Public Services Bill 2007: Magna Carta for public servants in India

The Public Services Bill 2007 which is expected to be taken up by the Indian Parliament in the current session is a manifestation of the struggle of the Indian bureaucracy for devising a mechanism which could ensure efficiency and efficacy of public services . The proposed legislation attempts to set up a regulatory and protective framework for making the civil and police officers perform in a competitive atmosphere without interference and without fear of persecution for being upright and impartial. It covers All India Services namely the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Services. State Govts. have the option to extend it to respective state public services.

The bill visualizes setting up of a Central Public Service Authority as the apex agency responsible for coordination, control and monitoring of various structural changes visualized in the proposed enactment. The matters relating to the constitution of the Central Public Authority are dealt in Chapter VI of the Bill.

The Authority is to be headed by a person of eminence with at least 25 years expertise in dealing with public service matters. However the bill prohibhits appointment of a MP or MLA or a person connected to any office in a political pand India’s arty to this post. The authority shall have between 3 to 5 members in addition to the Chairperson.

The appointment of Chairperson and members is to be done with approval of the President of India based on recommendations of a selection committee comprising of the Indian Prime Minister , Leader of Opposition, and India’s  Home Minister with  the Cabinet Secretary in the Govt. Of India as the convener. The salary and conditions of service of the Chairperson  and the members shall be at par with the Chief Election Commissioner of India and Indian Election Commissioners respectively. The tenure of appointment is proposed as five years or till attaining of age of 65 years.

The Central Govt shall have to compulsorily consult this Central authority on various matters of public services including evolution and monitoring of a Public Service Code and matters relating to ethics in public service as well as the performance management startegy for public services.

The Public Services which shall be covered by the scheme visualized in the Bill have been defined as below:

Public Services” means the All India Services, the Central Services and any other Service and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union notified by the Central Government;

The principles to be followed in the matter of recruitment to public services are contained in Chapter II which highlights that such appointments shall be on basis of merit and open and fair competition.

Chapter II of the bill deals with certain idealistic concepts such as Public Service values and Public Service Codes. Central Services and All India Services have been so far covered by Conduct Rules which have over the years become a patch work quilt of instructions related to behaviour expected of public servants and need restructuring. The bill proposes to reformulate the approach to these matters .

The Public Service Values projected in the new legislation are coined in more poetic language referring to patriotism, and allegiance to law of the nation while simultaneously making reference to other practical aspects such as integrity, honesty,  transparency etc. for the public services.

The bill seeks to ensure preparation of a Public Service Code with the objective of setting standards of good governance for ensuring that public services are carried out with integrity and efficiency. Any breach of public service ethics shall be subject to punishment as per sanctions prescribed in the law.

Chapter IV of the Bill concerns Performance Management and Accountability for the public services .For this purpose a Performance Management Code is to be evolved by the Central Authority .This code will help ensure that the Public Services function as per developmental and management requirements of the State and objective evaluation of performance is facilitated. The code is expected to inject elements of accountability, neutrality , integrity and professionalism of approach in public services.

Chapter V concerns the conditions of service and protection offered to public servants.

The bill proposes to retain the existing jurisdiction and functions of statutory bodies like Union Public Service Commission, Central Vigilance Commission and assigns several responsibilities to cadre controlling authority which include formulation of service rules and a grievance redressal mechanism for public servants.

In course of discharge of it’s mandated functions , the Central Authority can seek public opinion on policy matters . It has to also submit an annual report to Govt. on various functional  issues including cases of non consultation or non compliance of it’s directions.

The scheme of governance conceived in the bill if accepted and sincerely implemented could metamorphose the picture of public services . Besides offering protection and performance based encouragement it could create a mechanism which is committed to deliver while taking away the interference and pressure tactics which reduce the bureaucratic performance. This will mean depriving the politicians of the unfair advantage which they enjoy today. It is to be seen whether the lawmakers would approve of the suggested changes. Let us keep our fingers crossed.

Do all human beings survive on opiates

Recently one of the leading magazines in India published an article which brought out the fact that gossiping was a favourite pastime of most of us human beings and it added to social networking abilities of human race. While social networking may be one the fallouts of this activity the reason for the indulgence into gossip seems to be something beyond this analysis. Close analysis of day to day human behaviour appears to lead to the inference that human brains appear to need regular dose of stimulation in order to keep us in a state of positive thinking and survive against ups and downs of our struggle for survival in a harsh world. Different members of human species have in the process developed our respective opiates on which we depend for doses of happiness   or excitement .

