Indian Administration News Bits

Two new services in Bihar; direct appointment of SDOs

PATNA — The Bihar government has decided to form two new state services – Bihar Revenue Service (BRS) and Bihar Rural Development Service (BRDS) to end the shortage of the Block Development Officers (BDOs) and Circle Officers (COs) in the state.

“One of the biggest challenges for the government is to speed up the disposal of land related cases. This should help us in achieving that,” official sources said.

Cabinet Coordination Principal Secretary Girish Shankar said that the state cabinet has approved formation of two new state services. Successful candidates of BRS will be appointed COs while BRDS recruits will be appointed BDOs.

"The Bihar Public Service Commission will make the recruitment to the services through the combined competitive examinations,” he added.

The State government has also decided to restructure the Bihar Administrative Service (BAS) paving the way for the state administrative cadre officers to be appointed directly to the post of sub-divisional officers. It is likely to provide more opportunity to BAS officers to get into the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre in the state.

National Consultation on the Development of an Index of Backwardness based on Block as a Unit

It is high time that a composite criteria for identifying backward areas (with the Block as a Unit) based on indicators of human development including poverty, literacy and infant mortality rates, along with indices of social and economic infrastructure, should be discussed and developed by all the stake holders especially the Planning Commission so as to bring in New initiatives for a revamped and strengthened Panchayati Raj system in the country. This expression came from the Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Dr.C.P.Joshi today at a National Consultation for Development of an Index of Backwardness based on Block as a Unit in Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi. He said The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) constituted by the Government of India under the chairmanship of Shri Veerappa Moily had also considered the entire gamut of identification of backward areas in its Seventh Report on Capacity Building for Conflict Resolution.

Dr. Joshi said the Ministry of Panchayati Raj is implementing the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) which was launched by the Government in January 2007. The programme is designed to redress regional imbalances in development by providing financial resources for supplementing and converging existing developmental inflows into 250 identified districts, so as to bridge critical gaps in local infrastructure and other developmental requirements that are not being adequately met through existing inflows. For the untied portion of funds, the sharing pattern is (i) every district receiving a fixed amount of Rs. 10 crores per year; and (ii) the remaining portion being distributed on ‘50/50 basis’ as per the population and the geographical share of the district in the total population/ geography of all backward districts. The 250 identified backward districts included districts where NREGA programme was being implemented along with 170 districts including 55 Extremist Affected districts which were identified as the Most Backward districts by an Inter Ministry Task Group set up by the Planning Commission in August, 2004. The Task Group ranked districts on the basis of 17 chosen parameters relating to income deprivation, health and educational status and infrastructural inadequacy, summed up their ranks on the different parameters and arranged them on thebasis of their combined ranking to focus on relative deprivation levels. The Districts ranked lowest on the combined ranking list have been considered as the most backward in the country.

He said in accordance with the recommendations of the Second ARC, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj is considering adopting Block as a Unit of identification of backwardness and adopting suitable indicators for bringing in more focused interventions in these blocks.

He stressed the strong need to have wider consultations among other Ministries/organisations as well as independent experts who have written on the issue of inter / intra-State disparities.

Earlier inaugurating the discussion Shri A.N.P. Sinha, Secretary Ministry of Panchayati Raj said Governance needs to be particularly strengthened in more backward areas within a State. The role of ‘special purpose vehicles’ such as backward area development boards and authorities in reducing intra-State disparities needs to be reviewed. It is advisable to strengthen local governments and make them responsible and accountable. He said States have also been requested to compile the latest information in respect of these indicators and upload the same on the website of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Out of the approx. 6500 Blocks, data in respect of nearly 40 % has already been entered. States such as Andhra Pradesh have uploaded the updated information in respect of all the Blocks for 2008 and can be used for comparing with the 2001 data.

During the discussions as a preliminary exercise, the following identified indicators were discussed for developing an index of backwardness for CD Blocks:

Percentage of villages having paved approach roads; Percentage of land irrigated;Percentage of villages with safe drinking water; Percentage of villages with electricity; Percentage of Literate people; Percentage of villages with primary education facility;Percentage of villages with any health care facility; and Percentage of main worker to total worker.

The vote of thanks was given by Sh. Sudhir Krishna, Additional Secretary in the Panchayati Raj Ministry.

The one day long Consultation was attended by representatives from several States/UTs, Academics, Union Ministries and Planning Commission.

The Commission had also recommended the block as the Unit for planning and implementation for the purpose of NREGA in its Report on that programme. It stated that: "After the State specific Block level indices are worked out, they need to be applied not for a given set of development schemes but as general guidelines for allocation of resources for all development initiatives and in particular allocations from State and district level plan funds. Backward Blocks thus identified should also receive recognition for the purpose of allocations under the appropriate centrally sponsored schemes. In short, the strategy of reducing and minimizing regional imbalances primarily through targeting attention to Blocks identified as backward within the context of each State needs to be formally accepted by the Planning Commission."

National Judicial Service Soon

The Union ministry of law and justice is working on a plan to introduce a National Judicial Service (NJS) on the lines of the civil  Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS).

The move is primarily aimed at bringing about a quality enhancement at the district-level judiciary and having a sound system for the direct recruitment of judges, Union law minister M Veerappa Moily said here on Sunday.

IAS probable list:Mohan Abraham approaches CAT

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The controversial director of VHSE, Mohan Abraham, has played his final card to somehow get into the IAS probables list. He has approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) with a prayer to consider him for the Indian Administrative Service.

His move, believed to be with the blessings of his political bosses, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Education Minister M A Baby, became partially successful with the CAT delivering a directive to the Chief Secretary to look into his plea.The name of Mohan Abraham was in the initial shortlist of 22 officials prepared by the State Government for conferring IAS. The inclusion of Mohan Abraham was without the knowledge of the Chief Secretary who was of the opinion that he could not be considered as he was not in the rank of deputy collector.

Chief Secretary Neela Gangadharan, in reply to an RTI query, said Mohan Abraham was `not eligible’ to be considered for conferring IAS as his rank was below that of deputy collector. An FIR has been registered by the Vigilance against him for massive corruption in purchasing library books for VHS schools. On November 26, the Vigilance special judge here ordered that a second FIR should be registered against the official for amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The recommendation by Vigilance ADGP K P Somarajan to suspend Mohan Abraham with immediate effect has been kept in the cold storage by the Home and Education Ministers. The scheme of the Ministers was to ensure an environment conducive for him to obtain a CAT order in his favour.

It was part of a well orchestrated move by Mohan Abraham for getting a backdoor entry into the 10-member IAS probables’ shortlist prepared by the government.

The admission of Mohan Abraham’s petition by the CAT itself was mysterious as the CAT usually considers complaints of only Central Government employees. ``It was admitted as it related to the IAS selection procedure,’’ said M.Ramachandran, Registrar, CAT.

A Bench of CAT consisting of Dr KBS Rajan and K.Geroge Joseph told the Chief Secretary on December 2 ``to consider and dispose the representation of the applicant.

If the second respondent (Government of Kerala) is satisfied that the name of the applicant be not deleted, the list may go in the same fashion.If the list has to be modified, the second respondent shall intimate the applicant with a speaking order,’’ said the order.The CAT Bench noted in its order that if there is a specific rule or precedent to avoid the name of officials involved in corruption cases, it should be intimated to the applicant accordingly.It gave one month’s time to the government to complete the procedure.

Top sources in the government said no final decision has been taken by the Chief Secretary on the CAT order.Earlier, the High Court directed the inclusion of Soil Survey Director Dr P.N. Ramachandran in the list which is also under the consideration of the Chief Secretary.