Next day morning, Raju is ready to escape from the palace and go on tour to Tumkur.
Vani aunty smiled at him and said, “Raju, we forgot one simple
thing! Whenever we want to escape this ivory tower, or from any situation, all we need is to take the
time machine and come to 2013! We become commoners and can do anything without
the trappings of power!”
“Oh you mean that, we will go back to 2013 and travel to
Tumkur?”
“Yes, and anyway, not much has changed in the administration, so
we won’t lose much!” winked aunty!
Raju laughed heartily!
Vani aunty turned on the time machine, and presto! They found
themselves in the mid of Mysore Palace front lawn in 2013! Perfectly looking like
commoners!
“Great aunty! This is good! We can use this time machine as
and when required! Now let’s catch the next bus to Tumkur?”
Soon, both were sitting comfortably in the KSRTC bus to Tumkur. Once the bus started,
Raju started his conversation with aunty.
“Aunty, now tell me about the administration in the districts and villages.
We are going to see the office of whom all?”
“Raju, we will see the office of the three main officials in
the district. The deputy commissioner, the Tahsildar and the village
accountant.”
“Ok aunty! Where do we start?”
“Let’s start from the people’s side. It means, let’s start
from the village. Indeed if you happen to look at the earth from an aircraft, you will find that most of the villages having clear boundary, and are the scattered in the landscape, and thus they are the natural administrative areas.
Administration stars from the villages. So, we will start from village officials.
We have different categories of officials who are connected with the village. They are from both the central and state government. We have teachers, postman, health workers, village accountants, agricultural extension officers, Gram panchayat secretary, Electricity board engineer, local police constable etc.
Raju, for a common man, the village accountant is the first
person in the government. He represents the revenue department of the district, which is headed by the collector or Deputy commissioner. The revenue department is called as the mother department, as it's the oldest and also it takes care of all residual issues which are not defined.
Thus the village accountant is an important post. However, each village does not have a village
accountant. But, there is one village accountant for a group of 3-5 villages.
This village accountant is called as ‘Shanbhag’ or ‘Talahti’ or ‘Patwari’ etc.
His main work is to keep account of all the land details of the villages.”
“Aunty, then I guess each village should have one Village
accountant instead of giving a group of villages, as he may not be available to
a particular village when required? Or does he work as per a strict time-table?”
“Raju, you are right! It is a difficult task for a village
person to get hold of the Shanbhag! Every time somebody wants him, he will be
at the ‘other village’!! Though there are time-tables prescribed, hardly any Shanbhag
follows it, as the timetable is often violated by the meetings or discussions called
by the senior officers. So, the time table is for namesake!”
“Why can’t the deputy commissioner issue strict orders and
make surprise inspections and suspend the Shanbhag who is not present as per
the time table?”
“They do that. But, still it's difficult to enforce. For example they will say that they were called by Tahsildar to get an urgent document, and that's why they could not be present in the particular village. As the government priorities are so volatile, fixed timetables are difficult to adhere to."
“Aunty, then the government should post one Shanbhag per
village? That would ensure that they are available to the villagers? Else it will be frustrating for the villagers to search for the Shanbhag. And, by the
way, what do the villagers need Shanbhag for?"
“Raju, they require him for variety of things. Starting from
making changes in the ownership of land, getting caste certificate, income
certificate till including the name in the voters roll, everybody needs a Shanbhag.
He does all the residual work too. He is like the Tahsildar for the village! He
wields quite an amount of influence in the village, though it has been watered
down substantially in the recent decades.
You may think that, if that being the case, why the
government is not appointing one Shanbhag per each village. In-fact, it will
bring good name to the government.
Even I don’t know why the government is not appointing them.
But, I guess it will require lots of money. Around 30,000 villages are there!
Even if you pay each 30,000 per month, it costs around 1000 crores an year! Presently, they must be managing with around 200 crores. A five-fold increase may not
be easy!”
“But, aunty, I would still like to have one officer at
village level, and try to solve this problem in an innovative way as everybody
would like to have one official at the village level who will represent the
government and who can engage the people on behalf of the government. I would
also want him to be very smart and good, because he is the ambassador
of my government! Even the villagers will be happy with one person in-charge for all government issues. It’s so simple aunty! Why can’t the government do this?”
“What you are saying makes sense to me Raju. We need to
have a one official from the government side for all issues concerned with the
government.
So, instead of having multiple officials at the village level,
that too for a group of villages, it’s better to have one official per each
village, who will be overall responsible for the village. There will be
motivation, accountability etc.
Years back, when the communication was not so much advanced,
government could have been right in not giving all powers to one official, but,
now, with instant communication facilities, nobody can misuse power and get away with it at the local level. So, a single official as village level is a good idea. Government should go for it. I don't know why there is not doing it!"
“I agree aunty. It puzzles me also. If the government can
concentrate all the powers at the level of a Taluka, by appointing a Tahsildar
who is almost the premier of the Taluka, why not at the village level?! Nowadays,
we get the brightest of men and women, and with real-time communication facilities, they
can do wonders!”
“Yes, Raju, you are right. But there may be other issues
like the promotion of such officials etc. What will happen to these 30,000 Shanbhags
after 5 years? They need to be promoted. Isn't? The next level will be the Panchayat
level, where we have group of 3-5 villages. Thus we will have 6,000 panchayats.
It means, 4 out of 5 Shanbhags will lose their job after 5
years, of remain in the same position. When they lose promotion they will get
de-motivated and may not perform well.”
“I agree aunty. But, we can always take them on
short-service commission like the army does. Tell them that only one in five
will get promoted and others can leave the service or stay in same place if
they want.”
“It’s a good idea Raju. But, we need to think thru. What
will they do after five years? Also it is likely to make the promotion issue so
contentious, and every promotion may be questioned in the court of law. If the
court stays the promotion, then all of them continue for more time. That would mean
no new recruitment at the 5th year. Isn't Raju?”
“Agree Aunty. But, why will they go to court if we make the
system very transparent? Do the army officers go to court on their promotions?”
“I get your point Raju. You are right. If we have a
transparent system, I do not think that the Courts will intervene. Even if they
do, once they are convinced that the promotions are done in a scientific and
transparent manner, they will desist from entertaining frivolous petitions."
"Also, even after 5 years, the person will have rich experience
and can join anywhere else. I know of many NGOs who want to have such experience.
Nothing like working as a village accountant for 5 years! Even i would love to work as Shanbhag Aunty! It would give me very good idea of how things work at ground level. That will equip me well in whatever i do later in my life!"
"I agree with you Raju. Government should go for a single-window administration at the cutting-edge level of villages or towns or cities. Presently, it's all confused. People don't know whom to meet for what!"
“That’s my point Aunty! Look at the towns, cities and even Bangalore! There is no one officer we all
can approach for our business with government! Leave alone the specialized
services like water, power etc. For all other residual services like BPL cards,
voters list, land issues we have no idea whom to contact! That’s how the middle
men thrive!
Now, with the help of the information technology and the
power of networking, the government should overhaul its systems. Systems which
were designed 100 years back can’t deliver in this age and time! How long we
are going to take to change? People are already knocking on the door worldwide.”
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(to be continued next Sunday)
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