Monday Musing
[ Amar Sangno ]
Julius Caesar’s famous Latin quote, ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici’ (‘I came, I saw, I conquered’) would aptly resonate with some of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers who were posted here in Arunachal Pradesh and got transferred out from Arunachal Pradesh.
The Latin phrase was used by Caesar in a military and heroic context for his swift and conclusive victory, unlike some IAS officers, who came, who saw and who emptied government allocated quarters from the IAS Colony near the Raj Bhavan in Itanagar, loaded the items on trucks, and transported them back to Delhi or their hometowns like Mahmud of Ghazni.
There has been a surreptitious and unchecked culture going on in the state’s bureaucratic power corridor. Whenever any central service officer, especially IAS officer, is transferred out from the state, he/she often empties their allocated government quarters items such as sofa, TV sets, furniture, crockery, etc, without signing on inventory.
There are five IAS bungalows in Raj Bhavan Colony, which come under the urban development (UD) department. Numerous instances have been reported of officers who got transferred not bothering to hand over the bungalows’ keys to the department. Oftentimes, it is said that the officers directly hand the keys over to the next occupant, flouting the laid down procedure of handing-taking of the allocated quarters.
Recently, an IAS officer allegedly transported fully-loaded truck with items from his bungalow to New Delhi. When the matter was inquired about by a media person, he claimed that those were his personal belongings. However, it is learnt that two sets of sofas mentioned in the urban development inventory are reportedly missing.
When IAS officers are posted here, they do not need to bring anything other than a few belongings like personal clothes, etc, but they are entitled to so many monetary benefits such as an attractive salary, dearness allowance, house rent allowance, travel allowance, medical facilities, etc, as perks of being an IAS officer. Then from where do all those trucks-full of materials come?
UD Commissioner Vivek Pandey informed The Arunachal Times that an order for strict inventory maintenance was supposed to be issued, so that an officer who has been transferred requires an NOC from the department to ensure whether all items in the inventory are intact or not. However, no such order has been issued till date.
Apart from the prescribed entitled benefits, some of the IAS officers posted in Arunachal are enjoying a king size life. Their lavish lifestyles can be seen from their high-end cars’ collection.
It is to be asked how come an officer (the head of a department) single-handedly possesses more than five cars, ranging from Toyota Fortuner to Maruti Jimny and Mahindra Thar. It is alleged that these officers pressure their subordinate officers to procure their choice of cars, household furniture and other expensive items from the department’s exchequer.
It has become a menacing trend that it often goes unnoticed by the audit team, because some of the vehicles and other expensive household items procurement are allegedly done through unaccounted amounts being unofficially or systematically managed by the subordinate officers.
Isn’t it still costing the state’s coffer? These lavish officers have become a blot on India’s decorated civil service officers as many officers are doing an exceptionally wonderful job in their respective positions in the interest of the state and the country.
Former chief secretary Darmendra was one exemplary chief secretary in Arunachal Pradesh’ administrative history for maintaining impeccable accountability with regard to inventory. As a true IAS officer, Dharmendra seemed to be unfazed by materialistic pursuits. He came with a few clothes and a suitcase and went back to Delhi with the same stuff, other than a few gifts presented to him by the people who cared about him. Arunachal needs such an IAS officer who cares more the state and the nation than about materialistic needs.
