Economic and Environmental costs of Declining Governance

Published in: JANATA, July 20, 2014, pp 9-12

Economic and Environmental costs of Declining Governance 

by

V.N.Sharma

For quite some time the people, especially the elder ones including the Freedom Fighters, have been found quite appreciative of the Rule of the British Raj in India in comparison to the one handed over to us by the post-independence Governments. The statements, made thus, may be swept under the carpet by some government spokesperson or those from the political class as coming simply out of individual frustration. People in power have a habit of projecting themselves as blind creatures. They fail to see the insincerity of their class in most of the purposes of governance in almost all locations, which speak volumes about the state we are in. Those, of late forties/ early fifties generation, had a chance, all through as a toddler to the end of adolescence, to see the governance in India as an extension of the British Rule. The ones from the rural background were more fortunate to see the Govt. officials from the public dealing departments like land revenue, water tax, health workers, police, Electric supply, Education etc. near their doors on different days. It used to be a two-way communication between the villagers and the visiting officials. Results used to be solution to at least some of the grievances right at the spot and positive assurances for the remaining ones. Health workers’ visited mostly during the monsoon for spreading bleaching powder in rotting garbage locations and treating wells with disinfectant to control spread of cholera or to organize vaccination programmes in the concerned village. The school located in the village was visited by the Inspector of Schools or his deputies every now and then-almost every quarter without fail. Such visits were a kind of fixed phenomena, though declining in quality and frequency, until mid-sixties. Police is the only government department which continued with its visibility all through to investigate crimes and complains of different variety though not with fair intentions, lately, in majority of the cases. Being closer to the seat of government officials and agencies, people in the urban areas smelt the government nearby in their breath. This indicated to the urbanites that there was a Government which worked for them.

Post sixties saw a major but exponential decay in the system of governance. The visits of the government officials, except the police, stopped and for every problem or simple routine issue people were asked to visit concerned offices in the Block or district headquarters and submit formal request. The urban population too sensed, like their rural counterparts, that they were farther from the ‘gods of public administration’ and almost in the same basket.  Inefficient and ineffective functioning by the bureaucracy or delayed response by the Government offices forced people either to compromise with corruption operated through middle men or brokers or take to law courts in search of justice or a decision. Thus was created a heavy demand on travel to long distances by too many citizens, very often too many times, which caused loss of valuable man-days as also addition to the undesirable consumption of the natural and mineral resources. Quite naturally the productivity per capita decreased. Now even weekly or fortnightly Janata Durbars by the CM or Ministers or bureaucrats in the State or district or block headquarters do not infuse much confidence.  But nothing moves, nobody is specifically questioned for inaction. It appears that such announcements are just played to the gallery for public consumption. Till about the end of eighties an extended courtesy by the Ministers and ministries used to be acknowledgement of letters addressed to them related to personal or social issues.

It is not quite an issue if the history of the civil administration in India is known to individual citizens or not but what they should get, as a matter of right, under a constitution guaranteeing it is a good governance. The citizens are in working mode as long as they deal with each other. The moment a third party called Government enters into the arena it becomes a flop show. There is no fixed time delivery by arms of the Govt. including judiciary. A delayed supply of material or submission by a citizen is punishable but nobody in the system of governance can be touched even if an individual employee has not done the assigned work. Their pay, perks and life with comfort are not questionable even if hundreds and thousands die outside.

Role of technology 

Availability of efficient information and communication technologies (ICT) like e-mail, mobile etc. in government offices has not changed the mechanics of administration and its decision making capabilities. The downward journey of political will and administrative lethargy visible since early sixties is taking newer and newer dips in larger spectrum of governance and public administration. The officials - big or small – from the Government secretariat located in the capital city to the Block level offices continue to work from their offices from the comfort of their office chamber. The usual comment made by such officials to the Media nowadays about a disaster, a scam in road making, money transaction, and corruption in an office, death of a patient in hospital due to absence, negligence or wrong treatment by the doctor is that this would be looked into when the issue comes to him. It is as if none of these happenings belong to his area of job description and for sure he does not have a responsibility to look outside his comfort zone. (Railway Ministers/ Officials are the only exception to this Rule though in a limited way only.) To add to that, if the sufferer or the relatives or the general populace make disturbing noise they can be put behind bars for ‘obstructing the office work’ clause of the law. Hiding behind such obnoxious laws and rules of administration the officials desire that the people should take every wrong doing by the Government men silently lying down even if mazdoors under MNREGA are not paid their wages, municipal services are not upto the mark, government or municipal schools do not conduct classes or educate children, hospitals remain without doctors-on-duty etc. More often than not, it appears that the government is on long leave. The political or administrative officials become visible individually or collectively only in press conferences or on TV screens during exposure of the scams related to them individually or collectively. It is beyond comprehension that the same ICTs incorporated in the Business sector works so well but fails at home in the Govt offices. This, in nut-shell, tells the story of inefficiency, ineffectiveness, intentionally bad or wrong approach to Governance, corruption and inclusion of middle men and commission agents in large numbers in functioning of the Government.

