It is a fact that 38 percent of the doctors in the USA are Indians, yet the affluent sections of our society, including ministers and politicians, rush there for treatment. Again, 37 percent of all scientists in the USA are Indians, yet our sheer dependence on foreign technology cannot be overemphasized – India ranks 30th on a global manufacturing index, far below China’s 5th position and neither do we have any note worthy achievement on the research and development front. But the list of Indian achievers on foreign soil is agonizingly long. Suffice to say that while our deserved go and shine abroad, our reserved ensure that India continues to remain a developing nation.
The reservation policy that was meant to end with time is actually getting extended and expanded. And as if this is not enough to keep our country backward, our politicians make it worse by filling up government departments and public sector undertakings with their supporters and those willing to pay for jobs.
The State of Goa has the highest government employee to population ratio – a huge army of around 65000 state government employees (including grant in aid institutions and PSUs), besides another 7000 plus central government employees, to serve a population of just about 15 lakhs. It means that one out of every 20 people in Goa is a government employee as against a national average of one government servant per 140 citizens. If you add up the retired government servants receiving pension, the financial burden gets even heavier.
In a scenario like this, it is easy for an outsider to assume that Goans are a pampered lot, enjoying the best of public services delivered at the doorsteps. The actual facts are pretty disappointing with the common man often coerced into paying bribes or use a ‘contact’ to avail of services that we should have got as a matter of right. The main reasons for this is corruption and nepotism in government recruitments over the years resulting in a bloated bureaucracy predominantly filled up with inefficient, lazy and corrupt officials. Having said that, it must also be said that there are many very efficient, honest and hardworking government employees, but they are far outnumbered by the lazy hardly working ones.
The recent outburst by Calangute MLA Michael Lobo against the moratorium on government recruitment and the subsequent response from the powers that be in favour of lifting the ban is a matter of serious concern with grave implications for the State. The prospects of providing jobs to their supporters or in worst cases even selling off government jobs to the highest bidders may have left many MLAs and Ministers salivating, but they need to think again and make an honest attempt to look beyond the next elections.
If the State of Gujarat can manage with one government servant for every 250 citizens, why can’t we with one State government servant for every 22 citizens? At least 50 percent of our government servants have got in through the back door, what is their productivity and whom are they serving if not the people?
It is not difficult to find government employees idling away their time in many government offices where senior officials deliberately stack their desks with old files to give the impression that they have plenty of work at hand. The Raj Bhavan with a hundred plus government employees is a good example – what such a large army would be doing at the Goa Governor’s residence is anybody’s guess. Interestingly, the FDA with a total strength of 119 employees (as per 2015 records) wants to outsource their job of checking food adulterations to a foreign agency! Why can’t government servants from a surplus department be transferred to a department where there is a genuine shortage?
Government servants in general have a tendency to believe that they have it all made once they get in – they don’t work half as hard as those in the private sector and are paid twice as much. The job security and avenues for corruption that a government jobs offers for the corrupt minded are also factors that explains the craze for government jobs. There are instances where post graduates, MBAs and LLBs degree holders have applied for vacancies of a peon in government departments – perhaps they just want to get a foot hold.
The government bureaucracy actually needs to be slimed, trimmed and made fighting fit. We cannot go on further adding up to an already bloated bureaucracy just so that our politicians can make a ‘savgad’ to their supporters; a government servant should be an asset to the government and not a burden or parasite. Even if the ban on recruitment is to be lifted to get skills that are not presently available with the government, it should be done only after putting up a foolproof transparent recruitment system in place so that the best available talent gets absorbed in government service. Otherwise the government will be doing criminal injustice to the job aspirants and the people in general. Can we really expect efficient and honest service from government officers who have bribed their way into the system?
