ABCD of “Babugiri”: IDENTIFYING AND WEEDING OUT DEADWOODS (24/09/2015)

I often am amused at the topics of discussion among fellow commuters in the chartered, all middle level government servants, working in various Ministries- the center of the ultimate power. This may be anything- like what hike the 7^th Pay Commission is likely to announce, how long will the bio-metric continue- so on and so forth. This is Indian bureaucracy. An adverse comment from the CEO of an overseas MNC (“Reform bureaucracy to attract investment”- Jeffrey Immelt, CEO, GE, TOI, 21.09.2015) never jolts their self esteem, who I consider a race of thick skinned people for whom their personal interest is what matters. “Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits”- US columnist Dale Dauten had very correctly said of Indian Bureaucracy. Such people are in abundance and are not confined to the lower and middle level but at every level of bureaucracy. On posting at New Delhi I was confronted with the ABCD of “babugiri”- Avoid, By-pass, Confuse and lastly Delegate i.e. do whatever you can, to shift the responsibility onto other. Coming from outside Delhi, I often found myself at the receiving end, until a colleague disclosed this “mantra”. The dead-woods are master of ABCD of “babugiri”. As expected, the recent news that the Government intends to introduce a legislation/order to weed out the deadwood from the bureaucracy and tone it up to improve its efficiency, did not cause any flutter in the bureaucracy. While provision for annual review to weed out inefficient officers and staff exists in the Rules (Fundamental Rules 56J), this has seldom been evoked. As per this rule, once a government servant attains the age of 55 years, an objective assessment should be made every year for his continuance or otherwise and he should be handed over his retirement benefits and asked to quit, if his performance is found below the benchmark. Though this exercise is carried out in offices every year quite religiously but I have never come across any case where a Government servant was asked to quit. It would be interesting if the Government gathers information from all its ministries and sub-ordinate office on the number of officers/staff who have been shown the door on the basis of the provision of this Rule. It will draw a blank. These dead-woods are adept in other skills which keeps them afloat- that of apple-polishing. This helps them get good grading in their APAR (Annual Performance Appraisal Report) and keep going. Instead of weeding out deadwood, the Government should introduce a scheme of “Golden Handshake” offering officers/staff above the age of 50 years, half the salary of the remaining number of the years of their service left. This will help the cream of the lot to take a call. The left over are the dead-woods.  I hope the Seventh Pay Commission comes up with such a scheme for Government servant over 50 years of age.

THEY FIGHT WHILE PEOPLE SUFFER (18/09/2015)

The spread of dengue has crossed the severity of 2010 and the whole city is in its grip. Through huge advertisements inserted in national newspapers, the Delhi Government has been appealing people not to panic, yet the ground realities and newspaper reports alongside has left people in panic and who are forced to live in constant fear. It is difficult to confront a person in Delhi who can claim that no one in his know is not suffering from this disease. Such is the all invasive penetration of this deadly disease in Delhi this year. In a couple of days from now we shall be celebrating one year of “Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan” and to think of it that the incidence of Dengue has increased this year, when leaders and citizens had together pledged to make India a cleaner place, brings forth the hollowness of such mission. I do not blame the Government, solely. People are to be held equally responsible. The Government does not have a magic wand to all our problems, especially those like cleanliness, which call for people’s participation. Every day on my way to office, I find sweepers cleaning the areas religiously and sincerely. But by evening the areas are back in the same condition- full of garbage of all types- vegetable waste, plastics, dog’s poop, solid and liquid waste and what not. We, the citizens, lack in civic sense and are more adept in pointing an accusing finger at the Government. The Government, which constitutes of people like us, is also adept in playing this blame game. While the city is held hostage to the menace of dengue- its leaders are busy in playing the blame game alike its citizens. God help this city.

DELHI: THE CITY OF ALL SEASONS (05/09/2015)

I got up at 5.30 a.m. in the morning today, not for the daily morning walk or physical exercise but, to be in time at the nearest Mother Dairy/Safal outlet to fetch a kilo of onion, at Rs. 40/- a kg  (this is the maximum quantity they sell to a single customer), lest I am left out again. During the last few days, I had been going to the outlet at 7.00 a.m. and had to come back empty handed, as the stock of onions got exhausted quickly. Onion has become a precious item in national capital these days. This is the third year of my stay in Delhi and I am now used to this scarcity, so much so that I advised my wife (who like many other advice of mine did not heed to this either) in July itself to hoard the stock for the next few months before these gets hoarded by the big players of the business. Inflation of such nature created artificially by hoarders, causing the price of a simple commodity like onion to sky rocket to Rs. 80-100/- a kg, has become an annual affair. If DELHI were to be given an acronym “H” stands for Hoarding followed by “I” for Inflation. Hoarding has come to be practiced in the city in such a professional manner that the government of the day appear hostage to such hoarders. The hoarders remain immune while the Government doesn’t have any antidote.

I now come to what other letters in the acronym DELHI stands for. These are a few events that repeat itself annually with a dreary regularity. After the rains, Dengue outbreak is regularity in this metropolitan. This annual recurrence of Dengue is the letter “D” of Delhi. All the preparedness of the Government goes in vain while the Dengue mosquitoes have a field day for at least three months beginning July right up to September. This is the season when hospitals and doctors make their earnings for the whole year.

Nursery “E”ducation admission comes to haunt the people of Delhi annually without fail like a disease. The education mafia have a field day right from April to June when they make huge earning by ensuring admission under EWS and other quotas, while the Government watches in despair. Even the directive of the apex court is not heeded by these mafias. Thus annual concern for nursery “Education” and Admission is the letter “E” of Delhi.

While letters of the city DE(L)HI describes the annual events of Delhi, the letter “L” was deliberately left out as it is central to the city’s problem (literally). This is a season not confined to a few months but its effect is felt throughout the year. The letter “L” of Delhi describes the state of “Law & Order” which is central to the entire problem that the metropolitan faces today. It is this factor which the citizens of the city dread about. I have lived in a number of cities- right from Jhumri-Telaiya to Jamshedpur and Ranchi (all Jharkhand), Kolkata and Barrackpore (West Bengal), Shillong and Guwahati (North East India), Port Blair (Islands of Andaman & Nicobar), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and host of other cities- big and small- but nowhere I had to take such precaution for the safety and security of my family members as I do at New Delhi. My wife puts locks to the doors virtually (and each door is locked at three places- top, middle and bottom), as there had been incidences of dacoities even in this densely populated areas where I live. Delhi is unique in the sense that control over its “Law and Order” administration instead of improving the law and order situation has become the bone of contention between its various stakeholders who claim to be ruling the city. In the process the common man is left to fend for himself. In such a situation my belief in God has increased manifold. God protect me.