BY HH Mohrmen
It was a May Day afternoon and the students of some schools in Jowai town assembled at the District Library Auditorium to join the District Administration of West Jaintia Hills District in observing the Civil Services Day 2018. Surely it was a government function like any other except for the fact that unlike before when students remained silent listeners while the people on the dais hold forth like jugs full of knowledge and pour their wisdom on to the reluctant audience, this time students too had their say.
Every session of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly, has school students from Shillong witnessing the debates but schools from outside the state capital never had that kind of opportunity. Schools in and around the state capital are fortunate to have this exposure but for students of some schools in Jowai it was a rather unexpected experience on that particular day when they were part of a mini assembly in that they were able to participate in a mock parliament of sorts and question the Government on various projects and point out its flaws.
At least for that one single day the students of schools in Jowai had the experience of how the Assembly functions. After the different department gave their presentations, in the later part of the program during the interaction session the students were given the opportunity to question the officers and seek clarification on their doubts vis-a-vis the presentations. And surprisingly the questions did come thick and fast.
The credit goes to the Jaintia Hills District Administration which came up with the novel idea following the theme of the Civil Service Day celebration this year – “Improving Service Delivery through Innovation.” In fact that was what had happened. This is of course another very far-reaching innovation that the district administration has introduced in the district.
That it is different from the usual functions organised by the Government was evident from the very fact that the program started almost on the dot (which is a rare case in government events and functions). The reason this was possible was because no politician was involved in inaugurating or gracing the function, hence there was no delay in the starting the meeting. Sometimes it looks like the delay is a carefully calibrated act to forcefully impose the politicians’ self-importance on the less-important people who have to wait for the ‘very important person (VIP)’.
The DC in charge DM Wallang during his speech categorically stated that it is for the first time that the office of the DC has organised such a programme, because the District Administration wants to do something different to commemorate the day. The DC’s office instead of organising usual meetings followed by a banal oath taking ceremony came up with an innovative idea to observe the day.
The program started with a presentation from different departments on the works in progress and those completed. Each department came prepared with power point presentations, but the interesting part was the interactive session where students were allowed to question the officers on their presentations, on the progress of some works and the achievements of the various departments.
The presentation which received maximum numbers of question is the MGNREGS and it was a pleasant surprise to see that students have questions for almost all presentations and the interaction was jovial and informative. Students, particularly those from the rural areas were obviously very interested with the hundred day wage scheme which had brought change to their villages. The Department of Environment & Forests was questioned on conservation and wildlife issues. Other departments too were bombarded with questions. For instance there were questions on lack of civic sense amongst the people which makes Jowai town littered with garbage.
When the SP West Jaintia Hills, Vivek Syiem recalled his experience as the SP Shillong in which he said that the CCTVs installed in the city helped the police not only to get clues to crimes but that it has also helped the police to catch those who litter in public places. And as expected, pat, came the question back to the SP, where a girl student asked him why CCTVs were not installed in Jowai to catch those who litter?
A girl from the Jowai Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Jowai questioned the authorities on why there was no attempt to repair the leaking roof in her school which makes it difficult for the students to sit in the class when it rains. Initially there was a passing of the buck amongst the government departments, till the District Education Officer put her foot down and promised to look into the school’s grievances.
Now this is a very important exercise. In fact I consider this to be democracy at work when those who govern and the governed interact to get public works done. When a girl student was able to get the district school authority to instantly promise to repair the leaking roof in the school, then I consider that empowerment. It must have taken the school principal months to move from pillar to post to request the higher authorities to repair the leaked roof, but the student did that in one moment only.
In many cases democracy fails because the citizens of the country or the state do not ask questions either because they are plain lazy or because they are afraid to ask questions for fear of being reprimanded by those in power. One thing that this particular event has achieved was to instil in the young minds the courage to ask questions. They have demonstrated that it is not only alright to ask question, but that it is the right of every citizen of the country to question the powers that be.
It is my expectation that next time the District Administration will do this on a larger scale where not only students are involved but even the public who are interested in knowing about the development in the district will have the opportunity to engage in making democracy work. If and when that happens it will also be the day that the Government has achieved its goal to reach out to the last man in the queue.
Engaging the public in such activities also helps strengthen democracy in the state because when citizens are able to be involved in the system they become part of the system. The other side of that is when they feel aloof, feel left out, and the citizen does not feel that they belong to the system. Many times people look at government departments as something which is outside of themselves and they don’t feel part of it. In such a situation they do not consider themselves as being part of the wheels of progress.
Such programmes not only ensure transparency and accountability in the functioning of the various government departments but the most important thing is that it creates community ownership in government initiatives. People will no longer consider anything that government has constructed or initiated as ‘that which belongs to the government’ (sarkari) but instead will feel that they are part of the project and own every government initiative.
If the government agencies are able to engage the public in this kind of programmes then the public will come to know about all government’s schemes and they not only become empowered but RTI itself will die a natural death. When all the information about the government’s schemes and project in the district are available to the public, where is the need to file for RTI anymore?
I call this event a Mini Assembly not only because people like MLAs have the opportunity to ask important questions, but it also makes people feel important. Hopefully this program is replicated in other districts too that the maximum number of people are engaged in the process. The reason is that much of the confusion and conflicts can be avoided if an opportunity like the one mentioned is created where people can avail themselves important information because as we all know information is power.
