Ministers ‘skip’ development council meet

The meeting of the State Development Council (SDC) held in Thycaud, Thiruvananthapuram on Friday to discuss developmental schemes, proved to be a non-starter.

While chief minister Oommen Chandy arrived to chair the meeting at 10 am, only three ministers, P. K. Kunhalikutty, Adoor Prakash, K.C. Joseph and a handful of local self-government employees, cared to arrive on time.
It was only a few minutes later that local employees began trickling in followed by ministers V.S. Sivakumar, Manjalamkuzhi Ali, Aryadan Muhammed and Dr M.K. Muneer, prompting a clearly exasperated CM to as, “What is the purpose of holding such a meeting if no one is interested in attending it?
The main podium where Mr Chandy and the council of ministers sat had many empty chairs between Planning Board vice-chairman, K.M. Chandra-sekharan who sat at one end and chief secretary K. Jaya-kumar who sat at the other.

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Of the 14 issues on the agenda, three were regarding garbage disposal, a huge problem for the Thiru-vananthapuram corporation. But the mayor did not even bother to attend the SDC meeting claiming he had other commitments.
“I deputed welfare committee chairman, Palayam Rajan to attend it instead,” Mayor Chandrika said, when contacted. The only mayor present was Kochi mayor Tony Chammany.
When DC contacted the missing ministers, they came up with one or the other excuse for staying away from the meeting.
If finance minister, K.M. Mani and water resources minister, P.J. Joseph were busy with their party steering meeting in Kottayam to announce the Rajya Sabha candidate, excise minister, K. Babu and minister for welfare of scheduled tribes, P. K. Jayalakshmi were in Kasargode to attend the ‘sneha sandesha yathra’ of KPCC president, Ramesh Chennithala.
Other ministers who weren’t present at the meet include C.N. Balakrishnan, K.P. Mohanan, P.K. Abdu Rabb, Shibu Baby John and Thiruvanchoor Radha-krishnan.
Although K.B. Ganesh Kumar and V.S. Achuthanandan were in the capital, they didn’t attend the meet. The poor attendance was despite the SDC meeting being called almost a month in advance.

Engineering cadre yet to fall in place

S. Anil Radhakrishnan

The Engineering Cadre created for the Local Self-Government Department (LSGD) in the State five years ago as part of transferring certain functions and responsibilities from various departments to the local self-government institutions in the wake of decentralisation of powers is yet to fall in place.

Reluctance of the Public Works Department personnel and meagre promotional avenues in the LSGD are cited as the main reasons for the delay in setting up a full-fledged engineering cadre.

The decision to deploy staff to the LSGD was taken to cope up with the increased functional responsibilities transferred under the Kerala Panchayat Act and the Kerala Municipality Act of 1994.

In 2008, the government had abolished 1,415 surplus posts of engineering and ministerial staff from the sanctioned strength of the Public Works Department and shifted them to the LSGD. Among the 564 ministerial staff, there were one administrative assistant, 14 divisional accountants, 18 junior superintendents, 324 clerks, 105 typists, and 102 peons.

The government had fixed November 1, 2010 as the cut-off date for reckoning the juniority of the personnel to be transferred to the LSGD.

However, the Chief Engineer (Administration) of the PWD informed the government that the number of the junior superintendents was not sufficient for the smooth functioning of the department. The Chief Engineer also suggested exempting the posts of junior superintendents from deployment. The service organisations also demanded exemption for the supervisory posts from deployment citing the reason that the promotion avenues in the LSGD are meagre. The government has now exempted the 15 junior superintendents from deploying to the LSGD. President of the Grama Panchayat Association P.T. Mathews said the creation of the engineering cadre and making available the services of an assistant engineer and two overseers in each panchayat would benefit the panchayats.

The government has now decided to create 529 posts in the engineering cadre for the LSGD. These include the posts of 65 Assistant Executive Engineers, 203 AEs, 50 Grade I Overseers, 26 Grade II Overseers, and 185 Grade III Overseers.

Trifurcation hits coordination

 N.J. Nair 

Trifurcation of the Local Administration Department by the UDF government, it seems, has taken a toll on the coordinated functioning of the rural and urban local governments and defeated the concept of evolving integrated district Plans for the overall development of the State.

The State being an urban-rural continuum, both the urban and rural local governments are facing similar challenges on a variety of issues such as refuse management and sanitation.

