Wednesday, July 18, 2012
തൃശ്ശൂര് സിറ്റി പൊലീസിന് പൊതുചടങ്ങില് വച്ച് 'കൈക്കൂലി'
ജനപ്രതിനിധിയായ മേയര് ഐ.പി. പോളിന്റെ കാര്മ്മികത്വത്തില് പൊലീസ് സേനയുടെ സേവനത്തിന്റെ പേരില് ഉന്നത പൊലീസുദ്യോഗസ്ഥര് ആദരവും പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങളുമേറ്റുവാങ്ങിയതോടെ സ്വര്ണ്ണാഭരണ നിര്മ്മാതാക്കളുടെ വാല്യക്കാരായി പൊലീസിന് മാറാതിരിക്കാനാവുമോ? പൊലീസ് സേവനത്തിന് പ്രത്യുപകാരമായി ഇനി മുതല് സ്വകാര്യസംഘടനകളില് നിന്നും വ്യക്തികളില് നിന്നും കൈക്കൂലിക്ക് പകരമായി പൊതുചടങ്ങില് വച്ച് ആദരവും പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങളും വാങ്ങുന്നത് ശീലമാക്കുവാനുള്ള സാധ്യതയാണ് തൃശ്ശൂര് സിറ്റി പൊലീസ് തുറന്നിട്ടിരിക്കുന്നത്.
നാട്ടിലെ ക്രമസമാധാനപാലകരെന്ന നിലയില് സമൂഹത്തില് ഏറെ പ്രാധാന്യമര്ഹി ക്കുന്നവരാണ് പൊലീസ്. സ്റ്റേറ്റിന്റെ മര്ദ്ദനോപകരണമെന്ന ചീത്തപേരും പൊലീസിന് സ്വന്തം. പൊലീസ് സേനയുടെ സേവനം നാടിനുവേണ്ടിയാണ്. അവര്ക്കു സേവന-വേതന വ്യവസ്ഥകളും പാരിതോഷികങ്ങളും ബഹുമതികളും നല്കുന്നത് സ്റ്റേറ്റ്. എന്നാല് അതില് നിന്നു വ്യത്യസ്തമായി പൊലീസ് ആദരിക്കപ്പെടുന്നു! പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങള് നല്കപ്പെടുന്നു. തൃശ്ശൂര് സിറ്റി പൊലീസിനെ ജ്വല്ലറി മാനുഫാക്ചറേഴ്സ് അസോസിയേഷന് ആദരിച്ചിരിക്കുന്നു! 28 പൊലീസുകാര്ക്ക് ഇവരുടെ തന്നെ വക പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങളും! ജൂലായ് 10 നായിരുന്നു ഈ 'മഹദ്' ചടങ്ങ്.
തൃശ്ശൂര് നഗരത്തിലുണ്ടായ സ്വര്ണ്ണകവര്ച്ചകളെല്ലാം തെളിയിച്ച് സ്വര്ണ്ണാഭരണ നിര്മ്മാതാക്കളുടെ സ്വര്ണ്ണം തിരിച്ചുകിട്ടാന് സഹായിച്ച പൊലീസിന്റെ പ്രവര്ത്തനങ്ങളുടെ പേരിലാണ് പൊലീസ് ആദരിക്കപ്പെട്ടത്. ഇതിനുള്ള പ്രത്യുപകാരവും പ്രതിഫലവുമായിട്ടാണ് പൊലീസിന് പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങള്! എസ്. ഗോപിനാഥ് (ഐ.ജി) മുഖ്യാതിഥിയായ ചടങ്ങില് പൊലീസിനു വേണ്ടി കമ്മീഷണര് പി.വിജയന് അസോസിയേഷന്റെ ഉപഹാരം ഏറ്റു വാങ്ങി.. മേയര് ഐ.പി. പോളാണ് ചടങ്ങ് ഉദ്ഘാടനം ചെയ്തത്. പോലീസുകാര് 'കൈക്കൂലി' ഏറ്റുവാങ്ങിയ പൊതുചടങ്ങില് അദ്ധ്യക്ഷത വഹിച്ച മേയര് ഐ.പി. പോളിനെ എന്ത് പേരുച്ചൊല്ലി വിളിക്കണമെന്നറിയില്ല.
