Baldev Singh Chib
Openness means sharing information in easily understandable form and acting in an open manner. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to the citizens. Governance is normally described as managing and running the affairs of a nation involving government, civil society and private sector.
Free access to information which must be timely, relevant, accurate and complete is a key element in promoting transparency. Transparency is widely recognized as a core principle of good governance and is considered essential for controlling corruption in Government offices. Though certain actions of the Government do require secrecy, yet this must not be made a general rule nor should politicians and bureaucrats use this as a cover for their covert acts of corruption. Openness provides information to the citizens about what their Government is doing which empowers them, strengthens democracy and promotes answerability, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness in governance. The Government should put information about its policies, decisions and operations online to make it readily available to the public. Information maintained by the Government is a national asset. All Government departments should solicit public feedback to know whether the benefits of Government policies, programs and operations are accruing to the intended population. It could enable the Government departments/ agencies to identify the areas of default and apply correctives, wherever required, and also convince the citizens that government departments are interested in listening to their views and responding to their priorities and concerns. This in turn enhances the legitimacy of the decision making process and strengthens democratic principles. It could also transform the Government bureaucracy known for patronage, corruption and inefficiency into the one that is viewed as a model of innovation, reform, accountable, responsive and user- friendly.
The responsibility for managing the affairs of a nation is not limited to Government alone, but includes a wide variety of stakeholders including: state governments, local self governments, the private sector, non-governmental and community-based organizations (NGOs/CBOs), the media, professional associations and other members of civil society. And each stake-holder has a specific role to play. The role of the private sector is very important as it is an important means of creating jobs and employment that in turn generates revenue through taxes. These taxes are used by the Government to formulate programmes that benefit citizens.
Here, we have an opaque administration emanated in part as a consequence of colonial legacy that remains distanced from its people. India’s public administration framework is a classic example of complete failure. The state and its apparatus, including the bureaucracy are not generating public good but continue to function as a tool generating benefits for the particular group that controls the state.
The civil services, particularly at the higher echelons of administration hierarchy play the key role in determining policies and programs as well as their implementation without knowing citizens’ actual needs and preferences. The result is that such policies and programs do not bear any reflection with peoples’ real and basic needs and preferences. For example: citizens of Jammu needed Housing Colonies which have not been built for the last 30 years, quality education, robust health system, uninterrupted power supply, drinking water of acceptable quality, maintenance of canals which is the life line of rural population, public transport system, removal of road encroachments, proper maintenance of government schools, regulating the functioning and fee structure of private schools, speedy and fast disposal of court cases etc. But, instead the government constructed golf ground, rope ways, artificial lake, beautification of columns of flyovers, painting of breast walls of roads which were not the basic needs of the citizens of Jammu. If we describe the condition of education and health care systems in Jammu even in the mildest terms, it can only be said as ‘horrible’. The J&K Housing Board and Jammu Development Authority created for catering to the housing needs of the people have not developed any housing colony for the last more than 30 years. Both these bodies have become almost non-performing but still exist. The staff of these bodies get salaries and promotions without doing any work. Transparency and public feedback are necessary in the formulation and implementation of policies and programs of government so that the priorities are assigned to the basic and actual needs of the public. Across the world, governments are experimenting with new ways of strengthening citizens’ engagement in policy making and administration.
Apart from public participation, the citizens have no means of accessing information on how decisions are made or the basis of decisions. There are no mechanisms for measuring the outcomes of policy decisions as there is no information on standards and goals that policies seek to achieve. There is no mechanism for knowing the fund flows, expenditure tracking and delay in government works. The complex budget documents do not report on actual expenditures. The schemes are formulated and finalized by the government, funds allocations are also tightly controlled at the secretariat level. Expenditure reviews are done either at the administrative secretariat level or at the most at district level but the real expenditures are incurred far below at the service delivery points – be it the school, the hospital, irrigation canal, the public works site etc. There exists no mechanisms for expenditure tracking. There is no transparency in fund flows and expenditures. Thus, the leakages and expenditure in-efficiencies in such a clandestine system go unnoticed by the public. An open governance should be a goal and disclosure rather than secrecy should be the norm of governance.
