YES, MINISTER!

AS CHIEF Secretary Naveen Chandra Bajpai, along with DGP Bua Singh and other senior officers, walked into the Samajwadi Party headquarters he probably had in mind the draft ?Public Service Bill? that expected civil servants to ?conduct themselves in a manner such as to win and retain the confidence and trust of the political executive while providing honest, impartial and frank advice in the discharge of their functions? (reads section 3 (l), Chapter II of the draft Bill). So, on August 29 an over enthusiastic Chief Secretary went a step ahead and even addressed Samajwadi Party workers who had assembled to celebrate the third anniversary of the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led UP Government.

The babus went to the Samajwadi Party show and that created a row. UMESH RAGHUVANSHI delves deep into the babu-psyche in the light of the Bill that proposes to reform the babudom

HT Image

AS CHIEF Secretary Naveen Chandra Bajpai, along with DGP Bua Singh and other senior officers, walked into the Samajwadi Party headquarters he probably had in mind the draft ‘Public Service Bill’ that expected civil servants to “conduct themselves in a manner such as to win and retain the confidence and trust of the political executive while providing honest, impartial and frank advice in the discharge of their functions” (reads section 3 (l), Chapter II of the draft Bill).

So, on August 29 an over enthusiastic Chief Secretary went a step ahead and even addressed Samajwadi Party workers who had assembled to celebrate the third anniversary of the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led UP Government.

The unceremonious removal of Bajpai’s predecessors (four chief secretaries) probably failed to work as a deterrent. By their unwarranted, if not disgraceful, act the officers added a new chapter to otherwise glorious history of the elite Indian Administrative Service and the Indian Police Services, say senior officers.

True, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had declared that the function organised at the SP headquarters was an official function. But the chief secretary himself has gone on record to admit that no government money was spent on the programme at the SP headquarters.

On Saturday, even Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh asserted that he would have attended the function if it had been official. His ministers had also abstained from it on the same ground.

There is difference of opinion within the State Government. So how could it be called official? Chief Secretary and his team of officers would now have to probably answer more such questions being posed by his own team of officers.

Under such a scenario, a close scrutiny of the draft Bill reveals that more additions and alteration would be needed before it was moved in Parliament to set the proposed reforms in motion and bring the new law into effect.

A number of controversial provisions now have been deleted from the draft Public Services Bill, 2006, that is being brought at the behest of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The PM has emphasised on the need of having an umbrella act to cover numerous rules and regulations and lay down fundamental values of public services.

There is, however, still a stiff opposition in the IAS fraternity over some of the provisions of even the revised Bill with officers opining that there was no justification in excluding the ministers and other such public functionaries from the ambit of the Act while making civil servants more accountable.

A suggestion to include the constitutional bodies, statutory bodies, legislature, judiciary and the PSUs in the ambit of the new law is being made.

Officers favoured that protection should be given to whistle-blowers and the draft law should clearly define a public servant as in the CrPC to bring the ministers into its purview.

As the draft Bill involves issues having serious implications, the Central IAS Association convened a meeting of the all its State chapters at New Delhi on August 30. A decision to constitute a committee of senior officers to study the draft Public Services Bill, 2006, was taken at the meeting.

The Uttar Pradesh IAS Association, too, has constituted a four-member committee comprising former chief secretary R Ramani (chairman), Jayati Chandra, GB Patnaik and Devesh Chaturvedi to study the draft Bill and make recommendations accordingly.

Various recommendations already made to the Ministry of Personnel included the demand for greater participation of the public and the stakeholders in the new law. As a result, the Ministry of Personnel has decided to display the draft Bill on its website.

If senior officers were to be believed, the officers have favoured that Right to Information Act should be implemented to bring even the appointments and nominations that the Central Government made for constitutional bodies, foreign postings and the agencies like the United Nations.

As per the decision, the Central IAS Association would now convene meetings of its State chapters at least on a quarterly basis to have greater interaction on such issues.

Significantly, the Centre now proposes to constitute a Central Authority to be named as the Central Public Service Authority to exercise powers conferred upon it and perform the functions as envisaged in the act.

The draft Bill provides that the authority would have a chairperson and such number of members not less than three and not exceeding five.

It proposes that the chairperson and the members of the central authority would be appointed by the President on the recommendations of the committee comprising the Prime Minister (chairperson of the committee), a judge of the Supreme Court (as may be designated by the Chief Justice of India) and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Cabinet Secretary would act as the convenor of the committee.

The chairperson of the committee would be given salaries and allowance at par with the Chief Election Commissioner while members would draw salaries at par with the Election Commissioners.

The association, however, feels that there are already a number of laws and the proposed legislation instead of becoming another in the long list of regulators should focus more on providing stability, protection to honest officials, prevention of victimization, neutrality and efficiency.

The draft Bill further provides that in order to give effect to this the government shall, in consultation with the Commission and the Authority, prepare a Public Service Code of Ethics to guide the Public Service Employees and managers of the Public Service in their conduct. The proposed code would be called the Public Service Code and come into effect within one year from commencement of the new law, said the draft Bill.

It provides that the Public Service Code prepared as above should be laid for not less than 14 days before each House of Parliament as soon as possible after they are made and shall be subject to such modifications whether by way of repeal or amendments as Parliament may make during the session in which they are placed.

The draft further provides for stringent action including termination of employment, reduction in classification, reassignment of duties, reduction in salary, fine or a reprimand for breach of the Public Service Code.