A coordinated functioning could have helped to work out easy and viable options to such serious issues.

Execution of welfare schemes as well as the flagship Centrally sponsored schemes could have been more effective under a single entity. Grama panchayats are the implementing agency of all major Centrally sponsored schemes such as the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), and the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY).

Under the present dispensation, Panchayats and Rural Development have been placed under two Ministers and this division is said to have a debilitating impact on the execution of such schemes.

The fund absorption rate of the MGNREGS during the previous financial year has been pegged at 44 per cent.

Official sources toldThe Hinduhere that the Central government funds transferred to the Rural Development Department had not been effectively utilised for want of executing officers and a clear action plan.

The role of elected members and grama sabhas had been reduced to that of agents for identifying beneficiaries for such schemes.

On devolving powers and funds to the civic bodies, it was specified that grama sabhas should not be made a forum for identifying beneficiaries and doling out Plan funds to individual beneficiaries.

Grama sabhas

Grama sabhas should have a constructive role in the implementation and monitoring of all projects. The new system has in effect led to a reversal of its role and defeated the concept of decentralisation of powers. At most of the places, the grama sabhas had not been convened at all.

Local governments had a crucial role in coordinating the housing schemes of the Central and State governments for the marginalised sections in urban and rural areas. Since the IAY component was found to be inadequate for constructing a house, civic bodies had identified the beneficiaries in their locale, prepared an integrated list and contributed their mite for constructing houses. Such initiatives had virtually become a thing of the past, the sources said.

The trifurcation exercise had gone against the Union government's initiative to amend the Constitution for heralding a series of reforms, including formation of district councils, for strengthening the decentralisation process.

The sixth report of the second Administrative Reforms Commission headed by Veerappa Moily had pointed out that “considering the rapid urbanisation and the increasing need for peri-urban areas to be taken into account in city planning and development, there must be greater convergence between rural and urban governments”.

The report says that the institutional arrangement under which panchayats cater to the rural areas and the municipalities to the urban areas will work only at the micro level and when it comes to the district level, the distinction disappears.

UDF pushing back Panchayat Raj system in state

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UDF is pushing back the Panchayat Raj system in the state, opined Dr George Mathew, Chairman of the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. He was delivering the keynote address at a symposium ‘Power to the People; Panchayati Raj Today’ organised by the P Viswambharan Foundation here on Saturday.

Pointing to the trifurcation of the portfolio of the local self-government and rural development, Dr George Mathew said the move derailed the local government system in the state, which was a model for the world. He termed the move as an anti-people step and asked why there was no public protest or mass movement against it. “Congress leader and former Union Minister of Panchayat Raj Mani Shankar Aiyar told me that the trifurcation of the Local Self-Government portfolio in the state was a retrograde step,” he said.
Another major issue he pointed out against the UDF Government was its laxity in accepting the second part of the Fourth Finance Commission report submitted by economist M A Oommen. “The government accepted the first part which was about the devolution package for Local Self-Government institutions. The government is yet to approve the second report submitted in March. The report is about devolution of asset management and fiscal responsibilities to local governments, which would strengthen the local bodies,” he said.
Passing of the Kerala Industrial Single Window Clearance Boards and Industrial Township Area Development Act was against the 73rd amendment which calls for repealing Acts . He specifically pointed out the case of Aranmula Airport, where 500 acres of land, including acres of paddy fields, were acquired through the Act. “What role are the local self-governments playing against the move?” he asked. While MPs and MLAs were getting crores as funds, people’s representatives in local bodies were starving for funds, he said.

Local bodies facing re-bureaucratisation

C. Gouridasan Nair

Democratic decentralisation in the State was fundamentally premised on freeing local self-government institutions from the grip of bureaucratic rule and giving governance capabilities of the grassroots full play.

As decentralised planning and governance completes one-and-a-half decades, the local self-government institutions appear to be faced with the threat of re-bureaucratisation with the government on the verge of doing away with the Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs).

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said so and his statement has been echoed by Rural Development Minister K.C. Joseph and, according to sources in government, work is in full swing at the Secretariat to go in for a formal decision to dispense with the TAGs on the plea that they infringe on the powers of the political leadership of the local bodies.

A decision on the issue, the sources say, is likely to be taken by the State Cabinet at its weekly meeting on Wednesday.

