tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29025592377089783922024-02-21T08:57:07.248+05:30Public Administration For IASAll that you wanted to know about Public Administration For IAS ExamGM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-61472021462314731422014-01-13T21:01:00.001+05:302014-01-13T21:02:10.815+05:30Preparing for Interview<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends , </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Please find below some general tips on how to face the interview once the intial written hurdle is cleared. For most interview is the most dreadful thing and I have known many who were not able to clear the interview even after clearing written exams many times. Interview should be faced with confidence and confidence comes with repeated practice and preparation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though this is not related to public administration in general but thought would share this here to bring it to your attention.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Source:http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/a-litmus-test/article5570977.ece</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Indian polity forms an important aspect of the knowledge content of the personal interview of the civil services exam. The candidates need to know Indian polity as part of general studies, current affairs and as optional subject for the candidates of political science and international relations. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A career in the civil services is intimately linked with politics, and, in fact, politics and public administration are blood cousins. While politics is involved in policy formulation and decision-making in an authoritative fashion, public administration deals primarily with execution of formulated programmes and policies. Furthermore, in parliamentary democracies, political representatives form the temporary executives while the selected recruited bureaucracy forms the permanent executive body, and the civil servants are expected to work in tandem with political representatives to achieve socio-economic development of our country. A proper understanding of the Indian constitution and the political process in India is indispensable for a productive career in the civil services.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are four types of issues and topics in Indian political system that the personality test candidates should thoroughly prepare for :</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(a)Institutional or structural aspects </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(b)Functional features of political dynamics</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(c) Maladies that afflict Indian politics and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(d) Current events and issues</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Institutional or structural aspects</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The interview panel shows a tendency to ask questions on the constitutional, institutional aspects of our political system and therefore students must concentrate on them thoroughly, and they ought to have a complete mental map of our Constitution.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They should study the numerous parts, articles and schedules of the Constitution, especially the most important and unique ones.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The basic institutional arrangements as laid down by the Constitution regarding fundamental rights, directive principles of state policy, parliamentary system, co-operative federalism, integrated hierarchical judiciary, structure and organisation of State government, and the transitional, temporary provisions of the Constitution are among the significant areas that the candidates ought to pay comprehensive attention to.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A rigorous perusal of the interviews of the previous years reveals the frequently asked factual questions on important provisions of our Constitution.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is the doctrine of pith and substance? What is colourable legislation? What is an associate state? What is the zero hour in Parliament? What is the rule of law and where do you find it in the Indian Constitution? What is cut motion? What is the constitutional impeachment procedure for the removal of judges of Supreme Court and high courts? Most of the questions on the institutional aspects of Indian polity are factual, empirical and comparative ones and as the candidates have already studied them as part of the preliminary test and main exam, they need to glance through the Constitution so as to refresh their memory.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Functional aspects</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The interview panel seeks to understand the awareness of the candidates about the positive and functional currents of Indian politics.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The interviewees must prepare themselves on the numerous achievements of Indian democracy such as the preservation of national unity and integrity in spite of the existence of numerous fissiparous threats and forces, conservation of democracy as a form of governance, achievements of economic growth and concomitant empowerment of millions of people, gradual and peaceful modernisation of a vertically hierarchical society, superlative developments in science and technology and staunch adherence to moral diplomacy in international relations. These are some of the functional dimensions of our polity that the candidates must place before the board to defend the worth of Indian democracy.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The interview panel may also ask whether we should replace a parliamentary system with the presidential democracy or a benevolent dictatorship. As democracy signifies popular sovereignty, the candidates must defend the democratic model of governance as a developmental instrument and should eschew any tendency towards dictatorship of any kind.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Maladies</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The panel may like to interact with candidates on the numerous maladies that afflict our political system, such as criminalisation of politics, corruption in public life, decline of the parliament and other important institutions, parallel economy, naxalite menace, terrorism, secessionism and parochialism.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are a number of innovative concepts that describe the malfunctions of our liberal democracy, such as the soft state, the over-developed state, the governability crisis, etc. The personality-test candidates must possess an elaborate understanding, profound perception and convincing arguments to tackle the fusillade of questions that the personal interview panel may fire on these issues.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Current affairs</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The major controversies, processes and events in the life of our democratic republic form another prospective domain of questions in the personal interview.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The nation will be in the throes of the fourteenth general elections in April and May when the personal interview is scheduled to take place and therefore the interviewees should study all aspects of the elections in India including Constitutional provisions, the election commission, campaign strategies and issues of political parties, electoral reforms, judgments of the Supreme Courts on electoral issues, electoral disputes, prominent personalities, psephological issues such as exit polls and opinion polls, State funding of elections, criminalisation of the electoral process and corrective remedies, etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The candidates may face tricky questions in the personality test. They should not either consciously or inadvertently reveal any political bias or colour.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The career in civil services in India is designed on the model of Weberian rational bureaucracy and British tradition of political neutrality. There is a bewildering range of diversity in India and the candidates should not exhibit any invidious proclivity towards their own caste, religion, region and language.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To modify Lord Macaulay’s words, the Union Public Service Commission looks for candidates who are Indians in colour, taste, temperament, morals and intellect in the personal interview of the civil services exam and dismisses ruthlessly candidates having proclivities towards nepotism, parochialism and irrational primordial attachments.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As and when candidates are caught in a quandary, the Constitution should become a kind of lighthouse and therefore they should articulate their perspectives in tune with Constitutional provisions and values.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The dictum, “<span style="background-color: yellow;">ever with the Constitution and never against</span>,” must guide the personality test candidates of the civil services exam.</span></div>
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GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-35348087848898574492013-12-15T15:55:00.000+05:302013-12-15T15:55:10.927+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends , </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Came across this article on article 370.With relation between India and Pakistan at its sour end again , this becomes relevant to the students of public administration.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks</span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GM StudyCenter</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Source:</span><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/understanding-article-370/article5426473.ece"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/understanding-article-370/article5426473.ece</span></a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Understanding Article 370</span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Article 370 was and is about providing space, in matters of governance, to the people of a State who felt deeply vulnerable about their identity and insecure about the future.</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the Bharatiya Janata Party’s recent<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i style="outline: 0px;">Lalkar</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>rally in Jammu, its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, called for a debate on Article 370. This is encouraging and suggests that the BJP may be willing to review its absolutist stance on the Article that defines the provisions of the Constitution of India with respect to Jammu and Kashmir. Any meaningful debate on Article 370 must, however, separate myth from reality and fact from fiction. My purpose here is to respond to the five main questions that have already been raised in the incipient debate.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First, why was Article 370 inserted in the Constitution? Or as the great poet and thinker, Maulana Hasrat Mohini, asked in the Constituent Assembly on October 17, 1949: “Why this discrimination please?” The answer was given by Nehru’s confidant, the wise but misunderstood Thanjavur Brahmin, Gopalaswami Ayyangar (Minister without portfolio in the first Union Cabinet, a former Diwan to Maharajah Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, and the principal drafter of Article 370). Ayyangar argued that for a variety of reasons Kashmir, unlike other princely states, was not yet ripe for integration. India had been at war with Pakistan over Jammu and Kashmir and while there was a ceasefire, the conditions were still “unusual and abnormal.” Part of the State’s territory was in the hands of “rebels and enemies.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The involvement of the United Nations brought an international dimension to this conflict, an “entanglement” which would end only when the “Kashmir problem is satisfactorily resolved.” Finally, Ayyangar argued that the “will of the people through the instrument of the [J&K] Constituent Assembly will determine the constitution of the State as well as the sphere of Union jurisdiction over the State.” In sum, there was hope that J&K would one day integrate like other States of the Union (hence the use of the term “temporary provisions” in the title of the Article), but this could happen only when there was real peace and only when the people of the State acquiesced to such an arrangement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Second, did Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel oppose Article 370? To reduce the Nehru-Patel relationship to Manichean terms is to caricature history, and this is equally true of their attitude towards Jammu and Kashmir. Nehru was undoubtedly idealistic and romantic about Kashmir. He wrote: “Like some supremely beautiful woman, whose beauty is almost impersonal and above human desire, such was Kashmir in all its feminine beauty of river and valley...” Patel had a much more earthy and pragmatic view and — as his masterly integration of princely states demonstrated — little time for capricious state leaders or their separatist tendencies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But while Ayyangar negotiated — with Nehru’s backing — the substance and scope of Article 370 with Sheikh Abdullah and other members from J&K in the Constituent Assembly (including Mirza Afzal Beg and Maulana Masoodi), Patel was very much in the loop. And while Patel was deeply sceptical of a “state becoming part of India” and not “recognising ... [India’s] fundamental rights and directive principles of State policy,” he was aware of, and a party to, the final outcome on Article 370.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Indeed, the synergy that Patel and Nehru brought to governing India is evident in the negotiations over Article 370. Consider this. In October 1949, there was a tense standoff between Sheikh Abdullah and Ayyangar over parts of Article 370 (or Article 306A as it was known during the drafting stage). Nehru was in the United States, where — addressing members of the U.S. Congress — he said: “Where freedom is menaced or justice threatened or where aggression takes place, we cannot be and shall not be neutral.” Meanwhile, Ayyangar was struggling with the Sheikh, and later even threatened to resign from the Constituent Assembly. “You have left me even more distressed than I have been since I received your last letter … I feel weighted with the responsibility of finding a solution for the difficulties that, after Panditji left for America ... have been created … without adequate excuse,” he wrote to the Sheikh on October 15. And who did Ayyangar turn to, in this crisis with the Sheikh, while Nehru was abroad? None other than the Sardar himself. Patel, of course, was not enamoured by the Sheikh, who he thought kept changing course. He wrote to Ayyangar: “Whenever Sheikh Sahib wishes to back out, he always confronts us with his duty to the people.” But it was Patel finally who managed the crisis and navigated most of the amendments sought of the Sheikh through the Congress party and the Constituent Assembly to ensure that Article 370 became part of the Indian Constitution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Third, is Article 370 still intact in its original form? One of the biggest myths is the belief that the “autonomy” as envisaged in the Constituent Assembly is intact. A series of Presidential Orders has eroded Article 370 substantially. While the 1950 Presidential Order and the Delhi Agreement of 1952 defined the scope and substance of the relationship between the Centre and the State with the support of the Sheikh, the subsequent series of Presidential Orders have made most Union laws applicable to the State. In fact today the autonomy enjoyed by the State is a shadow of its former self, and there is virtually no institution of the Republic of India that does not include J&K within its scope and jurisdiction. The only substantial differences from many other States relate to permanent residents and their rights; the non-applicability of Emergency provisions on the grounds of “internal disturbance” without the concurrence of the State; and the name and boundaries of the State, which cannot be altered without the consent of its legislature. Remember J&K is not unique; there are special provisions for several States which are listed in Article 371 and Articles 371-A to 371-I.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fourth, can Article 370 be revoked unilaterally? Clause 3 of Article 370 is clear. The President may, by public notification, declare that this Article shall cease to be operative but only on the recommendation of the Constituent Assembly of the State. In other words, Article 370 can be revoked only if a new Constituent Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir is convened and is willing to recommend its revocation. Of course, Parliament has the power to amend the Constitution to change this provision. But this could be subject to a judicial review which may find that this clause is a basic feature of the relationship between the State and the Centre and cannot, therefore, be amended.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fifth, is Article 370 a source of gender bias in disqualifying women from the State of property rights? Article 370 itself is gender neutral, but the definition of Permanent Residents in the State Constitution — based on the notifications issued in April 1927 and June 1932 during the Maharajah’s rule — was thought to be discriminatory. The 1927 notification included an explanatory note which said: “The wife or a widow of the State Subject … shall acquire the status of her husband as State Subject of the same Class as her Husband, so long as she resides in the State and does not leave the State for permanent residence outside the State.” This was widely interpreted as suggesting also that a woman from the State who marries outside the State would lose her status as a State subject. However, in a landmark judgement, in October 2002, the full bench of J&K High Court, with one judge dissenting, held that the daughter of a permanent resident of the State will not lose her permanent resident status on marrying a person who is not a permanent resident, and will enjoy all rights, including property rights.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, has Article 370 strengthened separatist tendencies in J&K? Article 370 was and is about providing space, in matters of governance, to the people of a State who felt deeply vulnerable about their identity and insecure about the future. It was about empowering people, making people feel that they belong, and about increasing the accountability of public institutions and services. Article 370 is synonymous with decentralisation and devolution of power, phrases that have been on the charter of virtually every political party in India. There is no contradiction between wanting J&K to be part of the national mainstream and the State’s desire for self-governance as envisioned in the Article.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Separatism grows when people feel disconnected from the structures of power and the process of policy formulation; in contrast, devolution ensures popular participation in the running of the polity. It can be reasonably argued that it is the erosion of Article 370 and not its creation which has aggravated separatist tendencies in the State. Not surprisingly, at the opposition conclave in Srinagar in 1982, leaders of virtually all national parties, including past and present allies of the BJP, declared that the “special constitutional status of J&K under Article 370 should be preserved and protected in letter and spirit.” A review of its policy on Article 370, through an informed debate, would align today’s BJP with the considered and reflective approach on J&K articulated by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Only then would the slogans of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i style="outline: 0px;">Jhumuriyat</i>,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i style="outline: 0px;">Kashmiriyat</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i style="outline: 0px;">Insaniyat</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>make real sense.</span></div>
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GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-21848901025344953472012-08-14T03:34:00.000+05:302012-08-14T03:34:29.394+05:30How to Communicate with GMStudyCenter<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends , </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have been getting queries / questions / clarifications in comments section of the blog , which we dont publish or answer. Comments section is meant to be used for any corrections / to provide additional relevant informations or compliment the effort of the contributors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For seeking suggestion/advise/clarifications please send an email to <a href="mailto:gmstudycenter@gmail.com">gmstudycenter@gmail.com</a> , we will try to do our best to respond.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span></div>
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GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-5883159586617644212011-02-19T09:02:00.000+05:302011-02-19T09:02:50.004+05:30Question of Accountability<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends , </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the 2 G spectrum in the backdrop, the question of accountability between minister and civil servant has assumed significant importance. And there is this neatly articulated article.I have highlighted the important notes which is mandatory to remember and quote if possible in the examination and have given the additional details in the later part of the articles.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Source:http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/16/stories/2011021665641400.htm</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We should take note of the basic concept of ministerial responsibility, which
is the prime tenet of a Cabinet system of government as developed in Westminster
and adopted by the Constitution of India.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are four principal features of the Cabinet system of government. One is
that the Cabinet is a single unit accountable to the elected legislature. On
every important piece of policy and performance, all members of the Cabinet
stand and fall together. The second feature is that, in the presidential system
the head of the executive, the President — apart from impeachment procedures —
is answerable normally to the electorate, either directly or through a system of
electoral college. But in the parliamentary system, the Cabinet, led by the
Prime Minister, is immediately answerable to the elected House. The third
feature is that, while all members of the Cabinet are collectively responsible
to the legislature, there is also individual responsibility for each Minister
with respect to the performance of the Department or Departments under his
charge. The fourth feature is that, although all members are equal and
responsible for every decision taken collectively in the Cabinet, the Prime
Minister represents the ‘keystone of the Cabinet arch' and occupies a position
of exceptional accountability on the performance of the Cabinet on the
whole.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">About the dual responsibilities of a Minister, Ivor Jennings stated: “The
Cabinet is a general controlling body. It neither desires nor is able to deal
with all the numerous details of the government. It expects a minister to take
all decisions which are not of real political importance. Every minister must
therefore exercise his own discretion as to what matters arising in his
department ought to receive Cabinet sanction. The minister who refers too much
is weak; he who refers too little is dangerous.” (Page 233-234, Cabinet
Government, Third Edition, 1980)</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Jennings also stated that the minister is fully responsible for the decisions
of his civil servants. He wrote: “All decisions of any consequence are taken by
ministers, either as such or as members of the cabinet. All decisions taken by
civil servants are taken on behalf of ministers and under their control. If the
minister chooses, as in the large Departments inevitably he must, to leave
decisions to civil servants, then he must take [the] political consequences of
any defect of administration, any injustice to an individual, or any policy
disapproved by the House of Commons. He cannot defend himself by blaming the
civil servant. If the minister could blame the civil servant, then the civil
servant would require power to blame the minister. In other words, then the
civil servant would become a politician. The fundamental principle of our system
of administration is however that the civil service should be impartial and, as
far as possible, anonymous.” (Page 149, The British Constitution, Fifth Edition,
1971)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #ffe599;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If a civil servant is found by an impartial enquiry to have exceeded or
misused his authority or power to secure personal gain or advantage to other
individuals or organisations, he should be duly punished under the law.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the 2G spectrum deals,
submitted in November 2010, revealed a presumptive loss caused to the Central
government of about Rs.1.76 lakh crore. This is the largest single instance of
corruption in monetary terms in India's political history. Furious indignation
among the media and the public, and the demands of the Opposition parties, led
to the resignation of Telecom Minister A. Raja. Human Resource Development
Minister Kapil Sibal now holds additional charge of the Telecom Ministry.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On December 31, 2010, the Telecom Minister appointed a one-man committee
comprising Justice (retd) Shivraj V. Patil “to examine the appropriations of
procedures followed by the Department of Telecommunications in [the] issuance
and allocation of spectrum during the period 2001-09.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Justice Patil submitted his report on January 31, 2011. It was put on the
website of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on February 10. In the
report, material covering the eight terms of reference is examined separately in
each chapter.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As the committee was appointed mainly to study the appropriations followed by
the DoT and to give suggestions to streamline policy regarding the future sale
of spectrum, it did not go into past losses incurred by the government in the
sale of spectrum. However, the terms of reference required the committee to
“identify the public officials responsible in the cases of ‘deficiencies' and
‘shortcomings and lapses.” Accordingly, the report provides particulars of names
and designations of the officials involved in taking decisions, responsible “for
deviations in formulation of procedures” in 17 paragraphs of Chapter 6, and of
the officials “responsible for lapses,” in 20 paragraphs of Chapter 7.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In 36 of the 37 paragraphs, the report lists the names and designations of
officials, from the Secretary downwards. Invariably every paragraph concludes
with the remark: “The officers named above appear to be responsible for the
deviation,” or “for the lapses,” as the case may be.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In these paragraphs dealing with officers taking decisions, the Telecom
Minister is associated with the officials in the following paragraphs (given
here without the names and designations of the officers):</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Para 6.1(ii): “The decision was taken on the basis of note put up (by 10
officials) and approved by the then Minister.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Para 6.1(iii) is about the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India that were not placed before the Telecom Commission. It states
further: “This was endorsed by 2 officials and approved by the Minister.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Para 6.1(iv) refers to the DoT seeking the legal opinion of the
Attorney-General/Solicitor-General through the Ministry of Law and Justice on
the procedure to be followed for the grant of new Unified Access Service
Licences (UASLs). The Law Minister gave the opinion that in view of the
importance of the case, it was necessary that the whole issue be first
considered by an Empowered Group of Ministers. However, based on a note by two
officers of the DoT, “the Minister took the view that the opinion of the
Minister of Law and Justice was out of context and decided [that] the procedure
for grant of new UASLs formulated earlier be continued.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Para 6.1(vi): “Said decision was based on the contents of the letter of the
Minister dated 26-12-2007 addressed to the Prime Minister. On the basis of [a]
note by 3 officers and [as] approved by the Minister, [a] decision was taken to
treat the contents of the said letter of the Minister as the policy of DoT.”
