You need the private sector to create advocacy. PPP essentially implies sharing of risks and rewards of a venture. There are high risks involved with the projects. In fact, the government should encourage private groups to take risks. PPP is either centrally or state funded schemes as there is hardly any resource generation at the local level. So, there is a need to look into the private sector, which can work in collaboration with the government bodies. But the good thing which has emerged in recent years is that government is willing to listen which was not happening a
decade ago. At the bureaucratic or at political level the government is willing to listen. After independence, India abolished the zamindari system but the government officials have become new-age zamindars. Due to their overwhelming presence at every level of government structures, many mega projects do not yield desired results because they create stumbling block. But despite many bottlenecks, I would praise the governments work in some states like Gujarat and Bihar. Gujarat set an example of how government schemes can work by becoming the first state to impart training to every official from higher to lower levels. Training is critical for such projects. Bihar is another good example of dealing with projects.
ajya Sabha chairman Hamid Ansari has brought important changes in the question hour procedures. Once a question is admitted it has to be answered, whether the member asking it is present in the house or not. Earlier,if a member was absent, the question wasnt taken up. Parliament has been grappling with the problem of absence of members during question hour. As their questions are not taken up, the House loses a chance to quiz the ministers who are let off easily. The Rajya Sabha chairman has addressed this problem with the notification. The Lok Sabha is expected to follow suit soon.
Vote against EVMs

a book, written by party member GVL Narasimha Rao, questioning the credibility of electronic voting machines. Whats more, the party seems to be getting support from other quarters as well. Chandrababu Naidu, former Andhra CM and an erstwhile member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, has come out strongly against the EVMs. And the BJP expects the Left parties to come on board ahead of the assembly polls of West Bengal where they are staring at a debacle.
he Bharatiya Janata Party may have lost two Lok Sabha elections in a row for several reasons, but it is increasingly questioning the method of counting of votes as well. Senior leader LK Advani first raised doubts over the credibility of the electronic machines right after the results of the last polls came out. And he has done so again recently in his blog. But he is no longer alone in this respect. The party lined up a number of experts at the launch of
haudhary Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal plans to move a private members bill to amend the Land Acquisition Act which dates back to 1894. The party, which has five members in Lok Sabha and represents mainly Jat farmers of western Uttar Pradesh, plans to do so in the interest of its core constituency. Singh has said farmers are getting a raw deal, especially in cases of large-scale acquisition of land for projects such as the Taj Expressway. The party alleges that fertile land of nearly 2,000 villages is acquired at paltry compensatory rates. Singhs party is working hard to garner support for the bill from the Left parties, among other opposition parties.
RLD to move private members bill

Sweet Mess!
The S bitter truth about sweet sugar

Sompal
The industry, politician and babu nexus has caused the unprecedented increase in price of sugar. The bad news is that no solution is in sight.
ugar Sugar often turns bitter in India, sometimes for the sugarcane farmers, sometimes for the processing industry, and sometimes for the consumers. But in every situation, the government is in the dock, and rightly so, because its sugar policy has all through been flawed. The story goes back to the days of British colonial rule. The then Government had enacted the Sugar Act 1932, which made it compulsory for anybody intending to set up a sugar factory using vacuum pan technology to obtain a license. Licence obtained, the factory would get a reserved area in which no other unit would be allowed to come up. The minimum capacity prescribed was 1,250 tons of sugar cane to be crushed per day (TCD). The basic objective was to grant a monopolistic environment to the investor by controlling entry into the business. During World War II, the country experienced acute shortages of food items including sugar. That necessitated the introduction of the system of rationing and levy. The whole British policy was dictated by two considerations: One, they wanted to keep the food prices low for placating the vocal urban population and the organized labour. Two, they intended to help their favourite capitalists with low wages and low priced raw materials. Unfortunately, this policy of crony capitalism was conPHOTO: ravi choudhary
tinued by the government(s) of independent India under the garb of the socialistic pattern. The licence permit raj consciously kept all industry insulated from competition and perpetrated all sorts of inefficiencies and corruption, the burden being ultimately borne by the poor farmers and hapless consumers; and the nation was denied a healthy economic growth for several decades. Even with the advent of the era of liberalisation, the two very important industries having direct bearing on agriculture and farmers economy sugar and milk processing were still kept in shackles. Very interestingly, the attitude of industry-owners and their associations remained quite ambivalent. They did plead for liberalisation of marketing and distribution of sugar doing away with the system of levy, but never wanted the licensing regime to go away. Obviously, they did not want to face competition and lose the benefit of state-granted monopolies. It spared them of the effort and investment needed to modernize and efficient-ise the industry. Thus the process of modernization, diversification and becoming competitive at par with world standards was kept at bay all through. What is most disturbing is the fact that the industry, politicians and bureaucrats all colluded and collaborated in the game with equal indulgence.

Sweet Mess!
illustratio n: ashish asth ana
It would be grossly incorrect to say that all politicians and bureaucrats were of the same vein. Some of them, and quite prominent ones, like Manmohan Singh as PV Narasimha Raos finance minister, strongly advocated the abrogation of sugar licensing. But the then food minister successfully thwarted the move in the cabinet. Personally, even Rao was in favour of delicensing, but yielded to the pressure of some of his colleagues and chose to defer the decision till the elections in 1996, which he lost. The next three incumbents, as everyone knows, hardly had any vision or span for such substantive and long-term issues. So, the issue of delicensing sugar industry had to wait till the Atal Bihari Vajpayees NDA government assumed office in March 1998. A formal proposal to this effect was put up in the cabinet but faced stiff opposition from some very senior leaders, of not just the allied parties, but also of BJP. After being discussed in a couple of meetings, the matter was referred to a group of ministers, which sometimes means indefinite deferment. Fortunately, the group submitted its report in about two months unanimously recommending abrogation of the licensing system with only one rider: that the mill(s) would be allowed a reserve sugarcane area of 15 km radius on a normative basis pegged to 2500 TCD capacity likely to be extended if the capacity be larger, initially or on expansion. The rationale of the reserved area was to leave the mills with no option but to purchase sugarcane at the minimum support price announced by the government. Unlike wheat, rice etc, cane is procured by the industry. The recommendation of GoM was accepted by the cabinet in toto after heated discussions over a couple of meetings. Most of the arguments, as usual, were oppressively repetitive and some of them totally devoid of substance. For example, one very
One very senior leader kept on repeating only one remark and none else all through: Arre bhai suna hai ki yadi chini ko free kar diya to badi garbar ho jayegi. (Im told therell be chaos if we delicence sugar.)
senior leader kept on repeating only one remark and none else all through: Arre bjai suna hai ki yadi chini ko free kar diya to badi garbar ho jayegi. (Im told therell be chaos if we delicence sugar.) Losing patience, I had to observe that such a statement, unless accompanied by the details and nature of the apprehended garbar, sounded like just superstition. Being asked to elaborate, he would only cite the experience of the Janata Party government in 1977-78, which decontrolled sugar distribution leading to drop in sugar prices. Consequently, the mills did not pay the farmers and huge arrears accumulated. As a result, the prices of sugarcane dipped to as low as Rs 2.75 per quintal, and yet the mills did not lift it. The farmers agitated vehemently and burnt huge quantities of sugarcane to empty their fields for sowing the next crops. In desperation they, mostly from Western Uttar Pradesh, approached the late Charan Charan Singh, the then deputy prime minister, who not only pleaded helplessness but chided the farmers for growing more cane than was needed with his (in)famous remark Mere sir par aur ganna bo do (sow some cane on my head too). One is tempted to ask what the farmers should base their sowing estimate on, and also why governments that profess to insulate the industry and the economy from regular cycles through all sorts of regulation, have not till this day instituted an advisory service for the guidance of farmers. Since then the sugar industry has successfully held up this bogey of chaos to scare away any talk of delicensing of manufacturing, but it needs to be noted that the Janata Party government only decontrolled the distribution of sugar under the persuasion/pressure of the sugar lobby. It did not do away with the system of licensing which, as has
been stated above, is abhorred by the industry. Secondly, that year incidentally witnessed the cycle of over-production of sugarcane as well as sugar i.e., the peaking of the cycle a usual phenomenon associated with sugar the world over. But still, this happens to be one of the arguments handily invoked by the regulation-savvy bureaucrats at the behest of the monopoly-loving sugar lobby headed by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA). It matters little to them that regulation is ultimately instrumental in not only causing but also accentuating the cycles, as government decisions are always delayed in dealing with both impending shortages and/or of glut. Interestingly, such a phase of limbo is relished by both the bureaucracy and the ISMA because it is only under such circumstances that they acquire role and relevance to serve the vested interest and justify their existence. This kind of unabashed lobbying in the corridors of power could be clearly observed on several occasions including the one when the Vajpayee government ultimately decided to depart from the licensing policy in 1998 with the qualification of granting a normative reserved cane area. The decision was that no new unit using vacuum pan technology to manufacture sugar would be allowed to be set up in the reserved area earmarked for a mill. Surprisingly, in the minutes of the meeting and the subsequent notification issued to give effect to the decision the word new was missing. Moreover, the requisite amendment in the Industries Development Act was not done, which came in handy for the industry during the court cases filed by it to challenge the legal validity of the decision. At whose behest the most senior bureaucrat(s) responsible for recording the minutes caused this interpolation/omission was not difficult to guess. One of them now runs a high profile organization convening conferences and seminars rendering sermons on good governance. It must be acknowledged,
however, that the situation has since improved a lot. Setting up of a factory does not require licence any more. A new unit can be set up subject only to observance of the prescribed radial distance. Many new units consequently have been added. Competition has forced the industry to go in for higher efficiency, modernisation and diversification. This needs to be seen in the backdrop of the earlier period when there were no norms prescribed for issuance of licence. It was wholly discretionary and ad hoc. Neither was there any system of minimum support price for farmers growing sugarcane. The manufacturing, stocking and trading of jaggery and khandsari, which was the business of small village artisans and traders, was very often banned at the whim and fancy of the administration that always swayed to the mill-owners tune. Even the bullock drawn kolhus owned by the farmers were not allowed to operate when sugarcane was in short supply, obviously to leave the field open for the large industry. The Sugarcane Purchase Act enacted during the mid-fifties made it legally binding on the mills to pay the farmers within 15 days of supply of sugarcane and interest at commercial rate for any delay. Nonpayment would entail confiscation of stocks of sugar held by the mills and their property if need be. Further defiance was punishable with arrest of the owners and sentence. But it was seldom enforced and the industry could hold back payments sometimes for years with impunity. Only once during the incumbency of VP Singh as chief minister of UP the law was effectively invoked and used against the erring owners like the Modis, arrest
Since then (the Janata Party governments time) the sugar industry has successfully held up this bogey of chaos to scare away any talk of delicensing of manufacturing, but it needs to be noted that the Janata Party government only decontrolled the distribution of sugar under the persuasion/ pressure of the sugar lobby. It did not do away with the system of licensing which is abhorred by the industry.
warrants against whom were issued. The arrears got cleared within a week. An interesting episode in this context still reverberates in my mind. This pertains to the year 1986, which was a year of shortage of sugarcane. The centre had announced Rs 18.50 per quintal as the minimum support price as against Rs 16 for the previous year. The state advised price (SAP) being paid in UP in the previous year was Rs 22. The state government was thus expected to raise the price to Rs 26 to make it reasonably attractive for the farmers. The mill owners themselves being conscious of the shortage were inclined to pay Rs 28 to get enough supplies to run their full capacities. But the then CM of UP, Virbahadur Singh, announced the SAP at Rs 24 only. At a meeting called by him, the industry expressed apprehensions that adequate supplies would not be forthcoming at Rs 24and that they be allowed to pay Rs 28. The CM not only brushed aside the doubts but went to the extent of threatening to have the weighing centres (the kantas) of those who dared pay more than Rs 24. He also assured them that it was his business to see that they get sufficient cane. To achieve that, he resorted to the dirty trick of banning the movement of sugarcane and its products including
jaggery etc. to the other states. That, as has already been mentioned, was the standard weapon used by the government to force the hands of the farmers and for gratifying the industry. This was strongly resented to by the farming community. I took a delegation to VP Singh, then union finance minister and president UPCC, who referred us to the CM camping at UP Bhawan on 8 January, 1986. We tried to convince him that he himself being a farmer was expected to protect the interest of farmers, and also that mills would be starved of supplies. Instead of responding positively, he used abusing language saying Hum dekhte hain kaun saala kisan ganna nahin deta, meaning that he would see which bloody farmer did not supply cane. Every one was stunned. But I could not hold myself and paid him back in the same coin, saying, Hum bhi dekhte hain kaun.sarkar 28 rupaye se kum par ganna leti hai and came out of the meeting. It was reported back to VP Singh, who then sought the intervention of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi to have the order reversed on 25 January, 1986. The whole industry was in shackles. Almost every item right from cane to the end and byproducts were strictly controlled. The government used to take 45% of