Those who are vociferous in their demand for abolition of the TAGs, which are essentially mechanisms for vetting projects prepared by the local government bureaucracy, appear to have forgotten that it was created by the United Democratic Front (UDF) government, when A.K. Antony was Chief Minister, to replace the much-maligned expert committees, which were seen to be acting as entities superior to the local governments.

The expert committees themselves were evolved forms of Voluntary Technical Corps (VTCs) which attracted the services of several prominent persons from different areas of expertise.

Although political pressure resulted in the replacement of VTCs with the expert committees, the concept was borrowed by the Centre when it devised the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and is slated to be integrated into the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).

The TAGs, which essentially are the new, but altered, avatars of the VTCs, are under the District Planning Committees (DPCs). From the beginning it has been made clear that they cannot overturn a local government priority and are supposed to only ensure that the local governments have followed the guidelines while preparing the projects.

Although the TAGs have the weakness that their coordination, done by officials, is weak and are dependent mostly on voluntary work of non-official members, they de-bureaucratised the vetting system, especially in the matter of granting technical sanctions. The TAGs have also been successful in ensuring orderliness in the vetting process, based as they are on well laid-out formats and procedures.

It goes to the credit of the TAGs that, despite the criticism from political leadership, they have functioned without giving rise to any complaint of corruption or partisanship, even on the question of technical sanctions. Although the TAGs are sought to be abolished in the name of giving greater authority to the local government-level political leadership, the fear of those who think that the TAGs must stay is that once they are dispensed with, the projects drawn up by the local government bureaucracy will get to be vetted by higher level bureaucrats, which cannot but result in re-bureaucratisation and, worse, corruption.

If that happens, the would only result in the entire project formulation and approval process slipping out the hands of the local government leaderships, the exact opposite of what the dissolution of the TAGs seeks to achieve. There is no sign that the government has so far looked at the possibility of reforming the TAGs. In sharp contrast to the practice of the last LDF government, no major exercise to take a close look at the decentralisation process and its attendant processes has taken place so far. This applies to the TAGs as well.

Call to strengthen decentralisation

N.J. Nair

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The decentralised governance and planning exercise of Kerala, which has emerged as a model worth emulating for the rest of the nation, needs to be further galvanised and made more responsive and accountable, says economist and Fourth State Finance Commission chairman M.A. Oommen.

Mr. Oommen toldThe Hinduhere on Sunday that the Panchayat Day celebrations should be an occasion for serious introspection over the way the movement had evolved during the past 15 years. Devolution of powers and funds had helped the local governments to gain their own identity and become the fulcrum of grassroots development.

Still, one cannot overlook the fact that it had failed to make serious interventions in the productive sector such as agriculture and not yet worked out viable options for solid, liquid, and medical waste management, which is the prime responsibility of local bodies. This points to the absence of a vision statement and also the disquieting fact that adhocism continued to rule the roost, he said.

Success stories continued to stand as rare exceptions and had not yet become the central tendency. Kudumbasree, as an institution for women empowerment, had recorded exemplary gains. The mission had made remarkable strides in lease land farming and developing micro enterprises. The minor ills such as bureaucratisation and politicisation attempts may be questioned, but Kudumbasree held a great promise for the State, he said.

Mr. Oommen said grama sabha, the kingpin of local democracy, had by and large failed to deliver. Still, the astounding success registered by grama panchayats such as Adatt, Akatthethara, Kanjikuzhy, Kunnathukal, and others in the conduct of grama sabhas and planning were really inspiring. The Grameena Patana Kendram functioning under the Karakulam grama panchayat was one such laudable experiment.

He said preparation of Plan projects and their execution had been mostly reduced to a routine ritualistic exercise. The financial management system called for a thorough revamping. Asset creation with a proper asset registry for road and non-road assets was imperative. New accounting practices had to be put into practice. The accounting system in panchayats was still in a rudimentary stage. Be it the Plan grant, own resource or the funds apportioned for the Centrally-sponsored schemes, every rupee given to panchayats should be accounted, he said.

Mr. Oommen said bunching of expenditure at the fag end of the financial year should not be entertained. Budget should be the instrument of financial control. The government had approved the State Finance Commission recommendation that 60 per cent of the funds should be expended by October in every financial year and shortfalls should be penalised by future cuts. This recommendation should be implemented in its true spirit. Local governments should thus develop as an epitome of the State government, he said.

