Transport Commissioner ( Andhra Pradesh ) Should Stand in the Queue Like an Ordinary Citizen to Obtain a Driving License!
Road Transport Authority seemed to have made a slight yet good makeover. Driver’s Learning License which was once a ritual is now determined by one’s traffic and driving knowledge. In the earlier era, the staff of driving school used to take the signature of a person requiring a license on a prescribed form, and fix an appointment with the transport officer. The practical test was just a ritual. After that, in a week or so, one could get Driving License. It is not so now.
Today, I attended a learner’s driving test. It was not a practical driving test; it was a computer-based one to test an aspirant’s knowledge but not skill. I, who has been driving for the last twenty years, failed in the test! The test examines a person’s knowledge about road signs, and also about what one does in certain critical driving situations.
When I was on a trip to my home village and on the way to railway station, a small truck which came in on reverse gear and hit my car on its bonnet no matter how loudly I cried saying he (one coming in the reverse direction) was wrong ; he was unable to apply brakes. I realized that the driver, probably new to driving, was not adequately familiar with use of gears and brakes. His mistake cost me Rs.20000. This driver must be an employee, and must have been engaged without his driving skills verified. Effective driving tests are a must to avoid loss of this kind to the innocent citizens and their families.
The Road Transport Office was in an utter mess when the server was down and the waiting lines were quite long. They have no alternative. Any Transport Commissioner should visit the transport offices, come like a ordinary citizen and find for himself what happens in the grueling queues. This is what the illustrious TTD Executive Officer, Mr. IYR Krishna Rao did; he stood in line like an ordinary citizen to get to know of the service given to devotees.
Non-responsive and Disconnected Governance : The Choice of Masses?
“We haven’t got Indiramma Houses although we are unquestionably eligible; only the henchmen of the local Congress leaders have scooped up all of them regardless of their eligibility. Same is the case with old age pension benefits or any other welfare schemes launched by the Congress government.” This is the opinion expressed by the public when TV9, a popular Telugu News TV Channel has organized “ Auto Yatra”, which is an oral survey of the common people conducted in April, 2009; it is an attempt to find out the public perceptions about the how the government have performed so far. This corresponds to what some villagers have repeatedly told me: welfare schemes are the monopoly of Congress supporters only. This confirms what Columnist Gurucharan Das comments: though every political party promises more rice, more schools, more hospitals and so on but 80% of the rice will not reach the poor, 25% of teachers will be absent from the schools, and 40% of the doctors will not show up at the primary health centers.
Simply stated, welfare scheme don’t reach the eligible; nobody knows what procedures are followed; it is an easy guess that there is no accountability in the functionaries. Given this, it is quite likely that citizen’s requests or their grievances are considered Cinderella and so they are either pushed under carpet or forgot. As far as my experience goes, there is neither the grievance handling mechanism nor a semblance of interest on the part of the Congress governments to make existing mechanism successful.
Congress governments, if what I see in the A.P. is any indication, have apparently adopted a non-responsive, non-transparent governance as a strategy; by pursuing it, it is possible that only the handpicked beneficiaries are identified and favored; they are expected to form a strong vote bank which the party can fall back on with aplomb for future elections as well; it is also possible that certain government officials are encouraged to favor only the handpicked beneficiaries, for which government functionaries are either suitably rewarded or let off with no accountability or encouraged to be corrupt and low performers. But I don’t ever harbor even the faintest feeling that all this is done frivolously or purposelessly; nor is it the output of the inefficiency of the Congress government. It surely is a well-conceived and carefully pursued strategy, which is corroborated by the facts I recount in following parts of this article. Non-responsive governance systems help the party functionaries amass more wealth and muscle power; such resources can again be used for the next elections. It is needless to say that such corrupt systems have no place for either inputs from the public, or transparent and responsive governance. This can generate money and muscle power to fund the elections, besides loyal employee groups; these resources are assumed to help Congress win the upcoming elections; back to power, the party would ladle the same non-responsive, non-transparent and corrupt governance to generate money, and create or maintain loyal employee groups. This kind of cycle which is expected to repeat over many future elections is apparently made the centerpiece of the strategy of the party in power in A.P.
