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Indian Constitution and Government (SYBA- PAPER- II) Environment Movement In India

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECOLOGICAL MOVEMENTS

The first lesson is that the main source of environmental destruction in the world is the demand for natural resources generated  by the consumption of the rich (weather they are rich nations or rich individuals and groups within nations)….

The second lesson is that it is the poor who are affected the most by environmental destruction.

                                            (Anil Agrawal, 1986)

Environmental movements of various countries have emerged due to different reasons. It is basically due to prevailing environmental quality of the locality. The environmental movements in the north are basically on the issue of quality of life. Whereas the environment movements in the south arise  due to some other reasons, such as due to conflicts for controlling of natural resources and many more. The participants of these movements in North are the middle class and upper class people, who have concern for the nature. But in the south the protesters are generally the marginal population – hill peasants, tribal communities, fishermen and other underprivileged people. The different environmental movements in our own country support this argument. The examples could be taken as Chipko, N.B.A. , Mitti Bachao Andolan, Koel-Karo Andolan etc. That is why the environmentalism of the North is refereed as “full stomach” environmentalism and the environmentalism of the south is called as “empty – belly” environmentalism.

Environmental and ecological movements are among the important examples of the collective actions of several social groups. Protection and recognition of constitutional and democratic rights, which are not defined by law but form an important part of the day to day living of the subaltern masses like the control over their resources, the right of indigenous people to preserve their culture, protection of environment and maintenance of ecological balance are significant concerns of these movements, as they affect the human life to a great extent.

These movements also reflect an enlarged vision of economics and politics. Economic justice sought by these movements does not mean mere distribution of resources but encompass a larger vision like enhancement in the quality of life through recognition of people’s right over their natural resources, their right to live with dignity, and their participation in the decision–making. The concerns of human environment received spectacular attention of scholars following the conclusion of the United Nations Conference on Human Environment, Stockholm in 1972. By the 1980s the “green movement” became a worldwide phenomenon encompassing various countries of the world including India.

While agrarian or working class movements have had a long historical trajectory, environmental or ecological movements gained worldwide attention only in the second half of the twentieth century. These movements focus not only on basic survival issues but also on larger ecological concerns. These are different from earlier social movements. In general these movements are grouped under tribal and peasant movements and as well under New Social movements. This is so because ecological aspects are generally associated with peasant and tribal’s whose survival is associated with the state of natural resources like forests, water etc. Some treat them as middle class or elite movements as the problems and concerns of the local communities, indigenous people or non–tribal poor are generally articulated by the urban middle class elite. In fact, there has been no single unified and homogenous environmental discourse in India. There has been what Guha calls ‘varieties of environmentalism’.

ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN INDIA: ISSUES ANDCONCERNS:

The environmental movement is a broad generic term which is generally used to describe and understand different types of local struggles and conflicts concerned with livelihood issues and ecological security within the larger context of the development debate. These struggles in fact critiqued and questioned the notion of development and conservation ecology pursued by the Indian state and its officials since colonial time.

The genesis of the environmental movement in India can be traced to the Chipko movement (1973) in Garhwal region in the new state of Uttranchal. In fact, between1970s and 1980s there were several struggles in India around issues of rights to forest and water which raised larger ecological concerns like rights of communities in forest resources, sustainability of large scale environmental projects like dams, issues of displacement and rehabilitation etc.

The Indian environmental movement is critical of the colonial model of development pursued by the post–colonial state. The post–independent state failed to build up a development agenda based on the needs of the people and continued to advocate the modern capitalist agenda which led to the destruction of environment, poverty and marginalisation of rural communities. Formation of national parks, sanctuaries, protected areas in India, in fact represents the conventional environmentalism which the Indian state advocated with the aim of preserving wildlife and biodiversity by pushing people out of these areas.