Mr. Oommen said efficient and committed leadership was the key to development.

Vilappil panchayat seeks closure of garbage plant

Staff Reporter

The State government's efforts to resolve the issue surrounding the Vilappilsala solid-waste treatment plant got further hampered on Thursday after the Vilappil panchayat decided to stick to its stand that clay and machinery will not be allowed into the plant until an assurance on permanent closure of the plant was given.

Following the recent Supreme Court directive to reopen the plant, Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali had requested Vilappil panchayat representatives to facilitate transportation of clay and machinery to the plant in order to complete the work on a leachate treatment unit and sanitary landfill inside the plant.

However, an all-party meeting held at Vilappil panchayat on Thursday decided not to comply with the State government's request until the government made a final decision to shut down the plant.

“We want the government to stick to the assurance given to us by Chief Minister Ommen Chandy on December 21, 2011, regarding the permanent closure of the plant. Until then we cannot allow anything from the city, be it garbage, clay, or machinery, to enter the plant,” Vilappil panchayat president S. Shobhana Kumari said, talking to reporters after the meeting.

She said that even though the panchayat wanted the City Corporation and State government to immediately dispose of the accumulated garbage inside the treatment plant, construction work on the leachate treatment unit and sanitary landfill could be resumed only after the decision to close down the plant was finalised by the government. “The panchayat will also ask the State government to take over the Vilappilsala plant from the Corporation,” she said.

Asked what the panchayat would do if the government used force to reopen the plant as per the court directive, she said the panchayat would only stand by people.

Earlier, addressing the all-party delegation, Ms Shobhana Kumari said the Vilappilsala Janakeeya Samithi, which was spearheading the public agitation against the plant, was trying to cast a slur on the panchayat following the unfavourable directive from the Supreme Court.

“They are propagating lies among people and blaming us for going to the Supreme Court. But the panchayat never took any decision unilaterally. We had convened a similar all-party meeting before the filing of petition at the Supreme Court,” she said.

Brief altercation

Panchayat vice-president Vinod Raj, panchayat secretary S. Aravindakshan, standing committee chairpersons, and local leaders of various political parties participated in the meeting. The meeting briefly witnessed a heated exchange of words between the ruling UDF and the opposition BJP members after the latter accused that the panchayat was unable to convince the government regarding the plight of Vilappilsala residents.

Ms. Shobhana Kumari, however, said the final decision to demand a permanent closure of the plant was taken unanimously.

“On Friday we will communicate our decision to the Urban Affairs Minister,” Ms. Shobhana Kumari said.

No three-member ombudsman now

N.J. Nair

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The State government, in view of the financial implications, has deferred a decision on the Fourth State Finance Commission's recommendation that a three-member ombudsman for local bodies be formed and an exclusive investigation wing be set up for it. Currently, there is only one Ombudsman.

The commission, headed by M.A. Oommen, economist, in its second report, has recommended that the office of the Ombudsman be expanded by appointing a serving or retired High Court judge, a retired or serving government secretary, and an eminent public person, considering the steep increase in the number of cases being filed at the office.

A joint selection process by the government and the Leader of the Opposition has been proposed to ensure the credibility of the office. It has been suggested that the special investigation team be formed with police and civilian officers.

The government's action-taken report on the Finance Commission recommendations suggested that a decision on these proposals has been deferred and the Local Self-Government Department has been directed to examine them in consultation with the Finance Department.

Chief executive

The commission's recommendation for appointing a chief executive in every grama panchayat has been rejected. The chief executive's post has been proposed to be above the secretary's rank, with a projected annual expenditure from the new post being Rs.40 crore. Though it is expected to have efficiency gains, the proposal has been rejected considering the financial implications. It has been proposed to upgrade the panchayat secretary's post by fixing MBA or equivalent managerial qualifications and appointing competent officers. Once the serving secretaries retire, a fixed number of posts will be filled through direct recruitment.

The proposal for forming an independent audit commission for civic bodies has been put off for a thorough scrutiny. This proposal has been mooted considering the functional autonomy granted to the civic bodies. The Local Fund Audit Department has been proposed to function as the nucleus of the commission. The government has directed the Finance Department to examine the proposal in consultation with Local Self-Government Department.

