From ‘Attendance.gov’ and ‘Make in India’ to ‘MyGov’: Modi’s pitch for Digital Governance.

The Prime Minister is looking to leverage the digital means to reach out to the masses and advertise his initiatives in a way that no other political leader has done in India’s history, while ensuring more transparency and accountability in both the bureaucracy and the government through the same means.

There were a lot of things that contributed to Modi’s rise in national politics and his immense popularity amongst the masses. While Congress leaders – when in power-were reluctant to even talk to media and citizens regularly, Modi used both the Social Media and the Internet extensively to connect to the masses. In the run-up to the Lok Sabha Elections as he toured the country and made speeches, a dedicated team of technocrats, IIT/IIM/Ivy-league graduates and others mined data, produced media talking points and worked tirelessly on the online outreach to help create the Modi wave.

Modi, the most followed leader after the likes of the Pope and Obama, now aims to leverage the same means and platforms to spread his message of ‘Good Governance’ and include the everyday citizens of the country in decision-making and the larger discourse around governance by asking for their feedback and inputs. For a country that witnessed the government’s disinterest in making any effort to communicate with the public, this is a much-needed change. Democratic set-ups works best with the regular engagement of the government with the public. This not only ensures more accountability and transparency, but also keeps the citizens updated with the government’s work and progress.

As a country with the largest young population, the government has to move beyond the traditional methods of press releases, wire transmissions and press conferences to reach out to the citizens. An impetus on digital governance will not only ease the process of communication with the government but also facilitate the larger need of inclusive democracy to compile suggestions and feedback by the citizens – something that the conventional media may not be able to do as efficiently and regularly.

Although the current PM’s efforts towards digital governance are commendable, the current government should not be credited for all the efforts towards digital governance.  Previous governments, recognizing the need to facilitate access to government data through digital means, have successfully instituted forums like data.gov.in – a single-point access to data published by the various Government Ministries/Departments.  Through this website, one can access the census data and crime statistics to employment generated through schemes like NREGA, along with relevant visuals and maps.  Additionally, the National E-Governance Plan (NeGP), makes sure that the government keeps harnessing the power of E-Governance in delivering public services to the citizens.

Ever since Modi shifted from Gandhi Nagar to 7, Race Course, he has made sure every move taken by his government has been communicated to the citizens and continues to use the online media, as evident from his live streaming of Teachers’ Day Address and the address to the UN General Assembly, his Tweets to Foreign Leaders et cetera . Here are some of the steps that PM Modi has taken to promote Digital Governance.

Online presence and promotion of government initiatives

When was the last time you saw a government scheme trending on Twitter? Or, a state-of-the-art website for government campaigns. Modi knows how to package government schemes and programmes, right from his days at the Vibrant Gujarat campaign. Three months into the new government and all the programmes undertaken by the new government–‘PradhanMantri Jan DhanYojna’ ‘Make in India’, ‘Clean India’ – have had an incredible digital outreach and presence.  While ‘Make in India’ was launched with an impressive website, both the ‘Jan DhanYojna’ and ‘Clean India’created as much buzz on the internet as they did on news channels. Most recently, the PM smartly adapted the ‘Ice Bucket’ and ‘Book List Challenge’ to promote his ‘Clean India Campaign’by nominating 9 influential people to participate in, and further promote his campaign.

One of Modi’s primary initiatives and a reference in almost all his speeches and addresses, MyGov.in is a ‘citizen-centric platform that empowers people to connect with the Government and contribute towards good governance’. From asking for suggestions on issues such as Clean Ganga, Girl Child Education, Skill Development, and Job Creation to generic suggestions, MyGov aims to reach out to more than 10 million people, over the period of next one year . Apart from the reasons of engaging with the public as argued above, MyGov will surely go a long way in ameliorating the disenchantment people feel towards politics, by giving them a voice in governance through MyGov

Encouraging politicians to increase their online presence to reach out to the citizens

Contrary to his reputation now, post Gujarat riots Modi wasn’t really a darling of the media. Most media outlets portrayed him as an incompetent leader who failed to control the riots. To counter the damage done to his reputation, Modi started using social media and the internet to reach out to his people. From Blogs and Facebook Feeds to Google Hangout, he has made sure his presence was felt and people reached out to him, making him come across as an accessible and concerned leader. Almost every important cabinet minister in his government is on Twitter and Facebook, speaking directly to the citizens without any facilitation from the media.

Fighting red-tape

While Modi’s move to de-regularize and expedite the process of sanctioning environment clearances to projects is something that is debatable, he has sent out a clear message to the industry about his intent to fight red-tape and the bureaucracy that the government is infamous for. Now one can track the clearance of projects throughout the country on www.environmentclearnces.nic.in.

