The Hindu : Experts pick holes in PAC study

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 28, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Experts pick holes in PAC study

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Nov. 27. The findings of the study on the state of Kerala's public services delivery came in for some searing criticism from experts at a seminar that followed its release here on Tuesday.

While agreeing with the conclusion that public services delivery in Kerala left a lot to be desired, the experts questioned the methodology adopted by the Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bangalore, to arrive at its findings. One expert went to the extent of saying that the study seemed to have arrived at the right conclusions through the wrong route.

The study has concluded that only a small proportion of people are fully satisfied with the quality of service they get in the five areas covered by it, namely drinking water supply, healthcare, road transport, public distribution system and education and child care. The study has also pegged Kerala's performance in public services delivery way below several other Indian States.

Making a critique of the study, P.R. Gopinathan Nair, economist, said no meaningful policy recommendation would be possible from the study because it was not based on objective criteria. He pointed out that the criteria chosen for the study seemed too simplistic. For instance, the quality of service delivery in the healthcare sector had been assessed with severity of illness and behaviour of doctors as the criteria. M.A. Oommen felt that the concepts used in the study were faulty. The sub-strata used in the study were not based on homogenous categories and as a result the study could throw up only `spurious inferences', he felt. Expressing similar views, C.R. Soman said the study findings could not be extrapolated to the entire State. He also wondered how `full satisfaction' could be taken as a criterion. Any talk about public service delivery in healthcare must also take into account the kind of medical infrastructure available, he pointed out.

The former Additional Chief Secretary, C. Thomas, said the main problem with public service delivery in Kerala was that there was no accountability. The former Additional Chief Secretary, T.N. Jayachandran, said the report was unlikely to have any impact because Keralites are a people who refuse to be reformed. The former DGP, P.J. Alexander, said the situation was worse than what was stated in the report.

The former Railway Board chairman, M.N. Prasad, the TRIDA chairman, P.K. Venugopal, Ananthakumar Menon, Radhakrishna Menon and Kesava Karanavar were among those who spoke.

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