Environmental Damages

At the same time this also puts unnecessary demand on the basic infrastructure like roads, means of communication and transport, power etc. The rapid development in urban India has also resulted in a tremendous increase in the number of motor vehicles and in some cities this has doubled in the last decade. This is the main source of air pollution and poor ambient air quality impacting millions of dwellers. In 2005-06 there were 8.9M vehicles sold and in five years this number has scaled to 15M (in 2010-11). Cars and trucks are estimated to produce about 314 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in one year, and this number is going up each year. Cars are responsible for 72% of nitrogen oxides and 52% of reactive hydrocarbons in our atmosphere. Vehicles in major metropolitan cities are estimated to account for 70% of CO, 50% of HC, 30-40% of NOx, 30%of SPM and 10% of SO2 of the total pollution load of these cities, of which two-thirds is contributed by two wheelers alone. These are estimated to raise the earth’s temperature over 2 degrees centigrade, unleashing climate catastrophe. Such a working arrangement forced by the declining Governance tells negatively upon the socio-economic development, loss of valuable agricultural fields for more and more road making, ever decreasing forest areas, and ultimately upon the deterioration in the quality of Environment, increased burden of global warming, climate change and clean air and water availability. Governance in India, thus, is yet to match its steps with the incorporation and assimilation of newer technologies in their routine functions, especially where public related issues-individual or collective- is concerned.

Road accidents

The frequency of traffic collisions in India is amongst the highest in the world. A National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report revealed that every year, more than 135,000 traffic collision-related deaths occur in india. In New Delhi, the capital of India, the frequency of traffic collisions is 40 times higher than the rate in London, the capital of the United Kingdom. Traffic collision-related deaths increased from 13 per hour in 2008 to 14 per hour in 2009. More than 40 per cent of these casualties are associated with motorcycles and trucks. The most accident-prone time on Indian roads is during the peak hour at afternoon and evening. According to road traffic safety experts, the actual number of casualties may be higher than what is documented, as many traffic accidents go unreported. Moreover, victims who die sometime after the accident, a span of time which may vary from a few hours to several days, are not counted as car accident victims.

Economic Cost

The Planning Commission in its 2001–2003 research estimated that traffic collision resulted in an annual monetary loss of $10 billion (INR 550 billion) during the years 1999–2000. In 2012, the International Road Federation (IRF) estimated that traffic collision results in an annual monetary loss of $20 billion (INR 1 trillion (short scale)) in India. This figure includes expenses associated with the accident victim, property damage and administration expenses.

Need of a Citizens’ charter

A government or its agencies cannot collect taxes and refuse to provide service. It would make an interesting study of why minimum facility like clean drinking water supply, well maintained roads, improved health care service or quality education cannot be provided to the populace by the government. Why all these are not done and responsibility is left with irresponsible non-government agencies and organization remains a mystery. The end effect is public anger and frustration against the system of public and political administration leading to turmoil, and not without reason.

It is clear by now that the major share of the various costs and damages mentioned above are caused by bad and inefficient governance because of increased uncalled for transportation and loss of man days to constructive activities. A dynamic society must define the parameters of effective and efficient governance afresh in a citizens’ charter and its frequent evaluation and re-evaluation.The way to tackle the problems arising out of declining Governance is to change the service rules and methods of evaluation of the Govt. employees by incorporating public-on-the ground- evaluation, increased inclusion of ICT and other Technologies and building up of social and political will to make the Governance efficient as the Task and target number one.

Literature Used:

http://www.ipcbee.com/vol33/009-ICEEB2012-B023.pdf http://www.siamindia.com/scripts/domestic-sales-trend.aspx

http://www.lth.se/fileadmin/tft/dok/KFBkonf/1HoglundNiitymeki.PDF 

http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/73c55f4c-9b4f-4ae8-a09e-d089a703d29a/files/vehicle-pollution.pdf

http://www.environment.gov.au/system/files/resources/73c55f4c-9b4f-4ae8-a09e-d089a703d29a/files/vehicle-pollution.pdf

http://www.ask.com/question/how-much-pollution-does-a-car-give-off

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/dangers-letting-cars-dictate-city-design

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collisions_in_India