In response to this conventional environmentalism which considered the Indian state to be the custodian of natural resources, the environmental movement in India advocated the ideology of ‘environmentalism of the poor’. It not only criticized modern developmentalism but also strongly advocated the revival of traditional ‘self –sufficient village economy’. It brought communities to the centre stage of Indian environmental discourse. The environmentalist stated that local communities were best suited to conserve natural resources as their survival depended in the sustainable use of such resources. They argued that in order to make the sustainable use of the resource the customary rights or traditional rights should be given back to the people which were taken away by the State, and traditional institutions should also be recognized. In a nutshell, the environmental movement in India concentrates on the issue of equity in relation to access and use of natural resources.

Unlike in the West, a significant characteristic of environmental movements in India is that they have mainly involved the women, the poor and disadvantaged masses who have been directly affected by or are victims of environmental degradation. Thus these movements are primarily political expressions of the struggle of local communities’ and people who are victims of environmental degradation or abuse of resources.

Gadgil and Guha identify four broad strands within the environmental movements in India based on vision, ideology and strategy.

• The first types are those which emphasize on the moral necessity to restrain overuse and ensure justice to the poor and marginalised. Mainly Gandhians belong to this strand.
• The second strand stresses on the need to dismantle the unjust social order through struggle. Marxists mostly follow this strand.
• The Third and fourth strands advocate reconstruction, i.e. employing technologies appropriate to the given context and time. They reflect the concerns of the scientists or the spontaneous efforts of the communities at the village level who aim at protecting local community forests or the right to pursue environment-friendly agricultural practices.

THE REASONS FOR EMERGENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENTS IN INDIA

 CONTROL OVER NATURAL RESOURCES:

Control over natural resources is an important reason for emergence of environmental movement in India. Some good examples of these kinds of movements are like Chipko and Narmada Bachao Aandolan. In the first case, the reason for conflict was control over forest; whereas, in the second the reason was control over water. Let’s have a look on the reasons behind the emergence of Chipko movement in the Garwhal Himalyas.

The Chipko movement started in the Garhwal Himalaya in April 1973. Between 1973 and 1980, over a dozen instances were recorded where, through an innovative  technique of protest, illiterate peasants, men, women and children- threatened to hug forest trees rather than allow then to be logged for export. Notably the peasants were not interested in saving the trees per se, but in using their produce for agricultural and household requirements. In later years, however the movement turned its attention to broader ecological concerns, such as the collective protection and management of forest, and the diffusion of renewable energy technologies.

Most of these conflicts have pitted rich against poor: Logging companies against hill villagers, dam builders against forest tribal communities, multinational corporations deploying trawlers against traditional fisher folk in small boats.

One important factor is that those poor peoples are solely dependent upon those natural resources for there survival hood. So, the changes in control of resources directly hamper their subsistence economy due to which their survival hood came in danger. Therefore the protest of the people rise against those outsiders, which had ultimately taken the shape of environmental movement in many instances.

POLITICAL REASONS:

After independence in 1947 people have great expectation from the indigenous government, it was assumed that the new government which was more aware of the Indian problems and was equally concerned for the people would definitely seek to eradicate all problems, with the installation of new government under the leadership of Nehru , with the observations of industrializations raised hopes but the government policies were only for industrialization without looking the environment and equal sharing of natural resources.

The governmental policies resulted into a lot of displacement of people due to large projects such as dams like Bhakra – Nangal and many others. These policies pushed the local people on the edges more often than not, the agents of resource intensification are given preferential treatment by the states through the grant of generous long leases over mineral or fish stocks, e.g., or the provision of raw materials at an enormously subsidised prices, with the injustice so compounded local communities at the receiving end of this process have no recourse except direct actions, resisting both the state and out side exploiters through a variety of protest techniques. So we can say these struggles might perhaps as seen as manifestation a new kind of  ‘traditional’ class conflict were fought in the cultivated field or in the factory, these new struggles are  waged over gifts of nature such as forests, and waters, gifts that are coveted by all but increasingly monopolized by a few.

