[Many ordinary Indians have little love for
bureaucrats, who are widely viewed as corrupt, indolent and obfuscating, and
Mr. Modi’s pledge of toughness was a central message of his campaign. The
arrival of the new government was accompanied by rumors — widely circulated but
never confirmed — that his office maintained a list of officials with regular
tee-times at exclusive golf courses and kept tabs on who was meeting whom in
hotel clubs.]
The system, accessible to the public on the
website attendance.gov.in,
began working in early October, providing a digital dashboard that so far
displays the comings and goings of more than 50,600 employees spread across 150
departments.
The rollout of the Biometric Attendance
System coincided with an article in The Times of India that said that the
Bharatiya Janata Party’s president had fitted the vehicles of party members
campaigning for state legislative elections with GPS units, gathering real-time evidence that
they are, in fact, on the trail and not lingering in hotel lounges. Party
officials would not confirm the report.
Many ordinary Indians have little love for
bureaucrats, who are widely viewed as corrupt, indolent and obfuscating, and
Mr. Modi’s pledge of toughness was a central message of his campaign. The
arrival of the new government was accompanied by rumors — widely circulated but
never confirmed — that his office maintained a list of officials with regular
tee-times at exclusive golf courses and kept tabs on who was meeting whom in
hotel clubs.
Voters approached
last week expressed full-throated approval of the planned surveillance.
“My own uncle is a government servant and we
see him go into the office at 11 and so on,” said Shubham Tiwari, 20, a
graduate student. “What kind of work will they do when there is not one iota of
self-discipline? As it is, all the babus do is pass on files,” he added, using
a colloquial term for bureaucrats. “At least they should do that with punctuality.”
Vridhi Kapani, 21,
an interior designer, complained that every time she visited a bank or
government office, “we mostly find babus out for tea breaks or some other.” She
called the notion of GPS surveillance “fabulous,” and complained only
that it was too limited, recommending that political figures should also be
tracked on hidden cameras, “to see how they are bribing people for votes.”
The new system
requires government employees to register their presence at the entrance to
their offices using a biometric scan of a fingerprint or iris. As the system
went live, some longtime civil servants acknowledged to Indian news
organizations the practice of “proxy attendance,” in which employees would fail
to show up for long stretches but, with colleagues’ assistance, register as
present in the department’s attendance diary.
There were also some voices of caution.
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a respected political analyst, wrote that biometric
tracking of government employees might turn out to be counterproductive, establishing
a system that “would probably produce more gaming of the system than genuine
performance.”
“It is a mistake to think that discipline can
replace the need for trust,” he wrote. “At most, it displaces trust. But the
harm it produces is to create a culture of suspicion, where distrust becomes
the norm.”
But Mr. Mehta’s warning was clearly not fully
convincing to all the readers of the daily Indian Express newspaper, a number
of whom posted incredulous online comments in response, lustily endorsing the
surveillance plan. “Sir, Have you been to a Government office before?” one of
them read. “If you have dealt with the same, I’m sure you’ll have a
diametrically opposite view on this matter.”
Ellen Barry contributed reporting.
@ The New York Times
FORM
OF GOVERNANCE
The parliamentary party of Nepali
Congress Saturday proposed putting forward two models for the restructuring of
the nation. One model envisioned Nepal
having six provinces or states while the other one proposes seven provinces or
states.
A meeting of the parliamentary
party, also attended by members of NC's Central Working Committee, convened at
the Prime Minister's Official Residence in Baluwatar on Saturday, October 11, 2014,
to hold discussions within NC and decide on a concrete proposal, came up with
the two models. The meeting also decided on its proposals for form of
government, judicial structure and electoral system. NC will now start
negotiations with other parties with the proposal as the cornerstone.
The meeting took place on the
backdrops of the Constitutional Political-Dialogue and Consensus (CPDC) committee
failing to forge a consensus on the disputed issues of federal structure, form
of governance, and judicial and electoral system. The deadline for the CPDCC to
form a consensus was again extended by a week after its latest deadline expired
on Friday. The major political parties also agreed on Friday to sit for
dialogue at an undisclosed location on Sunday.
