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`Bottom-up approach will guard against compromises at GATS'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI June 12. The Centre should adopt a "bottom-up" approach to deciding the country's goals in the ongoing negotiations on the General Agreement on Trade in Services in the World Trade Organisation to ensure that vital political and economic rights of local governments and their constituents up to the level of village panchayats are not compromised, say professionals and activists.

Holding a few workshops in New Delhi on the GATS negotiations or placing on the Internet (Commerce Ministry web site) a summary of the "request-offer" process going on in Geneva is hardly sufficient to protect the country's interests. Even several State governments and their officials and policy-makers are not aware of the details and implications of GATS, said participants at a recent workshop here.

They expressed concern in particular over the possibility of India making commitments on health, education, tourism and water supply with unforeseen or hidden consequences for areas, which were now the responsibility of local self-governments, and thus defeating the objectives of the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Constitution.

The participants emphasised that no member-state was obliged to open up any service sector except on its own volition and that the GATS kept services rendered by governments on a non-commercial and non-competitive basis outside the scope of negotiations, the possibility of interpretation of basic rules to suit the interests of service providers of developed nations and the practical impossibility of going back on commitments to meet emergency situations warranted nationwide consultation and great caution before any agreement was concluded. Striking a note different from the general tenor of speeches at the workshop, organised by four non-government organisations, Equations (Bangalore,), People's Governance Cell, Casa and CSI-Socio Economic Concerns (all Chennai), R. Christudass Gandhi of the State Government IAS cadre said that despite the present democratic structure of local governments, powerful interests and caste groups dominated decisions and denied weaker sections the right of access to services and facilities. There was hence need for examining whether opening up of service activities to foreign service providers might make a difference to this situation. R. Elango, president, Kuthampakkam panchayat, suggested organised "localisation" of services by contiguous panchayats to counter threats posed by big capital and foreign companies to rural livelihood.

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