Pandemic, Social Control & Social Audit: The Indivisible Linkage II

 Pandemic, Social Control & Social Audit: The Indivisible Linkage II 

 Indian Administration is a mixture of British and Mughal legacy. While the land revenue related arrangements of Mughal period was continues without any disturbance, the written rules and regulations were heavily brorrowed from the English. Once you get to used to the colonial English ( Most Government communications have that flavour), not only one understands only such a style, but also starts behaving. I shall write about a senior Officer of 1958 batch IAS separately. Under Indian Administration, anything and everything that exist is supported by written rules and procedures. Bureaucracy is all about written rules and procedures, but what is more important is application of mind when such rules and procedures are initiated. Just because an in-patient of a Government hospital  is prescribed with sedataive for sound sleep, a duty nurse should not splash water on a him, wake him up and make him swallow the sleeping pill and say, "I just followed what is written in the prescription. I have to save my skin. I have to do my duty and do justice to my salary and so on". This is the subtle example of written rules and regulations and application of mind. If you come across mad colleagues, born with a mandae of " Surgery success, Patient Died", think of this example. I pity you for having such colleagues. 

Lets now continue our yesterday’s discussion of the two challans displayed at the end of the blog. Those who haven’t read it can access it at https://nkkumaresanraja.blogspot.com/2020/07/pandemic-social-control-social-audit.html

The source for the Challan is a Government Order issued by the Union Territory of Puducherry by way of GO Ms. No.5/LAS/2020 dated 28.06.2020. This was issued by the Local Administration department of Puducherry Government. Please have a quick look at them.

 

Since, the costables in the streets of Puducherry are with these challan books in a rampage of collecting Rs.100/- for six types of offences, which can be found in the challan . Please see below.

Further, I came across a victim a genuine merchant who pays his taxes properly, treats his workers well and inshort a good Samaritan who owns a utensils shop. He  was telling me that everyday by 12:00 Noon two personnel  will come in a two wheeler and find out couples inside the shop and say that these two are not maintaining social distance and issue penalty to the shop keeper for the spouse, who live in the same house, standing close to each other and examining a consumable for purchase for their home. He allowed me to take a picture of the two challans yellow in colour. 

 

After seeing these two different colours of the challan, Blue and yellow, I was much more fascinated that one is issued by a Government department and the other by a Municipality ( A local body).

Under 73^rd Constitutional amendment, a Municpality is an autonomous body and under business rules of Government, except where the Act, empowers a department cannot levy penalty by way of cash. Revenue generation cannot be the aim of Government, The Revenue Department is not for Revenue generation but collection. The subtle difference is that the Revenue Department enforces certain written procedures guided by Act and regulations and levies tax, penalty and surcharge not with an intention of fund raising, but as a soverign function of State. This action cannot be equated by the Local Administration Department printing challns by itself and started to collect fines. Some one must have hinted and then the challans are now getting printed by the Municpalities.

 It was then I started my probe on the Government Order for collecting the fines based on Rules which supplements the Government Order. This is again a peculiar arrangement since only Act passed by the legislature can have rules under the principle of delegated legislation, whereas there is supposedly a G.O and that links to a set of rules called “Puducherry Municpalities [Prevention of Infection and Corona Virus disease (COVID-19) Amendment Rules 2020. Though the G.O is available in Government website, the rules are not in public domain. I am curious to know the person who had a welding machine to link a standalone set of rules to a pre exisiting G.O, instead of either enacting an Ordinance or amending the extisting G.O. This requires the approval of the Cabinet/ Ministers. I am to have a comprehensive understanding since the Chief Minister of Puducherry was insisting the civilian administration not to harass people with the challans, whreas the Police personnel and select municipality personnel were levying the fee.

            It is at this point, I had to examine the G.O very carefully. I have come across men, resembling police personnel (they usually hide their name plates with a pen and lift the flop of the right side shirt pocket, as this morning I came across a  constable orally informing me that he is from Orleanpet Police Station, with another person without a name badge but bearing PHG( Pondicherry Home Guard) shoulder badge. It is pertinent to mention that these constables along with persons bearing SHG shoulder badge have been in a reckless collection of fines in various parts of the City. Since I am aware that constables as per established procedures are the equivalent of Group D (This comparison is now made because of the GO referred above) and I have not found anywhere in CrPC or Police Act that a constable can collect fines, when this is the fact since the inception of the Police force in the country, the very first question that came to my mind is,

1)      When a higher instrument ( CrPC, Police Act or a notification by the MHA, GoI ( in the event of extreme exigency citing Disaster Management) has not conferred a magisterial function on Police constables,  can an executive order taking shelter of Municipalities Act 1973 can confer such a jurisdiction? If so, that is the source of empowerment to all executive organ and first of its kind in the administrative history of India!

2)       On the contrary, even if that is a decision by the Cabinet, it can be only a draft and should receive the consent of the President, before it is implemented. Please correct me if I am wrong.

3)      I understand that the rules were supposedly framed in line with the amendment is not in the public domain, and I am curious if the rules stand the test of rules framed under the Act. I am only afraid that this should not be a bad precedent.

