8/6/2019 It's Bureaucracy vs Politics
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It's bureaucracy vs politics in Punjab
Where senior civil servants warm up to ruling parties with an
eye on post-retirement benefits,this one has taken on the
government at risk to his career. Senior IAS officer JS Bir put in
hispapers when he was transferred for ordering a busy market area
cleared of buses which allegedly
belonged to the chief minister's family. He is now turning his
resignation into a crusade againstpolitical victimisation.
"Problem starts when certain set of officers blindly start
following our political masters mandateand in that case our
people's interests suffers, then naturally people feel very sad
about the
system and bureaucrats who want to work honestly and
transparently also feel suffocation. Iblame not the political
masters but bureaucrats who succumb to political pressure to get
prized
postings," says Bir.
"And if this IAS officer has resigned, it is a statement to be
followed by many governmentofficers who should have resigned much
earlier because the state has been insensitive for the last
30 to 40 years," says Parmod Kumar, Chairman of the Governance
Reforms Commission,Punjab.
The state government for now is refusing to react for fear of
blowing up the controversy. State
chief minister Prakash Singh Badal said: "I don't want to get
into a political controversy. Weknow the matter."
A top IAS officer says he is feeling helpless because of a
callous and indifferent administration
bowing blindly to political pressure. The big question is will
the system put in any efforts toprevent the steel frame of Indian
bureaucracy from collapsing or will it just turn a blind eye tothe
likes of JS Bir and simply carry on doing what serves the best
interest of a selective few.
Upset over his 'humiliation', a senior Punjab IAS officer has
given notice of premature retirement
to the government in protest against 'malpractices in the
administrative system'.
JS Bir, secretary in general administration department (GAD), in
his notice to the chief secretaryand the chief minister on Tuesday,
expressed his angst against government's failure to remove
'corruption in the system' which led to his 'humiliation and
mental trauma'. Bir, who is scheduledto retire on September 30,
created a stir in the bureaucratic circles by slamming the
government
instead of the more usual norm of IAS officers warming up to the
government, with an eye onpost-retirement posts.
In his resignation letter, Bir said, ''There is a need to bring
improvement in the ethical norms of
the present administrative system so that no citizen who wants
to avail a government service,becomes helpless and a victim of
bureaucratic extortion due to corruption in the system.''
Bir, a 1989 batch officer, is known for his straight talking and
creative ideas. That he was
