When Will Dispur Lay Stress On Clearing All Pending Files?

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Pending files breed corruption like anything. And stockpiles of such pending files are glaringly visible in the Assam Secretariat and any other head of the department offices.

Such stockpiles of pending files have been gathering dust in the offices for six months to five years. Yet no government at Dispur ever felt like taking any bold step for one-time clearance of all pending files – as though such backlog files worry none among the top bureaucrats.

Interestingly, on July 24, 2019 Kerala Chief Minister Pinaraya Vijayan took a bold decision for clearing all pending files within a stipulated three-month time from August 1 to October 31 this year.

Why can’t Assam go for such an overdrive? To make it really happen it needs only two virtues – political will and bureaucratic commitment. Pending office files trap in them the hopes and aspirations of lakhs of people.

A senior bureaucrat in the Secretariat says, “Clearing pending files isn’t a tough task at all. Every office work has a rule to be followed. To clear pending files one needs to segregate them based on rules they come under. One of the pragmatic steps is if a work doesn’t come under any of the set rules ‘just close the file’, and if it falls under a particular rule ‘just dispose it’. Pending files are notorious for breeding corruption in any administration. And one of the major reasons behind files lying pending is ‘dealing officials not following rules properly’. If a file is very critical for its connection with a number of departments, it can be cleared at a joint sitting of commissioners of the departments concerned.”

When a person visits the State Secretariat to pursue his/her file, he/she is likely to encounter replies like (1) your file is under process, (2) the file is with the borbabu (superintendent), (3) the officer concerned is on leave or (4) come after the Bihu or the Durga Puja (when such festivals are 10-15 days away).

Strangely enough, all these are happening even as the government has set rules on the movement of files, clearly spelling out for how many days a file can be kept on a particular table. In the event of delay in file movement, the responsibility has to be fixed on anyone violating such rules. However, ‘who cares’ is the motto glaringly visible among the officials at Dispur.

Right from assuming office, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has been harping on work culture. If he really means business, he needs to ensure that all pending files are cleared in the State Secretariat and then adopt the same procedure to the departments and their district-level offices with the same zeal.

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