Peculiarly, about the decision to issue a Letter of Intent (LoI) to amend the
UASL on payment of additional fee, Para7.1(xiii) states: “This is in deviation
from the practice followed which accords priority on the basis of date of
application and not on the date of compliance of LoI. This decision was taken by
the Minister on 17-10-2007.” In this case, no officer is noted as having been
involved in making the decision. In all fairness and according to the principles
of natural justice, it should have been noted that the Minister alone was
responsible for this deviation. But no such comment has been made about his act
of deviation.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is difficult to accept the conclusion that the officers who prepared the
drafts were responsible for the ‘deviations' or ‘lapses'; some of them were
approved by the Minister himself. In particular, as per Para 6.1(vi), the
decision was taken in the presence of the Minister to treat the contents of his
letter to the Prime Minister as the policy of the DoT, which is stated in the
paragraph to have been approved by the Minister himself. In this case also, the
paragraph ends with the remark: “The officers referred herein above appear to be
responsible for this deviation.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It appears that there is a conspiracy to make the officials of the Ministry
responsible and punishable for the actions of the Minister.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>The principle of ministerial responsibility should be invoked in the matter
of the decisions involved in the 2G spectrum scam.</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If, in the case of the 2G spectrum deals, the Minister had acted on his own
to issue licences, he comes under his individual ministerial responsibility to
be accountable for the huge loss and the consequences of the unprecedented scale
of corruption.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">Mr. Raja had claimed that the procedures he adopted in the allocation of
spectrum licences had received the stamp of approval of the Prime Minister, as
his letter of December 26, 2007 had been acknowledged by the Prime Minister in a
reply thus: “I have received your letter of December 26, 2007 regarding
developments in the telecom sector.” If this assumption by Mr. Raja is
acceptable, then the entire policy and procedures adopted in the grant of 2G
licences will become a matter to be considered under the collective
responsibility of all members of the Cabinet</span> </i></span></div>
<br />
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-5747361997798521432011-02-12T11:23:00.003+05:302011-02-12T12:29:35.410+05:30The Minister versus the Civil servant<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Came across this article which is very much relevant for the students of public administration.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Source : <a href="http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/11/stories/2011021158161400.htm">http://www.hindu.com/2011/02/11/stories/2011021158161400.htm</a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Central Bureau of Investigation's decision to arrest the former Telecommunications Secretary, Siddhartha Behura, along with the former Minister, A. Raja, in connection with the 2G spectrum case, revives an old debate over the relationship between the civil servant and the politician. The drastic action by the agency should shake the entire bureaucracy, especially the officers of the Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Service, out of their complacency. It should make them introspect on how they should regulate their responses to ministerial demands for unequivocal compliance of directions. The issue is ticklish and may never be resolved to the satisfaction of either side, or even those members of the public who believe that the independence of the civil service became extinct a long time ago. Nevertheless, it has become necessary to place things in perspective, so that the public understands the dynamics of a relationship which places enormous </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">strain on officers at the senior levels of the bureaucracy.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is nothing that has been reported till now that suggests that Mr. Behura had been dishonest and received monetary favours from the companies which benefited. Only a CBI charge sheet will lead to the process of confirming or disproving his integrity. There is just a possibility that, while being personally honest he had been more than willing to do the Minister's bidding, in order to stay in the good books. It is not insignificant that he had worked under Mr. Raja earlier in the Ministry of Environment. The fact that he signed more than 100 letters in regard to the issue of licences within days of assuming charge as Secretary, is a cause for grave misgivings: he was dishonest or negligent or displayed a lack of application of the mind. His lawyer claims his client had raised several objections to the Minister's actions. It is not known whether these had been recorded on the files. If Mr. Behura's dissent had indeed been put down on paper, that would provide an extenuating circumstance when his criminal liability is assessed.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Lord Macaulay, who was the Law Member of the Governor-General's Council in India and later Secretary of War in England in the second half of the 19th century — he is recognised as the draftsman of the remarkably structured Indian Penal Code — visualised the civil service as a body of young men with outstanding intellectual abilities and values. His report of 1864 paved the way for streamlining the recruitment for and training of the members of the Indian Civil Service. The foundation he laid stressed the qualities of discipline and integrity. The early years of Independence saw both Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Home Minister Sardar Patel nursing the civil services with great care and affection. They were convinced that the bureaucracy, as it evolved under the British, constituted a vital and dependable machinery to push through with the various reforms that an infant nation desperately needed. The uprightness and patriotism of the two great men ensured that the civil services were kept insulated from the muddy waters of day-to-day politics and played the key role expected of it in maintaining social stability, thereby providing the right ambience for development work.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Overall, despite a few hiccups, the culture that respected the average civil servant flourished. A clear distinction between the policymaking role of the Minister and of the implementation function of the civil servant had come to be established. By and large, the latter could argue against a Minister's decision without the peril of being humiliated or penalised. Once the Minister made up his mind after a discussion, he had the last word, and the Secretary had no alternative but to implement the decision. There was therefore everything in the system that promoted candour and honesty.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The watershed in the infamous history of the Indian administration thereafter was possibly the Emergency, declared in 1975 on specious grounds. The arbitrariness that ensued led to the dilution, if not the annihilation, of many traditional institutions. The civil service just caved in without protest.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since then, the floodgates have remained open, and there has been no stopping the process of tinkering with the civil service. The casualties have been the fearlessness and objectivity of the members of the civil service. Barring a few, Ministers both at the Centre and in the States have steamrolled the bureaucracy so much that a fear psychosis now envelops the whole civil service. The judiciary has generally been remiss in undoing the damage. This is because of the stand that it cannot step in where routine administrative matters (such as transfers and suspensions) are involved, and that an act of injustice done to a civil servant does not constitute any infringement of the fundamental rights embodied in the Constitution. The Administrative Tribunals have occasionally offered some redress but have not done enough to remove the fear that grips a majority of public servants. This explains the rot.</span></div>
</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The current situation is one in which the average IAS or IPS officer can hardly say ‘no' to a ministerial fiat. Blind obedience is what is expected, even when a direction is downright illegal. Some of the unfortunate recent scams are a direct outcome of this situation. A few of the so-called ‘encounters' involving anti-social elements also belong to this category. The demand these days from a Minister is for instantaneous action, and any perceived delay by an officer is fraught with grave consequences. In earlier times, ministerial displeasure often resulted in an officer's transfer from a sensitive job. These days, however, the consequence of ministerial ire is an inspired physical assault or a dubious departmental enquiry.</span></div>
</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Against this backdrop, how do you expect even an iota of independence or candour from civil servants? It is easy for many of us to be critical of them for their submissive behaviour. But any non-conformist uprightness is a sure route to disaster. This is despite many safeguards, including the protection provided in Article 311 of the Constitution, which guarantee due process before a major penalty (dismissal, removal or reduction in rank) is imposed. Suspension from service is perhaps the worst ignominy that can befall a government official. No doubt there are some restrictions on this power. These do not, however, deter a reckless Chief Minister from settling scores with an unbending civil servant, especially in the higher echelons. The Union government caused great damage by sharing this power with the States in respect of the All India Services. This has been the chief source of fear even among bold officials. Major reform is immediately called for in this area.</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is not as if the blame rests squarely with the politicians. Overzealous and greedy civil servants have contributed equally to the dilution of standards. Many of them have looked the other way when Ministers were found indulging in malpractices. Worse is the case of those who have themselves functioned as conduits for money passing to Ministers. A third category comprises those who are themselves guilty of corruption and cannot blame their Ministers of unethical behaviour. How else do you explain an IAS-officer couple in Madhya Pradesh having been allegedly </span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">found to have assets worth more than Rs.300 crore?</span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Are such officers the products of an ambience where there is a premium on dishonesty? Or, is it that they have a DNA which prevails over any instinct to be straightforward? What is clear, however, is that unless New Delhi takes up a major exercise to promote honesty in public service, especially in the IAS and the IPS, the country will come to be looked upon as a banana republic by the rest of the world. The growing feeling among major investors from the developed world that they cannot do business in India without paying bribes is a matter of shame.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div style="line-height: 15px;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the meantime, my advice to senior officers is this: put down any dissent from ministerial directions in writing, and just abstain from any decision that even remotely suggests any irregularity or illegality. Do this even at the cost of being victimised through suspension or being ignored for a significant position that is legitimately your due. These are golden rules which you can ignore only at your own peril.</span></div>
</div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-28393807776658576522010-10-06T12:26:00.000+05:302010-10-06T12:26:02.480+05:30Right Information by Right to Information: An Interview with Wajahat Habibullah<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I came across this insightful, short interview with former CIC(Chief Information Comissioner) on RTI.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From Public administration perspective it comes under Accountability and Control</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">GMStudyCenter</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">Source</span>:<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">http://www.ipcs.org/article/india/right-information-by-right-to-information-an-interview-with-wajahat-3252.html</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As India grapples with the Naxal menace in Left Wing Extremism
affected states with no concrete long-term solution in sight for now, the former CIC
suggests simple measures using the RTI which may prevent further outbreak of the
problem.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> What is the genesis of RTI in terms of
being utilized in Naxal affected areas in the Eastern Tribal
Corridor?</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wajahat Habibullah:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> At the time when the Naxal uprising
first appeared in India in Naxalbari, another revolution was taking shape in
Rajasthan, that of demand for Right to Information. In both places, the
dispossessed excluded population was demanding the right to ask questions from
the authority and equality and parity. However, one group took to arms, while
the other pursued the RTI for the same demands.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Can effective
implementation of RTI reverse the trend of violence in the tribal hinterlands
which are the worst affected by Left Wing Extremism? </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> RTI can be
an effective tool only as long as it is utilized before the violence starts.
Once a trend of violence is set, it cannot be used to reverse the cycle. It is
only a preventive and not a corrective measure. If used properly, it can be
effective in the tribal heartlands of India, which are taken over by the Naxals
at present.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Has the failure of proper implementation of
Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996 proved to be an element
in increasing tribal anger towards the government?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The tribals
have been displaced, marginalized and victimized. It is critical to put PESA to
proper use now. It has not been effectively utilized so far as it has not been
able to bring much voice to the tribals. It must be given an opportunity and
means to empower the tribals.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Has the government been able to
reach out to the vulnerable tribal population through the RTI?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">
Government and administration have been oppressive since the British
expropriated tribal and government areas. Now, with RTI, they have an
opportunity to be heard. The tribals of India have suffered exploitation for far
too long. Now, growth of education has allowed them to project what they have
been denied. The redressal mechanism could include RTI as the initiating point.
Unfortunately, so far the RTI has not been able to be properly implemented in
the affected states. <br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Which state has benefited the maximum
from proper implementation of RTI? Which states show the worst implementation of
the RTI?</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Except Andhra Pradesh, all Naxal affected states have the
worst implementation record of RTI. This is the reason why Andhra Pradesh is
now the state which is least affected by violence despite being the state where
the genesis of the problem emerged with the Telangana uprising. <br />Andhra
Pradesh has had very effective implementation of both Panchayati Raj and RTI. YS
Rajasekhara Reddy was himself a big propagator of the RTI. He had said that the
RTI Act was a big part of his success as it allowed him to reach out to the
rural areas of the state and Telangana.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> RTI pendency has been
steadily going up over the years. How far will it prove to be effective, even if
implemented properly, in tribal areas when the pendency in areas with educated
and aware problems is so high?</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> RTI implementation position is much
better. Statistically speaking, the pendency numbers have gone up - about three
years ago, pending applications stood at 10,000. Now, they are 14,000. However,
three years ago, total applications settled were 22,000; the number now stands
at 65,000. So, in that context, while pendency has gone up, so has the number of
people using the RTI. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> How can RTI result in a decline in
violence?</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The expectation of people to get a reply for their
grievances and making the system accountable has risen. This tendency will give
way to a decline in overall violence. People may get agitated, frustrated or
more demanding, but will not take to violence. It gives some sense of
responsibility and accountability. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> How can the awareness
about RTI spread in the interiors of Naxal affected areas where accessibility is
still a huge problem for authorities?</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Spreading of awareness about
RTI in tribal areas can be done through various NGOs working with the Naxals in
the areas as they have better accessibility among the population rather than the
authorities. Allow the civil society to function properly in these areas.
Tribals are not even aware of the RTI as of now, let the NGOs and other agents
of civil society spread the awareness about what can be done with the help of
RTI as an alternate to taking up arms.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Can RTI prove to be
a tool for reforming the existing Naxal cadres?</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I don’t know if
the RTI can prove to be an effective tool in reforming existing Naxal cadres. It
can definitely be used to wean away their support base in the tribal belts.
Right to Education, Whistleblowers’ Act etc, all go hand in hand. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Has the media been playing a responsible role in the
spreading of awareness about the RTI in Naxal areas? What else can they
do?</span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Visual media is playing a role in the spread of awareness
about RTI. Doordarshan has given coverage in collaboration with the respective
state governments to promote community television or education through community
televisions and computerization through NREGA (already in place) by putting up
computer systems in rural areas. Furthermore, the PDS system needs to be
strengthened and visual media’s support can be sought for
that.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Question</span></b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Can the corrupt practices in Indian politics and
bureaucracy be reformed towards changing the pattern of uneducated vulnerable
tribal population being targeted by the Naxals for support?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">WH:</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Taken
with RTE, if the RTI is promoted successfully in rural and tribal areas, it will
help engender a demand for awareness. Political demand for the same will
automatically follow if the masses demand for it. Effective utilization of RTI
will also have a remedial effect on corruption in the Indian political and
bureaucratic system; it will not eliminate it, but can be used for imposing
restraint.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-77065508764804189872010-06-20T13:19:00.000+05:302010-06-20T13:19:09.804+05:30Administrative News (Jun 20 2010)<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is a news bite appeared in deccan chronical which says there is acute shortage of IAS officers in the country and hence are proposing to conduct examination for the state public servants to induct in to IAS. But as usual this is a thought - not sure when it will materialise.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Also there is a summary of the survey conducted among the ICS ( Indian Civil Service ) officers which might give some idea of how IAS/IPS/IFS officers are feeling.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudycenter</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Source </span><a href="http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/state-officers-get-shot-ias-194"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chennai/state-officers-get-shot-ias-194</span></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">June 17: The government has proposed special examinations to induct young officers recruited through the state civil services into the elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS).</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Faced with a shortfall of at least 560 IAS officers across India, a proposal for the UPSC to hold “limited” competitive examinations to allow young officers serving in the states to join the IAS is being actively considered by the Prime Minister’s Office.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A similar move to make up the acute shortfall of IPS officers through a “limited competitive examination” for young officers in central police organisations, central paramilitary forces and state police forces had been firmed up by the Union ministry for home affairs in March this year. The proposal had been struck down by the UPSC, prompting the home ministry to approach the PMO to overrule the UPSC’s decision.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Home minister P. Chidambaram will meet law minister Veerappa Moily and minister of state for personnel Prithviraj Chavan on Friday to elicit their views, settle contentious issues like age criteria, and other modalities involved in holding such exams.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</span><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We will be taking the views of the stakeholders to resolve any complications in view of the concerns expressed by the UPSC. A final view will be taken after we study their suggestions,” an MHA official said.</span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Bearish Babus</strong></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">(ICS survey summary)</span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">Source <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/newdelhi/Bearish-babus/Article1-551855.aspx">http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/newdelhi/Bearish-babus/Article1-551855.aspx</a></span> </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the early results of India’s first Civil Services Survey came in from Hyderabad a few months ago, the close-knit team of government officials at the Department of Administrative Reforms associated with the ambitious project weren’t particularly surprised, or shocked.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes, there had been disappointment and frustration among leaders of India’s civil services. Men and women of questionable integrity did manage to hold important positions in the government. In fact, they were the ones who often managed to get the better postings.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But almost everyone knew that.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Not many, however, were aware how deep, and widespread, the problem was.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One-third of the respondents in the survey – who studied for years to make it past the fiercely competitive civil services examination – had been almost driven to a point where they wanted to give up their job and the perks that came with it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“We did have our hypothesis on the basis of practical experience … for instance, we expected the survey to reflect frustration … a divide between the Indian Administrative Service and the non-IAS services and political interference to some extent. It did,” conceded a senior researcher at the Hyderabad-headquartered Centre for Good Governance, which did the survey.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For someone who pegged civil service reforms as a key agenda point for his government six years ago, government officials said the survey delineated the agenda that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh needs to pursue actively. Of course, civil service reforms aren’t going to be easy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Government officers have been the target of criticism for far too long. This survey seeks to capture the circumstances that they work in … often with their hands tied behind,” said an official, pointing it was fashionable to compare the private and the public sector without accounting for the handicaps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A significantly large proportion (42-48%) of the respondents from the three all-India services — the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service and the Indian Forest Service — complained about undue outside interference. Many others spoke out about the lack of adequate financial resources and competent staff.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Respondents complained that if they did not fall in line, they ran the big risk of being transferred to an obscure post and location.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“What worries the honest government servant is the prospect of being posted to an obscure (place) with zero job content or worse, a string of such postings as a price for one’s honesty,” the survey report observed. Government officials said the fear of such a posting usually forced most ‘honest’ officials to fall in line. Those who resist spend the better part of their careers living out of their suitcase.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Shekhar Singh, who was with the Indian Institute of Public Administration and has spent years interacting with the civil service, said the impression within the bureaucracy that merit and honesty didn’t count any longer was crucial.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The performance appraisal system has gone for a toss with everyone being ranked as very good or excellent, he said. “A civil servant recently told me that when they joined the service nearly two decades ago, officers were afraid to be corrupt. Now, they are afraid to be honest,” he said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“The irony,” a senior IAS officer said, “is that the government works so hard to recruit the best minds available into the civil services and then forces them into mediocrity”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Some officials insist that the ability to work despite the pulls and pressures is one of the greatest strengths of the civil service vis-à-vis the private sector.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it is something their job trains them to do from the moment they begin their first stint in a district.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“As district magistrate, you not only prioritise the allocation of funds in the face of competing demands from different departments as well as local political representatives; right from the MP down to influential local political leaders,” a senior IAS officer said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The civil service will definitely be able to deliver better if there aren’t any pulls and pressures.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“But the bitter reality is, this may never happen… never mind what anyone tells you. Reforms are like this transparency bug … Everyone wants it but not for themselves,” said a government official with more than 20 years of experience behind him.</span></div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-47346987407603362732010-04-10T20:05:00.002+05:302010-04-10T20:11:29.109+05:30Bad Governance leaves Bureaucrats disillusioned<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is my responsibility to give both sides of the coin with respect to Civil Services and civil servant.This article falls under 'signficant issues in Indian administration' as far as UPSC current syllabus is considered. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>But this should not deter you by taking the exam - as there is no other career can be compared to civil services in India.</strong> But at the same time you should not be in an illusion that civil services is feather's bed. Let me tell you one thing upfront - as you all know clearing civil services is itself a big achievement but its not an end but its a beginning of a long journey which is hailed as even more difficult than clearing the exam. The war between politicians and bureaucrats is long standing and will continue. How well a civil servant handle his political head will depend on his success as a civil servant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But these are only informations - which can be true or false. What you need to understand is - these issues are happening in Indian Administration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Regards</span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana;">GMStudyCenter</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Disillusioned, dispirited, disgusted, disenchanted, dismayed, disoriented, demoralized, dejected…… these adjectives sum up the current state of bureaucracy in Andhra Pradesh.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For six years now, bureaucrats in the state have been in disarray. Not all of them, of course, but the majority who are committed to work and service of people are certainly feeling the discomfiture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Deprived of suitable postings where they could function more effectively and deliver better, most of the bureaucrats – particularly the younger lot – are left distressed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Obviously, this state of despondency among the cream of civil servants – a result of abysmal cadre management – has left a telling impact on the administration in the state.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Administration had, literally, gone to dogs during the regime of (late) Y S Rajasekhara Reddy between 2004 and 2009. And, the rot seems to be continuing even under his successor K Rosaiah.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When S V Prasad, the 1975-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, became the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh on December 31, 2009, bureaucrats saw a ray of hope in him. Most of the IAS officers, especially the “juniors”, sincerely hoped things would change under the guidance of S V Prasad as he was perceived to be an able officer who had a better understanding of the “cadre.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Alas, all such hopes seemed to have dashed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reading the latest list of transfers (of IAS officers) affected on April 2, one would be left with a sore feeling.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here’s a classic example: N Nageswara Rao, an IAS officer of the 1992 batch, has been appointed Collector and District Magistrate of Khammam district. He would now be the senior-most officer among the district Collectors in the entire state. That’s, however, not the news. Nageswara Rao practically has 363 days of service left before he superannuates on March 31 next year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now, what’s the sense in appointing such an officer to an important post as a district Collector? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another officer M Purushottam Reddy of the 1996 batch, who has been appointed as Collector of Mahbubnagar district, is just two years away from retirement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of the 23 districts in the state, 11 districts now have promotee IAS officers as Collector and District Magistrate. Exclude the state capital Hyderabad district, it become 50:50 for regular recruits and promotees. This is something that hasn’t happened in the past.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Also, why did the government develop a sudden love for such officers and land them in prime posts? Nageswara Rao and another IAS officer P Venkateswarlu (1994), posted to Adilabad district as Collector, have already risen to the rank of ‘Secretary to Government’ and should ideally be relegated to suitable postings in the Secretariat or other departments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There are many young and deserving IAS officers, that too regular recruits, eagerly waiting to be posted to the coveted job of a district Collector. These are the ones who actually need to be posted in the districts so that they can move around with agility, work with more vigor and produce better results. But certainly not the ones who are on the verge of retirement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Consider another ridiculous thing: Natarajan Gulzar has been appointed Collector and District Magistrate of Hyderabad. He is an IAS officer (regular recruit) of the 1999 batch. Now, he will boss-over a promotee officer V Durga Das (Joint Collector), who technically is one year senior to him in the IAS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This isn’t the first instance where such postings were given. During YSR’s regime, a similar thing happened in West Godavari where Lav Agarwal (1996 batch) was the Collector and B Ramanjaneyulu (1995) was the Joint Collector.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Chief Minister might be unaware of such technicalities but what were the top bureaucrats, who were supposed to guide him in such matters, doing? Was the Chief Secretary unaware of these lapses? Was also the Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary Jannat Husain ignorant about it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Such goof-ups will not only show them in poor light but also threaten to damage the system as such.</span></div>
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-89409617686536746602010-02-14T17:51:00.005+05:302010-04-10T11:21:18.633+05:30Constitution today<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Dear Friends,</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This article is taken from Frontline.While writing the answers it is very important to have an all round understanding of the constitution. More importantly every now and then civil servant will have to interpret the the constitution in its real spirit. These are the articles which you have to read again and again.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Regards</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">GMStudyCenter</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Article is written by A.G. NOORANI</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It is the people who alone can make it work.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">C. Rajagopalachari, Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was the
Chairman of the Union Constitution Committee and the Union Powers Committee.
