TOPIC-1: A jobs scheme that steadied
India
It is now a decade since the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched, and it can be
said with reasonable assurance that the
programme has been largely successful in living up to what it set out to do:
provide employment to India’s rural poor and improve their livelihoods. Sceptics of the spending programme, launched in
2006, had raised concerns that it would
be yet another opportunity for middlemen to pocket funds. They had dismissed the argument that the design of MGNREGS
as a demand-driven scheme would make it more targeted
and less prone to leakage. Ten years on,
the sceptics have been largely proved wrong. Yes, the efficiency of implementation of the scheme varies across States,
there is a degree of wastage of resources, there is an issue with delayed payments, works undertaken have not held
up in some States, and there remains some information asymmetry leading to uneven implementation. Yet,
by and large, study after study has found that MGNREGS has served as a source
of employment for the poor in distress
situations such as drought, crop failures
and lean rural employment days. It has helped raise rural wages steadily over
time, and in places where it has been implemented well, built rural assets
such as irrigation canals and roads have augmented
local infrastructure.
Yet, it is also evident now that
over the last five years there has been sluggishness
in MGNREGS’s implementation. There have been ups and downs in the Central outlay
for the scheme, in terms of allocations
as a percentage of overall budget spending and, most importantly, delays in
releasing funds to States for wage payments. This has led to a relative slack
in demand and consequently a drop in the work hours and even a decline in the average rural wage rate increases
in these years. This is primarily because both the Congress-led UPA in its
second term in government and the current BJP-led regime
have been less than enthusiastic
about the need for the scheme. Indeed, data show that only in the past year has the BJP
government come around to realising its utility, even if grudgingly. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi had remarked last year that his government saw MGNREGS
as a symbol of the failures of the Congress governments, and that after 60
years, it was a travesty that we were
“still making people dig holes”. These remarks symbolised, at one level, a flawed understanding of the scheme, and at
another, a negative mindset about demand-driven welfarism.
It took a distressed agrarian situation with the failure of
the rabi crop and less-than-optimal rains for the MGNREGS to get its due, and
the proportion of delayed payments was reduced in the first three quarters of
2015-16 from what it was in 2014-15. Even so, the implementation of the scheme
has continued to be better in some States as opposed to even drought-hit
States. It is clear that there needs to be a better political understanding of
the need for and the efficacy of welfarism.
VOCABULARY:
1.assurance : a
positive declaration intended to give confidence; a promise.
2.Sceptics: a
person inclined to question or doubt accepted opinions.
3.concerns : make
(someone) anxious or worried.
4.dismissed :
order or allow to leave; send away.
5.targeted : select as an object of attention or
attack.
6.prone : likely
or liable to suffer from, do, or experience something unpleasant or
regrettable.
7.implementation :
the process of putting a decision or plan into effect; execution.
8.delayed : make
(someone or something) late or slow.
9.asymmetry : lack
of equality or equivalence between parts or aspects of something; lack of
symmetry.
10.distress :
extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain.
11.drought : a
prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall, leading to a shortage of water.
12.augmented :
having been made greater in size or value.
13.infrastructure
: the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities (e.g.
buildings, roads, power supplies) needed for the operation of a society or
enterprise.
14.sluggishness :
averse to activity or exertion : indolent.
15.allocations :
the action or process of allocating or sharing out something.
16.decline : to
gradually become less, worse, or lower.
17.enthusiastic :
having or showing intense and eager enjoyment, interest, or approval.
18.Indeed : used
to introduce a further and stronger or more surprising point.
19.grudgingly :
unwilling, reluctant.
20.travesty : a false, absurd, or distorted
representation of something.
21.dig holes : if
you find yourself in an untenable position, you should stop and change what you
are doing, rather than carrying on and exacerbating the situation.
22.flawed : having or characterized by a fundamental
weakness or imperfection.
23.welfarism :
the principles or policies associated with a welfare state.
24.distressed :
suffering from extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain.
25.agrarian : a
person who advocates a redistribution of landed property.
26.efficacy : the
ability to produce a desired or intended result.
