Starting from 9 August (Quit India day) and ending on October 2 (Gandhi Jayanthi), Andhra Pradesh’s governance reforms group Lok Satta is reaching out to practically every village in Andhra Pradesh to mobilize people for local government empowerment in the form of signatures / written support. The goal is to obtain the support of 10 million (1 crore) citizens. If the mobilization fulfils its potential, it will be the largest ever non-partisan mass mobilization in any state on an issue that is not emotive, and does not have caste or religious overtones.

Why all this?

Governance in Indian states is too centralized, and the spirit of the Constitution, and often the letter are violated with impunity. A district in India is often larger than other nations of the world. There cannot be effective delivery of services, or accountability, or citizen-centered governance without effective and empowered local governments. Only when the citizen can see the clear link between her vote and public good can elections be meaningful. In the absence of such a link in centralized governance, most people are increasingly tempted to maximize their short-term gains by selling the vote for a price. This is perpetuating a vicious cycle of corruption and misgovernance.

Still, spectacular results have been accomplished in India only when local initiative and leadership were given an opportunity. Though Constitution has been amended over ten years ago (April 1993), local governments continue to be overstructured and underpowered. As a result, the disadvantaged sections have only titular representation without real power.

On Lok Satta’s initiative, elected heads of local governments at various levels, senior leaders who served as former local government heads and representatives from civil society got together on the 23rd of February in Hyderabad and formed a Federation for Empowerment of Local Governments (FELG). Approximately 400 representatives from across the state cutting across party lines participated in the day long deliberations. The delegates unanimously elected Dr Jayaprakash Narayan as the coordinator of the federation and Sri Varma as the secretary.

The FELG aims to transform the Panchayats (Village, Mandal and Zilla) and Municipalities (Nagar Palikas, Municipalities, Municipal Corporations) into genuine Local Governments with clear delineation of functions among them and to strive for the devolution of functions, funds and functionaries through appropriate legislative procedure. This organization is a non-partisan forum whose members include representatives from major political parties in AP.

Campaign objectives

•  Transfer real powers of decision making to local governments in respect of subjects listed in 11th and 12th Schedules of the Constitution
•  Transfer 50% of the state's tax revenues as untied funds to local governments
•  Create instruments of accountability in local governments - like effective right to information; Citizen's Charters for various services with compensation to citizens for delays; and independent ombudsmen to act against erring local governments and functionaries

Broader goals

• Educate the general public to mobilize demonstrable public support
• Weld local government leaders into a cohesive, constructive force above party differences.
• Make political parties respond positively and achieve the objectives

The signature campaign took off simultaneously in more than 200 towns, mandal head quarters and cities across the state. Senior leaders of LOK SATTA and the FELG have been campaigning through out the state and are mobilizing public support in large numbers. A special effort is being made to reach out to the youth through various colleges and educational institutions. A public education and communication campaign is underway to mobilize support for this crucial campaign. Hundreds of thousands of pamphlets and posters are being distributed in all 23 districts of AP. Slides for display in movie theatres, CDs and video cassettes for broadcasting on local cable TV channels and All India Radio broadcast messages are all part of the scaled up communication campaign.

As the mobilization of citizens is taking shape, there is progress on the legal fronts too. Lok Satta and FELG have filed a writ petition in AP High Court seeking specific directives to the state government on a) measures for effective devolution of powers, b) to implement the constitutional provisions in respect of creating District Planning Committees and Metropolitan Planning Committees, and c) mandatory devolution of finances to local governments as per the State Finance Commission recommendations. The petition is being heard by a constitutional bench headed by the Chief Justice of AP High Court. The Attorney General Sri Soli Sorabjee is appearing at the request of the court in his individual capacity and the Additional Solicitor General Sri L Nageswara Rao is representing the Union of India while the state government is represented through its Advocate General. Hearings are currently underway.

In the first 10 days since commencement, more than a million signatures were collected. As of September 5, around 2.3 million citizen signatures have been collected, with the districts of Ananthapur, Guntur, Kadapa, and West Godavari leading the way. The campaign has received excellent support from the media and the importance of local government empowerment from citizens’ point of view is being highlighted on a continuing basis.