DailyPost 191
PUBLIC PRIVATE INTERFACE
PPP model is making big news in the country for quite sometime by now. In the Police as well, we have worthwhile initiatives of Community Policing. The Politician public interaction is a regular feature, which becomes pretty intense at the time of elections. Lots of specialized program take place to take public on board to in the selection and delivery of large number of government schemes. In a cumulative manner as well, there seems to be a gap in the Public Private interface, which needs to be bridged to provide a seamless relationship in the interest of the society at large.
The apathy which the public alleges at every instance, may it be an accident case or delivery of a government service, the nature of the interface has not seen a sea change, which the citizens should have felt by now. The mindset of a service organization is the key to its creation & sustenance. There is no giver and taker, it’s a collaborative exercise, where the comfort levels of the people have to be elevated to get a feeling of partnership in the whole exercise.
There are lots of intermediaries who done the mantle of this interface, may it be lobbyists, NGOs or self proclaimed social workers, who have taken upon themselves to provide the connect. The reasons for their existence is not too far fetched to make out. The last mile is missing which is taken over by these groups to make hay as long as the sun shines. The cutting edge of the governance mechanism are mandated to do these jobs directly and cannot be substituted, even as an aberration.
The awareness on the people’s side is also missing. Lots of well meaning efforts by different governments have not yielded the desired results. Aware citizens are the bulwark of democracy. They cannot be kept guided by vested interests for all times to come. The sooner it happens the better it is.The outreach has to happen at the cutting edge levels and over a period of time an structured Public Private interface would automatically emerged ; the maturing of democracy in real terms.
MATURED PUBLIC PRIVATE INTERFACE IS THE EPITOME OF GOOD GOVERNANCE.
Sanjay Sahay