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The ‘Swachh Bharat’ (Clean India) campaign, to be launched on Thursday by the Prime Minister, may start by generating reams of paper waste thanks to the numerous circulars sent out to officers.
These circulars include a letter from the Cabinet Secretary, followed by a note from the Secretary of the department concerned, and then the detailed action plan for the mission. Each officer has received six-seven pages of these circulars.
“Imagine, in the age of electronic communication, reams of paper have been used to inform officers. Now, as soon as the event is over, these papers will simply be thrown into the dustbin,” said an official.
Interestingly, all this information is also available on government websites.
For instance, the Revenue Department has uploaded nine pages on its official website, giving details to its officers and staff on the plan for October 2. All the officers and staff members will be administered a ‘Swachhta Shapath’ (oath for cleanliness) and everyone is to be present during the event and engage in the cleanliness drive.
If taking a pledge could have brought about a change, then corruption would have been a thing of the past, said another government official.
“Every year, during the vigilance awareness week, government officers and staff members take a oath not to be involved in any corrupt activity. This tradition has been going on for years, but corrupt practices are still going on,” he said, suggesting that there was a need to change the mindset through incentives and penalties instead.
Holiday plans go haywireBabus are also irked that the cleanliness drive has thrown a spanner into their plans for the holidays during the extended weekend starting October 2.
“I booked air tickets two months ago to take advantage of the cheap fares. Now rescheduling is costing me almost double the amount that I paid earlier, forget the amount spent on hotel booking,” said another government official.
It may be noted that though October 2 is a national holiday, government officers and staff members are supposed to come into work for half a day. October 3 is Dussehra, followed by Saturday and Sunday, while Monday is again a holiday on account of Bakrid. The five-day holiday has now been reduced to four-and-half days.
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