Understanding the Government...Part 10 ('Kitne aadmi the?')

Aunty and Raju were walking towards the meeting hall.

“Aunty, how many decisions will be taken in this meeting? You think it’s only about the tax waiver or will they discuss other four issues too?"

“It must be only for the tax issue. If other issues are to be discussed, then you need to call a huge battalion of officers! Remember, each department in government has multiple levels!”

“Hmm. I guess so. Aunty, tell me something, how many levels a department in government will have?”

“Depends. Say, if you take the PWD, the Public Works Department, it has around 15 levels from the top to bottom!”

“Goodness! 15 Levels? I think even a multinational company working across the globe will have only 8-9 levels maximum!”

“Haha! I don’t know that! But, here it’s like this: The top level is the Minister, then the Principle secretary, Secretary, Additional Secretary, joint secretary, deputy secretary, under secretary, section officer, Manager, shirestedar, FDA, SDA, Typist, Group D employee! There is also a chief secretary, who comes in between the minister and principle secretary when required. How many levels now?”

“Pura 15 sarkar!”

“Haha!! This list was of the state head-quarters, which is equivalent to a corporate office. In the field (districts), which is the executive arms of the department, it will be: Engineer-in-chief, Chief Engineer, Superintending Engineer, Executive engineer, Assistant executive engineer, Assistant Engineer, Junior Engineer, Section officer, Work Inspector, Mechanic grade 1, Mechanic grade 2, Group D.

Now, how many?”

“Another 12 now!”

“See! Thus there is delay in taking decisions! Now, if a decision has to be taken on a request from a village to make a bridge, the file has to travel more than 20 tables!”

“Goodness! And, aunty, I was told that each table can hold a file up-to a week? It means, if the local people of a village want to make a bridge across a road, and if the local Junior Engineer makes a proposal, then the file goes thru all these 20 tables, till it gets approved by the Minister.

At the one week rate, it will take 5 months to reach the minister. Suppose the minister asks for a clarification, it takes another 5 months to reach the field officer at the bottom of the chain, and another 5 months to reach the Minister back!”

“Haha! Yes Raju! It may sound ridiculous to you! But, that’s how it is!”

“Aunty, do all the proposals come to the Minister? There should be some delegation of power to the field officers?”

“Yes Raju, there is, but it’s very less! If a work is planned ahead, and part of the department ‘Annual Plan’ then, then the local officer can call for tenders and execute the work up-to 20 lakhs. But, if the work is not budgeted, means, a new proposal, say, villagers make a demand, then he has no powers to take decision. He has to make a proposal and send it upwards if the cost is more than a lakh. And, 99% of the times, it’s above 1 lakh and the file is send upwards!”

“Goodness! But, how come sometimes I read that bridge work is sanctioned by the minister in a week or so? Or how come they do things fast when VIP visits the area?”

“That happens only as an exception. It happens when there is an emergency like flood etc too. Such times, the concerned officer takes the file personally from table to table and get’s it approved. As all the levels know the emergency, they will also approve it immediately. But, in normal times, an officer taken files personally, they will question him if he has a ‘personal interest’ in that file!”

“Hmm, aunty, I do understand all those issues of mistrust, checks and balances etc. But, still these many levels look bad. It leads to so much delay. Delay leads to loss to public and bad name to government. Infact delay also contributes to corruption. Isn’t Aunty? Why can’t the government do something about it? Does this much hierarchy exists in other states and other countries?”

 “The system is almost the same in India, with small variations here and there. But, in other countries, the levels are less. More than that, they have lots of delegation. There, only less than 30% files travel upward for approval.”

“Then why are we are not copying that in India?”

“Intelligent question Raju! But, difficult to answer! May be you should try doing it here, in your kingdom, so that you understand the difficulties in implementing it.” Winked Aunty!

“Don’t make fun aunty! Tell me, why can’t we cut down these layers?”

“One answer could be that, the field level officers do not have the capacity to take decisions. Imagine a Junior Engineer taking a wrong decision on a 1 crore project or he abuses his delegated authority to make money for himself.

Government not only loses the money but, again gets a bad name. Indeed, the bad name here will be much more as it will be painted as corruption.”

“Hmm, I understand it now. So the government chooses the lesser evil; delay over than of corruption. While people sort of accept delay, they do not accept corruption!”

“You got the point!”

“But, aunty, why can’t government design system that will ensure no-corruption? Say bring in transparency, and so that the local Junior Engineer can’t make money?”

“Now you have come to the important point Raju! Yes, the government can do that, and it should do that! In this age and time, thanks to the revolution in Information Technology, things can be made so transparent, thus acting as a deterrent to corruption. This was not possible many decades back, when there were no computers and many people were not educated and able to understand things. But now things are different!

I also think government is doing this in its own speed! We keep hearing about initiatives on e-governance and m-governance here and there. May be it should happen faster!”

“Yes, aunty, I also see that happening. But, not at a speed it should be. Also, I feel that we need a complete overhaul of the system. I am indeed surprised how we are still having the same British system till now, even after 66 years of Independence!”

“Oh yes Raju, the British system also added more tables and layers! During those days, the administration was headed by the ‘British’. They had the ‘natives’ to assist them, who were generally in the posts of clerks, attenders etc.

So, there were unnecessary layers of people to assist the ‘British officers’. You will have orderlies at home, separate persons to take care of the office, one person to take care of appointments, one to plan tours etc. May be those days there was a requirement, as the ‘British officers’ couldn't talk to the local people directly in their language.”

“I understand that aunty. But, we should have changed all that in 1947?”

“We could have! May be we were occupied with much more critical issues like partition, building the country from what was left etc. Change is not easy and it’s always resisted. So, things would have continued and it may continue till the tipping point!”

“But, now that it’s is clear that the present system is struggling to deliver, shouldn't we, the public, demand a change in it?”

“We should. But, tell me one thing Raju, how many of your friends will be ready to take this up as an issue, like Anna Hazare took up corruption issue?”

“I can’t think of any! This is totally unglamorous to ask for cutting the hierarchy in the government! Better will be to shout slogans against corruption!!

More, how many know of this problem to start with? Unless they understand this issue and its effects, they can’t be expected to join hands to change the system. Isn't?”

 “Yes Raju, apart from being unglamorous, it’s difficult to explain to public and get support for such fundamental issues, which may not have a direct bearing in their life. Public will be more ready to participate and support a cause that they know well and that affects them directly, like say, corruption!”

“Very true Aunty. It’s a challenge to get the attention of the public on such genuine fundamental issues.”

“Yes, it is a challenge. A challenge that youngsters like you, should take up Raju. You should explain things to others create a movement and then demand a change. It will work.”

“Hmm, I am thinking aunty. It’s a huge task. But it’s worth it. It’s worth any amount of sacrifice. We need to plan a lot.”

“Oops! Your meeting hall has come! You finish the meeting. You were also talking about your tour. We will discuss things during our travel. Now, wish you the best for your meeting!”

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To be continued next Sunday...

(Again I have changed the narration to third-person. Reason: After reading last week first-person narration, some felt that it was not good and I should revert back to third-person. Now, please take a second more to tell me if I should tell this story in 1st-person or 3rd-person narration! I will stick to that! Please bear with me for this!)