പൊലീസ് സേനയുടെ ചുമതല ജനങ്ങളുടെ ജീവനും സ്വത്തും സംരക്ഷണം നല്കുകയെന്നത് തന്നെയാണ്. ഇതിനായി ഇവര്ക്ക് ശമ്പളവും പാരിതോഷികവും പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങളും സര്ക്കാര് തന്നെ നല്കുന്നുണ്ട്. ഇതിനും പുറമെ ദേശീയ-സംസ്ഥാന ബഹുമതികളും നല്കപ്പെടുന്നു. ഇതൊന്നും പോരാഞ്ഞിട്ടാണ് സ്വര്ണ്ണാഭരണ നിര്മ്മാതാക്കള് വച്ചു നീട്ടിയ പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങള്ക്കും ആദരവുകള്ക്കും പിറകെ പൊലീസ് പാഞ്ഞത്. കൈക്കൂലി വാങ്ങുന്നതിനു സമാനമായല്ലേ പൊലീസ് സ്വര്ണ്ണാഭരണ നിര്മ്മാതാക്കളുടെ കയ്യില് നിന്ന് പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങള് വാങ്ങിയത്. ജനപ്രതിനിധിയായ മേയര് ഐ.പി. പോളിന്റെ കാര്മ്മികത്വത്തില് പൊലീസ് സേനയുടെ സേവനത്തിന്റെ പേരില് ഉന്നത പൊലീസുദ്യോഗസ്ഥര് ആദരവും പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങളുമേറ്റുവാങ്ങിയതോടെ സ്വര്ണ്ണാഭരണ നിര്മ്മാതാക്കളുടെ വാല്യക്കാരായി പൊലീസിന് മാറാതിരിക്കാനാവുമോ? പൊലീസ് സേവനത്തിന് പ്രത്യുപകാരമായി ഇനി മുതല് സ്വകാര്യസംഘടനകളില് നിന്നും വ്യക്തികളില് നിന്നും കൈക്കൂലിക്ക് പകരമായി പൊതുചടങ്ങില് വച്ച് ആദരവും പുരസ്ക്കാരങ്ങളും വാങ്ങുന്നത് ശീലമാക്കുവാനുള്ള സാധ്യതയാണ് തൃശ്ശൂര് സിറ്റി പൊലീസ് തുറന്നിട്ടിരിക്കുന്നത്.
പൊലീസുകാരുടെ കൈക്കൂലി കഥകള് നാട്ടില് പാട്ടാണ്. കൈക്കൂലിയും പാരിതോ ഷികവും ചോദിച്ചും അല്ലാതെയും വാങ്ങുന്ന പൊലീസുകാരുടെ വന് നിര തന്നെയാണ് പൊലീസ് സേനയില്. ക്രിമിനലുകളെ പിടികൂടാന് ചുമതലയേല്പിക്കപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്ന പൊലീസിനുള്ളിലെ ക്രിമിനല് പട്ടിക കണ്ട് ജനം അന്തംവിട്ടിരിക്കുകയാണ്. സാദാ പൊലീസുകാര് മുതല് ഐപിഎസുകാരടക്കമുള്ളവര് ക്രിമിനല് പട്ടികയില്! ഇതോടൊപ്പം തന്നെയാണ് ജ്വല്ലറി മാനുഫാക്ചറേഴ്സ് അസോസിയേഷന് തൃശ്ശൂര് സിറ്റി പൊലീസിന് നല്കിയ ഉപഹാരവും ആദരവും കൂട്ടിവായിക്കേണ്ടത്.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Ministers’ staffs are power brokers?
Telephone/mobile phone has been provided to the ministers' personal staff and the lakhs of rupees have been spending from the public exchequer, which has been maintained by the tax payers’ money, in this account. But the staffs of the ministers do not pick up the calls made by the public. At the same time, they don’t have any reluctance in attending calls of the people to whom they have affinity. They must understand the land phone/mobile phone provided to them is not intended to use for the personal affairs. It is for citing the woes/grievances of the public to the ultimate decision makers /concerned ministers.
Ommen Chandy government has been claiming that they are very keen on transparency in governance. It must be understood that the transparent and speedy governance is an outcome of fruitful public relation/rapport maintained by the administrative machinery including ministers. Since the Chief Minister's office is on web , the out-going and incoming calls of the ministers’ staff are required to be monitored so that the nature of the phone calls/communication can be detected. Since the phone calls are official in nature, the monitoring of the phone calls would not be the breach of privacy of the persons. Staff must understand that the phone provided to them is not for communicating with their factotums.
The Government keeps on saying that they are keen on implementing e-governance. But it doesn’t get translated into action. Each minister has their own e-mail id. However, if any one mails their woes/grievance to the concerned minster/officer, it gets unnoticed or ignored. In other words, sending e-mails is futile. No person can expect any response to her/his e-mail sent to the concerned minister. These sort misdeeds committed by the ministers and their staff are the strong indication of the denial of the accessibility of the people with the government offices. It is the need of the hour to take the stock of the nature of the duties and functions assigned to the staffers of the ministers.
It is known that the main criteria of recruitment of the staff of the ministers are the political affiliation of them. The government employees are running after a berth in ministries. In this direction, they bribe their own union leaders! This state of affairs causes to transforming the each ministry/portfolio into the empire of each political party. The ministers’ staff must not be the power brokers keeping the vested interests/nepotism/favourtism in mind. The People-friendly administrative machinery, cutting across politics, religion, cast, creed, gender etc., with transparency is a catalyst in paving the good governance.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Indian Villages on Web
The users of information technology are almost confined to urban areas. Needless to say this state is being changed. The world has 1.8 billion internet users and India bags the fourth position recording 81 million users. 70 percentage of Indian population are in rural sector where the users of internet have been rising to 24 million from 12.1 million in December 2010. This was disclosed by a recent survey conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI. The survey says that the rising number of Net users in the rural India is due to the growing awareness about the internet and easier access. It must be noticed that the project, Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI), as part of fast-tracking the penetration of internet use, has taken up the task to provide the facility of Public Access Internet Kiosks in rural India.
