Governor N.N. Vohra wants to act tough on various administrative matters in order to rebuild peoples’ trust that an efficient administration without corruption is possible. Previous Governments have been talking tall about their sincerity in eradicating corruption. Their intentions may not be challenged but the system that would take the corrupt to task is rickety and undependable. The simple logic is that those who are enjoined by law and by practice to enforce the rule of law and punish the defaulter under the rule of law have to be honest and well-meaning functionaries. It has been seen that despite serious allegations against state functionaries at various levels, departmental inquiries are deliberately delayed or procrastinated to give some leverage to the culprits by buying time.
In a slew of instructions the Governor has asked the Chief Secretary and Secretary/Commissioner General Administration to submit detailed reports to him on status-quo of various cases of investigations including decision on sanction of prosecution by the morning of February 23. He also directed that cases pertaining to compulsory retirement of deadwood officers/officials be placed before the Designated Committees by March 15. There are a number of cases of gazetted as well as non-gazetted functionaries against whom challans have not been presented and their prosecution is delayed just because they are influential people and can manage to stretch the case to any length of time till the Government looses interest in carrying things to logical conclusion. Governor’s instructions to the Chief Secretary and the Commissioner/Secretary GAD are to take decision in all cases pending for sanction of prosecution in all the Departments and submit a detailed Action Taken Report (ATR) to him positively by the morning of February 23. Likewise, the case of non performing functionaries has also to be taken up and action taken against the defaulters under Article 226 in various departments before the Designated Committees by March 15. Under Article 226, the Government has to identify the deadwood officers/officials (non-performers) and give them compulsory retirement. The state functionaries are supposed to submit Annual Performance Reports (APRs). It is found that slackness has overtaken the responsible authorities and they are soft paddling with the submission of these reports. In fresh instructions the Governor has sought report by February 29 on completion of Annual Performance Reports (APRs) of all Government employees with regard to each department. Such a direction had earlier also been issued by the Governor but this time he has fixed the deadline of February 29 for placing the report before him.
Many more important instructions have been issued to the Chief Secretary and the Secretary/Commissioner GAD with the purpose of tightening the noose round the corrupt, non-performing and deadwood among the state functionaries. The fact is that previous Governments also wanted sort of shake-up of the administration so that peoples’ confidence is restored but they could not achieve any success. Now the Governor, a renowned administrator in the country, has taken up the job of giving a jolt to inertia-struck administration of the State.
We appreciate the tough measures taken by the Governor in the interest of the welfare of the State. The aim of the Governor is to give an efficient, clean, transparent and corruption – free administration to the State. There is no hiding the truth that in our State, administration is very slack owing to the lack of interest shown by the superiors. The work culture has deteriorated and the standards of work culture need to be improved drastically. This cannot be done unless there is accountability. What the Governor is trying to do is to instill the sense of responsibility and accountability among the State functionaries at all levels.
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