Take the case of cricket lovers. Nowadays since the game is on round the year in one or another part of the world and innovations like the T20 format of  cricket offer instant results, the cricket lovers seem to have  evolved a continous source of stimulation in shape of ball to ball commentary,  accompanying fanfare and analysis . Other joys and sorrows of day to day life have secondary importance in life of a genuine cricket fan whose brain cells are regularly  tickling with the details on tumbling  records and updates on fluctuations in fortunes of teams and the men who toil between the performance of cheerleaders.When it comes to minute to minute account , another breed of human beings are those interested in ups and downs of share market index. Far too many of us keep track of online tradings without having any worthwhile stakes in the share market.The thrill of being a part of speculation keeps a good proprtion of us glued to laptops when life becomes less exciting for a while.

Not close behind in the reliance on stimulants are the human species practising the avocation which is branded as last refuge of scoundrels. Sheltered behind dignified terminology of politicians these men and women need continuos injection of ego inflating monuments and statues which give  them a temporary impression of towering over ordinary mortals. Take away the stonelaying ceremonies and public felicitations from a politician and the person sinks into depression , becomes  social anarchist and tends to attack everything within sight whether it is a railway budget or a photographer taking snaps.

Religion -another widely used source of stimulation offers allurement  of having higher quality of life after death or in rebirth. That keeps so many of us professing different religious beliefs, busy in continous process of offering our prayers to whichever power we consider to be supreme. In practical terms it gets translated to sporting prominenetly one  religious symbol or other and considering religious duties as something which should take precedence over our professional commitments and social responsibilities. But it does surely keep a large chunk of humanity in state of contentment and sometimes also busy in dreams of conquering all other religions to establish a supremacy of our own religion.

This discussion cannot be complete unless we think of those for whom pay revisions , promtions and transfers are the opiates which keep their minds and hearts preoccupied on 24X7 basis. The Govt. servants  of all hue survive   on calculation of pay benefits,  discussion over supremacy of respective service over others  and the unfair treatment meted out to them by the employer . Hoping for a better posting, anticipating release of next installment of DA or awiting the meeting of Departmental Promotion Committee keeps our brother hood in a state of intoxication which makes them tick in a otherwise treachorous environment.

Bloggers have their own galvanising force.When I statred blogging, the first thing which I usd to do in the morning was to check the hit counter and accordingly would feel happy or depressed if hits were too many or too few during the night. For months together I kept analysing the statistical details to find out as to which readers came from where and read which posts. Thank god I ultimately  realised the absurdity of all this analysis and gave up blog writing for a long time in order to become deaddicted to hit counter.Things are back to normal now i.e. I am more preoccupied with routine addictions of Govt. servants mentioned above.

While  opiates certainly seem to have taken a firm grip over our intellectual behaviour, this situation  has thrown up  some complications and  challenges too.  The recent tragic end of a famous Pop star has exposed the risks involved in  taking of too many anti depressants  since the combination produces unpredictable outcomes.The same complication sometimes occurs when a peron gets addicted to more than one  opiate like a govt servant getting interested in politics or a politician becoming deeply religious .The system and society has to then put in extra efforts to survive the mutants.

Some hazards of blogging

Writing a blog appeared to be a simple and harmless activity when I decided to take a plunge about a year back. My son who has some encouraging views on my writing skills goaded  me to continue writing with some regularity so that I could give vent to emotions which sometimes build up on incosequential issues. This exercise I expected would also build up a network of like minded persons and give us a platform for experience sharing .

My wife has been writing a blog for a longer period (in Hindi) and has cultivated a circle of friends over various cities. Her circle includes people of various age groups who share  an enthusiasm for narrating day to day experiences in simple language. I found some narrations of such bloggers , specially those relating to an old friend or a departed family member quite moving . Off course the number of such  blog writers is  less as compared to number of writers merely trying to impress with sentimental and emotional outbursts still they are a close community who share joys and sorrows and sometimes also meet each other while visiting another town where a known blogger resides.

My experience was however quite different on this wordpress blog .While I had started this as a  hobby for writing on any topic of immeadiate relevance to me , the report of Sixth Central Pay Commission became available on CPC website. Every week I used to go through one or two chapters and prepare short notes just for personal record and information .I started posting these short notes on my blog also along with other writings. Since at that time everyone around was also calculating  benefits expected out of CPC recommendations therefore I also made some calculations on Excel sheet and later worked out through the same sheet the benefits expected for others.

