The government has decided to crack the whip on employees shirking work or faking progress of development work in rural areas. An uncharacteristic chief minister Pramod Sawant took up the cudgels against his men and was loud and clear in his message. "Do not cheat me. I'm connected to the people. I can get information on any panchayat", he thundered. He said officers were misleading him while reporting on the progress of development work in rural areas. He had a stern message for officers who turn away people visiting offices on the pretext of the virus.
The chief minister is upset over the failure of e-governance when it was required the most. But why has it become a highlight only now? That's the official "Vigilance Awareness Week" for you, a week where the chief minister preferred to do a post-mortem of non-functional systems and publicly heap scorn over erring babus and their failures.
Between the pandemic time of March and now, systems haven't changed, and people have been inconvenienced in good measure because the 'online' systems failed to deliver. If 70-80 per cent of department websites are non-functional, there's nothing to be stunned about now, because, that's the way it has been right through. We can't be conscious of these lapses only during a "Vigilance Awareness Week".
There has to be consistent checks and balances, as much as there is a need for periodic systemic upgrades. The primary objective of extending online services is to provide services at the finger-tips, brining ease to citizens and cutting down physical visits, especially during Covid times. Portals have to be seamless and user-friendly and are supposed to make life easy, not the other way round.
The appointment of 220 officers as 'Swayampurn Mitra' under the 'Atmanirbhar Bharat Swayampurn Goem' programme is a welcome step to reach out to people in villages, but again, the efficacy of this system needs to be tested from time to time. The need of the hour is to identify problems faced by the people and come out with solutions. Officers need to have their ear to the ground and act as a crucial link between people and departments. There has to be accountability fixed and a monitoring mechanism in place to ensure the system runs effectively. The CM has to do a stock-taking exercise involving all bureaucrats from time to time. Currently, village plans are on 'auto-pilot' mode and which is why systemic flaws have gone unchecked. The lackadaisical attitude of government officials is also not new, and the chief minister and his team are well aware of this.
It took the CM over a year to realise that Goa is not open-defecation free yet, and probably it will take another year to accept the fact that the mission 'Har Ghar Jal' is not yet accomplished. Is the CM going to blame the bureaucracy and officers for these unaccomplished but celebrated milestones? Let's be real. Nothing worthy is going to be achieved through token yearly speeches and references.