Since obtaining government clearances and project bidding processes have traditionally functioned in a near-black-box manner, resulting in the various scams and scandals, such steps will go a long way in making the environment more business friendly and instilling the industry’s and investors’ confidence in a more expeditious and transparent government. Hopefully this will be soon matched by most government departments and will not just remain restricted to the Ministry of Environment.

In a much needed move, the government has launched a website to track the attendance of the government employees- www.attendance.gov.in. Based on a Biometric Attendance System, the Attendance IDs of employees are generated through their Aadhar No. For a country whose government offices and bureaucracy are marred by the presence of inefficient pan-chewing ‘babus’ this comes as a great tool to track and review their attendance of the employees- no proxy attendance anymore.

The FlipSide- the need to move beyond virtual virtuousness and PR exercises

Image matters a lot to Modi. From appropriating the likes of Gandhi, SardarPatel and Vivekanand to stressing on the importance of the issues faced by the poor, Modi makes a conscious effort to style his image, his messages and the way he is perceived by the masses.

All these campaigns must be used to empower and involve the people rather than to blow the government’s trumpet. This is a very valid concern since many politicians, from the likes of Akhilesh Yadav to Ashok Chavan and Raman Singh, are spending crores of tax-payer’s rupees to advertise their initiatives on the internet (A Supreme Court report recently rebuked the Governments for spending tax-payers’ money in wasteful newspaper ads ), while poor people continue to suffer from basic needs. Add to that the dangers of Internet Activism- where the position of ‘armchair activists’ is open to all. In the age of #bringbackourgirls, #Mission272+ and #cleanindia, making a difference seems easy- a tweet or a share is all it takes for one to feel content on having performed one’s duty in bringing about a positive change. We need a contribution deeper than a click- an active and involved citizenry that is empowered through digital means but is willing to take action when needed.

Modi needs to make sure his initiatives end up being more than just token initiatives and symbolic gestures. For example, it is commendable to ask a billion plus people to take the broom, but the ‘Swach Bharat Abhiyaan’ without adequate municipal waste management infrastructure will be rendered useless. The government needs to make sure that it provides and develops supporting infrastructure to ensure the implementation of its schemes. All these initiatives and campaigns must not be treated like election promises which catch the popular imagination for a fix duration of time. For governments to build on from the excitement and enthusiasm that the public have shown for some of the recent initiatives, the government has to both monitor and manage these initiatives in a way that they actually contribute to the country, and don’t end up as just an old scheme packaged differently by the new government.

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Chitranshu Tewari is Engagement and Outreach Manager at I for India.

Moving away from FPTP ?

In this second part of the series ‘Blame it on the System’, we analyze the option of other voting systems and how India can make the transition.

More than 22 established democracies follow FPTP. However, over the course of 20^th century and later, a lot of countries have switched away from FPTP, Australia and New Zealand and Ukraine being among them. More importantly, no major democracy in the modern era has gone the other way and adopted FPTP. Of late, the voices for making the transition from FPTP to other electoral systems have become more prominent in India as well.  Among these, the case for Proportional Representation seems to be the strongest. From Jayaprakash Narayan (JN) to psephologist like Dorab Sopariwala, many have been advocating the switchover to Proportional Representation and Mixed Member Proportional Representation. Under Proportional Representation (PR), the number of seats a party gets in the Parliament is depended on percentage of the vote share. To put it simply, voters are expected to cast two votes, one for a candidate in their constituency and other one for a party of their choice. Party votes later decide the allocation of votes to various contesting parties.

Under Proportional Representation (PR), there are three types of voting system: Party List, Single Transfer Vote and Mixed Member..  Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMPR), a one of the most popular PR system, perfectly blends two distinct mechanisms, allowing the election of one part of representatives of local districts by a FPTP vote in single-seat constituencies, and at the same time, provides a fully proportional outcome.

Lets understand how MMPR would work in India:

• 50 percent of the seats in Lok Sabha would be elected via constituency election just like under the FPTP. For convenience, this 50 per cent of seats would be labeled as the ‘Constituency List’.
• The remaining 50 percent of the seats in the Lok Sabha would be elected via PR. These seats would be allocated according to the respective shares of the state vote received by each party. For convenience, this 50 percent of seats would be labeled as the ‘Parties List’
• Each voter would cast two votes. The first vote would be for their local member of the Lok Sabha. This vote would relate to the Constituency List. The second vote for a preferred party. This second vote would relate to Parties List.
• The ultimate number of seats won by each party will be a combination of seats drawn from the Constituency List and the Parties List. This figure will be calculated using several adjustments to ensure fairness in distribution of seats.

