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Sunday, 5 January 2014
Saturday, 4 January 2014
Why do we need environment clearance for all projects
A major source of corruption is the new system requiring all projects to get mandatory clearances from the MoEF or other such bodies.
What one fails to underatnd is why the authorities who are sanctioning projects should not first get such clearnces at their levels and just make transparent rules which are required to be followed?
For instance if a development authority decides to carve out a few sectors for building residential accommodation it must get the clearance in one shot for the whole project and not leave it for each small developer to go and get a clearance knowing fully well that it is an all big farce. Why can not they ensure that the required number and types of trees get planted, green lungs developed and not leave it to the developer to do so?
The entire process could be simplified made more economical and better implemented and freed from corruption.
Is it so difficult to achieve this??
What one fails to underatnd is why the authorities who are sanctioning projects should not first get such clearnces at their levels and just make transparent rules which are required to be followed?
For instance if a development authority decides to carve out a few sectors for building residential accommodation it must get the clearance in one shot for the whole project and not leave it for each small developer to go and get a clearance knowing fully well that it is an all big farce. Why can not they ensure that the required number and types of trees get planted, green lungs developed and not leave it to the developer to do so?
The entire process could be simplified made more economical and better implemented and freed from corruption.
Is it so difficult to achieve this??
Training and certification of construction workers and how to implement it
Long time back i read an article on how the system of certification of workers was started in the States. It says that somebody questioned that fact that one needed a license to cut hair but anybody could walk int a house and start tempering with the plumbing or other installations! In came a proposal to have training and certification for construction workers
Considering the fact that we have a whole new country to build the need to have a properly trained and certified worker on our work sites is very urgent and important
While it may be easy to train and certify large number of workers with the help of PPP it may prove difficult to implement on ground. One easy way is to make the system so attractive that all agencies adopt it and in fact encourage it.
What needs to be done is following:
All workers who undergo training and certification must be provided with an "ADHAR CARD & A BANK ACCOUNT". How to operate an ATM or check their bank accounts or where the branches are must also be a part of the curriculam
All agencies who engage certified workers must be encouraged to pay the salaries directly into the bank accounts of the workers. This can be achieved by just returning a fixed percentage of the salary deposited by the agency to it from the monies earned by the Govt. This corpus can be generated by simply levying a small percentage on the total built up area being sanctioned at the time of the sanction being accorded on the developer and depositing this in a national account from where it will be returned back to the contracting agency. For the developer this can be incentivised by allowing them to charge this amount plus a small percentage as interest and administrative expenditure from the end consumer. Thus in the end it will be end consumer who will pay, and infact should pay, as het gets better quality. In this manner the actual expenditure gets distributed over a large number of people, in a transparent manner, making the burden light and the money goes to actual beneficiary.
This system will encourage contarctors to only retain trained and certified workers.
A question may arise about the loopholes that this system may have. One may argue that workers could lend their names, without actually working on sites, to enable agencies to draw monies. This can be simply eliminated by the use of Aadhar number. A worker drawing salary in his account from two sources could be identified easily and hauled up and black listed. Thus, after black listing even if he gets employment the refund to the employer will not be forthcoming. To make the system more efficient the refund of the money should be automatic and online so that the contracting agencies are not harrased to get their dues.
Like all other proposals the system will bring in transparency and help monitoring and reduce corruption.
Is it so difficult to do this??
Considering the fact that we have a whole new country to build the need to have a properly trained and certified worker on our work sites is very urgent and important
While it may be easy to train and certify large number of workers with the help of PPP it may prove difficult to implement on ground. One easy way is to make the system so attractive that all agencies adopt it and in fact encourage it.
What needs to be done is following:
All workers who undergo training and certification must be provided with an "ADHAR CARD & A BANK ACCOUNT". How to operate an ATM or check their bank accounts or where the branches are must also be a part of the curriculam
All agencies who engage certified workers must be encouraged to pay the salaries directly into the bank accounts of the workers. This can be achieved by just returning a fixed percentage of the salary deposited by the agency to it from the monies earned by the Govt. This corpus can be generated by simply levying a small percentage on the total built up area being sanctioned at the time of the sanction being accorded on the developer and depositing this in a national account from where it will be returned back to the contracting agency. For the developer this can be incentivised by allowing them to charge this amount plus a small percentage as interest and administrative expenditure from the end consumer. Thus in the end it will be end consumer who will pay, and infact should pay, as het gets better quality. In this manner the actual expenditure gets distributed over a large number of people, in a transparent manner, making the burden light and the money goes to actual beneficiary.
