Well yet another case when my boss is putting one language on the paper and is actually on hot pursuit with another agenda. The Jama masjid here wanted to do some renovation work. The old masjid hall was brought down and new construction was to be done along with a basement. The police and the nagarpalika objected to the covered basement which was supposed to be housing a madrasa. Now with the excavation done and the construction half way through, the denial of permission was a financially difficult proposition for the local committee.
Now the denial of permission by the police to a madrasa in a closed basement can be understood in the context of the situation we are as a nation with all the talk about terrorism based on religion. The committee now has reworked the proposal for an open basement meant for parking. The police now changed their opinion and said that an open basement is ok. Quite a logical response to my mind. Now the nagarpalika persisted with the objection and refused to consider the new proposal and said that permission can be given only when the basement is demolished
Now such a fear to basement has not been shown in the case of two other cases, one for an electrical shop and one for a temple and has been overlooked in many other cases. So to cloth their objection based on other reasons, the Collector sends a DO saying that there seems to be some encroachment by Jama masjid which needs to be removed. The report of the RI says there is encroachment to the tune of 800 square feet despite the measurements being taken correctly in the presence of a well meaning officer of the Indian Administrative Service. Since there was no new construction on the site, he arrived at the conclusion that there doesnot seem to be any encroachment. The Collector was open in his criticism of the biased way in which his junior counterpart had prepared the report.
The twist in this engineered encroachment which was first reported by none other than the Collector was the conversions used by the RI. Since the measurement was done in the presence of the senior officer he could not do much damage with the measurement part. So he converted hectares to square feet with a formula that did not exist. Again the area of the quadrilateral that formed the plot was calculated using a technique unknown till now thus engineering the encroachment.
Now the matter again rests on the illogical objection raised by the nagarpalika! This is one way we are antagonising the minority community in our nation compelling them to take to attitudes non conducive to harmonious coexistence!
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
A poor BPL criterion
The way we look at poverty in our nation is interesting. We keep looking at the figures of the below poverty line population without perhaps realising the factors that get incorporated into these figures at the ground level. To suggest an example, the most recent way of finding out if a family in rural india is poor or not (BPL or not) is based on an asset based survey. So what are the questions like? Do you have a private toilet? If yes it gives your family four marks. But then, you forced me to have a toilet in the Samagra swachta abhiyan with all that talk about nirmal gaon. That is besides the point. Do your kids go to school? Yes. And that too without going for child labour. Yes. Good, four more marks. But then it was the Sarv shiksha abhiyan and all that talk of "school chale hum". That is besides the point. Such 13 questions ( the others arguably more sensible) and you have to be less than 14 marks to be a BPL family in rural India. So how come we have all those kids in the school and all those nirmal gaons and still so many BPL. It is the surveyor's ability to fudge that keeps these families from stopping their children going to school and razing down their toilets. The "assets" include such basic assets that it is downright unkind to link food security to the kid going to school, not going to school that is.
Well, with the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme there is an opportunity. In Madhya Pradesh at least, the cards have been made for all families and the attendance on these cards is a good indicator of how much value the family has for Rs 67/- per day against manual labour for an adult member. There are families where there is not even a single day's labour entry, as Rs 67/- per day is not of enough value to force an adult member to work for a whole day. Or else it might be due to his or her being engaged in something more remunerative that the opportunity cost of working in NREG renders it unattractive. A suggestion is to base the BPL line on the number of mandays rendered in the NREG scheme. Now that the scheme is to be extended to all the districts in the country, it can offer uniformity as well. Not that the muster roll entries cannot be fudged to show working against a particular family's card when the work is actually being performed by a JCB machine. But then fudging is being done in the present BPL survey too in a big scale. It might be possible that some families are fully comprised of infirm people who just cant work under NREG. They could be taken up as a special case with proper medical certification. These families would any way be forgoing around 6700 rupees ( more or less in other states) per year because of their non participation in NREG and it is all the more reason why their medical problem has to be taken care of in a more focussed manner. The verification of this exception would be much easier.
