Inculcating working spirit in public servants, a big task: Bedi

In the city to inaugurate the Regional Conference on Environment 2016, hosted by National Green Tribunal (NGT) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Kiran Bedi said public servants have become armchair bureaucrats.

“Public service has become more secretarial, with bureaucrats asking for reports from those on the field. This in turn, makes people in the field sit in offices and file reports, while the work suffers. All that Indian bureaucracy needs today is field work,” said Lieutenant Governor Bedi. 

She said that Puducherry has adopted a system, where public servants go for rounds at 6 am. “That is when you know how many of the sanitary staff are missing and how many have been directed to homes of VIPs to do their work rather than clean our streets. Even a private contractor, who has been mandated to conduct rounds thrice a day, began to oversee the work. They had to be supervised by the top leadership, who got out of their comfort zone and decided to do the ground work and lead the change,” she said, suggesting that every public servant should conduct morning rounds within their respective jurisdictions. 

Bedi added that by conducting such rounds, there has been a remarkable improvement. “As a public servant, when you go on early morning rounds, you will see that the cleaning of roads will happen just because you are there. Does it cost anything? No. We have done this in a small way in Puducherry. It began with the Lieutenant Governor, starting at 6 am for rounds on the weekends. Soon, a team was formed and we conduct checks across different sites. All the PWD and sanitary staff are on the job, knowing that these checks will be conducted, that is how we reach out to the public,” said the retired IPS officer. 

The bureaucrat also pointed out the gaps in the system. “During one of our rounds, we saw people standing in the muck, cleaning without shoes and gloves. That’s when we decided we need machinery. When I asked one of my engineers why people were still working in such conditions, he replied that they were being given anti-tetanus injections! So, I asked him if he would do the work after being given an injection? There is a big gap in the way we treat our staff,” she said.