Sweet Mess!
Manoj Kumar, 33, assistant manager in a PSU
Anisha Chaudhari, 26, Businessperson
Charan Singh chided the farmers for growing more cane than was needed with his infamous remark Mere sir par aur ganna bo do (sow some cane on my head too). What should the farmers base their sowing estimate on when governments that profess to insulate the industry and the economy from regular cycles have to this day not instituted an advisory service for the guidance of farmers?
sugar as levy at a fixed price. The remaining, though called free sale sugar, needed to be released by the government for sale in the open market every month individually for each factory. Even the low value molasses, which has the potential of being converted into more than two dozen high value products, had a full control on price, distribution, movement and use for making other products such as alcohol. Each alcohol and cattle feed manufacturer had to obtain a quota every time. All these entailed greasing of the palms of officials, and through them, and sometimes directly those of the politicians. Even after the onset of the process of economic reforms, the ban on use of vacuum pan technology, which itself was several decades old, continued denying the small operators a level playing field and advantage of good recovery on cane crushed by them. All the time all the governments were professing to encourage the farmers and the village industry. Even the Swadeshi lobby was found highly wanting on this score. The most chaotic situation was always in UP. Many of these archaic practices, however, were given a go by during the chief ministership of Charan Singh and then the Janata Party regime at the centre. A few restrictions and controls were removed during Narasimha Raos time, the most important being that on molasses. Some, however, still remained. But, all these were only piecemeal. Unfortunately, numerous and quite strong vestiges of avoidable ad hocism and unnecessary interventionism of the government still continue to mar this important industry and cause instability and loss of the ultimate potential that it has if only some of the restrictions are removed. The first of these is the concept of reserved area that needs to be done away with to make entry and exit, including use of any technology, completely free to usher in full competition and pave the way for the most efficient and diverse systems of production, ownership, management and location. Why there should be any restriction on cogeneration of power, ethanol and any other value added product, for which there is a huge scope, is beyond comprehension. In order to straighten the legal position, the Industries Development Act and all other related pieces of legislation should be suitably amended. Secondly, the dichotomy of the centrally announced minimum support price (MSP) and the state advised price (SAP), that is peculiar to sugarcane only, must be replaced with only statutory minimum price (SMP) enforceable in the whole country, subject, however, to different levels of normative recoveries that differ in terms of time of the
season and the regions. To make the prices reasonably attractive to farmers, the methodology of calculation of costs of sugarcane cultivation used by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has got to be made more rational and scientific at par with the system of industrial costing adopted by the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices (BICP). Thirdly, the office of the cane commissioner in the states and the department of sugar at the centre have completely lost relevance. Instead of helping the development of sugarcane farming and the industry, they are acting more to impede. The processors and the farmers should be asked to enter into direct contracts that are legally binding on both in terms of prices and supplies as is in vogue in many other cases. Fourthly, the still remaining levy system too should go. For maintaining supplies and prices of sugar, the government can build up a buffer stock buying in the open market including imports. To keep an effective check on prices, introducing the price band mechanism, wherein both the minimum and maximum prices are announced, for the protection of farmers and consumers interest, is overdue. The last important issue that warrants immediate review is the system of cooperatives. In case of sugar industry, the cooperatives of Maharashtra, in spite of some weaknesses, are the best model of the existing ones. In UP and almost all other states, the cooperative sugar mills are run by hand-picked civil servants. Although the farmers are share holders, they are hardly involved in the management and are satisfied being addressed as member, director or chairman of the managing committee, which acts only as an advisory body that can be scrapped at the will of the administration to do away with the unwanted and make way for favourites. The elections to these
bodies are highly tinkered with by the politicians and officials. In spite of the model cooperative act circulated by the central government, the state governments have not overhauled their respective cooperative legislation. It must be done through an appropriate central legislation immediately. Before concluding, the recent fiasco created by the ministry of food and agriculture in the matter of declaring the so-called fair and remunerative prices for the farmers calls for a brief comment. The price declared was Rs 129.84 per quintal, which had hardly any basis, particularly in view of the much higher prices obtaining in the immediately preceding two years consecutively. It was much below the recommendation of the CACP, which by itself was not really remunerative. The ministry notified it through an ordinance, though Parliament session was due very soon. It went to the extent of saying that any government or authority requiring the mills to pay higher SAP shall have to bear the burden itself. This happened for the first time in India. Instead of removing the anomaly of MSP and SAP, it further complicated the matter. It came in handy to the irrelevant opposition parties. Farmers agitated. Even a layman knew that no cane would be available at this price. Prices of sugar too peaked to all time heights without any tenable reason. The statements by the concerned minister have all through been funny and unbecoming of his position. Instead of soothing the sentiment and speculation, these tended to fan both. Prices of sugar and all essential commodities kept on shooting up unabated. The rationale of this type of behaviour smacking of casualness and lack of responsibility is yet to be made out. All that can be said is that all this was wholly avoidable. The proof of this is that the decision on price and its modality as well as ministerial statements had to be reversed and clarified subsequently. But the damage had already been done. n
All politicians need to be beaten up. The sugar crisis is man-made. Sharad Pawar is 100 percent responsible for it. He should be removed from the ministry. It is high time the government controls sugar supplies all over the country. It is up to the administration to take action now. Pawar is the minister, he should be held responsible.
I dont think the sugar shortage is fully artificial. Maybe 30-40 percent of the problem is man-made but the rest of it is real. The government cant take this much risk, there must be some actual problem too. I think it should become better in a couple of months as people are more aware nowadays. I dont know how far Sharad Pawar is responsible. If we knew who was responsible then we would have gone and held him by his throat.
superstore Noida
Ravi Choudhary
Deepa Singh, 30, housewife
June Chaudhari, 61, senior advocate, Supreme Court
Sugar shortage has occurred because of black marketing. This is an artificial shortage. Sugar has become so costly that I think we might have to stop drinking tea. Beer factories are being supplied our share of sugar also. Sharad Pawar is running a sugar mafia around here. Why are the wives of these ministers not feeling the pinch? How are they running their houses? We might have to stop drinking tea and eating sweets.
The official news is that the prices are rising because less sugar is being produced. But it is an item that is being used by almost everybody in the country. 95 percent of the people in the country use sugar so it is sad that the government is not able to keep a check on its price. I would say that it is the middlemen who create an artificial shortage of the commodity. Farmers are still getting the same price but there is a difference in the market price of sugar. The price of sugar has been rising for some time now but suddenly before we could realise it, it was in the 50s per kg. I dont remember a time previously when sugar prices were so high.

