An Andhra Pradesh government order (GO) sanctioned ₹200 per month from the State funds, as an added financial allowance to each government appointed village (gram) Volunteer/Ward Volunteer to enable them to purchase one widely circulated Telugu newspaper, which would give them regular and timely information of the YSRCP Government schemes and current A.P and national news.
It was pointed out that the monthly subscription charge of the newspaper “Sakshi” was ₹176.50 per month while the monthly rate for “Eenadu” newspaper was ₹207.50 per month.
It was argued that the government had intentionally fixed the additional grant of ₹200 per month to suit the monthly subscription charges of “Sakshi”, Jagan Reddy’s own newspaper, in order to increase the circulation and popularity of the Sakshi daily and overthrow the well established, more reputable, more popular “Eenadu” paper as well as other private publishers.
The case filed by the Eenadu group of publications against Jagan Reddy’s clever, indirect State promotion of his own “Sakshi” newspaper, puts the spotlight on a scheme that Jagan launched after coming to power in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh state elections – the “grama/village” volunteer scheme.
He added yet another human bureaucratic layer to the already existing layers of government administration at the village/Ward level. He introduced a “volunteer” system called a Grama (village) Volunteer program, dubbing it to be a unique, people friendly network of volunteers, bringing government services to the doorsteps of citizens. The scheme termed “volunteer” is misleading as the posts are paid positions out of government funds and the “volunteers” engaged in such work, are paid a salary as well as allowances.
It has been alleged that the much publicized scheme was just another dubious ruse for employing and financially supporting the CM’s YSRCP party supporters and workers across the state with government funds.
It is estimated that the State Government would incur an additional expenditure of approximately ₹1,200 crore per annum on the scheme.
The Salary was announced to be ₹5000 and some perks amounting to a total monthly pay of between ₹6000 and ₹8000.00, including ₹200/month, for a subscription to a newspaper- Jagan’s own “Sakshi” newspaper is the only Telugu daily under a monthly subscription of ₹200, thus promoting his own newspaper with government funds, while trying to eliminate all private competition.
The Grama (Village) Volunteer project supposedly aims to provide some level of employment to young people in the state while trying to raise the standards of administrative efficiency at the grass root levels (village and ward levels). Eligibility criteria for applying to the state’s volunteer positions include people in the age group of 18 – 35 and a minimum qualification of SSC/10th class pass in remote/ tribal areas and Intermediate/12th class pass in all other areas, from a recognised school board. The volunteers would be locals in the particular village or ward.
It supposedly gives a chance to local residents of that area to serve the people and earn a living. Candidates were selected for more than 1.26 lakh vacancies for posts like Panchayat Secretary, VRO, MPEO, animal husbandry assistant, village fisheries, sericulture, horticulture, agriculture assistant, ANM, Electrical Assistant, Grameena Engineer, Welfare Assistant, Women Police Attendant, Digital assistant, etc.
The Jagan Reddy government has steered clear of providing clarity on important aspects of the state-funded, paid positions – no clarity on the duration of the created positions or the status of such job postings (temporary or permanent). On being questioned about efficacy and performance, it was announced that the Panchayat secretary at the village level and the MPDO (Mandal parishad development officer) at the sub-district level would analyze the performance of the volunteers for any given time frame.
People have questioned the real intent of the volunteer project as it became obvious that the selection process involved local leaders and ensured posts to Jagan’s YSRCP party supporters and workers. People have commented that the volunteer project was creating a parallel government of sorts in a multi-layer government structure, already in place besides adding an extra financial burden on the state. Problems surfaced fairly quickly after the system was put into place in a rushed manner, inspite of several questions and objections:
The problems that are evident with the system are numerous:
1) Adding another human layer to an already existing village, municipal/town and district government structure, ended up with more complaints of corruption and embezzlement, in a short period of time. The so called grama/village/local volunteers have become an added tier of middlemen in the local adminstration process, often demanding bribes for issue of caste, death certificates, stealing partial amounts of pension funds etc.
2) At a time when electronic, automated processes are being preferred for quick, convenient, transparent, direct aid to the needy, why does the A.P government insist on extra human involvement and interference?
In this day and age, when the Central government is pushing for direct asisstance to the beneficiaries without human contact (direct bank transfers etc) adding an additional human layer to the process becomes an excuse for unnecessary delays and bribes. Jagan’s volunteer-driven disbursal of aid including pension, rations Etc defeats the very purpose of going electronic/digital and keeping the system free of unnecessary human interference.