Vallabhbhai Patel was the Chairman of the Committee on the Principles of a Model
Provincial Constitution and the Advisory Committee on Minorities, Fundamental
Rights, etc.</span></span></span><br />
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Constitutions are easily copied, temperaments are not; and if it should
happen that the borrowed constitution and the native temperament fail to
correspond, the misfit may have serious results. It matters little what other
gifts a people may possess if they are wanting in those which from this point of
view are of most importance. If, for example, they have no capacity for grading
their loyalties as well as for being moved by them; if they have no natural
inclination to liberty and no natural respect for law; if they lack good humour
and tolerate foul play; if they know not how to compromise or when; if they have
not that distrust of extreme conclusions which is sometimes misdescribed as want
of logic; if corruption does not repel them; and if their divisions tend to be
either too numerous or too profound, the successful working of British
institutions may be difficult or impossible.</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“It may be least possible where the acts of parliamentary persuasion and the
dexterities of party management are brought to their highest perfections. Let
the political parties be reduced to two (admittedly the most convenient number
for Cabinet government), but let the chasm dividing them be so profound that a
change of administration would in fact be a revolution disguised under a
constitutional procedure” </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Walter Bagehot; </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The English Constitution, The
World’s Classics</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">; Oxford University Press; 1867, Balfour’s Introduction to
the Second Edition, 1928; pp. xxii-xxiii).</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">THE framers of India’s Constitution decided, at the very outset, to adopt the
parliamentary system of government based on the British model. On this the two
top leaders were agreed. Jawaharlal Nehru was Chairman of the Union Constitution
Committee as well as the Union Powers Committee. Vallabhbhai Patel was Chairman
of the Committee on the Principles of A Model Provincial Constitution and the
Advisory Committee on Minorities, Fundamental Rights, etc.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As early as June 5, 1947, it was decided, at a joint meeting of the Union and
Provincial Constitution committees, to emulate the British model. Patel
announced the decision in the Constituent Assembly on July 15, 1947: “Both these
committees met and they came to the conclusion that it would suit the conditions
of this country better to adopt the parliamentary system of Constitution, the
British type of Constitution with which we are familiar” (</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Constituent
Assembly Debates </span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(CAD); Vol. 40; page 578).</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Two days later, Patel told the Assembly that “a Schedule according (sic.) to
the traditions of responsible government will be framed and put in”. Members
demanded that the Schedule be put in first before the clause conferring powers
on the governors was adopted. Patel retorted angrily: “It has been suggested
that there is no guarantee that the Schedule will come. There is as much
guarantee about it as a guarantee that the House will meet tomorrow” (ibid.,
pages 648-649).</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Two years later, on October 11, 1949, at the fag end of the Assembly’s
labours, the Schedules containing two Instruments of Instructions, for the
President and the Governors, were dropped; a little over a month before the
Constitution was adopted on November 26, 1949. The Instruments codified a few of
the conventions on which the uncodified British parliamentary system rests. T.T.
Krishnamachari, a member of the Assembly’s Drafting Committee, explained
unconvincingly: “It has now been felt that the matter should be left entirely to
convention rather than be put into the body of the Constitution.” The directions
to the President and the Governors “really should arise out of conventions
</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">that grow from time to time</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, and the President and the Governors in
their respective spheres will be guided by </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">those</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> conventions” (CAD;
Vol.X; pages 114-116. For the texts vide B. Shiva Rao </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Framing of India’s
Constitution: Select Documents on India’s Constitution</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">; Vol. IV; pages 67-6
8. emphasis added, throught). Sixty years of the working of India’s Constitution
have belied these expectations which were unrealistic even in 1949. What Indian
conventions did he expect to “grow”?</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It would be a gross exaggeration to say that the perversions of the
parliamentary system we have witnessed all these years, at the Centre and in the
States, would not have occurred if only the conventions had been codified. Even
the letter of the supreme law, the text of the Constitution, has not been spared
abuse. But codification could have served as a significant check and, more, as a
guide to the people by which they could judge the conduct of those they had
voted to power.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Each of the major offices and institutions that the Constitution set up in
1950 bears a battered shape in 2010 – the President, Parliament, the Supreme
Court, Governors, State Assemblies and the High Courts. </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The generation that
works the system it established has a radically different outlook from that of
those who enacted it and worked it for some years thereafter.</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> As far back
as 1962 Myron Weiner wrote of “India’s two political cultures”, the culture in
the districts and “the second political culture [which] predominates in New
Delhi”, an “emerging mass political culture” and an “elite political culture”
(</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Political Change in South Asia</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">; Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay; page
114).</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This was, perhaps, a trifle simplistic even in 1947 or 1962. By 2010 the
divide has all but vanished. We have had Prime Ministers like Charan Singh,
Chandrashekhar, and H.D. Deve Gowda, who could have done little credit even to
the office of the Chief Minister. Parliament is as rowdy as any State Assembly.
It is more meaningful to talk of our constitutional culture. Dr B.R. Ambedkar,
Chairman of the Constituent Assembly, was steeped not only in British and
American constitutional history and constitutional law, but also in the history
of Greece and Rome and in political science. In this he was peerless among
lawyers. His colleague, Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Ayyar, was an erudite
conservative, while K.M. Munshi, alert to political realities, spoke more than
once, unlike Sir Alladi, in defence of the citizens’ rights. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Constitutional lawyers of the time had drunk deep at the fount of British
constitutional lore. With H.M. Seervai’s death in 1996, the last of the
constitutional lawyers was gone. We have advocates of conspicuous ability ready
to argue on complex issues of constitutional law or company law but bereft of
the erudition and the insights that make a constitutional lawyer. They know
little outside the law. If this seems harsh, listen closely to the off-the-cuff
remarks they so readily dish out to anchors on television shows or editors at
the drop of a hat, as it were.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">When did we last see a single judge of the Supreme Court who had earned a
reputation as a constitutional lawyer </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">before </span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">his appointment to the
court? How many erudite, incisive commentaries on the Indian Constitution can
one cite today? The discourse is debased by political partisanship, craze for
publicity, and an assertiveness that is not backed by learning. Constitutional
illiteracy has spread. Informed critiques are few. Abuse receives censure that
is sporadic and seldom well-informed.</span></span></div>
<br />
<center><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></b></span></span></div>
</center>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There is </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">something </span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">lacking and that is the spirit of
constitutionalism. Balfour’s caution is one of the many that mocks us as we
survey the situation today. Gladstone held that the British Constitution
“presumes more boldly than any other, the good faith of those who work it”. That
good faith is none too conspicuous in our public life.We resented British admonitions as excuses for denying India its right to
govern itself. Especially these observations in the Report of the Joint
Committee on Indian Constitutional Reform: “Parliamentary government, as it is
understood in the United Kingdom, works by the interaction of four essential
factors; the principle of majority rule; the willingness of the minority for the
time being to accept the decisions of the majority; the existence of great
political parties divided by broad issues of policy, rather than by sectional
interests; and finally the existence of a mobile body of public opinion, owing
no permanent allegiance to any party and therefore able, by its instinctive
reaction against extravagant movements on one side or the other, to keep the
vessel on an even keel. In India none of these factors can be said to exist
today. There are no parties, as we understand them, and there is no considered
body of political opinion which can be described as mobile” (Vol. 1 (Part 1)
Session 1933-34; Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO), London; 1934; page
210). It was an illiberal document, but those words sting. They are so true.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">South Asia is unique among parliamentary democracies in enacting laws against
defections by legislators. Such a malaise cannot be cured by laws alone. It
reflects a state of political morality and an outlook that rejects the system.
The defector will readily topple a newly elected government for personal gain
and even wreck the system for political gain. To his niece Blanche Dugdale,
Balfour was more forthright, in a conversation on April 25, 1925: “I doubt if it
is written in any book on the British Constitution that the whole essence of
British parliamentary government lies in the intention to make the thing work.
We take that for granted. We have spent hundreds of years in elaborating a
system that rests on that alone. It is so deep in us that we have lost sight of
it. But it is not so obvious to others. These peoples – Indians, Egyptians, and
so on – study our learning. They read our history, our philosophy, and our
politics. They learn about our parliamentary methods of obstruction, but nobody
explains to them that when it comes to the point all our parliamentary parties
are determined that the machinery shan’t stop. ‘The King’s government must go
on,’ as the Duke of Wellington said. But their idea is that the function of
opposition is to stop the machine.”</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The constitutional lawyer Ivor Jennings wrote in his famous work </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Cabinet
Government</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">: “The function of parliament is not to govern but to criticise.
Its criticism, too, is directed not so much towards a fundamental modification
of the government’s policy as towards the education of public opinion… the
government governs and the Opposition criticises. </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Failure to understand this
simple principle is one of the causes of the failure of so many of the progeny
of mother of parliaments and of the suppression of parliamentary government by
dictatorship</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">” (page 16).</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The frailty of public morality of India’s political class was no secret even
during the freedom movement. Motilal Nehru wrote to his son Jawaharlal on
December 2, 1926, about the tactics used “under the auspices” of men of stature
like Madan Mohan Malaviya and Lajpat Rai in an election: “Communal politics and
heavy bribing of the voters was the Order of the day. I am thoroughly disgusted
and am now seriously thinking of retiring from public life…. The </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Malaviya-Lala
gang aided by Birlas’ money are making frantic efforts to capture the Congress”
(Jawaharlal Nehru; </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A Bunch of Old Letters</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">; 1958, page 50). The Governor
of Bengal Lord Lytton complained to the Viceroy about the practice of bribing
members of the Legislative Council in the early 1920s (</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Evolution of
Parliamentary Privileges in India till 1947</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">; Salil Kumar Nag; 1978; page
212).</span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The wise Rajaji saw it all and wrote while in prison: “Elections and their
corruptions (sic.), injustice and life power and tyranny of wealth, and
inefficiency of administration will make a hell of life as soon as freedom is
given to us. Men will look regretfully back to the old regime of comparative
justice and efficient, peaceful, more or less honest administration.“The only thing gained will be that as a race we will be saved from dishonour
and subordination. Hope lies only in universal education by which right conduct,
fear of God and love will be developed among the citizens from childhood. It is
only if we succeed in this that Swaraj will mean happiness. Otherwise it will
mean grinding injustices and tyranny of wealth.”</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">None of this was absent from the minds of the framers of our Constitution,
least of all from the most erudite and discerning one among them, B. R.
Ambedkar, Chairman of the Drafting Committee. He was far removed from the tribe
of lawyers whose vision is limited to texts and precedents. Ambedkar was
erudite, profound and insightful.</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Constitutional morality</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">While moving for the adoption of the Draft Constitution in the Constituent
Assembly on November 4, 1948, Ambedkar quoted at some length Grote, the
historian of Greece, on constitutional morality. It meant “a paramount reverence
for the forms of the Constitution, enforcing obedience to authority acting under
and within these forms yet combined with the habits of the speech of action
subject only to defined legal control, and unrestrained censure of those very
authorities as to all their public acts combined too with a perfect confidence
in the bosom of every citizen, amidst the bitterness of party contest, that the
forms of the Constitution will not be less sacred in the eyes of his opponents
than in his own.”</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Such confidence was not overly abundant even in 1948. Sixty years later, it
does not exist. Ambedkar was not unaware of its frail nature. “Constitutional
morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise
that our people have yet to learn it. Democracy in India is only a top dressing
on an Indian soil which is essentially undemocratic” (CAD; Vol. VII; page 38).
The seth who converts his proprietary firm into a company does not acquire the
corporate culture.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On November 25, 1949, when he moved “That the Constitution as settled by the
Assembly be passed”, Ambedkar said: “However good a constitution may be, it is
sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it happen to be a bad
lot…. It is, therefore, futile to pass any judgment upon the Constitution
without reference to the part which the people and their parties are likely to
play.” The following day the President of the Constituent Assembly, Rajendra
Prasad, pointed out that many things that cannot be written in a constitution
are done by conventions. “Let me hope that we shall show those capacities and
develop those conventions.” (CAD; Vol. VII; page 38, and Vol. XII; pages 975 and
993). </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Indian politicians, the tallest included, betrayed the trust reposed in them.
As far back as November 19, 1954, the then Union Home Minister, Kailash Nath
Katju, described the practice in vogue in these picturesque terms in the Lok
Sabha: “Offer some plums before them, give a </span></span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">laddu</span></span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to one, a
</span></span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">rasagulla</span></span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to another… members from Independents will join and you will
then be able to produce a majority. Now, this is an insult to the Constitution.
This is a mockery of the Constitution.” </span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">A Constitution rests on the foundations of basic norms of political morality
as Katju correctly noted. The situation deteriorated further in 1967 when the
Congress lost its hegemony. Defections became the norm. Now half a century after
Katju spoke, we have lost not only vestiges of political morality but also a
national consensus on which a democracy can function. During 1969-1989 it was
Indira Gandhi, and later Rajiv Gandhi, versus the rest. From 1990 to this day,
it is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva versus the rest. We are a badly
split polity justifying Balfour’s fears.</span></span></div>
<br />
<center><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It is absurd to suggest that the presidential system accorded better with our
national character such as it is. The defector or bitter partisan who topples a
government in the parliamentary system will bring the government itself to a
grinding halt as Newt Gingrich did in the United States. In India, it would pave
the way for a legitimised autocracy. It is, however, one thing to lament the
growing disconnect between constitutional values and public morality and between
the text of the Constitution and the underlying conventions of the parliamentary
system on which the text is based. It is another to assert that the Constitution
is unsuited to the Indian character and temperament and should be discarded in
favour of a </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">shuddh </span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(pure) swadeshi document, as the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) holds.</span></span></div>
</center><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">This was the very argument which Indira Gandhi’s supporters in Britain
patronisingly asserted during the Emergency. They received their just deserts
from Prof. W.H. Morris-Jones, Constitutional Adviser to the Viceroy in 1947 and
a scholar of high repute: Referring to Eldon Griffiths’ defence of the
Emergency, Prof. Morris-Jones wrote to </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Times</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (London) on June 25,
1976:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Mr Griffiths’ jibe about ‘exhibit A of the Westminster model abroad’ misses
the point that it had become </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">a specifically Indian achievement</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">; it only
adds insult to the injury already suffered by Indian democrats. Such denigration
has long been a sport in which high imperial Tory and revolutionary Marxist
could find common enjoyment. Even your own leader (June 21) chose an odd time to
point out the limitations of democracy under Congress, for an incomplete
democracy is diminished further, not remedied by illiberation.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Nor can one easily detect any clear and consistent signs that the elite-mass
gap which you deplore is being closed by the present regime of Mrs Indira
Gandhi. And just how may the change ‘accord better with indigenous habits’? Are
habits never modified? </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Had not growing numbers of Indians begun to make the
habits of liberal democracy indigenous? </span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Surely it is a ‘massive’ loss when
damage is done to a way of political life which in two decades had already
converted into citizens so many who had been subjects beyond the political
pale…. Moreover, the gains are doubly suspect. In origin they are at best
uncertainly attributable to Mrs. Gandhi’s dose of autocracy. In their effects
they appear too fragile to endure. Unitedly, Indian democracy had freely
mobilised demands and grievances; in its place is put none of the usual
alternatives.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Constitution of India is very much an Indian achievement and Indian
democracy, which it nurtures and protects, has struck root in the Indian soil.