There is a huge backlog of 47 million court cases across the country. Our justice delivery system is unable to provide timely justice to the citizens. Litigations linger on for decades, wasting the time, energy and money of the people, particularly of the poor and the common man who cannot engage experienced and expensive lawyers. A legal maxim “Justice delayed is justice denied” means that a legal remedy is available, but actually not forthcoming promptly. The longest court case in the history of India is that of ” Doshipura Graveyard” which was started in the year 1878 and is continuing till now. In USA, the longest trial was McMartin preschool abuse case which continued for 7 years and the lengthiest trial in the in the United Kingdom was the Jubilee line corruption case which continued for 21 months.
In 1950, the strength of Supreme Court judges was eight and the pendency of cases was just around one hundred. Currently the strength of judges of Hon’ble Supreme Court is 34 ( including Chief Justice of India ) and the pendency of court cases is around 70,000. This is in spite of the increased strength of judges, new technologies and improved infrastructure. Of the 47 million cases pending in courts across India, around 70,000 are in the Supreme Court, 58,94,060 are in 25 High Courts and the remaining in the Districts and subordinate judiciary. In order to hear the cases of heinous crimes against women, children and senior citizens, there are 896 fast-track courts functional and the pendency in these courts is of more than 13.18 lakh cases. Apart from fast track courts, there are 731 Fast-Track Special Courts set up under centrally sponsored scheme for hearing rape and protection of children from Sexual Offences cases and the current pendency in these courts is 3.28 lakh cases, thus defeating the very purpose of setting up of the so-called fast track courts. It is worth mentioning that the current strength of judges of the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu and Kashmir/ Ladakh UTs is 17 ( including 4 additional), the total number of cases filed for appointment of Arbitrators during the last 5 years was just 175, of which 24 were dismissed and in 61 cases the Arbitrators were appointed. The remaining 90 cases are languishing at different stages for the last 5 years. These figures speak for themselves and tell us the plight of the justice delivery system in our Union Territory. In a period of 5 years, the Hon’ble High Court comprising of 17 judges has not been able to dispose of 175 applications for appointment of Arbitrators. Such an abnormal delay in disposal of arbitration applications defeats the very purpose of the provision of Arbitration Law. The purpose of arbitration is to resolve the cases faster than normal litigation. But the actual position is reverse. This affects the poor and marginalized.
Way forward :
* Strengthening of Right to Information Act. The information should be timely, relevant, accurate and complete. Penalties should be made more stringent.
* For easy access of the government functionaries to the public, contact numbers, emails and other details of senior officers including ministers should be made available to the public by uploading the same on departmental websites.
* The annual Activity and Performance Reports of all the departments should be put in the public domain on the departmental Websites.
* Publication of white papers on all important government matters concerning the public.
* Measurement Books (MBs), contract allotments and purchase orders of all the departments are put in the public domain on departmental websites so as to know where the funds have actually been spent.
* Tour and inspection notes of the Ministers, Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments, and also the Audit findings should be put in the public domain on departmental websites. The parliamentary procedure requires that all audit reports be tabled in parliament and the state legislature concerned. The Public Accounts Committees examine these reports and recommend action to be taken. Action taken on each audit finding should be put on the websites of the Parliament, Legislative Assembly and the Comptroller and Auditor General.
* Every public undertaking/agency receiving money from the Government should produce and place in the public domain annual report containing the structure of the entity, vision, mission, functions, who worked in what capacities, what works were undertaken, how expenditures were made and achievements and failure, details of independent scrutiny made on use of fund, and outstanding results, if any.
* With the current speed of disposal, it will take centuries to clear the pendency of 47 million court cases across India. There is a need to take proactive steps to clear the huge backlog of cases in Indian courts. Government and the judiciary should chalk out a clear strategy to improve the court efficiency by simplifying the procedure, making the judicial process transparent, increasing the number of judges and ending post retirement jobs for the judges. The government and the judiciary should expand and strengthen on-line courts to clear the huge pendency of court cases. In the Supreme Court and the high courts, the respondents are mostly the government departments who delay the cases due to their callous attitude in completing the procedures. To activate and make the courts well functioning, the government should provide sufficient funds for improving the infrastructure of courts and also increasing the number of judges. It is worth mentioning that during the year 2019-20 INR 15.00 crores were provided under Centrally Sponsored Scheme for development of infrastructure for the District and subordinate courts in J&K UT of which only NR 8.30 crores only were spent, thus revealing that the judiciary itself is not keen to improve the infrastructure.
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