As the feverpitch for Sixth CPC report built up this blog also started receiving large number of hits, peaking to eight thousand hits on a day in August 2008. (So far this blog has generated  more than 1.78 Lakh hits). But thereafter a new class of readers completely overtook this blog asking for individual information on pay and pension related matters. I tried to periodically explain to readers that I did not have any intention of running a helpline service .This was also beyond my capabilities and being a working person I had no time for any further resarch on service matters. Moreover I also wanted someone to read and appreciate my so called literary pieces on other matters. In fact in my view popularity of pay commission related writings was  expected to be a temporary phenomenon. However things failed to change , the stream of queries continued . I found that more than 95%  readers came via CPC related writings only. In my frustration over lack of interest in my creative pieces I almost gave up this blog with the hope that my abondenment would discourage the visitors for pay related readings and queries.

After a few months I opened this blogsite and saw some disturbing trends. Some of the readers were quarelling between themeselves over profession related matters in less than acceptable fashion. Some comments were not in good taste.I realised that even blogging needs some policing. If things are left to indisciplined readers the consequences can be disastorous. I have put some regulatory mechanism in place now to restict comments and would be monitoring regularly.My apologies to readers who had a free run in recent months and to those who were at the receiving end . I would also continue to take this blog out of the CPC mania and try to  develop it on originally conceived lines. Let us see how far this  endeavour  succeeds.

Sixth CPC Benefits:That sinking feeling

    Since the first round of calculations after notification of Govt. decisions is over, there     is a sinking feeling amongst many of the employees. The Pay Commission benefits      which   appeared to be too good to be true to some at one stage, now seem to be           gradually slipping away after realization of the Income Tax liabilities. Since the tax on   the   entire amount of arrears is to be paid in this financial year and there is no precise commitment about the date by which the balance of arrears would be paid, the picture is a bit despondent. Here are some sample calculations to find out as to how much would be left out to employees. (These are just random sample calculations  which were attempted for sake of having a clear picture . Please do not make requests for advice on individual cases). Since all circulars are available on the net (and some calculators have also been hosted on individual blogs) making individual calculations is not difficult. There is possibility of calculation errors also.If any mistakes are noted,suggestions would be welcome. Income Tax calculations would differ for each case .What is shown here is only approximation.

Sixth CPC Report(xvi):Announcement Regarding Allowances

The Ministry Of Finance has on 29th August 2008 notified the rates of DA and other allowances which are admissible to Central Govt. Employees on basis of recommendations of the Sixth CPC. The details are available on the Ministry website. The revised rates for pension are also available on the same website along with the resolution containing Govt’s approvals relating to benefits for the pensioners.

So, finally the suspense over the Sixth CPC report is over!

SINGH seems to have again proved that he is the KING. After winning the confidence vote in the Parliament and having firmed up his grip on the Government PM Manmohan Singh managed to steer the Sixth Pay Commission Report through the Cabinet seemingly with  benefits for everyone. While detailed report on the final decisions is yet to trickle down, the first reports indicate that the matter was tackled in a humanitarian spirit and some harsh suggestions from FM Chidabaram were overruled (including the suggestion for locking up 60% of the arrears in the GPF till retirement).

At this hour when Central Para Military Forces are engaged in tough operations at more than one place in the country and the hardships involved are reportedly taking a heavy toll on the morale of the security forces , the decision to give benefits to Jawans over and above the recommendations of the Central Pay Commission (CPC) and a handsome Military Service Pay to officers was the most sensible  decision to be  taken by the Govt while considering the report.

Increase in annual increment rate to 3% (against 2.5% recommended by the CPC ) and a higher fitment benefit  is another decision which will take the sting out of one major criticism of the report and  shall be giving a reason for cheer to everyone.

The reshuffling of various categories of employees to Pay Bands higher than the ones recommended by the CPC would also take care of the wide ranging dissatisfaction in middle level officers who had complained about the benefits for top level functionaries being much higher than those of others. Special mention needs to be made about opening of the PB-4 for middle level officers- a move which shall ensure that PB-4 shall not be an exclusive domain for top civil servants .

One decision which may appear retrograde to progressive minded mangement experts however stands out. That decision is to discard the recommendation of the CPC for ending further  recruitments for the Gr.D category staff and upgrading the peons and khallasis to semi skilled Gr. C staff. The Govt. could not agree on that and so the humble relics of medieval ages shall hang around for a decade or so, till some Govt. understands the need for dispensing with this organ of governance.

