Demonetization- should it be put to plebiscite

There are different claims about the support or opposition to the scheme of Govt.of India of demonetization of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 currency notes being implemented by the Government. Opponents talk of the damage to the economy, the GDP lowering by a few percentage points with no success in bringing out black money, in eliminating fake currency notes or in eliminating corruption. And they also talk of untold suffering of the people, with no money to buy essential items of consumption and the loss of lives of several people. They demand withdrawal of the scheme. At the same time while admitting the sufferings of the people, the government asserts that the suffering is only for a short period, but there are long term gains in terms of elimination of black money, fake currency notes and corruption and assert that the scheme will continue. The issue being very important and serious, it should be put to plebiscite and the outcome of the plebiscite should be respected and implemented and no further discussions should take place on the issue.

Rules, procedures and service conditions need amendments

It has become a fashion to blame present day politicians for  everything bad-whether it is crime in the society,fall in moral standards of people, corruption in government,violence, communal clashes etc- and it is not surprising that the country’s  economic underdevelopment or backwardness is also  attributed to the present day politicians. Sometimes, some people attribute to the country’s ills to the bureaucrats also. The general public is portrayed as good. innocent. honest etc . Similarly while government sector is described as corrupt and inefficient, private sector is praised as honest and efficient, One thing which is conveniently forgotten is that politicians and bureaucrats come from the society and if the society is generally good,its politicians and bureaucrats cannot be entirely and completely bad. Again from the same society employees of both public and private sector come. Hence the level of honesty and efficiency cannot be different. However, in private sector chances of demanding money from customers are nil. Similarly, the service terms and conditions in the two sectors make employees behave differently. If rules, office procedures and service conditions are amended suitably, government service can be made to be honest and efficient,

manifesto for Tamilnadu Legislative Assembly elections.

If the party comes to power:

i.there will be no need for Community(Caste) Certificates as there would be no discrimination for or against any caste while extending concessions, benefits etc.

ii. There will be no need for Income Certificates as schemes/benefits to people will not be based on the income

iii.There will be no need for certificates as to Small Farmers, as all farmers will be treated alike

iv.there will be no need for applying for separate patta for land as this will be done automatically by the revenue department on forwaring purchase/sale deed from the office of Sub-Registrar.

v. there will be no need for applying for name change for electricity servce as electricity board will automatically change the name on receipt of copy of sale/purchase deed from the office of Sub-Registrar

vi. There will be no need for ration cards as there will be no ration.. All able bodied people will be provided employment with decent salary. Those unable to do any work will be provided food, clothing, shelter in hostels financed by government.

vii. There will be no need for cooking gas cards, as everyone will be able to buy cooking gas in the open market. Since there is shortage of cooking gas, government itself in the initial stage produce and distribute biogas, solar cookers, solar heaters, etc.

viii.there will be no need for environment clearance, as government will itself prevent pollution on collection of fee from industries just as garbage is collected by local bodies.

ix.there will be no need for applicants for licences/permissions to obtain and forward to the licence/approval issuing authorities No Objection Certificates from various offices like fire department, thasildar’s office. Village Administrative Officer, health department, etc., as these will be obtained directly by licence/approval issuing office.

x. there will be no need for the public to visit any government office personally for any service, as applications can be sent by post or online and the approval/certificat will be sent by post or by email.

xi. there will be no need to go to government office or bank to make any payment to the government as cvomputer centres will make payments electronically after receiving cash/cheque etc from applicants

xii.there will be no corruption, as in most cases, applicants do not meet the officials and the possibilities of officials asking bribe is almost nil.

xiii.There will be no overloading in trains, buses, trucks etc, as additional trains,buses, trucks will be deployed and roads will be wider and thee will be additional rail lines.

xiv. there will be no need for reservation in government jobs for any community as there will be adequate jobs in the public and private sector and the salary level and other facilities in these sectors will be more or less same.

xv.there will be no need for government to extend subsidies to farmers,consumers etc as the prices will be allowed to be determined by market forces. Only in unusual circumstances,the government would interfere.

xvi.there will be no power-cuts as adequate power will be generated from non-conventional sources like sun, wind, waves, biomass, urban waste/garbage etc.

xvii.in all cities, towns and major panchayats, electric trains/buses will be run.

Political parties weakening executive wing of government- India

The hunger for power, the irresistible desire to be in the news etc. make political parties to level allegations against each other of indulging in corruption, inefficiency etc. When the allegations are made, common people without any hesitation tend to believe the same and form an opinion that governments of all parties are corrupt. The news about the accused leaders being acquitted does not go into the heads of the people.The result is that when other wings of the government interfere with the functions of the executive, people accept it and the political parties do not make it an issue. This is not good for democracy.

