Lack of inter governmental agency coordination leading to wastage: Need for model law

Lack of inter governmental agency coordination leading to avoidable and  wasteful expenditure of public resources – need for a Model Law

INTRODUCTION

To go to a particular place the first and foremost requirement is road . However for dignified Human Existence Road only is not sufficient but other requirement along with roads are Water, Electricity and now to a great extent  Telecommunication  also.

In India different government department handled different infrastructures such as Department of Telecommunication(DOT) handled Telecom  , NHAI and State road constructing authorities handled Road ,   Central Government PSUs and State government companies handled Electricity ,Water pipe lines and so on. There by multiple of government agencies involved.

While doing their works the department are assuming themselves independent and mutually exclusive from each other and also totally oblivious to the work of other departments.

Now the question that arises is that whether these department should function independently and mutually exclusive way  or they will take the  care of the other departments works which depends upon their works so that unnecessary and avoidable wastage of public resources will be avoided .

In this regards  our constitution in article 39 (c ) of the DPSP provides guidelines to government agency  that “ the state shall endeavors that   the operation of economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and means of production to the common detriment “ .

In this regards Government has also set up Planning Commission in 1950 with such functions and also   endowed with  such responsibilities of avoiding wasteful resources.

The function of   Planning Commission as defined by Government  in its  resolution in paragraph (b) and (g)  as follows

b. Formulate a Plan for the most effective and balanced utilization of country's resources;

g. Make such interim or ancillary recommendations as appear to it to be appropriate either for facilitating the discharge of the duties assigned to it, or on a consideration of prevailing economic conditions, current policies, measures and development  programmes or on an examination of such specific problems as may be referred to it for advice by Central or State Governments.

Further its following evolving function among other things is defined as follows

Planning Commission plays an integrative role in the development of a holistic approach to the policy formulation in critical areas of human and economic development. In the social sector, schemes which require coordination and synthesis like rural health, drinking water, rural energy needs, literacy and environment protection have yet to be subjected to coordinated policy formulation. It has led to multiplicity of agencies. An integrated approach can lead to better results at much lower costs.

The emphasis of the Commission is on maximizing the output by using our limited resources optimally. Instead of looking for mere increase in the plan outlays, the effort is to look for increases in the efficiency of utilization of the allocations being made.

Whoever Planning commission has not done its function of  maximizing the output by using our limited resources optimally. It has never coordinated with  inter governmental department nor provided guidelines about their operation.  Further there is lacking of  Law/Rule/Regulation /Guidelines from legislature and guidelines in this regards also.

Now the Government has created NITI Aayog br replacing Planning Commission which will provide Governments at the central and state levels with relevant strategic and technical advice across the spectrum of key elements of policy , this include matter of national and international import on the economic front, dissemination of best practices from within the country as well as from another nations , the infusion of new policy ideas and specific issue-based support. Only time will tell the success of NITI Aayog.

EXAMPLE OF  WASTAGE OF PUBLIC RSOURCES DUE TO NON COOPERATION AND NON AVAILABILITY OF LAW/RULE /REGULATION/GUIDELINES BETWEEN NATIONAL HIGHWAY AUTHORITY OF INDIA (NHAI) ,STATE ROAD CONSTRUCTING AUTHORITY AND DEPARTMENT OF TELEOCMMUNICATION (DOT)

A bright example of wastage of public resource  is due to non availability of   guidelines from planning commission which has been replaced by NITI Aayog in the case of construction of Road by  NHAI ,State Road Constructing Authority and Laying of Optical Fiber cable by DOT and its Licensees.

The following  analysis will show how resources are being wasted in the case of construction of Road by NHAI ,State Road Constructing Authority  and laying optical fiber cable by both government and its licensees.

a. NHAI(National Highway Authority of India) and State Road Constructing Authorities are constructing Road in an wide scale throughout the length and breadth of country . While constructing road these Authorities  are totally oblivious to other infrastructure such as Telecom , Electricity ,  Water  which are as important as road and   mainly   dependent   upon   the road    as child depends upon the mothers for its healthy survival.

b. Now it is common sight that wherever you go ,you will notice that telecom cable are in the hanging condition inside and outside town limits and after sometime  telecom authorities damaging the road again and road authorities again repairing the road damaging the telecom cable again and this process is going on in a loop continuously .

c. There is no guidelines from Planning commission  in this regards and no act/rule /regulation/executive instruction are also available for making coordination between NHAI , State Road Constructing Authorities and Department Of Telecommunication.

