Indian Democracy - Redefined. (An attempt to study and find out how to be more efficient, sustainable democratic nation)

India Redefined

Preface

The present political and social developments in India forced me to study about Indian governance. My sincere thanks to Sri. Arvind Kejriwal, for the motivation he has given to know about it. From the beginning I was a patriotic by nature, but it was just in my mind. I had no ways to express it or my intention was not so keen to find a way to really express it. I am sure there are thousands of “me” in our society.

I request each one to start learning what is happening around us. But, to start learning, we all are confused where to begin. I have done the following---

• Downloaded “Panchayath Raj Act” and started reading it (Special thanks to Smt. Smitha Sumod).
• Started discussions with whom ever possible.
• Managed to get a book called “SWARAJ” by Sri. Arvind Kejriwal ( Thanks to AAP Kerala)

After reading these, I could not memorize every thing; still I got a basic idea of how things work out. Then I started to visualize these, and coming out with my own opinions. These opinions may be immature. But, certainly, what ever you find, please come out and have a discussion. I have no intention to find fault with any one’s thought process. I always appreciate and respect that persons are so wise and capable to guide us with their ideologies. Hence, what ever you feel to be refined, I will be glad to do so.

Introduction

As a whole, I liked Mr. AK’s view on Indian democracy. But there are areas where I disagree too. So I have tried to develop a model that is close to Mr. AK’s model and used additional advantages of top down approach too. In these observations primary focus is done on following issues and will be discussed in detail.

1. Need to be more democratic – a general discussion & comparison with present
2. What efficient model we can have for our governance that will guarantee all inclusive growth?
3. How do we address our major concerns, immediately?

Chapter – 1

Need to be more democratic – a general view

India got world’s oldest, largest democratic system. We can be proud of it. But, as any man made system, there should be an efficient mechanism for monitoring its performance and continual effort to improve its features. British ruled India as a colony. Their method of governance was “implementation by gaining power”. What I meant by this statement is so straight forward – they implemented a system, where by Government mechanism achieves power from voted people to rule the people and utilize the resources as per Government’s interest. It ultimately transferred the power to corrupted individuals of Government – including Government Employees and with elected Persons.

As we know, our system is developed based on Britisher’s methods (and similar methods) and ideology. A lot of proud Indians worked hard to frame it out. But after framing this basic structure, we simply failed to do the effective maintenance activities with pure intentions and thoughts. The following depicts the theoretical democracy with its most basic classic pillars.  

 As we notice in the above picture, democracy is strongly supported by the four pillars, evenly distributed to balance. It can be very safe when these for pillars are evenly distributed as per plans. But eventually, over a period of time these pillars dislocated and the democracy started failing. As you can see, now the pillars are not only dislocated, it started to be tied together, as in the following picture.

Our present system is outdated, and I believe, we are almost reached “out of maintenance” stage, purely because of people’s inability to maintain it. But we cannot leave it, as we and coming generations have to sustain here. Hence we all have to work hard to find out a new system that can work long, if we maintain it well. It should be a new system that solves all the problems in current system. We have a long experience of 60 years and we learned a lot. First thing we can use this knowledge, or lessons learnt, to frame out the new one. It also should have a system to learn and rectify its inabilities. If we really don’t look into this serious factor, in due course of time we will be in great difficulty and will struggle a lot to come out.

a) A change in present system.

Democratic system should implement what is needed for the people. People should have complete right to control the system. The following points discussed below clearly indicate that we have no other option than building a new democratic system of governance. As we all know, making a new system is having very high initial costs, but we must dedicate our self to find all the resources to design, develop, test and implement it.

But how do we achieve this in a complex, diversified nation like us? We have a lot of administrative divisions in our present system. We have to identify the suitability of these administrative blocks and we should do necessary modifications in the present system to be more effective and powerful administrative units. The people of these administrative units will come up with local requirements in their day to day life. These requirements, depending up on their nature, should be confirmed and studied by an expert committee, accepted by the people, with in specified time and if found apt should be implemented without delay. These ensure person’s minimum requirements are met on time. We will discus more on this in our new proposed model, in Part 2.

b) People participation

Today people participation in democracy is too little, especially middle class educated. When people stop actively participate in democracy because of various reasons, democracy dies. The more we involve, the more useful outcome we get. By keeping away from the democracy, pointing out finger and crying unattended issues is in vein. The fate of people must be decided by the people. Every Indian should know its importance and should be motivated to contribute. This is the only way to improve the nation, in a democratic country.

Since we are not used to contribute towards democracy, it will be slightly difficult to move to be active in democracy for many of us. But we should identify the fact that this is the minimum contribution that one should do to his motherland. We should have a method to attract more and more for voting. Even I suggest to have some sort of additional privileges/benefits to persons who “vote” or to submit proper reason for not voting before voting and immediately after voting, at least for next few years.

Presently, as I understand, persons are keeping away thinking there is no way to improve and no way to get benefitted. In the present system till certain limit, it is true also. That is why we are forced to have a system change – which is nothing but an improvement in our democracy, after our long experience with the current system.

Even though this is one of the most important reasons, there are many other reasons too. For example, persons live and work far away than their village, may not be able to attend meetings and not even for voting. We can come out with some suggestions to override these issues, in our topic of migration.

c) Lack of a powerful independent auditing team and audit reports to public

India needs an efficient audit team that can directly publish reports for public notification. It will also automatically register cases in courts, in case of major violations (non-conformity). Any citizen can read, understand and question the audit findings in Courts. This auditing is not only required for financial integrity, it also should be there for the efficiency of the entity. The national audit reports of every year should be part of syllabus for law students every year, at some of their semesters/years. We should have a very clear process of creating audit teams, which we will discuss in separate topic.

