Establishment of Composite District Legislatures in India Cannot be Delayed Anymore

 It is just a question of time before the debate shifts to the “root cause” of the strife in the alarmingly large number of districts that the Maoist extreme left wing terrorists control. The official figure for the number of districts under Maoist influence is 200 but actually it is much more than that. We’re living in denial as usual although that isn’t going to change the ground realities or the root causes of the disquiet. So what are the root causes? Hunger? Grinding poverty? State apathy? Complete absence of governance in the countryside? Apparently, they are. Now, isn’t it already over 6 decades that this has pretty much been the state of affairs? 

So, what new hardware is going to be unloaded in these areas now that it’s going to change everything in a whiff? It also depends on what is special about the hardware and who’s in charge of the unloading to make any difference? All over the world and across all walks of life, if a particular delivery mechanism doesn’t work, the usual practice is to either rectify it or replace it. The governance delivery mechanism in India especially in the countryside has been malfunctioning from day one of our independent existence. So, what do we do? We wait for six decades till our dirt poor folks can take it no more and go wild. We want to do good for these poor folks. After all, they’re our blood brothers, our very own countrymen. Fair enough, there’s no doubt about the good intentions. However, good intentions must be followed up with worthy action or else everything goes down the drain or mysteriously vanishes as has happened till now. 

The NREGA is a good idea but only if it is delivered well. Unfortunately, there are hardly any areas where the NREGA could be delivered and leveraged optimally. These are hard-earned taxpayers’ money and that’s why they shouldn’t get wasted. Let’s face it – the failure of the Indian state to deliver anything to our dirt poor folks is mainly due to the faulty administrative structure at the level where the government of India actually interfaces the multitudes in our countryside. This level begins from the districts downward. The districts in India are not democratically structured as the union and the states are. The pyramid of the Indian administrative system bottoms out at the state level and from the district level downward, it presents a truncated, divided and confused scenario. 

At the district level, not only is the legislature divided between the urban (Nagar Palika) and the rural (Zilla Parishad) areas but even the executive authority is not an elected member of either legislature. In fact, it is normally a rank outsider, who in many cases, is not even from the state itself let alone, the district. Of course, we’re talking about the district collector who is normally an IAS officer and is a government appointed authority. Any district resident has all the reasons to ask ‘why is it so’? Especially, when this rank outsider is found wanting in the conduct of his duties in almost all the areas he is responsible for. To add salt to the wound, the district collector is not accountable or answerable to either the Nagar Palikas or the Zilla Parishads. In fact, he heads them and in most cases, they are answerable to him.

Now, if this is the scenario at the top of the district administration what should be expected at levels further down at the sub-divisional and block levels? So, is it any wonder that no governance worth the name ever reached the dirt poor folks who are staking their lives to protect the Maoist terrorists today? I’m not saying even for a moment that everything will start working well immediately after an overhaul of the district administrative structure. It might not, for all we know but if we have a proper democratic structure in the districts as in the union and the states, then true accountability emerges and deals with the rest, especially non-performance. People then have the option of replying democratically to misrule and not fall into the trap of the totalitarian monsters like the Maoist terrorists. 

On the other hand, who are we to impose this quasi-authoritarian district collector on the people of the districts? It is illegal and unconstitutional and if the matter is properly presented in the courts, the ruling will be decisively against the state governments or whichever authority is found to be imposing such administrative coercion on the people of the districts. Such coercion will be seen by the courts as standing in the way of democratic decentralization, e.g. a composite district legislature, from evolving in the districts. Without a composite district legislature emerging there’s no way that districts can ever have an executive authority which is democratically elected and is accountable to the people of the districts. It’s a simple enough solution if we really want to arrive at one because all it needs is just a little mental adjustment. We have to stop thinking that a composite district legislature would weaken the state administration without strengthening district administration.