Another survey reveals that India expects 214 million broad band internet connections by 2014. India’s mobile user base has also recorded an outstanding growth of 45000 percentage from 1 million (1999) to 450 million (2009). Internet access on mobile phone has been an add-on to the total figure of internet users.
There is an endeavor to become part of the same pace of the sea change. Www.panacherynews.com, an online news portal exclusively for Pananchery Grama Panchayath (Thrissur district, the first online village news portal in the world, aims to bring about a robust IT/internet culture at village level. The modules like student’s corner, citizen journalism, agriculture etc are the main attractions of this local news portal in vernacular language.
www.panancherynews.com
Our Grama Panchayath is blessed with the educational institutions including two High Schools, Higher Secondary Schools and CBSE schools. As a dynamic platform to exchange and extend knowledge and information, panancherynews.com would promote the creativity of students by offering a vast space on web where their works will get published. Furthermore, it would be a platform to access the educational information intending to boost up the standard of education. Adapting novel methods of education and training would assist the students in updating their skills and knowledge. We are sure that the panancherynews would be a promising add-on in molding up the creative, potential and vibrant student folk that is determinant to the future of civil society.
The module, citizen journalism, aims to stimulate the power of observation of villagers on their own surroundings and it is totally attributed to the people of our grama panchayath for reporting the news and events and woes in their villages where they live and would make sure that the voice of the villagers would be heard of by the concerned authority. And it would pave an increased bottom-up participation in the governance processes.
This local level online news portal in vernacular language, www.panacherynews.com, is expected to be a strong tool in inculcating the tremendous scope of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Its mission is to transform Pananchery Grama Panchayath into a center of resource, knowledge and information by utilizing and disseminating the optimum scope of ICTs. Our longing is to become part of transforming the rural landscape of Kerala by replicating the local online news portal like panancherynews in vernacular language in every grama panchayths in our state. Such drive would be a robust tool to pave a digital track in integrating the news and events being taken place in every village. And it would also be a direct link to make them (the policy/decision makers) understands the demands and woes of the villagers who comprise 70 percent of the population.
Instrumental to Sarkar
The administrative lethargy and procedural bottlenecks make inordinate delay in citing the issues/demands/woes of the rural people before the ministers and it is quite natural that results in public resentment against the government. A government which is very keen on retains the power in consecutive terms must not allow to raise such inauspicious political situation.
In this information age, the local online news portal like panancherynews in vernacular language would be a catalyst in cementing the constructive and healthy rapport between the government and the rural folk. And it is also a virtuous platform to publicize the governmental programmes/achievements, which will be determinant with regards to bagging votes in the elections. Here the public exchequer could also save the cores of rupees being spent against the publicity focusing governmental achievements.
Please log on to our own news portal www.panancherynews.com for further details
Another survey reveals that India expects 214 million broad band internet connections by 2014. India’s mobile user base has also recorded an outstanding growth of 45000 percentage from 1 million (1999) to 450 million (2009). Internet access on mobile phone has been an add-on to the total figure of internet users.
There is an endeavor to become part of the same pace of the sea change. Www.panacherynews.com, an online news portal exclusively for Pananchery Grama Panchayath (Thrissur district, the first online village news portal in the world, aims to bring about a robust IT/internet culture at village level. The modules like student’s corner, citizen journalism, agriculture etc are the main attractions of this local news portal in vernacular language.
www.panancherynews.com
Our Grama Panchayath is blessed with the educational institutions including two High Schools, Higher Secondary Schools and CBSE schools. As a dynamic platform to exchange and extend knowledge and information, panancherynews.com would promote the creativity of students by offering a vast space on web where their works will get published. Furthermore, it would be a platform to access the educational information intending to boost up the standard of education. Adapting novel methods of education and training would assist the students in updating their skills and knowledge. We are sure that the panancherynews would be a promising add-on in molding up the creative, potential and vibrant student folk that is determinant to the future of civil society.
The module, citizen journalism, aims to stimulate the power of observation of villagers on their own surroundings and it is totally attributed to the people of our grama panchayath for reporting the news and events and woes in their villages where they live and would make sure that the voice of the villagers would be heard of by the concerned authority. And it would pave an increased bottom-up participation in the governance processes.
This local level online news portal in vernacular language, www.panacherynews.com, is expected to be a strong tool in inculcating the tremendous scope of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Its mission is to transform Pananchery Grama Panchayath into a center of resource, knowledge and information by utilizing and disseminating the optimum scope of ICTs. Our longing is to become part of transforming the rural landscape of Kerala by replicating the local online news portal like panancherynews in vernacular language in every grama panchayths in our state. Such drive would be a robust tool to pave a digital track in integrating the news and events being taken place in every village. And it would also be a direct link to make them (the policy/decision makers) understands the demands and woes of the villagers who comprise 70 percent of the population.
