Today, we can add the questions: Are government staffers here to help or are they there to create hurdles for the people?
That second question has possibly been answered a thousand times with furious people pointing to harassment in government offices and by persons who have been stonewalled by government servants who believe that their task is to push the people around rather than direct them to the right manner of doing things. Experience shows that it is rare that a person is able to complete a task in a government office with just one trip. Citizens end up making umpteen trips to the office, and though the online facility in some services has served to favour the people, for some works there is no option but to visit a government office.
A case in point is what occurred at the Transport Department in the State capital on Monday. A lady who had approached the Tiswadi road transport office for renewal of a rent-a-bike licence was not entertained because she had not followed the standard operating procedure of the department. She was seen sobbing at the entrance of the department and would probably have remained there or returned home ignored by the government department had not a public-spirited citizen decided to act. He captured this on his cell phone, proceeded to enter the cabin of the officer in charge, recorded his conversation with the officer and got the department to get the lady into the office. That video went viral embarrassing the department and the government, and giving fodder to the opposition to attack.
The department clarifies that the woman’s application had deficiencies due to which renewal of the license was denied. But, shouldn’t she have been treated with some respect and compassion? There was none of it apparently displayed by the government staff. The statement of the Transport Department is that she ‘started crying and shouting loudly’. Why wasn’t she immediately attended to? When the department acted, it was reluctantly, only when confronted with a video phone. There is a telling sentence in that video when the woman, referring to the government staff, says, “you have got your salaries. What about us?”
In the current circumstances, when people have lost jobs, accepted salary cuts, businesses have gone into liquidation, and industry is facing a downslide, the government staff has been the most privileged and it does appear that it may be difficult for them to understand the suffering of the common man. Well, they will have to make an effort to do so, as the current manner in which the government operates cannot continue.
The entire system of government service has to change. The Chief Minister in the past has said that action will be taken against officers who come late. A former minister had said that there are government staffers moonlighting and that action will be taken. There have been instances of senior bureaucrats going on surprise inspections of the departments to find staff arriving late and not in their seats. But nothing apparently changes. Government and its staff need to be responsive to the needs of the citizens. It is important in these trying times to keep the morale of the citizens high. Incidents such as this achieve the opposite. The government has to act.