3) The goverment claims to be providing employment to large numbers of young people. The volunteer posts appear to be temporary in nature and are poorly paid positions with no scope for promotions or a career path. Educated people understand that long-term success and sustainability of a healthy job creation process in any state or country, lies in encouraging an atmosphere of job generation in the private sector rather than the government sector. This is the case in several states in India, including Andhra, where the government is already struggling to pay pensions and salaries of permanent, tenured government employees on time.
A far better, long-term, sustainable strategy would be to empower youth with vocational training, participation in the MSME sector, tourism and allied branches, other local services Etc, while simultaneously inviting and encouraging private enterprises to set up their offices and factories in the state to employ qualified youth.
4) In the already existing Panchayat system, the post of Panchayat Secretary, is responsible for all the adminstrative work that the recently added “volunteer” posts have been assigned. What is the need for work replication of a new job with almost exactly the same job description? It adds to the already existing confusion and corruption. If the Panchayat posts, VRO’s, MRO’s, Mandal Development Officers Etc are not functioning the way they should be, the government should take corrective measures in the existing system and Infrastructure, already in place. Why add another layer of people, bound to make the system more corrupt?
5) During a certain time frame of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis, some people posted a few pics and publicized outreach work supposedly done by the volunteers. Many claimed it was an exaggeration. Even if this were true in a few wards and villages, it begs the question of redundancy and work duplication- what were the government trained and appointed ASHA workers (accredited social health activists) doing? After all, it’s the ASHA workers that are professionally trained to identify and address basic health issues amongst the rural and urban communities they live and work in. For what sensible purpose, did the A.P government choose to pay salaries to two people instead of one, for doing the exact same job?
6) The additional human layer in government, adds further confusion with accountability, non-performace, delayed performance and corruption in an existing system, already lacking accountability.
Existing government positions that are responsible for disbursement of funds and aid at the village, town, sub-district and district level, are rarely assessed for accountability of their job responsibilities. With another redundant layer of people (poorly paid “volunteers”) added to the system holding the same/ similar job responsibilities, who should be held accountable for bad work – the actual government position already in place or the newly brought in volunteer? Each would end up passing the blame to the other, making an already inefficient system, even worse. Who should the common man approach for grievance redressal and which of the two posts would the government hold accountable?
7) Many A.P residents suspect that the volunteer-driven network (mostly YSRCP party sympathizers), supposedly addressing people’s local administrative issues, providing services at the door step as well as taking payments for some services (payments for waste/garbage disposal) serves the purpose of two cleverly disguised ulterior motives of the YSRCP party – gather and store sensitive door-to-door voter information at the village/ ward level and collect additional funds for the party, from the payments made to the volunteers, for which no receipts are given.
There have been many instances where an assigned volunteer asks for and takes money from people in her/ his ward for a service like waste disposal but a receipt is not given in return, as proof of payment. There is no proof, either manual or digital, that a payment has been made to the volunteer. Citizens wonder where the unaccounted payments go; many speculate that the funds are back-channeled to the YSRCP party and its leaders.
8) Confusion between the information and guidance provided to the citizens by the volunteers and the information provided by the actual government officer, officially in-charge for a particular service – several people have complained of discrepancies in the information and guidance given by village/ ward volunteers and the information confirmed by a government officer at the Panchayat/ Ward office. A specific example is that of confusion around the timeline and process for payment of property taxes- information provided by the volunteer was different from the information given at the ward/ municipal office.
9) Citizens have commented on how the “volunteer” project appears to be making people, lazy in general with their unreasonable expectations of the government providing personalized, door-to-door delivery of goods, services, free resources including rations and other subsidized products.
Overall, there appears to be little to no benefit with the YSRCP’s volunteer program, as the assigned positions and work, are redundant to already existing government roles and responsibilities. In addition, the scheme suspected of political motivations and filled with a political party’s sympathizers, is a large and unnecessary financial burden on a state already burdened with a high debt.
It has added to the problems of ease, transparency, accountability and corruption by adding an additional human layer to the process of essential government services instead of encouraging and increasing a strong digital, electronic system, free from unnecessary human intervention. Why go back to a Manual process when E Services are the future?
It appears to be a politically motivated project benefitting a particular party, utilizing government funds and tax payer revenue – an undesirable precedent in any state.
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