An office file is supposed to move until it is disposed of or closed. When an office file doesn’t move for years and on before its disposal or closure, it’s certain that something has gone seriously awry in the office administration. This indicator has little vulnerability of failure. In its July 28, 2019 edition, The Sentinel published a front page news item headlined ‘When will Dispur lay stress on clearing all pending files?’ The conscience-pricking news item depicts a naked truth in the State administration. How come people at the helm of affairs who have launched a tirade of criticism against corruption right from coming to power allow stockpiles of office files remain pending from six months to six years? Isn’t this simple question impregnated with a whole lot of intriguing questions on corruption, lack of action against corruption, incompetency, lack of work culture, showing leniency towards corrupts and whatnot?
The Sentinel news item makes mention of a pragmatic and bold step taken by Kerala Chief Minister Pinaraya Vijayan. The chief minister of the southernmost State of India has taken a decision for clearing all pending office files within a stipulated three-month time from August 1 to October 31 this year. If what The Sentinel news item says ‘pending office files trap in them the hopes and aspirations of lakhs of people’ has anything to go by, the bold step taken by the Kerala Chief Minister is unquestionably a just one. How come a compassionate chief minister allows the hopes and aspirations of his/her electors get nipped in their buds by remaining trapped in pending office files? It is not that the present dispensation at Dispur hasn’t done anything worthwhile to fight corruption in the State administration. As the news item rightly said ‘pending files breed corruption like anything’ the ‘heaps of pending files’ in various departments in the Assam Secretariat and other heads of departments can be termed as ‘the mother of all corruptions’. Thus until and unless Dispur does something tangible to dispose of stockpiles of pending files in its offices, all that it has done in the past three years to check corruption will be considered only as cosmetic measures insofar as fighting corruption is concerned.
As suggested by a senior bureaucrat in the news item, clearing pending office files is not at all a tough task. The key for disposal of or closure of such files lies with the office rules, for every work comes under certain office rule. Thus all officials dealing with office files need to be well conversant with office rules so as to ensure smooth movement of files. It is also not always true that movement of office files loses its pace only because the officials dealing with files are not well conversant with office rules. In fact, the reasons are many, and even ulterior motives among a section of officials and bureaucrats behind such delay in movement of files cannot be ruled. An all-cure pill for all these ailments, as suggested by the senior bureaucrat in the news item, is – instantly disposing an office file if it comes under certain rules and closing it instantly if it doesn’t come under any rule, besides holding joint session of commissioners of different departments to dispose of complex files that are connected to more than one department. The situation for such a straight and clear-cut job is conducive in the State administration as there is a standing rule that has clearly spelt out specific timeframes for each and every file to remain on a particular table. The only problem is that this sacred rule is being violated, and the violators are going unpunished. Will the Chief Minister, his team and the top-rung bureaucrats get it done?
An elected government should never take it for granted that the voters elected them because they are the best among all the contesting parties or candidates. In many a case, it so happens that the voters are compelled to vote for a particular party that has no proven track record of good governance, only to test if the party can rise to the occasion or not. Newer parties are put to such tests when the voters find the alternative parties not reliable enough in a given election because of their murky past. Of course, a re-elected party has much to claim about its deed in the previous term or terms. The re-election of a party is indeed issuance of such a certificate. Even in that case also the role played by the lack of viable alternative in the poll fray in the re-election of a party cannot be ruled out. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and most of his ministerial colleagues are first-timers at Dispur. They should keep it in their minds that the voters of the State have put them to a test to ascertain if they can live up to the people’s expectations or not. Can they rise to the occasion? They have around two years at hand. Is that enough to clean the Augean stables i.e. to dispose of the heaps of the pending files? Will they rise to the occasion? It all depends on as to how they take the challenge.