REJUVENATE DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION

BIKASH CHOUDHURY

Demand for new smaller States have grown thick and fast in different parts of our country in the recent past; the Telengana State in Andhra Pradesh is the prominent one. The demand for smaller States were not on the basis for better Governance but political. If it were on Governance then we would have seen demand for smaller City States like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore & Hyderabad as these cities have grown much beyond the capacity of a civic metropolitan council; however, non so far agitated for a just cause; again out of political consideration. What is the way forward?

We have observed that during pre colonization our country was ruled by Monarchs of very small territory; now compared to a District. These Kings used to look after the Socio-Economic progress of their people apart from Defense, Judiciary and Civil Administration. Apparently, our country’s economic progress then could be attributed to the able “Leadership” provided by these kings over a smaller land mass that exercised authority as well as remain closer to their people. Since, our Independence that role has been taken over by civil servants/ District Magistrates. That system was working fine for some time; but, now with growth of population by four times since independence and with growing political & social awareness level in even remote areas of the country, the complexity of civil administration has grown manifold and the demand for attention on Socio-Economic growth has become much more tougher and beyond the capacity of a District Magistrate who mostly have 8-10 yrs of experience in Indian Administrative Service and in the age group of 25-35 yrs. As many memoirs of retired civil servants suggest, these young DM’s remain hostage to their ‘Bada Babu’/section officer due to lack of experience, exposure, maturity and ground realities of their assigned district. This may or may not be true; but, certainly there is a need to consider the necessity of “Rejuvenating the District Administration” after 60 plus years of our freedom.

We now have a system of Regional Development Commissioner (RDC) to over see the socio-economic development & administration of a set of districts which is largely non-functional due to over bureaucracy, confusing & complicated line of command and they remain at a distance from their epicenters and therefore can’t provide necessary ‘Leadership’ as the command and control mechanism fail to work at the optimum level most of the time due to ‘bureaucratic fire walls’.

It is now about time to choose a very senior administrator for each district designated as ‘District Development Commissioner’ to head the ‘District Secretariat’/ Zilla Sachivalya. All Departments of Govt. in the District should operate under him in one roof including District Magistrate, Superintendent of Police and Project Director of DRDA. A suitable Matrix organization could be created between Departmental Head in the State Secretariat and District Departmental Heads through the office of District Development Commissioner while abolishing the office of Regional Development Commissioner. This should bring a unified command in the Socio, Economic Development and civil administration with a “matured, experienced and competent bureaucratic leadership” in a District that could bring faster economic growth with equity through much better execution of programs of Govt. minimize bureaucratic hurdles and need for co-ordination between different organs of Govt. in the District Head Quarter at Zilla Sachivalaya.                        

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