4)      Very strangely constables who are graduates can collect fines has been mentioned in the GO, thus an elevation has been done at a stroke of a pen, making them “qualify” to exercise magisterial powers that is usually vested with a person not below a Tahsildar, who is a Sub Divisional Magistrate in erstwhile Madras Presidency. This decision of discriminating constables between those graduated and those not ( thre recruitment rules prescribe it is only 12^th standard) and is not in a good taste.

While these are my concerns about the GO per se, the following are my apprehensions in the manner I see them implemented.

1)      Whether any security press is indented to print the challan books? How sure is the administration that there are no duplicate books?

2)      Based on what precedent, consultation, the challan books are printed? Who vetted the draft challan copy, as it is without any head of the account? I see different types of challans issued under the name of the Local Administration department and the Municipalities. Is this based on any written rules, and if so, should not those rules be in the public domain?

3)      What is the Head of Account in which the realized amount is to be credited, which is missing in the GO or the supposed rules, that is not available in Public Domain?

4)      What is the standard operation protocol of bookkeeping since every leaflet is an exchange of cash? Does the Department of Accounts and Treasuries maintain the

5)      Interestingly the Challan does not have a definite amount of cash mentioned. Since the denomination is not specified, how sure the personnel collecting fines from an outstation moving crowd, crossing Puducherry will confine that the counterfoil will carry the same figure mentioned in the Challan issued to the public?

6)      How sure I am as a citizen that the money collected from me goes to the State Exchequer? Are there evident proofs in the public domain?

7)      What is the deadline issued for remitting the cash collected to the Treasury? Who is designated for collecting the money and how long can a police constable retain the money raised by him, how long the SHO can keep the money given to him by the constables before remitting to the Treasury? What are the SOP (Standard Operating Protocol Issued?) Do the rules contain these issues and permit them?

8)      Which department supervises the auditing and accounting at the field level organizations? How many teams from DVAC (Directorate of Vigilance and Anto Corruption) have so far conducted surprise checks?

When the above are my ideas on the manner it is implemented, the following are my observation from the field.

1)      The GO Notifies that constables are entitled to collect the fines, but the SHO’s sign the challans and give them lamented a constable.

2)      The Challan’s office copy  does not have the entry of the penalized person or his signature – This is my observation based on Challan Nos.007424 and 007423

3)      When the entire exercise is done in the name of COVID 19, the Challan has a space for the penalized person to sign the space, before it is separated from the counterfoil. Then where is the social distance between the Constable and the penalized person? Is this arrangement does not put the constable or the fine levying personnel under an avoidable risk?

4)      The constables usually come with another constable or a PHG person in a two-wheeler (Social distancing?) and charge a shop keeper for allowing a couple to inspect things before buying (Challan No. 007423 & 007424 dated 18.0.07.2020) charging couples were standing close to each other. This creates unpopularity to the elected Government, and in my opinion, Indian bureaucracy supports elected representatives. This scene is witnessed by not less than ten person per Challan.

5)      The personnel of Lawspet police station ( two of my colleagues from Pondicherry University share their challan with me in blue colour) catch holds of every vehicle passing by and instead of charging them of over crowd, just that a child was in the lap pf the mother, it become the fourth traveller to violate social distancing. Whether it is a violation of one way or any other, a challan is recklessly issued, perhaps there is a competition among the police stations for higher collection. At the cost of making the Government and the administrative system unpopular?

6)      When the Government of India encourages payment by UPI ( Unified Payments Interface). Our  Hon’ble Prime Minister has introduced BHIM App, and invariably, everyone has a UPI |enabled smartphone, why not a cashless method of collection of fines be introduced?

7)      There are six types of offences are found in the Challan, including (1) Spitting (2) Spilling of phlegm or blood or nasal fluid – How sure a constable can differentiate between the two and what is the operational definition of these items. If they are deemed to be in a public place, what defines public place? The challan reads without Mask or Hand kerchief, not spelling how the hand kerchief should be presented.

8)      I can see the challans from those who are penalized for not maintaining social distancing? How many constables have their vision lastly checked? By whom? What is the yardstick to find that a person is violating social distance norms? This is certainly not a trivia.

The father of public administration Woodrow Wilson says, writing a constitution is easy than running it and justifies the existence of a discipline called Public Administration. To a question of what is public administration Wilson responds, “Public Administration is detailed and systematic application of law. Every particular application of law is an act of Administration”. Max weber the proponent of bureaucracy that the authority wielded by bureaucrats should be legal and rational.

Thus to see the contents GO. Ms. No.5/LAS/2020 dated 28.06.2020 and the way it is implemented hastily.This would not only make Woodrow Wilson and Max Weber feel sorry but even a citizen like me. I have always equated Puducherry as a City State like Singapore, which can be a model City/ UT for the rest of India in terms of Governance, and all related indicators.

But, I am exremely happy to convey to the readers that after this has been taken to the Chief Secretary of Puducherry Government by me, I was ovwewhelmed that the Top bureaucrat is nterested for a proposal from my end for both social audtiting immediately and later after a lock down is over to conduct an assessment of UPI payment acceptance among the Public of Puducherry. The ended very at a happy note 

Students who read this blog may identify the supportive rules of atleast ten actions by Government they see around them. The best reply will be awarded a good Public Administration text Book