Govt move to make senior IAS officers resolve local issues irks babus

An official circular issued by the general administration department (GAD) on August 10 says,“Each of the district in-charge secretary in consultation with the guardian minister concerned will have to chalk out a schedule to visit the taluka place and solve people’s problems.

Further,the circular says that all secretaries will have to send their performance report to the GAD in two days after the visit of their respective talukas. The GAD,in turn,will compile all these reports and after discussing them at the weekly secretaries’ meeting in the Sachivalaya will forward them to the chief minister for his review.

“A two-day visit to the district/taluka place every week will prove very taxing for a senior bureaucrat like me who has already been burdened with so much work in my own department in the Sachivalaya. As it is,I will have to visit a taluka place in a tribal district far off from Gandhinagar. And,by the time I return from this remote place,I may need at least one day more to cool at home. The move will certainly affect the functioning of my department,” says a senior IAS official of the rank of principal secretary.

Several of the senior bureaucrats whom Newsline talked to on Tuesday dubbed the government’s decision as “absurd”,and maintained that secretaries are being asked to take care of the taluka-level people’s problems that are normally handled by a mamlatdar.

“We senior babus heading the various key departments in the Sachivalaya have been reduced to the level of a mamlatdar or a taluka development officer,” said a secretary adding that even district collectors are there to ensure effective implementation of people-oriented schemes and projects and take care of local problems in their respective areas.