If we talk in explicitly ecological terms then we can say that history of development in India can be interpreted as being, in essence, a process of resources capture by the omnivorous (individuals and groups with the social power to capture, transform and use natural resources from a much wider catchment area) at the expanse of ecosystem people (those communities which depend very heavily on the natural resources of their own locality). So, we can say the environmental movement is the resistance offered by ecosystem people to the resource capture by omnivorous: as embodied in movements against large dams by tribal communities to be displaced by them or struggles by peasants against diversion of forests and grazing land to industry.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC REAONS:

The other angles by which we look upon the cause of emergence of environmental movements are the socio-economic reasons. Almost most of the environmental movements in India are some how related with this aspect, also, if we see the location where these movements have started then we would found that most of these areas are tribal dominated. These people have strong beliefs regarding their forests, land and water. At the same time they are also totally dependent upon these resources for their survival hood. Therefore, when these forests or other sources of livelihood get disturbed by the outsiders, their socio-economic conditions get hampered and the ultimate recourse is the movement against those people who were harnessing those resources. Also, women had generally played an important role in these movements, in tribal groups; women are accustomed to responsibility and leadership for community survival. There work involves them directly and daily with forests and natural resources. So, whenever their survival came into risk, they take the lead role for the protection of their community and its resources.

ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION/DESTRUCTION: 

Environmental degradation is also an important cause which many time leads to environmental movement. One such e.g. was the silent valley case. Here the proposed dam by the Kerala State Electricity Board was supposed to submerge a large tract of virgin forest. Those are one of the few virgin rain forests left in the country. So, the local people of vicinity along with the N.G.O.s resisted this move. In this movement the K.S.S.P. also get help from scientist community of India and abroad. And the result was withdrawal of this project by the government.

One another e.g. of movement which arose due to the degradation of local environment was the movement against the limestone quarrying, in the Doon Valley in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

SUMMARY

To sum up, environmental and ecological movements became prominent in India since the 1970s, like other such movements. The concerns of these movements are not confined to any particular groups. They are all encompassing – the entire village and urban communities, women, tribals, peasants, middle classes and nature. Even the issues raised by them concern all sections of society in varying degrees. These issues are: protection of people’s right to access of natural resources, prevention of land degradation, preventing commercialization of nature resources and environmental pollution, maintenance of ecological balance, rehabilitation of displaced people, etc. These issues are also related to people’s dignity, environmental rights and their decision-making rights on the issues concerning them. The state in collaboration with the donor agencies disturbed the ecological balance in the society following independence. In the process this adversely affected the people. The latter launched environmental and ecological movement with their leadership, NGOs and other civil society organisations. These movements have raised the levels of people’s consciousness, and achieved some success. They form a significant aspect of democracy in India.

(Ref:http://www.scribd.com/doc/15990953/Environmental-and-Ecological-Movements

Public Administration (SYBA-PAPER-III) Importance of Budget

Importance of the Budget:

Budget is very core of democratic government. It is the master financial plan of the Government.

A modern budget plays a very important role in the social and economic life of a community. In early days budget being the statement of estimated receipts and expenditure had only two objectives.

·         First, government had to determine how much money it wanted to take out of the pockets of tax payers in order to maintain its necessary activities with proper standard of efficiency.

·         Second, legislature had to vote funds, so it necessarily wanted to know the plan of expenditure.

Thus, in the days of laissez-faire, budget was a simple statement of estimated income and expenditure.

Modern society, with the rise of the welfare state, had to assure ever-increasing quantity and variety of government activities. The activities of government tend to cover almost all aspects of social life.

·         Government budgeting is one of the major instruments by which the use of public resources is planned and controlled.

·         The budget is thus an instrument for the articulation of government programmes which have ramifications (effects) in the entire national economy.

·         It affects development and production, size and distribution of income and the availability of man-power and materials.

·         From the budgets citizens can know what benefits they are going to derive from the various plans and programmes of the government and how much tax they will have to pay.

·         Through the budget, various interests, desires, and needs of the citizens are consolidated into concrete programmes.

·         The taxation policy of the government as reflected in the budget aims at narrowing down of class distinctions and social inequalities.

·         The production policy as reflected in the budget may help in removing poverty, unemployment and mal-nutrition of wealth.

·         It can check inflation enable the citizens to lead their life in safety and with the happiness.

