Realising A Sustainable Society

Centralised Democracy : At independence, we retained colonial institutions and added Soviet practices of centralised planning and a controlled economy. It made the prime and chief ministers the successors of the colonial rule and the people subjects of an exploitative system. It bred abuse of authority, corruption, criminalisation of politics, poverty, degradation of the environment and explosion of the population. Significantly, nations like UK which colonised others, do not have such institutions but truly democratic ones; they created these oppressive institutions for ruling over their colonies. Faced by a crisis, we opened our economy. We clearly also need to democratise and de-bureaucratise our polity.

Managing Trustees: Ashok Khosla, SK Sharma
B-32, Tara Crescent, Qutab Inst. Area, New Delhi 16; Tel: 91(11) 696-7938; Fax: 686-6031; Email: people@sdalt.ernet.in

Action Plan for the New Government
Proposed by a number of political leaders, industry leaders, professionals and NGOs, including World Wide Fund for Nature-India, Centre for Science and Environment, Development Alternatives, Sulabh International, Advocate Generals Conference of India, Stree Shakti and People First.
India has faced relentless and growing social, economic and environmental degeneration since independence. Political instability has added to our woes. No political party has any strategy for resolving the problems confronting the nation. We request the new government for urgent action on the following points for realising a sustainable society:
1	Commission for Reforms through Referendum : Sovereign Rights Commissions at the union and state levels should be instituted to propose reforms based on the best of Gandhian and some mature democracies, notably, Swiss and US, after holding consultations with various political parties, interest groups and the common people. If the Parliament does not approve the reforms proposed, the Commission should have the authority to seek approval from the sovereign people through referendum.
2	Local Planning by Local Governments : The union and state governments should intimate devolution of funds to the local governments through the processes of the finance commissions as required by the Constitution without any distinction as plan and non-plan or any conditions to enable them to prepare their plans and submit consolidated draft district plans to the state government for approval under Article 243ZD. Participatory scientific regional planning facilitated by satellite imagery covering socio-economic, infrastructure and environmental issues should be fully phased in within 4-5 years.
3	Exclusive Jurisdictions : Local, state and union governments should have exclusive decision-making jurisdictions over local, state and national level matters. Heads of all governments should be directly accountable to the people as per Indian ethos like a sarpanch, that is, presidential type. Higher level governments may coordinate but cannot interfere in local decision-making. This will promote accountability and prevent abuse of authority. Allocation of funds to legislators and their appointment on various local committees are an assault on the Constitution and should be forthwith discontinued.
4	Social Exploitation : All social issues including those relating to religions, backward classes, women and children should be in exclusive local jurisdictions. Issues not resolved at the grassroots level should be settled by multi-stakeholder councils at district and city levels. Exploitative colonial and feudal practices such as politicians and bureaucracy doling out favours, dividing to rule through religion and reservation, distrust of non-government professionals and colonial summer vacation, should be discarded.
5.	Effective Transparency Laws : Effective transparency laws covering (1) right to information, (2) right to consultation through public hearings, (3) right to participation on key issues, and (4) right to decide through referendum, should be drafted by the Sovereign Rights Commission, widely debated and promulgated, if so needed, through referendum. Transparency councils of senior citizens may be instituted at the local level to oversee that they are not violated.
6.	Gram Sabha to be Supreme : The gram sabha should be the supreme authority. All decisions should be taken in open assembly. Adequate tax and natural resources may be assigned to gram sabhas to make them self-sustaining. All village officials including patwari, school teacher, health officer and village constable, should be under their control. The gram sabha should elect the sarpanch and panchs for day to day work every year with power to remove them any time for misconduct. This will ensure transparency and prevent abuse of authority. Urban, including slum, neighbourhoods should be similarly empowered.
7.	Technologies for Rural Livelihoods : Research may be intensified to evolve technologies which produce useful goods and services, preferably using waste for creating livelihoods in rural areas to strengthen the village economy and prevent migration to cities. The Gandhian concept of rural credit through bottom-up cooperatives may be nurtured.
8.	Watershed Management : All village level water harvesting, soil conservation, afforestation and civic works, should be in the exclusive jurisdiction of gram sabhas with no interference from higher authorities. They can seek technical guidance from government agencies, professionals or NGOs as they choose. This will ensure environmental security and civic quality.
9.	Scaling down, revitalising and protecting Bureaucracy : The state bureaucracy should be reduced by 10 per cent every year during the next five years. Local service cadres should be in exclusive local control. To protect the civil services from political abuse and enable them to be professionally accountable, all top appointments at the local, state and union levels should be through open selection on contract approved and terminable by the elected body.
10	Industry as Trusteeship : Industry should function as trusteeship using wealth for creating employment and useful goods and services, not on ostentatious consumption. It should have accountability to the people and the environment. Globalisation is desirable. However, goods and services needed by the common people should largely be produced locally.
Grassroots movements by the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan has forced the Rajasthan Government to provide information and hold public hearings on rural programmes. Tribal movements organised by the Bharatiya Jan Andolan compelled the Government to accept that the gram sabha shall be the supreme authority. Anna Sahib Hazare and many others have demonstrated that empowerment of village communities can produce dramatic results. Strategy for Reforms : The above simple yet highly effective reforms are being vehemently resisted by vested interests. According to Justice MN Venkatachaliah, Sovereign Rights Commissions for processing reforms through referendum will provide a legitimate, non-violent process for transforming our society. People’s movements should demand such an institution and, if needed, approach superior courts for a writ for a referendum for instituting it.