COMMENTS

For a meaningful and effective governance, citizen participation is a must. But for meaningful citizen participation, it is a must that citizen should flag the issues, force the govt for recognition of the issues and then become agent or participator in actual change and implementation.

in past 2-3 decades there is a progress on the front of citizen's taking up the issues that impacts people specially the vulnerable. Agitation against Narmada Dam, is one example on national scene, protest against NICE in our backyard is another example.

I would like to focus on a local issue that has been discussed on PRAJA as well. Concerned citizens vehemently opposed the tree cutting on Jaymahal Road. After intense opposition authorities took cognizant of the matter and asked the leaders of the spearheading movement to come up with the alternatives. It is sad that till date no acceptable alternate solution has been provided.

Is anything wrong here? A careful analysis reveals that as in most cases, citizens, NGOs do not recognize the need or simply do not know when to switch from activist mode to enabling mode. Basically it is important to have an alternative that is rational, meaningful, doable, cost effective and most importantly inclusive in nature before issues of public importance is raised and taken up. Most concerned citizens end their participation with agitating and submitting their case. Expectation is that authorities knows all and will implement the change. Reality is authorities in most cases are blind to the viable alternatives and most cases illiterate in the matters. They need to be educated about the matter, its importance, what is wrong with their approach, what is a good approach and how to go about it. The reason for such illiteracy stems from many factors including absence of experienced and skillful people in govt agency and their recruitment methodology.

I have been associated with Praja since early 2008. In the company of many illustrate and knowledgeable, PRAJA has achieved a moderate success in raising the issues and also in bringing the desired changes. Take the example of Namma Railu and NMT bicycle-share projects, in contrast to the above example of Jaymahal Road.

The difference here is, both in Namma Railu and NMT projects, we have not only succeeded in getting the govt to acknowledge the issues but also helped them understand the changes that are needed. What is important to note here is, PRAJA members did not remained in "ACTIVISM" mode. When time came, challenged, switched into change enabling mode by working out the details of alternate solutions with facts and figures, technical details etc. One important aspect to be kept in mind is the importance of working relationship with govt agencies and officials. This is important because ultimately these are the very people who would be the executioners in the end. You can't always be in confrontational mode with these entities. Trust them, help them, in turn they will trust you and help you in your cause. I think that is the mantra that I have learned from these experiences.

One more important aspect that I have now acknowledge is we should be working to make the govt do the job efficiently not doing by ourselves. If we do govt works ourselves we are weakening the govt institutions. Public participation should be to strengthen the govt by partnering with it.

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I would like to share my experience during my visit to DULT. During my conversation with Mr. Shailendra Singh on Road Standards, I heard him saying if public wants any information RTI is there. Why we should discuss with the public about our projects, or share our reports in soft copies.

Smt M Manjula an IAS officer is the Current commissioner of DULT. DULT has released a “foot path standard”. I could not get a hard [Xerox] copy. It was not possible for our friend Singh, to give me the soft copy ie CD, either.

Is RTI making government officials averse to discuss with general public about their projects?

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This I think is the way to go. I think it is shameful to be "exploring" this concept or public participation in a so called democracy when the rest of the world has embraced public consultation as a part of governance. - IDS

I would like to remind IDS that Ours is a 3 tier democracy.

1. Gram Panchayat / Wards
2. Legislative Assembly
3. Parliament

74th Constitutional Amendment Act provides for / mandates a local ward committee in City wards, as compared to a gram Panchayat in rural context. All local developmental work originates and is executed at level 1. The other 2 tiers are basically responsible for making required legislations, meaning they are the law makers. They naturally are responsible for conceiving and executing state and national level projects obviously. The same is true about law making and governance. 

Public consultation is there from the beginning. It is the so called public which is taking it lying low.

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Panchayats have been the backbone of the Indian villages since the beginning of recorded history. Gandhiji, the father of the nation, in 1946 had aptly remarked that the Indian Independence must begin at the bottom and every village ought to be a Republic or Panchayat having powers. Gandhiji.s dream has been translated into reality with the introduction of the three-tier Panchayati Raj system to ensure people.s participation in rural reconstruction. 

The recent 74th ammendment brings the concept into the (BBMP) wards of a  city (Bangalore) or metrpolice in line with the gram Panchayats. My earlier coment above Refers.

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PSA sir.  The 74th amendment was in 1992.  I think it is time to drop the adjective "recent" when referring to it.  19 years later, we (India as a whole and Bangalore) is still nowhere close to implementing it in spirit.  Notice that 19 years is almost 5 full terms for governments, if they last that long.

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