Sweet Mess!
photos: ravi choudhary
How cane price is determined
Why didnt Sharad Pawar forewarn the Cabinet about cane shortage?
The story of Raj Kumar & why your sugar is sour

Ajay Singh aj Kumar, 50, from N a g l a Mubarik village of Muzaffar Nagar in western Uttar Pradesh, is a much relieved man these days. In his four-decade life as a farmer, he had encountered many financial ups and downs. But now he thinks he has insured himself against the uncertainties of life and farming. That is because, three years ago, he changed his crop pattern and instead of growing sugarcane on a substantial portion of his land, he started growing mostly poplar trees with a smaller area for sugarcane and turmeric. Poplar is a new variety of fruitless tree that provides the raw material for furniture. It
his complex issue bothers the government every year. Like minimum support price determined by the union government for procurement of food grains, the commission for agriculture costs and prices (CACP) under the agriculture ministry, decides in the price for per quintal of sugarcane. The price so determined is called statutory minimum price (SMP). Sugarcane cannot be sold below this price. But in addition to the SMP, states have devised their own law to determine procurement of sugarcane. Though this is called state advised price (SAP), it is legally binding on the mills. Every year the state governments normally keep the SAP higher than the SMP in order to win over farmers. In UP sugar mill owners described it arm-twisting by successive state regimes and went in appeal in the Allahabad high court. Though they lost in the high court, their appeal in the Supreme Court successfully put the Centre and the state government on mat. The apex court pulled up the Centre for putting
SMP incompatible with the cost of production. The Court ordered the union government to pay for the losses incurred by these mills on account of higher SMP. The implementation of this entailed an expenditure of Rs 12000 crore. The government immediately brought in an ordinance to neutralise the SCs order and discovered a new nomenclature for SMP- fair and remunerative price (FRP). In the ordinance, the government decreed that sugarcane price be fixed at Rs 129.84 per quintal and any state governments setting SAP above this would have to pay from their own coffers. This trigerred massive Dharna and demonstration in New Delhi on November 19 which disrupted the life in the Capital. The impact of the demonstration was such that the government annulled the clause that determined the price and put the onus of payment on the state government over and above the FRP. However this was done only after Rahul Gandhi took up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh subsequent to the rally.
Ajit Singh, former union agriculture minister
ormer union agriculture minister Ajit Singh always wears the cap of Kisan leader, a political legacy bequeathed to him by his father Chaudhary Charan Singh. He blames the centre for the sugar mess. Excerpts from an interview: Why do you blame Sharad Pawar for the price rise? Even the prime minister has blamed him for the price rise. I know that Pawar says the price rise is collective responsibility of the cabinet. This is true. But whose responsibility was it to forewarn the union cabinet about 30 percent less acreage of sugarcane? There is commission for agiruclture costs and price (CACP) which evaluates the critical cost inputs. His ministry must be aware of the steep fall in sugarcane production. The impending shortage was evident. Did Pawar brief the cabinet about it? If yes then he should tell us the response of the PM. If not then his silence is intriguing. You see the UPA government released all the buffer stock before the Maharashtra polls knowing full well that the situation would aggravate. How could the crisis be resolved? Is there anybody serious in resolving the crisis? Should the prime minister not hold a meeting of chief ministers on price rise instead of discussing it with chief secretaries? In fact, the price rise of sugar is artificially created by pursuing short-term policies and pandering to industrial lobbies. Given Pawars close association with the cooperative sugar factories in Maharashtra, Pawar could not have been oblivious to the impending crisis. On the other hand, he worsened the crisis by giving hints of impending sugar shortage to the international market. You held a huge meeting of farmers in Delhi? Did it convey the message? Thats another serious issue. The government does not care about any issue till it threatens to snowball into a law and order crisis. That is exactly what happened on November 19. I held a bigger meeting in Meerut on the same issue but no one bothered about it. After the Delhi meeting, the government made the sugarcane price fixed by it as void and annulled the clause which shifted the burden of payment to the state government if the SAP is higher than the fixed price. In fact the sugarcane price determination known as Fair and Remunerative Price was done in most unfair way. I hold Pawar responsible for that. Would you approve if mill owners in UP are allowed to import raw sugar to make up for the deficit? Let the mill owners crush sugarcane to the last stick. There is ample sugarcane to run the mills till March. Raw sugar is required only after March.
CHANGING PRIORITIES: Raj Kumar in his fileds. Once it was just sugarcane, now cane has yielded acreage to poplar trees.
(this is quite unlike rice, wheat, pulses etc which the government buys from the farmers). But the price at which they buy is regulated at two levels. First, the centre announces what is called the minimum support price (MSP) which means the millowners cannot buy sugarcane below that price. Second, after the MSP is set, the state governments fix what is called the State Advised Price (SAP). SAP is always set higher than MSP and is binding on the millowners. On paper, thus, the farmer is well protected from the vagaries of the market forces. But things dont work to a plan always. Especially not in the volatile business of sugarcane production which swings from glut to shortage in the space of a few production years. The genesis of the current sugar crisis can be traced to the year 2006. To put a lid on rising prices,
sucks the soil nutrients, guzzles ground water and debilitates other crops in adjacent fields in the long run. But it pays! says Kumar. His reasoning is simple: You need hard cash to run a house. Poplar and turmeric would fetch him instant cash whereas traditional crops like sugarcane, paddy and wheat are neither reliable nor profitable. As for the damage in the long run, he seems to have internalised the famous Keynesian maxim, In the long run we all are dead. Theres a simple link between Kumars story and our lives: the skyrocketing price of sugar. The relief Kumar is experiencing because of the hard cash he gets from poplar is what is burning your purse. Yes, complex and complicated as the issue of sugar pricing is, this is the easiest way to understand why that sweet
cube has seen price highs that it has not seen ever before: close to Rs 50 per kg in cities such as Delhi. Because, Kumar is not alone in abandoning sugarcane farming. In 2009 alone five million sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh have similarly dumped sugarcane farming. So, in trying to understand the mess that is the sugar industry, this is the first simple equation: Nearly 30 percent drop in the acreage of sugarcane (because millions of Kumars have found poplar better than sugarcane), a correspondingly big drop in sugarcane production and the consequent runaway prices of sugar. But what is making the millions of Kumars of western Uttar Pradesh, the sugar bowl of the country, abandon sugarcane farming? Sugarcane farmers sell their produce to the millowners
the government banned export of sugar. As the prices started stabilising and then tumbling, came the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons both of which saw sugarcane production far in excess of demand. Prices in India dropped but prices in the world market too crashed making even exports unviable. This situation recoiled on farmers such as Kumar. Faced with a glut in cane production and rising stocks of sugar, the mills found it unviable to lift sugarcane at the SAP. For two successive years, 2007 and 2008, farmers were stuck with their produce with no buyers. Even if they found buyers, they were not willing to buy at SAP and the mills were not paying on time. We have not been paid our dues for the past two years, says Kumar as other villagers nod in agreement. While arrears were mounting, the MSP for cane stagnated whereas that of rice and wheat saw an exponential growth of 30 to 40 percent in the same time. No wonder Kumar and millions of others like him started abandoning sugarcane from 2007-08 in search of greener pastures, so to say.
But then came the cane-crushing season of September-October 2009. Sugarcane was much in demand. The 120-odd sugar mills of UP were willing to pay Rs 250 per quintal, Rs 90 in excess of the SAP, but there was just not enough cane on offer because Kumars relationship with sugarcane had soured. This year we are getting the right price for our produce, says Kumar but he is unable to grab this manna from the heaven because he just did not grow enough of it. Thats the second simple equation in the ensuing sugar crisis. Kumar is denied SAP in 2007 and 2008, he is not paid on time by the mills, tonnes of sugarcane is lying on his fields because the mills just do not lift enough -- and he has to literally burn the cane to get his land vacated for the next alternative cash crop. So in 2009 he just does not have enough sugarcane to feed the mills. But the mills have to roll and that can be done only by importing raw sugar from countries like Brazil and Indonesia. And here is where short-sighted policy and deep-rooted politics enter the equation. Union

Sweet Mess!

GenX & Governance
agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is himself an industry insider from the other big sugar producing region of the country, Maharashtra but failed to anticipate trouble or refused to. As former agriculture minister and another sugar belt politician Ajit Singh says (interview along side), there was no way Pawar could not have known that the acreage under cane production had shrunk and that the 2009-10 season would see huge shortfall in cane production. He could have forseen the problem and initiated imports in the first half of 2009. He not only did not do that, he also chose to release all buffer stocks of sugar to hold down prices till after the elections. Elections over, buffer stocks exhausted, and production down by nearly 40 percent, it was an invitation to disaster. Equation three. Pawar responded by opening the floodgates to import raw sugar. Mills from Maharashtra, UP, Karnataka and Gujarat rushed to the international market and ordered raw sugar to meet the shortfall of 70 lakh tonnes of sugar in the domestic market. Things would have perhaps smoothened out but there was one more actor waiting to enter the equation. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati. In this unfolding crisis, Mayawati found an opportunity to fish in troubled waters. About 90 private mills of UP had ordered import of 8 lakh tonnes of raw sugar. If the mills had started processing the raw sugar immediately, it could perhaps have eased the crisis and, of course, the mill owners would have made a killing. Somebody in the government apparently wanted a share of the pie. Industry insiders say that in a series of meetings a minister dropped enough hints to the mill owners to fatten the BSPs party fund. We were asked to levy Rs 10 per quintal on sugarcane to contribute to the party fund, said a top industry source. The amount so collected would be around Rs 400 crore which the sugar industry in UP was unable to pay. The industry as a
My name is Shaheen Muhammed...

