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| Restore spirit of Board meetings | | |
Between 1996 and 2002 the then ruling National Conference had not bothered to implement in letter and spirit the plan conceived by Sheikh Abdullah related to taking the cabinet to the "doorstep" of people through District Development Board meetings. These Board meetings seem to have lost the basic purpose of promoting interaction between the ministers and the people for mitigating woes of the masses. When Sheikh Abdullah conceived the idea of District Development Boards the meetings of these Boards would be held in each district twice a year on rotation basis. During that time all the members of the council of ministers were supposed to be present in the Board meetings where people would seek redress of their grievances and problems. The basic idea of these Board meetings was to formulate the annual plan for the district in consultation with the representatives of people. In fact right from 1987 the successive Governments have simply show cased the Board meetings. Each District Board is headed by a cabinet Minister who presides over the meetings in the company of a couple of other ministers and a handful of senior bureaucrats. The meetings have been reduced to a ritual where the ministers and bureaucrats are seen as if they are on a picnic enjoying wazwaan. The annual plan for each district is actually prepared in the civil secretariat and some of the main features are read out during the meeting and during the public rally which follows the district development board meeting. Even if some legislators and prominent citizens seek inclusion of some schemes in the plan the ministers or even the Chief Minister gives their nod. But when the plan is finalised it does not include those schemes for which a demand had been raised in the Board meetings. Over the years several legislators have raised this issue on the floor of the Assembly. And the treasury benches are quick in dishing out assurances on rectifying the wrong but the mistakes are repeated. These board meetings have simply been reduced to get-togethers where members, ministers and bureaucrats enjoy sumptuous dishes prepared by the Hospitality and Protocol Department. Whenever board members want to see some of their schemes included in the plan they ar e told that those schemes cannot be taken in hand because of cash crunch. The Sheikh had introduced the District Development Board meetings for facilitating people to have interaction with the cabinet ministers. He had realised that it was not possible for people living in remote villages to come to the state capitals and meet the ministers. He would, therefore, see to it that all the cabinet ministers were present the Board meetings. Besides this the meetings used to be held in different areas of the district. In recent years it has not been made mandatory for the Chief Minister and all the cabinet ministers to be present in the Board meetings. It is hoped that the ruling coalition would review the matter and initiate steps so that the cabinet is taken to the doorstep of people and the blueprint of the district plans are prepared in the meetings so that views and suggestions of people find reflection in the plan. If it is not done the meetings may be treated as a Government tamasha
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