Kishore Ambuly IAS, Secretary Govt of Tripura
PHOTO : TIWN
Mr. Kishore Ambuly IAS is Secretary, Dept. of Transport, Dept. of Higher Education, Govt. of Tripura. This Article was written in the commemorative volume brought out to mark the 50th anniversary of Tripura Assembly.
Democracy has been famously defined as a form of government which is of the people, by the people and for the people. So in a democracy, the government should not only work for the people, it should allow people to participate in the process of governance. In Tripura, democracy has taken deep roots which is evident from the vibrant Panchayati Raj institutions in the state and the administration which provides the interface between the government and the common people has always been close to the people. The administrative units have been reorganised from time to time to take administration closer to the door steps of the people. This has paid handsome dividends in terms of good governance for which this small state has earned a big reputation.
I have worked at different levels of the administration for last 30 years. I have seen how administration can help people in distress as also work together with local elected bodies to usher in development. My first brush with administration was as a probationer attached to DM’s office in South Tripura for district training. We shuttled from one office to another for our attachments and did not have much work to do. Then in September,1983, disaster struck when Gomati river overflowed its banks and inundated vast areas of the district. Although we were not part of the relief & rescue operations launched by the district administration, we could see how administration worked overtime to help people in distress. After the flood waters receded, it was time to help people affected by flood rebuild their houses. Teams of officials were formed to assess damages for paying compensations to the families. We were included in the teams as team leaders and each team was assigned a group of villages. Every day, for about two weeks we would start out early morning and visit the affected dwelling houses on foot to take stock of the damages. While I could see the hardships the people were facing because of the calamity, I could also feel that the very fact that the administration had sent officials to see the damages, listen to their problems, was acting like a balm to relieve their sufferings.
Our district training was getting over when the State Government took a decision to increase the number of revenue circles in the state from 17 to 30 to take administration closer to the people. Soon we received orders posting us as Deputy Collectors(DCs) in charge of Revenue circles. I was posted as DC, Revenue, Silachari Circle, one of the new revenue circles. There was no office for the DC so I occupied a portion of the Tehashil office including a small inspection room attached to the office which served as my living quarters. There was no office vehicle so I used to walk down to nearby villages and meet people. But as a DC, I did not have the resources or powers to do any real good to the people of the area. I feel that while the decision to set up new circles was taken with good intentions there was no effective delegation of powers or provision of resources like money and manpower to the DCs. It was only in the late nineties decision was taken to construct office buildings for DCs, provide staff support and delegate more powers.
I did not have to stay at Silachari for long. There was shortage of officers at the headquarters, so I was withdrawn from there and posted in SDM’s office at Sabroom. After working for about one year in Sabroom, I got posted as BDO, Kanchanpur. It was the largest block in terms of area and due to hilly terrain interspersed with rivers & cherras, many of the villages were not connected by road. The people in those villages were very poor and the funds we got under employment generation schemes were not adequate to provide even 25 days of work to a family in a year. It’s hard to believe this now when each family willing to work is guaranteed 100 man days under MGNREGA. Whenever we visited a remote village either alone or accompanying VIPs, villagers mostly tribals would approach us with petitions for financial assistance. But surprisingly, they did not have any complain against us for not doing enough for them. Rather, they used to share their frugal meals with us. There was a Block Advisory committee(BAC) with local MLA as Chairman and Members of District Council and Pradhans of village Panchayets as members. The Committee used to meet once in a month and would take decisions on implementation of various plans and programmes of the Government and selection of beneficiaries. Subsequently, I worked in two other Blocks as BDOs. I do not recall a single instance of conflict between the administration and the local bodies or public representatives. After 72nd amendement of the constitution, now we have a 3 tier Panchyati Raj system in the state except of course in the ADC areas. As District magistrate of Dhalai and then West Tripura District, I have worked closely with Zilla Parishads. Selection of projects and allocation of funds for different rural development schemes & programmes is done through mutual consultations between District level officers and Zilla Parishads while selection of beneficiaries is the prerogative of the Panchayets and village committees. If there is mutual trust between the officers of the administration and the public representatives, things go smoothly. Problems occur when either side mistrusts the other. One important feature of the administration in our state is that people can come and meet the heads of the local administration like the SDMs and DMs directly to voice their grievances or demands if they feel local bodies are not doing enough for them and the officers donot hesitate to attend to their grievances . In many states either the local bodies have usurped all powers or the officers have abdicated their responsibilities. This has given the administration in Tripura an image of being non-partisan and pro-people which in turn has helped common people keep their faith on the administration.
(This Document has been published in the commemorative volume brought out to mark the 50th anniversary of Tripura Assembly)
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