Why a Resident Welfare Association?
By Rao VBJ Chelikani Urban civil society organisations including RWAs have emerged as important players in governance and development of cities functioning as a fourth tier of grassroot self-governing micro-urban communities. Howeverm we have a peculiar situation where parallel mechanisms formed by the state apparatus exist to deliver functions that these micro-communities are carrying out. Including a list of functions that can be devolved to these bodies in the 7th Schedule of the Constitution could be considered as a solution to this weak…
Swachha Bharat Mission and RWAs
Dr. Rao VBJ. Chelikani We all remember that on 2nd of October, 2014, on Gandhiji’s birthday, both the President of our Republic and the Prime Minister, have launched the ‘Swachh Bharat Mission.’ We have started the most historic and biggest-ever nationwide campaign for making India clean and hygienic. It is shameful that India has been very much behind many of the developing countries in the world, to which we have started providing aid for their development. Gandhiji considering cleanliness as next only to godliness, had given much importance…
Whither Administration?
Dr. Rao VBJ Chelikani The waves of reforms that are touching the shores of civil service do not seem to touch military and judicial services. Defence Services i). In the technology-intensive world that we are living in, the recruitment to the defence services also has to be reviewed, so as to deviate from the traditional ‘Standing Army' concept and involve other citizens in the society ‘on call' in the deployment-strategies. Instead of increasing the numbers like China, we need to invest more in increasing the capabilities of our defe…
Citizens as Consumers
Bureaucracy: Some Reforms Dr.Rao VBJ Chelikani In some developing countries like Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, and Kenya, soon after independence, there were attempts to revamp the entire colonial style of administration by filling the posts by the party militants who had sacrificed and suffered most. But, the results have not been very happy. Organising resistance is a quite different activity from administering services for the citizens. The militants very quickly initiated themselves into the bureaucratic mould of enjoying power and authoritar…
Effects of the Bureaucracy on our Economy
Dr. Rao VBJ Chelikani Having historically originated under the monarchies and, later, imbued with the welfare state mentality, the bureaucracy is empowering itself and is still insisting on doing things that the citizens themselves can do better, quicker and cheaper. Whether one is employed in the public sector or in the private sector, every citizen as an economic actor has to have equal social impact, accountability, and responsibilities. The Finance departments in India behave like a state within the state, retaining the right to suspect…
Time to restructure district administration
Apart from creating a superfluous power centre, the current district-level administrative structure in India creates conflicting political and administrative forces. This needs to be corrected apart from deglamourising the role of the District Collector. Dr.Rao VBJ Chelikani The District Collector has been the most significant precursor of the whole Indian administrative system. In the Mughal period, the equivalent post in the capital cities was that of the Kotwal, Munsab being under him. It was a glamorous job during the British rule for whi…
We Need a Revolution in Administration
The administrative machinery is the permanently visible symbol of the state and its power. We are, virtually living in a regime of the Rule of Rules, instead of the Rule of Laws, framed, revised and implemented by the bureaucracy. By Rao VBJ Chelikani Since the head of the Executive is the president of the Republic, the administration is one of the organs of the state. But in practice, much beyond the expected respectable autonomy, the balance has tilted in favour of the Administration within the Executive. As the legislature is slack in its f…
Mahatma Gandhi Epitomised all that a Civil Society Activist Should be
It is the sheer power of a Civil Society activist’s personality, credibility integrity, objectivity, and persuasiveness that leads to recognition, respect and appreciation and not the loudness of his voice, nor the public outcry in the wake of that noise, be it from the crowds that follow or the media exposure. There can no better example of this than Mahatma Gandhi himself who epitomised all these traits and commanded the influence that no CS representative has to date in this country or elsewhere. By Rao VBJ Chelikani I Authenticity of an A…
Civil Society Operations : Are they Opposed to Development?
Dr. Rao VBJ Chelikani Recent trends indicate that our NGOs are becoming more and more efficient in their management capacities and are in a collaborative mindset with the governments in the interest of scaling up their operations in multifarious domains. They are proving to be a fertile source for social innovations. Departing, vastly, from the traditional ‘poor feeding’ approach, the new generation of NGOs place high value on the worth and dignity of the needy person and treat him with respect. There is a definite cost-effectiveness in their …
RWA Mission Statement
Tarnaka Book Store Launched for CoRWA Publications
Click on the image to update add/ update your details
Social Media