The modern states are welfare states and as such budget is used as means for the promotion of welfare objectives. Thus considered the budget has tremendous social and economic implications in a genuine welfare state.

 

Public Administration (SYBA-PAPER-III) LPG and Indian Administrative System

LPG and Indian Administrative System

Under the forces of globalization-liberalization recent decades have seen a shift towards reduced role for the state and government in all countries. India could have not remained unaffected by these global trends. The nineties saw the replacement of ‘License, Quota, Permit (LPG) Raj’ by Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) regime.

One natural and inevitable consequence of planned development in India has been the phenomenal growth and extension of public undertakings in varies fields of developmental activities. There was contextual change from Imperial governance to Democratic governance and from Night watchman state to the Welfare state. State assumed varied responsibilities to respond to increased expectations of people from independent state and our owned government and to achieve goals of socio-economic justice along with political democracy.

The Public enterprises were assigned a pre-eminent role in the economic development. The scheme of Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956, talks of ‘commanding heights of the economy’ through public sector enterprises. The economic development and rate of growth were accelerated and sound economic infrastructure for industrialization was established. The monopolies and concentration of wealth in the hands of few could not be prevented but self-reliance in strategic fields to reduce dependence on foreign technology was attained. Balance regional development was achieved and regional disparities were reduced. Employment opportunities in different sectors improved standard of living of people and reduced the pressure on balance of payment through export promotion and import reduction.

Notwithstanding these achievements, the public enterprises have met with enormous failures, especially in financial performance and managerial efficiency. Of the total 240 central enterprises, about 140 were making profits and 100 were incurring losses in 1990. Due to their inefficiency desired results were not achieved.

Impact of LPG:

To improve the overall performance of the Indian Economy, the Central Government announced in 1991 the New Economic Policy. It came to be known as the ‘New Economic Policy’ as it made a ‘radical’ departure from Nehruvian Economic Philosophy contained in the 1956 policy. In essence, it heralded the era of liberalization which led to privatization and globalization.

Liberalization means free-market economy. It marks a change from a restrictionist regime to a free regime. It implies reducing, relaxing and dismantling of government’s controls and regulation in economic activities.

These measures include: delicensing of a good number of industries, raising of licensing limits, relaxations under the MRTP Act, broad banding, relaxations under the FERA (FEMA) regulations, legislation of additional capacities, relaxations in export-import policy and so forth.

Thus the private sector is permitted to function freely in respect of investment, production and products.

Privatization means- 1. Denationalization, i.e. changing the ownership of public enterprises fully or partially to the private parties, 2. Deregulation i.e. allowing the entry of private sector into areas hitherto exclusively reserved for the public sector and 3. Operating contract, i.e. entrusting the management and control of public enterprises to the private parties on agreed remuneration.

Globalisation means progressive integration of Economies throughout the world and treating the whole world as one global market by removing the restrictions on foreign trade. This implies opening up the Indian economy to foreign direct investment. It removes constraints to the entry of Multi National Companies (MNC’s) in India. Thus, Indian Economy is made part and parcel of the world economy.

The various reasons for this change in the Governments policy towards public sector are as follows:

·         The dismal financial performance of the public sector.

·         Low returns against heavy investments in Public enterprises.

·         Government’s inability to provide budgetary support to sick enterprises.

·         The need to create competition for the public enterprises so that they are forced to earn profits through improved efficiency.

·         The global trend towards liberalization, privatization and gobalisation invited the private sector to come forward to invest in infrastructure areas.

·         External factors influencing the government like advanced countries, MNC’s, World Bank, IMF and so on.

The New Industrial Policy of 1991 contained the following provisions with regard to the public sector:

·         The Government decided to confine public sector investments to strategic, hi-tech and essential infrastructure areas.

·         Some of the areas reserved public sectors will be opened up to the private sector selectively and public sector was allowed to enter in areas not reserved for it.

