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Rusting
Steel Frame
Four problems for the mandarins
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Transferred
seven times in the last eight months.
 VINAY
KUMAR VERMA, IPS, Uttar Pradesh cadre. Was SP of State Crime
Records Bureau; shifted to Mirzapur as SP, from where within five
weeks brought to the Power Corporation; within four days was shifted
to Fatehpur PAC, immediately shunted to Bijnore, and five weeks
later to Jaunpur.
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Vipin
Verma has-as he calls it-the IAS in "his blood". His father
is an IAS officer. So is his uncle and a second cousin. His maternal grandfather
was an IAS officer and as were both his sons. But ask Verma if he wants
to join the preferred family profession and he puts his hands up, shouting
out an emphatic "No". The 20-year-old would rather sit for the
GMAT and try for an MBA abroad or start a garment business (if all else
fails) with some friends. In fact, he says, even his family members don't
want him to join the services. "Why would they?" "he asks.
"The IAS isn't what it used to be. It just isn't worth your while."
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"The
IAS needs merit-based promotions and better pay."
RAJAT
MODWEL, a 1990 batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, quit
after seven years of service. Took study leave to get an MBA from
London after which he joined McKinsey & Co. Realised that there
were better opportunities for more interesting work outside the
IAS.
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When the
sons and daughters of civil service officers stop opting for their parents'
profession, it's time to sit up and take notice. Today more and more members
of the service are calling for widespread reforms saying the bureaucracy
has many problems that need to be tackled immediately. Taking a lead,
the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) took
out a consensus paper listing out the problems.
Corruption:
The perception of being corrupt is rampant, the report says. The bureaucracy
is today looked upon as an "organised band of exploiters". What
drives them to wards corruption is the amazing lack of accountability
in the services where a bureaucrat can hide behind a maze of rules, procedures
and secrecy to get away with gross impropriety. The paper says the only
solution is to make the services more transparent; review the Official
Secrets Act and replace it with a Right to Information Act.
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Convicted
in a corruption case. Sentenced for two years and fined.
H.M.
PANDE of the Tamil Nadu IAS cadre is under suspension. Was chargesheeted
for abetting the then state minister Selvaganapathy to permit a
hotel to violate building laws. He also faces an enquiry in a deal
relating to purchase of water pipes worth Rs 5 crore.
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Political
Interference: The bane of every civil servant. Says T.S.R. Subramanium,
former cabinet secretary: "Political interference has decimated the
services." In some states, the tenure of a district magistrate today
doesn't last more than a few months. Today, the axe of a transfer is the
one big power the politician wields against a bureaucrat. The paper moots
a civil services board in every state that checks frequent transfers for
no valid reason.
Demoralisation:
There is, the paper states, a pervasive feeling of frustration, gloom
and helplessness among civil servants. Civil service officers say that
for the first time there is a discernible dropout rate today. With better
job opportunities outside, a lot of the brighter officers have quit or
are on the verge of doing so. The cynicism seems to set in typically after
six to seven years in service by which time, for most, the idealism has
been knocked out and the road ahead looks dreary. The better officers
feel suffocated because individual effort isn't rewarded-there are no
merit-based promotions-and the salary is woefully inadequate. It's also
a time when he is eligible for study leave. The more capable officers,
using this option, go abroad for further studies where it's easy to check
out new and exciting opportunities. "Today every batch has a clutch
of dropouts," points out Sanjeev Chopra, deputy director at the LBSNAA.
Growing
Redundancy: This has taken place throughout the 1970s and the early
1980s, leading to a vast number of redundant posts arising out of the
splitting of a senior post into many different jobs. For instance, in
some states against the post of one chief secretary, there are many equivalent
officers with far less important posts but drawing the same salary. So
where one officer used to be, say, the secretary of medical and healthcare
now there are five officers doing the job of one-four are in charge of
health, family planning, medical and medical education respectively whereas
the fifth one as principal secretary oversees the work of these four secretaries.
Says N.C. Saxena, secretary, Planning Commission: "This was done
to avoid demoralisation due to stagnation but the net result has been
just the opposite-it has led to cutthroat competition among officers who
want to grab the more important positions."
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METRO TODAY
Forget
endology, writes INDIA TODAY Senior Editor S. Prasannarajan. Celebrate
2001, celebrate the future in 