L E T T E R S    T O    T H E    E D I T O R

Babus should change their style of work

A J. PHILIP’s article, “In their own service: Pay and perks for the heaven born” (May 14), was interesting and timely. The Sixth Pay Commission has raised the pay scales of IAS officers three-fold. The reason given is that “they hold field-level postings at district level…with critical decision-making and crisis management responsibility”. But what we see is that these officers have become not servants of the people, but the Rajas.

The DCs and the SPs are inaccessible to the general public. They spend half of the time at their residences where only VIPs can meet them. Public complaints are not pursued to their logical conclusion. They hardly go out and meet the public unlike the British officers who used to tour in the countryside.

Till 1960, the SP used to cover the entire district once a year by jeep or on horseback making contact with every village. Now neither the DC nor the SP visits the spot of murder or dacoity. Such visits will definitely change the public perception of officers.

Some DCs are corrupt, but a few of them did not spare even the District Red Cross Fund. One cannot enter the Punjab Secretariat in Chandigarh to meet senior bureaucrats unless called by the officers’ staff. During the days of militancy, one could enter the Secretariat with a pass which was easily available on request. If these officers are to live away from the public, where is the justification for a three-fold increase in their pay and perks?

Maj NARINDER SINGH JALLO (retd), Mohali

II

Over the years, the bureaucrats have become class conscious, irresponsible and corrupt. Consequently, good governance has become a casualty. Trained for the public service, they remain busy in promoting and perpetuating their own interests. The powerful IAS officers manage to get their own pays and perks enhanced for doing work which invariably remains on paper.

To create a sense of service-consciousness among the civil servants, the right kind of training should be imparted to them. Powers should be decentralised. Ministers should take keen interest in the administration and should not depend entirely upon the officers. All cases of corruption should be thoroughly investigated and strict action taken against the guilty.

Politicisation of bureaucracy should be done away with. Accountability should be fixed on the officers if the administration is to run efficiently and smoothly for the progress and development of the state and the service of the people.Above all, the people should make best use of the Right to Information Act to keep the bureaucrats on their toes.

TARSEM S. BUMRAH, Batala

III

Mr Philip has squarely torn apart the myths surrounding the IAS fraternity and exposed it for its extreme incompetence, chicanery, corruption and genuflecting despotism. The members of the state civil services share all the dirt of their superior brethren. The SDMs come late to office and yet have no compunction about this. Rather they have the audacity to suggest that the general public have no business to complain. This condescending attitude is a catharsis attempted by them after having been treated by their political masters as their poodles.

Inquiries or investigations they purport to conduct are simply to hoodwink the people. Once when people summoned by a SDM did not turn up, he maintained a studied silence and simply declared them “innocent”! How can one call this an inquiry? (Of course, the interrogation was out of question). Unfortunately, the administrative services in this country are a stinking loathsome structure which must either be purged of stink and all that or demolished.

AKHILESH, Birampur (Hoshiarpur)

Hate attack

Shiv Sena executive president Udhav Thackeray’s outbursts against Pakistani cricket players are deplorable. In fact, not only Udhav but his entire clan want to run the whole country like a fiefdom which is not possible in a democratic country like India.

The Thackerays are regional gangsters who thrive on the fear psyche of the public and who always think about their own region, language, state but not the whole country. Udhav Thackeray says that Pakistanis are the enemies of the entire nation. He should be asked if both India and Pakistan are trying to promote peace and harmony through IPL matches and other functions, what is wrong with it? It is just Thackeray’s desperate bid to be in the limelight and pose himself as a social reformer, which is not.

Thus, instead of provoking people for their personal and political goals, the Thackeray parivar should use their goodwill to promote peace and harmony in the country because only peaceful relations can help country progress.

UPASNA SHARMA, Khanna