Shaheen Muhammed
Editors Note
Friday, February 12, Mumbai. Shah Rukh Khans movie is due for release but the Shiv Sena has threatened one and all against screening it. All of Mumbai chooses not to risk life and limb and stays indoor. But Shaheen Muhammed, 19, is openly defying the Shiv Sena. She has travelled from Santacruz to watch the movie at a theatre closest to the Thackeray home. That one act of defiance, token though it might be, should make it clear that the Twitter generation cares about governance and national affairs. If you are young and concerned, too, write to us at feedback@governancenow.com
Im neither a terrorist nor am I afraid of the Thackerays
HUFFING AND PUFFING: A sugar factory in Uttar Pradeshs Muzaffar Nagar.
whole decided not to succumb to the pressure tactics. The first retaliatory measure that came from the UP government was to ban the import of raw sugar on the pretext of law and order (for fear that the farmers might turn violent). About 8 lakh tonnes of raw sugar procured by UP sugar mills was thus lying in Kandla port for months. This was followed by the seizure of raw sugar from Simbhawali sugar mill, one of oldest factories in West UP. So much terror was brought upon the mills that a senior executive quietly slipped out of the country waiting for the issue to subside. But this is not the story of Simbhawali mill alone. There are at least 100-odd cases slapped against the managements of about 40 mills under section 3 of the Essential Commodities Maintenance Act and various other offences. It is law of jungle out there, said the president of a powerful sugar group while drawing a parallel with Darwins theory of survival for the fittest in the countrys most populous state. The
Like Raj Kumar, millions of sugarcane growers in western UP, the sugar bowl of India, were wary of growing sugarcane and switched to new cash crops which may be harmful for them in long run. But they seem to have internalised the famous Keynesian maxim, In the long run we all are dead.
obvious implication is that those owners without deep pockets would leave the state while others might wait a bit longer. Many UP mills actually had to sell their raw sugar stocks to mills in other states. (The ban was lifted on February 22 when UP was about to hit the dry season.) A greedy UP government, idle UP mills, wasting raw sugar stocks: that makes up equation four of the sugar crisis. Quite clearly, the vicious cycle of glut and shortage in the sugar industry spins out of selfish and short-sighted motives of policy planners at the centre and in the states. As the sugarcane shortage is taking its toll on UP sugar mills which were the largest source of sugar supply, the crisis appears to be rather grim. That means theres hardly any chance of Raj Kumar returning to sugarcane farming in a big way any time soon and you and me buying sugar at reasonable price. And thats the final equation of the sugar crisis: that it is not about to disappear in a hurry. n
had come alone all the way from my residence to this place to watch the film. My message was clear: This was supposed to be a defiant message to Mr Bal Thackeray that he was nobody to decide what I did with he first thing I did after I got up on the morn- my life. Neither could be woo me nor threaten me. This was to tell him ing of February 12, the day Shah Rukh Khans that I will watch the film and will watch under his very nose. If only the My Name Is Khan was supposed to release, theatre owners had shown courage and released the film on time. If was to call INOX, Santacruz to enquire if they only every Mumbaikar had come out to see the film to protest against were going to screen the film. I wanted to see it...first those goons. day first show. The phone went unanswered. I then Finally I got to watch the film at Fun Cinemas at Andheri in the afswitched on the television. Every news channel was ternoon. People turned up, media was already there, cops were ready broadcasting the same story of the uncertainty of the release of MNIK and so were the Sainiks. Finally everything sailed smooth amidst all in Mumbai because of the threat from the Shiv Sena. Over the last few adversities and the Indian media picked up their winner. days, this whole issue had been agitating my mind with every comShah Rukh Khan. ment from the Shiv Sena and every interview of Shah Rukh. Then After watching the film and giving a few bytes to the news channels I one channel mentioned a theatre near Mr Bal Thackerays went back to my hostel and slept. I had done my part and felt house. Immediately, I knew what I wanted to do: I wantgreat. I did what I could do as a lay citizen. So, please go watch ed to see the movie, right under the Shiv Senas nose. The the film amidst all the threats and support the view that not next moment I slipped into a soiled black t-shirt, grabbed all Pakistanis are terrorist, that Shah Rukh said othing wrong, my jhola and walked down my hostel looking for an auto that Mr Bal Thackeray issues senseless statements and that wala. He asked me kahan? I said, Jahan Bal Thackeray Shiv Sainiks are jobless people driven by some extreme porehte hain. He looked a little perplexed but drove me to litical agenda of which they themselves have no clue. But the my destination. I still remember watching my face in the most important view: No extremist political party can decide auto rearview. For some very serious reasons, my face was what an average Mumbaikar wants to do on a holiday. burning. MY COUNTRY In a very shameful way, Mumbai is controlled by these From Santacruz to Bandra(E), all I could see were policegoons. Apart from a few big names coming to Barkha Dutts men. If I had not known about the MNIK-Sena scuffle, I We the People, nobody comes out openly to dispute this fawould have thought that Mumbai has just been subjected natic group that is multiplying and growing like an amoeba. to another 26/11. I made it to Cinemax, Kalanagar, a theatre, close by to As an average citizen, I do not understand political parties hidden the Thackeray residence, a little before 8 am, the scheduled show time. agendas, neither do I comprehend the medias biases and portrayal of Police vans, about thirty cops and a news channel crews were already issues. The only thing that really matters to me right now is that yeh in place. I silently walked into the theatre. It was empty and the ticket jo kuch bhi ho raha haibilkul galat ho raha hai. Seriously people, counter guys thought I was mad. are we out of issues that we actually have the leisure and time to fight I said, Ek My Name is Khan ki ticket. upon pesky matters like should SRKs film release or not? Mumbai beMadam, film abhi yahan release nahi ho rahi. longs to whom? Are all Pakistanis terrorist? Are all Muslims terrorist? Kyun kya problem hai? Paper men to 8 baje ka show diya hua hai. I am not an activist nor am I here to change the world. I am here Ji Mam, but ab vo cancel ho gaya hai. to question. Assert my basic rights. My basic freedom of expression Kyun? and to understand why the hell if my parents have no objection to Vo abhi koi faisla nahi aaya hai. my watching a film should any hundred anonymous strangers with To mujhe next show ka ticket de do. teekas on their head matter to me and why I should bother to listen to Madam, sare shows cancel ho gaye hain. a funny man dressed always in orange. Later I learnt from the journalists at the spot that the Shiv Sainiks I know I sound madly cynical and at many instances completely ilimhad already made sure that MNIK would not be released, at least not mature. I might well be, Im just 19. I suppose that is what the system at this theatre, so close to the Thackeray pride. NDTV asked me why I makes out of you one day. Angry and frustrated. n
M Y WAY

Up & Coming
ravi choudhary
He may well be the symbol of a new politics: a youngster with no political connections rebuilds the Youth Congress and becomes MP. All he wants is to harness the youth and deliver better governance.
Trithesh Nandan he Congress might have ruled the country far longer than any other party but in the rarefied world of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, its presence is hardly noticeable. Most students here wear Che Guevara T-shirts, debate ideologies and vote for the Left. The SFI, the student wing of CPI-M, is to the campus what the Congress is to the rest of the country. SFI activists circulate an old joke during annual students union elections: ABVP (of the BJP) is a tumour, AISA (of the
Rise and rise of Ashok Tanwar

CPI-ML) is a rumour, and the NSUI is humour. No wonder, then, that Ashok Tanwar, the young MP from Sirsa, in his time as the campus in-charge of the NSUI, led his organisation to many defeats. The surprising part is that those who used to beat him at polls are now trying to come to terms with the world outside the campus while he is part of Rahul Gandhis handpicked team that is likely to shape a significant part of Indias future. Sandeep Mahapatra, the only JNU Students Union president from ABVP till date, says, I never thought Tanwar would become an MP. In the 2000 JNUSU elections, he was way behind and almost at the bottom of the tally. Those who lived in the Kaveri hostel in the late 1990s and early 2000s remember him as a very unassuming and friendly fellow and nothing more. They were in for a surprise when a huge hoarding came up outside the campus entrance, congratulating Tanwar on becoming the Indian Youth Congress chief in 2005. The 35-year-old first-time MP, on his part, has only kind words for the campus. I had my own share of taunts at the campus which generally prefers Left parties in the elections, Tanwar says with a smile. Politics in JNU makes you an activist. Be it shouting slogans or putting up banners and posters or addressing a whole crowd, you learn to do
consensus politics, to debate with the opposition. I improved my public speaking skills when I addressed crowds at the Ganga Dhaba during the presidential debate on the eve of the students union elections, recalls Tanwar. Tanwars political career started when he enrolled himself with the legendary history department of the JNU in 1997. He joined NSUI, soon contested students union polls, rose to become the NSUI campus unit chief and the candidate for the post of the president. While the campus failed to appreciate his political skills, his organisation did not and he became general secretary of the NSUI in 1999, only to rise to the post of president in 2003. Thus, while his batchmates were submitting their doctorate theses and searching for jobs, Tanwar was already moving up in the party hierarchy, one step at a time. In 2005, the man with no political patronage and from a dalit army mans family became the president of the Youth Congress. The big moment came in 2009 when the Congress chose him to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Sirsa. It was thanks to Rahul Gandhi that I got the party ticket from Sirsa, he says. Sirsa was considered the bastion of two powerful leaders of Haryana Om Prakash Chautala and Bhajan Lal. Tanwar won by a significant margin. What exactly is the secret of his success? Even his admirers would admit that he does not have the mass base, oratorial skills, great vision or natural leadership. What worked in his favour, according to his supporters, was that he was the right man in the right position at the right time. When Rahul Gandhi, appointed Congress general secretary in charge of the youth wing in 2007, wanted to transform the Youth Congress from a slothful organisation to a spirited, chargedup body, it was Tanwar who delivered. It now claims to be the largest youth organisation in the world, has become crucial to the grand old partys proyouth agenda, and the credit largely goes to this young MP. India is a young country with about 70 percent of its 1.1 billion population under the age of 40, Tanwar reasons, It was just logical to harness the potential of youth in politics. Others in the organisation explain how he did the harnessing. Suresh Negi, who initiated him into JNU politics, says, Ashok was extremely lucky. The Congress needed a young dalit face, where Ashok was an answer. Youth Congress general secretary
For years, political parties missed out on the youth. The Congress has taken a major lead in roping in this vast untapped force. And the youth have started queueing up to join the party, bringing with them a fresh outlook on governance.
Nyamar Karvak explains more charitably, During Tanwars tenure, the organisation has put in a lot of efforts to stay connected and be politically relevant to the youth. Karvak adds that Tanwar travelled through the northeast to consolidate the organisation there, the first Youth Congress leader to put in such effort. Office-bearers also credit Tanwar for rooting out aging leaders and bringing in the fresh blood. Tanwar is a man of commitment. He struggled like any grassroots political worker, says Kuntal Krishna, a Youth Congress leader. He used to carry eight-nine kg of posters on his back, used to walk to various places and then paste the posters on the wall himself during his initial days in the Youth Congress and the NSUI, Krishna adds, It was an inspiring gesture. The Youth Congress under Tanwars leadership moved from rally in car to march on the street, from five-star culture to the college campus, meeting people instead of politicians and from corridors of power to panchayats, explains Krishna.
Insiders say Rahul Gandhi could not help but notice and appreciate Tanwars ways of rebuilding the organisation. Before charting out his future course, Rahul Gandhi engaged the organisation in a threadbare analysis involving experts from all walks of life, Tanwar recalls, And the outcome was encouraging. The partys victory in 2009 bears testimony to this. The young Gandhis vision was implemented by Tanwar in a very short span, and he brought about visible changes to the moribund organisation at a time when they were badly needed, says Vikram Malhotra, another general secretary of Youth Congress. Tanwar quickly became an important part of Rahul Gandhis plans to revive the Congress at the grassroots, Malhotra adds. Tanwar was available round-theclock for the organisation, Krishna adds, He gave freedom to all officebearers and encouraged democracy within the party even as he strived for consensus. Tanwar also implemented the scheme called Aam Aadmi ka Sipahi (the common mans soldier), launched in 2009 to make people aware of various welfare schemes of the UPA government including the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. For years political parties missed out on the youth. The Congress has taken a major lead in roping in this vast untapped force. And the youth have started queueing up to join the party. They bring with them a fresh outlook on governance that the older generations were deficient in, Tanwar said. He added that the party was training the youth to identify local issues and launch agitations in their areas. Tanwars term as Youth Congress president ended in February 2010. He can now focus better on his constituency. During the election campaign, he had highlighted governance and development issues of the area. Sirsa is a backward area, which lacks even basic amenities like health and education, said Tanwar. Governance should reach the common people, says the first-time MP and to ensure that he visits Sirsa once a week and sometimes twice a week. Meanwhile, despite his hectic schedule, he has also managed to complete his PhD thesis on The Maratha-Rajput Relations in the 18th century. Alphonse de Lamartine said in the 19th century that History teaches everything, including the future. As a student of history, I have learned that if we imbibe history, it will only make our future bright. n
A FORTNIGHTLY MAGAZINE
Babus will not rate ministers

