Stern action will be initiated against absentee and insincere medical officers and doctors – so said the Minister for Health & Family Welfare on the floor of the House at the just concluded NLA Budget Session.

Replying to certain questions on the Mon District Hospital, the Minister admitted that there have been negative reports on the concerned Medical Superintendent as well as on absence of doctors while assuring the House that action would be taken against them. Whether the promised ‘action’ happens or not we will just have to wait and watch. But this is not an isolated case – such complaints against officers and employees of various government departments keep cropping up time and again , especially with regard to the interior districts and sub-divisions. Independent inspection reports of student bodies in various areas have also been highlighted frequently. The number of times that we have heard of one or two-teacher schools, doctor-less hospitals and other empty offices are countless, but there has never been any evidence of any of these complaints being investigated seriously or of any erring officer being penalised. The Chief Minister himself has made the issue of work culture or lack thereof in our society a personal crusade. He has bluntly stated several times that those not interested in doing their jobs properly should get out and take up other ventures thereby making way for others. The ways of government departments and government ‘servants’ are only too well known. For many, government service has become a way of making money without having to work for it. And if the situation is bad in the urban areas, it is obviously indescribable in the ru ral outposts. Not to speak of routine administrative offices, even critical services like health and education are left unattended by unscrupulous officers and citizens left to their own devices. There are some cases where the faces of the officers are not seen even once during the entire term of their posting in a particular area. If the government is really sincere about effecting change on this front, then it has to start looking seriously into the various complaints against its employees. Empty words and hollow assurances, inside the Assembly or outside, are of no use; we can hope to see some positive change taking place only when real action is taken on the ground.

QUOTE
I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands clean as they are empty
- Thomas Jefferson

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