M A I L B A G

Bureaucrats versus technocrats

Bureaucrats and technocrats are the two sides of the same coin of the administration with the former enjoying an edge over the latter in the matter of running the affairs of the government. This is despite the fact that technocrats possess technical qualifications and expertise in their respective fields.

Recent years have witnessed a steep rise in the number of candidates possessing professional degrees in engineering, medicine, management, etc, entering the field of civil services instead of pursuing career in their original fields. The simple reason for this is the esteem and the elite status enjoyed by a bureaucrat in our society.

Further, a bureaucrat has also full administrative and disciplinary control over a technocrat in our administrative system. For instance, in a district, which is the basic unit of administration in our country, a Deputy Commissioner, who an IAS officer, has full administrative and disciplinary control over all the heads of various government departments in the district. All this propels fresh professional degree holders to enter the field of bureaucracy.

The government is to blame for creating this problem. Bureaucrats have been granted a dominant role in the affairs of administration even in those fields where qualified technocrats deserve the same position. Recently, the seniormost doctor of the PGI, Chandigarh, refused to accept the offer of appointment to the prestigious post of Director-Principal, GMCH, Chandigarh, for the simple reason that he would not be the Secretary, Medical Education and Research as well.

A quick survey of the offices of the Chandigarh Administration reveals that a large number of technical departments which were earlier being headed by technocrats are now being looked after by IAS, PCS and HCS officers.

The government should give due share in the affairs of the administration to technocrats. Only technocrats should be appointed as heads of technical departments. The government should also delegate financial and administrative powers to technocrats in other departments.

hemant kumar
Ambala City

Demand for High Court IT is good to learn that Haryana lawyers have sought a separate High Court, for the state at last. This matter should have merited the attention of the Central government itself when it carved out the two states of Punjab and Haryana. Himachal Pradesh has its own High Court, so have all the new states being carved out now. The Punjab and Haryana High Court should be bifurcated at the earliest. And what better place to set it up than the most modern and model city of Haryana, i.e. Panchkula. It is ideally located near Chandigarh, at the Shivalik foothills, with wide and clean pucca roads and open space. harish khanna Panchkula

Great cartoon

MR Sandeep Joshi deserves to be complimented for his excellent cartoon “Partial rollback announced” (The Tribune, Nov 21), highlighting the miserable plight of the common man — thanks to the sky-rocketing prices of the necessities of life. The common man is indeed an “overburdened donkey”, as the cartoon in question has aptly depicted.

tara chand
Ambota (Una)

No cricket with Pakistan

THE Central government has decided against sending an Indian cricket team to play a series of matches in Pakistan.

A representative of the BCCI on the other hand has rushed to Pakistan in an effort to lobby for saving the series, and prevent India being boycotted by the ICC.

The ICC has threatened that India, by not honouring its engagement with the Pakistan Cricket Board, can be suspended from all international game engagements.

The action of the Central government needs to be applauded in the face of lobbying from vested interests. It is only money power that is currently at work, and at the expense of patriotic duty.

Mr Dungarpur’s visit to Pakistan is totally uncalled for. India is too powerful a cricket nation to be subjected to isolation, and if subjected thus, it does not lose anything. Indeed, the ICC would stand to lose a great amount of money and face.

The logic that politics should not enter into sports has no more relevance today. Where sports engagements threaten to disturb law and order, be given up.

Israel had also not engaged itself in some international events. The West had boycotted the Moscow Olympics. Cricket can only be termed as the latest victim of bad neighbourly relations.

We hope the Central government does not wilt down to any international pressures from game bodies. We should only play the game when the game is being played on a friendly field, and when spectators themselves are in a mood to relax.

The Pakistan series should be declared “off ground” for at least the next three years. Indian cricket can definitely take a long breather to clean its own dressing rooms.

gautam kaul
New Delhi

Colostrum

Verka is doing a great job in supplying various milk products, excellent curd, cottage cheese, processed cheese, milk cake (from the leftovers), butter, ghee, even ice-cream besides plain milk. It is all very innovative and commendable, indeed.

May we put forward a humble suggestion for the consideration of the authorities concerned — that is the sale of colostrum (bauli in vernacular), the milk of mammals formed in the first few days after birth. Verka receives a huge supply of milk daily. Many of the cattle must be producing colostrum, which is not used for regular milk supply as it curdles on heating. Colostrum, being rich in immunoglobulins (protective proteins, the antibodies), is a specially rich source of protein. Most of such products must be going waste. We would like to put forward the suggestion, that if possible, sweetened or plain curdled colostrum may be marketed.

jyotsna khanna
Panchkula