·         Chronically sick public enterprises will be referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) for formulation of revival and rehabilitation schemes. Etc…

The liberal Economy Reforms:                                                                                              

As a follow up of this new policy and a series of macroeconomic policy reforms leading to the liberalization of the Indian Economy, the government had taken various measures to reform the public enterprises:

1.      The Policy of Dereservations

2.      Closer or Revival of Sick Units

3.      Golden Handshakes

4.      The Policy of Disinvestments

5.      Choosing and strengthening  the Navaratnas

6.      Support to Miniratnas

Signing of MoU

a)      Dereservations:

In 1991, the number of industries reserved for the public sector was reduced from 17 to 8. In 1993, two more items were deleted from the reserved list. Again in 1998 another two items were dereserved. Recently, in May 2001, the government opened up one more area to the private sector participation. Thus, today only 3 areas stand reserved viz., 1) atomic energy 2) minerals specified in the schedule to the atomic energy (control of production and use) order 1953, and 3) rail transport.

            Moreover, some of the dereserved areas are opened not only to domestic private enterprises but also to foreign private enterprises.

b)     Sick Units:

In 1991, the Sick Industrial Companies Act (SICA, 1985) was amended to enable the sick public enterprises to be referred to the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR, 1987) for revival or closure. Till the end of 2000, 74sick units were registered with BIFR. Revival packages were approved for more than 25 sick units, while winding up was recommended in 13 cases.

c)      Golden Hand-Shake:

In 1988, government initiated the Voluntary retirement Scheme (VRS) to help the Public Enterprises to shed Excess manpower. This scheme came to be popularly known as “Golden Hand-Shake” Policy as the workers get a handsome amount from the enterprises at the time of dissociation. As a result, the number of employees, came down from 22 lakhs in 1991 to 1.87 million in 2003.

d)     Disinvestment:

In 1991-92, the disinvestment programme was started with the main objective of raising non-inflationary kind of finance for the government budget. Disinvestment is a process whereby the government withdraws a portion of the total of its equity in a public enterprise. Till 1999, the government raised Rs. 18,638 cores from various rounds of disinvestment.

e)      Navratnas:

In 1997, the Government identifies nine leading, well-performing and high-profit making public enterprises, as ‘Navratnas’ (Nine Precious Jewels.) Later, in the same year, two more were added to the list. They were granted substantial enhanced autonomy and operational freedom in different fields (financial, commercial, managerial and organizational) to facilitate their becoming global players.

Navratnas are- SAIL, BHEL, ONGC, IOC, HPCL, BPCL, GAIL, NTPC, VSNL, MTNL, IPCL.

Two of these, namely, VSNL and IPCL, have been privatized and presently there are only 9 Navratna public enterprises.

f)       Miniratnas:

In 1997, the Government identifies another 97 profit making public enterprises as the ‘Miniratnas’ (Small Precious Jewels) and granted them financial, managerial and operational autonomy

g)      Memorandum of Understanding

It is an agreement between government (ministry) and the public enterprises management to grant autonomy to the later, that is, to reduce day-to-day interference of the ministry in the management of public enterprises. It defines obligations of both the parties for improving performance of public enterprises.

The system of MoU    was introduced IN 1987-88. It has grown a steady rate from 4 MoUs in 1987-88 to 97 MoUs in 2002-2003. Out of these 97 enterprises, 45 were excellent, 19 very good, 14 good, 17 fair, and only 2 were rated as poor.

Globalization of Indian Markets

Similarly, globalization was conceived to integrate the Indian economy with the world markets. Its parameters included reduction of trade barriers for a free-flow of goods and services across national frontiers and the creation of conditions conductive.

The government has attempted to dismantle quantitative restriction on imports and exports to adjust exchange rate to remove over-valuation of currency. The government took measures to encourage foreign investment.

Effects of LPG on Public Administration:

·         Element of Competition:

·         Bureaucratic model- rule bound, conservative, slow, unresponsive, inefficient, ineffective and high cost- Challenged.

·         Reforms in terms of NPM, E- governance, etc.

·         Process of LPG proved useful.

·         Liberalization encourages competition among the players by ending monopoly of Government owned companies.