To address the revenue loss of civic bodies, the commission has suggested raising the profession tax ceiling to Rs.10,000 with a permission for a 50 per cent increase every five years. A decision on this has been put off since the rates suggested appeared to be high. The department has been directed to reach a conclusion with an intimation to the Finance Department.

A decision on the recommendation for adapting the public participation law, a reform mandated by the Centre under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewable Mission, as relevant to the State and incorporating it in the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and the Kerala Municipality Act has been put off for a feasibility study, the report says.

Change in norms on use of Plan funds

N.J. Nair

State accepts panel's suggestion; 60% of funds to be used within the third quarter

The government has cleared the fourth State Finance Commission's proposal, mandating 60 per cent expenditure of the Plan funds by the third quarter of every financial year.

Punitive action will be initiated against erring local bodies by cutting up to 50 per cent of the unspent funds from their future allocations.

The fourth State Finance Commission headed by M.A. Oommen had made the suggestion in its second report for ensuring optimum utilisation of funds within the specific timeframe.

The government has approved the commission's recommendations to allow Local Self-government Institutions having own revenue to utilise a share of the revenue surplus for extraordinary items, subjected to an annual ceiling. LSGIs have been directed to fix the ceiling for utilising the surplus revenue at their disposal.

The commission's recommendation to integrate Plan process with budgetary process has been cleared. Thus there will only be one document covering all receipts and expenditure passed by each LSGI by March every year. This will include the annual Plan too. This system calls for a thorough recast of the budget rules with adequate provisions for participatory planning and budgeting.

LSGIs have been directed to strengthen the Women Component Plan and give statutory status to gender budgeting. The proposals for streamlining the functioning of District Planning Committees (DPC) have been accepted on condition that its financial commitment will not be passed to the State exchequer.

The commission's proposal for winding up District Development Committees and making the DPCs the implementing agency of the Plan schemes got approval.

The expenses for strengthening the DPCs are to be met either from the general purpose fund or a corpus to be formed for the purpose.

Under the provisions of the Right to Service Act, a handbook on citizen entitlements will be provided to every household. This will be in addition to public grievance redressal mechanism at the civic body offices.

Act amendment

A proposal for amending the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act and the Kerala Municipality Act has been accepted since it is imperative to revisit and alter them as dictated by the 12 years experience of decentralised planning and governance.

The Acts were found to be weak on issues relating to good governance and public service delivery and remedial measures will be taken by the government.

A proposal for rationalising the provisions relating to elections has been accepted to make the process smooth and efficient.

It has been decided to delimit the civic body divisions once in 20 years and also complete the process at least one year before the general elections are due.

Civic bodies park Plan funds as bank deposits

by N.J. Nair

A large number of civic bodies in the State are understood to have parked substantial sums of the Plan funds as deposits in various institutions for jacking up the fund absorption rate at the fag end of the previous financial year.

Official sources toldThe Hinduhere that the average Plan expenditure rate of Block panchayats stood at 51 per cent and grama panchayats, and district panchayats at 41 per cent and 45 per cent respectively on February 29.

The absorption rate of the urban civic bodies too was almost at the same range during the period. Almost all the civic chiefs and members had complained about the slackness of the Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) in clearing the Plan projects in time and cited delayed clearance as the prime reason for poor fund utilisation.

Time sought

Many of them sought an additional three months to spend the remaining 60 per cent of the total allocation.

But within a month, almost all of them claimed to have recorded about 40 per cent increase in the fund absorption rate and pegged the utilisation levels at 90 per cent.

The delay in restructuring the regional TAGs had been cited as a reason for the delay in clearing projects.

Members' complaint

Elected members had complained that the TAGs were functioning in an erratic manner and were not meeting in a time-bound manner.

There was an argument that such shortcomings were being pointed to do away with the TAGs and revive the system of engineers and bureaucrats clearing projects. Formation of TAGs comprising officials and experts (who offered their services voluntarily) had reportedly made the approval system transparent.

Apprehensions

Transferring the entire process to the bureaucrats citing functional lapses of TAGs would reverse the system that was put in place with the launch of the People's Plan Campaign, sources said.

Civic bodies should be asked to prepare, submit, and execute Plan projects in a time-bound manner, sources said.

The TAGs should be asked to clear projects swiftly, instead of scrapping a system which had been effective in checking many corrupt practices, they added.