Nihar Ranjan Hota is a genius by birth. A prodigious child, he from the Baripada High School topped the list of successful candidates in the High School Examinations in 1951 and also topped in the Intermediate Arts Examination in 1953 and subsequently achieved the numero-uno position in the BA History Honours of the Utkal University in 1955. He continued to keep up the soaring heights of his academic record by becoming the first class first candidate in his Post-Graduation career from the Ravenshaw College in 1957. He also obtained his MPhil degree from the Punjab University. His stint as a scholar in Williams College, USA was also enviable. He had joined as a lecturer in the FM College, Baleswar and then had his debut in the Utkal University as a faculty in History for quite some months, when he was called for to join civil services as an IAS officer, which he joined in 1963. Having occupied pyramidal and pivotal positions in the hierarchy, till he had his superannuation in 1993. Hota is still lost in the pursuit of writings. His epoch-making book Dimensions of Indian Administration is highly relevant today and finds its coveted place in the libraries of colleges and universities. In an interview to The Pioneer, this sassy head honcho spoke to Sugyan Choudhury from his Forest Park residence, Bhubaneswar.
Why did you opt for civil services despite your brilliant academic recordIJ
Initially, I had joined as a lecturer in FM College, Baleswar and subsequently I had joined as a faculty in Utkal University. A few candidates from our State were selected for civil services. My mentor and guide wanted me to have a chance and I did the same. I was selected for the IAS and joined the cadre in 1963.
Could you please tell us some of your memorable experiencesIJ
I was appointed as the Managing Director of Aska Sugar Factory. This factory was the first of its kind in the State and had started functioning from British days. Aska was a part of Madras Presidency during British time. It had earned a reputation for having a sugar factory then, so much so that in Tamil language Aska means sugar. It was a factory of 1.5 lakh tonne capacity. When I took over, there were hardly 10 tonnes of sugarcane consumed to run it. Sugarcane was scarce in those days and the factory was sick. I had a knowledgeable chemist and both of us travelled through Andhra to study about sugar factories running there. We had gained some knowledge and expertise from them and my first job then was to encourage sugarcane cultivation in and around Ganjam district. We did so by making extensive and elaborate arrangements for providing loans to farmers from Aska Cooperative Bank with the factory remaining as guarantor. It so happened that sugarcane was produced abundantly, and in the first year the production rose to 90 tonnes, and since then we never looked back. In the succeeding years, we provided bullock carts to farmers on loan and the farmers with their loaded carts jam-packed the roads so much so that traffic problems were created. The profit mongering truck owners from neighbouring States disappeared from the scene. They were previously exploiting the farmers for transporting sugarcane. It was a roaring success and the economic conditions of farmers were raised and fortified to an all-time high.
Secondly, as the Secretary, Irrigation, Krishna-Godavari basin water agreement was signed during my tenure. The States involved were Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra and Odisha. Nandini Devi was the Chief Minister of Odisha and Jagjivan Ram was the Minister for Irrigation at the Centre. After a lot of persuasion and efforts, the agreement was reached, as a result of which Odisha had two successful irrigation projects, Upper Kolab in Koraput and Indravati in Kalahandi and Koraput. Similarly, we had Subarnarekha Irrigation project at Garhkei and the Subarnarekha canal after agreements were reached with Bihar and Bengal. A large area of Mayurbhanj and Baleswar could be cultivated through this irrigation project.
When World Bank schemes came, there was a move to spend the money on Zobra Anicut to provide extensive facilities to the Mahanadi delta regions to which I opposed. I argued that irrigation was a disperse benefit which should be provided to all other districts without concentrating on the Mahanadi area alone, and all others were convinced in favour of medium irrigation projects in smaller rivers spread throughout the State. Consequently, large hectares of land of whole of the State could be covered under this medium irrigation projects funded by the World Bank.
As the Power Secretary, I was instrumental in enhancing the tariff of power consumption by major industries like Rourkela Steel Plant, Indian Aluminium at Hirakud and IMFA which provided a boost to our State’s economy.
How do you account for the gradual decline of values in today’s civil servicesIJ
During our time, we were trained to be honest, fair and committed to work rather than to the political bosses. A lot of emphasis was given to integrity and transparency for which we were committed to work only. When Indiraji came, there came with her the idea of a committed bureaucracy. In later days, this syndrome further worsened. At present, there is a failure of the delivery system. The desired things are not reaching people, whom it should. There is leakage of money, food grains which is not reaching the beneficiary. Much more expectation is there to be committed to the political system than to the people or to the nation. Everything is reduced to political orthodoxy. The bureaucracy is under centripetal and centrifugal pressure. Unless there is an honest commitment to work, we cannot succeed to deliver goods at the grassroots level. This is the greatest challenge to the civil service today, and the civil servants have to cope up with it for keeping up their dignity and efficacy.
What could be the remedial measures you would suggest for weeding out corruption from the civil services cadreIJ
It reflects changes in the society, after all. The people in the civil services are from the society. If there is a decline in moral standards at schools, in colleges, in universities among teachers, that would reflect in the civil cadres too. In our days, there were a lot of emphasis given to the value system in schools, colleges and the academy of administration at Mussoorie. But today, there is a decline. In our days, we used to resist any unwanted and illegal thing not only once, twice but thrice, and in this way we succeeded. But today, I think there is no such resistance among the civil services cadre. Moreover, a civil servant is a human being who has his career, benefits and other things associated with the job. Hence, there is the need of change in the mindset of the political boss as well as in the mindset of the civil services cadre who should be committed to people, nation, their works and to the Constitution.
Is the decline due to lack of proper trainingIJ
As I told you, there is a noticeable decline in moral training. In our days, our professors used to guide us in colleges and universities, which probably no one does today. At Mussoorie, we were given training with a lot of ethical contents. Today, there is less emphasis given on ethical contents in the training. The maximum age limit has been increased, thereby a person entering into the job at a later age has to wait for 25 years or so for retirement without reaching the highest cadre. In the process, a civil servant has every reason to be tempted to corruption for looking after himself and his family. Earlier, it was limited to the age of 24, and young men and women were dedicated, committed. Besides, with the advancement of universalisation, globalisation, money is the only god and everybody is after it sans ethics. Hence, the emphasis during the training period should be given on ethical standard. If young men and women can be trained to launch terrorist jobs, why can’t they be trained effectively and positively to serve their nation with dedication and commitmentIJ They should also be familiar with the rich Indian cultures and scriptures containing great moral ethical content and wisdom.