Files & excuses

cover story
files that don’t move

 

Files & excuses

All Government work revolves around 3Ds and One F: Dak, Draft, Desk and File. And endless meetings, rules, procedures and precedents are a way of life.

 

by Neeraj Mahajan

 

Eighteen-year-old James Dilip Mirpagare, the son of a Railways driver suffering from renal failure for six years, died in a city hospital, even though his uncle was ready and willing to donate his kidney. James could have survived only if the paperwork associated with transplant operations had been completed faster. Ironically, his family got a call to pick up the letter sanctioning the kidney transplant the day he died. While technically a transplant operation is possible within five days after the need arises, this rarely happens. This is because the Government representative on the hospital ethics committee first interviews the patient and donor, who then have to produce no-objection certificates from the hospital apart from a host of other documents, a process which on an average at least three months. There are 26 documents a patient has to submit even if the donor is from within the family! READ MORE