Winners all?
When
a war is won, if all the awards were to go to the General what would we
think about him? A similar situation prevailed at the PM’s Award for
Excellence in Public Administration, held in Vigyan Bhawan at Delhi
recently. When the awards for successful holding of panchayat elections
in J&K were announced, nobody was surprised. But when the awards
went to the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police, Chief Electoral
Officer, Special Secretary to Chief Secretary, and Principal Secretary
(Planning and Development), everybody was left a bit nonplussed. In
principal, all these officials are duty bound to hold the elections. It
was nothing great. It would have been in the fitness of things if the
work of collectors and SPs who did all the field work was recognised
instead! How the awardees are selected is a great mystery however. The
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, which is the
apex body for organising this award, never briefs how many citations it
had received. Who are the officials in the selection committee? How do
they decide which 10 out of thousands will be awarded? The entire
process needs some introspection. It is learnt that Cabinet Secretary A K
Seth personally called the Secretaries and Chief Secretaries to be
present so the only solace which they can get is that the function was
well attended. g
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