Though PR may seem a bit complicated as compared to the simpler FPTP, it is more likely to contribute positively towards democratic governance and address the growing apathy towards the democratic process. Apart from allowing constituency representation and providing proportional outcomes, organizations like Janadesh claim that under PR, parties are less likely to outdo each other to be the biggest and loudest voice, hence less expenditure. ‘In the top 20 least corrupt countries, 17 follow one form of PR or other’, claims a pamphlet published by Janadesh.

But then, whichever system we choose, we have to expect our politicians to deliver and live with system’s imperfections, as Alexander Pope says:

‘For Forms of Government let fool contest; | Whatever is best administered is best.’

Sources and Credits:

 International IDEA handbook on Electoral System Design

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Chitranshu Tewari is Outreach and Engagement Manager at I for India.

MyMumbaiMyVoice, a campaign in partnership with Hindustan Times.

After one of the most defining elections in the Indian history and some tedious reviews of the new government, electoral mathematics and political jugalabndi is set to return with Assembly Elections in four states. While politicians and parties will be busy preparing to ensure their chances at forming government in respective states, the people across these states will be eager to put forward their reaction, demands and problems to both the outgoing government and potential contenders.

At I for India, in pursue of our commitment to facilitate active citizenry and contribute to discourse around political accountability, we have in store exactly what you may need right now. We are proud to share that we are launching ‘MyMumbaiMyVoice’, in partnership with Hindustan Times. MyMumbaiMyVoice is a campaign through which Mumbaikars through our report cards and online forums can actively put forward demands and problems from their own constituency and help get an issue priority they think has been neglected by both the government and the political parties.

The campaign strives to get the attention back to the citizens’ demands of Mumbai, rather than seat-share arithmetic between coalition partners or blame game from the incumbent government. In the run up to the election, we will also compile a Citizens’ charter, sourced from our report cards and suggestions, tweets sent by Mumbaikars.

So, fellow Mumbaikars, here’s your cheat-sheet to positively impact the Mumbai Assembly Elections:

• Review your Assembly Constituency and MLA at iforindia.org/Mumbai to help us analyze your constituency and get a better understanding of your demands and needs.
• Facebook/Tweet your suggestions, demands, needs or, a picture that represents the governments’ achievement/failure with the #MyMumbaiMyVoice, we will make sure it reaches out to the politicians concerned and the media
• Write blog-posts on issues you think matter to fellow Mumbaikars and should be the talking points for the Mumbai Elections, we will feature them on our website and Hindustan Times. The articles could be sent to chitranshutewari@iforindia.org

For a better Mumbai, Mumbaikars must come together!

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Chitranshu Tewari is Outreach and Engagement Manager at I for India.

Blame it on the System: How FPTP may be responsible for most of the ills Indian politics is associated with.

From the epic Mahabharata to the likes of Fast and Furious, there’s one golden rule that makes it all so fascinating- ‘The winner takes it all’. With everything on stake, the winner walks away with all the glory, showing no sympathy to the looser. Sounds fair and equal ? I guess that’s the reason our country has stuck by similar form of methods when it comes to the voting system as well.

As you all may know, India follows the FPTP (first past the pole) voting system.  To quote Wikipedia,  “A first-past-the-post (abbreviated FPTP or FPP) election is one that is won by the candidate receiving more votes than any other(s).”  Candidates don’t need a majority to win their seat, as they are just required to get more votes than the candidate who comes second.

Both our parliamentary government and FPTP electoral system are the legacy of British colonialism; we more or less follow the Westminster Model of Governance.  Although FPTP was debated at great length back in the Constituent Assembly, political parties have largely avoided debates around it as they either benefit from it already or hope to be on receiving end of it someday.   FPTP works best under the two party system and is poorly suited for a time when people are embracing political pluralism, with an appetite to vote for new parties.  It not only discourages people to vote for parties other than two major parties, but leads to highly unrepresentative parliaments.

For instance, let’s look at the numbers thrown by the recently concluded General Elections. While BJP with less than 31 % of the total votes cast has managed to win more than 50 % of the votes, parties like BSP and DMK who got more than 20 % of the votes in UP and Tamil Nadu failed to even open their account. Though this is neither new (Congress has been on the receiving end itself prior to 1989, 2004 etc. ) nor confined to General elections ( In the last UP Assembly elections, SP won 224 seats with 24% of the votes, while BSP just won 80 seats with 26% of the vote share), the reason behind these huge differences between the vote-share and seats is common – FPTP.  However, it leads to a lot more than just the obvious disproportion between the vote-share and seats won.  Let’s examine them one by one.

