Committees Over Commitment: How Govt's High Level Panels Have Led Nowhere

From dynamic pricing in railways and MGNREGA to overhauling NCC, committees on various themes haven't yielded much.

(Many of the government's committees have not led anywhere)

(Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

Committees are one of the favorite tools of any government, irrespective of the party in power. Governments form committees for a variety of purposes. In some cases, it may be to get genuine policy perspectives, but it is also often to get a specific outcome that validates the government's position. Sometimes governments also form committees headed by renowned personalities to contain criticism on an issue that may have sparked public outrage.

But what do these committees achieve? How many of them really submit reports and if they do, how many are genuinely implemented by the government?

In this piece, we will look at five issues on which the Union government formed high level committees and what came out of each of them.

Despite Presence of 'The Finisher' MS Dhoni, Committee on NCC Still Inconclusive

In September 2021, the Ministry of Defence established a High-Level Expert Committee, chaired by former MP Baijayant Panda (he was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2024), to thoroughly review the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and "make it more relevant for today's times".

Notable figures such as industrialist Anand Mahindra and MS Dhoni are also members of the committee. Rituraj Sinha, BJP General Secretary and Managing Director of Security and Intelligence Services (SIS India), one of India's largest private security companies, was also appointed as a member.

The defence minister is said to have selected the members. But when this reporter filed a query under the Right to Information Act on the criteria used for selecting the members, the ministry did not give any details.

According to an RTI response, the committee was expected to submit its report within three months. However, three years later, the report is still pending. This information emerged after a lengthy RTI battle to get an update on the committee's progress. Below is the response dated 24 May 2024.

On 22 June, 2022, this reporter submitted a request for information on this matter to the Ministry of Defense (MoD). Instead of providing the requested details, they passed it to the Directorate General National Cadet Corps (DG NCC). Both kept passing the request back and forth, but neither provided the information.

So, I took the matter further by filing a second appeal with the Central Information Commission (CIC). Fast forward to 22 March, 2024, when the CIC held a hearing. Information Commissioner Vinod Tiwari wrote in the decision that was passed: “At the outset, the Commission upon a perusal of records adversely viewed the casual conduct of Respondents in having transferred the RTI Application back and forth amongst their offices without providing complete material information to the Appellant at the relevant time”.

Even after such a long struggle, neither MoD nor NCC have provided details of the number of meetings the committee convened and minutes of meetings. The Committee to reform the NCC has yet to submit its report.

However, in April 2024, the Indian Express reported that the Ministry of Defence plans to increase the strength of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) from 17 lakh cadets to 27 lakh over the next 10 years.

Multiple Committees on MGNREGA Reforms

In March 2024, the Ministry of Rural Development announced revised MGNREGA daily wage rates for FY25. Hindu Businessline's analysis reveals that between FY20 and FY25, NREGA workers' daily wages have increased by only 30%, remaining significantly lower than the earnings of agricultural laborers. This concern was also highlighted in a Parliamentary Standing Committee report tabled in February 2024.

“Observing the quantum of wages since 2008, the Committee finds the wages inadequate and not in consonance with the rising cost of living”.

The Committee also said, “It has been also brought to the notice of the Committee that a Central Government Committee on minimum wages, Anoop Satpathy Committee, had recommended that the wages under MGNREGA should be Rs 375/- per day.”

The issue of MGNREGA wages is complex, and numerous committees have been formed to address it. The timelines of these various committees are particularly intriguing to examine.

In October 2013, the then United Progressive Alliance government formed a seven-member committee led by economist S Mahendra Dev to examine how MGNREGA wages can be linked to the the minimum wage rate in respective states.

However, the government changed in 2014 and the recommendations of the Mahendra Dev committee were not implemented. The NDA government formed another committee on the same matter in May 2016, under Nagesh Singh.

The Nagesh Singh committee rejected the proposal to link MGNREGA wages to the state's minimum wage, suggesting instead that wages be tied to the Consumer Price Index for Rural (CPI-R) rather than the Consumer Price Index for Agriculture (CPI-AL). After deliberations among various ministries, the Ministry of Rural Development decided to continue using CPI-AL for wage rate revisions under MGNREGA.

This approach came under criticism from a report of a Parliamentary standing committee on 8 February, 2022. The report said:

“The Ministry of Rural Development has decided to continue with the existing index CPI-AL for wage rate revision under MGNREGA. Thus, wage rates under MGNREGA would continue to remain languishing on account of no change in indexation. In view of the above situation, the Committee strongly recommend the Ministry to review its stand concerning with the wages once again and approach all the decision making bodies with plausible rationale so that a long pending demand of justifiable hike in the wages under MGNREGA is fulfilled for the welfare of beneficiaries”

Later, In December 2022, another nine-member committee was formed, headed by former rural development department secretary Amarjeet Sinha. It aimed to study expenditure costs across states in the scheme and analyse governance issues. On 1 August, 2023, the government informed the Lok Sabha that it had received the committee's report. However, the government refused to share the report with Members of Parliament saying that the report is "under consideration".

