Efficiency/ family conundrum
In a state like Uttarakhand where efficiency in the administrative brass is elusive, those who are efficiency personified are bearing the brunt of things. Their pleas for deputation to the states where their spouse have been sent on the same are falling on deaf ears. Their family life is at stake with their deputation pleas being ignored, they grumble. One of them, who had successfully passed the ordeal by fire during the momentous days following the 2013 disaster, said his efficiency is proving a bane instead of a boon for him as far as his family life is concerned. It is learnt that the state government is sitting on the plea, convinced as he is that his departure would amount to a great loss for the state grappling with inefficiency and grafts haunting it since the day the state came up. The officer in question has straightened things up during his tenure in several departments, including the one, where greasing of the palms was the norm of having things done. Now, things are transparent thanks to his initiative to put them online. The question is- would the state government give in to his plea, consequently risking things to go back to the square one or would it keep sitting on it as long as possible, sure the more he stays the better for the state.
Smell of scam
In something that smells of scam, high- quality scanners that the Secretariat Administration (SAD) has procured from a particular company and distributed them among the officers to speed things up are lying unused because of their failure to prove useful. Notably, each of the scanners thus bought cost the state exchequer around Rs 65,000 per unit. Things are being done in the secretariat mostly through Photostat-an attribute that the newly bought costly machines do not have. One of the officers said that with the system being installed, they are undergoing a tedious process of scanning a copy, taking print- outs and putting it again in files. Things are done promptly through Photostat machine, they say. Such machines would have proved useful if the works done in the secretariat are paperless. But here, the contrary being true, the question begs- why those who have installed them have squandered away the hard- earned state revenue this prodigal way. Deepening suspicion of things turning murky, an officer said that the normal printing machine costs Rs 10,000 while the newly installed scanner is worth a whopping Rs 65,000 per unit.
Belling cats
Chief Secretary Rakesh Sharma, deemed to be adept in having things done as per deadline, is presently facing a piquant problem. To his embarrassment, most of the officers up to the section officers, keep jostling among themselves to occupy the front seats whenever CS convenes a meeting. The senior officers perforce take the back seats, leaving the ones meant for them as per hierarchical norms to their energetic subordinates. Realizing the seating incongruity, the seasoned CS wrote to all the principal secretaries and the secretaries to make sure that such does not recur. A shrewd observer of human nature, Sharma understands that the lower rung officers are violating protocols to jockey for his attention, hoping for better days for themselves. But the problem is that those whom he asked to bell the cat are unwilling to act. They say the CS would better give the instruction himself straightaway while such a meeting is on. However, those who know things are sure the mealy- mouthed CS would not go that far.