Dr D R Kapoor
The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has been experiencing paroxysm of ‘tectonic shift’. On one hand there is exigency of socio-cultural and communal harmony and on the other there is a major challenge of development. The administrative environment is being ‘reset’. 63 corrupt Government servants have been shown exit door. State Committee for the implementation of “Digital India Programme” has been constituted. Apex institutions namely, the Public Accountability Commission, State Public service Commission, State Service Selection Board, State Vigilance Commission, J&K Human Rights Commission, and J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations etc., are being strengthened to vouch transparency, accountability, and participation in administration. Nonetheless, the will and capacity of the Government would be on the trial.
It is generally observed that people are not interested in major policy issues. Their basic needs are availability of electricity, drinking water, roads, and food grains. Their requirements are procurement of important documents such as ration card, driving licence, birth or death certificate, land records, state-subject, building permission, licence for registration of small scale unit. They want simplified processes and procedures for clearance of treasury bills, files in civil secretariat, and cases of compassionate appointments, scholarship and pension. One has to run around for days together, and also to face many levels of Government functionaries, with varying requirements of documentary evidences and verifications. To compound the problem, there will be several demands for ‘speed money’ in its varying manifestations for early processing. There are also a privileged few, who by virtue of their position, wealth or proximity to powers that be, are able to get what they want without having to undergo this arduous exercise. Victims are the poor and under privileged. Therefore, image of Government machinery is adversely affected.
Youths of the present generation want transparent and diaphanous system of recruitment. A back-door entry of blue eyed persons through political cliques is common feature. Norms are flouted to accommodate ineligibles. Bizarre it may sound, but it is true that there is no education qualification criterion for Departmental Promotees from feeding services, who are inducted into the much sought after Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS) cadre. Sources in administration while expressing regret over this lacuna said, “even as several of these Departmental Promotees from feeding services were occupying several top slots in the State administration, several of them were undergraduates and few others were not even undergraduates”, adding, “while graduation is the basic qualification for direct recruitment in KAS Cadre, there is no such criterion for officials being inducted from feeding departments. While sources were privy to name these officials, they categorically stated, “several of these officials were inducted due to political patronage and not on the basis of their merit. Posting of these officials at prime positions in the administration over several years has also taken a toll on the working of the administrative machinery” (Daily Excelsior, 9.5.2013). This has given rise to numerous litigations. A lot of money, energy and time got wasted. More recently the Hon’ble High Court has already taken cognizance of this misadventure. This has dampened the faith of the present generation in the Government.
PRESENT SCENARIO:
* Some hard experiences and evidences of mal-governance are worth mentioning. Tracing of file in the office is tedious job and time consuming. File has to pass through horizontal and vertical channels involving at least six spots in the process. The record keeper has to search number of files to locate the file. Question is that one is empowered (bureaucrat) and person at the door is powerless (Client). He can pray and plead but could not raise question. There is no time framework for the disposal of files. Average three to four months are wasted in order to get settled the claims of Pension, State Life Insurance or GP claims. If it is calculated in term of time and money, the claimant is loser. In many cases record is made available only when you pay (mahantana) for the location of file. In some cases, records are not available. Records of J&K PSC (1980) and State Life Insurance (1992) got burnt in fire which put many people in dire plight. During flood in Srinagar, most of the precious records at the first floor of the civil secretariat were destroyed. It is alleged that there is no back up of the records.
* Getting a copy of khata or furd or registration, and mutation of property meant chasing Patwari and bribing them to perform these transactions. In many cases, the same land has been sold to multiple people. The manual system of records keeping has given birth to different kinds of malpractices. It is hard to detect each case in the opaque regime. How it happened? Sale of land is registered by the department of stamp and registration while records are maintained by the Revenue Department (Settlement officer). Registration does not involve checks on whether the seller actually owns the land. This is fraud made easy. There are number of cases where Government and forest land are sold to private persons. J & K Roshani Act has already legalised those fraudulent transactions. 14345 hectares of forest land in J&K has systematically been encroached upon and got all records related to this illegally occupied land erased from the official documents with the connivance of corrupt officers (Bhagat, 2015).
* In Jammu or Srinagar Municipal Corporation, specific procedures are followed namely 1) The BOCA gives permission for construction of residential houses and latter on these are converted into commercial. There are nearly 2000 such conversions in Gandhi Nagar and Trikuta Nagar. Record is not traceable. 2) ‘Master plan’ is replaced by ‘No plan’. A poor man is not allowed to replace the leaking roof which is permissible whereas a big builder is allowed to construct seven storey flats without permission. One cannot trace the records of violations after the lapse of two years. Records of monthly collection of sanitation charges from the public have not been audited so far. There is glaring discrepancy between number of safai karamchari employed and actual working in the field. There are number of middle men in this process. There is no lay-out plan of lanes and drains in the Corporation areas. Every two years lanes and drains are reconstructed. If one asks for records, response is nil.
* There are approximately 400 people visiting the office of the Regional Transport Officer in Jammu. Undoubtedly there is a considerable improvement from the system where manual processing was being done. However, the changes are insufficient to cope the burgeoning demands on the system. Also the backend record room management is hopelessly neglected. It is a Herculean task to get a copy of any old record. Nearly three to four weeks are taken to get the permanent driving licence. Long winding queues are at the various counters. The person would have to stand for hours together. Going through this hazardous exercise, dissatisfied citizens carry back daily tales of inefficiency, rampant corruption, delays, rude behaviour compounded the problem manifold. Reasons are poor infrastructure, complex procedures; slow processing and poor quality of public delivery systems.
* Department of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA&PD) is bereft of good governance. Computerization of records and ration cards has not been streamlined so far. Most of the ration dealers are still maintaining their records manually. There is no timeframe for making supply by the department to ration dealers. Irregular supply and despatch of ration to the dealers has caused much embarrassment to the consumers. Sometimes ration is supplied at the fag end of the month resultant most of the consumers could not get their ration. This provides a escape route to dealer for black marketing of the public ration. What is more painful that there is no quality check of ration supplied by the millers? Quality conscious consumers do not procure ration from the ration depot. However, ration card is used as document for other purposes and their ration quota find way to black market. Ration dealers are adept in maintaining the records. Records of food grain/ration stores are poorly maintained. Bills of freight charges especially in difficult hilly terrain are manipulated. Numbers of officers have been found involved in corruption cases. Ration is sold in open market in Jammu and freight charges fraudulently procured from the hilly areas are defrayed.
* The goal of inclusive growth is to fill the gap between what they have and what they need i.e. basic services (food, drinking water, sanitation, health care, schooling, energy and housing) that ensure a decent standard of living and a moderate sense of security to ‘excluded’ ‘deprived’ or ‘vulnerable’. In fact, due to poor governance not much actually reaches the poor. Access to basic services is either spotty or non-existent. Based on Government surveys only about 20 percent of food subsidies reach people below poverty line. Access, availability, affordability of quality education and health care to the vulnerable section of society are major issues.
(The author is former KAS Officer)
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