For the Forest and Police Services there are a few benefits in addition to what the CPC had sought to give , such as the creation of Posts of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Director General Of Police for every State. But these have apparently not gone down too well and some officers gave vent to their frustration in media over the unfair deal which successive pay commissions have meted out to them.

The Indian Media as usual wants to paint the Pay Commission benefits  as monstrous assault on national economy.On the other hand there was a tough looking guy on the TV who used this opportunity for being projected in national media, for IAS bashing saying that all officers are unworthy of the service !

 

Sixth CPC Report:(xv) Recommendations Central Paramilitary Forces

The  recommendations concerning Central Paramilitary Forces (CPMFs) are covered under Ministry of Home Affairs  in Chapter 7.19 of the Sixth CPC report .The CPMFs comprise of the following 7 outfits.

Assam Rifles which originated as Cachar Levy in 1835 is presently having more than 63000 personnel (46 Battalion) .The force working under operational Control of Army guards Indo Myanamar border .

The Border Security Force (157 battalions) has been deployed on international borders since 1965 and also in anti insurgency operations.

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)  created in 1969 has more than 1 Lakh personnel deployed for guarding Airports (54), PSU Establishments (269) and several Govt. Buildings (49) including North Block , Part of South Block and CGO complex. It also provides technical consultancy for security and related matters.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) (201 Battalions) having replaced Crown Representative Police of pre independence era is the oldest CPMF. The personnel from this force are engaged in major anti insurgency/ terrorism / militancy related operations in the country.

Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) assists in Disaster Management related work in Central & Western Himalayan Regions and also in providing security cover for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.

National Security Guard (NSG)  tackles high risk security operations.The personnel are drawn from Army (as Special Action Group) and CPMFs (as Special Rangers Group). The NSG commandos provide security cover for VIPs and take charge of security on special occasions.  

Sashastra Sena Bal which started as Special Services Bureau (SSB) in 1963 is deployed along Indo Nepal & Bhutan border covering stretch of more than 1900 kms in 20 Districts.

The major demand from CPMFs for being given status of organized Group A Services has not been agreed to on the ground that these services do not fulfill the pre requisites for such declaration as fixed by MHA. In support of it’s recommendations  the Commission has pointed out that substantial number of posts in these forces including those in pay scale of 18400-22400 are filled up by drawing officers on deputation from IPS and also pointed out that many intermediate grades do not exist in the hierarchy of these organizations. The Sixth CPC has also reiterated it’s philosophy of avoiding creation of too many services.

Commission has also not agreed to creation of certain additional posts demanded by CPMFs for creating promotional avenues on the ground that there should also be functional justification for posts . It has  felt that the provision of ACPs and the system of Running Pay Bands would minimize the grievances of such nature.

On the positive side the Commission has recommended the merger of the post of Addl DIG with that of DIG (16400-200000) . It has recommend that all posts upto the rank of DIG and 50% posts in the grade of IG and equivalent should be filled by promotion from officers of CPMF.

The following pay structure has been recommended for non gazetted executive cadres of CPMFs.

Commission has also noted that except for CISF all CPMFs are not filling up posts of ASI in the executive cadre .This step being contrary to order Dt.10/10/97 is affecting the structural parity within the forces . It has suggested that all CPMFs should continue the post of ASI since this is a functional necessity.

Other recommendations made by the Commission  include payment of ration money at par with Armed Forces to existing beneficiaries and doubling of the rates for Detachment Allowance (without linkage to DA) . Rates of Kit Maintenance Allowance are proposed to be doubled with increase of 25% after every hike up to 50% in DA. The rates of Uniform Grant are recommended as Rs.13000/-(initial) and Rs.6000/- (renewal-every 3 yrs).

For taking care of housing needs, facility of Compensation in lieu of Quarters (CILQ) has been recommended for all personnel in SO grade also. Commission has also recommended a new Family Accommodation Allowance at the lowest rate of HRA payable to all CPMF personnel who do not qualify for benefit HRA or CILQ or rent free accommodation for reason of their stay in barracks. This will also be a DA linked Allowance.

Commission has rejected the demand of one month’s extra pay for CPMFs having benefit of 60 days earned leave in a year on the ground that the personnel  are already compensated by this 30 days extra leave.

Another major change suggested is for stopping further recruitments to the cadre of followers and absorbing the existing cadres to -1S pay band with the objective of converting them to Gr.C combatant staff  after suitable training. It has been suggested that all non essential jobs handled by followers should be outsourced.