Instrumental to Sarkar
The administrative lethargy and procedural bottlenecks make inordinate delay in citing the issues/demands/woes of the rural people before the ministers and it is quite natural that results in public resentment against the government. A government which is very keen on retains the power in consecutive terms must not allow to raise such inauspicious political situation.
In this information age, the local online news portal like panancherynews in vernacular language would be a catalyst in cementing the constructive and healthy rapport between the government and the rural folk. And it is also a virtuous platform to publicize the governmental programmes/achievements, which will be determinant with regards to bagging votes in the elections. Here the public exchequer could also save the cores of rupees being spent against the publicity focusing governmental achievements.
Please log on to our own news portal www.panancherynews.com for further details
Monday, May 23, 2011
A finance minister with obsolete economic perception
After a two and half decade, KM Mani has become the finance minister of Kerala!!!! It is absolutely trivial. What does he know about the Kerala economy that is not at all insulated from globalized and liberalized economic structure?
He may be aware of the concerns of Rubber, pepper, cardamom growers.It is known that their interests always rely on the price fluctuations of such produces in the national and international markets. The current economic arena is not merely confined to the trade and commerce of such produces. It is the high time of abundant international fiancé capital which gets exported and imported by judging the pace of the economies of each country. Indeed, a sea change has occurred in the global economy over the past decades.
Pace of economic developments in each state in India has been highly influenced by the investment of Indian Corporates and inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Attracting investment from various national and international sources has mainly been depending on the tax structure that needs to be reformed by protecting the interest of state as well as investors. And it needs expertise in the current economic theory and practice.
The finance minister, KM Mani, ‘the authoritarian ruler’ of Pala constituency, who represents the age-old economic perception, is not at all seemed to be a vibrant finance minister with robust economic perception befitting the current financial business based on the inflow of finance capital from national and international quarters. It is doubtful that whether the political leaders like KM Mani have any exposure to the nature of the economic trend in progress.
No doubt that Mani is only familiar with his own economic theory, Working Class Theory, based on the concerns of the settlers who have been the inhabitants in the hilly districts of Kerala including Idukki, Wynadu, Palalkad etc. These settlers, who have been very keen to trespass the reserve forest land, are hard workers with regards to developing such land into cultivable land. Such settlers are seemed to be termed as the working class in Mani’s theory. It is fact that they have put their maximum effort in cultivating cash crops in Kerala and, thereby, helped the economy to earn foreign exchange from the export. No doubt, these kind of constructive contributions of the settelers could not be underestimated. Indeed, Mani’s economic insight has necessarily been meddling with the maximum interest of settlers. Could we expect a scientific and dynamic economic measures aiming to transform our state into a new hub of sustainable development from the financial minister with such "insurmountable" limitations?
He may be aware of the concerns of Rubber, pepper, cardamom growers.It is known that their interests always rely on the price fluctuations of such produces in the national and international markets. The current economic arena is not merely confined to the trade and commerce of such produces. It is the high time of abundant international fiancé capital which gets exported and imported by judging the pace of the economies of each country. Indeed, a sea change has occurred in the global economy over the past decades.
Pace of economic developments in each state in India has been highly influenced by the investment of Indian Corporates and inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Attracting investment from various national and international sources has mainly been depending on the tax structure that needs to be reformed by protecting the interest of state as well as investors. And it needs expertise in the current economic theory and practice.
The finance minister, KM Mani, ‘the authoritarian ruler’ of Pala constituency, who represents the age-old economic perception, is not at all seemed to be a vibrant finance minister with robust economic perception befitting the current financial business based on the inflow of finance capital from national and international quarters. It is doubtful that whether the political leaders like KM Mani have any exposure to the nature of the economic trend in progress.
No doubt that Mani is only familiar with his own economic theory, Working Class Theory, based on the concerns of the settlers who have been the inhabitants in the hilly districts of Kerala including Idukki, Wynadu, Palalkad etc. These settlers, who have been very keen to trespass the reserve forest land, are hard workers with regards to developing such land into cultivable land. Such settlers are seemed to be termed as the working class in Mani’s theory. It is fact that they have put their maximum effort in cultivating cash crops in Kerala and, thereby, helped the economy to earn foreign exchange from the export. No doubt, these kind of constructive contributions of the settelers could not be underestimated. Indeed, Mani’s economic insight has necessarily been meddling with the maximum interest of settlers. Could we expect a scientific and dynamic economic measures aiming to transform our state into a new hub of sustainable development from the financial minister with such "insurmountable" limitations?
