While there is quite enthusiasm among the State’s present bureaucrats over the recent ruling of the Supreme Court on good governance, it has not been received well by former senior bureaucrats in the State.
At a seminar held here recently by the Citizen for Good Governance, an organisation that strives to emphasise on good governance for providing better life to the common people, the panelists, mostly retired civil and police officials, viewed that the apex court’s ruling would have no bearings on good governance.
Even though the ruling is an outcome of a writ petition filed by former Union Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanium and 83 other retired bureaucrats, the retired IAS and IPS fraternities in Odisha are not enthusiastic about it.
Interestingly, the State’s former Member Board of Revenue Sanjib Chandra Hota has a reserved view on the Supreme Court ruling. “Taking written order is not always advisable,” he asserted. In the Home and Disaster Management Departments, the officials have to work on verbal orders on many occasions; otherwise there is possibility of irreparable damages caused to the society, he cautioned.
Curiously, Hota did not accept the presumption that it’s always the political bosses who are wrong. “There are a big areas of collusion between political bosses and bureaucrats,” he pointed out, buttering his argument. He categorised the Babus in four groups such as honest and efficient, honest but useless, efficient but dishonest and total dishonest and useless.
Former Chief Secretary Sudhansu Bhusan Mishra said the officials should be debarred from joining political parties after their retirement. He also suggested that there be a cooling period for officials to take up jobs in private companies after retirement.
Going a step ahead, former Director General of Police Sarat Chandra Misra said there is a total disconnect between political bosses and the Babus. That the elected representatives are supreme is not going well with the bureaucrats who consider themselves highly qualified and intelligent. The Babus always think themselves superior to their political masters. This is where the conflict arises, he pointed out, asserting that this mindset has to be changed.
Misra suggested that there be a system where there would be interaction between people’s representatives and bureaucrats at the district level. In the present political system, only the office-bearers of the rural and urban local bodies interact with the cutting edge bureaucracy, and at the State and national levels, the MP and MlAs on becoming Ministers interact with the senior Babus.
Misra further suggested that post-retirement assignments be stopped and the retirement age be made uniform for all civil and judicial officials. Among others, former Information Commissioner Jagadananda, cultural personality Ananta Mahapatra, former diplomat Abasara Beuria, retired IRS officer and former OERC Chairman DK Roy, retired Army officer Brig GP Panigrahi, businessman SS Agarwal, retired banker GC Mishra, former Nalco CMD SK Tamotia, educationists SK Jena and Digambar Satpathy, retired IRS officer Yogesh Mishra and management guru Maqbool Ali participated in the discussion.
Citizen for Good Governance president Aurobinda Behera read out the written suggestions given by retired IAS officer Vivek Pattanayak that a model Bill be prepared and sent to the Government of India.
Summing up the views Dr Behera said the quality of politicians and the quality of bureaucracy would change and so also the rules of governance. The mutual trust would flow in coming years, he asserted.