This Audit team is major component, as it helps the democracy to sustain longer and efficient by facilitating “Automatic Improvement”. It can by default force to have corrective actions through court orders. The court actions may be to recover the loss from the concerned or to warn or similar disciplinary actions, but surely apart from recovering the losses. It also has to be noted here that a lot of self improvement in the functionality can be achieved by internal auditing at various functional level.

d) Lack of an independent investigation team

Similar to audit team, we need a powerful independent investigation team at various levels. They should be well trained and equipped with all advanced facilities for enquiries. These enquiry reports should be given to courts, with out any delay or partiality. We need to find out a mechanism for creating this also, with the help of expert advices.

e) Every one should be “Answerable”

As we know, there are a lot of commissions, subject committees, expert boards, etc… which really kills the resources of India. Most of them are totally irrelevant or they end without any relevant details. That should not be the cases. Each such committee should be answerable to their findings and expenses. Their accounts and efficiency should also be audited. If such bodies found “destructive”, disciplinary actions including compensations should be taken.

f) Luxury on Public Costs

No public fund should be used for excess luxury. The luxury should be bare minimum at all levels. For example all meetings and discussions should utilize public properties, like guest houses instead of 5 star private hotels. Similarly, any public resource utilization should be accounted.

g) Delay in Justice and neglecting in investing on judiciary

We do not have sufficient number of courts. Even if there are some courts, there are not enough staffs available or enough facilities. Courts reforming are inevitable. There is no mechanism to monitor the efficiency of courts. We need to seriously think on this and this is one major reason of failure of democratic India. We need courts to be answerable to people also.

h) Improving Peoples Decision making skills

There should be a method to improve the decision taking capability of the society in a continued manner, (Canvassing programs, seminars, public talks, open discussions etc can be used), without questioning the integrity of people and their right to decide. All political parties, social organizations, libraries, clubs, residence associations and government can actively contribute on this.

Most interesting thing is persons will not care to any of these, if their basic necessities are been neglected. These types of improvement programs can start, only after making them confident that their needs are been met. This will be a back born to our system that persons will be more and more enlighten and will take more matured decisions. It need not be just the subject of governance or administration. It can be fields like agriculture, personal investments & financial management, advanced facilities in sewage management, methods of alternative energy, energy management, advanced transportation facilities, modern education facilities, peoples rights, improving social commitments, taxation, health care, environment protection etc. What I mean is not a very complex study on these subjects, instead to make aware the advantages, complexities, the sort of investment requirements, implementation time etc.

i) Industrial developments & possibilities

India has totally diversified citizen. (Geographical nature, culture, language, religion etc…) Hence it requires very efficient administrative system to cater all nook and corner of India. The developments activities done on a particular area should consider and focus on the requirements and situation of that area. There may be a lot of land that cannot be used for cultivation, but may be used for industries. In this case, we can convince the local people the advantage of getting that industry and how that will be contributing the development of their life. Still if they have concerns on their life, we should find methods to meet their concerns. After getting their consent only the proposed industry should begin. People should have all right to monitor the functioning of industry is fully as per what is approved by them. These types of industrialization, not only benefit the nation as a whole, but also a large number of needy persons in the locality.

Here, when the matter is proposed to the people, expert opinions can be attached. These expert opinions should include issues that common man does not know. For example, the environment impact after 5 or 10 years of functioning, or reduction of resources etc.

This ensures that people will be actively participated in the process of generating an industry (even if it is private) and will be directly benefitted. This also encourages entrepreneurs as there will not be much resistance in the society, after investments.

j) Modern technologies should be directly useful for people and should be used in all levels of administration to improve the efficiency and transparency.

Most interesting thing is we are not even having a full fledged mechanism to know if the person is Indian or not. We have to accelerate providing a single unique identity to each individual. All his transactions and dealings should be with this identity. Let this be a medical care, banking, land dealing, vehicle registration, police case or any thing, this should be based on this single unique identity. When we started to implement this, we can see, different methods are been used by various departments. It will not only waste our time, money and effort but also kills the effectiveness of the system. Each village can have a complete database of its persons. These numbers need not be changed if the person relocates to any part of India permanently or temporarily. We have to complete this process with highest priority and after certain time frame; no transactions should be entertained without this. Experts in this field look in to, the possibilities of record keeping and record searching also the integration with various government departments.

It can be noted that many of our present departments are still not utilizing the advanced system that can tremendously improve their efficiency. It is only because the lack of interest in improvement. It will be a long topic if we start discussing on each of these departments, instead we can see a few examples. Our Judiciary system is so pathetic in the field of efficiency. We need to have advanced technologies for keeping documents, facilities in courts, etc. Still, if you need an approval in district treasury for a particular payment, it will take months just for sending and receiving details. If we use modern communication, it may take a few minutes.

k) The laws, should really reflect the peoples interest and should protect Nation

The persons elected to represent a group of people are mere represents. They have no power to override the instructions/decisions provided by the people who elected him. So, there is no need of any sort of privacy in their voting for any reasons. People should know what the representative says and does. No law should be passed without collecting people’s opinion on that law. In extremely urgent rare cases, government can make an ordinance and that should be fetched peoples approval with in a month. In case of different opinion from people, all actions taken should be reverted, at what ever cost. It is a custom to have something called “whip” by some political parties that should be totally taken out. No entity other than concerned people has the right to instruct their representative.

It is high time to have a method to call back any representative at any level, when people find him incapable, dishonest or not really reflecting the people’s instructions.

It is of high importance that we should have governance customized for various locations respecting the culture, nature etc. But the laws of this local governance should not violate any national interest or should not promote any un-ethical or un-moral things. Such laws requested by people should be studied by an expert committee and in case it finds against the national interest, the points should be clearly noted and conveyed to the people, with possible alternatives. The people should again decide what way they can protect their need with the new law.

For each village there should be a formal body to discus the issues and take actions to rectify them, with in their capability. In case, the dispute requires high level of investigation and higher level judicial involvement, any citizen can request for it guaranteeing a fair decision making, as per law of the land.

l) Planning, coordination and infrastructure development

We need to develop a lot on these. Our development models are not inclusive. We can see a lot of coordination issues in various department activities causing inconveniences, loses and preventing the development. We have to see, how these can be improved. We should have new modern planned cities with all infrastructure and connectivity. These cities should be well planned for sustainability. For example, we can have self sustaining villages by carefully integrating various basic requirements and sources of income, for its inhabitants.

m) People’s Exploitation

The people of nation are badly exploited by a various methods. Many foreign and private companies in India (Especially in IT) are been over loaded with job responsibilities and work pressure. We have to effectively intervene in these types of anti-national utilization of man power. People of India should have their time for social activities and for their family life. These excess utilization costs a lot to the nation. No companies / firms should use employees more than 45 hours per week, including 1 hour lunch brake per day. In extremely rare cases it can go up to 48 hours, for which 3 hours extra additional payments should be made. Any sort of advanced terms like choosing of “free shifts” or allowing “Work From Home”, should also guarantee that persons are not exploited more than these working hours.