Well, with the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme there is an opportunity. In Madhya Pradesh at least, the cards have been made for all families and the attendance on these cards is a good indicator of how much value the family has for Rs 67/- per day against manual labour for an adult member. There are families where there is not even a single day's labour entry, as Rs 67/- per day is not of enough value to force an adult member to work for a whole day. Or else it might be due to his or her being engaged in something more remunerative that the opportunity cost of working in NREG renders it unattractive. A suggestion is to base the BPL line on the number of mandays rendered in the NREG scheme. Now that the scheme is to be extended to all the districts in the country, it can offer uniformity as well. Not that the muster roll entries cannot be fudged to show working against a particular family's card when the work is actually being performed by a JCB machine. But then fudging is being done in the present BPL survey too in a big scale. It might be possible that some families are fully comprised of infirm people who just cant work under NREG. They could be taken up as a special case with proper medical certification. These families would any way be forgoing around 6700 rupees ( more or less in other states) per year because of their non participation in NREG and it is all the more reason why their medical problem has to be taken care of in a more focussed manner. The verification of this exception would be much easier.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Musings on Diwali
The way Indians celebrate their festivals is unique. In its colour, splendour and fervour, it is seldom challenged by any other nation or culture. What does not go down well with me is the thought if these festivals are not well planned and timed exercises by a few to exploit most. The festivals like Diwali, Onam and Holi are all post harvest festivals. This is when the agricultural Indian has some surplus with him. Of course, a "surplus" is a cause for celebration.
The fact is that it is not actually a surplus. The income pattern is such that there are only two or three spurts of income across the year and for the rest of the period there is only expenditure - heightened or subdued. The trading class benefits by wiping out this income spurt of the farmer through the festivals. The trading class acts on the volume of sale during this period and manages to raise the expenditure level of almost all the house holds. They get the families to be locked in consumer debts by offering to give instalment facilities and the like. Suffice to say, what could have gone into building the asset of the poor farmer is taken out of him and burned up as crackers! This also leaves the farmer ripe to be in need of an agricultural loan by the beginning of the next sowing season. Not a bad deal for the ones who lend!
The environmental impact of the kind of celebration is another detestable matter. Though Diwali is supposed to be the festival of lights, Indians typically favour heat, smoke and noise to light. The homeless labourer who sleeps on the streets of Delhi would have bronchitis for a Diwali gift thanks to the way his well-to-do brothers and sisters insist on celebrating this festival. It would be wonderful if anyone could look into the historical beginnings of these festivals. It could well be a joint effort by the trading class and priesthood. I cant see any other benefitting from the whole venture, though I love the sight of solitary lamp keeping away darkness on the Diwali night!
The fact is that it is not actually a surplus. The income pattern is such that there are only two or three spurts of income across the year and for the rest of the period there is only expenditure - heightened or subdued. The trading class benefits by wiping out this income spurt of the farmer through the festivals. The trading class acts on the volume of sale during this period and manages to raise the expenditure level of almost all the house holds. They get the families to be locked in consumer debts by offering to give instalment facilities and the like. Suffice to say, what could have gone into building the asset of the poor farmer is taken out of him and burned up as crackers! This also leaves the farmer ripe to be in need of an agricultural loan by the beginning of the next sowing season. Not a bad deal for the ones who lend!
The environmental impact of the kind of celebration is another detestable matter. Though Diwali is supposed to be the festival of lights, Indians typically favour heat, smoke and noise to light. The homeless labourer who sleeps on the streets of Delhi would have bronchitis for a Diwali gift thanks to the way his well-to-do brothers and sisters insist on celebrating this festival. It would be wonderful if anyone could look into the historical beginnings of these festivals. It could well be a joint effort by the trading class and priesthood. I cant see any other benefitting from the whole venture, though I love the sight of solitary lamp keeping away darkness on the Diwali night!
Monday, November 5, 2007
Whither Indian Democracy?
