Are We Citizens, Beggars ??

The title of this post must have indicated the level of frustration I’m having now. Though I am admit that I’m quite emotional I try to justify with reason what made me feel so. This frustration is the result of my woes to get a voter ID. Though I applied long time back, I fear I will not be able to vote this time. There is no confidence I’m getting from the incharges that I’ll get a chance to vote this time.

I applied to voter id 8 months back but did not get any response on it. I called the concerned incharge many times in between but never I got a specific response to my application. Since this is last week for getting enrolled, I went to Khairatabad office to check. Here is the sequence of things happened

(1) Saturday I went there and to my surprise I find a helpdesk. I explained my problem to a lady and she decently guided me to check with few officials in the first floor.
(2) I went up and looked for name of the person I’m supposed to meet. There is no indication of who is meant for what. There are few people who are holding form6, so I thought that He is the right person. I waited for about 10 minutes expecting him to hear me. I was not able to understand whether he could not hear or do not care to hear. Ignoring me standing before him he left his seat saying that It is not his job. It took 10 minutes for him to say that.
(3) Later I was able to find the incharge and requested him to help me. He suggested me ( As if he has done some favor but not as duty) to go to one room and check my name in the latest rolls. When I tried to enter that room one assistant shouted at me on why I’m entering that room. I showed my finger to official and then she allowed me to get in as if she is showing some mercy.
(4) After entering the room another official yelled at me why I’m here, As if it is a secure zone of RBI. Keeping the frustration inside, I told the whole story again. Then he told that authorities will come to locality tomorrow though it is a Sunday. Wasting a good 2-3 hours I left the place.

(5) Sunday, I checked in the community hall of our locality and did not find any authorities. I called up call center 1100 which took 3-4 full rings for some once to pick up the call. They confirmed that my name is not entered in the rolls yet. She suggested me to apply again in the Khairatabad office.
(6) Holding my patience, I again went all the way to Khairatabad and found someone to shout at me that it ’s a holiday and it’s my stupidity to expect that it will be open. I asked why few people are inside if it’s not working day. He warned me not to ask to many questions and out of me pleading too much, he said they came to do some election work but not to receive applications.
(7) One assistant came to me and suggested me to come tomorrow and give bribe to some one who will issue the card immediately.

What else can be more shameful than this to bribe to exercise our vote in our so-called vibrant democracy.

The experiences may not have been very different for any one in any Govt. office. What I understood is that they know more about what is not their job than what is their job. There is no accountability in their roles. They take citizen’s time and patience for granted. A very unconcerned attitude have been rooted in the mindsets as if they show a mercy on people by performing their duties and a citizen can not get the things which he/she rightfully deserves without bribing or begging. Voter enrollment process should not be too cumbersome if there is a well planned process with some one accountable at every stage of application. It only requires a will and commitment from election commission. The typical indifference, incompetence, irritation, domination and disrespect which they show made me feel like this.
( Apologies if this hurts any one but this is a kind of experience I faced in many Govt. offices)

Why to vote for Loksatta .. 1

 

As elections are near by, I wanted to my bit to speard ideals of Loksatta to a wider reach. As a part of that, I am writing about the 50 guarantees put forward by Loksatta in a staggered manner. In this post, I am writing about guarantees about Local governance and what changes it can bring to a citizen.

Today’s system of governance lost its credibility with public. There is no Govt office where once can hope to be received with courtesy and respect. It’s a wonder if one can finish their tasks in their first visit without paying any bribe or without any friend/relative in office. The basic flaw is that the power and accountability are not at the same place. For e.g. If it is municipality authorities who is accountable for laying of roads, the funds would be under the control of state. This kind of logical separation between power and accountability is what breeding corruption, incompetence and consequently indifferene to citizen’s needs and concerns. In this kind of circumstances, following are the changes propounded by Loksatta.

Formation of district governments: One of the main guarantee of Loksatta party is the formation of district governments. People would directly participate and elect the governing board for district (similar to a state government with chief minister, ministers etc.. ) which will be empowered and responsible for all citizen welfare activities such as education, health, civic amenities, employement creation, social security for poor etc.. . The funds required for these would be transferred directly to district governments from state government by rule.

Enabling Local Govts with decision making power: Local governemnts would completely be isolated from the clutches of state control. It would be enabled to take it’s own decisions as per the specific needs and concerns of that area independent of others. This kind of freedom makes the authorities accountable for local issues and they neither need to wait for instructions from top nor escape from the responsibilities. Consequently there system will become more efficient and less corrupted.

Substantial funds for district governments: 50% of state planning fund will be directly transferred to district govts by rule. From the districts it would be distributed to local govts for various sectors. In addition to this, an additional fund of 1000/- per head ( Fund would be decided the population of that area) would be released under the authority of that local government.

Public participation in governance: All leaders of crucial wings of governance like education, health, water distribution, market yards etc.. Will be elected by people directly. Every ward will have it’s representative elected by people and empowered by local government. All rules, instructions, policy decisions, files would be maintained in telugu. This empowers every citizen to own governance and question the immediate authority incase of any suspicion of corruption/ unreasonable priorities/ unnoticed problems in that locality.

The essence of this kind of local governance is the transparency with which Govt. functions and consequence reduction in corruption. When I talk to few of my friends about loksatta, One question raised is How can one hope for moral individuals all the time. My answer is that we can not expect moral candidates but It is the policies than people which can eradicate corruption. One such efficient step in that direction is Local governance!