1. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission was constituted on 31st August 2005
n Mandate: To Prepare a blueprint for revamping the public administration system
n Members:
– Shri M. Veerappa Moily Chairman
– Shri V. Ramachandran Member
– Dr. A.P. Mukerjee Member
– Dr. A.H. Kalro Member
– Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan Member
– Smt. Vineeta Rai Member-Secretary
2. The Commission will inter-alia consider the following
• Organisational structure of the Govt. of India.
• Ethics in Governance.
• Refurbishing of Personnel Administration.
• Strengthening of Financial Management Systems.
• Steps to ensure effective administration at the State level.
• Steps to ensure effective District Administration.
• Local Self-Government/Panchayat Raj Institutions.
• Social Capital, Trust and participative service delivery.
• Citizen Centric Administration.
• Promoting e-governance.
• Issues of Federal Polity.
• Crisis Management.
• Public Order
3. The first phase:
The following four areas have been taken up for study in the first phase.
1. Effective implementation of Right to Information Act.
2. Crisis management
3. Public Order.
4. Implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
The final recommendations of first phase to be submitted by March 06.
3.1 EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT:
Topics to be covered:
· Bringing accountability and transparency through the Right to Information.
· Identifying the issues/barriers in implementation.
· Right to information and the Legislature.
· Right to information and the Judiciary.
· Right to information and the Executive processes.
· Right to information and the local bodies.
The approach:
· A national colloquium has been organised jointly with the National Judicial Academy on 10th to 12th Dec. 2005. The Chief Justice of India inaugurated the two day colloquium.
· This will be followed by gathering responses to a questionnaire.
· Public hearings in different regions.
· Discussions with the State Governments.
Interventions in the following areas are being considered:
· Access to information & disclosure by authorities;
· Utilizing the E-governance platform to facilitate implementation of this act;
· Identify specific related laws that hinder the act;
· Whistle blower agency, managed by group of eminent men & women; find measures of protection to whistle blowers
· Ways in which people can exercise their rights under the Act;
· Evolve methods for the Union Parliament and the State legislatures to set up Nodal Standing Committees for arranging analysis of the National and State economy to report on a periodic basis;
· Evolve mechanisms for expeditious consideration of the report of the Comptroller & Auditor General by the watchdog committees of the Parliament and State legislatures with a view to plugging the vulnerability leading to scams and scandals involving omissions and commissions
· Empowering the Petition Committees of the State and Central legislature as vehicles to ensure accountability and transparency as envisioned in the Right to Information Act and enable them to act as windows to the proposed Lok Pal at the centre and Lok Ayukta in the states;
· To explore ways and means of resolving repugnance between the provisions of the Right to Information Act and the Official Secrets Act;
· Evolve mechanisms of expressing public disapproval of acts of omission and commission by politicians and bureaucrats;
· Considering that the government is the biggest litigant, evolving a proper classification and information system in the Judiciary;
3.2 CRISIS MANAGEMENT:
Topics to be covered (Types of disasters):
· Drought.
· Floods.
· Cyclones, Tsunami.
· Earthquakes.
· Climatic change
· Epidemics.
· Industrial, pollutions
· Nuclear.
Approach:
· A theme paper prepared setting out the issues and challenges.
· A questionnaire prepared to elicit public opinion and views from Brain storming with resource persons and persons with domain knowledge.
· Regional thematic workshops being organized jointly with the National Institute of Disaster Management, at Chennai , Mumbai, Guwahati on 16th and 17th January 2006, and Jammu on 30th, 31st January..
· National Workshop in Delhi on 22nd 23rd February.
· Discussions with State Government and Ministries of Government of India
· Discussions with the concerned institutions and members of the public. (Public hearings)
Interventions in the following areas are being considered:
· To evolve a mechanism, which will enable a total and effective response to a crisis in the context of a disaster; a mechanism that subsumes the coordinated response of the entire governmental system and the whole of civil society.
· To devise steps for a meticulous planning process and coordination between various role players in order to prevent disasters and to mitigate their impact whenever they occur.
· To set out a community based crisis management paradigm that empowers the community directly to enhance its indigenous coping mechanism.
· To devise steps to build capacity in and empower the Panchyat Raj System to come to the aid of the community in a crisis situation
· To devise types of technological, financial and physical interventions to strengthen indigenous coping mechanisms, promote collective wisdom and social networking.
· To devise steps to institutionalise the lessons learnt after each crisis, to be retained in institutional memory for suitable preventive action in future.
· To examine the technologies available to provide assistance in managing disasters in order to determine whether there are access to, availability and usefulness of these technologies, ascertain the gaps and suggest perspectives on closer integration of knowledge institutions, crisis management agencies and community based organisations.