In fact, that was the sentiment of the 2nd ARC (Administrative Reforms Commission) which had the good sense to suggest that the office of the district collector has to make way for an elected district mayor who will be accountable to a composite district legislature or a district council. Accountability in governance from the district level downward is not possible without this democratic decentralization and delivering NREGA and other worthwhile government programmes without an accountability mechanism will just remain a pipe dream. The Maoist problem has only added urgency for the recommendations of the 2nd ARC with respect to district governance, to be implemented without any further delay. The question is, who will bell the cat?

Why Doesn't India Have True Democracy at the District Level?

 The never-ending story of district collectors caught with wealth, hundreds of times more than their known sources of income, has been an ugly reality since the early days of British colonial oppression. It can be safely argued that this creature – the district collector, would have evolved nonetheless, had it been any other colonial power ruling the roost in India instead of the British.

The brazen pomp and grandeur along with the autocratic power and prestige that is usually associated with the job of a district collector in the perception of the average Indian, is illusory and misplaced on the one hand and utterly disgraceful, on the other. It’s a strange paradox – most people are awestruck by the power and ‘prestige’ of a civil service officer serving as a district collector and at the same time, is critical of the damage this officer of the government is doing to the nation. 

There have been good district collectors and some that have laid down their lives in the line of duty and a grateful and saddened nation have always saluted these bravehearts. However, the bulk of the district collectors that collide with criminals to loot public wealth have no business to cite the examples of these honest officers and ride piggyback on their sacrifice. Rather, we should ponder over why these honest officers had to pay such a high price for steadfastly doing their job. 

It’s not difficult to see why good officers have found it impossible to survive in the district collectorate. The entire structure of the district collectorate is a mockery of democracy and is institutionally and morally untenable. The district collector lords over the district as the executive authority with overriding powers to control the district level legislatures – the Zilla Parishad and the Nagar Palikas. Naturally, the collectorate has become the hub of the worst forms of vested interests. 

The district collector is a government appointed officer with no connection to the district he lords over, much like the collector during the British Raj. He is not accountable to the people of the district but they, including their elected representatives in the Zilla Parishads and Nagar Palikas, are accountable to him. Strangely, the voluntary sector constitutional ‘specialists’ who talk about power to the people, don’t bother about this sore thumb sticking out of Indian democracy. 

The question today, isn’t about a few good collectors getting sacrificed at the altar of corruption or whether the ‘rustics’ at the Zilla Parishads are fit to run their districts. It is about the basic question – can you have such an autocratic entity as a district collector with all the wrong attributes and infamy, right at the heart of the world’s largest democracy? Let’s even overlook the never-ending stories of collectors amassing astronomical wealth for the time being and focus on the basic question – why on earth have collectors to wreck our districts? Why shouldn’t the people of the districts have the right to govern themselves like it is done at the union and states? 

What are we going to do with our waste?

Heaven knows...as long as we just let it rot as waste, it won't be of any use to us. It reminds me of a wonderful title I came across on a brochure promoting an event in Mumbai, on waste management, in 2009 - WASTE IS NOT A WASTE TILL IT IS WASTED. I was given the job of proofreading the dummy copy before it went for printing. 

It will remain a loaded phrase for as long as we have waste in our planet or elsewhere in our universe and I've come to accept it as the mantra for waste management. I don't know where the brochure came from or why it ended up on my table but I'm thankful that I got to see it. So, hats off to whoever developed that wonderful line. 

Now, what are we going to do about the piles of waste lying everywhere in this country? I'm no expert of waste management nor am I a social scientist but I can see a couple of things right away when I think of the filthy 'wasteland' that my country has become. First, three-fourths of the visible waste everywhere seems to be plastic and second, we're a slack race that hasn't been able to rise to the level where it matters one bit, to us. Yet, I'm told that there are parts of the country where things are much better than where I live. I happen to be in Delhi NCR.

