Reengineering the District Planning& Development in India
I would like to suggest the following to revamp the district-wise development management & quality monitoring in our Indian Administrative setup. We have already seen that the world economy is putting heavy demand on India and expect the Elephant-like Indian Economy to not only do a brisk walking but also to run to match the roaring Tiger of the Asian Giant, China. In continuation of my earlier thoughts on the above subject in which I called for the establishment of 100 Institutes of Excellence by the Industrial bodies like CII, I would like to put forward my suggestions for revamping of our Development Administration in our nation.
We are talking of Quality Management System everywhere. But we have not embarked on any Quality Management Systems for our nation building activities. I trust that there might have been some kind of monitoring in our administrative systems. As an Engineer with experience in State Engineering Services as well as private sector and as an active office bearer in the Indian Institution of Plant Engineers by virtue of being the Editor of its Plant Engineering Journal -PEJ, I would like to suggest the following.
Responsible citizens might have observed the facts that of late there seems to be no kind of coordination between various functional engineering departments – whether State or Central in our country, The landing of Right to Information is a step in the right direction. Very senior people who might have seen the British way of administrations in India use to grumble that the British are really good in these aspects.
One important point I observed is that during that period there were less number of Engineering Departments with less ladder of power execution of power etc and decision making. We have expanded the Departments in State as well as Central levels. Now we have expanded to meet the increased population and services to meet the current needs. But we have lost coordination among the various agencies.
We are at loss to see the same road newly laid by one agency to be dug out for telephone lines the very next day and then by other agency for drainage works next day and then for power line problems thereafter etc .It has become that order of the day.
Every department meeting the yearly target for Expenses sake, the common man is not benefited, the contractor gets the money. The Engineers get the employments.
Who is to blame? Which agency is there in India to control this wasteful expenditure? After IT and mapping and satellites scanning we can have an on-line map of development works by various departments and a ingle agency should be there to monitor, coordinate and measure quality so that we are not wasting our public money.
The Post of Collector was initiated by the British to collect the public land revenue and taxes. Over a period of time we have expanded his line of control everywhere and over burdened him a lot.
Why cannot we think of a Development Directorate at District levels to monitor to coordinate and mange the quality aspects of our developmental aspects and relieve the Collector to fully do administration and related areas?
Let us give equal status/power to these two people at the District level. Let every department continue to be answerable to their state heads for the functional areas. And the District level head with equal powers of a State Secretary. In this connection I would like to appreciate the basic idea under which our Honorable First Prime Minister established the DGSD. Let us not repeat the same mistake of not utilizing the concept while establishing this dual –administration, I am suggesting.
Let us float the thoughts for wide debates and embark on these administrative reforms.
Let us not create a commission to get voluminous reports and put in the dustbins of our secretariats along with some old ones.
Let us make it a time bound initiative to really kick our Indian Elephant to run to meet the challenges and harness the opportunities for our well-being
Let us do a fast march to reach our goal of making the India really great by 2020, the dream of our great visionary Dr A P Abdul Kalam, our second Mahatma
Er Ramalingam K S
Engineering & Management Consultant
Now in Wilmington –Delaware -USA
Emails:
erramalingamks@yahoo.com erramalingam.ks@gmail.com