Decision making for Justice or survival

In a recent television show on why India did not win medals in Olympics one reporter said, "It is because the officials take decisions for their survival and presence in Olympics arena and be seen in TV when Indians play and not for the benefit of players".

This true statement made me wonder how even in Public sector where job rotation as a policy existed, a few managed to survive in the same seat especially in HR which is duty bound to implement the norm. Those were the days when face book, Whats App and RTI were absent. The culture of participative management was on. The unions which came into being to prevent injustice became a power center in due course and thereafter it was virtually joint sharing of power both by management and union.

The vast majority of employees were thrown to a situation where they had to flatter either the powers in union or management to get their normal rights enforced be it a loan, bill reimbursements, leave, NOCs  and the worst case being when they need a transfer or want to avoid a transfer. There will be whims, fancies, favorites, bias, and even revenge in the decisions with fairness also sparingly visible and the common man puts up with all these to ensure smooth survival in his day to day life. 

To run its day to day work, the administration needs vast discretionary powers to its officials at various levels be it a village, Taluka, district or state. With more and more inbuilt corrupt systems the decisions decay from justice to favor. It is the courts especially the High and Supreme Courts that rescue the system from favor/survival oriented decisions to justice oriented decisions.

The decay is so deep that some of the inspection/vigilance/audit mechanism that acts as check on the corrupt is not allowed to function by non appointment of the head or support staff. While the malady is clear the answer is elusive though visible somewhere. Technology literally rules the roost today. It is time the affected and the public interested persons go on a highlighting spree so that the wrong is righted earlier and fresh wrongs are made difficult.

One newspaper regularly publishes hanging EB wires and transformers, bad roads, gardens dumped with wine bottles and rubbish, drainage in roads, blockage in drainage, building offenses, drinking water mix with sewage water etc. Corrections though late come through actions from the concerned departments. Thus it is time for vigil. There were times when work was done slow in government and corruption existed hiding somewhere. Today it is courageous corruption and deals to settle the wrong with the right actions hiding somewhere.

Increasing road accidents, drunken driving, floods, bad roads, poor living conditions and crime all have their origin increasingly in the corrupt system. The tendency of the common man is to clean the house and throw the filth in the road, and then the road is cleaned to throw the filth in the colony and colony to out of city. But if the system is not cleaned the reverse would happen very fast and all filth would land inside the house. More and more facts and figures have to be brought into the public domain so that analysis forces corrective action. An activist published in his blog the photo of closed ATM near his house continuously along with copy of his mail to the concerned bank who acted on the seventh day with a team of officials present at the ATM to explain the closure.

The social media is already used by people to highlight ills in the society. But that happens sparingly and not with the aim to clean the system. Every corruption even if money is paid can be highlighted and more highlights mean more awareness and slow growth of fear of action. Since the system is deeply decayed extrication will take time even if efforts are in full swing and the resistance would be more concerted. Yet when facts have to be faced in public domain truth would prevail.

  It is nobody's specific problem but everyone's general problem. Before it becomes everyone's specific problem action is needed and the social media/technology has to be fully leveraged for the best benefit to the society and better living in future. Today is the time for evil to go and the good to come.

                                HAPPY VIJAYADASAMI DAY

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