Unfair Representation

Unlike other systems like Proportional Representation or Alternative Voting, the metric of success in FPTP is the no of seats parties get, and not their vote share.  This leads to disproportionate representation as anyone with more no. of votes wins the election, even if a large chunk of population votes against him/her.  This weakens the constituency link between representatives and voters, creating highly unrepresentative parliaments. It depends less on the no. of votes it gets than on the geographical distribution of it’s support, penalizing parties whose support is spread evenly across the country.

Excludes women and minority representatives

Under FPTP, parties give tickets to only those who will be broadly accepted in the elections so as to avoid alienating the majority in that particular constituency. For instance, it’s very unlikely that someone belonging to OBC community will ever represent an upper class majority constituency.  The same logic also affects the ability of women to be selected as a candidate in a male-dominated society.  Thus, ethnic, religion and other minorities are less likely to be represented in the legislature. Under the current system, those belonging to backward communities get some representation in the legislature through reserved constituencies. However, that’s only a half-baked idea as representatives from those constituencies often don’t enjoy the mandate the way their colleagues from unreserved constituencies do. No doubt, a large chunk of NOTA votes in the General Elections ’14 came from the reserved constituencies.

Regional Fiefdoms

FPTP often helps politicians and parties to develop a constituency or a region as their personal or dynastic fiefdom.  Raebareli and Amethi (Nehru/Gandhi), Gwailior (Scindias), Azamgarh(Yadavs) Baramati (Pawars), are some of the constituency to count as stronghold of dynasties. If a party has strong support in a particular part of the country, winning a plurality of the votes, it wins all, or nearly all, of the seats in the legislature of that area. This not only excludes the minorities from the representation, but reinforces the perception that elections and politics are defined by who you’re and where you belong to, rather than what you believe in.

Votebank Politics

FPTP encourages the development of political parties bases on a particular caste, community, ethnicity, or religion.  These political parties very often base their entire campaign or policies on issues and conceptions that appease that majority of that particular community. Thus, the country gets divided into separate party strongholds like, with little incentive for the parties to appeal or work towards the interest of people outside their home region and cultural political base. No doubt, General Elections lead to Electoral Polarization so often, raising doubts about the government’s mandate in the areas where it lacks political representation. Even after six decades of democracy, we have an innumerable number of parties who rise into prominence and popular imagination by pandering to particular class/community/religion, while demonizing others.

Wastage of votes and restriction of choice.

No electoral system can ensure that all votes count. Nevertheless, FPTP wastes millions of votes which do not go towards the election of any candidate. Whiles votes for the losing candidate in each constituency do not get represented in Parliament, the surplus votes for winning candidates have no impact on the results. This often leads to tactical voting where voters vote for a certain candidate not because they want him/her to win, but because they want one of the other candidates to lose. Coupled with ‘Regional Fiefdom’, this could be particularly dangerous, as it may compel people among minority party supporters to think that they have no realistic hope of electing candidate of their choice. Not to forget, it discourages people to vote for their preferred candidate because they are bound to lose/win. Voters have often decided not to make the effort of going to the polling booth in such circumstances.

…to be continued.

Chitranshu Tewari is Outreach and Engagement Manager at I for India. This is first of two-part series on ‘First-Past-The-Post’ electoral system vis-a-vis Proportional Representation. 

6 Million Votes for ‘Nobody’.

Will NOTA empower voters in the long run leading to greater transparency in the selection of political candidates?

The recently concluded General Elections had a lot of firsts- from the excessive use of new age media and technology to the arrival of Democracy Inc., with non profits and media firms like Dentsu, Taproot and Citizen for Accountable Governance working with political parties  to help them reach out to the masses. Not to forget, it’s quasi similarities to presidential elections of the USA.  All these features  – aggressive use of PR machinery, narrowing of the elections to certain individuals, extensive rallies/speeches across the length and breadth of the country , 3D Hologram rallies, social media campaigns- or rather ‘firsts’, have been analyzed and debated upon to death. However, the one thing that has mostly missed the attention of both, political pundits and media is the inclusion of ‘None of the Above’(NOTA) option for the first time in general elections.

NOTA was introduced following a directive of the Supreme Court Judgment as an option for those who do not want to vote for any of the candidates from their constituency. For long, India’s newly awakened and politically empowered middle class population has complained about the paucity of good candidates as that being the primary reason for their refrain from voting and their disenchantment with politics. Though a lot of people did register invalid votes at the polling booths earlier (When ballot papers were used for voting, voters would put a blank slip, or deliberately spoil it by stamping it in more than one place.) after the introduction of EVMs in 1988, invalid votes took a hit as the secrecy and the chance to invalid was taken away.