ome ministers who were rattled with reports that officials working under them will monitor their performance should be relieved now. The Prime Ministers Office has clarified that the performance monitoring system is not intended to give a bureaucrat the right to evaluate a ministers work. The PMO said Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs order in this regard made it clear the process would
Make performance your point

Rs 1,133 crore Mission Mode Project
have to be driven by ministers. At the beginning of each financial year, with the approval of the minister concerned, each department will prepare a results-framework document (RFD) consisting of the priorities set out by the ministry concerned; the minister in charge will decide the inter-se priority among the departmental objectives, the statement said quoting from the PMs order. The ministers in charge will also approve the corresponding success
indicators (key result areas -- KRAs or key performance indicators -KPIs) and time-bound targets to measure progress in achieving these objectives, the statement said.
now on stands
he states will develop and upgrade the IT systems in their commercial taxes administrations at an overall cost of Rs 1,133 crore under a Mission Mode Project for computerisation of commercial taxes administrations. The focus of the project, approved by the union cabinet on February 17, is to provide improved services to the dealers and to improve the efficiency of the commercial taxes administrations of the state governments. The commercial taxes are the largest revenue sources for the states, often constituting up to twothirds of a states revenue.
abinet Secretary K.M. Chandrashekhar has called for benchmarking public services in the SAARC region and making them user friendly by adopting eGovernance. Inaugurating the SAARC Workshop on e-Governance in New Delhi on February 16, he said that because of commonality of culture, administrative experience and
Adopt eGov, benchmark public service
other features joint efforts should be made to identify the services to be delivered and a third-party evaluating mechanism should be adopted. The top bureaucrat stressed on pooling of experiences in the field of ICT-enabled service delivery. This, he said, would definitely bring about a sea change in administration and service delivery mechanism.
for subscription sms* GN to 56070

Governance now, a magazine and a website, reports and debates all our daily concerns, from criminalisation of politics to price rise, from green energy to rural development. And provides inputs that empower agents of change. A veritable one-stop think tank for bureaucrats, policymakers, leaders and of course engaged citizens.
Air India to get Rs 800 crore

government says is not sufficient for an aviation company of its size. The company is currently struggling to address costly legacy assets, a weakening revenue stream and high cost structure resulting in rising liabilities. NACIL has been implementing a turnaround plan along with cost reduction and revenue enhancement programme focusing on fleet rationalisation, route profitability, manpower rationalisation and structural changes.
A360 WEBSITE
SABGROUP venture
*t & c apply
www.
.com
ir India, reeling under financial distress, will get Rs 800 crore from the government in the form of equity. The cabinet on February 18 approved the proposal for equity infusion to National Aviation Company of India Ltd, the holding company. The move is aimed at helping the national carrier tide over its cash-flow problems and finance fleet acquisition. NACIL has a paid-up equity capital of Rs 145 crore, which the
For advertising details contact Gautam Navin. +91 9818125257. gautam@governancenow.com

For subscription details contact Banisha Verma. +91 9350825254. banisha@governancenow.com or sms* GN to 56070

eGovernance Star
The key is to rejig processes

Brajesh Kumar hivesh Singh, a sales manager with a job portal in Delhi, remembers booking a railway ticket in those pre-internet days. He would start getting fidgety days before he was to visit the railway reservation office to get a ticket for his hometown Bokaro in Jharkhand. The mere thought of standing in one of the many serpentine queues amid chaos at the reservation office on the Chelmsford Road made him twitchy. He was uneasy not only about the prospect of standing in a queue for long, but also at several other dreadful possibilities just as your turn came the officer would take a break or the computer screen would go blank. Moreover, if you wanted to know which of the trains had tickets available and plan your travel accordingly, you needed to start the process at the inquiry counter. So, more often than not, he chose the easy way out and paid Rs 100 to a tout or an agent who would get him the ticket. Today, eights years after the internet ticketing was launched, all he needs to do to get a rail ticket is log in to his Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) account and book a ticket through his credit card or internet banking account. For me, the world history is not divided into BC or AD, but into before-IRCTC and after-IRCTC, he says. Now he books tickets on his laptop, sitting in his flat in Vaishali, Ghaziabad.
Boom for railways, boon for passengers

Online ticket booking is one great success story in eGov, making our lives a bit easier and delivering dizzying growth for the IRCTC
Ravi Choudhary
PK Goel, Chief Administration Officer (CAO)
National Train enquiry system and of course the internet ticketing system. When and how was internet ticketing system envisioned? The introduction of internet ticketing system in 2002 was the next logical step after we had digitised most of the data required for the successful implementation of the internet ticketing system. The computerisation in the railways had begun in 1985-86. By 1992-93 we were ready to introduce the passenger reservation system in which the tickets would be booked through computers and not manually. In the following years, this was taken all across india. By late 1990s, internet had come into reckoning and it was spreading fast. So, in 2001-02, we began the process of internet ticketing in association with our sister organisation, centre for railways information system (CRIS). Why has internet ticketing clicked while many government organisations have failed in making proper use of ICT? Most of the e-Governance initiatives fail because we do not pay sufficient attention to government process re-engineering. Buying hardware and software is only the means to successful implementation of ICT in any department, and not the end. An overhaul of the processes is a critical necessity. At railways, we had the benefit of computerisation that had begun in mid-1980s. Also, in the internet ticketing system, the concerns of the users was the top priority. We made every effort at improving the services for our users. How do you see the role of IT in railways in coming times? I remember having received a letter from a villager in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh. He told me how the internet ticketing system had made a difference to his life. Earlier, he had to travel about 50 km to the nearest town to get a ticket reservation done, which entailed spending as much on travelling as on the ticket; the time spent in travelling was of course another factor. But after the internet ticketing system was introduced, he cycled 5 km to the nearest information kiosk and got it done through the kiosk owner. I am recounting this story because IT not only brings a technological change but also a social change. I am sure the man from Sitapur understood the benefits of technology now and will ensure this gets percolated down to his family members and then to his village. In railways we are making the use of IT to make lives of our users easier. Our next project is introduction of an integrated web portal where all railway services from ticketing to complaints to bookings for parcel, freight, and retiring rooms will be available.
PK Goel, chief administration officer (CAO), passenger information officer (PIS), Indian Railways, is considered the infotech man of Railways. During his tenure as managing director, IRCTC from June 2006 to January 2008, the number of reservations through internet went up from 7,000 to 1,00,000. As CAO, PIS, Goel, is involved in preparing a blueprint for an integrated web portal for all railways services. In an interview with Governance Now, Goel spoke about his contribution to internet ticketing system and his current preoccupation with the integrated web portal. As managing director of IRCTC, how did you direct the growth of internet ticketing? By the time I took over, the internet ticketing system had already become a successful e-gov initiative and people were rapidly shifting from counter reservation to internet reservation. To make irctc.co.in, the website through which ticket booking is done, take the load, its capacity had to be increased accordingly. So, in my one year as the MD of IRCTC, I took few steps in this direction. The first was to increase the internet bandwidth from 7.5 MB to 100MB. This ensured the speed would not be a letdown. The second step was to increase the number of servers from 12 to 45. The website had a cluttered look, with too many pop-up ads. I ensured this was done away with and the website looked user friendly. Another issue staring us at the railways was the limited number of payment gateways. Then, we only had the provision of booking through credit cards. But not everyone had a credit card. Therefore, we spread the net wider by including debit cards and internet banking in the payment modes and we also introduced cash cards as another mode of payment. We also tied up with Sify to make internet booking through their 3,400 Sify iWay cyber cafes across 154 cities in the country with cash payments. To take internet ticketing to the interiors of the country, we signed memorandum of understandings (MoUs) with different states. When did you get associated with the IT in Railways? My association with IT began in 1989 when I saw the manager, database and systems. Since then, I have been associated with the IT in railways throughout in some capacity or the other. From 1996 to 2002, I was on the railways board where I was heavily involved in various aspects of IT in the railways, like unreserved ticketing system (UTS), Reserved ticketing system (RTS),
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10 Up to Jan 2010
No. of tickets Passenger
Service charge Total turnover