As the Indian democracy reaches the age of sixty, it is instructive to evaluate if retirement age applies to this paradigm as well! Over the years, this nation has witnessed its democratic system pass through many different experiences - being nurtured during its infancy, being challenged in its youth and winning the respect of the world as it matured. In a changing international context from the post World War scenario to a New World order, with an internal situation that has seen the macabre days of partition to the most inglorious recent religious riots, a democracy owned by a billion celebrates a day on which it would turn sixty years young!
Not many would have imagined that the Indian democracy would not be a case of infant mortality. Many doomsayers were sure that it would go up with the fumes in the funeral pyre of Mr. Nehru. Even the famed Judiciary stood numb as right to life was denied to the free Indian citizen by Ms. Gandhi. When all was destined to be lost, the illiterate Indian went into to the polling booth and returned with an indelible mark, symbolizing the triumph of grit over apprehensions about the democratic fibre of the nation.
The principal strength of the Indian democracy seems to be its past. Immediately after independence Jawaharlal Nehru became the first servant of the Indian nation. So unchallenged was his authority, especially after the demise of Sardar Patel, that he could have so easily turned into a dictator. Even when he led the nation on a path based on his personal convictions, he succeeded in instilling democratic credentials in the way the infant nation’s politics functioned. The respect he gave to Parliamentary procedure and the manner in which he treated the opposing voice in the Parliament provided the climate in which the system could gradually find its feet. His patronage for Indian democracy was so pronounced that it was apprehended upon his demise that a succession war would ensue and engulf the nation in a bitter acrimonious struggle. It was not to be. The strength of the leader was to be seen in the institution that he built. Indian democracy held on despite Nehru’s demise.
Is it not ironical that the biggest challenge to Indian democracy came from the daughter and grand son of the very same person who had imparted Indian democratic system its strength? 1976 saw an emergency imposed on the nation. For the first time and hopefully for the last time, the national system was as far as it could be from the people’s heart, as the Constitution would allow it to be. In those dark days of tyranny, even the Indian Judiciary failed the silent hope of the millions, when it held that even the most basic right could be held suspended by a coterie with a joke for a democratic mandate. The Indian democracy and the freedom that the common man enjoyed in this nation were at their lowest ebb. And then, with the legal luminaries succumbing to the Executive diktat, the humble illiterate farmer voted out the Government, making it amply clear that Indian democracy had gained enough strength to withstand abduction by a few.
Democracy in India is now not just a determination by the people of their elected representatives. It is now designed as a system in which people would govern themselves. Ironically, this expansion of the canvass of Indian democracy is again credited to the very same family. Constitutional sanction was given to three more levels of Government. The Gram Sabhas were to the most potent of all institutions. The number of players in the developmental administration of India increased exponentially. As Churchill once remarked, the panacea for the ills of democracy is more of democracy. Over the years the Indian democracy has reached a situation where the number of benefactors, even in the pessimistic view that only politically elected representatives benefit from the system, are so many. The subversion of the system is less probable to that extent!
Gone are the days when the Judiciary held that the right to life and liberty are things that we could do with out if the Executive so decides. In the present scenario Indian democracy has certain inviolable elements which have been very well ingrained in the system. Democracy is no longer defined in India as amenable according to the whims and fancies of the electorate over a short period of time. The legal system that has evolved over the generations has made the Constitutional provisions unassailable by fits of a mob majority. The strength of the judicial pillar of our nation has become a safeguard against the evils that could be thrust upon us.
So also, the growth of media in our nation has improved the strength of the democratic set up in India. It has brought about greater transparency in the functioning of the Government and it is now serving as a better feed back about the functioning of the servant to the real masters – We the People. It is not just the technological growth of the media that holds out hope for Indian democracy. The multitude of media houses that have come up in our nation and the many eminent journalists whose fame rests on their neutrality predicts good days up ahead.
