The Buck Stops Here

As a part of my district training I was given Independent charge of Assistant Commissioner (Development)-cum-BDO of Pragpur Block in Kangra district for a few weeks. Pragpur is one of the 15 blocks in the district Kangra but stands out for more than one reason. Apart from being the largest block in Himachal with 75 Gram Panchayats (GP), it is also headquartered in Pragpur village which is the first Heritage village of India. Pragpur village is also the oldest village of Himachal Pradesh with a history of almost 3 centuries and has been the delight of foreigners who have been frequenting this place. Pragpur was founded to commemorate the successful resistance against Mughal marauders led by princess of Jaswan, ‘Kumari

Pragpur

Prag’ in 17^th century. After foundation many clans of ‘Hill Soods’ came and settled in this village and in the adjoining village Garli. Over a period of 2-3 centuries they built graceful havelis, manors and Italianate buildings that are interspersed amidst beautiful mud-plastered and slate roofed houses. These buildings in spite of vintage neglect give Pragpur and Garli a medieval look and ambiance. The Garli-Pragpur Heritage zone is under Special Area Development Authority (SADA) and has been integrated with National wetland, Pong Dam Tourism development Project. These villages located in the backdrop of river Beas and Pong Lake present tourists a plethora of opportunities for camping, angling, trekking, boating, bird watching, nature walks, cycling and relaxing in the peaceful milieu.

        Pragpur which is situated 60 Kilometers from district headquarter of Dharamshala is a major destination for ‘Rural Tourism’ in Himachal Pradesh. Presence of posh ‘Judges Court’, a Heritage Manor attracts foreigners acting like

Judges's Court

an anthro-magnetic field. I too was smitten by its hospitality and joy of candle-light dinner on more than one occasion including the eve of the New Year.  It was built by Justice Sir Jai Lal in 1918 who belonged to Pragpur and he was the only second Indian who acted as Chief Justice of Punjab High court during British Raj. Incidentally Justice Sir Sadhi Lal who was the first judge from India and also member of Privy Council of British Government hailed from Pragpur. ‘The Taal’ forms the core of village. This water body was constructed by the Village Brotherhood, ‘Nehar Committee’ and their recorded meetings date back to 1864. The Nehar Bhawan surrounding the Taal is around 250 years old.

        Last year Pragpur Block was in news for all the wrong reasons like embezzlement, shortage of staff, high absenteeism and uncooperative staff etc. Inquiry was conducted into the scam of roughly a crore in MNREGA and the guilty accountant who used to forge the signature of BDO on cheques, and Panchayat resolutions was summarily dismissed. Since then things have been falling in place for the block. Some fresh appointments and transfers of many blundering staff have really put the block on the tracks again. Block is almost 100 Kilometers in length east to west. District Hoshiarpur of Punjab borders it on south. To its north lies the majestic Pong Lake. Remoteness and Undulating terrain in Shivalik presents its own developmental challenges for the block. And that’s why a few weeks spent in the block were an experience in itself.

        The task of AC (D)-cum-BDO is to oversee implementation of various central government schemes like MNREGA, SGSY, IAY, IWDP, NFBS, TSC, IDDP, IWMP, NRLM, RSBY, NFSA and several other schemes run by both central and state government. BDO’s main responsibilities are sanctioning of projects under aforesaid schemes, release of funds, oversee execution and regular inspections. BDO’s are the development engines of the government in the field. Currently the scheme which guzzles the maximum time of block offices is MNREGA. Before the financial year begins, a labour budget is prepared which takes into account the number of job card holders in a particular GP. Based on Labour budget Gram Sabha prepares a shelf of projects within the operational guidelines of MNREGA to be taken up in the next financial year. Then the shelf is approved by all the tiers of Panchayati Raj. And now in the financial year GP by resolution seeks sanction for the projects in the shelf one by one as per the job demand from BDO who not only sanctions but also releases funds for carrying out those projects. Gram Rojgar Sevak (GRS) and Technical Assistant (TA) help GP in handling MNREGA works and procedures. After Panchayat resolution for a project in the shelf, TA prepares the estimates and GRS prepares the documents (Photograph of site, Parcha-Tatima, Jamabandi Papers, list of Job-seekers, Affidavits, and NOCs along with Panchayat resolution paper) for necessary sanctions and approvals. GRS also does the MIS entries at each stage of the project in execution. Once the project is under execution, Junior Engineers (JEs) from Block and BDO inspect the work from time to time. When the work is complete and all payments are done, GRS submits the work completion certificate and does appropriate MIS entries.

