Welfare sans infrastructure: India

Andhra Pradesh was the first state in the country to establish an exclusive minorities welfare department at the Secretariat level in 1993. The new department was created by bifurcating the employment generation and youth services department. AP was again the first state to form commissionerate of minorities welfare in 1996. It was also incidentally the first state to constitute an exclusive legislature committee on welfare of minorities.

Despite these “firsts” to its credit, AP has failed to create adequate administrative infrastructure with sufficient supporting staff and financial allocations for effective implementation of various schemes and programmes for socio-economic uplift, educational advancement and welfare of minorities across the state and for control and monitoring of the functioning of the 10-odd organizations under the jurisdiction of minorities welfare department.

AP State Minorities Finance Corporation (APSMFC), AP State Christian Finance Corporation (APSCFC), AP State Minorities Commission, AP State Wakf Board, AP Urdu Academy, Survey Commissioner of Wakfs, AP State Wakf Tribunal, AP State Haj Committee, Dairatul Maarif-il Osmania and Centre for Educational Development of Minorities (CEDM) come under the administrative control of minorities welfare department.

Over the last 15 years, though, a full-fledged commissionerate of minorities welfare could not become functional. The secretary (or principal secretary) to minorities welfare department at the Secretariat level also doubles up as the commissioner of minorities welfare. What’s more, the Secretariat-level department and the commissionerate both function from the same premises in the Secretariat. District minorities welfare officers in 12 districts function under the control of the commissionerate.

Comparatively, the departments for social welfare (Scheduled Castes), Backward Classes welfare and tribal welfare at the Secretariat level are assisted by full-fledged commissionerates (heads of department offices) in Hyderabad and district level offices spread across the state. They are also provided with adequate staff and budgetary allocations to implement the schemes and programmes assigned to them.

For instance, the minorities welfare department has sanctioned staff strength of 45 at Secretariat level and 83 at the commissionerate and district level. In contrast, the social welfare department has 123 staff at the Secretariat and 9,796 at commissionerate and district level. Tribal welfare commissionerate boasts of sanctioned strength of 6,703, apart from 526 staff working in the office of chief engineer, tribal welfare department. The backward classes welfare department has 40 staffers at the Secretariat and sanctioned strength of 5,993 at the commissionerate and district levels.

Among the different institutions coming under minorities welfare department, AP State Minorities Commission tops the list with sanctioned strength of 10, followed by AP Wakf Tribunal with 9 staffers and Survey Commissioner of Wakfs with only five staff. The other institutions-AP State Wakf Board, APSMFC, Haj Committee, Dairatul Maarif, CEDM and Mecca Masjid and Royal Mosque-have their own staff with total strength of 600.

The Commissionerate of Minorities Welfare does not have its offices in 11 districts, whereas Urdu Academy has its libraries and computer training centres in 22 districts. APSMFC also has its offices in 22 districts. Most of these bodies and organizations are overburdened with work since they do not have sufficient staff. What’s worse, a large number of sanctioned posts in these organizations are kept vacant for years together. Whenever some staff members resign or retire their posts are not filled up again.

The Wakf Board has recently initiated the process for recruitment of staff to fill up the vacancies but Urdu Academy and even the Commissionerate of Minorities Welfare have several vacant posts. Urdu Academy, APSMFC and AP State Minorities Commission continue to function without chairmen. A deputy secretary-rank official working in the office of chief electoral officer at Secretariat is holding additional charge as director-secretary of Urdu Academy.

About the quality of the staff working in these minority-related bodies, the less said, the better. Some of them are on deputation from other departments while others are recruited directly. They include a heady mix of regular staff and contract employees and quite often, even retired staffers are re-employed with age-restrictions given a go-by. Even some of the jobs are being ‘outsourced’ these days.

No wonder, all this reflects badly on their functioning. But the government hardly bothers. The successive principal secretaries in minorities welfare department have sent proposals to the government to create full-fledged Commissionerate of Minorities Welfare and Commissionerate of Wakfs on the lines of SC, BC and tribal welfare commissionerates and endowments department but the proposals are stuck in bureaucratic red-tapism. These organizations are provided a meager Rs 9 crore per annum by way of Plan and non-Plan assistance for staff salaries and establishment charges while the total budgetary allocation for minorities welfare is just Rs 301 crore.

(The writer is a member of AP Legislative Council and journalist)

source: http://www.m.timesofindia.com / by Syed Amin Jafri / October 23rd, 2011

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