eGovernance Star

In The Bylanes Of Goverance
He is among the 2,03,000 people who book their railway tickets every day from the comfort of their homes or offices. And, the figure has been rising exponentially. On February 16, 2010 we touched the figure of 2.7 lakh, the highest number of tickets sold in recent times, says IRCTC managing director Rakesh Tandon. Indian Railways began the process to facilitate internet ticketing through its subsidiary company IRCTC in 2002. Since then it has not looked back. The entire internet-ticketing concept was conceived, formulated and implemented by IRCTC within a record span of nine months. The operation was launched in collaboration with the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS). IRCTC started by selling i-tickets, printed at its operation centre and then delivered to the users homes or offices within 48-72 hours. Given the travails of manual booking, passengers shifted to the new system in droves. Within three years of its introduction, the number of tickets booked through IRCTC website went up by 75.96 percent, from 1.99 lakh in 2002-03 to 12.81 lakh, and the turnover increased by 72 percent from Rs 27.16 crore to Rs 176.26 crore. The result was so astounding that IRCTC allowed passengers to print e-tickets themselves. On August12, 2005, e-ticketing was launched on pilot basis, and was extended to all trains across the country on February 24, 2006. To be very frank, we did not expect such a gargantuan shift in the ticketing process. However, when we realised it was actually happening, we seriously began thinking of ways to take it to the next level, says IRCTC public relations officer PC Behari. In 2006-07, IRCTC took a number of steps to handle the rush. It increased its internet bandwidth from 7.5 MB to 12 MB, the number of servers from 12 to 45, removed some pop-up ads to give its websites an uncluttered and more userfriendly look, increased payment options from credit cards to debit card, internet banking and cash cards, and started offering online refunds and waiting lists. These steps led to a further increase in the traffic and a phenomenal rise in the turnover, which went up from Rs 704.91 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 4854.75 crore in 2009-10, a rise of 588 percent. While the numbers tell a story of a phenomenal success of the internet ticketing arm of the IRCTC, the road taken to reach where it is today was peppered
Net tickets: your complaints, their clarifications

Users are not happy with the service charge of Rs 20 they have to shell out for every transaction. IRCTC managing director Rakesh Tandon says the amount is small if one takes into account the time and money that a passenger would have spent otherwise. However, since we have already reduced the service charge from Rs 50 to Rs 20, we might as well do away with it in future, he says. Just try booking a Tatkal ticket when the quota opens at 8 am. Very likely, the system will be hung up for a while and when it is back, much fewer tickets would be left. Tandon says it is a minor problem and is somewhat expected, because the rush at that time is too much for the system.
When we launched in 2002, the credit card usage was very low, internet banking was not popular and the issue of security was a big deterrent. However, we kept on improvising with addition of a number of features almost every six months.
Rakesh Tandon Managing director, IRCTC
with challenges. When we launched in 2002, the credit card usage was very low, internet banking was not popular and the issue of security was a big deterrent. However, we kept on improvising with addition of a number of features almost every six months, says Tandon. IRCTC took special care to ensure the GPR government process re-engineering, a key factor in eGovernance initiatives was not ignored. This essentially meant replacement of the hardware, redesigning software and staff training. All these components were taken adequate care of, says Tandon. Since the railways had been undergoing computerisation since the mid 1980s, it had digitised all the information required for internet ticketing by the time the project started years later, in 2002. Also the back-end in terms of software was taken care of by the CRIS. As far as the training of manpower is concerned, all we need to do is train a few hundred staff for the monitoring process, like the cancellation and refund part of internet ticketing. This training goes on regularly for the new staff that joins us, the managing director explains. While IRCTC has been feted for phenomenal growth of its internet ticketing component, it facilitates only 40 percent of the ticketing done across the country. We are aware of the percentage. We are not the ones to sit on our laurels and we are making all efforts to extend its reach, says Behari. For example, e-ticketing was extended to a number of agents who can help those who do not have credit/debit cards. Organisations like Sify, Done Card, ITZ Cash Card and Hughes Communications have been registered for e-ticketing under the internet caf scheme. Now IRCTC is eyeing villages to expand its reach. It has tied up with several states to take internet ticketing to villagers through e-Mitra in Rajasthan, e-Seva in Andhra Pradesh, e-Suvida in Uttar Pradesh, Akshaya in Kerala, and Bangalore in Karnataka. It also has a tie-up with Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation to provide e-ticket reservation facilities to people through their chain of petrol pumps and retail gas agencies We started out with hutments, then we built room all around the hutments, now we plan to build a multi-storey building. I am sure we will soon build it, says Tandon. n
The chief ministers visits spell a return to governance for remote areas of the state
An area of brightness
A day in Nitish Kumars Bihar, which has almost caught up with Gujarat in economic growth and has also empowered people, but in very different ways
Ajay Singh
he contrast is too unmistakable to be ignored. Bihar clocked over 11 percent growth rate, almost at par with Gujarat. But the similarity does not end here. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar may give Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi a run for his money, especially if their popularity index among women is to be compared. In rural Bihar, Kumars popularity keeps on soaring thanks to his drive for women empowerment. With 50 percent reserved for women in elections for panchayats and other local bodies, Kumar has been nursing his constituency quite well. Unlike Modi, however, who has developed the image of a macho leader in pursuit of growth, Kumar comes across as an affable, all-inclusive political persona who has been single-handedly trying to shake the bureaucracy out of its deep slumber and put the state on a fast track to growth. During his fourand-a-half year regime, Kumar, an

