The Hindu Business Line : UK's experiment

EVER since he took over as Britain's Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has been unremitting in his efforts to tone up public services such as welfare, education, health and law enforcement and take the Government to the people in consonance with their inviolable right to delivery of high quality services wherever they live.

In short, the aim is to ensure that the people have voice and choice in the matter of both their entitlements and options to suit their needs.

Mr Blair's maxim, which is worth emulation by every head of government, is that unless the No.1 public functionary leads from up front and sets an example in sensitivity, empathy, accountability, transparency, commitment and probity, government orders and rhetorical exhortations alone will not bring about a change in the encrusted and callous mindset of public functionaries. To this end, he launched a Web site at the very start of his first term which put the public at the heart of the public service all the 24 hours of the day.

A vital part of Mr Blair's drive to create a facilitating ambience in which the reforms can take root and prove sustainable is to make merit and talents alone the governing criterion for recruitment and advancement in one's career and profession, and to put right people with the right temperament in the right places.

The other elements of his strategy are commensurate delegation and devolution of powers and authority to all levels, incorporation of technology which has the potential to make a huge impact on the services provided to the public, and clear-cut delineation of the roles of the centre, departments and the wider public and private sectors so that there is no duplication or wastage of resources.

Mr Blair has been relentlessly stressing the need for public services to earn the respect and appreciation of the people by adhering to the values of integrity and trust, impartiality and dedication, and responsiveness and accessibility. The process kicked off by him has since come a long way and is generally recognised to have made a perceptible difference to the quality and capacity for delivery of public services across a broad spectrum. An important reason for the success it has attained is that the Cabinet Secretary himself has been asked to chair the strategy group constituted for the purpose of evaluating the progress and clearing the bottlenecks, and report to the Prime Minister at short intervals.

There is plenty in the UK experiment on which India can draw to implant the spirit of public service in the country's insulated, isolated, desiccated, dehydrated and dehumanised bureaucracy.