So, does NOTA achieve any good in a democracy- a system that like all others needs new ideas to evolve in order to remain relevant and adapt to the changing demands of the electorates? The answer is Yes. NOTA not only empowers the citizens with the right to negative voting and thus increasing participation in the electoral process, but also happens to be a valuable tool to gauge the satisfaction of the voters with the candidates and their credibility. Political parties need to choose candidates in a transparent and accountable way, rejecting those who have serious charges of corruption and crime labeled against them. NOTA may prove beneficial in the long run, as political parties might not field candidates fearing an active, recorded disapproval of the same by the voters.  Though political parties have remained indifferent to NOTA so far, they are trying to ensure acceptability of candidates in their own capacity. Rahul Gandhi himself introduced American-style (yes, our fascination with America doesn’t end with Popular Culture) primary elections, meant to herald democracy within the party and empower grass-root workers.

More importantly, NOTA will further help in understanding the acceptability of the candidates across the cross-section of the constituency. Among the 6 million NOTA votes that were casted in the 16^th General Assembly, a large chunk of that came from the reserved constituencies (23 of the 25 constituencies with the highest proportion of NOTA votes are reserved for Scheduled Tribes.)1 Though reasons for the same may not be documented, it may well be because of the fact that a large majority of the upper-castes did not want to vote for those belonging to backward castes.

For NOTA to become successful in the long run and impact the candidate selection, more and more people who are dissatisfied with the candidates in their constituency need to exercise the NOTA option on the EVMs. Though the next step should be to push for re-elections in case the no. of NOTA votes exceed the votes polled for the winning candidate, we may not have to wait for political parties to be more careful and transparent in giving tickets to candidates. Also, for those who argue against NOTA citing the cost associated with re-elections, one should remember the Election Commission incurs avoidable labor and expenditure in organizing bye-elections across several constituencies in each election. Not that the price of re-elections is too big a cost for strengthening democracy and ensuring better candidates. The cost can simply be met by putting a restriction on the number of seats a candidate can contest for and increasing the security deposit or, making candidates who contest and win the election from two seats (resulting in a bye-election from one of the two constituencies), to deposit an appropriate sum of money in the government account

 In order to achieve both transparency and accountability in electoral process of our country, we need a strong set of electoral reforms- prohibition of surrogate and government sponsored advertising prior to elections, compulsory maintenance of accounts by political parties and audit thereof by agencies specified by the Election Commission, making false declaration an electoral offense, etc. However, for now, reforms such as NOTA and disqualification of convicted MP/MLAs are surely a starting point for a clean-up and will further widen democratic choices.

 Chitranshu Tewari is Outreach and Engagement Manager at I for India.

[1] NOTAs cast in reserved seats, Hindu

Picture credits: Hindu

Reputation: Which Government Authority Do I Approach?

I for India’s Report Cards reflect the citizens’ sentiments within a particular assembly or parliamentary constituency. Most of the parameters upon which citizens provide their ratings relate to the quality of public services in their constituency, whether they are basic needs, related to governance and administration or growth and progress. Reputation,which is the fourth and last category of user-ratings, contains parameters that relate to individual characteristics of an elected representative. For these parameters it is not possible to identify a particular government authority, as they concern the individual.

 Here is the last of the four-part series on ‘Which Government Authority Do I Approach?’ in the category of Reputation.

 

	Concerned Level of Government
	Central	State	Local
Scams & Scandals	√	√
Comments in Public	NA
Women Empowerment		√	√
Upliftment of Backward Sections	√	√
Religious Harmony		√
Fulfilled Promises from Election	NA

 

Scams and Scandals usually involve large sums of money, and those in high-level power positions, thus they remain in the ambit of the Central and/or State government.Most scams that receive media are related to Ministries, bureaucrats or individual representatives associated with the Central Government.  This is true for 2G, Bofors, and the chit-fund scams. However, state level ministers and bureaucrats may also be implicated in scams, such as the row over Delhi’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and the alleged involvement of its former Chief Minister.

 Women Empowerment schemes may be initiated by the Central Government, however the nodal implementation agency is the State or Local Government. Centrally Sponsored Schemes, such as National Mission for Empowerment of Women (NMEW) and Sabla, are implemented and monitored by state agencies. Local governments can also facilitate gender justice programmes: Cochin’s Municipal Corporation is an example.[1]

 Policies related to the Upliftment of Backward Sections usually emanate from Central government institutions, such as reservations in government jobs or educational institutions.  State Government may enact their own policies for the upliftment of backward sections. For instance, the Karnataka State Government formed a backward class and minority department, which allocates funds for and implements schemes related to the upliftment of these groups.

 Religious Harmony is related to law and order, which is a state subject.State Governments are thus responsible for both proactively promoting religious harmony and reactively taking action in the outbreak of communal or religious violence.

 Saanya Gulati is Outreach and Research Manager at I for India Foundation. This is the fourth and final part of the ‘Which Government Authority do I Approach’ blog-series.

