Aftermath of Omagaziya !

Everyone joins Civil Services with lot of dreams in their mind. The majority of the aspirants are from middle class or from below middle class. This can be one of the reasons that motivated them to join Civil services.

This holds true for those who joined Civil Services a year back or a decade back. And they too must have joined Services with their own dreams. Its not that they were corrupt when they joined. But what's the ground reality. The bureaucrats now are as corrupt as the politicians.

why is the change then ?

Though the constitution has given them more powers than the legislature, in reality the bureaucrats are always dependent on their 'corrupt' political counter parts. More often they are forced to accept bribes at the risk of their life. (NHAI engineer's death in bihar)

Once the senior officer starts taking bribes, even the lower cadres are forced to follow the hierarchial chain leading to a complete mess.

It was only recently, some exceptional bureaucrats realised their own powers and made others realise them. Ex. T.N. Seshan.

cant we come out of this mess ?

yes..we can..we just need some strong minded officials..as we said, majority of the aspirants are from the economically weaker part of the society. will they be able to stand against a mighter politician or a billion dollar industrialist. they are always at a comparitive disadvantage.
giving them a better remuneration solves ONE of these problems. we should also acknowledge that every one have their own (financial) commitments. at times, this must have forced them to accept bribes.(looks absurd, but in reality it happens)

this can be the reason why our friends say that the pay package is less.

what i feel is that the pay for civil services is as per what the current market demands. when we take all the allowances into consideration, it should give us a better picture.

the other one is, u r given a chance to lead one of the fastest growing economies in the world. for all the good work u do , u would be recognized not only in ur pay package but also by the entire society. no other job gives u such a responsibility or a recognition.

once they get responsibility and recognition, what are these bureaucrats looking for. financial stability?


is this reason why lot of NRIs turn to NGOs after contributing to the reverse brain drain.
they have pounds & dollars. what else are they searching for now ??
job satisfaction ? responsibility ? recognition ?

TN ~ separate statehood ?

agriculture
we in tamilnadu depend mostly on groud water and the monsoon rains for the agriculture. with depleting ground water level, the agriculte seems to be more dependent on the rainwater. govt initiative towards rain water harvesting in tamilnadu seems to a right move in right direction. with very few monsoon fed rivers, cauvery, vaigai & palar, the agriculture turns to be a very risky business.
with a separte statehood, will it be possible for us to get water from karnataka. even now, with so much of pressure from centre and supreme court order we find impossible to solve cauvery water dispute. with so much of our state dependent on agriculate, will it be possible to survive on our own.
even chennai awaits krishna water from andra for their drinking water. even the desallination plant proposed for chennai is CENTRAL GOVT funded.
education :
we do have lot of good institutes in tamilnadu. but after a separate stood hood, we would have 1 anna university, 1 IIT, 1 REC. only three institues where are broadly recognized. and two out of the three are CENTRAL GOVT funded. we would have to again look at INDIA for IIMs. will a small government be able to fund these institutes from now on?
electricity :
very few states in india has surplus power and lucking tamilnadu is one of them. thanks to lot of PSUs and atmoic power stations in tamilnadu. NLC is the main supplier of electricity not only for tamilnadu but also for most of the south indian states. we have atmoic power stations at Kalkappam, chennai & kudankulam, tirunelveli. all of them central govt funded.
being a seperate state, we cant even think of maintaining these power station not only bcz of the cost involved but also bcz of the geopolitical situation and the risk involved in nuclear reactions. The international pressure on Iran is a live example.
economy :
'size does matter'. we now see our GDP growing at around 8%. indian market is too big for any one to ignore. with over a 1 billion population we could have our say in the world politics. BRIC countries are dictating the policies of the WTOs.
the dream canal project, sethusamudhram, would cost the exchequer 25000 cr. this would be great boon for the costal regions of tamilnadu. tuticorin could now easily get itself transfored to a international hub. the point is that we gain more from being together.
chennai is becoming a dream location not only for services industry but also for all manufacturing industries, say from autocomponents to electrical accessories not just bcz of the govt policies and the accessibility of the port but bcz of the big, unexplored domestic market. chennai would lose its great adv. in case of a seperate statehood.

even in case of natural disaster, we would need to look at some one else for help. dec 26, 2004 should help us realize this. we were not only able to come out of that black day , but were able to help out indonesia & srilanka...
we are also not free from regional terrorism. LTTE still has an upper hand in srilanka. It wont take much time for them to influence TN. naxalite is also becoming a bigger problem today. It would always be better to be part of our mother India.

we were lucky enough to be brought up well by our mother at the cost of our siblings. now its not fare to leave them halfway and move away looking for greaner pastures. its how we help them from now on lies the crux.

Population Control !

the focus should be on educating people and creating awareness on population control. a target free approach would yield better results.
dis-adv:
*would create gender in-equality as people prefer having male child. this in longer term would lead to more singles. this would again disturb the social balance of the society.
*would lead to more abortions. in a highly advanced medical world, people would tend to
adv:
*once educated people themselves would serve as ambassadors of the program. making people recognize the advantages is far better than one time incentive.
*getting away with the incentives program would have less financial burden on the government. this would in turn help in carriying out the program more succesfully with less financial need. there is very less probability for corruption.
in India where infant mortality is so high, it would be hard for any one to make people accept the two-child norm. so a equal weightage should go for improving the health of people BPL, reducing the infant mortality and uplifting of the society as a whole.
population control program executed alone would yield very less result. it should be a part of a family welfare program.

More Quotas ?

in the 1950s, FCs were educated & economically sound and BCs were mostly uneducated and they were stuck just with their own family occupation. so it made sense to make reservations based on the caste system.
beware, that we have
general quota where FCs and BCs compete and
BC quota ONLY for the BC students.
in the 50s, BC students would have found it extremely difficult to compete with the FC students. general quota must have been occupied with FC students and BC seats occupied with BC students.
Now, the second generation of these students (FCs and BCs) are in the same cadre( i mean they have the same facilities and resources). so these BC students find it easy to compete with the FC students. there is nothing great in this. this explains the reason why FCs are admitted less and BCs are getting more seats.
Dis-adv :
* this "OUTDATED" system would soon prove its too costlier for the FC students.
the FC students dont have a level playing field for them to compete(with the second generation BCs)
* this may push the FCs to the bottom ladder in a longer run. FCs are so moving more towards the private instis and orgs.
* the second generation BCs find it very easy to compete with their first generation counter parts(BC students). I mean, the the current system is more benefial to those who has already reaped the benefit out of it..
so, what s the solution ?
the second generation students should be able to compete with the FCs and they should not be given the same advantages of their fathers and forefathers. this would make the system really helpful to the downtrodden people. this should be accompanied with the increase in the no of general quota seats. but the vote bank makes the government increase the BC/MBC/SC/ST seats . thanks to SC order for stalling these vote bank politics. this would soon bring every one to the same level playing field.