Bureaucrats turning yes men render All India services redundant

IAS officers have a huge responsibility as they have to work in the direction of bringing positive changes in the lives of the people. Their roles and duties include maintaining administrative work, maintain law and order, manage government activities, show prudence in expenditure and find out new ways for revenue generation.

They are also responsible for handling government affairs including policy framing and implementation. Supervising the implementation of different government schemes and policies and should be the bridge between the people and the political executive. They should ensure that the money provided by the public is utilised wisely.

But it is shocking that the various systems including the bureaucracy have earned a bad name in Andhra Pradesh. Why and how the officials succumbed to the political pressures is the biggest mystery. Lot of damage has been done to Andhra Pradesh. All institutions have lost their importance. With the change of government which is struggling to put all systems back in place, the bureaucracy is now opening up explaining why and how they had to adopt “yes boss” attitude. They say that during last five years they were under pressure and fear. They claim they could not dare to tell Jagan anything because of the attitude of the then CM and his coterie.

Well it is time the present government not only cleanses the system but should also probe deep into the manner in which the bureaucrats who had no reason to get scared got intimidated. Why and how were they threatened, who threatened them to such an extent that had prostrated before the coterie and stringent action should be taken against all such people. The NDA alliance government which is contemplating to come out with eight white papers should include this as one of the white paper, take it to the notice of the Union Home Ministry and see that no state or leader in the country would be able to behave in the manner in which Jagan and his coterie did during last five years. It should also be probed if the officers were now trying to save their skin.

What one fails to understand is what would have happened if they had not agreed to fall in line with their political masters? At the most they would have been shunted to non importance post since they belong to All India Services and they have the access to the Union Government to seek protection if they were being threatened.

Did they do so? If not, why not? Or did the centre blink at their complaints for political reasons when the YSRCP was considered to be a friendly party? It is time all these issues are made public. It is really a very serious matter that in both the Telugu States, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana IAS officers turned meek and allowed the political executive to do what they felt was right even if it meant huge loss to the state exchequer and adversely affected the interests of the future generations. The Lal Bahadur Shastry Training Institute at Dehradun which trains the IAS officers should also look into the new risks being faced by the officers and train them how not to succumb pressures. Otherwise there is no point in having such All India services.