The State government’s recently introduced Nagarpalika Chalo and Panchayat Chalo Abhiyan are welcome outreach initiatives that could help feel the pulse of the people at the grassroots, but on the flip side, it would be meaningless if the purpose is not served finally.
On Thursday, Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar was deputed to Fatorda while Revenue Minister Atanasio Monserrate took centre stage at the Margao Municipality. While Dhavalikar faced a moderate crowd at Ravindra Bhavan, Monserrate had literally no public to face and instead had to attend to a couple of queries related to the pension and honorarium of councillors. This is a major embarrassment in a council that is dominated by the BJP and reflects that the councillors have not done their homework in publicising the exercise. In the absence of people, the purpose of such outreach programmes is defeated.
On the other side, when Environment Minister Alexio Sequeira made his entry into Benaulim on a panchayat-level exercise, he was faced with some sort of hostility with people throwing politically motivated questions and trying to push him on the back foot. The minister, known for his wit and diplomacy, nonetheless played all questions with a straight bat and managed to hold his ground.
It is obvious that the government is warming up to the election tempo through these outreach programmes and trying to engage people at various levels. Per se, these are not bad if the intention is to genuinely set the right issues aimed towards the welfare of citizens.
However, there are a couple of factors that need to be considered while assessing these programmes. Firstly, accountability. Do the visiting ministers take responsibility for ensuring all issues are resolved at these sessions? Or is this all about the optics? Who is going to take stock ” issues raised versus issues resolved? Or, are the ministers merely doing the work of a postman, informing respective departments of the issues raised?
For an outreach of this nature to work effectively, there has to be a proper mechanism in place. There has to be active involvement of people and the area in question has to be well represented. A few councillors turning up and discussing work-related matters and people giving it a slip explains the inherent shortcomings.
Further, the government must ensure that the ministers who are deputed don’t face politically-charged or politically-influenced environments. Ministers must be insulated from hostility, especially when people deviate from the very purpose of the interaction and engage in political score-settling. Questions must be filtered before being addressed by the minister concerned.
Data shows that outreach programmes like Janata Darbar, Hello Goemkar, Sarkar Tumchya Dhari, Mantri Tumchya Dari, etc primarily faced issues of delivery. It may be a universal feeling to come face-to-face with a minister to discuss issues, but the nature of questions and delivery have been major stumbling blocks across all outreach programmes, to the extent that people are getting disillusioned.
There was a time when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant assured to do a post-mortem of every session, but that was forgotten down the line, and these programmes subsequently became mundane. To reignite that interest, the government will have to work the reverse way ” focus on resolution.