</span></span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">These achievements were predicted by some British statesmen. By none more
prophetically or eloquently than Thomas Babington Macaulay who is decried for
his thoughtless Minute on Indian Education dated February 2, 1835. Overlooked is
his majestic peroration in the House of Commons on July 10, 1833, perhaps the
very first prediction by anyone, English or Indian, of India’s eventual rise to
self-government (“demand European Institutions”).</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The parliamentary system has struck root in the entire South Asia. Its
practice can be improved. There is no cause for despair provided the causes are
accurately understood and the remedies effectively devised. Consider the office
of the President. The first holder of the office, Rajendra Prasad, sought to
undermine parliamentary democracy. His successor, S. Radhakrishnan, bared his
ambitions and animosities no sooner than he assumed office. Bar Zakir Hussain,
we had since rubber stamps or intriguers. We owe it to Shankar Dayal Sharma and
K.R. Narayanan that in 2010 the office is just what the framers intended it to
be – a constitutional head of state in the parliamentary democracy. How did this
come about? </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Because all the major political parties realised that it was in
their interests to abide by the rules.</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> A wayward President is a menace to
all; to one party now, to the opposition tomorrow.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Eleven principles</span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The record from 1950-2010 establishes the following eleven principles. First
and foremost, it is now firmly established that the President is entitled, in
exercise of his own judgment, to question the government’s bills, appointments
and policy proposals. Secondly, within limits, Presidents can comment on affairs
of the state in public. Criticism of the government must be muted, though it
should be more in the nature of sounding an alarm. In rare cases, public
expression of disquiet is proper. Thirdly, the President is entitled to admonish
and even censure the Prime Minister in private. Fourthly, the President’s right
to know, embodied in Article 78, is not challenged. Fifthly, the practice is now
established of the President receiving leaders of opposition parties, singly or
in a delegation, to lodge a protest against the government’s action. He offers
no comment but forwards the protest to the Prime Minister and speaks to him, if
he so decides. Sixthly, it is established that the President is not bound to
accept the Prime Minister’s request for dissolution of the Lok Sabha but is
entitled to exercise his judgment and consider the alternatives before accepting
it.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Seventhly, the power of dismissal of the government cannot be exercised
except on the extreme grounds mentioned in textbooks. There was universal
criticism of Zail Singh’s intentions in 1987 and again of his admission of them
in 1992. The best course is to have an explicit provision on the lines of
Articles 91 (5) and 130 (5) of the Pakistan Constitution, respectively for the
Prime Minister and Chief Ministers of States. They say that while the Prime
Minister and the Chief Ministers hold office “during the pleasure” of the
respective heads of state, the latter will not exercise their powers unless
satisfied that the head of government has ceased to command the confidence of
the House. There follows the crucial constraint – “</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">in which case he shall
summon the National Assembly and require the Prime Minister to obtain a vote of
confidence from the Assembly</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">”. An identical expression is used for
Governors.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Eighthly, not only the opposition parties but Chief Ministers of States also
invoke the President’s moral authority as “guardian of the Constitution”; in
their case, specifically to safeguard its federal character.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ninthly, in 1977, the acting President, B.D. Jatti, was extremely reluctant
to sign the proclamation under Article 356 imposing President’s Rule in certain
States. The government’s threat of resignation induced him to sign the
documents. The Postal Bill is of far less consequence. The fact remains that two
successive Presidents, Zail Singh and R. Venkataraman, declined to sign it. They
returned it for reconsideration in exercise of their own individual judgment. It
is well settled that assent cannot be withheld; only reconsideration can be
sought. If re-enacted assent must follow.</span></span></div>
<br />
<center><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tenthly, the question whether the President can assert a right, under Article
86, to address Parliament or to send messages to either of its Houses in his own
discretion, is open. In 1950 the Attorney-General opined against it in the face
of President Rajendra Prasad’s challenge on a host of issues. His opinion on the
point gave no reasons. At the least, the matter is open. It is unthinkable that
in an extreme case a President would flinch from taking his case to
Parliament.</span></span></div>
</center><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Lastly, the President is entitled to insist, when appointing a Prime
Minister, that he obtain a vote of confidence from Parliament within a
stipulated short period.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">existence</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> of the President’s power of dismissal has not been
seriously challenged. There is near unanimity on fears of its abuse. No
responsible politician has sought such an intervention by the President against
his political opponents. In 1987, some carpetbaggers did. In June, Zail Singh
was tempted but wiser counsel prevailed. He would have come to grief.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">India’s democracy has functioned for 60 years, bar the interlude of the
Emergency. But the parliamentary system came into its own only since
1992.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="subsectionhead" style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span class="subsectionhead" style="color: red;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Situation in the States</span></span></div>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">But this is not so in the States. Discredited Ministers are appointed
Governors (Shivraj Patil and H.R. Bhardwaj). So are civil servants whose
shelf-life has expired. They act as the Centre’s agents. The Chief Minister
himself owes his office to the bounty of the central high command of his or her
party. He cannot select his own Ministers, expand his Cabinet or sack a
dissident without the high command’s permission. This is a result of the
practice of 1937-39 when Congress Ministries were responsible to the high
command rather than the elected legislature, a perversion that Prof. Reginald
Coupland criticised trenchantly.</span><br />
<br />
<center><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There is another flaw, even more fundamental. The Member of Parliament or
Member of the Legislative Assembly acquires the party’s ticket to contest the
polls not from his partymen in the constituency but from his party bosses. He
serves as a bondman. Members of Parliament in Britain can defy the party whip.
The Indian legislator lacks the </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">capacity</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> to revolt.</span></span></div>
</center><span class="subsectionhead" style="color: red;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: medium;">Speaker’s office</span></div>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In 1937, the issue arose whether Purushottam Das Tandon should resign his
party membership on election as Speaker. Both Gandhi and Nehru held that he need
not, unmindful of the rights of non-Congress MLAs (</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Selected Works of
Jawaharlal Nehru</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, First Series, Vol. 8; pages 351 and 376). Nehru
deprecated following “blindly British practice and procedure”. Truth to tell,
Nehru’s outlook on constitutional issues differed from Ambedkar’s. The hoary
Erskine May holds: “Confidence in the impartiality of the Speaker is an
indispensable condition for the successful working of the procedure, and many
conventions exist which have as their object not only to ensure the impartiality
of the Speaker but also to ensure that his impartiality is generally
recognised.” In India, this “indispensable condition” does not exist and has not
existed for many years.</span></span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">One doctrine deserves speedy burial: the Speaker’s office is a gift in the
hands of the ruling party. </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Economist </span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">of November 19, 1994, wrote:
“Over the grey men, the placemen and the hired men who characterise the present
House of Commons, a star shines. Betty Boothroyd, the Speaker, dominates a
difficult House to a degree that her immediate predecessors never attained.” She
was elected in 1993 with the support of the Conservatives though she belonged to
the Labour opposition. “She won because 74 Tories rightly rebelled at the
thought of someone who had just left the Cabinet – the government’s unofficial
candidate, Peter Brooke – sitting in the Speaker’s chair and posing as a neutral
arbiter of proceedings.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In India, such a revolt would be unthinkable and the language </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The
Economist</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> used would be regarded as breach of parliamentary privilege by
Speakers, most of whom are no more than instruments of the government’s will.
These are the very men who will act as judges on issues of free speech in the
name of “parliamentary privilege”.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The anti-defection law </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">calculatedly</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> makes the Speaker judge and thus
further politicises an office politicised already to a degree. But Parliament
itself is held to ransom. “We don’t want a debate for debate’s sake,” Atal
Bihari Vajpayee said on December 19, 1995, while the memorandum of the Left
Front and the Janata Dal to the President, on December 22, 1995, queried: “Can
we remain supine spectators of parliamentary proceedings being reduced to
desiccating debates, particularly when the government has, time and again,
cynically tried to sweep a succession of scandals under the carpet?”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The implication is plain. Since debates do not yield the result desired by
the Opposition, it will prevent Parliament from functioning. There is a certain
contempt for debates </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">per se</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, as if they are an exercise in futility.
However, parliamentary debate has a direct impact on the minds of the
public.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Supreme Court</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Supreme Court does not enjoy the esteem that apex courts enjoy in
Britain, Canada or Australia. It is not politicised unlike the U.S. Supreme
Court. But it has exceeded its explicit constitutional limits to usurp the power
to appoint judges to itself, to veto the police’s professional discretion to
investigate into the conduct of, and to prosecute, a judge, to order the
legislature on how it should conduct its affairs, and intrude on the executive
and legislative domain and to silence the citizen who asserts a right to censure
the judges. Constitutional learning was not expended on any of these matters.
</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Ipse dixit</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> were used confidently and lavishly.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Parliament had to step in to provide that truth is a defence to a charge of
contempt of court.But the Supreme Court is benumbed with excessive caution when faced with
issues the nation expects it to answer. We know the havoc wreaked by Justice
J.S. Verma’s palpably flawed judgment allowing campaigns for Hindutva to pass
muster in elections. On April 16, 1996, a three-member Bench of the Supreme
Court noted the conflict in the court’s decisions (Verma had studiously ignored
ones that ran counter to his view).</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Bench directed the Registry to place the case before the Chief Justice
“for constituting a larger Bench of five judges, and, if possible, at an early
date so that all the questions arising in the present appeal could be decided
authoritatively and expeditiously” (</span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Abhiram Singh vs C.D. Commachen &
Others</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (1996) 3 Supreme Court Cases 665, para 14; page 671).</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Chief Justices of India have come and gone since, including J.S. Verma
himself. Five general elections to the Lok Sabha and umpteen to State Assemblies
have followed. With characteristic mendacity leaders of the Sangh Parivar tout
the Verma ruling as the last word, which it is not. The Supreme Court has
refused to heed the plea to decide the matter at “an early date”. Its silence is
deafening.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So it is on the issue of parliamentary privileges, which are abused
rampantly. One has lost count of the petitions pending before the court. The
latest was by </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The Hindu</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. On December 9, 2004, the Supreme Court
referred the issue to a seven-judge Bench, though not before delivering
uncalled-for homilies to the press. Five years have rolled by. The Bench is yet
to be constituted. The abuses continue apace to the court’s knowledge, of
course.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Need for reform</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">On each of these matters – Parliament, Governors, the Speaker’s office and
the Supreme Court – reform is feasible and practicable through constitutional
amendment </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">provided that the major political parties realise that, as in the
case of the office of the President, it is in their interest to abide by the
Constitution and remove the deformities that have crept in</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">We consciously adopted, in Patel’s words, “the British type of Constitution”
and froze our parliamentary privileges to the state they were in Britain on
January 26, 1950. But our political class wilfully ignores developments in the
U.K. </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">thereafter</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">. Fifty years later, a committee of both Houses of
Parliament recommended codification of the privileges and abolition of the power
to imprison for contempt. In Britain, it noted, “members do not divide on party
lines” on issues of privilege. In India they do. The British model itself has
evolved significantly. One of the most eminent authorities, Prof. Vernon
Bogdanor, Professor of Government at Oxford, has written an erudite work
entitled </span></span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The New British Constitution</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> (Hart Publishing; pages 392,
£17.95). He traces the radical changes introduced by the Human Rights Act, the
devolution of power to Scotland and Wales by referenda, etc. Particularly
relevant to India is the chapter on “Hung Parliaments; Governing without a
Majority”, a fate all too common here.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>
<span class="subsectionhead" style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span class="subsectionhead" style="color: red;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mass disenchantment</span></span></div>
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">However, far more relevant are his remarks on the state of politics despite
the reforms. It describes our lot as well: “Constitutional reform seems to have
done little to combat disenchantment with politics. That disenchantment has been
marked by a fall in turnout in general elections, a decline in the membership of
political parties, and by a weakening in popular identification with political
parties.”</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The mass political party is dying on its feet. “It is hardly surprising,
then, that the constitutional reform programme has made so little impact upon
political disenchantment, for it has done little to open up a political system
dominated by political parties, whose roots are no longer as deep as they once
were, whose relationship to social interests is far less intimate than it was in
the past, and which are not able ideologically to penetrate British society.
Parties are no longer the pre-eminent mechanism for the expression of political
opinion in Britain. They have become primarily a means by which the voter can
choose between competing teams of rulers. The constitutional reforms do little
to touch this condition; they do little to meet popular aspirations in a
post-socialist and individualist age. They do little, therefore, to meet real
popular grievances…. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“The real achievement of constitutional reform is to have redistributed
power, but it has redistributed power between elites, not between elites and the
people. …. The next stage of constitutional reform, therefore, and a far more
difficult stage, must be a redistribution of power, not from one part of the
elite to another, amongst those professionally involved in politics and the law,
but from politicians to the people.”</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It is the people who alone can make the Constitution work. As John Stuart
Mill noted: “If we ask ourselves on what causes and conditions good government
in all its senses, from the humblest to the most exalted, depends, we find that
the principal of them, the one which transcends all others, is the qualities of
the human beings composing the society over which the government is exercised.
Of what avail is the most broadly popular representative system if the electors
do not care to choose the best member of Parliament, but choose him who will
spend most money to be elected? How can a representative assembly work for good
if its members can be bought, or if their excitability of temperament,
uncorrected by public discipline or private self-control, makes them incapable
of calm deliberation, and they resort to manual violence on the floor of the
House, or shoot at one another with rifles? How, again, can government, or any
joint concern, be carried on in a tolerable manner by people so envious that if
one among them seems likely to succeed in anything those who ought to cooperate
with him form a tacit combination to make him fail? Whenever the general
disposition of the people is such that each individual regards those only of his
interests which are selfish, and does not dwell on, or concern himself for, his
share of the general interest, in such a state of things good government is
impossible” (Considerations on Representative Government, Everyman’s Library,
page 192).</span></span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">To read such old truths of 1861 is to realise how far we have gone. It is an
accurate description of the state of our legislatures, Central and State, and of
our politics in 2010. On this our own Dr Ambedkar’s words are even more
striking:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> “I feel that it [the Constitution] is workable, it is flexible and it
is strong enough to hold the country together both in peace time and in war
time. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Indeed, if I may say so, if things go wrong under the new Constitution,
the reason will not be that we had a bad Constitution. What we will have to say
is that Man was Vile” (CAD; Vol.VII; page 44)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
</span></span>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-47170328641878364982010-02-14T17:34:00.001+05:302010-04-10T11:22:46.678+05:30The Republic in retrospect<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends , </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Am sure,for the students of public administration the name Gransville Austin is not new. Here you have one beautiful article from the person himself. Please make this part your notes.The article is taken from Frontline magazine dated Feb. 13-26, 2010</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">GMStudyCenter</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<td><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At 60 the Indian Republic has come a long way, but it has to travel a
greater distance to achieve the goals set in the Constitution.
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><blurb1></blurb1>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ANY people that sets out to govern itself assumes a monumental task. Who are
“we?” Are “we” a congeries of groups, or something that might realistically be
called a nation? What do we want from self-governance – our form of political
and administrative organisation; our form of representation, the reach of
suffrage; the kinds of laws and the institution that should oversee their
justness and effectiveness – especially for the lower classes in society; what
should “our” goals be for the entirety of this new thing that we are creative?
Are we going to write this all down – and call it a “constitution”?</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The public figures gathered in New Delhi in 1946 confronted all these and
more issues. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;">The Indian Constituent Assembly declared three grand goals for the
founding document: They were protecting and enhancing national unity and
integrity, establishing the institutions and spirit of democracy, and fostering
a social revolution (often called socialism) to better the lot of the mass of
citizens.</span> As essential as were the goals, individually, the framers believed
that none should be pursued at the expense of any of the others. They were
mutually dependent.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Of course, the institutions for government created in the Constitution also
were mutually dependent whether or not their responsibilities put them at odds.
The judiciary often struck down parliamentary legislation as not in accordance
with the Constitution. Parliament responded, first in 1951, with an Act that
placed certain land reform laws outside the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. In
1973, the government, during Indira Gandhi’s prime ministership, did its best to
curb the court’s reach and, indeed, to bring it closely under the influence of
the executive branch. The relationship between the court and the government was
soured several more times during the 1970s and 1980s and the first few years of
the 1990s before stabilising since then.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In federations that may find themselves facing issues where Central
government authority may be at odds with actions by the constituent units’
governments (State legislative and executive actions) Supreme Courts are
typically called upon to settle the disputes. Somewhat surprisingly, the court
in Delhi seldom has been called upon to adjudicate these “federal” cases. It has
been approached through political channel – the dominant party at the Centre
bringing its power to bear on the party dominant in the Legislative Assembly in
the State. When the Congress party was powerful, nationally, this was
comparatively easy. As other political parties won power in the States, the task
was far more difficult. In the late 1960s and in the 1970s, with Indira Gandhi
in office as Prime Minister, she clipped the wings of the Congress in the States
and outmanoeuvred other State parties. This trend culminated in her well-known
Emergency, in which her government and Parliament, over which she had
unchallenged influence, held authoritarian sway over the entire country.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This degree of “centralisation”, to employ an inadequate euphemism, had been
seen in milder form for two decades. State governments had been complaining
about New Delhi’s policies to exert influence over them. Chief Ministers formed
committees in protest, offering recommendations for measures, constitutional and
less formal, to restore greater balance in the federal relationship. The Centre,
for its part, devised methods to bring the Ministries and the State governments
together for problem solving. These efforts, however, typically bore New Delhi’s
stamp and were unpopular with the States, which continued to level charges
against centralisation. The report of the Commission on Centre-State Relations,
chaired by Justice R.S. Sarkaria and published in 1983, proposed alterations in
constitutional provisions and extra-constitutional political practices that, if
implemented, would have markedly improved the situation.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">None of this should startle us greatly for the Constitution tips the scales
of power towards the Central government. The mood among the framers was anxiety
about national unity and integrity. Partition was only months in the past;
Kashmir’s status was undecided; there were murmurings of separatism among the
Sikhs; Telangana was in revolt; the north-east was uneasy (as it since has
continued to be); secularism versus communalism worried Jawaharlal Nehru and
other Congress leaders; economic planning and development depended upon national
unity. Still, Centre-State relations have worked. India now is a united nation,
blemishes notwithstanding. If Telangana does become a State it is unlikely that
its relations with New Delhi will vary significantly from those of other States.
