Experiments in administration

INNOVATIONS IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: S. S. Gadkari and M. R. Kolhatkar -- Editors; Allied Publishers Ltd., 13/14, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi-110002. Price not mentioned.

INNOVATIONS ARE experiments, which are not only of a pioneering nature but also, are visible, leaving a lasting impact. Detailed examinations of eight such innovations in Maharashtra administration comprise this slim volume by the state branch of the Indian Institute of Public Administration.

Of the eight, four deserve particular mention, as they have not been tried elsewhere so far.

Under the Employment Guarantee Scheme a shelf of approved schemes is kept ready so that employment generation in man-days is 150 per cent of the expected employment during the ensuing year.

The accent is on right to work and wages are equal for men and women who register in advance seeking employment.

The High Court intervened to guarantee minimum wages and also to extend provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act to the workers under the Employment Guarantee Scheme. In the absence of employment, an unemployment allowance at two rupees per day is given.

The inadequacy of this provision, denial of choice of work or area, bureaucratic apathy and friction between social workers and bureaucrats are some of the drawbacks discussed in the essay but the overall impression is the guaranteed recognition of the right to work.

Nearly 17,000 old, dilapidated and structurally unsound buildings were repaired at a cost of Rs. 400 crores over 25 years. These were private buildings of 50 to 100 years age, which had been weakened over the years.

A cess was levied on all such buildings to fund the project. Ten per cent of the cess was to be paid by the owners of the tenements. Transit accommodation was also provided to tenants who had to be shifted.

The State Government, stepping in to reconstruct defective structures, was indeed an innovation, which averted major building collapses during monsoons.

The Marathi encyclopaedia, Vishwakosh, was a cultural and intellectual project under government auspices. Seventyfive per cent of the monumental work was over at the time of publication.

The essay acknowledges that it was individual initiative and patronage of select chief ministers, which rendered such a purely academic venture possible.

The Ahmednagar experiment has already drawn countrywide attention. A particular district collector gave a new look to the collectorate by ensuring more transparency and better preservation of records facilitating quick retrieval.

By providing transparent doors between officers and clerks, he effected regulation of contact between clerks and the public. There was little either revolutionary or novel in whatever he did to keep the office tidy, but the fact that he was the first to do it made news. What is striking is the cooperation of his staff and public.

Women employees did not mind staying late and a local architect offered advice on redesigning the office free of charge.

When better stores management brought a revenue of Rs. 26,000 by disposal of weeded out papers, even that was added to the general revenues of the State and not made available to him.

The article sadly recalls that even in Ahmednagar, the enthusiasm has waned under his successors.

Another wrench is that he drew little appreciation from his own colleagues in the State.

The experiment was more a committed execution of what ought to be than an apathetic resignation to what is.

There are articles on the Panchayati Raj and free education for backward classes and CIDCO's Rehabilitation Programme for Navi Mumbai. These are measures in vogue in other states as well.

Innovations always impress a conservative administration as deviant and unconventional.

But if the changes benefit the citizens without any additional cost or procedural impropriety, they should be welcome and encouraged. Trail-blazers are not necessarily rebels, much less in routine administration.

A. S. PADMANABHAN

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