Personal Chronicles of Administrative Negativism

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AFTER spending 30 years in active public life and having been witness to a remarkable transformation of Goa’s landscape, society, polity, culture, ecology and economy – I see the roots of present problems in the post 1979 culture of administrative negativism (hereafter referred to as AN). A positive administration instantly generates positive attitudes in the society. People feel that they have a government which really cares for them and their all round welfare. The industries, the businessmen feel that they have scope to grow sustainably and positively. A positive administration would uphold the rule of law and would never make compromises to protect or accommodate vested interests. A positive administration does not engage in buying time, postponing decisions, working out short-term trade-offs with long-term negative consequences. A positive administration also becomes a creative and innovative administration by constantly doing self auditing, internal troubleshooting, mid term course corrections and also by learning the best practices from any source or area, anywhere in the world.

Goa got a democratic government in December 1962 and statehood was attained in the year 1987. Goa was blessed to have a short benevolent dose of military administration followed by a generous central administration as a union territory and was expected to mature as a positively administered state after 1987. Goa had the benefit of scale to its’ advantage – a small state with a small population. Goa had the benefit of quality to its’ advantage – liberal society, cultured, literate, peace loving and enterprising people. But slowly after 1979-80 a culture of administrative negativism developed. Incidentally it corresponded with rising urbanisation, unchecked tourism, heavy land speculation and birth of radical mass movements. Post statehood, the culture of AN was here to stay fuelled by political instability and inability of the politically weak leadership to control the palpably perceptible decay of state apparatus. By the dawn of this century – the forces deeply rooted in a booming local parallel economy joined the political process and tied down the state apparatus. Post 1991, several power brokers and kingmakers occupied centre stage (a few out in open but many behind the curtain) and Goa witnessed extra constitutional centres of power.

My considered critical assessment is based on exhaustive studies of government laws, rules, policies, official reports, a mountain of statistics, hundreds of maps, numerous field visits, association with a number of official committees, independent academic and scientific research, interaction with stakeholders, the political and social leaders and over the years my vision of future of Goa is slowly crystallising. How shall I define AN? When the courts frequently order senior government officers to appear before them it is a clear signal of incremental systemic failure. Constitutionally speaking, AN can be defined as a progressive and factually distinctive dilution of the state apparatus and a systemic failure in upholding the rule of law in every sphere touching the citizens’ life. AN is an insult of constitutional mandate. A simple yardstick is the government’s failure in enforcing the existing laws, specifically those that deal with natural resources, infrastructure and local authorities. The fine print of both the volumes of the 40-year old land revenue code have to be contrasted with the ground reality. The administration has not used even five per cent of its’ mandated powers. The duties specified for the revenue inspector in 1975 do not leave anything to imagination. The essence of the 1964 agricultural tenancy act was ‘land to the tiller’ – which automatically implied that those who don’t till the land would not be entitled to hold on it. But one third of Goa’s agricultural land is being kept fallow. The administration was scared to implement the spirit of the act.

Another yardstick is the government’s unwillingness to install a slew of good, clear public policies or even implement the existing ones. A third yardstick of AN is the number of judgments from the Goa bench of Mumbai High Court which have compelled the government to rediscover the governance. If the courts were to direct the government to have policies on beach shacks, beach beds, water sports operators, hill cutting, noise pollution and umpteen other matters – then what is the administration meant for? If we were to compute an index of effective administration only on the basis of rigorous enforcement of existing non-controversial laws then it would be seen that on a scale of zero to hundred, Goa would not score even ten.

The best example of AN is the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, (TCPA) 1974. The most important section of this act is yet to be implemented. It refers to comprehensive development plan (CDP). It is only after the CDP’s preparation that one could go for an outline development plan (ODP). So CDP and ODP are mutually dependent. Then TCPA also mandates the administration to prepare town-planning schemes. Goa has 45 census towns – but none has a scheme under TCPA. Goa had to wait for the centrally sponsored JNNURM scheme to prepare a city development plan for capital city of Panaji.

If as originally envisaged, CDP, ODPs and town planning schemes were to be in place by 1980s – then most of the problems, which have erupted today, would have been settled. But the culture of AN saw to it that land use changes were permitted liberally and projects were permitted to come up without any statutory CDP. There is a conspiracy of silence over CDP because people have benefited by not having it. Another example of AN is the failure of enforcement of the Irrigation Act, 1973 and Command Area Development Act and Rules, 1997. Goa is perhaps the only state in India where one can see irrigation canals passing through farms, which remain uncultivated although the CADA act makes it mandatory for farmers to cultivate their farms.

AN has resulted in tremendous biological invasion in the state because of failure to amend and enforce the Goa Fruits And Flowers Nurseries Regulation Act. Anyone can import and dump spurious and infected planting material in Goa – corms, bulbs, seedlings, grafts, ornamentals – without any kind of quarantine checks or phytosanitary certification. Which country would permit this kind of trade that spreads dangerous pests and pathogens without the knowledge of the people and the farmers? Millions of tender coconuts infected by mites are imported and sold in Goa but instead of taking preventive measures at the check posts itself, AN is encouraging a system of post-damage compensation. Because of AN the government has not been able to enforce the State Water Policy, 2002. The Goa housing board quietly buried its’ much advertised ‘Goa housing policy, 1993’ about which there is considerable administrative amnesia. AN saw the premature demise of a model draft legislation, 2002 aimed to sustainably manage the precious, fertile and ecologically sensitive Khazan lands of Goa. More instances of AN would be presented in the next part of this article…. (To be continued)