  [1]The Power in Being a Woman,Hindu

Governance and Administration: Which Government Authority Do I Approach ?

 In the this part of “Which Government Authority do I Approach?” we demystify the institutional framework of issues related to the “Governance and Administration” Category in our report cards.

 Here is a table of the parameters, followed by a more detailed explanation. 

	Concerned Level of Government
	Central	State	Local
Law & Order		√
Getting Work Done in Govt Offices	NA
e-governance		√
Inflation/Price Rise	√
Poverty Reduction	√	√
Disaster Management	√	√	√

 Law and Order falls under the ‘State List’ of the Constitution’s 7^th Schedule. State governments are thus responsible for maintaining public order, specifically the police forces. In Union Territories, the Central Government is responsible for deploying police forces. This has often been at the forefront of the public discourse, especially in Delhi. Although Delhi is no longer a Union territory, its police force remains accountable to the Union Home Ministry, which was a contentious matter in the aftermath of the gang rape incident on December 16, 2013. The issue was once again publicised during the brief leadership of Arvind Kejriwal, who protested against the alleged non-cooperation of the police with Somnath Bharti, who was then Delhi’s law minister.

 Getting Work Done in Government Offices: This concern will remain specific to the government office that you are dealing with. Since it concerns execution, it is advisable to identify the specificMinistry or Department that is responsible, and whether it is at the Union or State level. Our previous blog may help.

 e-governance: While the Union Ministry of Communication and IT has drawn up a national e-governance plan, states remain at the helm of its implementation, through agencies such as State Data Centres (SDCs), State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), and State e-governance Service Delivery Gateways (SSDGs).

 Inflation and Price Rise,though listed in the Concurrent list of the Constitution’s 7^th schedule, falls largely under the Central Government’s mandate in actuality. This is in accordance with the nature of India’s federal system, wherein finance, defence and foreign affairs remains under the centre’s control.

Many debates have taken place on measures to curb inflation and price rise in Parliament over the last few years.

 Poverty Reduction is a broad category that incudes several social sector schemes, which may aim to provide housing, employment, or social security to individuals. The Indira Awas Yojana (IAY), which is the Central Government’s flagship scheme in providing housing to the underprivileged is partially funded, and fully implemented and monitored by State Governments. Similarly, State and Local Governments implement employment and benefit schemes initiated by the Central Government. Local Governments may also undertake efforts toward poverty alleviation, as per the 12^th Schedule of the Constitution, which pertains to the responsibilities of rural and urban local bodies. Chandigarh’s municipal corporation has an ‘Urban Poverty Alleviation & Livelihood Cell,’ which identifies the urban poor and formulates schemes for their upliftment.

 Disaster Management interventions can be undertaken by all levels of government depending on the nature of the disaster. In 2005, the Central Government enacted the Disaster Management Act, which established the

 National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)for policy formulation, and guidelines that states should follow for effective disaster management. State Governments and Districts are also mandated to establish a State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), and a District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) under this Act. In Pune, the municipal corporation functions as the regional disaster management centre.[1]

 Saanya Gulati is Outreach and Research Manager at I for India Foundation. This is the third of a four-part series on ‘Which Government Authority Do I Approach?,’ which deconstructs the governance framework for each of I for India’s Report Card categories.

 [1]Pune Municipal Corporation to Monitor Disaster Management Activities, Times of India

Growth and Progress: Which Government Authority Do I Approach?

In our last blog we launched the “which Government Authority Do I Approach” series. In this series we will break down the governance framework for the various parameters on which I for India users rate their elected representatives.

Here is a snapshot, followed by a more detailed analysis, of the parameters that  come under the ‘Growth and Progress’ category:

	Concerned Level of Government
	Central	State	Local
Traffic Management Signals & Crossings Traffic Police		√	√
Roads & Highways Expansion	√	√	√
Professional Education	√	√
Employment Opportunities		√
Ease of Doing Business		√
Promoting Tourism	√	√	√

Traffic management comprises both infrastructural and human resources, namely signals and crossings and traffic police. Different authorities are responsible for providing each of these. Signals and crossings are generally the responsibility of local government, i.e. Municipal Corporations, as these areas fall within city limits and constitute day-to-day governance matters. Traffic police is the responsibility of your state government, since law and order is a state subject in the 7^th schedule of the constitution.

Roads and Highways Expansion is dependent on what limits the specific road or highway in question falls under. If the road falls within city limits then it is under the mandate of the Municipal Corporation, and so on. Highways are usually of two kinds: national or state. National highways fall under the mandate of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), while state highways fall under their respective state authorities.  A list of national highways is available here.