Before putting any stock in this theory of non-responsive, non-transparent and corrupt governance being pursued as a strategy, let us find out if, by any chance, the chief functionaries of Congress are prepared to create transparent governance systems, and interested in properly handling the grievances of the general public. As a citizen and as a victim of governance systems, I happened to send many representations to many government functionaries including Chief Minister and Vigilance Commission and principal secretaries,and down to mandal revenue officers. No letter is ever acknowledged, leave alone taking of action on them, no matter how many years I, the aggrieved, waited! Andhra Pradesh state deserves the label ‘Action-less (ignored) Papers State. Similarly, Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy cannot be reached on email, which contrasts sharply with the Chandrababu who invites representations and acknowledges them; besides, he adopted a well-conceived method of disposing of them as well. Further, look to see how the Congress party deals with the inputs from the public. Deplorably, even in the votecong website of the local Congress too, there in no provision for feedback or grievances or suggestions. Similarly, the Congress party website, aicc websit does not have a button for recording the opinions of the public. What about the top brass? Are they any different? About four years ago, I happened to write letters to Sonia Gandhi, Sushil Kumar Shinde, and YS Rajasekhar Reddy about the problems I was facing from the government systems; none of my letters was acknowledged, leave alone action taken on them. My experience with the government portal, pgportal website too says that its operational responsiveness is just lackadaisical.
Congress governments typically turn a deaf ear to public grievances and a blind eye to responsive governance. But it shows an assuring hand (their election symbol). By and large, one is left to believe that Congress party does not want inputs from public; nor is it willing to effectively deal with the public grievances.
There is a clear disconnect between the public and the governance in the Congress regime. At the most, it cares for the opinions of the local leaders, their henchmen, who obviously have their own interests, definitely not those of the public in generalwhose opinions might often change; the interests of the local leaders and governance offenders are stealthily safeguarded; this generates money, muscle power and loyal employee groups to ensure success in the future elections. ‘Will this strategy work?’ is question the Congress leaders have to reflect on quite seriously. This may mean doom to the Congress since the voters are increasingly becoming aware of how governments are performing. The voters who voted for Congress last time (26.54% in 2004) may not all prefer Congress again due to subsequent realization of how non-responsive the Congress governments are. The efforts of the local Congress supporters and loyal employee groups, who are just a minority, may fail to bring victory. Congress people may reason that other parties like Telugu Desam too did the same. But Telugu Desam was relatively more transparent and tilted towards better governance.
But, it is unfortunate that the voters don’t want good governance, clean governance and efficiency! I think this is a trade-off for stability and populist schemes. 2009 elections pushed India 10 more years behind!
Why should government make citizens jump through hoops to obtain a certificate?
To get a caste certificate for son, I went to the office of the Mandal Revenue Officer. It is a story that happened in 2002. I portrayed myself to the officer as a cog in the wheel of the government! The officer wore a welcome look and spoke very courteously giving me an impression that for a person of my stature, issue of a certificate is just a walk in the park. He said, “ Send somebody, sir, it would be ready by tomorrow and it would be given to your person”. It was very assuring so I did not have a fleck of doubt about what I had to get.
The next day, I got off work a couple of hours earlier and headed for the caste-certificate issue office. An old man, appearing to be a low-rung employee, stared at me for a few seconds and ignored me. I went straight to the officer I spoke to yesterday. The officer was not there since he was on tour. A clerk who was shuffling papers and files in the officer’s cabin volunteered to advise me that I should come the next day. I was puzzled and disappointed.
To ascertain if my application was receiving the attention of the right person, or, luckily, action was already taken, I went to the relevant clerk to enquire. He dug through the papers and files to find mine, and the answer I was anxious to get came out of his lips, and I was shocked. ‘Your paper did not reach us’. This is the language particular to Indian public offices.
I went home and made another set of applications. I went to the office and searched for the low-rung employee for his help; he said he was observing me since the first time I went to that office. He took the application and told me to come a couple of days later. Dealing with him was not very expensive. He took the responsibility to file the application and get the certificate issued. I went two days later and collected the certificate from the clerk who made it ready. Things have to be got done through the agents!
This is the story of a privileged member of the society who has to pursue or bribe the staff in the public offices! Imagine the situation a poor farmer or crafts person has to encounter in these offices to get a certificate for his son. It is horrendous! He has to make a few overnight stays and bribe many!
Can’t governments spend money on database and its updating? Why should an officer issue a certificate! Certificates can be issued within minutes by the front office manager or a receptionist in a public officer if only the database about the citizens is kept and updated! Which Government Can Do This? I will vote for such political party.
It is i to reach public servants! In this era of information/computer technology and internet, governments like those of Andhra Pradesh should be seamlessly wired/ connected to receive inputs from the public or sort out their problems; still, the people at helm in Andhra Pradesh appear to have the mindset that a member of the public should visit their offices and submit their complaints and queries! How much wastage does such personal visits entail –expenditure, hassles and inconvenience to the visitor, and attention that has to be paid by the officer. To illustrate, one has to spend money on transport, spend time to visit and encounter the hassles of passing through security or elicit cooperation from the unwilling employees.