In The Bylanes Of Governance

Government Files
engineer by education, has effectively dismantled the male power bastion and empowered the fair sex in the state. Apart from reservation for women in local bodies, his programmes aimed at girls education are wowing women. Girls cycling down to schools in the early mornings has become a usual sight across the state these days. That Nitish Kumar has been accruing immense goodwill of the fair sex is all too evident. On February 15, around 4 pm, as the rotter of his chopper came to a halt at the playground of the Bhiit high school of Siwan district, a visibly relaxed chief minister looked around and found a preponderant presence of women among the audience. Look, this is my constituency, Kumar told me as he slipped into the front seat of his car and drove down five kilometres to his next destination. Those accompanying him during this phase of Vikas Yatra testify that Kumars popularity among women has soared. The reasons are obvious. As compared to the Lalu-Rabri regime of the previous 15 years, the law and order situation has dramatically improved. We no longer fear for the safety of our husbands and sons, commented a woman in Chainpur village of Siwan, a district where mafia dons like Shahabuddin ruled the roost not so long ago. Kumar admits that his schemes for empowering women have been bearing fruit. But he is irked by the short-shrift given to Bihar by the union government. You see, we have been funding over Rs.650 crore for the projects initiated by the Centre under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana. I have been complaining to the PM, Montek Singh (Ahluwalia) and even Sushilkumar Shinde, but to no avail, he said. Now I find all these meetings in Delhi a sham that do no good to the state, Kumar pointed out while explaining his reluctance to attend meetings in Delhi. Unfazed by his opponents and detractors within his own party, Kumar has been making a commitment to put the state on a fast track to growth. Our next target is to construct a good road linking Patna to Kaimur hill region where one can reach within six hours, he said. Kaimur hill tracts are among the worstgoverned and backward regions, where the writ of Naxals and local gangs runs. If the basic infrastructure facilities are improved, governance will naturally be efficient, he pointed out. Kumar has devised his Vikas Yatra as
Nitish Kumar has used the vikas yatra as an effective tool of mobilising the creaky state machinery.... His three-day stay at Ekma, a sleepy town of Chhapra district, ensured supply of long-denied basic amenities to the township and adjoining areas.
Courting competitiveness
Rohit Bansal
Theres good news for those of us who worry about Indias competitiveness. Heres why.
an effective tool for mobilisation of the state administration. Though marred by political bickering that has been plaguing his party with revolts of Rajiv Ranjan Lallan and Prabhu Nath Singh, Kumar continued his journey through the western part of the state, held meetings and janata darbars to monitor the developmental works. His three-day stay at Ekma, a sleepy town of Chapra district, has mobilised the creaky state machinery to ensure supply of basic amenities in the township and adjoining areas. In the adjacent Basaon village, as a 100-watt bulb glowed in a white cement plastered room, Rajendra Singh blinked his eyes in amazement and then cheered with joy. It was a dream come true for the 50-year-old middleschool teacher who had reconciled to living in perpetual darkness. For years he had known that current rarely coursed through the wires connected even in neigbouring areas. But February 15 was not an ordinary day as Kumar chose to visit the village as a part of his Vikas yatra. The administration was literally bending over backwards to ensure supply of electricity and drinking water even though the water tank constructed a decade back was lying in disuse. The tank was repaired overnight and electric poles were put up to electrify the village. The breakneck speed at which all these tasks were carried out only proved that bureaucracy could be efficient if it wanted to be. Perhaps 10,000-odd villagers of Basaon had never had a brush with such a benign administration. In popular perception, the image of the administration comes across as a lethargic, corrupt and extortionist bureaucratic system that harasses hapless villagers and patronises the criminal-political nexus. This image is so firmly etched in the minds of people that they watch in awe and
disbelief the efforts of the administration to help villagers. They are doing it only to put their best foot forward before the chief ministers visit, said sceptical villagers. True, but villagers are the ultimate beneficiaries. The pot-holed roads that link the village to the outside world have been rebuilt and paved to facilitate travel for people over the past fortnight. The roads were so bad even until ten days ago that it required a lot of skill and muscular strength for a driver to negotiate them, confirmed local villagers. In fact, Kumars forays into the remote villages of Bihar has made villagers acutely conscious of their entitlements. They know it too well that they are entitled to dignified life where basic amenities like education, healthcare, roads, safe drinking water and electricity are essential ingredients. The construction of roads started at a fevered pitch with hundreds of machines being deployed in the region that comprises Chapra and Siwan part of west Bihar. We barely get to sleep these days, says the SDPO of Siwan district who is entrusted with the task of ensuring availability of all basic facilities denied to the villagers for ages. But these officials rarely visit us and choose to remain inaccessible, complained villagers who are gleefully watching the discomfiture of the sluggish machinery. On February 15, he travelled across Siwan district and hopped on to the chopper to four different locations. In the morning, he visited a primitive Lord Shivas Mehdar temple in Sahaswan block and then went to Jiradei, the birthplace of Indias first president, Rajendra Prasad, before landing at Bhitti. Throughout his yatra, Kumar appeared to be quietly enjoying the adoration of a silent majority, particularly women, who are empowered and unencumbered by traditional caste hostilities. n
he commercial division of high courts bill, 2009, already cleared by the Lok Sabha, has finally been posed before the Rajya Sabha select committee. The buzz is that the MPs found merit in arguments posed by Sunil Munjal of Hero and Manoj Kumar of Hammurabi & Solomon. The argument that our courts should take much less time to adjudicate commercial disputes is crucial to our competitiveness. If there is indeed a commercial division within our high courts, not only would our learned judges specialise on finer points of global business, our lawyers will be posed more searching questions. For clients, this would mean faster decisions though not necessarily at lower costs. But clarity per se would more than compensate for higher billings by more disciplined lawyers. As pointed by Munjal and the CII delegation accompanying him, the MPs should take note that India is ranked 182 out of 183 countries examined by the World Bank for efficiency of judicial system to enforce a commercial contract. Even when our MPs give their assent, it will be for the government to start allocating adequate physical infrastructure and competent manpower so that Business Inc. secures speedy resolution to their commercial disputes. More than resolution of actual disputesindeed existing ones that will, in fact, be designated to the commercial divisionsthe other implication will be that our high courts will have more time to adjudicate on other cases. Critics have argued that after the establishment of commercial courts, the number of judges available to hear ordinary items of litigation, commercial, labour and land disputes that involve jurisdictional value of less that Rs.5 crore will be reduced. They forget that specialised
benches already exist, for example, company courts. Indeed, quick disposal would free more inflow into the governments kitty. CII has estimated that Rs.1.35 trillion of income tax dues are caught in pending cases in Mumbai alone! The 2009-10 estimate of taxation revenue locked in court cases is a staggering Rs.45,152 crore for direct taxes and Rs.16,957 crore for indirect taxes.
Unlimited Opportunity
The other initiative that can potentially electrify capital inflow and entreprenurship into India Inc. lies in Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) companies. Most of us travelling overseas have seen visiting cards that have LLP written after the organisations name. I confess I hadnt paid much attention to why India doesnt have LLPs. Now we do, 784 of them have come up as were going to print. Thats a good beginning though a very small one. The department of company affairs and our parliamentarians deserve a pat for piloting the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008, our entry into the modern era of global business. Such freedom of business exists in the US, the UK, Singapore, Canada and China. Theres no mystery why the world loves LLP. The documentation is so short that it can be compressed into one page. The partners have flexibility to decide what activity they will indulge in without depending on statute. Compliances are easy and theres surprisingly lower harassment the taxman can engineer. Theres no limit on size. So, on the one hand Indias micro, small and medium companies can benefit from converting into LLPs. The partners wont have personal liability, directly or indirectly, for an obligation of the LLP solely for reason of being a partner, thereby no unsuspecting housewives will go to jail for the follies of their partners. On the other hand, a $1 billion LLP will have just as much flexibility. You go to jail only on account of your own wrongdoings. Liabilities
incurred by the LLP are to be satisfied solely out of the property of the LLP. Banks will find LLPs easier to lend to without collaterals. The buzz is that large venture funds are keenly eyeing this opportunity as a reprieve from rigidities of our company law. But true to form, the finance ministry still has to clarify on the basic issue of LLP taxation. This week India Inc. is meeting Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma to help clarify that no sectors are excluded from forming LLPs. The Act is clear that there are no such limitations, but industry knows that its better to ask just one more time. Similar fuzziness exists on whether LLPs can attract foreign investment. The department of company affairs claims that there is potential of billions of dollars of LLP investment. But no one knows what the FIPB will decide when rubber hits the road. There is a fit case here to test the governments seriousness on LLPs.
PM Versus PC
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee (I know that an observer once told him that Mukherjee is the only PM in town, and the minister jumped and shook this mans hand!) has a way with differing with P. Chidambaram, his predecessor. First, Mukherjee retained Revenue Secretary S.V. Bhide even though they didnt get along well. He then defied convention and allowed the revenue secretary to retire just a few weeks before the Union Budget. A little bird tells us that Mukherjee now has issued a detailed transfer policy overturning key postulates painstakingly created by Chidambaram. The move has affected thousands of efficient Indian Revenue Service officers who were consigned to serving in non-metro stations because of Chidambarams policy. n (Rohit Bansal is CEO of India Strategy Group, Hammurabi & Solomon Consulting, an HBS alum, and a student of Indian governance.)

Technology In Governance
Assistive technologies can transform lives of the disabled people, but the government needs to break policy barriers first
Overcome disability in governance

The 11th five year plan says all ministries should allocate resources for the disabled. Very few have done it yet, said Javed Abidi, director of NCPEDP. The answer, he said, was to allow global private players who bring along technology and software which will be available to the disabled at a lower cost. Speaker after expert speaker advocated a paradigm shift in the way the government formulates its policies for the disabled people. From making all government websites disabled-friendly to letting science and technology jump borders while maintaining international standards, participants advocated the need to internalise the special requirements of disabled people. This calls for an inclusive policy instead of designing just a few token programmes. Some of the innovations from the exhibition included: the software converts the text, image, graphics, maps and any other instruction in Braille and the person using it can read it with the help of the pin impressions.
Sonal Matharu
echnology can be the best enabler for good governance in addressing everyday problems faced by disabled people. Whether it is to provide access to public facilities for wheelchair users or to reach written communication to the visually impaired, assistive technologies can provide the answer. Often it takes just a little sensitivity to appreciate the needs of the disabled people and to come up with user-friendly assistive technologies. Techshare India 2010, a two-day conference and exhibition in Delhi, highlighted this through presentations by experts and more than 40 innovators who showcased their special products. The pan-disability event was organised by Barrier Break Technologies, the Britain-based Royal National Institute of Blind People and the Delhi-based National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP). Technology has become a necessity today but unfortunately it is not accessible to all, especially to people with disabilities, Shilpi Kapoor, founder and managing director of Barrier Break Technologies, an accessibility consultancy firm, said.
n ordinary mouse with Braille pins on top of left and right click buttons can enable visually impaired persons to read text, surf the web, play games, check maps, graphics and photographs, and in fact use the computer as easily as anybody else. Mouse for the blind, as it is called by its inventor, Igor Karasin from Israel, is a combination of a mouse and accompanying software which can be installed at
Tactile mouse
any computer without disturbing other settings in the system. Just by attaching the tactile mouse in place of an ordinary one, a visually impaired person can use the machine. Igor Karasin who works as a chief scientist with Tactile World Ltd, an Israel based company, was friends with a doctor who worked with the blind. The idea to design a tactile mouse emerged from a casual conversation. I once asked my friend, What do the blind need? He said the blind need to use the computers. That is when I came up with this idea of having a mouse that would help the blind use computers with ease. If they can use computers, they will also get better jobs, said Karasin. The mouse has eight Braille pins in a row, four on each side, which rise and fall to form impression on the fingers of the person using it. Wherever the mouse moves on the screen,
dding a simple head phone jack in the ATM, banking can be made easier for the visually impaired and the handicapped. NCR, a US-based company that supplies ATMs to most banks in India, has designed a software, Aptra or Audio Guidance Solution, which gives step-by-step instructions that appear on the ATMs screen
ATM
in audio format for the visually impaired. By simply plugging the headphones to the pinhole on the ATM and following the instructions, a visually impaired or a person on a wheelchair who cannot reach the touch screen of the ATM can conduct transactions by pressing the keypad of the ATM which has raised impressions. The screen can also be hidden to maintain privacy of the transaction. The Reserve Bank of India has made it mandatory for all bank ATMs to be disabled-friendly. However, even if this feature is added to the ATMs, some machines are installed at places where a wheelchair may not be able to slide in. Many ATM outlets are at a height and there is no ramp to slide the wheelchair. In India, Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India are testing these solutions for the past six months and may soon have it installed in their ATMs before the end of 2010, said Sameet Kumar J, senior solution consultant from NCR Bangalore.
convert text from an A4 size sheet into audio and about five seconds to save it, taking not more than eight seconds for the entire procedure. The scanners designed mainly to help visually impaired, has Braille impression on the buttons. Individuals can make settings according to their requirements and save the audio files on their laptops, desktops and MP3 players. Plustek, a Taiwan-based company launched this product, called the book reader, in 2008 in India.
Brothers Edward and Jordi Sauchez from Spain developed this software 10 years ago, but it came to India only in 2004. It is today available in 50 countries and in more than 30 Indian languages.
Code Factory
amily members and friends, and even professional caregivers like nurses run the risk of rupturing their back if they do not maintain the correct posture while lifting or transferring patients who cannot lift their own weight, says Ratanjit Singh Sohal, director and chief executive of Bangalore-based Uttejna. So the company designed the Nirmal 2000EV patient transfer device, which has battery operated remote attached to control the movement of the machine. This machine has four slings attached which are strapped to the patient who may be sitting or lying on the bed. The slings slowly lift the patient and with the wheels attached at the bottom of the machine, it can be dragged anywhere. The machine
Patient transferring device
hirty years ago, what started as a hobby for Ferdinand J Rodricks turned into a fulltime passion. He has modified over 1,000 cars which can be driven by physically challenged people. Mobility improves the quality of life of the disabled and makes them independent, said Rodricks, CEO of an automobile service cen-
Modified cars
Scanners
ess than 0.5 percent of books produced in India are available in Braille format for the visually impaired. Converting print books in audio format manually
is time consuming. But now, technology offers scanners, the size of a small printer which is attached to a computer, which can convert books in audio format in minutes. The text to be read is kept on the transparent screen on the scanner which then changes it to audio. It takes less than three seconds to
obile phones, till some time, were of no use to the visually impaired. The screen display could not be read and with the advancement in technology, touch screen phones flooded the markets. These jazzy phones now displayed the numbers on the screen, but the visually impaired could not even dial numbers any longer. Code Factory, a Spanish company, has designed a software for mobile phones that can make the phone speak out loud the instructions being carried out on it. With installing the software they call Mobile Speak, whatever appears on the screen of the phone can be heard. Sliding his fingers up and down the touch screen of a mobile, Dinesh Kaushik, a visually impaired person who works for Code Factory in India, operated the device with ease. Now I can send text messages, browse the net, arrange data and operate all other functions on my phone, said Kaushik.
can be adjusted wherever the patient wants to be seated, be it on a dining table or a commode, and the hoist can be released. We constantly update models and try to make them more userfriendly. Instead of a sling, the machine may soon have a jacket which the patient can wear all day which would make it easier to lift the patients and the hoist would not have to be adjusted every time, Sohal added.
tre in Mumbai who launched Ferro Equip after a vehicle he modified for a disabled friend led him to one after another similar projects. It all started by the word of mouth. I modified my friends car who is physically handicapped. His friends saw the car and they wanted their cars to be modified too, said Rodricks. Making minimum changes in the vehicle, the car controls are modified to suit individual requirements. Hand operated brake, accelerator and clutch are fit in the cars without disturbing the foot controls. A disabled person can use the car using the hand control while the others can use the same car using foot controls. To drive a car, a disabled person has to first obtain a fitness certificate from any government orthopedic hospital which certifies that the persons reflexes are all right for driving. This certificate is submitted with the transport authority. The department then inspects the vehicle modified for the disabled. After completion of the process for obtaining a licence, the transport department certifies on the licence that the individual is eligible to drive only the car designed to fit individual requirement by mentioning the car number on the licence. Ferro Equip has modified over 49 car makes and models, from Marutis to BMWs, for people with various disabilities. n