The seshaned Election Commission has grown to be a strength for the Indian democratic exercise. Since those days, the tone and tenor has changed in the Nirvachan Bhavan and the Election Commission has managed to etch out an identity of its own in the Indian democratic context. The body is today known for its impartiality and efficiency.
Credit is due to the various leaders who have been at the helm of affairs that they never tried anything silly to maintain themselves in power (with some inglorious exceptions). And even more credit is due to the average citizen in communicating clearly to those at the apex that republic nature of the nation is non-negotiable. The way repeated elections have been conducted at the expiry of the popular mandate and the successful manner in which the power has transferred according to the election results is certainly a matter of credit, for which the democratic credentials of the Indian bureaucracy and the Indian military also needs to be saluted.
So is it safe for to open the champagne bottle and celebrate the sixty years we have lived as a democracy? Perhaps this is just one drop of guard that we cannot afford. Despite all its strength, there are still many areas of concern that needs to be discussed, debated and sorted out. We would be doing ourselves a great disservice if we refuse to see these signs!
India has 16% of the world population and Uttar Pradesh has 16% of India’s population. Cradle for most of India’s Prime Ministers, this state has of late developed distinctive characteristics which are not restricted to this state alone, but is perhaps most starkly observable in the political scenario of this state. Arun Jaitley recent remarked that there were only three issues in the elections in Uttar Pradesh – caste, caste and caste! In other states, the factor might be different. But the danger is not the factor itself- be it caste, religion, language or ethnicity. The problem is that the critical factor in the election is not factors which are critical for the average Indian citizen. The average Indian citizen is troubled more by poverty and corruption rather than any of these make believe factors. The sad fact is that there are not too many political outfits or political leaders who can successfully identify themselves with these real issues of the people. The proxy issues keep out the real issues; and this is not in the interest of the common man.
The advantage of the “inconsequential” factors for the political parties is that these are factors on which people can be excited and mobilized en masse with ease. It does not take the effort of keeping a close eye on the processes that lead us to being a poor and corruption ridden nation. It does not involve the patient education of the citizens about the dangers of the systemic issues that are bogging them down. Yes, it does have the negative fallout of costing lives every time there is a riot. It does have the problem of engaging the mental space when we should in fact be concerned about other issues which are substantial. Allow this factor to succeed and this is going to cost the nation dearly. The issue is that when one party is successful with the game, all of our options are busy in playing the same game that there are not too many options for the average unorganized citizen and his family!
Here is where Media could have played a critical role. Despite their engaging our attention for so long over the course of the day, not too many feel responsible for exposing these systemic issues. P. Sainath recently remarked that the media is no longer concentrating on processes; it is too engaged with events. The memory span of the citizen is short and in a mad rush to catch the eye balls the media has turned event-hunters than process analysers. The media relishes in exposing the fault of the Government through a particular event that has happened, but seldom takes the pain of communicating the procedural problems involved in the set up which has caused the negative event. The point is not that the media should stop criticizing the Government. The point is that it should do it and it should go further and identify, expose and analyse the causal factors and bring out suggestions for change! Here the media has the problem of having to stop the channel change button being pressed on the remote!
Earlier in this essay it was remarked that the growth of the Indian Judiciary as a pillar of hope is an element of strength to the democratic system as envisaged in the Constitution. Here again, some recent developments portend some possible threats to the system laid down by the Constitution. In an effort to safeguard the independence of the Judiciary, the Supreme Court has laid down a system for the selection of judges which has cut them off from their tenuous connection with the real masters- We the People. Criticised by many including the legal luminaries like Justice VR Krishna Iyer, the judgment in the SCARA case has now mutilated the process of consultation envisaged in the Constitution. Consultation, concurrence and compliance are three different words and one cannot stand in to mean any other. Yes, there is the procedure of impeachment. But the manner in which this instrument has functioned over the years does not offer much hope. And yes, if the present ‘subversion’ of the Constitutional provision remains unchallenged, there is no guarantee that there won’t be another one!