·         Modernization and Technological Preparedness:

·         Free flow of technology and management techniques led to modernization and increased use o technology in Pub. Administration.

·         Attitudinal changes:

·         Principle of effectiveness added to traditional principles of Pub administration- efficiency and economy..

·         Competition allowed consumers to make choice..

·         Attitudinal change- pub administration became people oriented- improved quality service- attractive products.

·         Increasing importance of specialists:

·         In policy making to achieve efficiency and effectiveness.

·         Bureaucracy became result oriented due to competition with private players.

·         Decentralization:

·         Privatisation and deregulation shift responsibility for functions from the public to private sector and is another type of Decentralisation

·         Professional Competence:

·         Reorientation of attitude- new work ethics-acceptance of NPM,

·         Introduction of private management principles in Public Administration,

·         Entry of MNC’s

·         Free play of labour and manpower

Conclusion:

            Under the waves of LPG, 1990s witnessed major shift in policy led to deregulation and disinvestment and opening of the activities reserved for the public sector to private players. Role of Public sector has been de-emphasized. Public Sector is also withdrawing its investment from Welfare activities like health, education, housing etc. New model of Public- Private- Partnership coming forth to fill the vacuum created by withdrawal by Government from many sectors. State formerly interventionist, producer, regulator and seller now called upon to be a facilitator, promoter, and partner.

            Due to these changes size of Public Administration is also shrinking. Nehruvian Model based on Democratic Socialism is replaced by ‘Free Market Economy’.

Reference:

Sharma P.D., Sharma B.M, Indian Administration- Retrospect and Prospect, 2009

Laxmikanth, Public Administration.  

 

Public Administration (SYBA-PAPER-III) Importance of Training

Training of Civil Servants

In Public Administration, training means conscious efforts made to improve the skills, powers, and intelligence of an employee and to develop his attitudes and value-system in a desired direction. In broad and general terms, training is a lifelong phenomenon.

• Training, informally and unconsciously begins with our childhood itself.
• But in the narrow and specialized sense, training of civil servants is a deliberate effort, directed to increase the specific skills and vocational competence of the civil servants in their routine work.

William Torpey defined training as "the process of developing skills, habits, knowledge, and aptitudes in employees for the purpose of increasing the effectiveness of the employees in their present government position as well as preparing the employees for future government positions".  

About the meaning of training, we can say that:

• Training is a conscious, deliberate and planned effort;
• Training is specific and limited;
• It means imparting instructions about a particular work or profession;
• Its purpose is to improve the skill, knowledge and effectiveness of the employees in their task; and
• It also aims at preparing an employee for higher responsibilities.

Importance of Training:

•  Training improves the efficiency of the employees in administration;
• Training improves the occupational skill and knowledge of the employees, so that they can do their work effectively;
• Training inducts a new employee into the organisation and imparts him knowledge of the goals and objectives of the organisation, his own role in the organisation and techniques and methods of carrying out his duties. Consequently, the employees can best contribute to the attainment of organizational goals;
• Because there are constant changes in the and techniques of the organizations, training adjusts the employees with the new organizational changes;
• Training makes up for the deficiencies of the newly recruited persons.  Fresh University graduates are given necessary training to shape and mould them in the desired direction and make them suitable for government work.
• Training keeps the employees informed about the latest developments in his field and thus, keeps his knowledge up-to-date;
• Training improves the integrity and morale of the employees. The very existence of the training process gives the trainees‘ an added sense of dignity and in their work and office;
• Training develops a-sense of community service and belongingness in the employees. They realize that their work is an essential part of the organisation and the community. Therefore, they put more efforts in their work. This gives the employees a sense of pride and self-fulfillment in their work. It is, therefore, said that everybody in the civil service must get an opportunity of training of one kind or other;
• Training makes the employees, people oriented: It inculcates a basic principle ill them, that they are public servants and not masters. This is necessary in a democratic administrative system;
• Training prepares the employees for higher positions and greater responsibilities; and
• Finally, training fosters homogeneity of outlook and broadens the vision and outlook of the employees.