‘Cabinet on the Move’

‘Cabinet on the Move’

In a first of its kind, the Conrad Sangma government of Meghalaya held its cabinet meeting in Tura, away from the usual venue Shillong, on Monday, clearing five major policies, the most significant being the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Services Rules 2017 that empowers the people to ensure that their entitlements reach them on time. In sync with the State government’s motto “Cabinet on the Move”, as many as 25 review meetings were taken up the ministers of the State during the day. The Social Audit Bill 2017 will now ensure that 50 per cent of the villages in the State availing of government schemes are audited in a year, while also empowering the people so that they seek their entitlements such as pension on time. This is a laudable step.

Nonetheless, the Congress has lampooned the ‘Cabinet on the Move’ initiative. On Tuesday, its State spokesperson Zenith Sangma termed the move “a mere hype”, saying it was a waste of money and time because “whatever decision is taken at the cabinet meeting, whether in Shillong or anywhere else, it is all the same”. But at the same time one would do well to not forget that such meetings of importance at places away from a capital are not merely about symbolism. (Let us not talk about ‘waste of money and time’ because these are wasted time and again on a governance system that has chosen to fail the people more often than not.) They provide a scope for the people at large – especially well-meaning and sensible civil society groups – to connect to the Executive on the spot. At the same time the people in far-flung areas would have a feel of the government’s intent to connect to them.

Come to Assam then. How about the Sarbananda Sonowal government mulling a cabinet meeting, including top bureaucrats and those who matter in administration, at a place outside the fort of Dispur – such as in Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur, Dhubri and Silchar, to name a few? Let us take the case of Silchar. The Barak Valley, as it is, has a sense of disconnect with the Brahmaputra Valley for reasons known to one and all. If there were to be a cabinet meeting of the State government at Silchar, the people of the Barak Valley, especially its civil society groups, would have the scope to go straight to the venue of meeting and ventilate their grievances on the spot, while at the same time they would have the feel of a governance-and-administration architecture evincing interest to hold such a crucial meet at that place with a message that the people of the valley are not a forlorn species. One can call it the psychological dimension of a democracy at work – a democracy willing to evolve and be a functioning one in the real sense.

That way, the initiative of the Conrad Sangma government has tried to effect a paradigm shift of sorts even as one would wait for the results of the polices announced and wonder whether the Tura meet would bear fruits in the long run – and whether such meets would be held at other places too, such as in the Jaintia Hills. Nevertheless, there is no harm in trying to effect a shift in the fashion of governance towards achieving the cardinal objective of all-round and inclusive development. The rest of the northeastern States can take a leaf out of this nascent book. Say, how about the Pema Khandu government of Arunachal Pradesh, too, thinking of a cabinet meeting in the ancient town of Pasighat in East Siang district, and not just in Itanagar as the ritual is?

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