Bureaucracy is called the steel jacket of the State. It is also the epicenter of administrative power and carries forward the decisions of the cabinet or a body created by the Constitution of the State. For efficient administration of a given district, its administrative machinery has great responsibility of coordinating and effectively implementing the policies of the Government. The Government, meaning the cabinet, lays down broad outlines of the State policy and also announces undertaking of developmental projects whether sponsored by the State or the Central Government.
Noting that many developmental projects floated under State or Central authority have not been monitored by the concerned departmental authority, the Government was obliged to issue an order which required the Commissioner/Secretaries of various administrative departments to visit the site of the project at least twice in a month and then submit progress report to the higher authorities. This was in addition to the normal duty of implementing the decisions of the District Developmental Boards which meet once or twice a year and lay down the policy of what projects would be floated and what would be the time frame for completion of these projects. The decisions of the District Development Boards, whose meetings are generally presided over by the Chief Minister, are attended by Administrative Secretaries besides the Divisional and District Development Commissioners. This shows that the entire Government is involved in taking clear cut decisions in the DDBs. It becomes the duty of the bureaucracy meaning the concerned secretaries to implement these decisions and thus see to it that the developmental task proceeds smoothly in all districts of the State.
In a recently held meeting of Administrative Secretaries under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, the chairperson was informed that many decisions taken in the District Development Boards were not implemented despite lapse of many months. The Chief Minister was rightly disturbed with this information and had to do business with the bureaucracy. She not only pulled up some Secretaries of departments for not implementing the decisions of the DDBs but also expressed his displeasure on bureaucrats not adhering to the instructions of the Government according to which they were supposed to make field visits twice a week to the site of various projects and send the progress report to higher authorities. It has to be mentioned that in May and June last, the Daily Excelsior invited the attention of the Government towards non-adherence of the bureaucracy to the decisions taken in DDBs. We have been saying that administration has become slack and lethargic and the pace of development is drastically reduced. Daily Excelsior made a mention of a number of some policy decisions and specific projects sponsored either by the State or the Central Government. We brought out a number of editorials on non-adherence of bureaucracy to the instructions of the Government particularly DDBs. The General Administration Department vide Circular No.30 dated June 15, 2016 had issued detailed instructions to all the Administrative Secretaries and Heads of the Departments for inspection of developmental projects but only few Administrative Secretaries ensured adherence to the instructions till date.
It is a matter of some satisfaction that the Chief Minister made it clear to the bureaucracy that the Government would not tolerate inordinate delay in bringing various projects to completion; it would take a serious note of non-compliance of the instructions issued by the Government from time to time. This is a warning to the bureaucracy that it shall have to mend its ways and methods and discharge their responsibility as the head of the department concerned. Some years back Administrative Secretaries were made mentors of different districts so as to ensure proper follow-up of the developmental projects under State and Central Schemes. However, this practice died down after some time and nobody asked the Secretaries why it had happened so. The Chief Minister has sought revival of that scheme so as to ensure balanced development of districts according to recommendations of DDBs.
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