Friday, May 20, 2011
“Jai,jai,jai MP Vincent MLA”
Ollur MLA MP Vincent’s gigantic billboard erected on the building nearby Thrissur press club is typical example of the nexus between the corporates and politicians. As a disgraceful outcome of such nexuses, A.Raja and Kanimozhi are now in jail. The billboard of MLA, sponsored by SOBHA DEVELOPERS, raises many doubts. It has already been recognized that he can’t be the people's representative but Sobha Developers. He is seemed to be the "Brand Ambassador" of SOBHA DEVELOPERS.
There are genuine reasons to believe that the young Political leaders are the BRAND AMBASSADORS OF THE CORPORATES....Indeed, politics has become as business or income generating source of the so-called vibrant young political leaders!!!!!!!!!!! !!!
There are genuine reasons to believe that the young Political leaders are the BRAND AMBASSADORS OF THE CORPORATES....Indeed, politics has become as business or income generating source of the so-called vibrant young political leaders!!!!!!!!!!! !!!
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Asset Ownership: An Embodiment of Woman Empowerment
The preperations has been on for the next BUDGET. Let us hope the UDF government’s next budget (2014-15) will put optimum effort with regards to keep up the social welfare measures. I would like to invite the attention of the UDF government and the finance minister Shri KM Mani to a tip related to the gender budgeting. As a vibrant social welfare measure, it is really expected that the government would give due importance to the meaningful initiatives to empower women by reducing the stamp duty of property registration.
We have been claiming that we give predominance in gender equality. Needless to say the several measures are being taken in this regard. Promoting Kudumbasree Mission (KM) may be regarded as such a measure. The financial institutions have been providing loans to Self Help Groups (SHGs) in order to start micro enterprises as part of generating sustainable income. Since these loans are almost undersized, it hardly paves way to start and run any enterprise.
KM is also assisting the women to grab some petty works/jobs. It is pity to say that Kudumbahasree units have been turned to be the rag pickers. It is not compensating the income-starved women. Mere meeting both ends should not be interpreted as a channel in making the women economically stable and independent. As part of empowering women in the direction of power politics, it is commendable that the political will has been showed in providing the considerable reservation for the women in local self-government institutions. But it is required to be recognized that the women badly need the concrete economic power together with the political power.
The economic power of women is predominantly based on the ownership of the assets which has not at all been ensured in its real spectrum. It is known the ownership of the assets entangles with the age-old religious and family fabric. Sharing family wealth has been on par with the whims and fancies of the male members of the family and it is nothing but a reflection of the male-dominated society.
During wedding, our women are ‘decorated’ with full of gold ornaments which are accounted as dowry. Once the dowry, though it is illegal, is given as gold or cash, no share of parental property/wealth has been ensured to the woman. After a certain period, the gold/cash received from her parents gets exhausted and then she becomes ‘bankrupt’. This is situation in which the women required to be empowered with the ownership of assets. It is the need of hour to amend the provisions of property tax paving the opportunity to vest the ownership of assets in the hands of women. Stamp duty needs to be reduced as the property gets registered in the name of woman. Offering stamp duty reduction to women, needless to say, would be a channel to put capital asset in the hands of women. As a result, as a property owner, the family status and thereby social status of women will get boosted up.
Modern democracy is now after the concept of civil society that is understood to pay maximum attention to the civil liberties which have been granted or guaranteed to each individual. The rulers /administrators are the sole responsible to making sure the each citizen in the civil society get enjoyed the granted civil liberties. Given the fact, the UDF goverment is expected to be ensured the gender budegting...
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Corruption, RTI and E-governance
It is known that Lokpal Bill (LPB) has been pending before our parliament for a long period. No governments have shown any interest to enact the same because the rulers do not want to be booked for their corrupt practices. The rulers wanted to move freely on their corrupt track. Let us hope that Hazara's drive and subsequent developments will be a catalyst in forcing the Manmohan Singh government to pay attention on adopting LPB with inputs from the civil society. No government can blind towards the belligerent public opinion. We the people of India have to be vigilant against any move to diluting the core of LPB.
Corruption Free Governance as Infrastructure
The modern governments with democratic system are very keen on economic development keeping eye on boosting up Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With this view, the governments have been keen in developing infrastructures like power, road, water, port, railway and allied utilities. Nevertheless the pace of development doesn’t get marked on projection. What goes wrong? The bottlenecks come in the way of development ought to be found out. There are several bottlenecks including lack of political will and sense of direction of rulers, inefficiency of rulers, lethargic administrative apparatus and so on. Here, corruption as a main impediment has been a curse to modern democracy.
Since the corruption free governance is the most powerful catalyst like any other infrastructure that facilitates economic growth, it must be taken into account as a fruitful infrastructure. Unlike any other infrastructural development, making corruption free governance needs a little outlay.