This system will encourage contarctors to only retain trained and certified workers.
A question may arise about the loopholes that this system may have. One may argue that workers could lend their names, without actually working on sites, to enable agencies to draw monies. This can be simply eliminated by the use of Aadhar number. A worker drawing salary in his account from two sources could be identified easily and hauled up and black listed. Thus, after black listing even if he gets employment the refund to the employer will not be forthcoming. To make the system more efficient the refund of the money should be automatic and online so that the contracting agencies are not harrased to get their dues.
Like all other proposals the system will bring in transparency and help monitoring and reduce corruption.
Is it so difficult to do this??
Reducing Corruption in the system
In a panel discussion on TV yesterday the issue of all prevalent atmosphere of corruption was one of the topics discussed.
What one fails to understand is why some simple measures cannot be taken. Such as:
1. Enhance transparency by placing in public domain, in real time, most of information that is available within the Govt. system. not that there is no corruption in the private domain. But as it does not hurt or steal from the public therefore it is of less importance.
2. Make punishment for being corrupt or dishonest being so ridiculously harsh that people should shudder at the very thought. Say make levy of fines and punishment in gross disproportion to the level of corruption. Why should people have any objection to this?
3. Make being honest easy. Some of the major reasons for dishonesty are high rates of taxation, low salaries to Govt. servants as compared to the level of authority and responsibility the are tasked with. So lower the taxes to the bare minimum levels and enhance base of people being taxed and also reduce the compliance that are required to be followed so that people do not have to 'not comply'. Typical example is that for each multistory building required to be built you need air-port authority clearance irrespective of the fact that another much taller building may already be existing in the adjacent site; or you need clearance from the forest department to start construction in a sector cleared by the Govt. for construction of residential or commercial buildings, or you need an approval from the mining department when you dig a foundation or a basement. Just how ridiculous can regulatory requirements go!!
4. make approvals the norm and non approval of any proposal a difficult proposition. let the system say why it is rejecting and also make it mandatory to suggest what should be done to get approval
5. In discussion it was also pointed out that the 'Real Estate' business is the fountainhead of corruption. This can be easily tackled by adopting a single window system for obtaining all clearances. Let the agency responsible for getting or granting approvals be responsible for this. Let this agency get the necessay documents, on line as far as possible, and have these processed and grant approval
Is it so difficult??
What one fails to understand is why some simple measures cannot be taken. Such as:
1. Enhance transparency by placing in public domain, in real time, most of information that is available within the Govt. system. not that there is no corruption in the private domain. But as it does not hurt or steal from the public therefore it is of less importance.
2. Make punishment for being corrupt or dishonest being so ridiculously harsh that people should shudder at the very thought. Say make levy of fines and punishment in gross disproportion to the level of corruption. Why should people have any objection to this?
3. Make being honest easy. Some of the major reasons for dishonesty are high rates of taxation, low salaries to Govt. servants as compared to the level of authority and responsibility the are tasked with. So lower the taxes to the bare minimum levels and enhance base of people being taxed and also reduce the compliance that are required to be followed so that people do not have to 'not comply'. Typical example is that for each multistory building required to be built you need air-port authority clearance irrespective of the fact that another much taller building may already be existing in the adjacent site; or you need clearance from the forest department to start construction in a sector cleared by the Govt. for construction of residential or commercial buildings, or you need an approval from the mining department when you dig a foundation or a basement. Just how ridiculous can regulatory requirements go!!
4. make approvals the norm and non approval of any proposal a difficult proposition. let the system say why it is rejecting and also make it mandatory to suggest what should be done to get approval
5. In discussion it was also pointed out that the 'Real Estate' business is the fountainhead of corruption. This can be easily tackled by adopting a single window system for obtaining all clearances. Let the agency responsible for getting or granting approvals be responsible for this. Let this agency get the necessay documents, on line as far as possible, and have these processed and grant approval
Is it so difficult??
