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| Transfer, posting policies, likings of political babus bring developmental process to halt | | Administrative anarchy in J&K? | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Nov 21: Administrative non-seriousness, ineffectiveness in decision making, orthodox transfers and posting policies alongwith personal likings and dislikings of political babus has compounded miseries of NC-led coalition government. Developmental programmes in all the districts are going on at snail's pace despite being under direct scrutiny of 'Union Home Secretary R.K.Singh's office and Governor N.N.Vohra's office'. Ask for reasons and IAS officers in civil secretariat would tell you that state government has been unable to make optimum utilization of services of both senior KAS as well as IAS officers. They do not hesitate in saying that timid placement of officers has reduced output and efficiency of even those who have done exceedingly well at the same positions earlier. Political affiliation has been given precedence over administrative efficiency and bureaucratic discipline. Officers, though competent, but few months away from their retirement have been given prize postings.
Though it is not known whether the government intends to given them extension but the fact remains that 12 to 14 month tenure does not allow an officer to institute or sustain reforms and it is both demoralizing and demotivating when civil servants are not in a position long enough to see fruits of their efforts which could be a source of enormous satisfaction to them as well as to their political bosses. 1995 batch IAS officer Mohammed Sayeed Khan, who is presently running nerve centre of the National Conference (NC) led coalition government i.e. General Administration Department (GAD) is superannuating in January 2012 i.e. two months from today. Khan was posted in the GAD on August 26, 2010 and on the day when he would retire; it would be his 15th month as administrative secretary of GAD i.e. exactly 9 months short of even the two year tenure recommended by Administrative Reforms Commission in its 10th report on 'Refurbishing of Personnel Administration - Scaling New Heights'. Apart from Khan, Commissioner/Secretary Education Naseem Lanker who is retiring in February 2012 would also demit this high profile office within 14 months of taking over the charge. Besides, Naseem Lanker, the officers who would retire by the end of year 2012 include Director General IMPA Dr Ravi Kulbushan Jeerath (April 2012), Transport Commissioner Syed Muhammad Fazalullah (October 2012) , Commissioner/Secretary Animal Husbandry Bishen Dass Sharma (October 2012), Member Special Tribunal Sunita Sharma (August 2012), Commissioner/Secretary Cooperative Abdul Hamid Wani (March 2012), Chairman SSRB Bua Ditta Bhagat (May 2012), Commissioner/Secretary Kachoo Isfandyar Khan (January 2012) and Secretary Planning Guldev Raj Bhagat (December 2012).
If the above number of officers is taken into account, it becomes apparently clear that administrative planning has taken a back seat in Jammu and Kashmir. Civil servants are not allowed to stay in a position long enough to acquire adequate knowledge and experience of their job, and an understanding of the milieu and culture in which they have to function and the problems they need to redress.
They are unable to build the required mutual confidence and understanding which takes time to develop and is necessary for administrative leadership. Frequent transfers and posting alongwith prolonged stay at a particular position or post within or outside the civil secretariat, most often, leads to lack of accountability and corruption.
Fifth Pay Commission recommended that in order to ensure administrative continuity and stability to incumbents, a minimum tenure for each posting of officers should be predetermined, and it should normally be three to five years, except in cases where a longer tenure is justified on functional grounds, like continued availability of certain specialised skills. It also recommended the constitution of high-powered Civil Service Boards, both at the level of the union government and state governments to look into and regulate cases of premature transfers of civil servants.
Hota Committee opined that absence of fixed tenure of officials is one of the most important reasons for tardy implementation of government policies, for lack of accountability of officers, for waste of public money because of inadequate supervision of programmes under implementation and for large-scale corruption.
It recommended that an officer of higher civil service is given a fixed tenure of at least three years in his post and given annual performance targets; effectiveness of administrative machinery will register a quantum jump while adding that there is considerable force in oft-repeated adage that good administration is not possible without continuity and intelligent administration is not possible without local knowledge.
The retirement of senior IAS officers, most of whom are inductees, in one-go is likely to put the administration in serious trouble with the state government already having divided one department into several small offshoots with each being headed by a senior KAS officer. State is likely to face crisis and if corrective measures are not taken, things are likely to go from bad to worse. |
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