Professional Education or higher and/or technical education falls largely under the mandate of the respective state government. The Centre plays a limited role in setting up institutions such as the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Management (IIMs). Many public universities are set up by State Assembly Acts, such as Bangalore or Mumbai University, which are effectively under control of the respective State government.

Employment falls under the concurrent list in the constitution; both the Central and State Governments are responsible for generating employment opportunities at a national and state level, respectively. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is an example of a Central legislation enacted for this purpose. Many states also have Labour and Employment departments, which may undertake state-level schemes. You can find a list of these departments here.

Ease of Doing Business is largely a state issue, since it concerns execution of policies and schemes. While financial policies that can aid in the ‘ease of doing business’ concern the Central Government, execution of almost all policies trickles down to the specific state governments, and will also depend largely on the bureaucrats in the specific ministry or department you are dealing with.

Promoting Tourism : All three levels of government in India have a stake in this area. The Ministry of Tourism and Culture, at the Central Government level remains the nodal agency of tourism policies. Every state and union territory has a tourism department. (you can see the complete list of here.) Local governments also undertake efforts to promote tourism, in accordance with the legislation through which they were established. For instance Ahmedabad’s municipal corporation has a heritage cell which organises heritage walks and other tourist visits in the city.

Saanya Gulati is Outreach and Research Manager at I for India Foundation.This is the second of a four-part series on “Which Government Authority Do I Approach?”

Basic Needs: Which Government Authority Do I Approach?

With a newly elected Lok Sabha, we anticipate a lot of activity at ‘I for India.’  Over 25,000 citizens like yourselves have registered on our website in the last year and rated the performance of your elected representatives.

315 members (58%) of the Members of Parliament (MPs) in the 16^th Lok Sabha have been elected for the first-time. These representatives have a clean slate upon which to build their public profile, and as citizens, you have an opportunity to hold them accountable through I for India.

We often receive questions, from citizens and parliamentarians alike, about the 24 parameters on which the performance of elected representatives is measured.

 ‘Can a Member of Parliament really be held accountable for the water supply in his/her constituency?’ ‘What does ‘basic education’ versus ‘professional education’ entail?’ and so on. Our previous blog on ‘Which Representative Do I Approach?’, addresses some of these concerns. In this blog we further deconstruct the seemingly complex and multilayered governance structures and deal with each of these parameters individually.

I for India’s Performance Report Cards comprisce the following four categories: Basic Needs, Growth and Progress, Governance and Administration, and Reputation.

We will be breaking down the governance framework for each of these categories in separate blog posts. Here’s the first one:

Basic Needs:

	Concerned Level of Government
Parameter	Central	State	Local
Electricity		√*
Drinking Water		√	√
Public Transport		√	√
Sanitation and Cleanliness			√
Basic Education		√	√
Primary Health		√

*Mumbai is an exception, where electricity supply is provided by the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport Corporation (BEST), which is an autonomous body under the municipal corporation.

Here is a more detailed explanation of the breakdown:

Electricity comes under the Constitution’s ‘Concurrent List,’ which means that it comes under the control of both Central and State Government authorities. Under the Electricity Act of 2003, the Central Government is responsible for preparing the National Electricity Policy and tariff policy in consultation with the State Governments. State Government authorities are the providers of electricity, right from generating, to transmitting and distributing it. Here is a comprehensive list of the different governmental authorities that exist in each state.

Provision of Drinking Water is by and large under the mandate of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) or Municipal Corporations in urban areas and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in rural areas, respectively. However, in some states the State Government plays an active role too. The role of the Central Government here is only to allocate funds, and encourage research and capacity building efforts that promote water quality.

The inter-state variation in division of powers between the State government and the Local government can be traced back to the Bombay Presidency, a former province under the British control that comprises of many cities in modern-day Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka. These areas continue to follow a reasonably well-thought out structure of local government, where issues such as water supply and public transport, which affect ones daily quality of life, remain under the mandate of the municipal corporation. For instance, in Mumbai, the Municipal Corporation’s Water Supply Department is responsible for providing drinking water.

In regions that do not come under the Bombay Presidency, especially Northern States, such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the local governments have less autonomy. For instance, in Uttar Pradesh the State government’s ‘Groundwater Board’ still plays an important role in facilitating policy implementation when it comes to water supply.[1] On the whole, ULBs and PRIs have greater autonomy is states in the Southern and Western regions of India.

In order to know the exact division of powers, you should consult the specific Municipal Corporation Act passed by your State Assembly.

Public Transport concerns your specific State or Local Government. Almost all states have a State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC), as per the Road Transport Corporations Act, 1950, to provide an efficient and economical system of road transport service in the respective state. Intra-state and Inter-state transport usually fall under the SRTC’s mandate, while local transport within city limits is usually by the respective municipal body. For instance, Ahmedabad has the Ahmedabad Municipal Transport Services (AMTS), while Mumbai has different bodies, such as the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA), that developed the monorail, and the Bombay Electric Supply & Transport Corporation (BEST), which supplies local buses in the city.