It is great that the Indian democracy has been successfully held up by the illiterate masses. Now, it is not such a great thing to stay there and hope for this miracle to happen again and again. We need to educate ourselves. The safeguard against the possible threats can only be found in a free, informed and active population. There is enough to be done to keep us all engaged all of our life. In such a scenario, if one is not part of the solution, it is a given that she or he is part of the problem!
The growth of modern technology has indeed made the spread of education better. The digital divide does exist, but it is undeniable that technology and resources has now made it possible for people to be better aware. The success of Indian democracy in future will hugely depend on how the human resource of this nation is able to raise itself to face the challenge of the new economic and political scenario. For all its strengths and weaknesses, this is where the future of the Indian democracy hinges. Go to the interior tribal villages of India. If you have a healthy little girl child coming out of the school with a smile on her face and a mind sharper than yesterday, we should be on the right track!
Not many would have imagined that the Indian democracy would not be a case of infant mortality. Many doomsayers were sure that it would go up with the fumes in the funeral pyre of Mr. Nehru. Even the famed Judiciary stood numb as right to life was denied to the free Indian citizen by Ms. Gandhi. When all was destined to be lost, the illiterate Indian went into to the polling booth and returned with an indelible mark, symbolizing the triumph of grit over apprehensions about the democratic fibre of the nation.
The principal strength of the Indian democracy seems to be its past. Immediately after independence Jawaharlal Nehru became the first servant of the Indian nation. So unchallenged was his authority, especially after the demise of Sardar Patel, that he could have so easily turned into a dictator. Even when he led the nation on a path based on his personal convictions, he succeeded in instilling democratic credentials in the way the infant nation’s politics functioned. The respect he gave to Parliamentary procedure and the manner in which he treated the opposing voice in the Parliament provided the climate in which the system could gradually find its feet. His patronage for Indian democracy was so pronounced that it was apprehended upon his demise that a succession war would ensue and engulf the nation in a bitter acrimonious struggle. It was not to be. The strength of the leader was to be seen in the institution that he built. Indian democracy held on despite Nehru’s demise.
Is it not ironical that the biggest challenge to Indian democracy came from the daughter and grand son of the very same person who had imparted Indian democratic system its strength? 1976 saw an emergency imposed on the nation. For the first time and hopefully for the last time, the national system was as far as it could be from the people’s heart, as the Constitution would allow it to be. In those dark days of tyranny, even the Indian Judiciary failed the silent hope of the millions, when it held that even the most basic right could be held suspended by a coterie with a joke for a democratic mandate. The Indian democracy and the freedom that the common man enjoyed in this nation were at their lowest ebb. And then, with the legal luminaries succumbing to the Executive diktat, the humble illiterate farmer voted out the Government, making it amply clear that Indian democracy had gained enough strength to withstand abduction by a few.
Democracy in India is now not just a determination by the people of their elected representatives. It is now designed as a system in which people would govern themselves. Ironically, this expansion of the canvass of Indian democracy is again credited to the very same family. Constitutional sanction was given to three more levels of Government. The Gram Sabhas were to the most potent of all institutions. The number of players in the developmental administration of India increased exponentially. As Churchill once remarked, the panacea for the ills of democracy is more of democracy. Over the years the Indian democracy has reached a situation where the number of benefactors, even in the pessimistic view that only politically elected representatives benefit from the system, are so many. The subversion of the system is less probable to that extent!
Gone are the days when the Judiciary held that the right to life and liberty are things that we could do with out if the Executive so decides. In the present scenario Indian democracy has certain inviolable elements which have been very well ingrained in the system. Democracy is no longer defined in India as amenable according to the whims and fancies of the electorate over a short period of time. The legal system that has evolved over the generations has made the Constitutional provisions unassailable by fits of a mob majority. The strength of the judicial pillar of our nation has become a safeguard against the evils that could be thrust upon us.
So also, the growth of media in our nation has improved the strength of the democratic set up in India. It has brought about greater transparency in the functioning of the Government and it is now serving as a better feed back about the functioning of the servant to the real masters – We the People. It is not just the technological growth of the media that holds out hope for Indian democracy. The multitude of media houses that have come up in our nation and the many eminent journalists whose fame rests on their neutrality predicts good days up ahead.
