Editor,
The editorial on extended holidays of government employees in ST Jan 2014) is indeed a sad reflection of the state of affairs in the State Government offices today. The discipline of these employees is, in any case, never something that the state government can be proud of. But things have been deteriorating day by day and this has become more apparent during the last few years where things have gone almost beyond control. I feel that Mr WMS Pariat, the Chief Secretary has a lot to explain for this. He is perhaps the longest serving Chief Secretary of the state. Add to that, he is a local. Had he taken an aggressive stance to tackle this indiscipline throughout the long time he was in the chair, things would not have reached this pass. However, those in the know say that there had never been serious efforts to ensure punctuality and regularity in attendance of government employees even within the secretariat building itself where the Chief Secretary sits. Besides simply issuing readymade circulars there has been no personal effort to exhort and motivate employees sitting in the building to also attend office during bandhs and office picketing. Unlike some Chief Secretaries in the past, the present Chief Secretary never does the rounds of the Secretariat buildings and the few Directorates during bandh days to give moral support and to personally congratulate those who attend office. Lack of such inspiration results in the loss of morale of these loyal employees because those who remain absent are allowed to go scot free without any follow up action . In fact it is learnt that most of the lower and middle level employees hardly feel the presence of the Chief Secretary in the building and very few ever look up to the person in this position with awe and reverence because of the distancing down the years.Therefore, if the Chief Minister really feels that good governance is the order of the day then he should first see what goes on behind his backyard and consider whether the extension of service of the Chief Secretary is worth it or whether discipline of government employees is a non issue in the process.
Yours etc.,
Aibor Niangty,
Shillong -21
Service extension, lame excuse
Editor,
First of all I thank Dr Mukul Sangma for sending me New Year greetings through SMS. I do hope that he also appreciates the fact that with passing years one becomes older and wiser and would be able to analyse things in a better perspective . So when he stated that the service extension of WMS Pariat as Chief Secretary is to ease the burden of others as reported in ST 7th Jan 2014, I daresay that I vehemently disagree with him because this excuse will be an insult to the other bureaucrats who are known to function exceedingly well even if they are overburdened. Nevertheless, if according to him, Pariat is indispensable then the person should be put instead in any other capacity which is of the same rank of Chief Secretary without disturbing the hierarchy in the bureaucracy. I also agree with James Sangma, MLA who stated that the pressure on the bureaucracy is because the Chief Minister has not been able to administer well and because of unsound policies. Take the Tenancy Bill for instance. This is what has come out in the open for us to know whereas beyond our knowledge these bureaucrats must be involved in scores of other useless ideas which are unproductive. Moreover, with the hyperactive personality and style of functioning of the Chief Minister there must be constant poking and interference from his side which upsets the rhythm of works of these bureaucrats and therefore unnecessarily increases their workloads. Therefore the Chief Minister should blame himself if there are shortcomings in the bureaucracy. By the way Dr Sangma is changing his excuse for the extension of service of the CS because of the criticism pouring in. The last one given was that the extension was necessary for smooth conduct of the elections. What next?
Yours etc.,
Donbok F Syiemlieh
Shillong-3