Dilip-da: Is it not natural that this should be so? In a country where the political and administrative culture has been based on a process of increasing functional centralization, why would the children of lesser gods not emulate the children of higher gods? It would run against every incentive the system has propagated. Is there any nation in the world whose upper political structure is so crazily centralized - that even smallest territorial units serve under small czars appointed as "civil servants" by the central government - and yet have decentralization at the village/town level?
Santanu. ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Dilip/Dil Deka Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2007 2:30 PM To: ASSAMNET Subject: [Assam] Devolution of Power There are two topics below. They may seem unrelated at first glance. If you read deeper, you will see the relation that it is the government officials who want to hold on to their power and thereby do not empower the citizens who are quite capable of handling some of the functions currently being handled in Dispur or New Delhi. Dilip Deka ==================================================== >From the Sentinel Panchayats on Paper One of the most vital prerequisites of a healthy democracy is the devolution of power right down to the grassroots level. Unless there is empowerment of people down to the lowest level of the administrative set-up, we can have democracy only on paper. What is central to the idea of democracy, therefore, is that there has to be complete decentralization of all subjects except a few vital ones like currency, defence, foreign relations, immigration and so on for democracy to mean anything for the people who ought to be at the centre of things. But even 60 years after Independence, there is a very strong vested interest that insists on not delegating to the panchayats even the powers that were committed to them. This is because a large section of the political executive and the bureaucracy feel that if the State government were to give away to the panchayats even half the powers committed to them, they would be bereft of all power and would cease to matter to the people any more. This is the very opposite mental attitude to the one that believes that the state should wither away if there is good governance. It is also militates against the concept of a good teacher who should have no regrets about becoming redundant after he/she has inspired the student to be an avid learner. Devolution of power to the panchayats also means a considerable loss of income from bribes in the corridors of power. Be that as it may, the Asom Government's reluctance to hand over power to the panchayats constitutes a serious breach of promise. This is particularly significant considering that the Tarun Gogoi government has always been particularly vocal about the devolution of power to the grassroots level. This should be all too evident from the item on Efforts to Revitalize the Rural Infrastructure on page 10 of the Congress manifesto which says (this is a free translation from the Assamese) that according to promises made, the party has established three-tiered panchayat elections and involved the panchayats in the development process and the entire responsibility for development, with 29 subjects, has been given to panchayats. In actual fact, this has not happened because the State government is quite unwilling to part with all the powers to panchayats. Things have come to such a pass that though the government has set up a cabinet sub-committee under Dr Bhumidhar Barman to ensure the devolution of powers to panchayats in respect of these 29 subjects, the committee seems quite unwilling to expedite the devolution of power to panchayats. In other words, the formation of the cabinet sub-committee would seem to be no more than a charade for public consumption. And even though the State government prepared the 'activity mapping' under pressure from the Union Minister for Panchayats and Rural Development, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, there has been virtually no devolution of powers to panchayats so far. The choice for Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi is obviously very clear. He can turn our State into what looks exactly like a banana republic by keeping all political power with his cabinet, or he can opt for a real democracy by sincerely empowering panchayats. No Locals for NE Trade Lately, the Union Government has begun to bend over backwards in promoting trade between India's Northeast and countries like Bangkok. In March this year, DONER Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar led a delegation of businessmen from the Northeast to Thailand. This was reciprocated by the Thai Commerce Minister leading two high-level delegations to India, one to attend the 3rd Northeast Business Summit in New Delhi and another subsequently to the Northeast. It is in the fitness of things, therefore, that a Northeast Investment Week is being planned to begin in Bangkok on October 2, 2007. While all this is very well, what the people of the Northeast would like to know is why entrepreneurs of the Northeast should always be denied the trade already being generated as a result of such exchanges - in the form of air travel, arrangement of accommodation in Bangkok etc. We know for a fact that local travel agents had made a bid for the air travel bookings and for the arrangements for hotel bookings in Bangkok. Those who have travelled abroad extensively with local travel agents handling all their travel arrangements will vouch that they provide as good service as any travel agent in the metropolitan cities of India. The crucial question is: why should the organizers of such meets create a vested interest which is hell-bent on denying all opportunities to local entrepreneurs? How is it going to look for DONER and the Union Government if someone decides to tell the Thai counterparts that entrepreneurs of the Northeast are regarded as such outcasts that even the travel arrangements had to be entrusted to a Kolkata firm? The next question to follow should be: Are you planning to do business with a group of businessmen who are considered by their own government as being quite incompetent even to make the travel arrangements for this trip? The answers should be very edifying indeed.
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