Most important was, and is, that the Constitution is two documents, a national
constitution and a constitution for the States – a situation that seems to have
had little effect on Centre-State relations. The appearance of independent
political parties in States will reduce the ability of the Central government
and its constituent parties to meddle in State affairs. Violence by naxalites,
however, persists as a dangerous matter. But not more so than exploitation of
peasants by alliances between politicians and economic “developers”.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">From time to time during the past 60 years, theorists have argued that
federal and parliamentary systems fit ill together. In India’s situation I,
personally, think that little would be gained from changing to a presidential
system. Beyond the vast subsidiary changes that would be entailed, States would
still be dependent on the Centre’s power and largesse. Related to this
consideration is the often raised query: “Does the Constitution need significant
change to make it work better?” Perhaps. I am not a student of the question. My
reaction to the suggestions I have heard is that they are premised on the
fantasy that a change in the Constitution’s wording would reform human,
political conduct. Yet improving human behaviour never has been so easily
achieved. Substitute the word “draftsman” for “doctor” and “Constitution” for
“patient” and you have, “The draftsman survived, but the Constitution died.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thanks to the character, humanity and prescience of the founding fathers, and
mothers, the Constitution has been “the cornerstone of the nation”. Reduced to
its barest essentials, it is a template for national administration (thanks in
great part to the Parliament in London and its 1935 Government of India Act) and
a document meant to establish the nation’s social reform goals and to write down
the constitutional mechanisms to be used to reach them. These appear throughout
the Constitution – in the Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of
State Policy, and in the provisions for special treatment for various minorities
and backward sections of society. As Vice-President S. Radhakrishnan put it,
India must have a “socio-economic revolution… [to achieve] the real satisfaction
of the fundamental needs of the common man… [and] a fundamental change in the
structure of Indian society.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Constitution’s Preamble says that it is to secure to all its citizens</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">JUSTICE, social, economic, and political and</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">EQUALITY of status and opportunity and</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">FRATERNITY assuring the dignity of the individual.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The nobility of these goals is exceeded only by their ambition.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For India is a “survival society” – a society characterised by hierarchy and
want. The “want” stretches from the man who is striving for two </span><em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">chapatis
</span></em><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">for himself and his family when he has one – the tenant farmer, the
agricultural labourer, the Dalit, the member of the backward classes – to the
person at the top of society – as defined by economic status or caste – who
strives to maintain the contacts in government that bring him money, who assures
his son a place in a university or a good school (perhaps with a little gentle
bribery), to him who, no matter what his caste or income, follows the scriptural
injunction to promote the well-being of his family before that of his
neighbour.</span></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The well-known social thinker R.C. Dutt has said that “the moral atmosphere
of the struggle for existence…has provided ample opportunities for corruption
and for collective self-aggrandisement at the expense of the poor”. P.N. Haksar,
for some time secretary to Indira Gandhi, has said that members of “our civil
services…are committed first of all to themselves and to their nuclear
family…[and beyond this] to members of…his sub-caste, caste, community, and
region.”</span></div>
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<span class="subsectionhead" style="color: red;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Himalayan barrier</span></div>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">These characteristics of Indian culture, have constituted a himalayan barrier
to achieving the creed of the Preamble. Yet, the provisions of the Constitution
have chipped away at the barrier with some success. Adult suffrage has been its
principal tool – even though candidates elected may promptly ignore the promises
they have made to constituents. As injurious to the integrity of adult suffrage
– and certainly to its reputation in India and abroad and to Parliament and
several State legislatures – has been political parties giving the ticket to
known criminals to contest elections. On the plus side, suffrage continues to
spawn political parties and active politics and an open process for vote
seeking. The Fundamental Rights and the security measures put in place by the
Election Commission have protected voters’ rights. Social action legislation and
group activity and the increasing energy shown by panchayats have enlivened
villagers’ political involvement. Reservation of seats for various classes,
castes and women in education, legislative bodies, including panchayats, and the
civil services have brought previously unrepresented individuals and groups into
national life. Great controversy accompanied such developments.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Recently, long-argued issues have re-emerged: the definition of “backwardness
– caste or class or poverty”; whether reservation is equalising downward or
upwards; whether reservation/concession tends to become vested interests;
whether reservation/concession engenders a spirit of self-denigration among the
people. What is basically important here is that legislators, lawyers, and the
courts are considering these questions seriously. Faith in the Constitution is
widespread among the wide variety of constituencies.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a speech given recently on Human Rights Day, the noted advocate Fali S.
Nariman said: “It is not because of our Constitution but despite its provisions
that we have failed to achieve what were naively assumed [in the year 1950] to
be achievable goals.” Nariman added: “The remedy to effectively countering
discrimination…is not by law, but in attitudes… [which] must change.” The noted
political thinker Andre Beteille summed up this appraisal when he wrote that “a
constitution may indicate the direction in which we are to move, but the social
structure will decide how far we are able to move and at what pace”.</span></div>
<span class="subsectionhead" style="color: red;"></span><br />
<span class="subsectionhead" style="color: red;"><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A success despite frailties</span></div>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Constitution and its seamless web of democracy, social revolution, and
national unity and integrity have met India’s needs. It is fair to say that it
has been a success despite some frailties – which might, with political will, be
easily remedied. Yet the Constitution has presented a paradox: the sturdiness of
the system it has provided has permitted vast deviations from its system and its
spirit, by those who would ignore them or distort them. The Constitution has
provided protective coloration much as an animal or a bird changes its
appearance without changing its being. Praising its provisions has given licence
to those who would ignore them to do so. Democracy was subverted by the First
Amendment’s placing of the land reform legislation beyond the Supreme Court’s
jurisdiction, by the executive branch’s many attacks on the court’s
independence, and by the imposition of the monstrous Emergency in 1975.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Preamble’s promise to seek justice, social economic and political, and
equality of status and opportunity – and the vainglorious addition of the words
“socialist” and “secular” to the Preamble by the 42nd Amendment left conditions
for Dalits and other backward castes much as they long have been. I must add
here that adult suffrage, and its accompanying effect of caste encouraging
political mobilisation for voting, and reservation policies have increased
citizen participation in democratic processes – although caste-against-caste
oppression still may be savage. To compare political conditions in, say, 1945
with those in India today demonstrates how far representative government has
come during the interim.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">India under the Constitution has come a long, long way in 60 years – not to
forget the distance it still has to go. The critics who downplay its
achievements lack understanding and empathy – particularly American critics,
whose democracy has serious difficulties no matter where they look. Indeed, not
looking is one of their difficulties. Indian citizens have much to be proud of,
but should avoid smugness. A remedy for it could be to ask themselves what the
members of the Constituent Assembly might think if, like Rip Van Winkle, they
awoke tomorrow.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: yellow;">With Independence we have lost the excuse of blaming the British if anything
goes wrong, Ambekdar told the Assembly. We will have nobody to blame except
ourselves.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Historians of constitutional developments in India are unlikely to be without
a job. There is too much going on, too much to puzzle over, to learn. One
matter, among the many others, especially perplexes me. Can India be a great
democracy, strong in itself and in the eyes of the world, so long as so many of
its people are denied the promise of the Preamble?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Granville Austin began his study of India and the Constitution in 1959. He
has published two books on the subject:</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> “The Indian Constitution –
Cornerstone of a Nation”, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1966, and</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> “Working a Democratic Constitution –
A History of the Indian Experience”, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">1999. He holds a D.Phil degree from
Oxford University.)</span></span></i></div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-34348481449953914432010-01-16T12:12:00.001+05:302010-01-16T12:14:51.209+05:30Article On Corruption<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends,</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am posting here an article on corruption. Its very important topic and an area where the student has to express his view carefully. So how much ever you read on corruption - you need to select important points and add it to your self notes. As always balanced view is rewarded.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Enemy within</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ON the 125th anniversary of the Congress party, observed on December 28 in New Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh listed the four major challenges before the country: terrorism, communalism, naxalism and regionalism. One cannot quarrel with that statement, as these are indeed formidable concerns. But he might have added one more to the list, something that is an insidious and persistent cancer in public life, that has vitiated every arm of governance and every public institution, including the judiciary and the armed forces. Corruption.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is a phenomenon that never ceases to astonish – that so many persons who are educated, and educated well in many cases, who are trained to serve the country, who are shaped and disciplined to act even if it means sacrificing their lives, should then become common thieves, helping themselves to bribes, to pilfering public funds and behaving in the same manner as burglars and ruffians. One wonders how these people can face their families, their wives, sons and daughters – assuming they are not party to the thievery of their fathers. They will, of course, have the usual, and often comic, defence – they are innocent; they have been set up; they are victims of a deep and dark plot by deep and dark people. But given the elaborate provisions of the law that this privileged lot has to protect itself, put in place many years ago by those who needed them to help themselves to public funds and fat bribes, it is a wonder that they have been caught and charge-sheeted. And if they have been, the Central Bureau of Investigation must have foolproof cases; its officers would not risk their own careers otherwise.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Where and how does it start? Consider an Army officer. He starts out with his course-mates, and while some of them sacrifice their lives in a major conflict or a skirmish, he goes on to become a general, even an Army Commander, and while becoming one, begins to steal and thieve. He enters into sleazy deals with people who are the scum floating in the darkest levels of society, people with whom he would, in normal circumstances, never have had dealings of any kind. But he does. Consider an Indian Administrative Service officer, who is assumed to be bright – he does pass two examinations to get in, one of which is fairly rigorous. As he is entrusted with more and more responsibilities, eventually as Chief Secretary in a State, he has begun to put his hand in the till, no different in any way from the traffic constable who takes hafta from truck drivers every evening to buy his drink. Except that he takes much more, crores, to be precise, and he wears a suit, or that dreary uniform of the bureaucrat, the bandhgala, the buttoned up suit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have examples in the judiciary as well, not only in the lower courts but in the highest court in the state. What happened? Were they not earning enough as lawyers before they were made judges, and as judges, was their salary really inadequate? When they were made judges, were they not selected because of their distinguished record as lawyers or in the judicial service? What happened after that?</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Going down the ladder, all of us know that there is not a municipal corporation or municipality that is not eaten up by corrupt officials at all levels and that nothing, literally nothing, can be done without paying them. The police forces are, of course, no less corrupt, and it is said that an honest constable is generally considered by his peers to be a consummate fool.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This cancer is something the Prime Minister has mentioned in some of his public addresses or statements, but it is something about which, one has to say with great sadness, nothing of any substance has been done. Commissions and committees are no remedy. This is a disease that has to be diagnosed and studied by the Prime Minister and some of the close colleagues – carefully selected by him personally – acting quietly and in secret.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Only then can they come up with some answers and some action to eliminate corruption, or at least make it difficult for public functionaries to take to corrupt ways. The answers have to be imaginative and unusual because the corrupt are among the most clever and perceptive and will find their way round things as simple as an order to declare assets and the like.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They must begin by trying to determine what makes an officer corrupt. Education? Family influence? Values learnt from associates? If they can identify the factors the remedies may suggest themselves. Again, the temptation to appoint a committee must be resisted. They can call in some whose opinion they feel will help them and talk to them. But that is all they must do. They will, of course, know that there will have to be different courses of action for different levels of public activity. There can never be one answer to this problem.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is important that no less a person than the Prime Minister considers this urgently because he knows that the work planned by his government may come to nothing because of this all-pervasive disease.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is something else that he surely knows only too well – that corruption goes hand in hand with influence and nepotism. Not too long ago the country was appalled to learn of the manner in which a senior police officer sexually molested a 14-year-old girl and then stalled all proceedings against him for 19 years, until the media blew the whistle on him. The case of the Indian Police Service officer, S.P.S. Rathore, highlights what influence can do to derail all attempts to get justice.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is absolutely essential in public life, in our institutions, is not getting justice. Justice is a word that is defined differently for different things, and tied up with fine, legal interpretations that usually make it ineffective or inadequate.</span><br />
</div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What is essential is that right is done. This is non-negotiable. If right is done, or is sought to be done, by the one single power in the country that does not have even the faintest stain of corruption, then we may survive through this new year to the next</span><br />
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-21953146871625386922009-12-27T18:55:00.002+05:302009-12-27T19:01:59.153+05:30Comprehensive Coverage of RTI Act<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the topics in Paper 1 of Public administration is accountability and control - in that sub topic is RTI Act .Supposed to be a revolutionary act but finding difficulty in getting implemented sincerely. The article below gives very comprehensive information about RTI and can act as single source of information. </span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">GMStudyCenter</span></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source : http://secularcitizen.blogspot.com/search/label/Right%20to%20Information )</span></span><br />
</div>
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<img height="407" src="http://environment-rti.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/rti-time-line-1.png" width="640" /><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(Image Taken from - </span></span><a href="http://environment-rti.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/rti-time-line-1.png"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://environment-rti.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/rti-time-line-1.png</span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> )</span></span><br />
</div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
R<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ight to Information viz. RTI is a part of fundamental rights under Article
19(1) of the Constitution, which says that every citizen has freedom of speech
and expression. The people cannot express themselves unless they know what’s
happening in the systems that govern them. Every citizen, being the tax payee
has the authority as the masters in a democratic system to know how the
government bodies and public authorities, meant to serve them, are
functioning.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But it is quite unfortunate that the Government
authorities are still hesitant to part with the information under their control.
It is in this context that the ‘Right to Information Act’
becomes very significant. Right to Information Act, 2005 is a public drafted
legislation to set out a mechanism to avail information in the hands of Public
authorities and Government Officials. It does not confer any new right, but
simply lays down the procedures on how to apply for information under the
control of public authorities, and how to avail it.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The preamble
of Right to Information Act, 2005 says - “Democracy requires an informed
citizenry and transparency of information which are vital to its functioning and
also to contain corruption and to hold Governments and their instrumentalities
accountable to the governed”. As sounded by its preamble, the Act envisages a
corruption-free and transparent governance and polity. The Act covers not only
the Executive, but the judiciary and the legislature also. It extends to the
entire gamut of central, state and local government systems including those
bodies owned, controlled or substantially financed by government and also those
Non-government organizations substantially financed, directly or indirectly by
funds provided by government. Information relating to any private body that can
be accessed by a public authority also comes under the ambit of RTI Act, 2005. </span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The RTI Act defines “Information” as any material in any form,
including records, documents, memos, e-mails, opinions, advice, press releases,
circulars, orders, logbooks, contracts, reports, papers, samples, models, and
data material held in any electronic form. It is interesting to learn that
“Right to Information” also covers</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Inspection of work, documents,
records; taking notes, extracts, or certified copies of documents or records;
and taking certified samples of material. It implies that any citizen can
exercise his right to invigilate the transparency and accountability of
governance or even insist that a particular civil work be performed in his
presence. Any citizen can avail a copy of every bill settled from funds
controlled by any of the public authorities and even the statement of accounts
of every activity/project/event funded or organized by the Public Authority.
Public authority is also obliged to provide reasons for its administrative or
quasi-judicial decisions to affected persons, and publish all relevant facts
while formulating important decisions affecting the public. Another interesting
aspect of RTI Act is that there is “Penalty for forfeiture of
information”.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Section 4(2) of the Act says that “it shall be the
constant endeavor of every public authority to provide as much information suo
moto to the public at regular intervals through various means of communication,
including internet, so that the public shall have minimum resort to the use of
this Act to obtain information”. So the dream is the change of mindset from
maintenance of Official Information in Secret to Maximum Voluntary disclosure of
information.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Having told the philosophy of Right to Information,
it is imperative that the ways and means of availing the information shall be
set. So the RTI Act directs that ‘ Every Public Authority shall designate as
many Public Information Officers (PIO) in all the administrative units or
Offices under it as may be necessary to provide information to persons
requesting information”. PIO is also required to help any person making the
request orally to reduce the same in writing. The Act further stipulates that
“every public authority shall designate an Officer at each sub-divisional or
other sub-district level as Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO) to
receive the applications for information or appeals under this RTI Act for
forwarding the same forthwith to the respective PIO or 1st Appellate Authority
or Information Commission. The Burden of proving that PIO/APIO has acted
reasonably and diligently in discharge of his functions or obligations under RTI
Act will be on the respective PIO/APIO.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PIO may seek assistance
of any other Officer as he or she considers it necessary for the proper
discharge of his or her duties. Section 5(5) of RTI Act says that such Officer
will be deemed as PIO for the purposes of providing the information requested.
All the Burden including liability for Penalty on defiance of information will
stand transferred to the Deemed PIO, if PIO transfers the request to such
Officer with a note indicating the same</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Request for information has
to be submitted to PIO or APIO in writing or through electronic means in
English, Hindi or Official language of the area with a nominal Fee of Rs. 10/-.
(There is no fee for persons Below Poverty Line). PIO can demand additional sum
of Rs. 2 for each page created or copied for giving it as information to the
requestor or Rs. 50/- per diskette/floppy if the same is given in electronic
form. Incase if Inspection of work is requested no fee is chargeable for the
first hour, but Rs. 5/- each for every subsequent hours.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Act
mandates that the PIO shall provide the requested information as expeditiously
as possible, but in no way later than 30 days. However the public authorities
can take 5 days more to part with the information sought, if such request is
made through APIO. But in any case where the requested information involves the
question of “life or liberty”, such information should be given within 48
hours.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Section 6(2) of RTI Act makes it clear that a person
requesting information shall not be required to give any reason for requesting
the information or any other personal details. However this freedom implies that
the citizens shall show a greater sense of responsibility on the part of the use
of information in the media and elsewhere. (Dissemination shall be in Public
Interest.). In view of the national security, Intelligence and Security
Organisations such as IB, RAW of Cabinet Secretariat, BSF, SPG, CISF, DRDO,
Special Branch CID of Andaman & Nicobar, Directorate of Revenue
Intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau etc. have been exempted from stringent
provisions of the RTI Act. But it is very interesting to note that the
information pertaining to the allegations of corruption and human rights
violations are not exempt from disclosure even in the case of those
organizations. That conveys the very intention of this
Legislation.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now comes the real question - What is the remedy if
the requested information is denied? RTI Act establishes an Independent and
Non-judicial appellate mechanism in which a body called “Information Commission”
(Central Information Commission and State information Commissions) has been set
as the apex body. Further Section 23 of the Act asserts that ‘No court shall
entertain any suit, application or other proceedings in respect of any order
made under this Act and no such order shall be called in question otherwise than
by way of an appeal under this Act’. But this provision cannot be interpreted as
a complete bar on jurisdiction of courts, since the options of Writ petitions
and Special Leave petitions always subsists. Information Commission also would
entertain the complaints from any one who is aggrieved on account of any matter
relating to obtaining information under this law including the cases where the
public authority refused to accept the RTI Request.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In order to
give an opportunity for the ‘public authority’ to review its on decision as to
the denial of Information requested from PIO, the Act requisitions that an
Officer senior in rank to PIO be appointed as the First Appellate Authority, to
whom the aggrieved citizen can appeal within thirty days of expiry of time
limits within which he/she should have received the information requested. The
First Appellate Authority (AA) shall ordinarily dispose of the appeal within
thirty days or latest by the forty-fifth day with reasons for availing such
prolonged period. An appeal to the respective Central or State Information
Commission may be made within a period of 90 days from the date of decision of
the Appellate Authority or from the date of expiry of time limit for the
disposal of the first appeal made before the first Appellate
Authority.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Information Commission may, at the time of deciding
any complaint or appeal, impose upon PIO, a fine of Rs. 250 per day, up to a
maximum of Rs. 25,000/-, if he/she has without any reasonable ground: refused to
accept an application for information; or delayed furnishing of information; or
malafidely denied information; or knowingly given incomplete, incorrect, or
misleading information; or destroyed information that has been requested; or
obstructed furnishing of information in any manner. So the Act has teeth; it can
not only bark but bite also. But of course the PIO will be given a reasonable
opportunity of being heard before any penalty is imposed on
him.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The RTI Act extends its arm further to declare that if PIO
persistently violates his obligations under RTI Act, Information Commission
shall recommend for disciplinary action against such PIO under the service rules
applicable to him.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though the Right to Information Act moots complete
transparency in the governmental system, it is also equally important that the
strategic information pertaining to the State and any personal information
devoid of larger public interest be exempted from disclosure. Accordingly
Section 8 (1) of the RTI Act bars the disclosure of the following
information.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">a) Information, disclosure of which would
prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security,
strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign
State or lead to incitement of an offence;</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">b) Information which
has been expressly forbidden to be published by any court of law or tribunal or
the disclosure of which may constitute contempt of court;</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">c)
Information, the disclosure of which would cause a breach of privilege of
Parliament or the State Legislature;</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">d) Information including
commercial confidence, trade secrets or intellectual property, the disclosure of
which would harm the competitive position of a third party, (unless larger
public interest warrants the disclosure of such information); </span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">e)
Information available to a person in his fiduciary relationship, (unless the
larger public interest warrants the disclosure of such
information);</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">f) Information received in confidence from foreign
Government;</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">g) Information, the disclosure of which would
endanger the life or physical safety of any person or identify the source of
information or assistance given in confidence for law enforcement or security
purposes;</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">h) Information which would impede the process of
investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders;</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">i)
Cabinet papers including records of deliberations of the Council of Ministers,
Secretaries and other officers. (However, after the decision is taken and the
matter is complete or over, the decision, the reasons thereof and the material
leading to the decision shall be made public);</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">j) Information
which relates to personal information the disclosure of which has no
relationship to any public activity or interest, or which would cause
unwarranted invasion of the privacy of the individual unless larger public
interest demands its disclosure</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Further, Section 9 of the Act
insists that any information that infringes the copyright of any person other
than the State should not be disclosed. While Section 8 and Section 9 prevents
the disclosure of the kind of information mentioned above, the Act maintains
vide</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Section 10(1) that ‘access may be provided to that part of the
record, which is not exempted from disclosure, and which can reasonably be
severed from any part of that contains the ‘exempt
information’</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You would also be delighted to learn about an
important decision of the Full Bench of Central Information Commission (Decision
dated 23rd April 2007), which declared that there is “No fiduciary relationship”
in respect of “Evaluated Answer Sheets”, while maintaining accepting that there
existed “Fiduciary Relationship” between a) Lawyer and Client; b) Doctor and
Patient; c) Bank and Customer; d) Trustee and Beneficiary; e) Organisation and
Reporting Officer in respect of CR of an Employee etc. Therefore the Information
Commission directed that the answer sheets should ordinarily be disclosed in all
circumstances, but subject to the scrutiny under S. 8 (1) and Section 9 of RTI
Act. The Commission stated further that the evaluated answer sheets could be
disclosed withholding the name of the Examiner, in view of the fact that the
disclosure of identity of the examiners might pose a danger to the life and
safety of the Examiner. The decision also implies that marks given by each of
the Interview board members are givable without revealing their
identity.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So RTI Act, 2005 is the most pretty and powerful legislation
that the democratic India gifted to its citizens. Its Supremacy is being
reiterated in Section 22 of the Act, which states that ‘ The Provisions of RTI
Act will be having the overriding effect on any contradicting provisions in
Official Secret Act, 1923, and any other law for the time being in force or any
other instrument having effect by virtue of any law other than this
Act”</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let me add a few sagas of successful RTI ventures as an
anecdote here. The first story is from a north Indian village. Mazloom Nadaf, a
70-year old rickshaw puller had no scope for his long-awaited dream until he
found light in RTI. The story reads as follows - Nadaf did not get any response
for the first five years on his application on Indira Awas Yojana – India’s
National housing Scheme. Five years later, authorities demanded Rs. 5000/- from
him to process the application. But he refused to give the money and, instead
approached the legal aid centre of an NGO working in Madhubani district and
sought their assistance in drafting and filing an RTI application. In his RTI
request, Mazloom asked for the daily progress report made on his application to
avail of the Indira Awas Yojana. The application was filed with the Circle
Officer for his block who forwarded the same to the Block Development Officer
(BDO). The BDO on receiving the RTI application called Mazloom and treated him
like a VIP and with a lot of respect handed over a Cheque of Rs. 15,000 (first
installment payment) under the Indira Awas Yojana. He was also promised that he
would get the subsequent installments in time.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Right to
Information Act was also effectively used by residents of a village in
Rajasthan’s Bikaner district to put an end to the practice of selling grains
from ration shops in the black market. Mr. Revat Ram, Secretary, Jagruk Yuvak
Manch of the areas was Instrumental in this achievement. Revat Ram and his
friends used the RTI Act to get all records of their ration shop in Himmatsar
village and exposed how grains meant for the poor were being black-marketed at a
ration shop in Bikaner. After the move, the villagers got the dealer removed.