Since corruption has been inundated with democratic form of governments, political executives have to be ideal insulating from corrupt practices. The political executives have pivotal role in revitalizing the administrative mechanism and it should not leave any space to compromise with the working of the bureaucracy which must be recognized as an engine for development and economic growth. In other words while the political executives themselves keep away from corruption, the bureaucracy will be afraid to indulge in corruption. In such a context no chance to surfacing the nexus between political executives and bureaucracy and it eventually will result in good governance which is essential for a sound track of development of country like India. If political executive indulge themselves in corruption they cannot control or lead the bureaucracy and such context will end up in nexus between the political executive and bureaucracy. This state of affairs, needless to say, will drain out the trust of governance and derail the whole development process.
Governance must be transparent and effective in order to ensuring time-bound delivery of service. Transparency in governance is the key factor as far as the growth of a country is concerned. Here the people run from pillar to post to get their services delivered. It is fact that inordinate delay in delivering service always results in bribe. Needy will be forced to give bribe from his/her hard-earned money in order to be got delivered the service in stipulated time. On the other hand; influential person(s)/institution (s) will also be forced to bribe and, however, they are not bothered about the bribe but the speedy execution of their project. This is the situation is made use of extracting bribe. Even though the influential persons/institutions give bribe, it doesn’t mean that they are consonant with the corrupt governance. In fact, there is no other option at all.
Take the case of small-scale/medium scale firms. They may not be well-off to pay bribe for getting their services delivered. In such context they may be forced to give up the proposed project itself. Transparency International’s (TI), which advocates for corruption free governance, survey on corruption says that India is on 85th position out of 180 countries. TI says that the Indians pay bribes Rs. 21,068 cores/year in 11 Public services and truckers pay Rs. 23,000 corers/ year. Another survey commissioned by Hong Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy ranks India as the fourth most corrupt nation in Asia Pacific region. These surveys warn that the governance in India needs to be rebuilt its trust that has already lost.
Whistleblowers Protection Bill
There are reasons to believe that all the public servants are not necessarily regarded as corrupt. Upright public servants are there as whistle blowers, but they get trapped at any time. The colleagues with corrupt track and mafia who avail the favour out of corruption may endanger even the life of such whistle blowers. There are several instances in this regard. Sthyendra Dubey, Kanpur IIT product, senior most engineer of National Highway Authority of India (NAHI), who was assassinated for exposing rampant corruption related to the Golden Quadrilateral Highway Project, a flagship project of the country.
It is no need to search for such malicious incidents in other states of India. Such startling example can be seen here in Kerala itself. General manger of Malabar Cements in Palakkat, Sasidaran, and two of his children were allegedly murdered for raising his voice against the massive corruptions in the company. In this awful context the pending Whistle blowers Protection Bill aiming to protect the upright officials (whistle blowers) is required to be enacted in the wake of the pressure mounted on Lokpal Bill that is expected to be enacted in forthcoming parliamentary session.
Repeal age-old laws
It is right the RTI Act has been a tool in exposing the wrongdoings of administrative system comprising ministers and bureaucracy to certain extent. However it is not strong enough to pinch the corruption from its originating point. Sometimes the senior officers are forced to blind towards the wrongdoings, including corrupt practices, nepotism and favoritism of ministers, because of certain laws which prohibit them to reveal or expose such wrong things. Despite India attained Independence 63 years back, India is even now using those laws, which served the East India Company, like Official Secrets Act, Evidence Act etc. All these laws must be repealed or amended for making the administrative system transparent. It is the time to notice that an outcry demanding to repeal the law of sedition has been come up in the wake of Binayk Sen case.
UNCAC
In the wake of the issue of enacting Lokapal Bill, India should give priority in respect of the ratification of United Nation Convention against Corruption (UNCAC, in which India is already a signatory. The resolution passed by UNCAC urges to all signatories to make legislation suitable to their own state for curbing rampant corruption. The resolution of UNCAC has several robust provisions including to bring back the ill-gotten money deposited in various banks in overseas and to protect the upright public servants. And its provision intending to curb corruption in private sector is also significant one.
E-Governance
It was commendable step that National e-governance Plan (NeGP) was formulated aiming to “make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man.”(www.arc.gov.in/11th report/ARC_11th rep_Ch7.pdf)).
Government of India allocated US$ 4.92 billion in budget allocations in the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) for implementation of e-governance and it proposed the National E-governance Action Plan (2003-2007) to laying the foundation and providing the impetus for long-term growth of e-governance in the country. Every government department is expected to invest 2% of its budget on e-government (http://www.csi-sigegov.org/1/9_409.pdf).
As part of office automation and e-governance process, during late 80s itself, the respective state governments spent a lot of money for purchasing computers and allied hardware. But no governments can claim that all have been utilized as projected. And it must be noted that all those computers and hardware have already become obsolete, incurring the loss of cores of rupees to public exchequer. In other words, the most celebrated e-governance process is yet to be reached to its goal.