· In the matter of restoration and rehabilitation, to delineate steps as to how speedy and efficient healthcare and trauma-care can be provided to the victims and how can the local bodies and panchayats be geared to coordinate these activities
· To devise mechanisms for inculcating elements of safety concerns in various walks of life as well as in the basic infrastructure of the society, and in particular, building safety concerns into the curricular activities of educational institutions.
· Recognising that structural mitigation measures are the key to minimising the impact of disasters, review the existing town and country planning acts, land use zoning regulation, development control regulations and building bye-laws to upgrade the existing legal instruments.
3.3 PUBLIC ORDER:
Topics to be covered:
· Conflict Management.
· Role of administration/ political parties.
· Addressing social causes which lead to public disorder.
· Role of the police machinery.
The Approach:
· Questionnaires addressed to general administration personnel, judicial officers and members of cultural organisation, social organisation, religious organisations and non-governmental organisations
· Base papers prepared setting out issues and challenges of Public Order and Conflict Resolution
· Workshop on Public Order, to be organised by Centre for Policy Research, at New Delhi on 2nd & 3rd February, 2006.
· Workshop on Conflict Resolution, to be organised by Centre for Policy Research and Kannanda University on 4th and 5th February, 2006
· Workshop on Public Order, to be organised by National Police Academy at Hyderabad on 7th & 8th February, 2006.
Interventions in the following areas are being considered:
· To study the nature, process and complexity of conflicts those threaten Public Order in the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual democratic polity with people of different religious persuasion and evolve ways of resolving conflicts.
· Recognising the growing search for identity, explore the roles of tribal identity, religious identity, linguistic identity, caste identity and regional identity and suggest solutions thereof.
· Study the significance of other factors such as economic and political also the role of actors indulging in organised crimes.
· Study the major fault lines of the Indian Polity and Society.
· Evolve mechanism for diagnosis of the early warning signs.
· Assessment of the cost and consequences of addressing / ignoring the signs.
· Analyse the nature and process of mediation and success / failure in national and global context.
· Examine the inadequacies of the legal, institutional and official framework in preventing, mitigating and dealing with conflict situations.
· Examine the role of police, civil administration and civil society in maintaining public order.
· Evolve systems and mechanism to engage various stakeholders (State and non- state actors) in a productive dialogue to achieve consensus on a strategy to maintain public order
3.4 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL RURAL EMPLOYMENT GUARANTEE SCHEME:
The Approach:
· To involve institutions which have already done some research on the subject.
· Utilize the existing body of knowledge.
· Learn from the international best practices.
· Hold wide scale consultations.
· Hold public hearings.
· Use of modern technology wherever possible.
· Involve Non Governmental organisations.
· National Institute of Public Finance and Policy is the nodal agency.
The Approach:
· National Workshop on strengthening of Financial Management System for implementation of the scheme at New Delhi on 19th & 20th December 2005. This workshop was held at NIPFP. The workshop was attended by representatives of Ministries of Govt. of India, Representatives of the State Governments, NGOs and experts. On the first day presentations were made by various agencies. On the second day the participant s were split into four groups and each group was assigned a subject and a list of issues on which they gave their findings/recommendations. {The four broad subjects were (i) Institutional set up and the role of IT, (ii) Transparency, (iii) Monitoring and Evaluation and (iv) capacity building}.
· E-Government Foundation helping the ARC in finding an IT based solution for implementation of the Scheme.
· Roundtable Consultations with persons of domain knowledge organised by E-Government Foundation at Bangalore.
· ARC working jointly with the Department of Banking, Department of Posts, Ministry of Panchayat Raj and the Ministry of Rural Development.
· Field visits
Interventions in the following areas are being considered:
· To suggest mechanisms such as preparation of accurate muster rolls and elimination of fraudulent practices.
· To recommend measures to ensure transparent and effective disbursal of wages to the beneficiaries such as through a network of banks and post offices.
· To devise a financial system to track flow of funds and provide feedback
· To evolve mechanism for capacity building in the Panchayat Institutions to implement the scheme
· To evolve the right model for institutionalised social audit at the Grama Sabha level.
· Mapping areas plagued by Naxalism, insurgency and acute public disorder, and suggest varied steps for effective delivery of the scheme in such difficult areas.
· Linking employment guarantee to human development such as education, healthcare and provision of water supply, while creating favourable conditions for much – needed rural regeneration
· Putting in place measures for payment of wages directly to the beneficiaries without middleman and contractors.
· Devising mechanisms for periodic monitoring, evaluation and appraisal of the effectiveness of the scheme.
· Evolving measures for preparation of a shelf of projects by Village Panchayats, Taluk Panchayats and Zilla Panchayats in an IT-enabled environment.
· Evolving a concept of labour bank at the Panchayat level to energise the working of the Panchayat institutions
RK/SK