The seshaned Election Commission has grown to be a strength for the Indian democratic exercise. Since those days, the tone and tenor has changed in the Nirvachan Bhavan and the Election Commission has managed to etch out an identity of its own in the Indian democratic context. The body is today known for its impartiality and efficiency.
Credit is due to the various leaders who have been at the helm of affairs that they never tried anything silly to maintain themselves in power (with some inglorious exceptions). And even more credit is due to the average citizen in communicating clearly to those at the apex that republic nature of the nation is non-negotiable. The way repeated elections have been conducted at the expiry of the popular mandate and the successful manner in which the power has transferred according to the election results is certainly a matter of credit, for which the democratic credentials of the Indian bureaucracy and the Indian military also needs to be saluted.
So is it safe for to open the champagne bottle and celebrate the sixty years we have lived as a democracy? Perhaps this is just one drop of guard that we cannot afford. Despite all its strength, there are still many areas of concern that needs to be discussed, debated and sorted out. We would be doing ourselves a great disservice if we refuse to see these signs!
India has 16% of the world population and Uttar Pradesh has 16% of India’s population. Cradle for most of India’s Prime Ministers, this state has of late developed distinctive characteristics which are not restricted to this state alone, but is perhaps most starkly observable in the political scenario of this state. Arun Jaitley recent remarked that there were only three issues in the elections in Uttar Pradesh – caste, caste and caste! In other states, the factor might be different. But the danger is not the factor itself- be it caste, religion, language or ethnicity. The problem is that the critical factor in the election is not factors which are critical for the average Indian citizen. The average Indian citizen is troubled more by poverty and corruption rather than any of these make believe factors. The sad fact is that there are not too many political outfits or political leaders who can successfully identify themselves with these real issues of the people. The proxy issues keep out the real issues; and this is not in the interest of the common man.
The advantage of the “inconsequential” factors for the political parties is that these are factors on which people can be excited and mobilized en masse with ease. It does not take the effort of keeping a close eye on the processes that lead us to being a poor and corruption ridden nation. It does not involve the patient education of the citizens about the dangers of the systemic issues that are bogging them down. Yes, it does have the negative fallout of costing lives every time there is a riot. It does have the problem of engaging the mental space when we should in fact be concerned about other issues which are substantial. Allow this factor to succeed and this is going to cost the nation dearly. The issue is that when one party is successful with the game, all of our options are busy in playing the same game that there are not too many options for the average unorganized citizen and his family!
Here is where Media could have played a critical role. Despite their engaging our attention for so long over the course of the day, not too many feel responsible for exposing these systemic issues. P. Sainath recently remarked that the media is no longer concentrating on processes; it is too engaged with events. The memory span of the citizen is short and in a mad rush to catch the eye balls the media has turned event-hunters than process analysers. The media relishes in exposing the fault of the Government through a particular event that has happened, but seldom takes the pain of communicating the procedural problems involved in the set up which has caused the negative event. The point is not that the media should stop criticizing the Government. The point is that it should do it and it should go further and identify, expose and analyse the causal factors and bring out suggestions for change! Here the media has the problem of having to stop the channel change button being pressed on the remote!
Earlier in this essay it was remarked that the growth of the Indian Judiciary as a pillar of hope is an element of strength to the democratic system as envisaged in the Constitution. Here again, some recent developments portend some possible threats to the system laid down by the Constitution. In an effort to safeguard the independence of the Judiciary, the Supreme Court has laid down a system for the selection of judges which has cut them off from their tenuous connection with the real masters- We the People. Criticised by many including the legal luminaries like Justice VR Krishna Iyer, the judgment in the SCARA case has now mutilated the process of consultation envisaged in the Constitution. Consultation, concurrence and compliance are three different words and one cannot stand in to mean any other. Yes, there is the procedure of impeachment. But the manner in which this instrument has functioned over the years does not offer much hope. And yes, if the present ‘subversion’ of the Constitutional provision remains unchallenged, there is no guarantee that there won’t be another one!