Besides losing dealership, the ration shopkeeper was also forced to pay poor
families in the village over Rupees Four Lakhs, the cash equivalent of the
grains he had sold illegally.</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“They threatened us and also
offered money. But we refused, because we wanted to ensure that people in our
village get the grains they deserve from the government. And we did not get
scared in fighting for the rights of our people” – Says Mr.
Revat</span><br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The message of RTI Act is very clear – Uproot corruption
and make the governmental system totally transparent and accountable to the
people. So Government Employee is no longer a Government Servant. He/She has to
transform to a Public Servant in Letter and Spirit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To End with,
I wish to quote the father of our nation</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">- “The real Swaraj will come not
by the acquisition of authority by a few but by the acquisition of capacity by
all to resist authority when abused “</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is
it that the Independent India needed 58 years to realize what Mahatmaji told?</span><br />
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</span><br />GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-82268555751769223562009-12-25T08:53:00.003+05:302009-12-25T09:02:32.392+05:30Tackling Naxalism: Offer clean admn<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Any nation can and will always be prepared for external problems - but it is the internal problems which lets any country down. And in India Naxalism has been one of the administrative nightmares and it needs highest administrative calibre to handle the same. The following article discusses about Naxalism by adopting Gandhian approach.You may have your own views - but this is an add on.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Source :http://www.centralchronicle.com/viewnews.asp?articleID=22511)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wars, it is said, arise in the minds of men and so they should properly be fought there. The same can be said about Naxalism. It too arises in the minds of men and so it should properly be fought there. Instead, we are trying to fight it with brute force, inviting further retaliation. </span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let us for a moment think how Mahatma Gandhi would have fought it. He fought the might of a colonial empire not with force but the opposite of it. And, here we are fighting our own people with force and having much the worse of it. To say the least our approach is not Gandhian. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But there is a deeper reason favouring the Gandhian approach. Contrary to popular notion, <span style="background-color: yellow;">Naxalism does not arise out of income disparities or differences in social status. We always had unequal distribution of wealth and a stratified division of the society but this kind of unrest was not seen.</span> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It is in fact amazing how much of life's so called injustice is accepted peacefully in India, blaming it on our fate or 'karma'. Instead of blaming others we blame ourselves. That should act as a great cushion for the society and the nation. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">However, what is not tolerated in India is perceived unfairness. That has always given rise to mass movements, be it the events of 1857 or any other regional revolt. People are willing to put up with a lot if they think that the system is fair. That it works. That it treats them equally. If that confidence is shaken unrest manifests itself. Perhaps this is what is causing Naxalism. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even in the times of the erstwhile ruling States, income disparities as well as social differences were as rife, if not more, but the people, by and large, identified with the rulers and trusted him. <span style="background-color: yellow;">'Kou nripa hoya, hamai ka hani' (Whoever be the ruler, what difference does it make to us?) That was not a statement of indifference to state but a statement of confidence in the system. Whoever rules, rules fairly. Why bother? </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why is that identification missing? Today, the public mind is agitated by doubts about fairness of rule. Let us take a hard look at our public life. How much confidence does it inspire? What is our administrative profile? Illegal accumulation of wealth on all sides. Very poor record of punishing those apprehended. Arbitrary use of police and administrative powers to promote selfish interests and to shield the guilty. Equally arbitrary use of the taxpayer's money for personal convenience of the ruling class. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Indian Airlines awards life-time of free air travel facility to its CMD. A Cabinet Secretary becomes Governor of a state post-retirement before finally being shown the door for foisting personal hospitality expenses on an industrial house. Were there no takers for the jobs or our vigilance mechanism works selectively? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A general impression has been created that cleverness pays and anything can be sorted out if you throw enough money at it. Criminals dominate. All sorts of scams in the works, be it the Bihar fodder case, the Telgi stamp paper theft case (look at its sweep) the Ghaziabad Provident Fund defalcation case or numerous Public Service Commission recruitment scandals. Is that not material enough for creating a lack of confidence in the system? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Add to that thoughtless expropriation of people's traditional rights over common resources, enjoyed by them for centuries and often recognised even in Mughal sanads and British grants. Appropriation of forests by government's Forest Department is a running complaint. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our disastrous experiments with afforestation with the help of eucalyptus every where and with exotic tropical pine in the saal intensive Bastar region tell their own sad tale of indifference to the lot of the forest dweller. He got nothing from these plantations by way of seeds, fruits or leaves towards his sustenance. Eucalyptus soaked up the surrounding moisture and tropical pine proved a dwarf beside the stalwart saal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Used to deriving their water supply from traditional sources like ponds and rivers, forest people find them polluted due to atrocious mining and manufacturing activities. The waters of Shankhini and Dankini rivers joining together below the highly revered Danteshwari temple in Bastar area's Dantewara district have been unusable ever since the start of the iron ore mining operations. Nobody has a care. All our attention is taken up with fighting Naxalism mindlessly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the other extreme, government regularization of encroached forest lands has given rise to new vested interests like earlier commercialisation of timber interests. We are thus creating a situation where we either do not give anything or give it away for private use. Both ways, the common interest is not served and the dependent community is dislodged. The man looking for basic subsistence is uprooted. Where does he go? Therefore if land is at all to be given away to encroachers in forest lands, it may have to be outside forest areas, otherwise we are establishing a self-defeating wrong trend. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Subsequently trouble makers, criminals and commercial interests have jumped into the fray and taken short-term advantage of a bad situation. They find it a fertile ground. Over the years they have learnt to encash and exploit their nuisance value. They are even levying protection money and overrunning police stations. Look at Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. Their nuisance value is acquiring an independent life as another vested interest. For the administration on the ground level matters are getting so mixed up that it is hard to distinguish genuine unrest from a created one. How do we tackle this situation? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">To my mind, we have to begin at the beginning.</span> As the seed of Naxalism takes root in the minds of men, so the battle against it should also primarily be fought and won in the hearts and minds of men. The task is of managing and assisting a society in transition in a fast commercializing world. We have a society faced with abrupt and sudden transformation and a crisis of confidence. That is why our Prime Minister does not see them basically as terrorists. Isn't our own right conduct and understanding behaviour then the correct response? </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our administrative image has to change. We need the image of a more upright, considerate, even-handed and people-friendly administration. Only then will we have taken the first steps towards resolving the problem. Once the fertile ground of discontent ceases to exist other improvements will follow. Neither brute force nor appeasement is an answer. Other suggested remedies of political dialogue and economic development merely skirt the key issue.</span><br />GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-73841584607365228982009-12-19T15:56:00.003+05:302009-12-19T23:33:11.709+05:30Creation of Small States - A Discussion<div align="justify">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The discussion of the hour is whether India needs smaller states or not. As you know its not easy take any sides but being students of public administration we should be able view the scenario from the administration perspective. The founding fathers of our constitution wated to have a unified India but with keeping of local aspiration and their needs satisfied according the taste of the people.However administratively speaking an administrator will have good control if 'the thing which is to be administered' is small.The following article favours the small state. So whatever the stand you are taking - it is very important to put your thoughts logically,critically and with supporting facts. The tone of the article is 'debating' but ideally when you write your answer in mains - this tone should be changed.I Have highlighted some important aspects please make a note of the same.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Source : - </span><a href="http://realityviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/india-creation-of-small-states-need-of.html"><span style="font-size: x-small;">http://realityviews.blogspot.com/2009/12/india-creation-of-small-states-need-of.html</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Small states means Better Administration – Better Government – Participation of common man in the administration .Creation of small state is one of the answers to Reduce corruption or At least corruption amount. </span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why we should support the creation of small states?</span></u><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In India, when congress declared that a new state Telangana will be created from AP.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Everyone in India started to discuss about the creation of small state, is creation of small state is good for India or is creation of small state is bad for India? Many Indians opposed this creation of small states in India by giving many reasons.Following are the few reasons why people oppose the creation of small states.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Creation of small state will divide India </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Creation of small state will take the India to pre British era</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Danger from China, china wants to divide India.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Small states in India are not making progress , Chattisgarh and Jharkhand</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Small states Depend on Central Government</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• What is the guarantee that small states will make the progress?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Politicians want to become the chief Minister or for the political power.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Hatred Among state will increase </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">• Election vote should be counted who is defeated </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s understand and know why small states are good for India?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before Arrival of British people in India, there was no India.There were small kingdoms and big kingdoms.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today when we say India, there is feeling, My India, in olden times there was no such feeling, all those feelings were for there king or god. I will fight for my king, my God.Today our army when fights it fights for the India, not for any individuals. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">During the British rule the thought of India was borned .We got the feeling of oneness among us, one India</span>.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In olden times, before the arrival of British, for the people of small states for whom there king, there caste and religion was more important, everyone always obeyed the family of king.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember the battle of Plessey, Robert Clive with the help of just 300 white soldiers won the battle by giving bribe. And he won the battle by defeating more than 50000 Indian soldiers. They surrendered because there army head said that I surrender, today if in India one head says that he will surrender to small enemy , drop your weapons ,do you think Indian forces will drop the guns or they will arrest that head and will fight for the nation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In that times when outsiders came fought with the small states, that time neighboring states did not help that state, when Arab people looted the small kingdoms and become the rulers of that state. Other kings kept enjoying there life and kingdom, they did not thought about the safety of neighbor state.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today if Pakistan attacks on Kargil, we hear the voice from every corner of India that destroy enemy.After 26/11 we heard voices from every corner of India to Punish Kasab,this never happend in old asian small kingdoms.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So now I think you got the point that today when we create the small state, the feeling of one India, oneness will not go. Mere creation of small state will not destroy the feeling of one ness , the feeling of Indian on the contrary it will increase this feeling and love towards India and will reduce the feeling of love towards there language or state. For small states love for India will grow.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And also small state will be created from the big state so there will be 2 states or more states which will speak same language. In this way we will solve the problem of language also.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On the contrary in the future when states will become rich, there are chances these big states will make there police force very strong and will demand the independence from India.When we divided India on basis of language we made mistake, and today you may not agree with me, but when States will make progress and will make money and other states will not make money, these states will demand the independence and because of finance and big nature of state, they will do this very easily by purchasing arms from china. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So remember big states will divide the India in future not the small states. A small state is the only one solution which can keep us integrated as India.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As India is divided on the basis of language, the power of states are increasing as they are becoming and because of big nature of state , and under one big roof all one speaking people are staying , the hatred is rising as few states are making progress and others come to this state, this gives rise to hatred. This is not gift of small state. And we do not see language problem in small states, if media will stop giving importance to this problem automatically this language problem will go to dustbin, anyways after 25 or 30 years I am sure they will not find language problem takers... Today power of knowledge is with Indian youth and no one can make them fool for a long time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Few Facts about our Indian states –</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">1. Uttar Pradesh with population of more than 167 million is bigger than Germany + France or Russia ,Pakistan</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">2. China, America, Brazil and Indonesia are the only few nations who are bigger than Uttar Pradesh.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">3. TamilNadu (62.2 million) is bigger than Britain and Italy,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">4. Andhra Pradesh (76.4 million) is little bigger than Germany and Vietnam </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">5. Bihar is bigger than Mexico</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">6. Maharashtra with 92.1 million is bigger state than Germany. Maharashtra has ten million more than Germany.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">7. Bengal is bigger than the Philippines</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(<strong>Comments from GMStudyCenter</strong> - Here you need to carefully verify the facts - its stating only the population but neither any geographycal advantage nor the size of the land.In the following paragraphs too there is always counter argument for every point but the author is taking what he wants to prove his point)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If the big states means progress then why India has not made progress like America, Germany, France or Hong Kong or England.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">America, Hong Kong both were ruled by England just like India.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do small states suffer? Not if one views Punjab , Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This shows that there is no guarantee that big state will make progress or small state will make progress.R</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">emember it does not matter state is small or state is big, most important thing is who is our law maker and how honest he is with his job and nation.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If law maker, politician is not good then small or big it does not matter, he will do the corruption and he will take the wrong decisions. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When law maker, politician is corrupt no one can save the nation.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But when law maker is good he can take the small state to such heights that the small nation can rule the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our democracy works like this - one head of the state, then other elected members, run the state with the help of IAS officers and bureaucrats.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When the state is big, those officers and elected politicians, law makers are not able to watch carefully every project and how the money is utilized by everyone in every project.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today budget of Government is becoming so big that common people find it difficult to understand, and even studied accountants find it very difficult to understand and find out the mistakes.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If common man does not understand how the fraud and cheating is made by the politician or law maker then how he will fight with them. When states are big, it becomes very easy for the law maker and politician to make frauds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When state is small, if any government employee or law maker or politician will do the fraud, immediately it will show the effect on the other projects as it will become very difficult for that chief minister to bring new funds or hide his black deeds.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just take the example of classroom of 100 students and classroom of 25 students, so in this case which classroom will be easy to manage and give the results.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today as our states are big, many times villagers from remote places even find it difficult to reach the place of district court, forget about the High court of state.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When small state will be created it will give easy access to high court.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Small state means small government, small budget, and small departments, very less chance to show fingers on each other by saying that, that department is not doing the work so file is pending.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Small states will create competition among each other; this competition will be with the same mother tongue speaking language population.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because of big nature of states today indirectly the law maker, politician has become the king of that particular area.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Because of this honest people will rarely get chance to rule the state or to get elected.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Small states will not give chance to politician or law maker to hide his failure or fool the people by saying that this time we have given funds to west or north, as small state means the population will know in real what is happening in every part of his state.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Big states does not benefit towards saving money ,but the nature of big states help to waste the money as well as it gives unlimited scope to do corruption which benefits to the law maker or politician.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In small state if any politician will amass wealth, the people of that state can easily notice that and will know how he is earning and making the money, this will help to expose the wrong contracts and his hidden property. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even Indian constitution has article 3 which favors and talks about the creation of new state. It states that -</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Parliament may by law admit into the Union, or establish, new States on such terms and conditions as it thinks fit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If party who support the creation of small state does not win the election this does not mean that the people of that district do not want separate state. The election is held to choose leader ,MP or MLA and they do not vote for the creation of state. Even if when there is not 100% voting how can it become the will of that district ?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our constitution of India does not have this provision, to get the peoples vote to decide regarding the creation of small state . The ball is ,power is with the parliament.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Again I will come to the point that Small states will divide India, one of the best parts of our Constitution is that the duties between state and central government are divided.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Central government is in charge of our army, naval and air force. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The heads of these forces do not report to the chief minister, further more brilliant clause, is that our forces do not have common one head of all the forces.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This means we got 3 heads, Army head, Naval Head and Air Force Head, and all these 3 heads report to the Prime Minister and President. We do not have one head of all these 3 forces, if there is one head then he will become so powerful that he can with the help of few states can form the new nation, but as we do not have one head, army forces will not obey the head of the naval force, each one has there own ranking.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So when you say that small states will divide India, think again now?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When there is no money, no big budget, no big police force, and no big coastal guards how can small state will become Independent and will think about waging war against India.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Remember big states are good for political parties and corrupt leaders or uneducated leaders.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Big states are good for the government servants.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Our complete Indian working system has become rotten and dirty and these corrupt people have become so rich and powerful that honest common man will not be able to fight with them and win </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We will need another civil war to repair this corrupt system or to repair this corrupt Indian system we need creation of small states which will help us to break this nexus, friendship of government servants and businessmen and politicians and political parties.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today in India we got different political parties, but do we see any difference between there political vision.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Every party has only one vision, win the election, get the chair and make money.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regarding our political situation in India I am not dreamer, No politician will make changes in this system, a system which makes them as well as there future generations the king of India.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To change this we need civil war in India or reforms like creation of small states which will give chance to common Indian know and understand how the chief minister and his office is working. Small state will give chance to participate in the administration of government, we can monitor them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With small states there are unlimited benefits and with big states benefits are less and finally everything depends on Good law maker.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When small state will get corrupt law maker or politician we can have satisfaction that the corruption amount is not big which will be also in millions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s hope that in future States Reorganization Commission (SRC) will not give more importance to language when dividing or creating new states. States should be created only after consultation with scientists, engineers and taking consideration of geographic area and advantages.</span><br />
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-89273791981495257082009-12-14T19:38:00.002+05:302009-12-14T19:39:35.434+05:30RTI amendment only after due consultations<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The following Article is a news update related to public administration. The topic covered is RTI which makes the part of Public Administration Syllabus. Consulting Civic Society Organisations is definitely a good step. But RTI is not implemented effectively across India.There are only handful of states where RTI is effective. There was never a dearth of law making but the implementation of those laws was mostly ineffective.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">NEW DELHI: The government assured Rajya Sabha on Thursday <span style="background-color: yellow;">that any decision on amending Right to Information (RTI) Act will be taken only after Consulting expert and civil society organisations.</span> During Question Hour, minister of state for personnel Prithviraj Chavan said there was a proposal to strengthen RTI by suitably amending the law to provide for disclosure by government in all non-strategic areas.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">The minister said the government was looking into the proposal as suggested by the second Administrative Reforms Commission to put a check on vexatious and frivolous applications, but there would be enough safeguards to ensure information was not denied on these grounds by public authorities. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The government is also examining a proposal for incorporation of provisions in the RTI Act regarding constitution of benches of the information commission and rejection of vexatious and frivolous applications," Chavan said. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The amendment would be done with a view to expanding the scope of RTI and withdrawing exemptions given to some agencies.It would, however, not be carried out before consultations with NGOs, civil society organisations, experts and information commissioners, he said.If strengthening of RTI can be carried out without amending the law, it would be done, he said.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Asked whether the Chief Justice of India had approached the government, the minister said there were apprehensions in the Supreme Court whether RTI law would hamper its work. "We will examine this issue very carefully," he added. </span></span><br />
