Southern States - Karnataka   

Official apathy to drought comes to light

By Our Special Correspondent

DHARWAD May 16. The insensitivity of the administration to the problems of people in the drought-hit areas, which came to light on Thursday might have shocked Janardan Poojary, KPCC President, but hardly caused any flutter among those who have been familiar with the situation.

For, it has been the case all over, not necessarily particular to Dharwad District, since drought set in three years ago in the State.

Mr. Poojary was angered mainly because it was his first brush with the ground realities, which, however, had not been taken cognisance of by those in power. Mr. Poojary chose to tick off the Minister in-charge of the District, K.N.Gaddi, publicly for the lapse in monitoring the situation because Mr. Gaddi was the first to be caught in the process.

The lackadaisical response of the district administration to the drought situation, noticed by Mr. Poojary, is, however, not peculiar to this district only. It is the third year that the people have been facing hardship because of drought. The response of the Government continues to be nonchalant. The situation has been allowed to deteriorate with the political leadership not finding time for a meaningful review of how its promises are being translated into action at the ground level.

It has been the bureaucracy that has been busy fudging figures as the political leadership has allowed itself to be sidelined without bothering to crosscheck the claims with the people. Only the Secretaries to the Government, who have been named as nodal district officers, have reviewed the situation.

Between a nonchalant bureaucracy and an indifferent political leadership also lies another story of marginalisation of elected representatives at the grassroots level. None of the three tiers of the panchayat raj institution have any role to play in reporting drought and planning and implementing relief programmes.

For, the key person to tackle the drought at the district level is not the zilla panchayat president but the Deputy Commissioner and the district administration. It is the Deputy Commissioner who reports drought, gets money from the Government and plans relief programmes, and the wings of the zilla panchayats are simply asked to implement them.

Under the system in vogue, the Deputy Commissioner has nothing to do with the zilla panchayat. He is under no obligation to consult the panchayat raj institutions in making the assessment of drought nor the latter have any power to summon him and make him share his opinion with them also. The Deputy Commissioner is not obliged to consult any of the panchayats on measures to mitigate the sufferings of the people. He simply communicates whatever the Government tells him to do and it has to be followed.

The situation is a throwback from the days of the administration inherited from the British Raj when the office of the Deputy Commissioner or the Collector as he was known then was a vital component in all district activities. He was the fountainhead of authority and was the eyes and ears of the government and also its veritable instrument. Besides, for some other historical reasons, when the drought relief given by the Centre depended on the report given by the Deputy Commissioner, the latter played an important role.

Now things have changed. The creation of panchayats at the district, taluk and village levels has taken away the responsibilities from the Deputy Commissioner and transferred them to the institutions, which have their own paraphernalia, including president, a chief executive officer, etc. Besides, with the Centre introducing the concept of a fixed natural calamity fund, the question of the Deputy Commissioner sending reports on drought has been obviated with the State taking up immediate relief works.

The duality in approach came to the fore when the panchayat system was introduced in 1987 and there was furore in the zilla parishads as the district level institutions were known then, over their being marginalised and ignored by the Deputy Commissioner and the government in handling drought.

The Janata Dal Government went out of office before any changes could be made providing for active participation of elected representatives at the grassroots level in tackling the problem of drought relief. The governments in the State since then have hardly made any effort to bring about any changes and, hence, the present conundrum. The district administration represented by the District in-charge Minister hardly evinces any interest and the panchayats have no role to play in providing relief to the affected persons.

The malady surely lies not in the districts but at a higher level of administration, where the panchayats have been systematically marginalised. Will Mr. Poojary turn his attention to where the problem lies rather than picking out an individual who happens to be in-charge Minister here or a zilla panchayat president there.

The task should be easier since the Congress wants to empower the panchayats and the Government wants to delineate the functions of the panchayats through activity mapping.

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