At this point, I am not neglecting the fact that Government receives huge amount as Taxes from this working group. But, since the existing infrastructure does not use the collected taxes effectively for the development of nation, their equal or more contribution in politics and total development of India is inevitable.

n) People’s Migration

India is a place where a huge number of Indians working outside India, or persons moving to metro cities searching for lively hood. These people should be clearly monitored as they are the real ambassadors of India. But unfortunately, we are total failure in this. It is a truth that many of our citizens are wrongly placed at various places through out the globe. Even most of them are in literally “slave like” situations (of course not all). We should have a plan to control these migrations while assuring the quality of them. Otherwise Indians will be continuing to label as “servants” by most of the rich nations.

While there are so many persons going out of India in search of jobs/business, we have to notice that a lot of illegal migrants reach India too. The reason behind it should be studied and the necessary control measures are to be taken at the earliest.

o) Education System, deteriorated

We are not developing students as leaders. Our system of education should be changed in such a way that we develop leadership skills of our youngsters. It is also important to teach the youngsters the role and responsibilities of individual to the nation and important laws of India. They should know their role as a social animal. The total quality of education at every department needs to be systematically updated and instead of making very low quality professionals in large number, we need high quality sufficient number of professionals. We should understand the importance of respecting every field of professional life, and should know that no field is higher than any field, in its importance. We need to have proper quality assurance on our qualified persons in any field. It should ensure our qualified man power is really competent. We need clear, accountable mechanism for this.

p) Classification of people into various groups

Our present system, some how ended up with dividing people of India based on various factors like religion, cast, language and region they live. Now it can be even noticed that there are special considerations to various groups in the sweet name called reservation. (Will be discussed more on reservation in Part 3). We have to think about it seriously that, these should not create agony among people. It is also important that our governance should not promote any sort of permanent classification in India, other than India.

All Indians should have freedom to practice their religion without troubling others or society. If any citizens belongs to some religion is trying to break this communal harmony, intentionally or unintentionally, has to be trialed seriously. India should be a place with a lot of diversification in its culture and should be preserved. There should not be some religious organizations with intention of killing any other religion, because ultimately, it will cause communal problems.

All religious organizations / institutions should clearly keep their audited accounts including sources of income to the public. If excess fund is generated (than the established limit) by such organizations, there should be heavy duty on such funds. It is also important to notice the expenditure of such organizations thoroughly to make sure the fund is never been utilized for a cause that generate instability in the region. Fundamentalists, belongs to any religion should be isolated from the society and every citizen should be happy to be an Indian, more than any other sub divisions.

Not only religious groups, other fundamentalist like Naxalites, regional freedom fighters, should also be monitored and isolated. How ever by providing people the basic necessities and improving their life style, these extremist thoughts will be subsided gradually. But it requires huge and efficient efforts.

q) Too costly Health Care/Medical facilities

Health care is one of the major unattended areas where we need to improve a lot. We do not have sufficient quality inspections even to make sure the dosages of medicines marketed. We have to make high standard medicines ensuring its affordable availability to the public. It is not only medicines, the quality and cost of each and every equipment, accessories, medicines should be clearly inspected and action should be taken immediately those who violate on quality and cost.

We are surprised to see a local medicine produced with same dosage and content gives less effect than many branded medicine, which forces doctors to go behind some brands. It clearly shows the inability and least commitments of our drug control department, as an example.

There are chemical labs, run by government, who examine and certify purity of drugs, water and food products. But we never believed in quality and never provided sufficient infrastructure for them to function well. It is high time for us to make them functional and accountable for their responsibilities

r) “QUALITY” and “EFFICIENCY” are most important.

We can never achieve success without high quality in our life. The quality should be never compromised for temporary benefits. Quality never achieve without initial cost. We have to spent on quality and understand its long term paybacks to the society, in every field of life. We should have independent Quality Audit team, to ensure various entities are not compromising the established requirements. Every department should have internal quality assurance team to establish high quality, from lower level of governance to highest level. This also should be applicable to private firms functioning in India.

Summary

With high participation of people and giving them more responsibilities, there will be a lot of achievements. We have to find out the methods to attract the people towards democracy and we have to solve any issues that prevent them in participation. A system should be there to improve these capabilities of society. Judicial system should be very effective and powerful, as it is the part of system that makes sure every thing goes on as per “the rules of the land”. As we identify, just by selecting a representative, peoples responsibility cannot be completed, there should be monitoring, controlling and in case required people should be able to call back them. It is important to have expert advices to the people on various subjects and these advice's should be clear, legible and accountable. These advices should not attempt any way to question the integrity or capability of people instead should be mere advices that enable people to understand and take decisions. Also independent investigations, auditing and judicial agencies will improve the efficiency. But they also should be accountable for their own efficiency.

Chapter – 2

Proposed Model

Introduction

We need more effective interaction with people at all levels of governance and especially in lower levels. If people keep away from participation, they will not have any right to criticize also and ultimately it leads to failure, as we see now. All peoples demand and requirements should be directly received and should be attended with higher priority. Similarly, people should be informed with features of new law, schemes, facilities that are to be introduced with an intention of betterment of people. Then all their concerns about these should be cleared. When we say this, I really understand there will be a huge number of persons who will just look for their personal advantages. But, when we look for majority, they understand and support. After getting majority approval from public, these changes should be implemented. Many persons worry at this stage about the delay in all these procedures. But if we clearly monitor, even though there is some delay in the preliminary stage, this will be compensated at all implementation phases as there will be more participation from people and there will be less resistance.