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-17935405570941246782009-12-14T19:20:00.002+05:302009-12-14T19:40:56.231+05:30Make babus accountable<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am giving you one more article on Accountability. But the question is - is it sufficient if only babu's are accoutable ? what about politicians?. I have highlighted the important stuff. Please make it part of your notes</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">(Source : Internet)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The current system of endless procedural delay in deciding whether a Government employee has violated rules or indulged in corrupt practices ensures that the guilty are never punished. Often honest employees are needlessly harassed. We need a new system</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If anything infuriates citizens, it is the absence of accountability among Government employees. Confronted with examples of this almost everyday, it is assumed that corruption within the system allows wrong-doers to get away. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Th</span><span style="background-color: yellow;">e real reason is because the disciplinary rules that govern the conduct of Government servants require impossibly long and cumbersome procedures to be observed, in the name of natural justice, leaving loopholes galore.</span> The result: Not even a fraction of those that deserve punishments ever get penalised; instead a number of honest officers get stigmatised by remaining under investigation for years together. A simple, sensible and fair system of dealing with misconduct is badly needed.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">The second Administrative Reforms Commission lamented that “dilatory disciplinary proceedings make a mockery of any attempt to instill discipline and accountability”. But the Commission instead of suggesting a workable alternative capable of immediate adoption grandiloquently recommended the repeal of Article 311 of the Constitution; also adding a new legislation under Article 309 to its wish-list.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First the history: Sardar Patel independent India’s first Home Minister favoured giving civil servants protection to enable them to be frank and impartial. So Article 311(which embargoes the dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of a Government employee without enquiry) came into being and has remained in the Constitution ever since. The ARC felt that the protection given by the offending Article had bred a false sense of security and given excessive protection to Government servants. Hence the recommendation that Article 311 be repealed — a step which was not attempted even during Emergency when the Article was amended to provide for specific situations when an enquiry could be dispensed with.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">The recommendation to repeal Article 311 is just hot air. First there is the implausibility of Opposition parties ever unifying to pass a constitutional amendment and that when it is clearly anti-sarkari mulaazim. Second, the amendment process would require the co-operation of State Governments in respect of the All-India services which will never come. Third, the possibility that the repeal of Article 311 might be seen as an attempt to alter the basic structure of the Constitution (shades of Keshavanand Bharti) cannot be ruled out. Besides it is no one’s case that an enquiry should not be held at all. That would be untenable in a democracy and would straightaway militate against the principles of natural justice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead, the ARC should have suggested urgent modification in the existing disciplinary rules. These rules notified in 1965 draw their authority from Article 309 of the Constitution and not Article 311. It is there that change is needed. If there is one thing that terrifies Government employees it is the fear of getting caught in the web of a vigilance enquiry — a predicament which by itself is worse than being penalised. It suspends the official’s chances of getting promoted or posted in a position of significance for years together — decades in several cases. The situation has a catastrophic effect on the social standing of the officer, distresses his family, and worst of all, it deters him and numerous others from displaying any initiative — ‘better safe than sorry’ as the saying goes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But the more dangerous fallout of the vigilance enquiry phobia is the proliferation of the committee culture. Files and decisions move higher and higher up the hierarchy and in the process the purchase of essential equipment critically needed for defence, infrastructure needs, and health gets deferred, often causing irretrievable harm to our preparedness on vital fronts.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">An overhaul of the CCS CCA Rules 1965 is, therefore, urgently required. Since the Rules draw their strength from Article 309 of the Constitution and not Article 311, the modifications can be effected straightaway through an executive order; as neither Parliament nor State Governments can or will impede the process. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: small;">All enquiries should start with the issue of a written chargesheet, and proceed to the consideration of the charged officer’s response before an interview board, (this is the system in the UK and has been mentioned by ARC also.) The present judicial kind of enquiry should only be preferred if at the end of the meeting the interview panel feels that the facts and officer’s defence points to something serious, which could result in dismissal, removal from service or reduction in rank.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For all other cases, the finding of the panel on the culpability of the officer or his exoneration as also the quantum of punishment to be meted out should be final — allowing one appeal where the appellate authority would have powers to mitigate, but also to enhance the punishment, if warranted.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">By bringing in a new set of disciplinary rules under Article 309, the Government can change the way its officers perform. It would boost the morale of honest officers and restore lost initiative. Prompt punishment if given to a few will immediately instill a fear of wrong-doing and a respect for discipline-attributes which have become anachronisms in our feudal systems. When the upright can be dangled as criminals while culpable courtiers can get rewarded, where is the encouragement to demonstrate probity in public life?</span></span><br />
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-84106820648460479342009-11-11T18:06:00.001+05:302009-11-11T18:09:01.884+05:30Looking Positively of North Karnataka Flood<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The following article gives some points for disaster management in the public administration syllabus. Though it speaks of the North Karnataka flood scenario it can be used for answer writing for any disaster and to find positive impacts of disaster.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Regards</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIf0ON0754vrVWneigjJstB7OE5QY7ojI3s2X1ikUBbYEQsoxhE3jL2ADblaVrq7oK96PHZ28lItu3LBKA933YMq_vOIoNYprNl33HkjtvfiASPKNb015OhDToP7bh15RB19G1fv_m-O9X/s1600-h/karnataka_flood_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" sr="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIf0ON0754vrVWneigjJstB7OE5QY7ojI3s2X1ikUBbYEQsoxhE3jL2ADblaVrq7oK96PHZ28lItu3LBKA933YMq_vOIoNYprNl33HkjtvfiASPKNb015OhDToP7bh15RB19G1fv_m-O9X/s640/karnataka_flood_1.jpg" /></a><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have greatest sympathy for those whose life is can no more be called as life. In this grave scenario 'WHAT WE CAN DO' carries most significance than what has been happened and HOW WE CAN BUILD is of utmost importance than what has been destructed also how we can prevent these kinds of natural disasters should be given importance than only to bring their life to normalcy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though this is by far the worst calamity in NK , it provides immense opportunity to nation building activities for the administration in power and can be utilised to build real 'Siri Gandhada Gudi' ( land of sandalwood)</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What can be done ?</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ofcourse our priority has to be - to bring the normalcy as soon as possible but it should not be done in a hurry and only for name sake.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Instead of giving them the life that they were living why not give them a better life ?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With this unwanted flood , we can remove THE SLUMS in entire NK by good planning - as everything that has to be destroyed to remove a slum has been done free of cost ! ( sorry if it sounded surcastically but I hope you can understand what I am telling ) and an unwanted opportunity to build from the scratch has been provided So why not make the most of it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">NK needs better irrigation system badly and requires small / big dams whereever possible which are oriented towards irrigation and building dam needs lot of displacement of people and needs lot of land acquisition activity - currently we have already displaced people and why not provide them good lands and accomodation now itself so that we can build good water reservoisers in future ?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Leave aside dams , for that matter any infrastructure building activity requires land acquisition - like SEZs , roads , industrial development ..why not identify the land now and promise those displaced people of better future.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In all the above tasks there is one common challenge-to convince the people and appropriately compensate them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most importantly this 'act of god' should provide good opportunity for the district administration to plug the gaps in disaster management.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">While all these things takes time and political will and takes good visionary to make them visualise the better future - the question is who will bell the cat. Or does the governament know this can be done. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hear a back bench voice telling me - if the government was this wise - this calamity would not have happened !!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People have lost faith and hope in political promises and politicians have lost credibility among people. So they are not even giving good hopes to hope less people. Now you know Obama did not win the Nobel for nothing - its here he is successful - creating HOPE.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">How it can be done ?</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The immediate need for those displaced is to provide shelter , food and medical facilities this can be done as Srilanka did in a recent refugee camp during its full blown assault on LTTE. So lets establish a refugee shelter on a temporary basis instead of start building the houses where they were earlier and buy time say 3-4 months. This time can be utilised for the planning and with whole of government's resource at the disposal this is not an impossible task.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Though the task is easier said than done - it is not impossible - If the money available at governament's disposal is used efficiently without corruption the task is not difficult. Then remains convincing and promising the people of better future. If government does credible job withoug politicising the issues even this is not difficult and can be achieved.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the worst case lets think - not all of what I mentioned above is not possible but two things can be definitely achieved - administration reforms in handling the disasters and removing the slums and building better connectivity</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I only wish so called IAS officers will make better use of this opportunity in bringing the light to those lives whose life has been destroyed. With the amount money at the disposal I am not sure of the people affected by the flood but more than 100% sure that SOME officers' life will prosper.</span><br />
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-60824916277808733622009-11-09T21:33:00.000+05:302009-11-09T21:33:23.585+05:30Women in Rural Development Constrains and Opportunity<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">The following article can be linked to Rural Development and Development Dynamics in the syllabus. I have highlighted important points please make a note of the same.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Regards</span><br /></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana;">GMStudyCenter</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">(Source:http://articlescollections.com/women-in-rural-development-constrains-and-opportunity/)</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Throughout our country rural areas are characterized by high levels of poverty limited economic and employment opportunities undeveloped infrastructure and limited services with marginalized communities economically dependent on urban areas. For decades our rural communities were denied adequate education and our youth forced to abandon their homes and seek jobs in the cities. Our people were forced out of the countryside to become cheap migrant laborers in the factories, in the cities and on the farms. Our women in rural areas have had to bear the brunt of suffering by having to walk long distances to fetch water and collect firewood, by having to eke out their living and that of their families often on barren land to which they had been removed. They have remained pillars of strength in the community and we must pay tribute to their fortitude and resilience. Further our rural communities have to contend with lack of access to government services and unintended policy implementation consequences, as the implementation of policy tended to be biased towards the urban and semi urban areas.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We have to recognize women as the driving force for rural development. Women farmers are main food producers in developing countries and yet they are one of the most vulnerable groups. Their economic empowerment to produce more and to participate in policy formulation is critical to addressing poverty and food insecurity.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Before rural development can be successful, the important role of women has to be acknowledged. Moreover, they have to be fully integrated and given the possibility of acquiring knowledge and skills, and of utilizing them as well.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The government should also abolish the legally based discrimination of women fixed in inheritance rights; give them equal access to land, livestock, and means of production; make it possible for them to participate in business activities; and guarantee them a right to membership and voting in labor organizations, credit associations, and similar organizations.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The number of women in training and extension programmes should be increased, especially in posts from which they have been excluded until now. The contents and subjects of training and extension programmes should be expanded so that the role of women in production, processing, and marketing can also be taken into account.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To achieve participation equal to that of men in public institutions, the women's cooperative activities should be promoted. To achieve this goal, it will be necessary to create a system for ascertaining the obstacles hindering the participation of women in schools, health services, employment, and general development. Statistical data showing women's contribution in production should be compiled and published. Measures facilitating household work and care of the children increase the chance for women to participate in economic, training, and political activities. Men should also be obligated to do their share of household work.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Training facilities of equal quality for girls and women, with the same subject matter as for men, should be established and made attractive by offering scholarships. These institutions should be followed up by possibilities of earning an income with the guarantee of an equal salary for equal work. Training possibilities for women are especially important not only in the fields of agriculture and in non- agricultural gainful employment, but also in the sectors health, nutrition, children's education, and family planning. It is necessary to make sure that, during the transition from a traditional economy to the modern technologies; the negative implications for women are minimized.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The face of the farmer and natural resource manager is primarily female in most of the developing world. Knowledge, technology, policies, institutions and programmes must therefore be developed by putting women at the centre to orient structures and processes to address their needs as food producers and environmental managers through gender mainstreaming and investing in women and girls to bridge the existing gender gaps. The prevailing misunderstanding and neglect of this fact has contributed to a significant loss of opportunities and investments in women farmers and thus has had major consequences for food security and poverty alleviation. <span style="background-color: yellow;">Rather than being regarded as a vulnerable group, women’s knowledge, experience and substantial roles make them experts in agriculture and natural resource management; they are key agents in the way forward for sustainable development.</span></span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As women bear the brunt of poverty, it is just and fair that the bulk of our programmes be targeted towards them. We have to ensure that they also enjoy the fruits of freedom. We need to formulate tangible programmes that will take women issues to the centre of our agenda. The consolidation of democracy in our country requires the eradication of social and economic inequities, especially those that are systematic in nature, which were generated in our history.</span><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Though agriculture has a central role to play in the rural community, it is not an end in itself but a means to an end which is rural development</span><span style="background-color: yellow;">. It remains one of the important ingredients which include access to healthcare, education and other government services such enabling documents. Therefore the project planning for rural development needs to take these factors into account. Although significant progress has been made in restructuring and transforming our society and institutions, systematic inequalities and unfair discrimination remain deeply embedded in social structures, practices and attitudes, undermining the aspirations of our constitutional federal democratic republic.</span></span> <br /></div>
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<br /></div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-77720256081516184542009-10-28T23:40:00.002+05:302009-10-28T23:52:49.506+05:30Excellence in Public Service<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Came across this article from a scolar who taught civil servants and civil service aspirants in public administration. This article serves as a good beginning for those who want to be in public services especially for civil servants or public servants .I have highlighted the important stuff and putting in to your hands. Excellence in public service can be brought when everyone thinks - Yes I can but not when everyone thinks why me?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4iEpzkMwwNUrSFlpGPYj58T4A4uVxVlC9ZQ_RgUyICcPKjQOYv4nfUdd-xjmzGcPVbXEAQ6T9LvFUp_ZMdc_s4Zmx55BanyX6TPT9Tbiuk7fmhlGqjB7gscz0LNbDqMgOX44L14nnzMt/s1600-h/Yes+I+Can+Eng.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4iEpzkMwwNUrSFlpGPYj58T4A4uVxVlC9ZQ_RgUyICcPKjQOYv4nfUdd-xjmzGcPVbXEAQ6T9LvFUp_ZMdc_s4Zmx55BanyX6TPT9Tbiuk7fmhlGqjB7gscz0LNbDqMgOX44L14nnzMt/s320/Yes+I+Can+Eng.jpg" vr="true" /></a><br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(Author - </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Prof. Joseph K. Alexander</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Chairman. IIPA Kerala Regional Branch)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>What is Public Service</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One evening, a cousin and a student of the University College, called in for a chat. During that he mentioned that he joined a student wing of a political party. He continued, “My aim is to be an MLA or MP for at least one term. I will amass enough for the next 3 generations of me.” In real life over the last 20 years, he made himself a political leader of sorts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Man is essentially selfish. He is also inherently religious. God is in him. Man from his birth conceive and develop a god in his mind. It may be a stone, an idol, a bird, an animal, or finally a god in his own image. The evolution of creating god may or may not stop at that.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Man live in society with other men and the flora and fauna of the environment. All idealistic systems: religious, political, social and economic, try to liberate man from his selfishness to godliness in him, to love all others around and to live in such a way as to preserve his environment for the sustenance of the human life and Universe. <span style="background-color: yellow;">The aim of excellence in PS is also the emergence of this ideal society of the greatest happiness of the greatest number and a good quality of life for all. It must provide him the basic minimum needs of life such as shelter, potable water, health, education, decent employment and participatory infrastructure and role in civic life.</span><span style="background-color: yellow;"> Now a days this is hindered by the increase in functions and functionaries of the government, and lack of Will of public servants and politicization of administration and corruption. This corruption is as old as public administration. It is the greatest hindrance to excellence in public service. In quantity-constrained regimes like India corruption has permeated to all sectors and aspects of life of the citizen. Political will to cajole, persuade and compel the administration is the remedy to excellence in public service.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Who renders Public Service?</strong></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One kind of public service is to be a politician. Being a bureaucrat of the government is another kind of public service (PS).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What Mother Theresa, Florence Nightingale or Mahatma Gandhi did is still another type of individual public service. Paulose Mar Gregorios Award 2005 for Creative compassion was presented to Baba Amte at New Delhi. On that occasion A.P.J. Abdul Kalam President of India wrote in his message “ Baba Amte is a living legend and an example of the Gandhian spirit in his approach to solving social problems of our nation”. This is the public service we expect from public men</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Pre-war Era</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We shall confine our discussion to the Government’s public service rendered by politicians and bureaucrats. In the early days when the State was simplistic, its function was limited to preservation of law and order within and protection of the boundaries of the State from foreign invasion. So public service was merely political administration. In the classical age the goal of public service was the greatest good of the greatest number of the citizens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">“Praja sukhe sukham rajyaha praja namcha hitehitam</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">natma priyam hitam rajaha prajanam cha hitam priyam“</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">“ In the happiness of his subject lies the king’s happiness, in their welfare his welfare. He shall not consider as good only that which pleases him but treat as beneficial to him whatever pleases his subjects.” Kautilya’s Arthasasthra</span>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">King Rama went to the other extreme of divorcing Sita to satisfy the rumormongers of the state. The style of functioning of the civil servants then was of impeccable integrity and honesty. Even in pre-independent India the ICS servants of the British Raj was famous for </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">this style of work. Gandhiji also insisted that the public servants should be trustees. They should use the power for the benefit of the people and in a non-exploitative and uncorrupt manner.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Modern Governments of Developed Countries.</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the advent of division of labour and industrialization, wealth and income rose. The State functions evolved out to new areas of provision of public goods like roads, bridges, waterways, and services like education, hospitals, health facilities, transport systems etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The 2nd world war necessitated a large amount of planned movements of men and materials to the war front. Economic planning to win the war or reviving the economy or for greater economic growth became the principal function of the Government. The theoretical underpinning of the Keynesian technique of demand management came handy to revive the economy. Thus application of the Monetary and Fiscal policy techniques became a significant work of public servants.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As marginalisation of the weaker sections was increasing, equity and justice in the dispensation of public service became another equally important phase of PS.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">With the increase in the functions and size of bureaucracy efficiency in PS deteriorated all over the World. Modern governments adopted new corporate management and marketing techniques and some New Public Management (NPM) system to induct efficiency in PS. Better emoluments and business orientation is prescribed for civil servants.WWW.adb.org. The State also tries now to become a facilitator than provider of services.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Developing Countries and corruption.</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In developing countries like India generally resources are far less compared to the teeming millions of people. So these quantity constrained regimes find it difficult to have enough public servants, to cater to the needs of the people. The supply of goods and public services are far less than the people’s demand for them. The costly parliamentary elections add to the worry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Most of the candidates personally and their political party leaders separately collect funds massively. Some of these collections are extortions. Thus corruption and criminalisation became the style of elections and government. Some of these candidates are goondas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Corruption isn’t specific to India. It is all over the World. The lawmakers, their cabinet members and party bosses extort millions. Their civil servants bask on the crumbs that fall from the table to the floor.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Transparency International (TI) is the leading global non-governmental organisation devoted to combating corruption worldwide. WWW.Transparency International It examined corruption in 62 countries in 2004 to mark the UN International Anti-Corruption Day. Its report was published in Berlin on 9th December 2004. The report says, that in India legislatures and private sector business are the worst scoring 4.6 and 4.5 respectively, in the scale 1 to 5; 5 being cent percent corrupt.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>India</strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Political parties 4.6 ;Parliament/ Legislature4.6; Legal system/ Judiciary 4.0;Police 4;Business/ private sector 4.5 ;Tax revenue2.9 ;Customs 3.4 ;Medi3.9a ;Medical services2.7 ;Education system 3.8; Registry and permit services 3.8; Utilities 3.7 ;Military 3.5 ;NGOs 1.9 ;Religious bodies 2.7</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><strong>Controlling corruption.</strong></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Political will is the only remedy for corruption. If that can be mustered, many others can be added to enforce that “WILL” like Judicial activism, insisting on the accountability of the executive and civil services, simplifying the procedures of decision making and implementing them, insisting on transparency etc. In these days of declining standards hoping for such a “WILL” is at least now beyond imagination. It is the political parties and the parliamentarians that perpetrate corruption in developing countries. So what is wanted is a special training or orientation to the politicians. More NGO activity like “Parivartan” of Aravind Khejeriwal is also warranted.</span><br />