Sanitation and Cleanliness is under the mandate of local government.  The Central Government is again responsible for policy formulation here, which ULBs and PRIs play an instrumental role in implementing, right from mobilizing resources to construct toilets, their operation and maintenance.[2]

Basic Education, or school education, falls under the concurrent list of the constitution. Many municipal corporations are actively involved in the delivery of education in cities such as Mumbai and Delhi. While education is not explicitly listed as an area of control for local government bodies, certain Municipal Corporation Acts specify this responsibility.[3] In states such as Bihar, the State Government administers primary schools.[4]

Primary Health is the responsibility of State Governments. ‘Public health and sanitation’ is listed in List-2, or the ‘State List’ of the Constitution’s seventh schedule. In a Central Government scheme like the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the various States’ Health and Family Welfare Societies are responsible for implementation.[5]

You will notice that while the Central Government formulates many policies pertaining to the aforementioned basic needs, their implementation is left to the State and Local Governments. Thus while multiple levels of government have a stake in many governance issues, and it is important to look at whether your grievance concerns an issue of policy formulation or implementation before deciding which authority to approach.

Stay tuned for more blogs on the rest of our report card categories!

Saanya Gulati is Outreach and Research Manager at I for India Foundation. Inputs from Praja Foundation were taken whilst putting this blog post together. 

Sources and Credits:

[1]‘Draft UP State Groundwater Policy,’ India Water Portal.

[2]‘FAQ’s about Sanitation,’ India Sanitation Portal

[3]‘Role of Municipal Corporation in Education,’ Pratham

[4]‘Education Page,’ Bihar State Government

[5] ‘NRHM State and District Health Mission Institutional Setup,’ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

 

 

 

I for Informed: Weekly Updates

#Elections2014 are underway! The first phase of polling kicked off with six constituencies from the Northeastern states (5 in Assam; 1 in Tripura) casting their votes.

As part of our initiative ‘I for Informed’ to increase voter awareness, here’s what we have been up to during the last week:

• We hosted our first Twitter chat on Wednesday 2^nd April, 2014. Our panelists included prominent individuals in the field of politics, journalism, and public service. Our founder, Ankur Garg, moderated the chat.

The hour-long chat touched upon several important questions that voters should consider in order to make an informed decision this election. Check out the Storify here, for a recap of the conversation.

• We held a Parliament Trivia contest, and asked Twitter users questions related to the 15th Lok Sabha. For example: Who is the wealthiest Member of Parliament (MP)? Who is the youngest MP? Visit our Facebook Page to see all the questions and answers.

The winners of our contest were Abhinav Panigrahi and B Kapilan. A big congratulations to both of you from the I for India team!

• We partnered with Seven Sisters Project, Northeast India’s first mobile phone-based citizen news service, to jointly share the Report Cards of the Northeastern constituencies which go to vote in the first-two phases of polling.

#Assam MP Dip Gogoi, Congress party fails in 13/24 indicators in the report card for Kalaibor- http://t.co/XcNgD6gJZF @iforindiaorg

— Seven Sisters (@7SistersProjekt) April 6, 2014

#Elections2014 BSP's Joseph Toppo, fails in overall performance for Tezpur PC, #Assam – http://t.co/19k3VNuS82@iforindiaorg @guwahaticity

— Seven Sisters (@7SistersProjekt) April 6, 2014

•  Twitter users can now use #iForIndia to tell us which constituency they are voting from, and we will share their report card with them. Several people have reached out to us for their Neta Report Card.

Tell us which constituency you are voting from & we'll share your MPs performance report card with you. Use #iForIndia in your tweet!

— iForIndia.org (@iforindiaorg) April 4, 2014

#iForIndia I'm voting from sultanpur uttar pradesh

— parikshit singh (@parikmartinian) April 9, 2014

With over a month of election excitement, we will continue to facilitate open discussions, engage with voters, and encourage them to keep track of the politicians they elected, and more importantly, will elect for the next five years!

Upcoming activities include a Twitter Chat on “making our mainstream public discourse more inclusive of different regional voices,” particularly of the Northeast, and Jammu & Kashmir. Follow #iForInvolved for more updates.

We are also sharing the Report Cards of constituencies around their polling dates on our social media channels, so stay tuned for your constituency report card. (Or tweet to us if you can’t wait!)

Follow us at @iforindiaorg and like our Facebook Page to stay updated with our #Elections2014 activities.

Saanya Gulati is Outreach and Research Manager at I for India