The hall mark of our governance system ‘government of the people by the people for the people’ is people interest to be the driving. But what media reports reveal about ground realities coupled with long list of holidays state allows, is story apart forcing one to exclaim ‘why not outcry for improved work culture?’.
Offering kudos to media reports, to quote: “Cabinet decision on finalising single BPL list gathering dust”, “8 years on, slow pace of work on Shamsipora bridge irks residents iof Anantnag South Kashmir”, Several DC’s fail to meet deadline fixed for submission of District Road Safety Plans”, Constituted 6 months back, panel fails to set up Social Audit Units”, and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s repeated stress on agencies to complete their projects in time, S. S. Bijral former bureaucrat going into genesis of this work culture problem said the NC & Congress leaders that ruled J&K for long were particular about their personal comforts at cost of public inconvenience. He said under their rule state became second most corrupt state. Focused on self/family glorification they introduced the highest 27 public holidays in calendar year against only 18 in the country.
Bijral said holidays are added up personifying tall public leaders who gave their life for people. On their birth /death anniversary observing holiday closing down public offices and educational institutions is defying the spirit – care of the poor, they lived for. He said real tribute to those public luminaries is that we keep excelling in service of people.
Reflecting that USA and United Kingdom have national regional holidays 10 and 11 respectively, the senior former cop said the government should induce effective measures to improve work culture, the public yearns for. Trimming down list of holidays is politically tough decision but governance mettle is best proved by taking tough decisions and not by serving sops as unfortunately was done by the previous governments.