The Smart Phone and Politics

A member of the state’s legislative assembly in India (MLA) represents 250,000 people on the average. The member of parliament (MP) represents one to two million people on the average. What does the communications revolution and the Internet mean to the peoples’ representatives? I believe that they provide the best way for the representatives to hear from the people. I believe that every representative needs a well-publicized mobile number and email address to receive grievances.  The fact that most adults have access to a cell phone makes them the most suitable communication device for them to communicate with peoples’ representatives. If the communications received are promptly acknowledged and acted upon, that representative is going to be very popular and vice versa. This is obvious from peoples’ priorities. Visit https://newsclick.in/jobs-and-water-are-main-issues-karnataka-survey  Very often the action required is only to re-send the grievance to the government entity concerned and demanding that a proper reply is sent in time. 

This method of grievance redressal is important, but political parties have not given adequate importance to this so far. They have understood the use of mass media. In fact, panel discussions held every working day on most TV channels have become the public forums where the spokesmen of the parties justify their behaviour and reply to major complaints. This is valuable, as the parties are answerable on a day-to-day basis, but it is not enough.

TV discussions do not hold the government departments and officials answerable in any way better than was the case in 1940! Panel discussions can deal with policy issues, but not with the day-to-day performance of tens of thousands of government offices. Electronic grievance reporting under the supervision of peoples’ representatives will make a very big difference to the efficiency of government machinery.

This recognition should be the foundation of e-governance.

Srinivasan Ramani

Avoiding wasteful work

There are many practices in India that should be eliminated. They waste people’s time and resources like paper.

One example is the filing of receipts with a revenue stamp for payment of salary or pension, even if the payment is through a bank. I do not know if this serves any significant purpose. Some municipal corporations do not ask for receipts from pensioners – they do not even send them an information slip saying what pension is being paid for which month or year. Intimations of payment with some detail can be sent even in the form of SMS. Failure to send salary slips or messages makes one suspect that such lack of transparency could facilitate fraud. We do not need an Administrative Reforms commission to set these things right. The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India can do a lot by insisting on efficient procedures and transparency in all government and government funded offices.

There are other wasteful practices like the railways giving 10% concession to doctors – allopathic - travelling for any purpose, or giving 75% off for artists traveling to give a performance. The list of persons eligible for such concessions has 53 categories. Recently, the Railways woke up to the fact that it is not the job of the Railways Ministry to pay for these handouts – the concerned ministries should pay. Even that appears insufficient. Railways should not waste the time of their staff handling these subsidy transactions and slow down their service to people waiting to buy tickets. Trivial subsidies ought to be eliminated. More important ones should be handled by concerned offices – not by Railways.

Many government departments tolerate the practice of government employees being used as domestic servants by superiors. This is often justified by designating subordinates as orderlies. This has to be stopped. Government salaries are high enough now for officers to pay for their own domestic help. Making subordinates work as domestic servants is corruption.  

Digital India, Smart Cities and Good Governance are all good ideas. The way towards these ideals is through the elimination of mindless practices!