Recommendations also suggest that the practice of attaching Constables (Suraksha Sahayaks) / combatants at the residence of Officers for attending to Telephone calls  or other such personal responsibilities should be stopped. If any cases of violations of these instructions are found, the salary of constables deployed should be recovered from the Officer concerned. The report states that if any posts are required for such personal tasks the appropriate sanction should be taken and the jobs should be outsourced.

 

                                                                                                                          

Sixth CPC Report :(xiv) Recommendations for medicos

Chapter 3.6 of the CPC Report covers organnised medical services namely Central Health Services (CHS), Indian Railways Medical Services and the Ordinance Factories Health Services as well as others including Army Medical  Corps and other Paramilitary Medical Corps.

CHS constituted in 1963 presently comprises of General Duty Medical Officers(3139),Teaching and Non  Specialists (638+780) & Health Specialists(078). There are 13 posts in Higher Administrative Grade.

In matter of promotion, presently ACP Scheme with two promotions at 12 and 24 years is in place for isolated posts. For CHS and other organized Services the Scheme of Dynamic Assured Career progression (DACP) is in place. DACP involves change of nomenclature at promotion stage and is considered more attractive as compared to scheme of ACP. The Sixth CPC has made a major recommendation of extending the DACP for other categories of doctors also. The doctors in other streams of Indian Medicine viz. Ayurveda, Yoga,Unani,Sidhaand Homeopathy shall also get similar benefit if the recommendations are accepted.

The rates of conveyance allowance payable to doctors have been doubled. These shall henceforth be as given below. One important recommendation is to link this allowance to Consumer Price Index and make the same  subject to annual revision as per he DA formula.

The pay for Junior residents (present scale: 9000 fixed or 9000-9550) and senior residents (present scale: 10325-10975) shall be fixed in pay band 3 (15600-39100) with grade pay of Rs.5400 and 6100 respectively . Benefits proposed for doctors  have also been recommended  to dental surgeons.

NPA payable to doctors is already discussed in the post on other allowances on this blog. Sixth CPC has rejected the demand made by Para Medics for simsilar allowance.

 

 

Sixth CPC Report (xiii):Engineering and Scientific Services

Chapter 3.4 of the CPC report deals with Engineering Services which are spread over several Ministries and hence the service conditions vary from one end of the spectrum to other. While considering the case of Engineering Services the Commission has noted that the demand pertaining to better accessibility to higher posts is substantially settled if the recommendations made in other chapters for opening of higher posts to officers from all services is accepted. Therefore any new recommendations have not been made in that regard.

Report has also not agreed to the demand for payment non practicing allowance (NPA) to engineers on pattern of medical services as well as the demand for field duty allowance on the ground that such demands have not been accepted for other services also. However a concession has been made in the rates of Designing and Planning Allowances payable to Engineers in Designing and Planning Wing. It has recommended for 100% increase in these allowances.

Some crucial recommendations pertain to Subordinate Engineering Services. For the posts open to diploma holders in direct recruitment, for members of subordinate engineering services (who were granted minimum pay scale of Rs.5000-8000 by the Vth CPC ) the VIth CPC has recommended PB-2 of Rs.8700-34800 with grade pay of Rs.4200/-. The grade pay admissible to posts where the direct recruitment prescribes qualification of degree in open recruitment the recommended grade pay is Rs.4600/- .  It is expected that this arrangement would settle certain cases where benefits of recommendations of Vth CPC were somehow not given. The above two cadres would provide feeder cadres for the PB-3 which corresponds to the entry grade posts corresponding to Group A services.

The Commission has not agreed to the demand for change in hierarchal structure of the Engineering cadres (on CPWD pattern) on the ground that the scheme for ACP recommended  in report will ensure mobility to higher pay bands on a continuous basis. The recommendations also include suggestion for abolishing the system of separate quotas in promotion posts for degree and diploma holders in future, since this has been found to be  creating imbalances in certain cases.

Scientific Services have been considered in course of discussions for respective Ministries. In Chapter 3.5 detailed discussions have been confined to Flexible Complementing Scheme (FCS) for Scientific Services . This scheme initially confined to certain Ministries and autonomous bodies carrying out research and developmental activities for persons with meritorious abilities provided for assured time bound upward mobility to distinguished scientists . Vth CPC had modified the Scheme and restricted it to Gr.A Scientific services in R&D organizations and excluded personnel posted in Secretariats of the Ministries. It had also laid down a comprehensive and fair mechanism for evaluation of personnel before promotion besides recommending certain residency period prior to promotion. These recommendations were accepted by the Govt. with several modifications and not extended to certain key scientific Departments.