It is common knowledge,that the Prime Minister of India and the Ministers and bureacrats in 1950s had more powers, more discretion etc than their successors in 1990s , 2000s and 2010s.

It is therefore important that the political parties do not make unfounded allegations against other parties. The then opposition parties made serious allegations of corruption against the then ruling party and now,the latter,who are now in opposition are making serious allegations of corruption etc against the current ruling party leaders. It is time, the political parties deeply deliberate on this issue

Elimination of corruption- Need to change rules, regulations, procedures

Being part of the society, the political and bureaucratic functionaries have the same level of honesty, integrity, efficiency, devotion to duty etc. as the common people of the society. The common person in general is honest only because he/she has no opportunity to be corrupt. When he/she has the opportunity to be corrupt, he will almost definitely extract bribes by any way. The example is the opportunity for the common people to vote, for which bribe is reported to be demanded/accepted. So, if the corruption in government is to be eliminated, the society should first be made honest. But this is not easy.

But corruption cannot be allowed to be continued. The situation of absence of corruption can be achieved only by eliminating apportunities for corruption. For this, there is need to amend the rules and procedures. For example, in all the cases, single window system should be adopted. This means, the applicants for licences, approvals etc. need to apply only to one authority. This authority should seek “no objection certificates” from others wherever necessary. Again the denials/delays in extending services should be explained by the concerned authorities to their seniors and to the applicants or their nominees. All communications between he authorities and the applicants should be through mail/email so that the chances of authorities asking bribe from applicants are eliminated/reduced. Government should also in most cases accerpt affidavits and undertakings from applicants instead of asking for proofs and certificates from various other authorities.

The system of rewarding employees in a routine manner should be replaced with merit system. No employee should be given increments and promotions unless he does good work and is honest. Promotions should not be on the bassis of seniority but on the considerations of merit and honesty.

If the above changes are made in the rules and procedures, corruiption can be eliminated to a large extent.

Parliamentary proceedings and corruption

No political party in India can claim that all its members and leaders are honest. After all the society from which they come from is not honest fully. The general complaint is that many of the voters vote after taking money from political parties. There are honest people but many of them may not remain honest if they get opportunity to be corrupt. In this context, a political party should not accuse other parties of being corrupt. Disrupting parliamentsary proceedings on issues of corruption etc. is therefore unacceptable. A party should not disrupt,just because another party did so earlier. Matters relating to individual ministers should also not take much time of the Parliament as there are much more important matters relating to development on which time should be spent.

Corruption cannot be eliminated by any government without changing the rules and procedures which allow scope for corruption. Asking from applicants for servoces.too many documents and proofs should be minimised. People should in general be trusted unless there is reasons for doubts. Applicants should not be called to offices for seeking clarifications/explanations. The applicants and officers should exchange communications through email, mails etc.

Corruption- elimination of

Corruption at official level can be eliminated if office procedure is modified. If applicants are asked to send applications by post(also by email, fax etc.) and the officials seek additional information etc by correspondence and applicants also supply information etc. by post chances for corruption will be removed. There should be no personal contact between officials and applicants.
If a matter requires “No objection certificates” from other offices, the approval issuing officials should get the same from other offices and the applicants should not be asked to approach different offices. If it is felt that government should not take additional work and appoint additional staff, the services can be charged/charged extra and the additional expenditure can be met from the charges/additional charges for the services.

Eradicating corruption- new approach

Corruption at political and official level can be eliminated even without any new laws and regulations,institutions or authorities, if the existing regulations are strictly followed,the audit is undertaken at more frequent intervals and more thoroughly and a few minor amendments are made to the regulations. The office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India should have more staff to have more frequent and thorough audit. In the 2G spectrum case, as soon as the order was issued in the first case, audit could have called for the files and pointed out the mistakes which they have done later, thereby preventing issue of further orders/orders in other cases.

In the name of facilitating quick decisions, initial examination is done at a fairly high level- at the level of Director/Joint Secretary in the central government and decision is made at secretary/minister level. It would be useful if as in the past all important cases are initially processed at the level of Assistant, and pass through Section Officer. Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Director, Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary and Secretary to the Minister.

There are various checks and balances in place in the Government. It may not be out of place to mention that all orders are issued by officials in the name of the President and the ministers have no power to issue any order. As of now, a Minister or Secretary to the government has no powers to create even a post of Class IV( Peon.) There is a procedure to be followed for this. Clerical and senior posts cannot be filled up without the consent of the Public Service Commission. No Financial sanction can be issued with retrospective effect. Orders with financial implications cannot be issued without the concurrence of the Finance Ministry or its representatives.

