The Third Eye: Effective supervision is a prerequisite of good public administration

New Delhi: The brutal gang rape and murder of a young doctor at the state-owned RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata where she was taking rest at night after a gruelling schedule, the unfortunate drowning of three Civil Service aspirants in the basement of a coaching centre in the national capital and one more death of a child who fell in an open manhole in a state capital, illustrate how right across the governance at the levels closest to the people, there was a complete absence of accountability for those managing the public institutions and services on the ground.

Amid nationwide public protests in the first case, what was being revealed is that many things were coming in the way of a robust system of supervisory responsibilities being fixed at the local levels where the efficiency of public delivery was really tested.

There is no fear of law and punishment and since the onus of law and order management is squarely on the shoulders of state governments, it is time they are questioned by the Centre and the people at large for any serious failures on that front.

Vulnerable institutions like hospitals with free public access that employed hundreds of young women doctors and nurses invite questions of security and woman safety and it would be considered a grave failure of the head of that establishment if no thought was given to those issues at all.

The Kolkata rape-murder case goes beyond a mere management failure and if it indicates criminal negligence, the post-event probe would be able to examine that. Inadequacy of an effort made is one thing but a total absence of attention to the security dimensions of a sensitive establishment like a big hospital, is unacceptable.

There is a crisis of supervision in general because, in the hierarchy of governance, people at the top — whether in administration or the Police — were often busy managing their own positions with little time left for them to fulfil their prime responsibility of improving the performance of the system they presided over.

A Chief Secretary might not feel connected with the performance of revenue officials of the district just as a Director General of Police might not consider improving the working of the police station to be a part of his direct responsibilities.

The ‘steel frame’ of governance had to have a stronger commitment to the cause of public service — this was highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his recent addresses to the bureaucracy and the Police.

More importantly, however, it is the lack of awareness of the safety and security of the enterprise or organisation on the part of the top man that generally brought down the standards of management of establishments across the board.

The head of an organisation has to have certain traits of leadership which could be ignored — as in the case of an appointment being influenced by politics — only at the cost of wider national interest somewhere. The incidents of Kolkata, Delhi and Lucknow mentioned earlier highlight the incompetence of local management for reasons of flawed selection, lack of training and absence of organisational briefing.

Governance in India is primarily in the hands of the state governments and there are many spheres where it needs to improve — law and order management comes high on the priority list.

The closer one moves to the ground in the official hierarchy, the weaker the function of supervision and the spirit of team discipline. When a child falls into an open manhole and dies, this should be a matter of state-level probe into why this unacceptable tragedy occurs at all.

The municipal functionary in charge of the team of workers attending to the drainage problem of the area should have been the first to be suspended because it was his direct responsibility to ensure that if the manhole was left open after the day’s work was called off, it was surrounded by a protective improvised perimeter warning the people about the danger.

In all probability, the functionary in charge of the team of municipal workers had not the faintest awareness that leaving the manhole open was hazardous for public safety. That the smallest local-level management failure could have the effect of even tarring the image of the country, would be the farthest from the thought processes of even the district administration.

Somewhere the Collector of the district, who was the ultimate monitor of the public service works in the district, should be broadly aware of the flaws that could creep into the execution of all such projects at the ground level.

The malaise is that all officials in the field looked up to protect their interests — not downwards to try to measure up to their accountability. This is what the crisis of supervision is all about.

The lowest placed ‘regulators’ in the field — ‘food’ inspectors, ‘drainage’ supervisors or the ‘beat’ constable of the Police Outpost — are supposed to perform functions that in a democratic regime were as important as a successful governance of the state since they ‘deliver’ a service to the people directly.

In the debate on Centre-state relations and division of responsibility between the state government and municipal bodies — these often acquired political hues — the efficiency and promptness of this ‘delivery’ were seriously damaged.

In the case of the death of three young UPSC aspirants by drowning in the basement of a known coaching centre in Delhi — they had joined it to compete for Civil Services — the question was whether the local authority had permitted it to run such an institute and also if the owner of the centre was guilty of criminal negligence in failing to provide an emergency exit for those attending the class in the basement — particularly when the premises were known to be prone to flooding in heavy rains.

Failure of local government functionaries and ‘Inspectors’ is mostly rooted in corruption which raised the question of whether the head of the concerned organisation had taken any steps to establish a ‘vigilance’ unit to do surprise checks and scrutiny of compliance with the prescribed protocols of ethical practices.

The disquieting case of the gang rape and brutal murder of a young woman doctor in the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College-cum-hospital at Kolkata in the dead of the night has shaken the conscience of the nation about what was a total lack of institutional security at this sensitive and vulnerable establishment.

The highest court of the country has taken suo moto cognisance of the Kolkata case examining the role of the Principal of the medical college in the matter of providing safety and security to a large number of women doctors and nurses, who worked at the hospital, and also seeking from the states information on what security measures had been taken at all medical colleges and hospitals.

The apex court seemed to be keen to define a framework for the future.

It may be mentioned that the stringent Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act passed in 2013, enjoins the head of the organisation to create a functional Internal Committee to deal with any complaints under this Act and prescribes punishment for the top man for any violation of that mandate.

A competent head of a huge medical college-cum-hospital should have understood the importance of basic security and put in place a secure perimeter, access controls and CCTV coverage of the interior.

CCTV coverage has to have a control room for live 24/7 monitoring so that any incident can be responded to without loss of time.

Often the heads of organisations had little time to attend to the issues of safety and security.

Even if one enjoyed political patronage this per se did not give a senior functionary freedom not to meet up to one’s duties.

The CBI looking into all these aspects of the Kolkata rape case would be expected to place its findings before the Supreme Court. The tragic loss of life that occurred in RG Kar Medical College would not go to waste if the nation wakes up to the unsatisfactory law and order situation in the country and the Centre sees to it that the security of all sensitive establishments in the country is reviewed and fixed for the future on an urgent footing.

(The writer is a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau. Views are personal)

–IANS

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