Even though India has been outlaid cores of rupees to promoting E-service delivery in every financial year, the rulers lacks robust vision in respect of its proper implementation. There is a proposed Electronic Delivery of Service Bill(ESD Bill 2011) aiming at the effective and speedy implementation of E-governance. It is a fact that the national e-governance plan (NeGP) of India has failed to bring the desired results despite cores of public money wasted upon it. Until the electronic delivery of service gets mandatory, the true effectiveness of E-governance process will be a mirage. And it is unfortunate that there is no such provision in the proposed Bill (http://cjnewsind.blogspot.com/2011/04/draft-electronic-service-delivery-bill.html). However it would be another deliberate attempt made to the ineffectiveness of the Indian parliamentary as well as administrative system.
Take the case of Kerala. Without any hesitation, it can be said Kerala is the pioneer state as regards to implement e-governance process. KELTRON, during its golden days, was authorized to explore the possibility of the computerizing government office as part of accelerating the pace of administrative machinery of Kerala. It is a fact that the speedy governance coping with ICTs leaves no space for administrative lethargy. Having made use of the space for making delay in delivering service, officialdom extracts bribe from the people who approach them for getting the service done. In other words the inordinate delay gets translated into bribe by the bureaucracy.
E-Governance has a solid link with the better working of Right to Information (RTI Act-2005) and is expected to be a strong tool in making the Act more effective. E-Governance has pivotal role in respect of better working of RTI and both RTI and e-governance represent two robust strategies for the tackling of corruption in India.
RTI & E-Governance
When Right to Information (RTI-2005) got introduced, we the people of India expected that it would be a great boon to the working of Indian administrative system, but it is yet to be realized. The administration of RTI hardly shows a promising administrative practice making use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It is a strong indication of that RTI Act is not going to be made effective and transparent as projected. Here, the citizen of India is forced to run from pillar to post, the administrative authorities including office of the RTI commission, for getting the right information. And this state of affairs leaves the citizen hopeless. In this juncture, if anyone is compelled to suspect that a nexus between the administrative machinery of RTI commission and the government machinery has already been developed, he/she could not be blamed. E-governance paves to a paperless government which ensures the speedy, transparent and effective governance. RTI is badly needed to be made fully operational with the appropriate information system using ICTs.
,
Corruption Free Governance as Infrastructure
The modern governments with democratic system are very keen on economic development keeping eye on boosting up Gross Domestic Product (GDP). With this view, the governments have been keen in developing infrastructures like power, road, water, port, railway and allied utilities. Nevertheless the pace of development doesn’t get marked on projection. What goes wrong? The bottlenecks come in the way of development ought to be found out. There are several bottlenecks including lack of political will and sense of direction of rulers, inefficiency of rulers, lethargic administrative apparatus and so on. Here, corruption as a main impediment has been a curse to modern democracy.
Since the corruption free governance is the most powerful catalyst like any other infrastructure that facilitates economic growth, it must be taken into account as a fruitful infrastructure. Unlike any other infrastructural development, making corruption free governance needs a little outlay.
Since corruption has been inundated with democratic form of governments, political executives have to be ideal insulating from corrupt practices. The political executives have pivotal role in revitalizing the administrative mechanism and it should not leave any space to compromise with the working of the bureaucracy which must be recognized as an engine for development and economic growth. In other words while the political executives themselves keep away from corruption, the bureaucracy will be afraid to indulge in corruption. In such a context no chance to surfacing the nexus between political executives and bureaucracy and it eventually will result in good governance which is essential for a sound track of development of country like India. If political executive indulge themselves in corruption they cannot control or lead the bureaucracy and such context will end up in nexus between the political executive and bureaucracy. This state of affairs, needless to say, will drain out the trust of governance and derail the whole development process.
Governance must be transparent and effective in order to ensuring time-bound delivery of service. Transparency in governance is the key factor as far as the growth of a country is concerned. Here the people run from pillar to post to get their services delivered. It is fact that inordinate delay in delivering service always results in bribe. Needy will be forced to give bribe from his/her hard-earned money in order to be got delivered the service in stipulated time. On the other hand; influential person(s)/institution (s) will also be forced to bribe and, however, they are not bothered about the bribe but the speedy execution of their project. This is the situation is made use of extracting bribe. Even though the influential persons/institutions give bribe, it doesn’t mean that they are consonant with the corrupt governance. In fact, there is no other option at all.
Take the case of small-scale/medium scale firms. They may not be well-off to pay bribe for getting their services delivered. In such context they may be forced to give up the proposed project itself. Transparency International’s (TI), which advocates for corruption free governance, survey on corruption says that India is on 85th position out of 180 countries. TI says that the Indians pay bribes Rs. 21,068 cores/year in 11 Public services and truckers pay Rs. 23,000 corers/ year. Another survey commissioned by Hong Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy ranks India as the fourth most corrupt nation in Asia Pacific region. These surveys warn that the governance in India needs to be rebuilt its trust that has already lost.
Whistleblowers Protection Bill
There are reasons to believe that all the public servants are not necessarily regarded as corrupt. Upright public servants are there as whistle blowers, but they get trapped at any time. The colleagues with corrupt track and mafia who avail the favour out of corruption may endanger even the life of such whistle blowers. There are several instances in this regard. Sthyendra Dubey, Kanpur IIT product, senior most engineer of National Highway Authority of India (NAHI), who was assassinated for exposing rampant corruption related to the Golden Quadrilateral Highway Project, a flagship project of the country.
