No-Ball

Once in a while officers and staff of Odisha State Pollution Control Board played cricket on holidays. Although not a great player, I chanced my arms on a few occasions for fun, which was appreciated by colleagues. While batting if I got out early, the umpire would hastily declare the delivery as ‘No-Ball’. Not only the bowler would be deprived of getting my wicket but also penalized to bowl an additional delivery for a ‘Free-Hit’. No one including the bowler ever grudged. However, in real life, if a wicket-taking delivery is declared ‘No-Ball’ and the ‘Free-hit’ ball is hit for a six, it really hurts.

My mother-in-law, Sanghamitra Parija (nee Das), left her native village Menda in Balangir district (now Sonepur) for better schooling at Cuttack. But what really thrilled her was that she became a direct student of Balakrushna Das, the doyen of Odia music. She must have been an excellent singer because Balakrushna Das selected her for a film song and asked her to accompany him to Kolkata for recording. But, her masterstroke was immediately ‘no-balled’ by the umpires in her family; she was taken out from music classes. (Incidentally, the song she was to sing was ultimately sung by a Bengali singer from Kolkata and it became an iconic song in Odia music.) In a few months, she was married off into a traditional family and the only opportunity she got to sing was in “antaksharis” in family functions. However, the silver lining is that she groomed my wife to become an accomplished singer.

As Project Director, I was implementing a food security project of the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) in select tribal districts of Odisha. This gave me a good opportunity to interact with the most deprived sections of society in remote areas. I soon recognized that it was only the beneficiaries who can identify their problems and suggest solutions. In an interactive meeting, I was particularly impressed by a young lady who beautifully articulated what they expected us to do and I realized how off-target we were in our planning. During that period, WFP organised an international workshop in New Delhi on Food Security and encouraged direct inputs from beneficiaries. I selected this lady along with another person to travel to Delhi to participate in the deliberations. But her in-laws ‘no-balled’ her for overstepping the ‘Laxmanrekha’. I never saw her in any of our programmes thereafter.

In the early 1990s, three posts of Regional Joint Director (RJD) were created to supervise the proper implementation of the Social Forestry Project in the state. One of the officers posted as RJD decided to live in the office of the RJD, as he was alone and didn’t want to spend government money by hiring a house, which he was entitled to. But later, he was asked to explain, why he has been occupying a government building without paying rent and why should he not be charge-sheeted for this offence. ‘No-Ball’!

Earlier Forest Department was very conservative and reluctant to issue permits for cutting trees from private holdings. (Now things have considerably improved but still remain complex for a common man.) The root cause for this is that many times permits given for cutting trees from private holdings are misused to smuggle trees from forests. Therefore, stringent procedures were laid down wherein the applicant had to prove that the trees to be cut and transported are actually on his/her recorded holding. Many a times complex procedures and rent-seeking by government functionaries frustrated genuine tree growers and encouraged indulgence of middlemen and smugglers. Officers also were inclined to play safe and preferred to procrastinate on flimsy grounds. In the initial years of my service, I was strongly advised by my well-wishers in the Service to avoid permitting felling from private holdings, because State vigilance officers indulging in this were always under the scanner.

I had an interesting interaction on this, during my first posting as DFO. A person narrated his plight, “Sir, my father was a teacher by profession and an environmentalist by passion. He, not only, planted trees himself to celebrate any occasion, but also, motivating others to do so. When I was born, he had planted some teak trees in our backyard; ‘when these trees mature, I may not be there but my grandchildren can have the luxury of having teak furniture’. We have been protecting these trees and as on date ten trees are standing tall. I want to cut six trees for making furniture for my daughter’s marriage. I have been running in vain from pillar to post to comply with all procedural requirements. People are advising me to either engage a middleman or pay hefty bribes. I do not understand the logic behind the penalty and how cutting my trees could possibly lead to smuggling from the forests. The government is now encouraging people to grow more trees under its Social Forestry Programme. Why will anyone plant trees in their own land if they cannot harvest? I feel my father is being punished for growing trees.” I calmed him down and decided to visit his place. It was a remote village and the trees indisputably were in his backyard. I took the ‘risk’ and facilitated the early disposal of the application. But at the same time, I realised that there is a disincentive in the system to give justice to the disadvantaged.

Nowadays, extensive live television coverage has made things transparent and an umpire would never call “No-ball” deliberately if it was a legitimate ball. If at all he errs in judgment the players have the option of reversing the decision through the Decision Review System (DRS). And too many negative DRS tarnish the image of the umpire. Therefore, transparency, probity, accountability and flexibility have to be the four pillars of any system for good governance.