The VIth CPC has recommended for continuation of existing scheme for FCS with the exception of Deptt. Of Atomic Energy, Space and DRDO where merit based promotion schemes in vogue may continue. It seeks to streamline the system of identifying genuine scientific organizations engaged in R&D activities and evolving of new technologies  for coverage under the scheme. The upper limit for promotion is recommended to grade pay of Rs.9000/-. However in case of Deptt. Of Atomic Energy, Space and DRDO it is fixed up to grade pay of Rs.11000/-. The performance assessments boards should be objective and independent comprising of majority of outsiders.

For scientists of proven merit the Commission wants the Departments to have sufficient autonomy in pay fixation and merit being given due weightage. It has suggested that contractual appointments for 3-5 years with option of joining regular Govt. Service may be offered at the time of renewal of contract. The Scheme of Performance based incentives should also be applicable in above mentioned cases.

Quitting the govt jobs :Is the grass really pale on this side

A few days back I came across a very beautiful post in Blogbharati on choice of civil services as a profession, articulating the reasons which make the services a continuing source of attraction for so many young men and women. Not long back there was another interesting article in a leading magazine on a similar subject which on the contrary indicated that a number of former civil servants were moving over to jobs in private sector since they found such jobs much more attractive and satisfying . The former civil servants now stylishly photographed in their Corporate environment were at pains to explain as to how they were now able to give output which was several times higher than what they could deliver in their previous assignments, which they found to be suffocating ( and managed to survive in the suffocation for several decades !). The two conflicting pictures need to be looked into carefully in order to ascertain as to which of the two is closer to reality.

One important information which one could make out from the article on exodus of civil servants was that the number of such senior officers was in the range of not more than two dozen in a year. Out of the massive strength of civil servants in various government jobs the departure of a handful of senior functionaries in a year hardly merits the type of sensational and glossy coverage which the media bestowed on these ex bureaucrats. Was it an impromptu attention of some serious journalist to this issue (which has little relevance or interest for majority of the readers) of social behaviour or something akin to behaviour of IPL cheer girls (who are paid for show of excitement irrespective of the stature or parentage of the players involved) will remain an issue to be pondered with.

Another important issue which calls for attention is whether the process for selection of these senior civil servants to private sector jobs was transparent and open to all others with similar experience and seniority. No doubt these civil servants while holding senior posts must have ensured that all recruitments to public services under respective departments were made through fair and transparent process .Can they say with certainity that their own exodus from civil services was preceeded by a similar exercise, or the selection process merely zeroed down on an officer who was earlier accquaintance of a corporate entity or business house.

Also, the information that substantial number of such bureaucrats were absorbed in infrastructure related companies , for which the ability to closely network with reltaed agencies including govt departments is a key job requirement , makes the situation a bit complex. Further if the challenges and opportunities to perform in Govt service are so limited and poor then what could make these officers who spent a lifetime in such inconsequential jobs , so valuable in the estimation of their new employers ? Is it their professional competence or their proximity to bureaucratic circles which constitute their ESP in the eyes of private sector employers ?

Perhaps these are uncomfortable questions which the ex bureaucrats would find unjustified on the ground that it is their personal life and career and others do not have a right to suspect their abilities or the compelling needs which prompted their new employer to call them to their service. Questions of this nature may also be considered as reflective of frustration on part of those who could not make to the Al dorado.

As civilized civil servants others may accept this argument in honour of departed senior colleagues. But one request that can be made to them is to not to belittle the civil services or present a gory picture of the scenario in order to justify their departure.

They know it well that the scenario is not as bleak , if we take into consideration the fact that we are still a nascent democracy and various social forces are still to come to a state of stable equilibrium in our management set up . The challenges before the administrators are complex, involving human beings and behavioral patterns with various conflicts within them. The country is struggling with modern administrative concepts like e governance and it will be some time before fruits of modern technology will be suitably harnessed to make the life better for common man.

We are ahead of many other countries but still have a long way to go. Till then we need pooled efforts of young and old in the civil, police and allied services to contribute in what ever humble way they can within this complex and sometimes oppressive structure. For every deserter there are thousands who know this truth and feel proud of their jobs. They may be allowed to continue without distraction and interference because the country needs their services.