TOPIC-2:The case against Ashok Chavan
When one Governor refuses to accord sanction to prosecute
a former Chief Minister but another, his successor, grants it in the same case, some legal
questions are bound to arise. Yet, on an overall assessment of the twists and turns in the Adarsh
Cooperative Housing Society scandal in
Mumbai, the latest decision of Maharashtra Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao to allow
the prosecution of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan ought to be welcomed as a positive move towards
public accountability. There was an alleged
element of quid pro quo in Mr. Chavan’s
favourable decisions while in office and the fact that his mother-in-law and
the brother of his father-in-law had flats allotted in the society. It is only
just and fair that the trial court is given an opportunity to assess the legal consequence
of Mr. Chavan’s actions. The earlier refusal
of former Governor K. Sankaranarayanan to grant sanction to prosecute Mr.
Chavan had derailed the entire case
against him, as the Central Bureau of Investigation moved to delete his name
from the charge sheet. However, the Special CBI Court declined the request, noting that the charge under the Prevention of
Corruption Act does not go away merely because
the Governor refused sanction for the offences of cheating and conspiracy. Mr. Chavan has questioned the legality
of the CBI approaching the Governor for sanction for a second time after Mr.
Sankaranarayanan had gone into the matter and refused it. However, the State
government’s advice to the present Governor to accord sanction is based on “new
facts”.
The fresh grounds relate to the
observations of the Justice J.A. Patil Commission report which talked of a “nexus established between the acts of Mr. Ashok
Chavan and the benefit derived by his close relatives in the form of membership
of Adarsh CHS”, and a Bombay High Court order in 2014 upholding the trial
court’s refusal to drop his name from the charge sheet. It cannot be forgotten
that the entire issue of according sanction to prosecute a public servant for
the offences of conspiracy, cheating and forgery is only academic. In 2006, the Supreme
Court had laid down that by their very nature such offences do not require prior sanction as they cannot be regarded as
having been committed by a public servant in the discharge of official duties.
It is surprising that the CBI approached the Governor for sanction in the first
place under Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code for the offences of
conspiracy and cheating. In any case, it could have gone ahead with the
prosecution in respect of the Prevention of Corruption Act, which does not
require sanction after the accused has demitted office. The idea of shielding public
servants from frivolous complaints is the
ostensible justification for the sanction
provision in law. This technical requirement, however, has more often been a
shield for corrupt public servants, especially political leaders. The sooner
this bugbear of legitimate prosecution is abolished, the better it
would be for probity in public life.
VOCABULARY:
1.accord : give or grant someone (power, status, or
recognition).
2.prosecute :
institute or conduct legal proceedings against (a person or organization).
3.successor : a
person or thing that succeeds another.
4.grants : agree
to give or allow (something requested) to.
5.assessment : the
action of assessing someone or something.
6.scandal : an
action or event regarded as morally or legally wrong and causing general public
outrage.
7.ought : used to
indicate something that is probable.
8.alleged : said,
without proof, to have taken place or to have a specified illegal or
undesirable quality.
9.quid pro quo : a favour or advantage granted in return for
something.
10.assess : evaluate or estimate the nature,
ability, or quality of.
11.consequence : a
result or effect, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.
12.refusal : an
act of refusing to do something.
13.derailed :
obstruct (a process) by diverting it from its intended course.
14.merely : just; only.
15.conspiracy : a
secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful.
16.nexus : a
connection or series of connections linking two or more things.
17.offences :
annoyance or resentment brought about by a perceived insult to or disregard for
oneself.
18.forgery : the
action of forging a copy or imitation of a document, signature, banknote, or
work of art.
19.prior :
existing or coming before in time, order, or importance.
20.accused : a
person or group of people who are charged with or on trial for a crime.
21.demitted :
resign from (an office or position).
22.frivolous : not
having any serious purpose or value.
23.ostensible :
stated or appearing to be true, but not necessarily so.
24.bugbear : a
cause of obsessive fear, anxiety, or irritation.
25.legitimate:
conforming to the law or to rules.
26.probity : the
quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency.
