Hilal Ahmad Dar
India’s experiment with local governance in the last thirty years has seen a considerable body of scholarly research. However, the existing article does not adequately engage with the role and responsibilities of government officials working as the last mile bureaucracy. In this article, I focus on one such village-level government secretary (hereafter, PS). The PS is the executive head of the panchayat secretariat and deals with a range of subjects devolved to gram panchayats (hereafter, GP) under the 73rd Amendment Act, Panchayats have always been a integral part of Indian since ancient times.
There are many references about it in the shastras like the Manusmiriti. Arthasastra and the Mahabharata. In the pre-Independence era, Mahatma Gandhi emphasised on village-level self-governance to improve the local economy and ensure overall development. He believed in the bottom-up approach. In keeping with the bottom-up tradition, the current government has gone all out in improving the functioning of panchayats. We all have realised that Panchayat Secretary job is as easy as we thought it is, but it does not hold true. It is different, loaded with challenges and required a hell lot of adjustments.
But there is always a mix of good and bad at any job. Panchayat Secretaries are working on problems at the grassroots level. While half of us don’t know how our work is impacting the society, Panchayat Secretary is actually solving those real issues, and getting to see the impact realtime. They always fix some big-time issues of the village like identifying the beneficiaries of government schemes in time bound manner, managing accounts related to state and national finance commissions funds, and ensuring the maintenance of village roads and other infrastructure, carrying election process of Panchayats to its conclusion, conducting gram sabhas and holding up political pressure, supervision of works, demarcation of land for works execution, installation of street lights. Changing Behaviour of People, building PMAY Houses, toilets, finding the right solutions for uphill tasks and much more. Panchayat Secretary works with the received feedback from the villagers.
Many times, the feedback will leave us in a shock but will also make us realise how these small things matter to the common man. So, if you are still waiting for a reply on that feedback mail that you sent from comfort home, try Panchayat Secretary’s job. People will come to your office,threaten you and also prove their point with the most hilarious proofs.
Sometimes, it has been found that the work overload impacts in implementation of many schemes like MGNREGA. The scheme mandates the appointment of a Rozgar Sewak in each panchayat to oversee the scheme. However, it has been observed that appointments of Rozgar Sewak have not been made or they left job mid-way in many panchayats, and the onus of managing the scheme rests with the Panchayat Secretary.
GPs are the main offices around which the works related to MGNREGA such as selection of work sites, maintenance of registers, and timely payment of wages, among others. Is done as one panchayat official explained, Rozgar Sevaks , in most cases, lack the requisite trainings and Electronic Gadgets to effectively perform their duties.
The scheme has been remarkably successful in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir due to excellent efforts of MGNREGA Staff and Panchayat Secretaries.
The analysis presented in this article indicates that local government officials such as the PSs face a heavy work overload and lack resources to carry out their duties effectively. They choose to resort to informality sometimes in the delivery of public services due to insufficient staff, lower pay structures and other necessary resources.
To be sure, I am not understanding prevalence of corruption and the lackadaisical work attitudes of government officials. Citizens trust in state institutions is shaped by their experiences and encounters with these last mile bureaucrats on an everyday basis. Thus, without understanding the conditions under which Jammu and Kashmir’s Panchayat Secretary operates we cannot do justice to any conversation on why some districts in Jammu and Kashmir under perform in implementing routine tasks and in what ways the capacity of Jammu and Kashmir can be increased.
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