While the weekly grievance redress exercise by the police has already started yielding positive results, another exercise called “Manthan” (churning) has provided the bureaucrats an opportunity to indulge in a brain-storming session on how to improve governance. “Manthan” was held in Bhopal. Senior officers posted at the State secretariat and in the field were the participants. The session began with the inaugural speech of the Chief Minister in which he listed the issues he wanted the participants to apply their minds to. The key areas on which the Chief Minister wanted the participants to come out with suggestions for betterment included law and order, health, women empowerment, good governance and human resources.

After a round of general discussion, the participants were split into groups and after marathon discussions, the leaders of the various groups gave their presentations in the presence of the Chief Minister and the Cabinet. The recommendations to improve law and order and provide better policing were: Police should be freed from the task of securing temples, mosques, banks and other institutions, special allowance should be given to police personnel posted in rural areas and areas with difficult terrain, the orderly allowance should be enhanced, a state of the art security network should be put in place, electronic surveillance and computerisation of police stations should be taken up on a priority basis, co-ordination between police and executive magistracy should be ensured and economic rehabilitation of the so-called criminal tribes like Kanjars, Pardis, etc should be taken up with the aid of the concerned departments.

For improving health services, the “manthan” came out with the following suggestions: the age of superannuation of doctors engaged in clinical work should be raised to 65 years, the services of Ayurveda, Unani and other indigenous systems should be used where allopathic doctors are not available, the Nursing Act should be implemented vigorously and new medical colleges opened, if need be, by drawing the faculty from retired doctors.

For good governance and better use of the human resources available to the government, many new suggestions were made including spending two to three per cent of the Establishment expenses on training government personnel, use of e-mail for sending out all circulars, instructions, directives and information, the Public Service Commission or some other competent agency be involved in recruitment of government personnel so as to ensure that only qualified and competent people enter government service and state-owned undertaking incurring consistent losses and having lost relevance be shut down.

It is often complained that developmental plans are drawn up in air-conditioned office, far removed from the ground reality. The Chief Minister has reversed this process. He has been holding public consultations with the intended beneficiaries of government schemes. These interactions have been named “Panchayats”. The “Panchayats” are held at the official residence of the CM and hundreds of people belonging to particular groups of the society are invited to have their say. So far, the Chief Minister has held Panchayats for farmers, industrial workers, Kotwars (the lowest revenue official), “hammals” (those who carry loads on their backs), NGOs etc. The hundreds of participants in every Panchayat — get the chief minister's ears and are treated to a sumptuous lunch before they leave, Huge permanent tents have been erected on the sprawling grounds of the Chief Minister's residence for these Panchayats, which have become a regular feature.

The latest in the series of the Panchayats was the one for domestic women workers. The assemblage was unique in more ways than one. Perhaps, the domestic workers of no other state would have had the privilege of being invited by the Chief Minister to interact with him and have lunch at his home.

At the meet, the Chief Minister appealed to people to address the domestic workers as “Didi” (if older) and Behen” (if younger) to them instead of “bai”—as they are addressed now. He announced that “Madhya Pradesh shahri kamkaji mahila kalyan yojana” (MP urban working women welfare scheme) would be launched to bring smile on the faces of the women domestic workers. Several other decisions were also taken to improve their plight. These included a proposal to assign the responsibility of Mid-day meals to women domestic workers instead of contractors.

In the Panchayat of NGO workers, held on October 12, the Chief Minister announced that a new policy would be drawn up within the next three months to create conducive atmosphere for the voluntary organizations in the state. He also announced that a unified web-based system would be evolved for the registration of NGOs in the state, wherein all proforma, rules and procedures would be available at one place. Once registered, the NGO concerned will get automatic recognition from all government departments.

Many observers, including the Chief Minister's political critics, describe these functions as “gimmicks”. Implementation of the various sops announced by the Chief Minister in these meets would not only need a committed bureaucracy but also massive funds. There are doubts whether the current administration would be able to implement the decisions. But there are many others who laud the efforts and feel that it would go a long way in resolving the problems faced by various sections of the society. (IPA Service)