The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Call for public vigil on Civil Society Organisations

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Friday, Oct 06, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Call for public vigil on Civil Society Organisations

Special Correspondent

Meet on "Civil Society and Governance in Modern India' Seminar on civil society and governance held

CHENNAI: Former Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy on Thursday stressed the need for a public vigil on Civil Society Organisations (CSO) such as the non-Governmental outfits and voluntary agencies to ensure that they played a constructive role in improving governance.

Inaugurating a two-day national seminar on "Civil Society and Governance in Modern India" organised by the Centre for Security Analysis (CSA), Chennai, he said the subject had been acquiring tremendous importance in the last two decades.

Mr. Krishnamurthy referred to the complexities involved in giving a comprehensive definition to civil society with different kinds of outfits that were formed under different Acts, taking up issues in various sectors.

Though it was thought that the role of government would get diminished in the wake of liberalisation and privatisation, unfortunately it had not come true, he said, adding that in fact, the regulatory functions of the government had increased after the advent of globalisation. The World Development Report 2000 also talked about the growing need for localised governance, and that decentralisation had become the key mantra for improving governance, owing to liberalisation and privatisation, he said.

The CSOs were supposed to strengthen the role of Government in promoting transparency, efficiency and effective distribution of public service.

A recent study on the subject showed that internationally these outfits had been enhancing effectiveness of governance.

However it was sad that in India, with its diversity, the CSOs had been promoting sectoral interests instead of adopting a national approach, he said.

Deficiencies

He also said that there were a lot of deficiencies in these organisations.

Instead of strengthening the government by promoting transparency and accountability, it seemed that some of the maladies affecting the CSOs had been creating problems to it.

One of the problems afflicting these outfits was groupism. Individual-orientation had also affected them.

They suffered from poor financial accountability and non-maintenance of proper office manuals, Mr. Krishnamurthy pointed out. However, he made it clear that though there had been a tendency for enacting laws to regulate the CSOs, this would not be the proper remedial measure. The issue should be left to be tackled by the people who were the ultimate authority, he said.

President of the CSA V.R. Raghavan and founder member Geeta Madhavan spoke. .

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