FEDERAL STRUCTURE
The Nepali Congress proposal has
a federal parliamentary constitutional republic Nepal
with three levels -- the nation, provinces or states, and local levels, and
other Special Regions if necessary.
NC says settlement of two or more
than two ethnic, linguistic and cultural communities -- that make up more than
one percent of the nation's total population -- will be kept in a single
province as far as possible while drawing the borders of provinces on the basis
of identity and capacity, paying attention to geographical and historic
continuity.
The 6-proovince model proposes Eastern
Province Eastern
Tarai Province Capital Province Western Province Far-Western Province
On the other hand, the seven-province
model proposes Sagarmatha Province Janakpur Province Bagmati Province Gandaki Province Lumbini Province Karnali Province Khaptad Province
NC has also proposed allowing
Special Regions inside these provinces with their own names, jurisdiction or
ToR and law, when needed.
Similarly, NC has proposed for an
executive-level mechanism led by the prime minister to settle dispute between
the country and province or between different provinces. The mechanism will
have the country's defence minister, home minister, finance minister, federal
affairs minister and chief ministers of the provinces. A
Constitutional Court led by the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court has also been proposed to resolve and decide on matters and
disputes over law and the constitution.
The meeting also decided that
Nepali Congress would stick with its line of a parliamentary system of
governance. According to its proposal the president of the country would be
elected by an electoral college made up of members of the federal parliament
and the provincial parliament. The president would be a constitutional head-of-state.
The federal parliament would have
two houses of parliament -- the National Assembly and the House of
Representatives while each province would have one provincial parliament each.
PM GETS MINIMUM ONE -YEAR
With a view to maintain political
stability Nepali Congress will propose that once a prime minister has been elected,
a no-confidence motion cannot filed against their government for the period of
one year. After the first year of office, if any party or faction wants to file
a no-confidence motion, then it will have to also register the name of an
alternative candidate for prime minister.
175 MPs, MIXED VOTING SYSTEM
The members of the nation's House
of Representatives will be elected through direct voting. Off the 175 proposed
seats for members of parliament, 75 will be by a proportional representation
system of voting. The National Assembly will not have more than 75 members and
a provincial parliament will have between 25 to 50 representatives.
JUDICIAL SYSTEM
NC's proposal gives the Supreme
Court the final say in interpreting the constitution.
It has also proposed setting up a
Constitutional Court for at
least the first ten years after the date of the announcement of a new
constitution to resolve and settle any dispute on jurisdiction between the
centre and province, province and province or province and local government.
The five-member Constitutional
Court will have the country's Chief Justice as its
head.
NC has also proposed for a
Constitutional Council which will nominate the Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court. The council will be headed by the Chief Justice and have the law
minister, two of the most senior judges at the Supreme Court, and one person
nominated by Nepal Bar Association and appointed by the president.
MADESH PARTIES UNHAPPY
The 6-province model proposal has
Nepal 's Tarai
belt -- the Madesh -- being part of three provinces. This has predictably not
been received well by leaders of Madesh parties. Madesh leaders say they were
always prepared for their One Madesh demand being unrealistic and had expected
they would have to compromise on a two province Madesh. However, they are not
ready for more provinces than that, they say. Madesh parties presently also
have the support of UCPN (Maoist).
SIX-PROVINCE MODEL
1) EASTERN PROVINCE: Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam,
Jhapa, Sankhuwasabha, Tehrathum, Bhojpur, Dhankuta, Morang, Sunsari, Solukhumbu,
Okhaldhunga, Khotang and Udaypuar
2) EASTERN TARAI
PROVINCE
3) CAPITAL
PROVINCE Kathmandu , Bahaktapur, Lalitpur,
Dhading, Chitwan and Makwanpur.
4) WESTERN
PROVINCE
5) WESTERN
TARAI PROVINCE
6) FAR-WESTERN
PROVINCE
SEVEN PROVINCE MODEL
1) SAGARMATHA
PROVINCE
2) JANAKI
PROVINCE
3) BAGMATI
PROVINCE Kathmandu
capital).
4) GANDAKI
PROVINCE Dhaulagiri zones and hilly districts of Lumbini zone
(Pokhara headquarters)
5) LUMBINI
PROVINCE
6) KARNALI
PROVINCE
7) KHAPTAD
PROVINCE