National register for contracting agencies
One of the main reasons for the poor infrastructure in the country is the poor quality of large number of engineering professionals being produced and the second main reasons is the poor quality of contracting agencies and an absoloute lack of regulations for both.
While both are linked they can be managed seperatly and in an easy manner.
In respect of contracting agencies if a national register can be created and maintained it will not only help in improving the general quality of construction but also help eliminate a large number of ills from the system
The beginning of the register can be done by simply compiling the lists of registered agencies with various departments/bodies such as the CPWD, Railways, State PWDs, PSUs etc. and put up the list on line. The data base can have, in the first phase, basic information like their names, addresses, experience, PAN NUmbers, TIN Numbers, Mail ID, Mobile Numbers etc. so that the list can be analysed and categorised. The entities on the list can be allowed to access their data and make changes such as the experience, machinary and T&P available etc. With current level of IT it should not pose such a problem and given political will it should be possible to have the first list ready within six months.
The advantage of this data base will be that those on the list can also aspire to tender for works abroad based on the category in which they get slotted and the foreign agencies wanting to work in India will also have to register in this list before they can be permitted to tender for Indian contracts.
Once such a list is in place agencies working in the private domain can be asked to get them self registered online.
Slowely, say with in aperiod of nine months it can be promulgated that contracts worth more than a certain base value, say INR 10 million, will only be got executed through agencies listed on the national register. It can also be mandated that cement suppliers and distributions will record the enlistment number of agency to whom cement is sold. This will help monitor the works and ensure accountability.
In next steps the IT department could, in due course, monitor payments made etc.
The same database could also be used for other related actions
If I recall it was a mandate of the GATS under WTO, to have a single point of contact for all related information. This could also become that point
The website that will have to be developed could also have enough useful information available freely for the professionals working in the field. This could have technical information, regulatory information etc. Once all the details are available under one umbrella it may become easier to identify unreasonable regulatory requirements being adopted by various statutory bodies.
Once a process is started the sky becomes the limit. All the transparency will help in reduction of unaccounted monies floating around in this sector.
Is it so difficult to do this??
While both are linked they can be managed seperatly and in an easy manner.
In respect of contracting agencies if a national register can be created and maintained it will not only help in improving the general quality of construction but also help eliminate a large number of ills from the system
The beginning of the register can be done by simply compiling the lists of registered agencies with various departments/bodies such as the CPWD, Railways, State PWDs, PSUs etc. and put up the list on line. The data base can have, in the first phase, basic information like their names, addresses, experience, PAN NUmbers, TIN Numbers, Mail ID, Mobile Numbers etc. so that the list can be analysed and categorised. The entities on the list can be allowed to access their data and make changes such as the experience, machinary and T&P available etc. With current level of IT it should not pose such a problem and given political will it should be possible to have the first list ready within six months.
The advantage of this data base will be that those on the list can also aspire to tender for works abroad based on the category in which they get slotted and the foreign agencies wanting to work in India will also have to register in this list before they can be permitted to tender for Indian contracts.
Once such a list is in place agencies working in the private domain can be asked to get them self registered online.
Slowely, say with in aperiod of nine months it can be promulgated that contracts worth more than a certain base value, say INR 10 million, will only be got executed through agencies listed on the national register. It can also be mandated that cement suppliers and distributions will record the enlistment number of agency to whom cement is sold. This will help monitor the works and ensure accountability.
In next steps the IT department could, in due course, monitor payments made etc.
The same database could also be used for other related actions
If I recall it was a mandate of the GATS under WTO, to have a single point of contact for all related information. This could also become that point
The website that will have to be developed could also have enough useful information available freely for the professionals working in the field. This could have technical information, regulatory information etc. Once all the details are available under one umbrella it may become easier to identify unreasonable regulatory requirements being adopted by various statutory bodies.
Once a process is started the sky becomes the limit. All the transparency will help in reduction of unaccounted monies floating around in this sector.
Is it so difficult to do this??
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