All elected representatives and special committees should be made accountable. We need credible representatives. India is such a blessed place that we have 130 Crors of people, and we will not have deficiency to find out good genuine people who can work for people. All the elected positions should pay to the representatives as we cannot expect them to do services from their hard earned money, also it should be an income source for them, for maintaining their family. But also we should make sure; they do not end up greedy or corruptions in eager to earn. In any such cases of not performing their duties effectively and sincerely, people who elected them, should have a choice to remove them from that position apart from legal actions to retrieve any public loses incurred, with in a specific time period. For India, no need to depend any Individual, instead all individual should be depended on India for their welfares.

Most of this is what we are attempting to do today (at least intended), but with additional responsibilities, accountabilities and “call back” facilities, we can rectify our system. Any representative should be called back by the people who elected him, when they find him not as they expected or people do not need him, as a “representative”.

After identifying many of the problems, it is found many service departments we have, can be easily associated to Panchayaths / Municipalities, where the employees working under different service departments are answerable to the people, where they work. It will be a major change in democratic India, where government employment is totally misused by a majority. We should have very attractive packages for our employees, while ensuring they do what they are expected to do.

We came to know about employee harassment from elected people also in recent days. Elected people, in any sort of unethical dealing with government employees, should also be questioned in courts to make sure none of our employees are treated badly by a group of persons, at any reasons. This will improve the morality of Government employees too. More over, government employees are part of us, and we should give higher respect to their sincere service to the nation.

Levels of Governance, closely with people

a)Citizen/Family
b1)Panchayath Ward/Mohalla	b2)Residents Welfare Associations/ wards
c1) Panchayath	c) Municipality
c2) Block Panchayath
d) District

The above 4 level are equally important for an efficient administration, as they are the lowest level of governance. Hence we need to define Roles and Responsibilities of each. The most important thing that has to be noted is, at levels of governance, we cannot take decisions that are against Indian Laws. If any such decisions are to be implemented, the corresponding law has to be amended as per the procedure.

a) Citizen / Family

• Elect Ward representative, Monitor what he/she does, if not satisfied, discus it in “Primary Sabha”/ ward meeting
• Constantly monitor about the requirements/possibilities to improve
• Attend “Primary Sabha” actively
• Raise concerns in meetings, with out fear
• Contribute by actively participating/volunteering in suitable committees
• Vigilant about the performance about government servants, raise concerns in meeting demanding actions
• Find out what actions are taken/ decisions are made for concerns raised
• Provide truthful information to record keeping about citizen
• Understand the importance of “Indian Laws” and respect it foremost
• Understand the importance of cleanliness and contribute his part, also contribute for protection of environment
• Make sure his/her children’s education
• Train and practice “gender respect”
• Respect fellow citizen irrespective of cast, creed, religion, language etc
• Understand and effectively use common resources like water, electricity, road etc
• Inform about any migration or new faces find in their area during the “Primary sabha”
• Pursue family members to attend the “Primary sabha”
• Make sure active participation in “Gram Sabha”, conducted in every panchayath.
• Participate in preparing memorandum, in case required

b) Ward (small gathering group)/ Residents Welfare Associations / Primary Sabha

These are primary units of self governance. It is the place where people’s demand / requirements/ concerns are identified. People interact here frequently to decide what and how they need. These decisions will be implemented immediately, depending up on the nature of demand. Each of these units should have an allotted free fund that can be spent for implementing peoples demand. These funds are kept in Bank accounts, after a bare minimum with treasurer. Every expense done should be approved by “Primary sabha”. An approval can be obtained by majority’s decision in favor of that payment. Many primary issues can be solved at this level.

Some examples of direct capabilities of “gram sabha” are discussed below.

• For example, if there are frequent cases of theft in a ward/residents association area, the ward meeting can appoint a night watchman from their ward with a salary that they decide. They can also monitor her/his activities and if found unsatisfied, they can change her/him.
• If many families have small kids and majority of parents are working, no one to take care the children, they can start a baby daycare. Similarly for old age/ physically challenged persons.
• If there is a common water source for many and it is not well maintained, they can appoint some one to do that, or they can decide a method to solve it.
• If some individual doing illegal activities, it can be raised and depending on the nature of activity, that he understood and convinced, they can warn him. If he repeats fine him, up to a maximum of 200INR. Still goes ahead with this, can demand police to arrest him for further legal procedures.

These are very few examples and when in reality thousands of such decisions can be taken and implemented. This will surely improve the confidence of a citizen that his requirements and concerns are important to the nation and the government is none other than him.

Election (mutual consents by majority can also be applied) of ward/ RWA representatives -

• Elect a minimum of 3 members, as representatives. If people strength in the unit is above 1500 adults, for each additional 500 adults, another 1 representative can be identified, to reach a maximum of 6 ward representatives.
  • If there are only 3, at least following is mandatory
    • 1 should be a woman preferably from SPF
    • 1 should be an adult student (if available in the same ward)
  • Fourth person should be from SPF
  • Fifth person should be an woman
• Each ward member should publish their assets in their name and their family with in a week of selection. Also they should publish their income and source of income. It should be published once in two years, by default or when ever demanded by “Primary sabha”
  • Assets can be published in terms of specific land & buildings, bank savings or similar, ornaments, vehicles with models, etc
• Tenure of election by default will be 5 years and after that new election should be conducted.
  • In case of unhappy by performance by any means, any “Primary sabha” can call back this position assigned.
  • If “Primary sabha” identifies any loses/corruption “Primary sabha” can claim it with the person involved. If required “Primary sabha” can demand police to proceed with further legal actions
  • When a student completes his studies, or moves out of the area for studies/jobs, a new student should be elected till the remaining period.
  • 3 consecutive absences without a genuine reason approved by “Primary sabha”, a member will be automatically disqualified and a new member will be elected.
  • Any criminal (personal in nature) or corruption cases proved and punished by court will automatically remove the candidature and will permanently disable future candidature.
• Not more than ONE member from the same family can be elected as ward members, during same tenure.
• Persons should be identified irrespective of religion, cast, creed and language. There should not be a panel presented for election, instead, each individual should be elected.
• An elected member can seek approval from “Primary sabha” for his/her expenses for meeting her responsibilities including transportation, a maximum of 1000INR per month, for which break down details should be submitted to elected treasurer.

