Viksit Bharat@2047 – Needs a Sustained Focus on Good Governance and Civic Services

If an area of major deficiency and public concern that can be flagged with clarity and with a fair amount of accuracy, it is the neglect of people and the civic services and a great loss of civic sense in people, otherwise so important, to build a developed nation. The rot that sat in the Municipalities and Nagar Nigams in India from around mid 1960s continued till today to deteriorate the quality of civic services and even created heaps of garbage and dirty drains on one side and the rise of unauthorised colonies and unauthorised occupation of government land on the other. What more turning a blind eye to the law of the land, allowing roadside unauthorised constructions, even on state and central highways, became the rule of law. All this went on in broad daylight and continues even today when the surveillance cameras are there everywhere.

Political parties in their desire to create their vote banks tend to support the demand to “authorise the unauthorised”.  This together with helplessness of those in power and authority, over the years, has kept civic services and nurturing civic habits in people on the back burners. The net result is mounting air and water pollution, dirty drains full of mosquitoes and total loss of civic sense, un-imaginable traffic indiscipline and utter neglect of civic services.

On top of this each year during rainy season waterlogging happens in millenium city of Gurgaon and in Maga cities like Mumbai and Delhi. No one seems to care to find a lasting solution to such civic agonies. The stray Dog menace recently engaged the attention of the Hon’ble Supreme Court to issue orders for compliance by the civic bodies for sterlisation and vaccination to protect the people from dog bites, exposes the gravity of neglect of public interest by civic bodies.

The Making of New India, the Viksit Bharat:

We can no longer afford to put the civic services on the back burner any longer as a ‘New India, the Viksit Bharat, is in the Making’. This requires steely resolve on part of those in authority, awareness and commitment, a Sankalp on part of the people of all ages and all walks to follow the law and shape themselves as a law abiding responsible citizens of Viksit Bharat of our dreams.

The people at large need be reminded that they belong to a civilization that gave to the world the call for: Self-discipline, Aatmasanyam, and also the call of ‘Responsible Consumption’, Aparigriha, and above all for protection of life, Ahimsa. Compliance to truth and righteousness conduct were natural to our Vedic Sanatan Sanskriti and its people had practiced: ‘Satyamaiv Jayate’ to make India, the Bharat a heaven on earth, “Janani Janma Bhumaschya Swargadapi Gariyashi”,  as said by Lord Rama in Tulsi Ramayana.

Action plan for Good Governance and a law Abiding Citizenship:

First and foremost, we need to create a mass movement for public awareness and people’s empowerment to be part of the solution and report the wrong in their respective areas. The RWAs and associations of traders shopkeepers can play a highly meaningful role in motivating their members to be on the side of law and not tolerate wrongs.

Secondly, those in chairs of authority in the local bodies and in government be made accountable to their responsibility to maintain the civic services at par with the standards of a quality of life akin to the aspirations of the Viksit Bharat.

Thirdly, the public representatives, the counselors, and the members of the legislative assembly need to be assessed for their integrity and performance using a well-defined and robust performance appraisal, free from any bias. Those who fail to upkeep their constituencies upright should be denied the second chance for contesting elections.

Fourth, the local bodies including the Nagar Nigams and the Municipalities be made accountable for their failure to maintain the civil services at well defined standards.

Fifth, as technology is a great enabler for creating transparency and to positively impact human behaviour, AI enabled solutions for planning and execution of civil projects and upkeep and maintenance must be put in place to improve significantly the efficacy of project management and ensure cost effectiveness and reliability of maintenance.

Sixth, rapid response forces not only to safeguard those affected by the loss of maintenance of civic services and natural calamities like flash floods and cloudbursts, be put in action for rapid track repair and maintenance of the civic services.

Seventh, it makes no sense to keep on increasing the number of vehicles on the roads of India without effective load flow management and traffic control using intelligent transportation systems, ITS. In fact, India can no longer afford the luxury of having the best of the cars on road, but the worst driving sense in the world for its drivers. Time has come to accept that we cannot continue to drive fast in slow lanes, if the Viksit Bharat is our resolve and the goal of our developmental policies and programmes is good governance and high civic sense.

The time is right to accept that a significant obstacle to India’s fast track development is the pervasive neglect of civic services and the decline of civic sense among its citizens. This issue, which has plagued municipalities and Nagar Nigams since the mid-1960s needs most urgent attention to make India leapfrog towards its developmental goals of Viksit Bharat @2047.

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The Author Prof PB Sharma, is the Founder Vice Chancellor of DTU and RGPV, Former President of AIU, Former Professor of IIT Delhi, President of World Academy of Higher Education and Development, W-AHEAD and currently the Vice Chancellor of Amity University Gurugram. The Views expressed are the personal views of the author.