Keeping the faith

WHATEVER be the political colour of the party in power in Punjab, one constant is the camaraderie and understanding forged between politicians and bureaucrats, often for mutual benefit. So politicised have the bureaucracy and the police become that it requires frequent shuffling and reshuffling to find a non-aligned or less political officer. Postings with benefits and post-retirement assignments cement the politician-bureaucrat ties. There are, however, a few exceptions — officers who do not fall for the lure of this arrangement and continue to work as per the rules and according to their conscience, hardships and frequent transfers notwithstanding. Their number is small but contribution is huge. 

Soon after IAS officer Kahan Singh Pannu was posted as the officiating VC of Punjab Technical University, he closed down four of the nine institutes of technology for being ‘unviable’ and ordered an inquiry into ‘serious financial and administrative irregularities’. It was not hard to predict that he would not stay too long on the post. The action came rather sooner than expected. Now he has been given the post of Chairman of the Punjab Pollution Control Board. Last time when Pannu was made the PPCB chief, he ended up annoying Ludhiana industrialists discharging industrial waste into the Budhha Nullah. Enjoying political patronage, they had refused to invest in treatment plants. As an accommodative Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal listened to the industry lobby and sent Pannu packing. 

Another IAS officer who did a good job and earned the gratitude of people wherever he was posted is Krishan Kumar. It was again during Badal’s tenure as CM that he was driven out of the state and was picked up by the Prime Minister’s Office. As the Director General of School Education, he did not let the then Education Minister, Sewa Singh Sekhwan, manipulate teachers’ appointment. Earlier as Nawanshahr DC, Krishan Kumar had worked hard to save the district’s unborn daughters. A state’s growth depends on the quality of governance, which suffers if top-level officers are not allowed sufficient space to work and if petty politicking is allowed to curdle up a professional work culture.