(He should not claim in more than one level of governance at any time)

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Conduct weekly meeting in an open space, on a published, scheduled location and time.
• Conduct emergency meeting apart from normal meeting in a published location and time.
• Maintain an agenda, minutes of meeting and attendance registers with clear dates and time of meeting
• Conduct Election/Recall functionalities. (As described Earlier)
• Allot responsibilities to members and keep record on that.
• Educate Citizen’s “Roles and Responsibilities” as an Indian.
• Form different committees for general issues, deemed applicable, and there should be at least one from elected members in these committees.
• Review previous minutes of meeting.
• Identify & prioritize the requirements in the area.
• Request Expert Advices on relevant issues, and discus on expert advices received.
• Monitor and Assess performances of public servants whom ever they deal with, and in case of any complaints, demand action on such employees to the panchayath. Monitor the status of previous such demands made.
• Raise concerns through members on issues shared with other “governance units” to the panchayath level, monitor the decisions and progress.
• Discuss “minutes of meeting” of previous ward members meeting conducted in Panchayath/Municipality.
• Collect Migration (permenant/temperory) details, Birth details, Death details, Marriage details etc to submit to various service departments functioning in Panchayath Level – for record keeping.
• Monitor and analyze the status of previously assigned activities to various entities, and take necessary action including get expert opinion on time
• Approve/Reject/Request more information on subjects requested by panchayath level on this particular primary unit.

Payments for works executed

• Any payments to the “Contractor” for works assigned by this unit, should be done only after approval by a committee to overlook (supervise) the said work, apart from government agencies, who certify the payment. Any citizen can approach the committee with a written complaint, in case if it is noticed. If committee could not satisfy the citizen with justifications, the same should be discussed in next public meeting, and all payments during these periods will be decided by the people of “Primary Sabha”.
• In order to promote entrepreneurship and for a large ownership and responsibilities, where ever possible, the work can be completed by a group of persons in the same locality, who can assure the achievements as per tender specifications.
• For any public job, there should be a clearly drafted tender document, as much minute specifications as possible, prepared by a government department and approved by concerned People Committee with the guidance of expert opinions. The tender document should reflect what exactly the people need.
• Public tender should be called for any job with anticipated value above 50,000INR.
• Where ever there is maintenance period or warranty for any sort of job, there should be a bank-guarantee or similar guarantee to cover the loss to the public, in case warranty or maintenance fails.
• If “Primary Sabha”, directly conducts a work (with a group of persons with in it), without the intention as a business, above contract conditions can be relaxed, with the consent in public meeting. How ever, the work should be completed with in budgeted amount, time and quality.

Restrictions

• Has no power to implement any sort of exclusion of its citizen in participating meetings or to come up with concerns.
• Has no power to involve in any sort of religious decision making, or to part with management of religious institutional (temples, church, mosques etc) decisions.
• Has no power to involve in any sort of man handling punishments

c) Panchayath / Municipality.

These are the basic unit where service departments are associated with. All the service departments that directly deal with citizen of panchayath for administration/ service will be under the ownership of panchayath and functionally will be coordinated with higher level functional unit. Service departments may get advices & performance indices from higher functional level that will be implemented after approval of Panchayath board or by Gram Sabha.

Judiciary, Enquiry, Election Control and Auditing departments will not be controlled by any of the Panchayath boards.

Each functional department, apart from their normal services, collects people’s requirements/needs and provides a comprehensive solution/proposal such that it improves the efficiency of department, yearly. They may seek advices or expert opinions from higher level to guarantee its efficiency. These yearly proposals from Individual departments will be published for people of Panchayath to analyze and study. Then the people will take final decision to approve it or not, through “Primary meetings” or through “Gram Sabha” or by a “Panchayath Meeting”. There should be an audience place for public to witness the “Panchayath Meeting” where the elected members from wards attend. It is also important to have only “open” voting is allowed by members of panchayath, so that the people can make sure their represents expresses “People’s Decision” from Primary Meeting.

General Responsibilities

• There should be a meeting for all members elected from the lower level, at least once in two weeks. These “Panchayath Meeting” should have a clear pre-planned Agenda, published in advance by minimum 48 hours, so that the people know exactly what will be discussed during this meeting. Every Agenda should include a time slice for members to discuss or express their concern.

• “Panchayath” should conduct “Grama Sabha”, at least once in a month rotating the venue at different locations of Panchayath. The date, time venue and agenda should be advertised in advance, minimum by 4 days. There should be a time frame for public to raise their demands/ queries in every “Grama Sabha”. These “Gram Sabha” must and should include any memorandum received by signing more than 100 persons from the panchayath. Panchayath may arrange and present an expert opinion on the memorandum, but people’s decision will be implemented. These meeting should be in open area and should have loud speaker facility, so that every one gather can clearly hear what is been discussed. Discuss “minutes of meeting” of previous higher level meeting conducted in District or Blocks. Also, previous pending activities/decision status/progress should be discussed. In every “Grama Sabha” minimum 3 district panchayath members, apart from members of the current panchayath should attend. Panchayath can also invite special invitees in case required. (Experts/ Business representatives etc)

• “Grama Sabha” of a panchayath should form an independent expert committee, comprising eminent peoples of their area (None from members), to form a “peoples lokpal” to receive any sort of complaints on any employee or elected member of panchayath. This team can ask for reason, evidences, support from any functional departments or individual directly for a fast enquiry and prepare a report, based on their evidences and truths, for presenting it in the next “Grama Sabha” for an action.

• In case, the proposed action from lokpal requires further legal proceedings both the parties can approach courts and the lokpal will forward the findings & reports to the court. Court’s decision will be final and only legal appeals to higher courts will be possible, if further escalation is required.

• Panchayath, by combining approved reports from various functional departments and requirements arose from “Grama Sabha”, provides a basis for General Budget, and can be sent to higher level for fund allotting depending on availability. Fund will be allotted to the Panchayath for these specific requirements and these should be implemented as planned and as per budget allotted. Apart from these fund, there should be a free fund, that the Panchayath can utilize for immediate public necessities, as decided by “Grama Sabha”.

• All expenditures should be clearly accounted and should be audited. Any audit findings on fund misuse should be treated as a serious violation, and person responsible should be punished apart from recovering back the fund. In case required, legal proceedings can be done.