I've never been to Kerala or anywhere in the South, for that matter, except Hyderabad, for a couple of days where I didn't find time to see the Charminar! I didn't find Hyderabad too different from any of the other Indian cities I've been to. However, Kerala has been in the news for all the right reasons except for the unfortunate event when those paranoid Italian security guards ended up killing two of our fishermen, mistaking them for Somali pirates. Getting back to the point, Kerala boasts of a near cent percent literacy rate, near advanced economy HDI, a 50 billion USD+ temple treasure equivalent to or more than the state's total debt, to speak of a few.

Now, I hear that the state is pretty clean and green. Well, I have no doubt about the greenery as I've seen enough high resolution pictures of different parts of Kerala but when I heard about the comparatively better civic sense in Kerala, from more than one or two individuals who were from the north, I was pleasantly surprised. So, is it true? 

A part of India with one of the highest population densities, that has found a way to manage its waste? They call it 'God's own country' in the world of advertising and marketing and if Kerala has found a way to manage her waste, then it deserves every bit of this larger-than-life tagline.

I'm sure that a lot of people are already talking about the piles of unattended waste on our roadsides. I've also seen the lack of interest in our mainline mass media (TV and Print) to cover this issue in any way. If and when they do, they seem to do it with an air of nonchalance just as they would like to avoid covering everything in Kashmir that relates to ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Hindus who are now refugees in their own country. 

It's evident that plastic poly bags and packs are the main source of waste in India and the obvious first step is to ban them altogether, even if it means the loss of a few million jobs that are dependent on enterprises manufacturing such poly bags and packaging. We need to find ways to use this labour force to produce bio-degradable packaging material. The biggest hurdle in this endeavour - we're a slack race with no sense of our own priorities and will probably remain that way till kingdom come. 

Should We Worry About Thermal Paper Proliferation?

 Everywhere you go, from retail stores to movie theaters and from public transport vehicles to petrol pumps among others, the servicing personnel are eager to give you a receipt for the transactions you do. Any old timer with memories going back to the 70s, 80s and 90s would be pleasantly surprised by this new enthusiasm of point of sale (POS) personnel in giving away receipts for transactions. Moreover, the receipts are given away instantly, printed from compact, hand-held printers, a little larger than calculators. If the eagerness for transparency is admirable, the efficiency of instant bill generation is positively impressive. And yet, some folks refuse the receipts as if these are infectious objects.

Process of thermal printing
The paper used to print the receipts instantly, is known as thermal paper and the compact hand-held printer is a direct thermal printer. Contrary to conventional printing, here the printer doesn't use any consumables like ink, dye or ribbon; instead it uses heat to produce the print output or what we commonly refer to as printed matter. How? Well, as already mentioned, thermal paper has a chemical coating on the side where the printing takes place. When exposed to heat, it produces images or scribbles or whatever the heat exposure directs it to do.

On a thermal printer, the print head is designed to transfer heat in a controlled manner after being programmed to produce the desired print output. There is a small slot for a thermal paper roll, which is just about the size of a camera film reel, to fit into the printer. For the user, there can't be anything simpler since the thermal paper roll can slide into the slot just as easily as a camera film reel slides into a camera. This printer can be integrated to a large cash register or it can function as a standalone billing device. It's convenient and fast for both users and customers; so why are some folks skeptical? 

Hazardous chemical coating on the receipts
The controversy surrounding the thermal paper receipts is related to Bisphenol-A, a supposedly hazardous chemical compound, about which, opinion is divided among the experts. Some proclaim it to be hazardous, while others don't. However, the debate still hasn't gained traction in the mass media on a scale that could make everyone conscious about any issue with the compound, at least here in India. Understandably, it has not been long that thermal paper has been in use in India on any meaningful scale and so, awareness about it's likely hazards is not there, as much as it is elsewhere.

