FUNCTIONING OF FIELD OFFICES OF THE COMMISSION
BACKGROUND The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has 17 field offices under its control which provide, contact points with the State Governments and the field. They have been serving useful purpose and are of great assistance to the Commission in a multitude of its activities. It may be of interest to mention a brief history of the field organisation.
Set-up under the Special Officer 2.2 The Special officer appointed under Article 338 was vested with the responsibility to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for the Sche- duled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Constitution and to submit a report to the President. The first Special officer, designated as the Commissioner for Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes, was appointed on 18-11-1950. For support at local levels, the Commissioner was provided with 17 regional offices. These field offices were headed by Assistant Commissioners for SC & ST who were redesigna- ted as Deputy Commissioners in July 1965. These offices conducted field studies and undertook follow up action in the matter: with the Governments of States/UTs under their jurisdiction.
Set-up under the Directorate General of Backward
Classes Welfare 2.3 In the year 1967 a new organisation namely Direct- orate General of Backward Classes Welfare was set up in the then- Department of Social Welfare under the-Ministry of Education and Social Welfare. The above 17 field offices of the Commissioner's office were reorganised into 5 Zonal Offices in June 1967 and placed under the control of the newly created Director General of Backward Classes Welfare (DGBCW). Each Zonal Office was headed by a Zonal Director, and the erstwhile Regional Deputy Commissioner for SC & ST were redesignated as Deputy Directors B.C.W. and placed under the control of the Zonal Directors posted at Chandi- garh (Northern Zone), Bhopal (Central Zone), Patna Eastern Zone), Baroda (Western Zone) and Madras (Southern Zone). The Eastern Zone office had two branches at Bhubaneswar and Shillong. Later a branch office of the Central Zone was set up at Lucknow and in 1969 and the western Zone office was shifted to Ahmedabad. This arrangement continued till November, 1978. During this period, these offices maintain- ed Liaison between the ministry of Education and Social Welfare and the State Governments and UT Administrations in the matter of SC & ST
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2.4 Government of India by resolution dated 21-7-1978 set up a Commission for SC & ST with its functions broadly corresponding with the functions entrusted to the then Special Officer. With effect from 1-12-1978 the above field offices of D.G.B.C.W. were transferred to the newly estab- lished Commission for SC & ST.
Set-up under Commission/National Commission for SC & ST 2.5 The officers of Zonal Directors B.C.W. and Deputy Directors B.C.W. under the D.G.B.C.W. were redesignated as Directors for SC and ST and Deputy Directors for SC and ST respectively. The Zonal set up was abolished by the Commission and 17 field offices having independent jurisdiction were set up. Since these field offices were also working for the then Commissioner for SC & ST, the offices of Director for SC & ST were redesignated as offi- ces of Director for SC & ST and ex-officio Deputy Commiss- ioner for SC & ST. To demarcate the functions of the Commission with that of the Commissioner for SC & ST, the Commission for SC & ST was renamed in September, 1987 as National Commission for SC & ST. The duties of the National Commission included research studies while functions and responsibily under Article 338 remained with the Special Officer. These 17 field offices were transferred to the National Commission so constituted alongwith liability to serve the Special Officer also with, however, priority for research studies relating to SC and ST . After the Commission became a Constitutional body the field offices came under the direct control of the Commission. However, they have continued to undertake the inspection of NGOs on behalf of the Ministry on specific request routed through the Commission's Secretariat.