• All persons (Employees, Committee Members, Experts etc associated with Panchayath) should submit their current assets and income sources yearly. It is the responsibility of functional unit head to make a public document that can be inspected by any one, for his department. Noticing any wrong information without a legal justice, will be treated as serious violation of rule and will be addressed by courts. If proven, any asset/value that has kept hidden of value 100000 or higher can be taken over to the asset of Panchayath, after the directions from court. This will automatically removes all his current privilege and will remove any future privileges for occupying that position. (Here also, the assets can be expressed in terms like land, ornaments, buildings, deposits, etc)

• Each department should publish a minimum service time, for their services and if failed, the citizen can approach the expert committee and they will be directing the concerned department the service and action about the employee who delayed. They may also ask the department for a corrective action to improve the facilities.

• There should be efficient service request/dispatch points in Panchayath level for any sort of service for a common man. Here a full log of service will be kept. It will notify when service request is received, when it is assigned to the concerned department/departments and when the service is dispatched to the requester. Panchayath will decide the locations of these service points through out the panchayath. There should be modern crowd management equipments and basic facilities for visitors. (Drinking water, Toilet …etc)

• Individual departments should maintain their assets and equipments with sufficient equipment logs. In case of unattended field equipments by any department, people can ask for punishment for the concerned employee if he is failing, because it is people’s money.

• All sorts of payments, including pensions, special helps, compensations to individuals or to families will be through bank where ever possible and remaining will be through service points, directly to the person.

• Panchayath’s can establish an emergency services list and citizen can avail them by paying extra fees to the Panchayath.

• Panchayath is totally responsible for its garbage management including sewage management. Panchayath can deal with any external entities (say neighboring panchayath/ municipality, or private business firm etc), if agreed, to make sure there is clear and efficient implementation of waste management.

• It is Panchayath’s responsibility to provide awareness programs for people and promote their ability to decision making. Apart from that Panchayath can make avail addition expert opinions, trainings, seminars or what ever applicable to enhance people knowledge.

• Panchayath should implement an efficient public information system, for any departments, it comprises of. It should also be integrated with Service Points, previously mentioned.

Election of Panchayath Board /representatives -

• Elect 6 members from elected ward members, to represent people on block level.
  • at least following is mandatory
    • minimum 2 of 6, should be women
    • 1 from SPF
  • 1 should be an adult student (below 28 years)
• Tenure of election by default will be 5 years and after that new election should be conducted.
  • In case of unhappy by performance by any means, including corruption, any “Panchayath Meeting” or “Grama Sabha” can call back this position assigned, by proving the majority to call back.
  • When a student completes his studies, or moves out of the area for studies/jobs, a new student should be elected till the remaining period.
  • 3 consecutive absences without a genuine reason approved by “Panchayath meeting”, a member will be automatically disqualified and a new member will be elected.
  • Any criminal or corruption cases proved and punished by court will automatically remove the candidature and will permanently disable future candidature.
• Persons should be identified irrespective of religion, cast, creed and language. There should not be a panel presented for election, instead, each individual should be proposed and elected.
• An elected member can seek approval from “Panchayath Meeting” for his/her expenses for meeting her responsibilities including transportation, a maximum of 5000INR per month, for which monthly break down details should be submitted. (He should not claim in more than one level of governance at any time)

Revenue Related Responsibilities

• Panchayath cannot directly utilize any sort of revenue, even if they create it, with concern of “grama sabha”
• All revenue collected by various functioning departments are transferred to concerned treasuries (District/ State) with in 24 hours, failing to which, legal action can be taken on the concerned employee
• When panchayath receives fund on specific heads, which should be utilized only for that account head (purpose).
• The free fund allotted to panchayath, will be used as per the approved decision of “Grama Sabha” and yearly audited details of free fund utilization should be a public document. Any citizen can check this document at any time. In case of any concern he can approach the lokpal or even the court.

Shared Resources Handling & Responsibilities (National Roads, Railway, Transportation Systems, Rivers, Telephones, etc…)

• If any department’s office catering the needs of people, fully to this panchayath, its employees will be owned by panchayath and they will be functionally reporting to their higher level.
• If Panchayath needs any requirement on these services, they can approach immediate available owner, and the decision should be brought back to the panchayath meeting or to “Grama Sabha”.
• If any such departments need new utilization of any resource (or modifications of existing) with in the boundary of a panchayath, it has to be both presented and decided by “Panchayath Meeting” after getting decisions from “Preliminary Meetings” or directly through “Grama Sabha”. If such meetings request more information or any sort of further requirements to implement the plan, it has to be negotiated in the panchayath level. Even, expert higher opinion can be given to public through “Grama Sabha”. But it has to be approved by “Grama Sabha” for implementation. This makes sure people’s direct involvement and satisfaction.

Restrictions

• Has no power to implement any sort of exclusion of its citizen in participating meetings or to come up with concerns.
• Has no power to involve in any sort of religious decision making, or to part with management of religious institutional (temples, church, mosques etc) decisions.
• Has no power to involve in any sort of man handling punishments

d) Block

A group of near by panchayaths can form a block. Panchayaths inside a block can discuss and decide on issues that shares these panchayaths resources. How ever, the decisions of blocks should be brought back to Panchayath’s those involve for its approval. Panchayath’s in turn conduct meeting after “preliminary meetings” to make the final approval. If any Panchayath has concerns and could not approve the decisions in block level meeting, Panchayaths can propose an alternative to discus back in block meetings.

Similar to Panchayath, any functional departments that cater service to panchayaths under these Block and not under the ownership of any panchayath, the ownership will be with Blocks.

The biggest difference of Panchayath and Block is, there will not be a direct public meeting in block level. Instead, there will be Panchayath representatives meeting. They will demand the people’s requests or they will collect requests and after opinion of people it will be passed. All the block meetings are done in places where, any citizen who took prior approval can witness (say 50 persons). There should not be any hidden voting. What ever the people assigned from Panchayath should be reflected, and citizen has all right to observe and make sure their represent clearly represents the people. If any such members not really represent Panchayath’s interest, Panchayath meeting can call back him by proving the majority.