It is no need to search for such malicious incidents in other states of India. Such startling example can be seen here in Kerala itself. General manger of Malabar Cements in Palakkat, Sasidaran, and two of his children were allegedly murdered for raising his voice against the massive corruptions in the company. In this awful context the pending Whistle blowers Protection Bill aiming to protect the upright officials (whistle blowers) is required to be enacted in the wake of the pressure mounted on Lokpal Bill that is expected to be enacted in forthcoming parliamentary session.
Repeal age-old laws
It is right the RTI Act has been a tool in exposing the wrongdoings of administrative system comprising ministers and bureaucracy to certain extent. However it is not strong enough to pinch the corruption from its originating point. Sometimes the senior officers are forced to blind towards the wrongdoings, including corrupt practices, nepotism and favoritism of ministers, because of certain laws which prohibit them to reveal or expose such wrong things. Despite India attained Independence 63 years back, India is even now using those laws, which served the East India Company, like Official Secrets Act, Evidence Act etc. All these laws must be repealed or amended for making the administrative system transparent. It is the time to notice that an outcry demanding to repeal the law of sedition has been come up in the wake of Binayk Sen case.
UNCAC
In the wake of the issue of enacting Lokapal Bill, India should give priority in respect of the ratification of United Nation Convention against Corruption (UNCAC, in which India is already a signatory. The resolution passed by UNCAC urges to all signatories to make legislation suitable to their own state for curbing rampant corruption. The resolution of UNCAC has several robust provisions including to bring back the ill-gotten money deposited in various banks in overseas and to protect the upright public servants. And its provision intending to curb corruption in private sector is also significant one.
E-Governance
It was commendable step that National e-governance Plan (NeGP) was formulated aiming to “make all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets and ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services at affordable costs to realise the basic needs of the common man.”(www.arc.gov.in/11th report/ARC_11th rep_Ch7.pdf)).
Government of India allocated US$ 4.92 billion in budget allocations in the Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07) for implementation of e-governance and it proposed the National E-governance Action Plan (2003-2007) to laying the foundation and providing the impetus for long-term growth of e-governance in the country. Every government department is expected to invest 2% of its budget on e-government (http://www.csi-sigegov.org/1/9_409.pdf).
As part of office automation and e-governance process, during late 80s itself, the respective state governments spent a lot of money for purchasing computers and allied hardware. But no governments can claim that all have been utilized as projected. And it must be noted that all those computers and hardware have already become obsolete, incurring the loss of cores of rupees to public exchequer. In other words, the most celebrated e-governance process is yet to be reached to its goal.
Even though India has been outlaid cores of rupees to promoting E-service delivery in every financial year, the rulers lacks robust vision in respect of its proper implementation. There is a proposed Electronic Delivery of Service Bill(ESD Bill 2011) aiming at the effective and speedy implementation of E-governance. It is a fact that the national e-governance plan (NeGP) of India has failed to bring the desired results despite cores of public money wasted upon it. Until the electronic delivery of service gets mandatory, the true effectiveness of E-governance process will be a mirage. And it is unfortunate that there is no such provision in the proposed Bill (http://cjnewsind.blogspot.com/2011/04/draft-electronic-service-delivery-bill.html). However it would be another deliberate attempt made to the ineffectiveness of the Indian parliamentary as well as administrative system.
Take the case of Kerala. Without any hesitation, it can be said Kerala is the pioneer state as regards to implement e-governance process. KELTRON, during its golden days, was authorized to explore the possibility of the computerizing government office as part of accelerating the pace of administrative machinery of Kerala. It is a fact that the speedy governance coping with ICTs leaves no space for administrative lethargy. Having made use of the space for making delay in delivering service, officialdom extracts bribe from the people who approach them for getting the service done. In other words the inordinate delay gets translated into bribe by the bureaucracy.
E-Governance has a solid link with the better working of Right to Information (RTI Act-2005) and is expected to be a strong tool in making the Act more effective. E-Governance has pivotal role in respect of better working of RTI and both RTI and e-governance represent two robust strategies for the tackling of corruption in India.
RTI & E-Governance
When Right to Information (RTI-2005) got introduced, we the people of India expected that it would be a great boon to the working of Indian administrative system, but it is yet to be realized. The administration of RTI hardly shows a promising administrative practice making use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). It is a strong indication of that RTI Act is not going to be made effective and transparent as projected. Here, the citizen of India is forced to run from pillar to post, the administrative authorities including office of the RTI commission, for getting the right information. And this state of affairs leaves the citizen hopeless. In this juncture, if anyone is compelled to suspect that a nexus between the administrative machinery of RTI commission and the government machinery has already been developed, he/she could not be blamed. E-governance paves to a paperless government which ensures the speedy, transparent and effective governance. RTI is badly needed to be made fully operational with the appropriate information system using ICTs.
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