Committee on MSP: Rs 33 Lakh Spent, But No Result

On November 19, 2021, On the occasion of the Guru Purab, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an announcement repealing all three contentious farming laws that had sparked large scale protests by farm unions.

In the same address, he declared the establishment of a new committee tasked with deliberating on matters related to MSP, promoting zero-budget natural farming (ZBNF) practices and determining crop patterns.

The Centre established the committee on 12 July, 2022, nearly eight months after the Prime Minister's announcement.  The committee has met over 35 times, with the government spending approximately 33 lakhs on these meetings. However, the committee's report is yet to be submitted.

In response to the RTI request, the Ministry of Agriculture stated that no deadline has been set for the committee to submit its report. Additionally, the ministry declined to share the minutes of the committee's meetings.

It is important to note that the Swaminathan Commission (2004-2006) and the 2016 committee on doubling farmer income have already addressed many of the issues related to farmers. But neither of these have been implemented.

In some ways, it vindicates farm unions allegation that the government is more interested in forming committees than addressing farmers' issues.

Read more about it in this story.

Govt Secrecy on Committee on Dynamic Pricing of Railways

In September 2016, the government started a flexible fare system for Rajdhani, Duronto, and Shatabdi trains. The base fare increases by 10% after every 10% of seats are booked, up to a certain limit. However, the fares for 1AC and Executive Class (EC) would not change.

According to the government's reply to the Rajya Sabha on 3 February, 2023, the flexible fare system generated around ₹3,557 crore in additional earnings over the five years from 2017-18 to 2021-22.

In July 2019, Rajya Sabha member Shanta Chhetri of the Trinamool Congress raised concerns about the unpopularity of the flexi fare system. In response, the government provided an official reply:

“Based on the feedback from different quarters including from Members of Parliament and general public, a committee was constituted to review the Flexi Fare scheme. Based on the committee’s recommendations and other representations, the matter has been examined and Flexi Fare scheme has been rationalized w.e.f 15.03.2019 on an experimental basis. Discontinuation of Flexi Fare scheme (Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto Express trains) from 15 trains fully and from 32 trains during pre defined lean period of 3 months (February, March & August). Maximum cap of Flexi Fare scheme has been reduced to 1.4 times from 1.5 times earlier in all Flexi Fare applicable classes”

The Committee mentioned in the reply is an eight member Committee comprising General Manager of West Central Railway, Principal Financial Advisor of East Central Railway, Executive Director - Passenger Marketing of Railway Board, Executive Director - Traffic Commercial (Rates) of Railway Board, Advisor (Transport) at Niti Aayog, Executive Director for Revenue Management & Marketing Automation at Air India, Director of Revenue at Le Meridian and a Professor of Transport Economics. The Committee has submitted its report on 16 January, 2018

Nine months after the committee submitted its report, I filed an RTI in October 2018 requesting a copy. The Railways refused, citing the matter as one of "commercial confidentiality".

I filed a second appeal with the Central Information Commission, arguing that the eight-member committee that prepared the report included six government officials and two non-government members. How can the Railways claim "commercial confidentiality" when the committee itself had a member from Air India, a direct commercial competitor of the Railways?

The Railways submitted that their own system of determining the fare structure for the benefits of passengers and its disclosure might be misused by any third person or its competitors, thus, the sought-information on point no. 3 was denied u/s. 8(1)(d) of the Act.

CIC upheld the stand taken by the Railways and gave a decision in favor of the Railways. But the CAG pulled up the Railways in its report for the flexi fare railway.

CAG observed, "In terms of absolute numbers, the premier trains carried 2,40,79,899 passengers during the post-flexi period as compared to 2,47,36,469 passengers during the pre-flexi period. There was de-growth of 2.65 per cent despite availability of a higher number of berths/seats, which resulted in sub-optimal utilisation of national assets.

No Action on Oversight Committee Report on Wrestlers' Allegations Against Brij Bhushan Singh

In response to the wrestlers' protest on the alleged sexual harassment by the then Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the Modi government appointed an oversight committee on 23 January 2023. Headed by MC Mary Kom, a Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna Awardee, the committee was tasked with investigating the allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment, intimidation, financial irregularities, and administrative lapses raised by prominent athletes, and to manage the WFI's day-to-day operations.

Initially, the committee was asked to submit its report within four weeks, but the Ministry extended the deadline by two weeks to the third week of February. As per media reports, the Committee finally submitted the report on 5 April. But the government is yet to act on it even a year later. Read more about this committee in this story by The Quint.