In India, constitutional authorities like Judges of the Courts, the Comptrollrr and Auditor General of India, the members of Election Commission of India, members of UPSC etc are known for functioning independent of government. They are not eligible for further offices either under the Government of India or under the Government of any State after retirement.However,they are eligible for appointment as Governors.(Former Comptroller and Auditor General of india, former Chairman of UPSC were Governors). It may perhaps be useful, to consider if it would be constitutional to make these authorities ineligible for appointment as Governors.

Changes in Tunisia in Jan. 2011-How far are welcome?

Following large scale demonstrations over rise in prices of food grains, unemployment, corruption, authoritarian rule etc. President Zine-al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia fled the country to Saudi Arabia with his family and Parliament Speaker Fouad Mebazza has taken over as Interim President. Several countries have welcomed the changes. But how far the change is turned good for Tunisia and the world?

Today, terrorism particularly that based on religious extremism is the most dreaded problem in the world. It appears that former President Ben Ali repressed the human rights/freedom of religious extremists to ensure the human right to profess religion of choice, to religious minorities viz Jews and Christians. He is also reported to have curtailed the freedom of the people by blocking access to visit jihadi blogs /websites. He also is credited to have maintained mosques as places only for prayers and not for propagation of any particular view by the Imams. He is also said to have promoted the women’s rights.

Corruption cannot be condoned on any account. Increase in prices of food grains is a universal phenomenon but efforts should have been made to subsidize food items to see that the people are not affected badly. Unemployment could also have been tackled perhaps, easily by undertaking large developmental and infrastructural projects.
Human rights are good, but it should be of all the people including minorities. Repression is bad, but anti-social elements as also terrorists of all sorts, should be dealt with strongly. Democracy is good but it should be ensured that it is not exploited by anti-social elements and religious extremists to impose their will.

Let us hope that the new regime ensures human rights and freedom of all the people including minorities, tackles religious extremism by dialogue rather than oppression and moves towards increased production of goods and services at a faster rate.

Minimising corruption- discontinuance of subsidies and grants

It appears that if the government stops giving subsidies and grants to the people, corruption can be reduced. To ensure that the people do not suffer in the absence of the existing grants and subsidies, full time jobs could be created for them. In countries like India, it is very easy to create jobs. In countries like Japan, no more roads and railway lines need to be constructed but in India, the present length of these facilities need to be increased by five fold.

In Tamilnadu, people get rice in the ration shops (government distribution shops) at Rs.1 per kilo. In the shops, the minimum price of the rice sold (the quality of course is a little better) is Rs. 20. Every month, a family gets 20 kilograms of rice for Rs. 20 from ration shops. They save Rs.380. If issuing ration cards is delayed by even two months, the family would lose Rs.760. The officials in charge of issuing ration cards may think that when the family saves Rs.380 per month on rice alone (sugar, pulses, kerosene etc are also supplied at ration shops at lower rates), why should the family not pay him Rs.250 for his signature. This is how corruption starts. The family may feel that even after paying Rs.250, they would save substantial amount in getting ration card without much delay and so, may not mind bribing.

The Government provides scholarships to children and the amount is substantial. The Government also provides Television sets, cooking gas and stoves, agricultural land, certain seedlings, electricity for agriculture, house sites, clothes for festivals, marriage grants for girls, meals for pregnant women, expenses for childcare at the time birth, school books, uniforms, mid-day meals and much more all  free of cost. The Government also provides grants and subsidies for certain industries. Depending on the benefit that the grant/subsidy receiver gets, the official concerned may demand and the individual may not mind paying a bribe. Mainly, a few, who do not get any benefit for the service for which bribe is demanded complain.

Few people say that they got government jobs by paying bribes. None of them has any complaint. All of them seem to think that they can earn this money through corruption in a few months.

The other reason for the breeding of corruption is that there is no transparency in handling the issues. None of the employees including the senior most officers of a department or even the senior most officers of the government replies to the correspondence he receive, either by mail or by email. If people think that they can petition to the senior officers and get their due, they would not bribe lower rank officials. If every office is made to render their services to the extent possible, corruption would come down. For example, a person could apply for a ration card by post to the Village Administrative Officer who should be required to forward the same to the revenue officials after verification. The revenue officials should be asked to prepare the ration card and send the same directly to the concerned family, with a copy of the covering letter to the village official for his record.

In India, common people are the ones who breed corruption. They demand money for their votes. They demand several things, free of cost. There was an instance of people in a few places going to the private jewellery shop and demanding them to sell gold at Rs.500 per 8 grams against the prevailing price of Rs.10,000, saying that they heard that government had issued orders for the same.

After independence people have become lazy with the introduction of modern farming methods and modern gadgets in households. The time saved by the use of machineries is not used to do other work. They just rest and this has made them lazy. The governments have taken upon themselves the duties which the parents and other family members are to perform. In return, the government does not get any thing free from the people.

Corruption could be reduced considerably, if the government discontinues the subsidies and grants.