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!