Disorder: The order of the day

For all those who've been driven round the bend on Delhi's streets by stray cattle, here's some startling news.

These cows should have been taken care of in Gau Sadans set up under a Plan scheme, with an annual Plan outlay of around Rs 60 lakh.

Fifty per cent of the 260-odd acres allotted for these Gau Sadans are unutilised. The total number of cows in the seven Gau Sadans is less than the capacity of three Gau Sadans and even this number is only 13.46 per cent of the target capacity!

These and more stunning facts abound in a landmark (though somewhat inappropriately titled) compendium "" State of Governance: Delhi Citizen Handbook, 2003 "" on the functioning of 25 Delhi government agencies brought out by free market think tank, Centre for Civil Society (CCS). The volume is really a pretty damning report card of the performance of these agencies and will certainly make many of us question the rationale of all the taxes we are paying. Sample this:

Delay in distribution of free textbooks in Municipal Corporation of Delhi schools ranged from 90 to 105 days in the case of more than 25 per cent of the textbooks.

The Department of Drug Control has only 29 inspectors to inspect over 5,000 retailers, while the Department for the Prevention of Food Adulteration has only 37 inspectors to inspect 1.50 lakh food establishments.

Two cranes meant for removing vehicles involved in accidents were lying unused and two ambulances for accident victims were being used as staff cars.

Thirty-seven per cent of those receiving old age pension under the Old Age Pension Scheme were ineligible. Of these, around 30 per cent were underage. Worse, 168 beneficiaries had died but the department continued to send them pension despite being informed of their death.

These facts have come to light as a result of painstaking work by a team of young researchers at CCS. There are some departments where the section on performance is a bit weak, but the wealth of information in the other sections more than makes up for it.

Is the solution, then, to leave everything to the private sector and market forces? Though the CCS believes in the libertarian philosophy, it doesn't argue that. Instead it makes out a convincing case for New Public Management, a mix of public administration and business management. The book makes several sensible suggestions.

The recommendation to deregulate the public transport sector is one that finds mention even in the Tenth Five Year Plan. Equally sensible is the recommendation to remove the licence raj in education and allow competition and entrepreneurship in the sector.

Some solutions, though, appear to be highly idealistic and completely out of touch with Delhi's lawless reality.

Take, for example, the suggestion for a system of kerb rights to stop rash driving by bus drivers. The government would auction pick up points on long-term lease to private parties, who would charge a fee for vehicles taking passengers from there.

These right holders will enforce the rule that buses pick up passengers only from the designated kerbs. But since the bus operators will recover their dues from the passengers, what is to stop the latter from going and standing somewhere else, where a bus which has not contracted with a kerb will pick them up? And how can kerb right holders physically stop buses from picking up passengers from somewhere else? Far from increasing safety on Delhi's roads, such a system may only increase the violence on the streets as kerb right holders and bus operators clash.

The study slips up at places. Highlighting the higher non-plan expenditure component in the education department budget, the book points out that this is a sign of poor fiscal management.

While this statement is generally true, it needs to be qualified in the case of social services, especially education and health, where the non-Plan component is bound to be larger since the bulk of expenditure will be on salaries (teachers, nurses, doctors etc.) and consumables.

Similarly, the Education for All scheme has not been dropped, but merely merged with the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which subsumes all existing programmes, barring the Mid-Day Meals Scheme and the Restructuring and Reorganisation of Teachers Education scheme.

But such weaknesses should not detract from the overall usefulness and value of the book. The CCS would be doing a great service if it does a follow up to this volume, removing these lacuna and, perhaps, doing a performance audit of these departments.

STATE OF GOVERNANCE

Delhi Citizen Handbook 2003

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Centre for Civil Society

Pages: 346B

Price: Rs 400