d. Due to non availability of such guidelines from planning commission and non provisioning of  utility duct by NHAI and different Road Constructing Authorities at the time of construction of road   lot of public money are being wasted   by  duplication of work  by DOT( Department of Telecommunication) and PSUs(BSNL/MTNL/BBNL) under its control  while laying of optical fiber cable which requires laying of cable underground by construction of duct along the side of the roads.

e. The Indian road network at present consist of 33 Lakh KMs of road network . Among the road network the Express Ways is 200 Km, National High Ways is 79,243 Kms, State High Ways is 1,31,899 Kms ,Major District Roads is 4,67,763 Kms and Rural & Other Roads is 26,50,000 Kms. To sustain telecom revolution , there is no alternative to optical fiber media for its capacity of providing unlimited bandwidth and which is  to be laid along the roads covering entire country in near future . Further the subscribe access network also likely to be predominately through optical fiber network in near future .

f. Further after liberalization of telecom sector the  multi telecom players  have been introduced in this field in every circle . All  these telecom players laying cable throughout the length and breadth of the country. So if we take average of 4 player minimum per circle then they have to lay cable of  33 Lakhs KM X 4 =132 Lakhs KM  within coming 5 to 10 years. Further BBNL(Bharat Broadabad Nigam Limited) also started laying cable thousand of Kms  up to Gram Panchayat  levels for provision of Broad band Service upto Panchayat Level.

g. The cost of cable laying is approximately 1.62 Corers for 100 Kms(Page 105 TRAI recommendation on national Broad Band Plan) of OFC laying in Rural Areas. So the total resource required is approximately 2138 billion (two thousand one hundred thirty eight billion)   for laying the optical cable  . By providing  constructed pit along the roads (which can constructed without extra/minimal/negligible  expenditure at the time of road construction itself) by the NHAI, the optical fiber cable can be pulled through it ,so that  this amount of money  government can utilize for public works such as education ,health and others and also generate additional revenue by  levy of annual fee from the telecom operator. In addition the day to day maintenance expenditure of cable maintenance due to continuous NH road expansion and other ancillary work  can be reduced to an large extent.

h. The resources which are wasted could have utilized by government to give education and health service to poor people’s  there by  denying their many of fundamental rights such as non provision of basic necessity and violation of  right to life as enshrined in the Article-21 thereby.

The above analysis is applicable mutatis mutandi with  laying of  electric cable , laying of water pipe lines etc at the time of construction of roads by Central and State Road constructing Authorities.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of  this article  is for analysis of wasteful and avoidable expenditure of public money due to intergovernmental non corporation and  non availability of guidelines from planning commission which is replaced now by NITI Ayoug  as well as act/rule/regulation from legislature/executives by taking example of  non cooperation between NHAI ,different road constructing authorities , DOT and its licensees and apply it mutatis mutandi  to coordination between other governmental agencies.

CONCLUSION

The analysis of result in the article can be use by Government for   

Recommending/directing planning commission ( NITI Ayoug) for Issuing of guidelines for  keeping the provision of knowledge/cable duct at the time of construction of Road by Road Constructing authorities such as NHAI &  State Road Constructing Authorities.

Recommending/directing the Road and Transport Authorities of the Central Government  such as NHAI as well as the State Government  for keeping mandatory provision in their construction  plan for constructing fiber cable duct, constructing water pipe lines during the time of construction of roads by the Road Constructing Authorities in the Country.

Recommending/directing Department of Telecom(DOT) for ensuring that the Telecom Operators should utilization the duct of Road Constructing Authorities   and avoid unnecessary wastage of public money by laying/relaying of cable repetitively.

Constituting   a centralizing authority at the central as well as state level  to avoid resource duplication and amalgamation of various infrastructure work particularly telecommunication and road construction to avoid wasting  and duplication of resources.

Above all government  should  bring a model law to avoid wasteful of  expenditure due to lack of inter departmental agency coordination.

SELECT REFERNCES

1.New Telecom Policy 1999

2. Broadband Policy 2004

3. National Telecom Policy 1994

4. National Telecom Policy 2012

5. TRAI Recommendation on National Broad Band Plan

6. Organisation of Economics Co-operation and Development , Directorate for science ,technology and industry committee for information ,compute and communication policy , Working party on communication Infrastructure and Service policy , public rights of way for fibber development to the home

By:  Manoj Kumar Patel