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</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-53927856330470456712009-10-27T11:41:00.001+05:302009-10-27T11:43:05.449+05:30Talking with Teeth: Micro-Planning with Community Scorecards<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am posting this article because it gives some important points for answer writing on Local Administration, Democratic Decentralization and Participative Governance. I have highlighted the important stuff please make note of this. Many conventional books do not discuss these topics but you can use in your answers to give a futuristic view and can quote these case studies. It will only help in making your answer slightly different than others. After studying Rural administration from conventional books we should be able to match this article with the theory.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(Source World bank website)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">GMStudyCenter</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Coming together is a process</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Keeping together is progress</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Working together is success</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This message, written on the wall of a public building in Gureghar village in Maharashtra, India, implies the significant changes that have recently taken place. Since 2007, 178 villages including Gureghar have been part of an innovative<span style="background-color: yellow;"> social accountability process that has redefined relationships between citizens, service providers and local government</span>. Building upon two decades of experience with micro-planning, the innovation in this pilot project is that micro-planning has been combined with a community scorecard process to strengthen accountability.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Partnered with the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration and the World Bank, the project was spearheaded by then CEO of the District, S. Kadu-Patil.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">(The primary role of a District CEO is to administer all development project and services, such as health and education services, for the District.) </span>The project team and the CEO invested a lot of effort to build the political will of other decision-makers and service providers. In fact, many of these functionaries were then organized into Task Forces to actually implement the process while a cadre of facilitators underwent intensive 20-day training.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The actual micro-planning and community scorecard process took place over 5 days at the village level and included participatory data generation and analysis through household and village surveys, and focus group discussions with vulnerable groups such as women and youth. They were conducted by village youth themselves with the help of facilitators. This allowed the community to determine local understandings of problems and resources as well as build ownership over the collected information.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Community scorecard exercises were also conducted for education, health and other services. <span style="background-color: yellow;">The “teeth” of the process, the community scorecard process is basically a structured conversation between the frontline service providers and the users of that service to understand and address gaps in service delivery. The users decide on indicators to assess the service delivery and then both the users and the service providers assess delivery against these indicators. Once the scorecards are completed, both groups come together in face-to-face meeting to discuss gaps in the scoring and jointly devise solutions. This prioritizes constructive conversation rather than confrontation but without diffusing the real problems that the community and frontline service providers face. This is where the trained facilitators played a valuable role in making sure the scorecard process was a meaningful conversation between two groups who rarely get to meet in such a space. On the last day of the 5-day process, the community came together to construct a village action plan based on the problems and needs that emerged out of the process.</span> These village action plans were used to inform and guide higher levels of planning. At higher levels, service providers came together to discuss and take joint action on the problems at the village level. This convergence was also a new but important shift. As described by S. Kadu Patil himself, convergence of service providers signifies a shift in the way development itself was viewed: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"The lack of toilets at schools and thus the lack of privacy forces girls to drop out once they reach adolescence. If they drop out, they are more likely to get married at an earlier age and get pregnant. During pregnancy, because she has not been educated, she is not able to take care of her health and after pregnancy, she does not have the awareness to understand how to nourish her baby. The problems of sanitation, education, maternal health and child health are all interconnected. This process takes a holistic view of development at the village level and allows important government agencies to be in dialogue to converge and better serve the poor." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another important component of the process was iteration. The 5-day process was repeated in 6 months intervals after the first cycle to reinforce and monitor progress of service providers as well as the community in following through on village action plans.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Each district in India has an estimated annual budget of US$50 million to provide health, nutrition, drinking water, sanitation, and education to its citizens. Before the pilot project, Satara, although considered a better-developed district in terms of social and economic indices, still fell short in terms of actual service delivery outcomes. After one year of this social accountability project, Satara district has seen significant changes from the district down to the community level. Over this period, 178 villages in the district of Satara have seen a significant reduction in malnourished children, a 16 percent increase in immunized children and unsafe drinking water samples have decreased by approximately 63%. And these are just some of the changes that can be measured. This process has institutionalized spaces for engagement between citizens and government and between citizens and service providers that has led to dialogue and deliberation over local development programs and resources and increased awareness and ownership of village-level problems.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>( There are some terms which needs further elaboration in this article - like </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Citizen Report Cards and Community Score Cards )</b></span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Citizen Report Cards</span></strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> are participatory surveys that provide quantative feedback on user perceptions on the quality, adequacy and efficiency of public services. They go beyond just being a data collection exercise to being an instrument to exact public accountability through the extensive media coverage and civil society advocacy that accompanies the process.</span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Community Score Cards</span></strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> are qualitative monitoring tools that are used for local level monitoring and performance evaluation of services, projects and even government administrative units by the communities themselves. The community score card (CSC) process is a hybrid of the techniques of social audit, community monitoring and citizen report cards. Like the citizen report card, the CSC process is an instrument to exact social and public accountability and responsiveness from service providers. However, by including an interface meeting between service providers and the community that allows for immediate feedback, the process is also a strong instrument for empowerment.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxnuXdpJsJ77c_rn2VH8R2ao9HVwTZILi4B3reJ2A_9vmylWz6yGVix-q34k8SnaqkzSHb2hOpFZfMoxNVv8eVy8koZMhgYkPTym9Ev9nu_himcnTtuzSqI6oSSuRjudeziNxHLGPYN-U7/s1600-h/untitled+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxnuXdpJsJ77c_rn2VH8R2ao9HVwTZILi4B3reJ2A_9vmylWz6yGVix-q34k8SnaqkzSHb2hOpFZfMoxNVv8eVy8koZMhgYkPTym9Ev9nu_himcnTtuzSqI6oSSuRjudeziNxHLGPYN-U7/s640/untitled+copy.jpg" vr="true" /></a><br />
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</span><br />GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-68373979824275920842009-10-23T19:07:00.001+05:302009-10-23T19:07:46.994+05:30IAS Main Answer Writing: Understanding key words & tail words properly<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Got this in one of the website ,worth a reading so here it is at your disposal</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">GMStudyCenter</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the long answer questions (Long answer = 60 Marks & short notes
= 20 Marks), Candidate need to </span><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">read the
question carefully</span></strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and try to understand the real requirement
of question. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First & Most importance thing: </span></span><br />
<span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"></span><strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Focus
on question’s requirement & its Key words</span></strong><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> (tail
words). </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Meaning of Key words (Tail words):</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Explain:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> It is conceptual in nature. You may have to bring
out one concept in a detail. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Elaborate:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> In elaboration the concept or idea is already
given. You have to bring out a series of logic in support of the
statement. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Discuss:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> you have to bring out situations surrounding the
topic. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Analysis:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> it refers to taking various facts of parts or a
given statement into consideration and bringing to light its nature or
structure, you take each part one by one and examine. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Examine:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> It refers to inspecting closely and bringing out
facts i.e. you bring to light various aspects of given statement. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Critically examine:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> it means inspecting closely and
forming or expressing judgment. The latter is of greater relevant here. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Illustrate:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> It refers to explaining or making
clear by giving example. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Why:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> It is asking the logic of certain things. If it is
followed by you, it may solicit your opinion. </span></span><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What:</span></span></strong><span lang="EN"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> The answer
will be factual in nature.</span></span><span lang="EN"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<br />GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-54462322589409137782009-10-21T12:10:00.002+05:302009-10-24T13:12:11.452+05:30How Does mains Application Form looks ?<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends,</span><br />
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hola some one has uploaded mains application form. The beauty of internet is you get everything or should I say almost everything.Please download and view this. <b>Caution:</b>This is only sample to get a feel but not to be followed/copied.</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.ziddu.com/download/6173757/MainsForm2009.zip.html"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sample Application Form - Mains</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(Source : Indian Officer Website )</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span><br />
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-88698580779420166662009-10-18T16:14:00.002+05:302009-10-18T16:15:58.458+05:30Panchayati Raj after 15 Years : Challenges Ahead<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The article below gives an appraisal of Panchayati Raj. Please use it in your answer writing for questions concerned on Local Governance and their performance </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(Source :http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article651.html)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Fifteen years have passed since the landmark 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act was approved in 1992 by the Indian Parliament. Devolution of 29 functions, reservation of 33 per cent seats for women, similar reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population, statutory requirement to hold periodic elections under the supervision of State Election Commissions, transfer of funds to panchayat bodies according to the recommendations of the State Finance Commissions were some of the highlights of the constitutional mandate rightly hailed as a silent revolution. Political leaders called it as ‘the greatest experiment in democracy ever’.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Since then three elections have been held and 2.4 lakh elected panchayat bodies have been in place. Nearly 27 lakh members have been elected throughout the country, 37 per cent of them being women, while 19 per cent and 12 per cent represent Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes respectively. All these figures are truly impressive unmatched by any other country in the world. As Indians we are justified in feeling proud about these achievements. At the same time we should also have an objective view of the ground reality, take note of our inadequacies and failures, and be ready to face the challenges ahead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">The crux of the problem concerning the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) is really the transfer of functions, funds and functionaries without which the panchayats cannot function effectively as the third tier of democratic government.</span> As per the information available in November 2006, only eight States and one Union Territory have transferred all the 29 functions or subjects to the PRIs. Most of these transfers remain on paper without the support of adequate funding and functionaries. Kerala is the only State which has devolved 40 per cent of its Plan outlay to panchayats. The record of setting up the much talked about District Planning Committees is equally disappointing. Only 13 States and four Union Territories have formed such committees and many of them remain on paper without functioning as an effective tool of local planning.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">There has been a significant progress on the front of women’s empowerment, but there are many hurdles in the way of elected women including the age-old male domination leading to cases of proxy roles played by the male members of the family.</span> The Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates are duly elected but face stiff opposition and discrimination from the dominant castes to allow them to fully exercise their rights. The gram sabhas which were to function as a forum of genuine democratic participation, in most cases, do not function in the right spirit. They are often looked upon as a ritual to fulfil the formal requirement. The MLAs and MPs, along with the local bureaucracy, treat the PRIs as a threat to their authority and privilege and do everything in their power to scuttle them.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is a hope for the PRIs to progress further if they meet these challenges with confidence and determination. They will have to work for genuine participation, fight against the opponents of the PRIs, and imbibe the spirit of democratic decentralisation.</span><br />
</div>GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-44384078921396758882009-10-17T14:07:00.008+05:302020-02-22T01:00:55.926+05:30Public Administration Video Lessons from IGNOU<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dear Friends ,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are many pub ad video lessons - by IGNOU professors ( Indira Gandhi National Open University) and are available FREE.Please utilise it fully. Infact thats when the true potential of open education unleashes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana";"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />Click on each topics below to view the lessons - <br />
<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mDo9gt_YvA&feature=related">Ecological Approach to Public Administration</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsKQ1BS14FU&feature=related"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Public Choice Theory</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8hMqV1FGDI"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Public Policy</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHkjNHoY4es"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Civil Society</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPpIb8ZHy8U"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Governance in India</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbQoRNY0vPU"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Development Concepts and Theories</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CxsO8DYus"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Systems and Behavioural Approach Views of Chester Barnard & Herbert Simon</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAMu4fVggqY"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Citizen and Administration</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvxjU1fnVEc"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Introduction to Public Policy Part 1</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqrwNobU7E"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Introduction to Public Policy Part 2</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqV34dFZe6Q"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Public Economics</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5OX6pdKj5A"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Leadership</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEoge6IK_tU"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Communication</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOqTusxNMN8"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Administrative Responsiveness</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHkjNHoY4es"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Civil Society</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xix525xWEzE"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Public Policy Making Major Determinants Part-1</span></a><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyzrnyuQ700"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Role Of Planning Commission</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9CWbzCOhfg"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Socio Psychological Approach</span></a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrIIuKojExs">Understanding Policy Implementation</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0jsvBqHGhs">Indian Budget System - Part 1</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCO6lEpz-nw">Indian Budgeting System-Part 2</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T1E5sZUV88">Training Of Higher Civil Servants</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bo1fnexCY8">Psychological Approach Views Of Abraham Maslo and Federick</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RthT8YskD7Q">Globalisation</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfLN-fpPUJ4">Mitigating Disasters</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRs8H72MYLE">Democracy in Search of Equality</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4syw3_omk8">Role Of Voluntary Organisation</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu3jDF7rwD4&feature=plcp">New Public Administration</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> (One more video link for New public administration <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFzCO5mBYXQ">click here</a> )<br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Regards</span><br /><span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span></span><br />
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GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2902559237708978392.post-31460859856420731262009-10-12T10:14:00.000+05:302009-10-12T10:14:09.748+05:30The men who rule India: towards reforms in IAS<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Dear Friends,</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is one more article on Personnel Administration and administrative reforms. Can be linked to these both topics in upsc syllabus. Highlighted points can be part your notes </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Regards</span><br />
<span style="color: blue; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">GMStudyCenter</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small;">(Source <a href="http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/12001341/The-men-who-rule-India-toward.html?h=B">http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/12001341/The-men-who-rule-India-toward.html?h=B</a>)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Defending the indefensible is an uphill task. Defending the indefensible when popular public perception views it as being indefensible is even harder to do. Philip Mason wrote his class many years ago by the name The Men Who Ruled India about the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and how it shaped India’s destiny. Since then, much water has flowed under the proverbial bridge, and as an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who has travelled, interacted and negotiated with civil services around the world, I can say with a lot of pride that IAS is, even today, despite a number of fundamental flaws, world class in several respects. Sadly, India has one of the finest higher civil services in the world, sitting on top of one of the worst lower civil services, which accounts for many, but not all, of its flaws.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Let’s start with the system of recruitment: About 500,000 candidates write a year-long, multi-stage examination, competing for just 80 seats—half of which are reserved—in IAS, and is considered by many to be one of the most rigorous contests in the world. That’s a success percentage of 0.02% versus about 250,000 candidates appearing for about 6,000 Indian Institutes of Technology seats each year, with a success rate of 2.96%. No other examination in the world has odds the national civil services examination of India has. Yet, while the latter are, justifiably, celebrated, the former, often regarded as the “best among the brightest”, are today the object of scorn and disgust, blamed for the various ills that plague the country. Still, quite a few officers from IAS are wooed at astronomical salaries by the private sector for their talent, relationships, education, and rich and diverse ground-level experience, which should give some idea of their market value.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">People are quick to criticize IAS, but they forget that corporate titans such as the redoubtable Russi Mody, Yogi Deveshwar and many others failed even in autonomous entities such as Air India. Many have fallen prey to the political class, handling whom and keeping them away from the spoils of office is in itself often a full-time vocation for the honest IAS officer. <span style="background-color: yellow;">The classic Westminster model, on which IAS is based, expected that while politicians would debate and legislate policy, civil servants would implement policy. This has over the years been turned on its head, for politicians have found it “profitable” to get into every aspect of execution, while the civil service is left to write policy. With the advent of criminals in politics and the huge role that money plays in elections, bureaucrats prefer masterly inaction to any form of risk-taking.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Reforms in IAS are needed urgently. <span style="background-color: yellow;">First, IAS must not necessarily be a lifetime appointment. The initial appointment should be for a period of, say, 15 years, after which every officer’s performance should be evaluated by a constitutional authority such as the Union Public Service Commission, based on a 360-degree kind of appraisal which is considered superior to traditional forms of assessment. Then, they should be hired on five-seven-year contracts with specific performance targets through a competitive process</span><span style="background-color: yellow;">. The</span><span style="background-color: yellow;"> terms of the contract should incentivize performance with accountability to results, not just to process. Second, there are innumerable examples of deviants in the civil service. There have been recent examples of officers indulging in sexual harassment, shoplifting, copying in examinations and large-scale corruption. The government must not let them off or allow them to take voluntary retirement to escape punishment. It must try them in special courts and demonstrate certainty of punishment, no matter how powerful the officer is. Without demonstrable and quick punishment, there is no way to check deviant behaviour in IAS.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is no gainsaying the fact that the contribution of IAS officers is often extraordinary but overlooked. We often forget that M. Damodaran, who turned the former Unit Trust of India around, and Y.V. Reddy and D. Subbarao, responsible for steering India’s central bank under trying global economic circumstances, are all from IAS. Rentala Chandrasekhar led India’s e-government revolution. T.V. Somanathan designed a world-class blueprint for the Chennai Metro, with minimal fiscal burden on the government. S.R. Rao cleaned up Surat in circumstances where no private sector chief executive would go for any amount of money or incentive. Countless faceless IAS officers work selflessly every day in circumstances which many of us won’t work in.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Except the civil services of Japan, China, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, there is not much to write home about most of them. In these countries, civil servants are invariably masters of their subject matter, courteous and efficient. But then, they don’t report to the kind of political masters IAS does, they don’t deal with the numbers and complexity that India offers, nor are they as poorly paid.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">India cannot have a 21st century economy run by a 19th century civil service using Jurassic era rule books and laws. Unless IAS is reformed where necessary and celebrated where due, good governance will remain just good rhetoric.</span><br />GM Study Centerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00659012945170207370noreply@blogger.com0