Present set-up under National Commission 2.6 The location, jurisdiction and designation of the field offices of the Commission and the situation prevail- ing in each of them as on 31-3-94 is given below:
Table 1
Location Designation of Jurisdiction Remarks
officer incharge
as on 11-3-93
Agartala Dy. Director Tripura The post of Deputy
Director was aboli-
shed on 12-3-93
Ahmedabad Director Gujarat, Dadra &
Nagar Haveli
Bangalore Director Karnataka
Bhopal Director Madhya Pradesh
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Bhubaneswar Director Orissa
Calcutta Director West Bengali
Sikkim, A&N
Islands
Chandigarh Dy.Director Punjab, The post of Deputy
Haryana, Director was aboli-
Chandigarh shed on 12-3-92
Guwahati Dy.Director Assam The post of Deputy
Director stands
transferred to
Jaipur due to aboli-
tion of the post
of Director at
Jaipur
Hyderabad Director Andhra The post of Director
Pradesh was abolished on
12-3-92
Jaipur Director Rajasthan -do-
Lucknow Director Uttar Pradesh
Madras Director Tamil Nadu
Pondicherry
Patna Director Bihar The post of Director
was abolished on
12-3-92
Pune Director Maharashtra,
Goa, Daman & Diu
Shillong Director Meghalaya,
Arunachal Pradesh,
Manipur, Mizoram,
Nagaland
shimla Dy.Director Himachal Pradesh The post of Deputy
Jammu & Kashmir Director was abo--
lished on
12-3-92
Thiruva- DY.Director Kerala, Lakshadweep
nanthapuram
Work done in the field offices 2.7 Inspite of the handicap of staff suffered by the field offices due to abolition of posts as mentioned else- where and even vacancies not being filled up, the field offices have been handling various types of work including
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field enquiries in case of atrocities.
2.8 Various types of cases of complaints and representa- tions and offences involving SC/ST- received and dealt with by the field offices during 1993-94 is given below:
Table 2
S.No. Subject Matter No. of complaints
1. Service Safeguards 1776
2. Land & Forest 251
3. Education 101
4. Housing 58
5. Employment 16
6. Economic Development Schemes 18
7. Distributive agencies 3
8. Atrocities and Untouchability 1309
9. Other issues 450
Total 3982
2.9 The normal procedure adopted in dealing with these cases has been to first call for the facts from the concer- ned organisation or authorities. on receiving a reply if it was found that there was a violation of a safeguard or that any harassment or serious inconvenience was caused to the SC/ST the same was brought to the notice of the appropriate authorities for corrective steps.
2.10 Regarding cases of atrocity and untouchability, a number of which were reported in the press, reports were called through wireless/telegraphic communications. In serious cases of murder and rape the field offices conduc- ted on-the-spot inquiries either at their own instance or on receiving instructions from the headquarters. During the year under report 38 such inquiries were conducted by the field offices.
Evaluation/inspection of projects run by NGOs on behalf
of Ministry of Welfare 2.11 Earlier, the field offices were under the direct control of the Ministry of Social Welfare or Ministry of Home Affairs respectively as they were the administrative Ministries concerned at different times. They were required to act as' representatives of the Ministry, besides being
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the field representatives of the erstwhile Commissioner and later also of the Commission . Besides, other activities these field offices were conducting inspection/evaluation of ongoing welfare projects run by the NGOs with the assis- tance from the Government of India. They were also inspec- ting the NGOs who had applied for Government grants. This work imposed further pressure on already limited manpower and funds available for providing field support to this Commission and a lot of time and energy of the field offi- ces was used up in this work. The Commission has requested the Ministry to make available adequate manpower to deal with matters relating to inspection of the NGOs.
2.12 During the year under report the evaluation/inspec- tion of projects of NGOs conducted by field offices of the Commission is mentioned below:
Table 3
S.No. Name of the Field No. of inspections conducted
during 1993-94
1. Dy. Director for SC & ST -
Agartala
2. Director for SC & ST 2
Ahmedabad
3. Director for SC & ST 9
Bangalore
4. Director for SC & ST 7
Bhopal
5. Director for SC & ST 19
Bhubaneswar
6. Director for SC & ST 30
Calcutta
7. Dy.Director for SC & ST 2
Chandigarh
8. Dy.Director for SC & ST 4
Guwahati
9. Director for SC & ST 62
Hyderabad
10. Director for SC & ST 10
jaipur
11. Director for SC A ST 32
Lucknow
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12. Director for SC & ST 18
Madras
13. Director for SC & ST 15
Patna
14. Director for SC & ST 2
Pune
15. Director for SC & ST 14
Shillong
16. Dy.Director for SC & ST 1
Shimla
17. Dy.Director for SC & ST 2
Thiruvanthapuram
Total 229
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