The Last Word
Illustrat ion: Ashish Asthana
Get off that phone and talk to me

Bikram Vohra inker, tailor, soldier, sailorbureaucrat, politician, the rich and the powerful, they are the worst. Have you ever been in this position with one of them? You have an appointment in their office and you make the effort to fetch up on time and you enter this eminent so called personages office having run the gamut of his ghastly support staff who look at you as if you were a worm and you shake hands and sit down, all cordial and pleasant and then he gets a phone call and suddenly you vanish from in front of him. It is as if you dont even exist and he is looking through you. The bigger the VIP the worse his conduct. So, you are sitting there while he is prattling on and you look at your fingernails, read the magazines titles on his table upside down, study the photographs on his walls and three certificates with red rosettes, and grin fatuously whenever you catch his eye. Now, he is having a blast on the phone enjoying his little talk while you are feeling a complete ninny. Finally, he puts it down and says, sorry, phone call, had to talk. You say, no problem, its okay, happens. At which point the phone rings again and he is off on another verbal voyage completely marooning you as he re-establishes contact with some old buddy. Next thing you know they are talking golf, lets meet again, long time no see, come to our place, no, no, come to ours, have the kids grown up or what, hows Tingu, really, are you sure? Else they are downgrading each other about arre you are such a big shot and he is saying, nonono, you are the big shot, we are in your shadow and you are outraged at this drivel but what can you do? Whatever has happened to Tingu is of no interest to you but there you are captive to the saga. I am in this position recently on a visit to a bureaucrats office, some secy of some government department who has to sign some flipping papers and my patience is now packed and ready to whizz off. He ends this second call, presses the intercom and then says to his secretary that she should get his wife on the line. So, he turns to me, hows tricks? I am about to tell him about tricks when the phone rings and he says, hi, sweetheart, what gives? For the next five minutes he and she discuss their dinner guest list and what the menu should be and which hotel should cater it.
JOIN THE PUBLIC DEBATE ON GOOD GOVERNANCE

OURSPECIAL
This is an official appointment. Keep that in mind. It isnt as though I have barged in, this was fixed for a specific time. When he finally puts the phone down I say very gently that I have a question. Sure, he says, all buddy with me now, go ahead. Why did you call me? He looks puzzled. To have a meeting, of course. I wonder. Ever since I sat down you have been on the phone while I have been picking my teeth. He says, cant help it. Yes, you can. Put your calls on hold. You have an appointment which you gave, so now I am leaving because I am offended. He cant believe it. He actually believes he has done nothing wrong. Not so much wrong as ill mannered and thoughtless and very rude. Yet, this is so common a conduct and I have never understood why we tolerate such poor etiquette. If I felt you were going to give me more attention on the phone why would I have made the effort of coming in person, parking my car, taking an elevator and waiting in your anteroom with your PA, Asst to the PA, PS, PA to the PS, teaboy and other sundry sycophants. It is not even as if the calls are important, which intrusion one can understand. Like if Manmohan Singh was on the other end or WW III had broken out, then cool. But for the run of the mill calls that could easily be made againnot cool. Think of the many occasions when you have been put in this position. Sitting there playing with your collar or your buttons because this man is yammering on the telephone. Rather like smoking. Do you mind? Yes, I do. The next time this happens to me (and it will, be sure of that) I am going to do just that. Please dont answer the phone. Whhaaa-aa-tt? Thats right, we have an appointment, please keep the call on hold till we finish. Where I come from that is merely good manners. n
TOAVAILOF
35%OFF
INAUGURALOFFER
SABGROUP venture
Governance now represents a pioneering effort in our country to initiate an informed public debate on the various issues pertaining to governance in India. By providing equal opportunity to the policy makers, the implementers, the activists, and the citizens, to participate and have their voices heard.
T O S U B S C R I B E S M S* G N T O 5 6 0 7 0
Inaugural Offer (Jan 10-Apr 10)

Term Cover 3 years (72 issues) 2 years (48 issues) 1 years (24 issues) Price 2,160 1,440 720 Discounted Rate 1,500 1,080 600 Savings 660 360 120
Institutional Subscription - 100 copies and above - 35% off Coverprice

Please fill the form in CAPITAL LETTERS. Name ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Address ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Mobile ............................................... City ....................................................... Pin ...................................................... State ...................................................... E-mail .......................................................... Birthday .............................................. Anniversary ............................................................................................................ Occupation ..................................................................................................................... Please find enclosed DD/Cheque for Rs ........................................................................................................................................................ Dated ..................................................................................................... Cheques/DD payable to "Sri Adhikari Brothers Assets Holding Pvt. Ltd. and send to Business Development, Governance Now, 24-A, Mind Mill Corporate tower, Sector 16A, Film City NOIDA - 201301, U.P ., India For Subscription related enquiries contact Banisha Verma. banisha@governancenow.com. +91 9350825254. or SMS* GN to
Terms and Conditions: 1.This is a limited period offer. 2. Governance Now will not be responsible for postal delays, transit loses or mutilation of the forms. 3. All disputes are subject to laws of India and exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi. 4. Governance Now reserves the right to extend or terminate this offer at any point or to accept or reject any or all forms at its absolute discretion without assigning any reason whatsoever. 5. Allow 3-4 weeks time for processing of the subscription. Subscription would be processed only after realization of payments. 6. Payments can be made through Cheque/DD payable at par . Cash payments will not be accepted.
*t & c apply

Govnow V1 - I3 Lowres

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Govnow V1 - I3 Lowres

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Interview with Justice Hegde The executive and legislature dont care for the spirit of the constitution

March 1-15, 2010 | Vol.01 Issue.03 | Rs. 30

The inside story of the sugar mess

36 The rise and rise of Ashok Tanwar

15 What the bull!

26 The bitter truth about sweet sugar

35 My name is Shaheen Muhammed

justice n santosh hegde

48 Overcome disability in governance Assistive technolo

40 boom for rail neither am I a terrorist nor am I afraid of the Thackreys

ways, boon for passengers

20 Reality check at the national eGov meet

For advertising details contact Gautam Navin. +91 9818125257. gautam@governancenow.com

Looking Nagpur, seeking Delhi

Choosing whisky over Gandhi

How not to hold talks with Maoists

GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010

Habibullah to continue as CIC

Zero-rupee note for zero corruption

Chief Justice AP Shah retires, hurt

Justice for Ruchika, Aradhna Gupta is not done yet

6 GovernanceNow | December 26, 2009

people politics policy performance

Justice N santosh Hegde

GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010

people politics policy performance

Lokayukta Act. Why is that so?

misconduct that you repeatedly bring to light?

10 GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010

people politics policy performance

Danish Raza / Gurgaon

Where there is will, there is a railway station, too

Photos: Ravi choudhary

How villagers can get own railway station

12 GovernanceNow | January 26, 2010

people politics policy performance

Photo: shivani chaturvedi

Inaugural Offer (Jan 10-Apr 10)

Institutional Subscription - 100 copies and above - 35% off Coverprice

What the bull!

Shivani Chaturvedi / Ghaziabad

Where Dawood turns into Sajjan

people politics policy performance

Balance in use of fertilizers and subsidy

Fundamental rights cannot be diluted

Khurshid reiterates idea of CSR points

16 GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010

people politics policy performance

Kannadi Gram Panchayat, Palakkad

Statute Book self-governance

Eruthenpathy Panchayat, Palakkad

18 GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010

people politics policy performance

Reality check at the national e-Gov meet

20 GovernanceNow | March 1-15, 2010

people politics policy performance

PPP in eGovernance: What private players want

PPP is the only way for eGovernance

Building viable business models is an issue

Involve private sector during conceptualisation

Industry should not fall prey to its own greed

people politics policy performance