Election of Block Board /representatives -

• Elect 6 members from elected Panchayath members, to represent people on district level
  • at least following is mandatory
    • minimum 2 of 6, should be a woman
    • 1 from SPF
  • 1 should be an adult student (below 28 years)
• Tenure of election by default will be 5 years and after that new election should be conducted.
  • In case of unhappy by performance by any means, including corruption, any “Block level Meeting of Panchayath representatives” can call back this position assigned, by proving the majority to call back.
  • When a student completes his studies, or moves out of the area for studies/jobs, a new student should be elected till the remaining period.
  • 3 consecutive absences without a genuine reason approved by “Panchayath meeting”, a member will be automatically disqualified and a new member will be elected.
  • Any criminal or corruption cases proved and punished by court will automatically remove the candidature and will permanently disable future candidature.
• Persons should be identified irrespective of religion, cast, creed and language. There should not be a panel presented for election, instead, each individual should be elected.
• An elected member can seek approval from “Block Meeting” for his/her expenses for meeting her responsibilities including transportation, a maximum of 8000INR per month, for which monthly break down details should be submitted, for audit. (He should not claim in more than one level of governance at any time)

e) District

All elected members from blocks and from municipalities are the district level members to represent the public, apart from MLAs and MPs. They can take decisions for all shared resources with in the district, as it is done in blocks. How ever, the final decisions of districts should be brought back to blocks and Panchayath’s for identifying peoples view. Panchayath’s in turn conduct meeting after “preliminary meetings” to make the final approval.

Similar to Panchayath, any functional departments that cater service to people directly from district level are under the ownership of districts. All Districts meeting should be attended by all MLA’s from that district.

There should be a district level meeting of representatives from each block and municipality once in a week. All such meetings are done in places where, any citizen who took prior approval can witness (say 50 persons). There should not be any hidden voting. What ever the people assigned from Blocks /Municipalities should be reflected, and citizen has all right to observe and make sure their represents clearly represents the people. If any such members not really represent Blocks’s interest, Block level meeting can call back him by proving the majority. Apart from this, there should be a combined meeting of all elected representatives from panchayath and municipality in every month, with public observers.

Election of District Board /representatives -

• Elect 20 members from elected Block/ Municipality members, to manage day today activities of various departments in district level
  • at least 2 should be a woman
  • 1 should be an adult student (below 28 years)
  • 1 should be from SPF
  • Out of 6, a minimum 2 persons should be graduates
  • All elected persons should be below 60 years
• There can be additional 1, who can be an eminent personality from the district, who will be elected directly in a meeting off all panchayath representatives. He also can be called back by majority in same committee.
• Tenure of election by default will be 5 years and after that new election should be conducted.
  • In case of unhappy by performance by any means, including corruption, any “District level Meeting of all blocks/municipality representatives” can call back this position assigned, by proving the majority to call back.
  • When a student completes his studies, or moves out of the area for studies/jobs, a new student should be elected till the remaining period.
  • 3 consecutive absences without a genuine reason approved by “District meeting”, a member will be automatically disqualified and a new member will be elected.
  • Any criminal (personal nature) or corruption cases proved and punished by court will automatically remove the candidature and will permanently disable future candidature.
• Persons should be identified irrespective of religion, cast, creed and language. There should not be a panel presented for election, instead, each individual should be elected.
• An elected member can seek approval from “District Meeting” for his/her expenses for meeting her responsibilities including transportation, a maximum of 10000INR per month, for which monthly break down details should be submitted, for audit. (He should not claim in more than one level of governance at any time)

f) MLAs & MPs

The whole observation shows, there is no need of major changes in this area. The following minor corrections in these areas will make huge changes in this new democratic system.

• As we elect, when people lose confidence on them, because of any reason, they should be called back using “call back” procedures. It can be an agreed procedure like a memorandum signed by 60% people requesting this demand.
• A person, convicted for corruption or any criminal case (personal nature) should never be allowed to participate in elections either as MLA or as an MP.
• All MLA’s and MP’s should come under the yearly auditing by auditing department, not only for financial transparency but also for their quality in efficiency. The audit report should be a public document.
• Every year they should disclose their assets and income sources as public document, and in case of any concern by any individual, they can request for clarification and further more approach courts for legal proceedings.
• Age should be maximum 65 years at the time of election
• No “hidden voting” for any public issues, should be allowed to MLA’s & MP’s
• They should merely represent people of constitution and should not assume any power to take decisions without getting opinions directly from people. He should follow people’s opinion as a representative, not his personal opinions. There should not be some thing called “Whip” that may override people’s opinion.
• They should regularly attend “Grama Sabhas” and “District Level Meetings” for fetching people’s opinion. Number of such meetings they attended, should also be there as factor in Audit reports.

Summary

The present structure is not far away from people, but it needs a bit more fine tuning to get its result. Unfortunately no one was showing interest to do these modifications because that will make them accountable and power will be there with people.  It is unfortunate to see a lot of criminals and lot of totally corrupt & selfish persons as our representatives which should be banned. As we elect persons as representatives, there should be a procedure to call them back from the responsibilities, people assign. In case of any lose because of them to the public; it should be recovered from them with in a time limit. We have noticed importance of an independent auditing department, at various levels with sufficient resources, plays a vital role in transparency. These audit reports will be on public domain and public can even decide the integrity of auditors and if required can remove corrupted auditors and their whole benefits as people’s servants.

Hence, the “redefined” structure will be as following

Chapter – 3

How it will overcome Our Major concerns?

First two chapters we realize we need a change and what we need in new system. We need the following to happen.

But there will be inertia, until we clear out how to achieve it. Real achieving may take huge efforts and time. But we need to start and I am trying to list out the areas we need to attack immediately.

a) Form an expert committee to provide a report on “empowering judiciary”, with in a defined period of time, including providing advanced technologies and related resources. They will list out the required additional courts and their staffing requirement. We have to establish them immediately.

b) Work on “Indian Laws” by an expert committee to find out the loop holes and remove old unnecessary rules. Let us make our “Law” clean and accessible.

c) Establish an “independent” Enquiry department with all required resources

d) Establish and staff an “Auditing” department (Both Quality and Financial) whose reports will automatically raise issues to the courts, to the higher functional level and to public.

e) Redefine the rights on “state”. States should not divide persons of India, and should be merely an administrative block. They have no right to compete on each other for natural, shared resources or have no right to give any special privileges for its group of inhabitants.

e) Spread the awareness of importance of participating in democracy and rules and responsibilities of “citizen”. Let us start electing “Good” representatives, who will implement and work for public. Let them study and approve the new laws, approve call back, and peoples rights as Indian Laws.

