MAHARASHTRA: More than seven decades after India attained Independence, the country is yet to document its own regions. But after finding out that the state’s administrative system – mainly developed in 1818 by the first Deccan governor Mountstuart Elphinstone – continues to be stuck in the British-era mould, a young officer from Maharashtra cadre, Kaustubh Diwegaonkar, is doing his bit to update the documentation. The main goal is to compile his findings in a book that any academic or government functionary can use as reference.
Currently posted as the collector of Osmanabad – a drought-prone region from Marathwada – Diwegaonkar has taken Elphinstone’s work forward and decided to conduct an in-depth research of each district and the region he has been posted to. Additionally, as in charge of the respective district or the department, he is privy to other old documents and references easily.
“When I started reading the documents and started comparing these to the present condition, I saw a huge gap between reality and acceptability. We have good laws, but these are mostly implemented at a snail’s space,” he says, adding that he decided to collect all minute details contained in documents and rewrite them in a form that is useful for everyone. “The findings were extremely peculiar,” he notes.
Diwegaonkar has already made big strides in his research. During his posting as the Director to Ground Survey and Development Agency (GSDA), he along with another officer Shekhar Gaikwad penned ‘Maharashtrachi Bhujal Gatha (Maharashtra’s Groundwater Story) – a 200-page research book that gives a glimpse of Maharashtra’s groundwater history and possibilities. “Irrigation is a major social and political issue in Maharashtra, but hardly any deep study has been conducted on it. While researching, we found out that due to the geographical conditions of the state, it is very difficult to expand the land under irrigation on a large scale by constructing big dams in all corners of the state,” he says.
“By using all geological maps, we identified 40,000 villages where check dams should be developed because of high groundwater percolation in these areas. Besides, we also studied the crop pattern and the subsequent changes,” says the young officer. “We have to redesign the entire crop pattern and irrigation planning to suit the locations. One-size-fits-all method won’t work in the state,” he pointed out.
As the Jalgaon district zila panchayat CEO, Diwegaonkar says schools here taught students the basic principles of the Indian Constitution in a practical way. “We decided to first check how the ‘equality’ principle of the Constitution works. So, we asked teachers and students to write down how the mid-day meal is distributed in schools, including such details as to who serve the plates, who collects them after the meal, who cleans the school, etc.
The findings went against the equality of the principles.” The teachers realised that most of the time, only female teachers and girl students were engaged in these activities. There was no equality in implementation. “Then, we asked students to write down their food habits. Each community has particular habits, which in turn helped us to add protein and other nutritive elements to their mid-day meal. Such case studies were shared with other schools as well,” notes Diwegaonkar.
He has also documented the land acquisition law in detail. He says the government, despite giving lucrative compensations, has several cases filed against it by farmers during the land acquisition process. “This has not only delayed several important projects but also escalated their cost. Even the farmers are suffering. So, we studied all aspects of the law and handed over the documentation to the government,” he said.
As the Osmanabad collector, he is at present studying the drought and farmer suicides in the Marathwada region, that according to his findings was once very prosperous. “We want to study what changed the situation over the last decades. We are studying crop patterns, social conduct, lifestyle and cultural background,” he added.
The research also includes Marathwada liberation agitation. “Marathwada was part of the Nizam state before independence. Therefore, this region is more connected to Hyderabad’s administrative system than the Bombay Province (Maharashtra),” he points out. “We are doing research on the social and economic conditions and will soon submit our papers to the government to overhaul the revenue and other administrative system,” he said.
The officer says several luminaries from Maharashtra are not only important politically but they also played an important role in developing the state’s administrative and cultural values. “Each social reformer’s contribution is important. Studying them more will help us in resolving complex issues that we face today,” he said.