I visited ‘www.aponline.gov.in’. When I tried to contact the officers on email - for example, those of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation or Vigilance Commission, the email messages either rebounded or remained unacknowledged; most of the email ids given in the portal are either non-extant or dead (long unopened). A citizen cannot reach a government servant; during Chandrababunaidu’s time, email system was good, whereas in current regime, no such focus is seen. No government officer responds to the emails from the public. Earlier, even Chandrababunaidu used to personally respond to the emails, which contrasts sharply with the present situation in which YSR has no such discipline to respond; for one, all the representations to CM of our colleagues who were unfairly discharged from services during Chandrababu’s rule appear to have been pushed under carpet, although five years have elapsed after the first submission of their representations. I am sure you cannot now reach the CM in any manner; he does not have a system to look at the correspondence or meet the public and has no system to monitor what happens to such correspondence or visits.
He does not want us to reach him. He appears to believe that system takes care of what has to be done to the public; but what puzzles me is that he does not know that there is no system. Or, he seemingly assumes that he can figure out our needs himself without our inputs; YSR either has no understanding of concept of good governance; or, such pretence of ignorance benefits him as well as supporters. Same is the mindset of either Sonia Gandhi or Sushil Kumar Shinde! In fact, Congress government appears to thrive on bad governance. ‘Don’t be transparent and don’t let people reach you’ is the lodestar and centerpiece of their strategy! May God Bless This Country!
AP People Cannot Understand Social Justice
Dr. Chiranjeevi held a ‘Social Justice Conference’ yesterday in Rajamundry. The centerpiece of his manifesto or political strategy is social justice and corruption-free government. Do such promises appeal to the plebian people? The people, unfortunately, cannot distinguish slavery from decent living; they cannot distinguish bad governance from a good one; they cannot tell between corruption and rule of law. They don’t mind the way they are treated in a police station or an MRO office. They don’t mind paying bribes, and experience insults in the public offices; they don’t bother if their children are unable to get into public employment; they have no ability to understand that their brethren of lesser gods are either marginalized or disadvantaged. This is the backdrop created, or canvass laid by the successive Congress and Telugu Desam governments. Congress, Chandrababu and Corruption all, belong to the same Caste!
How To Finalize Party Manifesto: A Scientific Method
When the political parties formulate their strategies basing on different agendas/promises, they should take care to identify and finalize the combination of agendas (Portfolio of Promises). This Agenda Portfolio will either make or mar a party’s chances of success greatly. This is something like a product offer; a company identifies carefully the features of their product to be launched: features, material quality, style and design, price and so on. Each product is a unique combination of offers. Is there a statistical or scientific method to find out the best mix of product features or, for that matter, party agenda? Yes. It is ‘Conjoint Analysis’.
After a long, excruciating wait, today, my son and my daughter got their voter identity cards ; they are registered as voters for the first time. They were all eyes to see their voter identity cards. They received but there is not even a single entry which is correct! The entry clerk did not appear to be able to read from the record at least name, not speak of date of birth or address or father’s name! A shining example of sloppy work that happens in any government department! The following entries are wrong: 1. The voter’s name itself is wrong in both English and Telugu entries; there is at least no correspondence between Telugu and English entries; 2. Father’s name is wrong; 3. Address is wrong; and 4. Age is wrong. The following are the details. My daughter’s Card No.YZK0229674 As in the card (wrong entry) What it should be as per record (correct entry) Name M.Nirupam Mrunalini M.Nirupama Mrinalini Age 1985 1986 Father’s Name Appalayya Appa Laiah Address Saktisainagar KL Nagar Community Hall
My son’s Card No.YZK0229708 As in the card What it should be as per record Name MVIR Venkatesh MMVR Venkatesh Age 1988 1987 Father’s Name Appalayya Appa Laiah Address Saktisainagar KL Nagar Community Hall
The obvious reasons for these blunders are: 1. Quality staff was not hired. 2. There was no supervision. 3. There was no planning. 4. The job was done in a rush.
A.P.Government Retrenches PSU Staff To Accommodate Ad-Hoc Deputation Officers: A Handiwork Of Vested Interests (A Story on Chandrababunaidu’s Machiavellian Machinations)
Pandering to the World Bank’s blood thirst (excessive desire for laying off staff) for employees, Chandrababunaidu, the power-hungry, back-stabbing, Machiavellian CM formulated a plan to retrench Government staff.
Although the aim was to retrench unproductive, non-responsive government staff, he guessed that Government employees would not take such reforms kindly; he predicted a strong backlash. To get round this, the only way out for him was to cut the personnel of PSUs who were poorly unionized. The blind, retrenchment-hungry World Bank was shown how the Government cut the government personnel.
Massive retrenchment was launched no matter how unfair, unwarranted and implausible that exercise was. Organizations, as a result, were weakened. Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy also tried to follow suit. But he panicked at the specter of losing his job as it was the case with Chandrababunaidu.
