Soon after taking over the charge of the State, Chief Minister Raghubar Das requisitioned 1982-batch IAS officer Rajiv Gauba from the Centre to deliver ‘acche din’ in Jharkhand. During his five-month tenure, Gauba has been relentlessly working to streamline the administration, demonstrating that he meant business. In a free-wheeling interview with The Pioneer, Gauba explains what has been done and what remains to be done in order to salvage a poorly governed State like Jharkhand.
Excerpts:
Your experience working in Jharkhand as head of bureaucracyIJ
It has been a very nice experience, challenging and satisfying. I have very dedicated, committed and competent colleagues and it has been pleasure working with them. The CM (Raghubar Das) has been a source of great inspiration. He has a very clear vision and fully supported the new initiatives. He has been the guiding force. He wants delivery.
Bureaucrats are to be blamed more for the mess since most of the Ministers in the past were ill-experienced in governanceIJ
That is not a fair perception. We cannot say bureaucracy is worse or better. I don’t think that bureaucracy in Jharkhand is different from rest of the country. Drawn from different States, they come from the same training. Also, it was one State Bihar before bifurcation. The officers were also divided. So, Jharkhand did not get a new set of officers.
State after State has shown that the bureaucracy performs depending on the set of conditions provided to them. I think role of the bureaucracy is to advise and implement the projects mooted by the democratically-elected Government.
There is too much tendency to harp on the back. Rather than wasting time on post-mortem, we should look ahead. New initiatives have been taken. You have to provide leadership. The directions are clear. People are encouraged to take decisions. There is no department, which is not conceptualising new initiatives. There have been a lot of new initiatives in the last five months.
Could Jharkhand set an example in governance given the fact that the bureaucracy has been given free handIJ
Nobody should be given free-hand. One has to be guided by budgetary constraints, procedures etc. There should not be any interference in lawful discharge of duty. If we use expression of free-hand loosely, it is true that at the field level, nobody is telling DCs to do which is wrong or not to do which is right.
So far the question of setting an example is there, I don’t believe in hyperboles. But I think we are certainly seeing significant delivery of services, accountability, and transparency. All these are there to improve governance. For that we have to create new institutions and improve existing institutions. We have to bring about greater accountability.
Decisions are to be speeded up. There has been delegation of powers to departments, Secretaries, divisional commissioners. So, the implementation on ground has been speeded up. Then, the departments are supposed to be reorganised. Proposal is being drafted for devolution of powers to elected bodies. All these are measures to improve governance.
Steps being taken on ground to execute the law on corruptionIJ
The State Cabinet has passed the Bill for setting up special courts to try the cases of corruption and confiscate illegal property. The blueprint is ready for strengthening the anti-corruption bureau (earlier Vigilance Bureau) with more personnel, greater freedom so that acts of wrong-doing, especially disproportionate assets cases are speedily probed. I think, all these will be a reality in not more than two months.
Could we expect crackdown on the corruptIJ
CrackingIJ I don’t know. I do not think that that the Government should indulge in sensationalism. We have to set up institutions and they should work effectively. It is not like a movie. It should be long lasting.
At the same time, people should ensure that Vigilance should not become a tool to harass honest officers. People want quick decisions. So, mistakes are bound to happen. So, we should differentiate between bonafide mistakes and criminal culpability. Tendency to magnify every error as a scandal is the surest way to kill an initiative.
Q: Is Jharkhand ready to give investors a red carpet welcomeIJ Reliance Power has withdrawn…
A: RP was a sporadic episode. We must understand as a State today that it is a globalised world. People who have capital to invest, entrepreneurial capability and initiative, whether MNCs, or Indian companies, they can invest anywhere in the world. So, people need the required facilitation. They are looking for support which any well functioning set up must provide as a duty. They do not look for incentives or red carpet.
They should not be inspected by 15 different inspectors of labour Department whenever they choose to. So, we are focusing on each and every aspect. We have brought whole range of labour reforms. We have brought improvement in the agriculture marketing board. We are trying to create right conditions of what we call ease of doing business.
For PSUs, we have speeded up forestry clearances, allotment of Government land. As a result the projects of railways and highways will show improvement soon.
Q: Any industrial projects to materialise anytime soonIJ
A: It is not a right approach to focus on individual project. If we do ease of doing business people would come and invest here. So, it is an overall climate and everything will fall in line. Whether it is MoU or no MoU, people will come and invest here.
Of course, we are identifying the bottlenecks in mega projects. We have an MoU with railway which lapsed two years back, MoU with NTPC will transform the energy sector and economy. We have to sign MoU with NMDC for ultra mega steel project.
Q: Why is there hue and cry over transfer-postingIJ
A: It is strange. Every transfer has been done on logic. In most of the cadres, promotions were overdue, whether it is from Executive Magistrate to SDO, or SDO to Additional Collector. People, who were holding the post of DDCs, were to not eligible to do so. So, they have been removed and naturally have a grudge. Over 400 BDOs and COs were transferred in Bihar, but there is no hue and cry.
Q: Are young IAS officers as DCs deliveringIJ
A: They are responding to the demand of situation. They were posted is districts, particularly hit by left-wing extremism, as a part of strategy.