If we are able to do the above, this will be a strong base for us to proceed and the rest can be fully decided by people, as described in chapter-2. This will establish a self sustain system that will accommodate and do necessary maintenances as and when required.

In this chapter we are concluding with some of our major concerns. Hence, directly we are attempting to resolve them one by one and there are hundreds of concerns that I could not analyze here, which I request each reader to consider.

a) Corruption is every where? How will we tackle it in the new model?

The proposed model includes an independent auditing team at every level, who not only audits financial performances but also audits the efficiency and quality. This team will be answerable to their audit reports and any entity can question the report with evidences on courts. This makes sure the public to aware what is happening, at least about how a work is executed near to them.

The biggest challenge will be to create infrastructure and resources for this team, which can be similar to IAS selection and the procedure of selection can be formulated with subject experts which will be approved by Parliament & Supreme Court. It requires huge initial capital, but ultimately ensures the efficiency and quality. So the initial investment will be a huge asset in near future. We may need such special corruption courts in every block panchayath and in municipality. There should be district, state/high courts and separate wing in Supreme Court under the Chief Justice. These courts can have a hierarchy similar to civil & criminal courts.

When there are audit reports & investigation reports, the fully equipped special courts can trial and punish the criminal with in 6 months and retrieve the penalty, including the loss with in 6 months. If proved, the court can collect its expenses also from such criminals, depending on the value of public loss. As we saw in chapter 2, any one punished by this court, for intentional corruption, will be barred from elections.

Corruption cases not only initiates from auditing department, it can be from any cases filed by any entity in India, with evidences. Then concerned auditing team also will be answerable and punishable, if proved. Since the trial is in special courts, it guarantees that the trial period is with in allotted time frame. It also helps to measure the efficiency of such courts.

Specially trained independent investigation team can assist the court to get any additional information about the issue with in a specific time frame. This court/investigation team will take evidences from individuals in any forms including video & audio and can use advanced technologies to make sure the authenticity.

As you see, the entire major pillars of democracy works together to achieve its efficiency, in the above example.

b) What should be our view on “Private Sector” and how to promote entrepreneurs?

Private sector is most important for the total growth of India. Specific expert fields can be developed and can contribute to the social development. But, each private firm should be examined by government agencies to make sure they are transparent and work purely according to law of the land.

c) Do we need a population control?

India is over crowded. It is struggling for resources to feed its people. We really need a method to control population. Decisions like parents with more than 2 kids should not be allowed for taking government/democratic positions.

d) How do we tackle people migration and how to include them in our growing process?

All Indians should have a unique ID and it should be made available to inspection when ever required. Also, the lowest people committee meetings can make sure any faces in there area, and are there with valid documents. Indians should be allowed to move any where in India as per their wish and conveniences.

Invalid migration should be treated with highest priority, as neighboring countries are very volatile. Government decisions to export them should be taken periodically.

e) Are we dividing people by region, and is it really worth?

Yes, we developed this dividing over years. This dividing was part of “divide and rule”. We have to overcome it by ensuring this division is merely for administrative purpose. We should remove as much power from state level to primary level as possible, so people will have power. For a nation like India, developing regional feelings inside “Heart” will be never positive; instead a national feeling should be there. Every one should be proud of “An INDIAN”

f) Can’t we really unite our strength irrespective of cast, creed, locality, religion while preserving our diversity?

Yes it is possible, but it will be smooth only when Government sees any individual as Indian, irrespective of sex, cast, creed or region. It should be left to an individual to decide on what religion he has to follow, and government has nothing to offer because of a cast or religion. India should be a place where all religions accepts and respects the presents of other religion. But, no religion should allow getting into the business of others. In India, we cannot have a religion that spreads a message to vast community saying all others are fools or going to hell so that should keep away. Any body should have their freedom of worship, but should not have the freedom of becoming on power uniting with religious background or vision. Every Indian should respect the law of land and that must be supreme. If any sort of communal clashes, the criminals should be trialed and punished without mercy, as that act can be a national threat.

g) India is poor. Are Government Employees to be blamed?

Yes, they are also to be blamed, even though they are not sole responsible. We need a method to check the efficiency of each employee and need them answerable and accountable for any sort of activities they involve. We need to remunerate them well and respect them for their services to India. But, it does not mean that they can loot the people who pay them. We need good labor laws, and it should not mean that an employee can do what ever he wants. Every position should have clearly “roles and responsibilities” defined, against which the performance should be evaluated.

h) I am a “back ward cast”/minority person and eligible for reservation, will I lose it?

Yes. Because it is believed that there is none backward or none superior, all are same, all are proud Indians. But, we will always have sympathy to our fellow citizen irrespective of cast, creed, religion or region, purely based on the living situations. Once, the situation is improved for a particular family, this special consideration will be waved off. Routine reassessment will be done, and auditing will be done to ensure no violations or favors.

i) How it is a combination of “Bottom-up” and “Top-down” approaches?

At any level of governance, peoples requirements/decisions/approvals is involved and the opportunities, expert opinions, suggestions, proposals & guidance’s are provided to the people by a combination of executives and representatives. It is explained in the following pictorial representation.

h) More or less same with existing? What guarantees the success?

It is so simple to overcome this concern. The following features will ensure guarantee

• “Call Back”
• De-barring from elections
• Independent Enquiries, ensuring the reveal of truth
• Audit reports, even automatically registering cases in courts or enable public to act
• Serious legal proceedings on “Quality” violations
• Accountability on each and every tasks
• “Justice on time”
• Recovery of public loss with in specified time limit
• Faster solutions for “public needs”
• Expert opinions on technologies, methods and facilities

Are you convinced? Come on, let us create it, implement it and ENJOY life…..

“Do not point fingers with out doing our own duties”. Let us not cry for what we do not have, let us work together to achieve them.

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