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One
of the most regrettable and pinching flaws in the
administration in our country has been the wide gap
between the rulers and the ruled. With the former i.e.
those at the helm of affairs in government and
administration unwilling to come out of the colonial
mind-set and the latter not yet fully aware of their
rights and powers in independent and democratic India, the
situation continues to go from bad to worse. The goal of
fulfilling the Constitutional mandate of securing each and
every citizen their due still eludes us. Except some
sporadic attempts on the part of government to bridge the
chasm, there has been an utter lack of sincere concern in
this regard.
Till
its bifurcation in 2000, Madhya Pradesh had been the
largest state of the country in terms of geographical
area. Now it is second largest after Rajsthan. Efforts
have, of course, been made, both in undivided and divided
Madhya Pradesh from time to time to bring administration
closer to people and to ensure desired results of
government schemes and programmes to them. These
well-meaning attempts did make their impact to some
extent, however the situation continued to remain far from
satisfactory.
When
the present Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh, true to his
image of a man of masses, popularly known in his
constituency as Paon Paon Wale Bhaiya, and a leader fired
with a passion to lead Madhya Pradesh from strengths to
strengths, decided to traverse lengths and breadths of the
state under a programme christened Jandarshan, this
time, to get a first hand feel of the impact of schemes
and programmes at ground level and to have a direct
dialogue with the masses, people were skeptical about it,
due to their past experiences of this kind of exercises.
And the doubting Thomases, always at work, also did their
bit by dismissing it to be yet another publicity stunt or
an exercise in futility.
But
an undeterred Shivraj Singh has confounded the doomsayers
by making this campaign a success. He undertakes an
intensive visit to a district on every Saturday, friendly
mixing and interacting with the people, enquiring about
the facilities and services available to them, soliciting
their opinion to further improve the delivery system and
administration and making spot assessment of the impact of
the various schemes and programmes; and at the same time
serving the erring government officials the right and
patting those found to be doing well. Not one given to
dispensing Jed wood justice, the Chief Minister gives an
opportunity to the officials against whom complaints are
made to present their stand. Every inch a gentleman, he
never shows disrespect to anyone, which is a remarkable
quality of the youthful Chief Minister once called a Young
Turk.
On
the basis of his field experience he also makes
announcements and takes suitable decisions to improve
things thereby showing that he is not just a talker. For
example, during his Jandarshan at village Sampat Basor in
Sidhi district, he came to know of the plights of a
village Kotwar, which visibly moved him. Within a few
days, he convened a Kotwar Panchayat in which Kotwars from
all over the state participated and gave their suggestions
to solve their problems. The Chief Minister made a number
of announcements and took various decisions to redress the
grievances of Kotwars in the state. He made allocation in
the supplementary budget for providing b-cycles to the 36
odd Kotwars.
During
every Jandarshan the Chief Minister receives thousands of
petitions from public containing requests for solution to
their individual or collective problems or suggestions on
various issues and matters bearing on them. Of course,
there are some poignant as well as happy moments during
the interaction with masses. At village Sarna in
Chhindwara district when an aged destitute woman
complained of non-receipt of old age pension for last
three months, the Chief Minister assured the hapless woman
of help and directed the district collector to do the
needful. The woman was overwhelmed to hear Shri Chouhan
say “ O, mother you need not worry as I am like your son”.
The
cheerful moments are when he distributes benefits of
schemes and programmes to the needy or when girls or boys
tell him about their good performance in education or when
people express satisfaction over proper conduct of the
development and welfare activities.
The
Chief Minister calls himself a dreamer, but he never
indulges in brown study. He dreams of a prosperous and
well-governed Madhya Pradesh to shine at national and
international level, but is not lost to the reality that
it is not an overnight job. All may not be gas and gaiter
but a sincere effort would definitely make a difference in
setting things right and to deliver.
I
am tempted to conclude this piece with an Urdu couplet:-
“ Maana
Ki Is Zmeen Ko Gulzar Na Kar Saka
Kuch Khaar to Kam Hue Gujare Jahan Se Hum”
(I
may not have been able to turn the land into a flower
garden; the piece of it traversed by me has now fewer
thorns than before)
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