        Once I was out on surprise inspection to one of my GPs called ‘Maniala’. I was accompanied by a JE. After inspecting the various registers of Panchayat like Proceeding, Attendance, Asset, Job-Card, Cash, Marriage, Death and Birth and Ration Card Registers, I inquired about the ongoing MNREGA projects in the village. I asked the Panchayat Secretary to show me sites of those projects. I was taken to the site of a project where a water well/Tank was being constructed. It was in the final phase and was filled with underground water and villagers were already fetching water out of it. I saw some other Tanks too which were complete and in fact villagers had installed pump sets for mechanical lifting of water and had laid down an elaborate system of pipes to supply water to nearby households. These tanks were being constructed under MNREGA with a budget of 2.5 lakh INR each. Utility of those tanks for the village undeniably justified the investment. A question crossed my mind as to how the location for Tanks were being determined. I mean if you choose the location wrong and go on digging and finally hang up your boots without getting water, it would result in total waste of time and energy. I asked my JE, you must be consulting some hydrologist from Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) department to locate underground water. And I got a curious reply. He said, “We have found a local solution”. There is this lunatic kind of guy by the name ‘Ashok’ who helps us out every time to choose locations for constructing wells/tanks. He puts two wooden pieces on his head and walk over the ground. Wherever one of those two pieces fall is the location where we start digging and he has never disappointed us so far. Once after digging 30 odd feet, we were not getting the water source. And we started to think that his forecast is going to fall flat. People told him ‘Ashok paani nahi mil raha hai, tu galat ho Gaya isbaar’. Giving a very indifferent look he said, “Go a foot further”. To everyone’s surprise, workers after a foot of more burrowing hit the water source and the tank started filling. Mr Ashok is being used by our block as hydrologist in other Panchayats as well and of course without any honorarium. It is amazing that such a huge and ambitious scheme of government is being run by such local solutions. I think the strict policy of upholding 60:40 ratio for labour and material component in the scheme would have given birth to infinite good, bad and ugly innovations across the country.

        Highly centralized operational guidelines in MNREGA leave very little room for experiments at grass root level. For example most of GPs I visited were either having no running projects or a few tank/well projects in execution. I inquired about it and asked Pradhans to get some more work sanctioned else they won’t be able to achieve their targets. They said we want roads and we have already exhausted upper 30% of expenditure limit under MNREGA on roads. People are willing to work if we can get more sanctions for roads as that is what they are demanding the most. There is no interest in any other kind of project in many GPs and thus no demand for work anymore. Himachal is a hilly terrain and providing kachha/pucca road connectivity to every household is an arduous task. So people show more interest on road projects which benefits them right away and thus there are more job seekers for the same. Demand for work is reducing under MNREGA at many places in Himachal as operational guidelines are very restrictive and are unable to capture local needs. And that’s where centralized planning fails. In my view operational guidelines of MNREGA should be more flexible or rather should have been handled, modified and notified at the district level by Zila Parishad. I mean who can understand the local needs more than the local people themselves. Even the decisions regarding convergence of MNREGA with other schemes should be left to Zila Parishad. If that happens the scheme will go a long way in creating valuable and permanent assets for the local community in long run. More tweaking is needed for any further benefit before MNREGA dies its own death albeit as martyr.

        With non-availability of cheap labour in states like Himachal and non-availability of cheap construction material with the mining embargo of river beds by honorable courts, meeting targets under MNREGA has become very demanding. If we really want to create more durable and useful assets under the scheme then there is impending need to review the philanthropic 60:40 ratio criterion and switch to more pragmatic 40:60 in phased manner in states like Himachal. Cheap labour is scarce resource in Himachal. With time demand for work is coming down and that is clearly echoed in the number of job card holders in the state and number demanding work year after year. Work is being mostly demanded by housewives from economically weaker sections (EWS) and Very Low Income Groups (VLIG) in the state. Organization and processes of the scheme should be decentralized further to make it a harbinger of true decentralization. It has been 8 golden years of MNREGA which has really enhanced the rural economy and empowered the masses in general and local bodies in particular. In fact in my opinion it unknowingly proved to be a Keynesian intervention during last recession which kept the rural demand high and proved blessing in disguise for Indian economy. But it would be senseless to romance with the scheme in such preposterous way any longer. It’s time to introspect at the utility dimensions of the MNREGA, it’s time to revamp and repackage it to make it more relevant, more pragmatic to local needs before it becomes a dead scheme in well to do states.

        And coming back to our Heritage village, Pragpur. With great pomp and show, state government in 1997-98 declared the village a heritage village. SADA was notified for the development of the area but its enthusiasm was only ephemeral. Thus only a few pockets belonging to influential people could benefit from the whole arrangement. When I intermingled with the villagers, I found out the unpleasant side of the story. Residents of Pragpur grumble that they are not even allowed to raise new constructions or make substantial changes to existing buildings as it is a heritage village now. They travel all the way to Dharamshala, 60-70 kilometers to get necessary approvals. For most of them, heritage tag means a little but just a liability. What an irony? Who has to be blamed for such sloppiness and discontinuity? Why don’t democratic governments suffer from closure syndrome for a good cause? Who will ensure continuity of schemes, policies, vision, focus and intentions in government? In my opinion bureaucracy should roll up its sleeves and say that ‘The Buck Stops Here’.