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OFFTRACK: NUAPADA, ORISSA
System Function
A collector makes the administration work like it
is
supposed to
By Ruben Banerjee
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WORKADAY: Sethi has organised villagers
to undertake construction work bypassing contractors
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Nuapada is a typical
district in Orissa. Rain this season has
been minimal and 91 of its 93 gram panchayats are reeling under the worst
drought in living memory. Crop losses stack up to 80 per cent. Tanks and
ponds have nearly dried up and a very thirsty summer looms ahead. In parts
of the state like Bolangir people are even dying. Pushed to the brink,
thousands have fled the state, risking exploitation in search of manual
jobs in brick kilns in distant Andhra Pradesh. Yet in a region where life
has turned into an extended nightmare, Nuapada is an unlikely oasis-thanks
largely to one man.
Bishnupada Sethi, 32, took over as district
collector in June last year. In Nuapada there was a clique of officials-contractors-politicians
that had a vise-like grip on its finances. In the hands of the politically
aligned retailers, the Public Distribution System (PDS) never delivered
and foodgrains were routinely siphoned off. Government projects also failed
to guarantee jobs as bills were fudged and the projects progressed only
on paper. It was, all said, the typical story of greed feeding on the
pickings of disaster.
But Sethi, the first matriculate of an impoverished
family from Balasore, changed all that. Private retailers were booted
out and village panchayats entrusted with the task of running the PDS.
Every panchayat office now lists the stock of foodgrains allotted and
villagers are free to drop in any time to buy at subsidised rates. The
result-nobody goes hungry in the district.
To avail of the PDS, people needed money and
yet another pathbreaking initiative has been undertaken for this purpose.
Huge tanks are being dug, but contractors have been benched. The work
has been handed over to the panchayats, with labourers electing a leader
among themselves to liaise with the local administration. Booklets detail
the money sanctioned for the project and how much each should be paid
for a day's work. Working as a labourer, carrying mounds of earth, Sunita
Sunani's work is backbreaking. But against the Rs 20 the contractors doled
out, she is making Rs 50 a day.
The difference hasn't come about because of
any sudden flood of assistance. For its plight, Nuapada got 3,000 old-age
pensions, sanctions for feeding 13,000 in emergency feeding centres, 165
tubewells and a pittance of Rs 5 crore from the state calamity relief
fund. Repeated requests to the local MPs for money from their local area
development funds have gone unheeded. The Nuapada legislator, who is a
state government minister, is yet to disburse Rs 48 lakh from his MLA
fund that has accumulated over the past three years.
"We have not brought about any revolution
here. All we ensure is that money is better utilised," explains Sethi.
He is stepping into territory few district collectors have trod. The previous
collector spent most of his time in the city comforts of Bhubaneswar,
over 500 km away. Sethi in contrast hasn't visited the state capital even
once in the past four months. "Where is the time?" he laughs
as he receives petitions from outstretched hands. Fortunately for him,
his wife Vaishali and daughter are not complaining. "He returns only
to sleep," says Vaishali, and adds, "If he comes back during
the day then I guess he must be sick."
In ensuring better utilisation of resources,
he has had to sack 13 defiant sarpanchs. Obviously he is not making friends
all around. Entrenched vested interests have been nettled. Led by the
influential state minister from the district, local politicians are baying
for his blood. Some months ago the Zilla Parishad president, a known crony
of the minister, cornered Sethi at a public function and rained blows
on him.
Nuapada, meanwhile, is lavishing praise on him.
At Sinapalli, Sethi is mobbed and garlanded. At Daldali, Sethi is detained
and offerings of rice made as if to a presiding deity. But with ministers
counting for more in Bhubaneswar than Nuapada's population, Sethi's tenure
seems uncertain. Maybe once he is transferred Nuapada will get back to
its usual bad ways. For now though, he is having his way. And his way
works.
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