PM to meet DMs after 20 years

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet district magistrates and collectors in an interaction like the one former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had. Such a meeting""described as "the earth meeting the sky"""will take place after a gap of nearly 20 years, sources in the personnel ministry said.

Likely to be held at Vigyan Bhavan before the Budget session, the Prime Minister is likely to tell the lowest"" and it is argued, the most important"" ung of the civil bureaucracy that the delivery of the government's initiatives lies in their hands.

He will emphasise particularly on the common minimum programme of the government that emphases on the improvement of the quality of life in villages.

Healthcare, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, and the employment guarantees scheme will be mentioned as the government's efforts to provide the district-level IAS bureaucracy with a road map to work on.

In the absence of any apparent movement in this government on administrative reforms of the kind undertaken by Rajiv Gandhi, this will be the Prime Minister 's first exercise to assess for himself, the kind of material he will have to work with to ensure delivery of the government's social welfare schemes.

The common minimum programme is silent on administrative reforms, beyond saying "an administrative reforms commission to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system" will be set up.

But the interaction with the lowest rung of the central bureaucracy will be an effort to leverage the idealism and the "can-do" spirit of young bureaucrats. The Prime Minister is likely to tell them that only they can deliver a modern, progressive and developed India to its citizens.

He is also likely to tell the district magistrates that a lot has changed since they met the Prime Minister last as a collective. Following his interactions, Gandhi introduced two major changes in the polity - one was reducing the voting age to 18 and the other was strengthening the panchayat raj.

It is universally acknowledged tat the institution that has taken the biggest hit since panchayat raj was introduced was the office of the district magistrate and collector, which has suffered an erosion in its power.

Conversely, the panchayat raj can really only take off if the district magistrates and collectors are cooperative and encouraging of the institution.

All these issues are likely to be raised by the Prime Minister when he speaks to these officers.