The recent tragic incidents in Uttarakhand shed light on important aspects of administration in the state that need to be improved or rectified. The bus accident on a hill road on Tuesday evening, leading to the deaths of 25 persons, could have been caused by a number of reasons, most of them preventable through enforcement of rules already in the statute books. This has to be done by the persons specifically appointed for the task, who quite obviously are unable to do so, whatever the reasons.
This does not imply that Uttarakhand has not improved in some areas of disaster management, whether it is on a major scale or a specific incident. While the first responders are often local villagers, forces like the NDRF, SDRF, the Police and, often, Army or ITBP camps in the vicinity have developed considerable sophistication in undertaking rescue work. Unfortunately, medical facilities are often lacking as, generally, the hill districts face a shortage of doctors, technicians and other staff.
There is also a serious shortcoming regarding necessary data bases, in an age when it is technically possible to have everything just a tap- on-the-screen away. The Ankita murder case, for instance, has revealed that, on official records, the resort where she worked barely existed. Whether it was because the authorities concerned were lax in the performance of their duties, or had taken bribes to look the other way, important information that would have rung the alarm bells was simply not available.
Even those departments that have traditionally functioned on the basis of data bases, such as the labour department, do not seem to be IT savvy. Every worker in the state, of whatever category, should be registered with the department, which would provide an information resource for numerous other departments to analyse for the purpose of policy making. Unfortunately, the administration still functions according to colonial principles. Even where the decisions have been taken to improve and update data bases, it is taking too long. Policy makers would be surprised how much matters would improve at the grassroots if administrators are provided the information tools necessary for good governance. It would become possible to decentralise the exercise of power without losing control of the overall picture. Hopefully, the necessary lessons are being learned from the tragedies so that they are not repeated in the future.
