BANGALORE: Chairman of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission M. Veerappa Moily on Wednesday blamed weak governance and bad administration for the spread of naxalite activities in about 200 districts in the country.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Moily called for a multi-pronged strategy in the next three years to put an end to naxalism. The State Governments should deal with the situation on a "war-footing" by implementing development programmes in the naxal-affected districts. Effective implementation of welfare schemes would help in curbing naxalite activities, he said.

The commission in its report said: "Governance is admittedly the weak link in our quest for prosperity and equity. Our governance process must be redesigned to combat two scourges — unemployment and discrimination."

The former Chief Minister said the ARC was currently dealing with issues related to public order and conflict resolution and it would come out with the report in November. The ARC had submitted two reports to the Centre — Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. It had completed discussions on Crisis Management and Disaster Planning and the report would be submitted by next week. He said corruption and ethics in governance was another report on which the Commission had commenced work.

The commission would come out with a report on civil service reform to tackle corruption and improve delivery of public services. The country should come out of the colonial legacy of civil services and it should be open to experts in other fields, who can be appointed on a contract basis as Secretaries to the Government. Even Britain underwent radical changes in the civil service during Margaret Thatcher rule, he said.

Mr. Moily said: "A comprehensive approach involving political, electoral, judicial, and police reforms coupled with decentralisation and accountability must be the essence of an all assault on corruption." Institutions such as Lok Pal, Lokayukta and other regulatory bodies need to be given more powers to punish the guilty and confiscate the property.

Mr. Moily said by September next year, the ARC would submit 17 reports comprising various issues referred in the terms of reference.

The reports have extensively dealt with implementation of various recommendations and had urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to put them on fast track for implementation.

There was no dearth of funds for implementing the recommendations, the ARC Chairman said.

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