While the debate rages on, it would be naive to just overlook the possible hazards to humans, of direct exposure to thermal paper. It functions as a color developer in thermal paper, where it is present as 'free' and in non-polymerized state, which is supposedly more hazardous than when it is present on plastic and polymer products. In this 'free' state, humans exposed to BPA run the risk of absorbing it through their skins. Now, that's surely worrying although those arguing against the existence of any such risk put forth their own views about BPA on thermal paper. The likely outcome is rather serious - cancer, lung and kidney infection among other worrisome conditions.

As an end user and a customer, who likes convenience and efficiency, I would not like to let go off the thermal paper printer that the retail store or petrol pump personnel use. However, I can't overlook the fact that many countries have banned the use of BPA in all forms. Here in India, we are on a growth path with many retail segments going through sustained periods of boom; we need the efficiency to sustain that boom. The debate on BPA in India is as good as absent and it's not surprising. We still live hazardous lives - drive like maniacs on the roads, are oblivious to product adulteration and generally don't understand a whole lot of risks. Seems BPA is going to be with us for some more time. 

It's High Time Indian Politicians Got Their Dressing Right

 A couple of years ago we heard the phrase “suit boot ki sarkar” being used as a jibe by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to score brownie points over rival, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). So, what was the brownie point he wanted to score? It is the perception that the vast majority of the Indian people dislike the affluent folks who like to dress up in suits and boots.

Why? Because this vast majority are supposedly poor rural folks who hardly have anything to wear other than the loin cloth that MK Gandhi used to wear. But is that true? I don’t think so. Today, if you look at the average individual on the street, male or female, they are invariably young and hardly look more than 30 years of age. They all turn up in western outfits such as shirt and trousers or jeans.

Strangely enough, Indian politicians, irrespective of whether they are young or old, BJP or Congress or any other party, seem to share Gandhi’s perception that the bulk of the country’s people don’t like politicians who dress up in western outfit. That explains why all these politicians dress up in white kurta and churidar or pyjama, which instead of helping them align with the attire of common folks, actually mark them out as a different species altogether. So, in India, if you are a politician in northern India, you wear white knee-length kurta with pyjamas or churidar.

And if you are a politician in southern India, you wear white shirt and white dhoti wrapped around, lungi style.

Interestingly, 90% of the crowd they interact with, turn up in western style shirts or T-shirts along with trousers or jeans. So, what are these politicians trying to prove to the common people? Are they trying to tell them that only those who dress up in these ethnic outfits have the right to be political leaders in India? Or are they trying to tell the common folks that wearing ethnic outfit reflects simplicity and purity, which MK Gandhi, whom many consider the “Father of the Nation”, had preached? Now, there’s no harm in wearing ethnic attire but you can’t force people to wear them against their will. Neither can you build an ‘Old Boy’s Club’ of folks who wear ethnic attire and stonewall the rest, just because those folks wear western outfit. 

If wearing ethnic outfit is a non-negotiable virtue then why don’t the government servants like civil service officers, police personnel, military personnel, banking service personnel, etc. wear these ethnic outfit? How about asking the army personnel posted in the Himalayan frontier, to wear white ethnic outfit since the “Father of the Nation” had said it reflected purity and simplicity? Honestly, I think our politicians have become caricatures of a different world with which the common man doesn’t connect. They want to be seen as ‘pure and simple’ folks dressed in white ethnic clothing but they also want people to dive to their feet the moment they step down from their expensive super luxury vehicles. Whom are they trying to fool? 

It’s time for our leaders to gradually start filtering out the extravagant nonsense in the name of simplicity and purity and get closer to the people, dressed like the common man, in simple shirt and trouser. It’s not my place to talk about how the women leaders ought to dress up but like the women in the military and police, let them also make their adjustments if they feel it is necessary. The women leaders anyway don’t stand out as separate caricatures amongst the women crowd they interact with. It’s our male leaders who need to get real and get closer to the man on the street. Leave the ethnic wear for special occasions like cultural festivities, etc. For business, get down to shirt and trouser. That’s what the common man in India wears – in the urban, suburban or rural areas.