It is great that the Indian democracy has been successfully held up by the illiterate masses. Now, it is not such a great thing to stay there and hope for this miracle to happen again and again. We need to educate ourselves. The safeguard against the possible threats can only be found in a free, informed and active population. There is enough to be done to keep us all engaged all of our life. In such a scenario, if one is not part of the solution, it is a given that she or he is part of the problem!
The growth of modern technology has indeed made the spread of education better. The digital divide does exist, but it is undeniable that technology and resources has now made it possible for people to be better aware. The success of Indian democracy in future will hugely depend on how the human resource of this nation is able to raise itself to face the challenge of the new economic and political scenario. For all its strengths and weaknesses, this is where the future of the Indian democracy hinges. Go to the interior tribal villages of India. If you have a healthy little girl child coming out of the school with a smile on her face and a mind sharper than yesterday, we should be on the right track!
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Tree cutting applications
There was an interesting case of request for tree cutting permission. There were about thirty of them increasing the pendency of my revenue court. It turned out that two buyers of trees had been instrumental behind all of the thirty applications. All of the requests for tree cutting, allegedly due to the problem they were to crops, were from a locus of few villages. All of the thirty applications were made on two dates. Fourteen of them claimed that the wood would be used personally, but also mentioned the route through which it would be taken to Gujarat. Since it was an apparent effort to subvert the system, it was recommended that the permission be not given for tree cutting. It is distressing that the Tehsildar and all of the revenue staff there below could not find something as stark as this. One is not sure if it is malafide collusion or a bonafide overlook!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
How economical are political visits?
It is not really news that the CM or PM is visiting a particular location. What usually goes behind the gloss of the news that is usually aired is the amount of corruption that is aided by expenditure without provision during these visits. Expenditure is incurred to set up the stage, to make the arrangements for seating the many thousands who would please the politicians with their presence . And of course, vehicles are arranged to bring the multitudes to the location. In some states like Kerala there were reports of the crowd membership being remuneratory. And there are not too many reasons why it is not to be expected in other states.
Sanctioned expenditure is also stretched to its limits. If the visit is to a location which is away from the district headquarters, almost all of the officers of the district and more, frequent the site for atleast 5 times. Estimate 500 rupees for each vehicle. That would be about 12500 for every set of visit. So around 5 times, you can calculate. Should we count the administrative and political energy that goes into these ventures. It is not to be believed that the administrators and politicians would have done anything too spectacular with the saved time. But then such events give them an excuse which they need. Well, there are talks about state-sponsoring of election expenditure. Even these visit-events can be a good candidate for sponsoring. When expenditures are incurred without any provision, it would lead to a more pliant administration which understands such kind of given expenditures. And this keeps happening at varying scales in the government. Lakhs of expenditure for the top boss and may be just a tea and snack for the visiting Patwari!
Sanctioned expenditure is also stretched to its limits. If the visit is to a location which is away from the district headquarters, almost all of the officers of the district and more, frequent the site for atleast 5 times. Estimate 500 rupees for each vehicle. That would be about 12500 for every set of visit. So around 5 times, you can calculate. Should we count the administrative and political energy that goes into these ventures. It is not to be believed that the administrators and politicians would have done anything too spectacular with the saved time. But then such events give them an excuse which they need. Well, there are talks about state-sponsoring of election expenditure. Even these visit-events can be a good candidate for sponsoring. When expenditures are incurred without any provision, it would lead to a more pliant administration which understands such kind of given expenditures. And this keeps happening at varying scales in the government. Lakhs of expenditure for the top boss and may be just a tea and snack for the visiting Patwari!
About Samvedanam
Samvedanam is a diary note on the happenings around two human beings. With a view to generate discussion on observations, the notes are placed for others to view, comment and to suggest courses of joint action.
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