Chandrababunaidu, to be brief, concentrated all his energies on retrenchment; even in the court cases dealing with prejudice, he saw that the retrenchment was not halted under any circumstances no matter how outrageous and cruel it was; he asked the PSUs to engage very expensive Advocates. For instance, in Serifed’s case, a former Advocate General was engaged to argue against the case filed by a handful of employees; as if it was not enough, he instructed the State Advocate General to be present at the time of argument. It was a bizarre, savage-sounding scene that two Advocate Generals were present for a case filed by as few as 6 employees that too on prejudicial grounds; the final output is the discharge of all the employees; the saving grace is that the cases were kept open for final hearing; by now, five years flew off but the discharged employees are still finding it difficult to get the case for final hearing.
Such an overbearing administrator who was out and out for retrenchment took a U-turn now to say that he is not for retrenchment! That is the definition of Machiavellianism and Hypocrisy.
Another angle to the story of Chandrababunaidu’s (government’s) retrenchment carnage is that retrenchment is not done in the departments where there is real need; there are excessive personnel and they have to be laid off; but they are not; moreover, more personnel are selected regularly; take for example, the officers and staff in the Department of Cooperation or Revenue or Sericulture, most of the officers of these departments are on deputation to other departments and PSUs, which means that in their own departments they have no permanent jobs/posts. We call them deputationists. They remain government servants just for the reason that they occupy temporary jobs in PSUs or other departments; no need to say that they have to be retrenched. Further worse, new posts are created and selections made just based on these ad-hoc posts to be filled by personnel on deputation.
An important harm the officers (working in host organizations on deputation) are doing to their host organization is that because of them, PSUs are run on ad hoc basis, which is a measure of a disastrous lack of professionalism. Besides, the native employees (the employees of the host department) are demoralized for lack of promotions and the utter disregard for professionalism. The governments are stupid enough not to notice this trend. Probably, vested interests have their way! The staff of the PSUs is bearing cross and sadly retrenched when government staff has to be laid off just because government is run by vested interests! In nutshell, posts are created and protected where there is no need and PSUs which require people are deprived of their hands!
Strangely, this Chandrababu is today ranting and raving that people are affected by the rule of DR.Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy because of the rampant corruption, and so YSR be dethroned. But Chandrababunaid should realize that we were more seriously affected by his retrenchment practices than the corruption of YSR’s Regime. If he says that he will not retrench Government staff, who will believe such promises particularly from a person who very brutally retrenched the staff and who stabbed in the back of his own father-in-law who gave power.
Congress may go out of voters’ favor in the next elections for the reasons of corruption and bad governance.
Congress has no idea or concept of good governance. Their leaders’ minds are devoid of the faculty for such initiatives. Due to this there are no proper governance systems; so it takes money and influence to get anything from government offices. Congress did nothing on this count. Nobody responds to your requests made to any government office. There are no well-maintained websites and interactive systems to lend ear to the public grievances. I wonder if this is their ( Congress) chosen route to corruption. Chandrababu scores better on this count. Congress will be viewed as an institution strongly in favor of neglected governance. Though populist schemes lure the poor, the latter have problem in accessing the former unmistakably due to the rickety governance systems. The initial letter C in Congress may evoke the pictures of Corruption for the public.
(Chandrababu who has C as his initial letter in his name is already known to be corrupt too, due to his undue haste in pandering to the wishes of World Bank; he wanted to please the World Bank by downsizing public sector, and neglecting the traditional industries. This jinxed him. However, people don’t believe him since he now takes U-turn on most of what he first opposed)
Raju is indeed valiant, brave and really royal. He didn’t run away like that Krishi Bank fellow. He admitted to his follies, though belatedly. Real estate downturn may have wreaked havoc on his audacious plan or else he will have continued to be a hero. There is also a possibility that he spent more on bribing the government functionaries which he may have wanted to set off with the appreciated value in real estate. Still I consider him a hero for a good number of reasons.
He has established a company which ranked fourth in the Indian software industry. Through that, he provided employment to more than 50000 persons. He put Hyderabad on the software map.
The most important is the one related to the poor. In eight minutes, a sick person can get transfer from his home to any hospital of his choice just because of the concept advanced by Sri Rama Linga Raju, 108 Emergency Service. It would not have existed without this humble idea of Rama Linga Raju. It is a wonderful service no Nobel prize winner could ever think of. If Government did it, it would have reached the service level of any squlid sarkari davakhana, a home of filth, delay and corruption. Thank you, Rama Linga Raju, the posterity can never forget your service through 108. Your bungling of Rs.7000 crores is nothing before what you did to the poor and vulnerable. In fact, I would not have minded if you did an error of 17000 crores.
Sorry, Investors, I am sympathetic to Ramalinga Raju for what he did to this country. But all said and done, I cannot help staying with you for the misfortune brought about by Satyam debacle; plan your future investments better and make allowance for such risks.
The law will punish Raju but it does not serve any purpose for you in respect of what you invested in Satyam Computers.
