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Business News/ Opinion / Blogs/  Maharashtra bureaucracy unhappy with transfer proposal after promotion
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Maharashtra bureaucracy unhappy with transfer proposal after promotion

Devendra Fadnavis govt announced some key initiatives to overhaul the administrative machinery, but the bureaucracy is unhappy

A file photo of Devendra Fadnavis. Photo: PTI Premium
A file photo of Devendra Fadnavis. Photo: PTI

Mumbai: In British Broadcasting Corp.’s 1980s’ classic television serial Yes Minister, minister for department of administrative affairs Right Honourable Jim Hacker comes up with an ingenious idea of linking honours of government officials with their achievements. But the department’s permanent secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby tries to stonewall the proposal.

A similar tussle between the political executive and permanent bureaucracy, which is supposed to aid and advise their political masters in implementing policy decisions, is being seen in Maharashtra. Recently, the Devendra Fadnavis government in the state announced some key initiatives to overhaul the administrative machinery, but the bureaucracy is unhappy.

The Fadnavis government announced that every year government officials will be given key result areas and their increments and promotions will depend upon how they perform in these areas, a normal practice in the corporate world. It also announced that after a promotion, officials will have to serve the first three years of their tenor in underdeveloped parts of the state such as Vidarbha and Marathwada where a large number of Class I and Class II officials posts are lying vacant.

The bureaucrats are clearly upset with these initiatives.

After the proposals were announced, Maharashtra State Federation of Gazetted Officers Association’s adviser G.D. Kulthe told reporters that as many as 120,000 government posts are lying vacant, including 20,000 from the officer cadre, and unless these posts are filled, how can one expect officials to deliver on their KRAs.

Besides, he said, when you already have the Maharashtra Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Public Duty Act and the government (political masters) has the right to write confidential reports for officials, why would you need one more instrument and put unnecessary pressure on the officials.

The officer’s federation, of course, is not opposed in principle to the proposal of mandatory transfer to distant locations in Vidarbha and Marathwada, but wants the government to take into consideration facts like age and gender of the official. According to them, for those who have already spent 15-20 years in government service and risen through the ranks, it would be a very difficult move. Usually, those who are promoted are in their 50s and have families to look after, and the officials’ plea is that it would be difficult for them to move to faraway places. Similarly, how would women officials live alone in a strange town without any family support, they say.

They suggest that officials directly recruited through state public service commissions could be posted at such places as these officers are young and just starting out their career, and can adjust anywhere.

Except for a few ministers in the Fadnavis cabinet like revenue and agriculture minister Eknath Khadse, finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar from the Bharatiya Janata Party and environment minister Ramdas Kadam, none others have any previous ministerial experience.

The Fadnavis government needs to exercise tight control over the administrative apparatus and deliver results if they want to return to power in 2019. One of the major reasons, why the Congress remained in power in the state and at the centre for so long is because the party knows how to use the administrative machinery to its advantage.

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Published: 01 Jun 2015, 08:48 AM IST
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