Amitabh Shukla | Thiruvanandapuram/
Kochi
Simplicity in governance and
accessibility of those in power to the people — that in short is Kerala for
you. The contrast is all the more apparent if you come from the northern
States.
A visit to the State Secretariat in the
Capital Thiruvananthauram or Trivandrum was an eye-opener. There was no obtrusive and visible security,
people could directly approach the officials, bureaucrats and the Ministers for
work and all you could see was accountability and answerability writ large.
Walking down the corridors of the
Secretariat, we could see the name-plates of senior IAS officials—all in a row.
You could simply knock at the door and enter their office with your complaint
or grievance. There was no intermediary — a security officer or a PA or an
orderly who would obstruct you and ask questions. Simplicity was the keyword
here. All that Principal Secretaries get here is a PA and no more staff. Tea is
ordered from the common canteen and the vendor serves it as there is no orderly
attached even with the senior officers, heading their departments and in the
IAS for 30 years. The building itself is over a century old and was originally
constructed for the Travancore kingdom. It goes to the credit of successive
State Governments that despite the absence of modern frills and the comforts,
they have resisted any attempt to shift the Secretariat to a swanky building
with all the related paraphernalia as several State Governments have done over
the years.
None of this is visible in the northern
States of Haryana, Punjab or other States where power or position means a
battery of employees, hangers on and security personnel in tow. Those who want
to meet officials will have to go through a drill of appointments, Personal
Assistants and others whose main task is obviously to create obstacles and
reinforce the colonial concept that there is a ruler and there are the
commoners who are ruled.
After interacting with several senior
officials and having numerous cups of tea, coffee and snacks, we moved on to
meet Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. The septuagenarian leader who leads an
alliance Government headed by the Congress is forthright. “People here are
simple and so is governance. There is transparency and people are used to it,”
he says, pointing to a CCTV camera in his office.
The CCTV camera in Chandy’s office
telecasts whatever is happening in his office to anyone who logs on to the
website of the Chief Minister’s office anywhere in the world. “Sometime back, a
person was sitting on my chair in my absence. A person from Kerala, working in
Dubai saw the live webcast and informed my office. He was sitting there only
for fun,” the Chief Minister said, pointing to the transparency and the only CM
office of the country where a live camera isn installed.
Even as we were talking to Chandy,
several officials trooped in to have a meeting with the Chief Minister. Then,
people with grievances and even MLAs walked in. It was like an open Durbar
where anyone could walk in and talk to the Chief Minister. If someone needed to
talk in privacy and not in front of everyone, Chandy merely stood up, went in a
corner and listened to the person concerned before instructing officials to
address the issue brought to his notice.
Chief Secretary Jiji Thomson shares, “we
do not need to take appointments with the Chief Minister. We just see through
the door glass whether he is available or not and walk in”. Thomson, who was on
central deputation in New Delhi for 8 years before taking over as the Chief
Secretary, said for the IAS officials working in northern States is an entirely
different experience. “Here every move is scrutinised, the media is very active
to the extent of being intrusive, there is no scope for any discretion as
transparency and accountability is all pervasive,” he shares. His Executive
Assistant Dr K Vasuki, a young IAS officer, also the Executive Director,
Suchitwa Mission, says the work culture in Kerala is entirely different from other
States and it was not only a challenge here but also professionally very
satisfying. She was earlier in the Madhya Pradesh cadre and was posted in 3
districts as Sub Divisional officer there before shifting to Kerala after a
change in cadre due to marriage.
Rural Development Minister K. C Joseph,
who also has the charge of Planning, Cultural Affairs and Information and
Public Relations, says that ever since he has seen it, extravagance of any
nature is shunned and people do not like it. Surrounded by officers of his
department, people troop in with their applications and it gets disposed then
and there unless there is a scrutiny to be done.
Perhaps a trip of officials and
Ministers of northern States to God’s own country is needed to assimilate the
approach to governance for greater transparency, accountability and also people
interface. (December 16, 2015)
(Amitabh Shukla, Senior Editor, was in
Kerala at the invitation of the Press Information Bureau)
