 "New Gujarat CM's report card")
Two unrelated but commendable moves by Vijay Rupani, chief minister of Gujarat since August, tells something about how the new regime is looking to consolidate itself, electorally and administratively.
First, he directed traffic be not stopped for his convoy within the city. Second, the state government did away with the mandatory clearance from the secretariat for development work by gram panchayats up to Rs 1 lakh.
The new regime has been taking other steps, too, to come across as “more open” to the people than its predecessor, say observers. Among these are enquiries on certain doubtful land deals and transfer of all regional transport officers.
Political observers, though, also find the hand of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president Amit Shah in these steps. “The Shah-Rupani chemistry cannot be ignored,” opines Vidyut Joshi, an analyst Hailing from Rajkot, Rupani has also been working to strengthening the party’s position in the Saurashtra region, apart from rural areas, ahead of next year’s legislative Assembly election. Within the party, unlike predecessor Anandiben Patel, he has been able to reduce factions and create a more united front.
“He has been trying to balance the factions. More, by striking at corruption and frequent transfers, Rupani has made sure the administration becomes more open. Unlike his predecessor, he also seems quite open to public grievances,” says Joshi. Sociologist Gaurang Jani says Rupani has also been able to appease the major Patidar community groups; hardly any agitation has been reported in his regime so far. Dalits and Thakors are still a challenge.
That apart, he’d issued orders for suspension of 20 revenue and panchayat employees for dereliction of duty; disciplinary action has been taken so far against 3,500-odd employees across departments. The government is also working on reforms to make land transactions easier in farming, real estate and industry. For instance, it appears the non-agriculture (NA) certification process for land in city areas where final or draft town planning schemes have been announced might be abolished.
However, Gujarat was relegated to third position in this year’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Reforms Ranking 2015-16’, conducted by the department of industrial policy & promotion and the World Bank. Under Anandiben Patel, Gujarat had ranked first. This with the eighth edition of its flagship biennial Vibrant Gujarat Summit due in January. Rupani has been having discussions with top bureaucrats on how to improve the ‘single window clearance’ system the erstwhile Narendra Modi administration had publicised.
The state’s score went down, a senior official said, partly because of non-compliance in use of technology for government processes such as payment of fees, registration and stamp duty payments. “While we are quite pro-active when it comes to paperless offices, including major changes in vehicle registrations, etc, all departments are not 100 per cent compliant to the parameters laid down by the Centre,” said an officer. Adding, however, that compliance levels were above 75 per cent in most cases.
Rupani has said the state would continue to lay emphasis on ease of doing business and pro-active investor facilitation. Says a senior bureaucrat, “The message from the CM is very clear. Beside focus on big investment projects, the industries department has been asked to equally focus on getting SME (small & medium enterprise) investments. Plans to facilitate these are on.” It is also working on changes in labour law.
The major challenge ahead is political —ensuring not only a victory but a sweeping one in next year’s assembly elections, amid dissent between communities, stoked by lack of employment. Rupani recently announced 60,000 jobs would be opened by the government. Earlier, the decision to allow a 10 per cent additional Economically Backward Class quota, announced by Anandiben Patel in May, was quashed by the high court. The task is stiff over the next one year till the elections, especially in the rural areas where the ruling party lost ground to the Congress in last year’s local body elections.
