A couple of days ago, when I walked into the Kadamba office to renew my shuttle service pass, I was greeted with a familiar sight. One of the staffers busy playing games on his mobile phone in a corner of the office.
For once, I was not surprised, as it’s a common sight to walk into government departments and find few staff members either wasting time chatting among themselves, talking on their mobile phones, playing games on their phones or gone out for one of their innumerable cups of tea.
Really, is this the best they can do? This often makes me wonder whether these government employees managed to pass the necessary exams or had their share of struggles before landing in these high paying government jobs? Probably not.
They may have been well-connected to the local politician and were therefore being rewarded for their loyalty with these coveted placements.
It’s an open secret that the MLA of the place I live in is also a Minister and has given several government jobs to the people of his constituency in a specific department, but wait a minute, he is a Minister of the entire state of Goa but why did he choose to give the jobs to the people of his constituency alone.
Really, on what basis are they handed these Government jobs is my question. Do those deserving these jobs get them on the basis of their merit and expertise or is it simply their proximity to the local politician which is the deciding factor?
I sometimes wonder if these government employees could ever survive in the competitive private sector where one’s performance is ranked and incentives/perks depend on their output given to the organization.
The sad fact is that due to these undeserving candidates, we as citizens have to bear the brunt and inconvenience ourselves.
Its time, the concerned authorities took note of this and bring some sort of discipline into the working of Government offices. Till that is done, we have no option but to walk into Government offices and tolerate those officials who happily sit in a corner and waste time at the cost of inconveniencing the common man.
