MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, AND THAT TOO NOT WITHOUT REASONS; WE CRITICISE GOVT BUREAUCRATS FOR THEIR ERRATIC & INHIMAN BEHAVIOUR – BUT IT’S HIGHTIME THAT WE RISE TO SALUTE THOSE WHO HAVE DONE WONDERFUL JOBS IN THEIR CAPACITIES AS PERSON IN CHARGE. I DO SALUTE THY BRAVE OFFICERS [ pls read the story from ET] Three heroic cases of Indian bureaucrats who adopted managerial tactics to preempt crises By Shantanu Nandan Sharma, ET Bureau | 20 Oct, 2013, 10.25AM IST A massive preemptive evacuation helped save thousands of lives endangered by Cyclone Phailin last week. Many a faceless bureaucrat led the evacuation of 9 lakh citizens in the coastal towns in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, saving them from a natural phenomenon that had a landfall at a speed of over 200 km per hour. Yes, 38 people lost their lives, but the accurate forecast of the Indian Meteorological Department, coordinated efforts of the Central and state agencies and sheer hard work of officers on the ground helped prevent a repeat of 1999 when Cyclone 05B killed at least 10,000 people in Odisha. Its not often that the administration gets a pat on the back a day after a disaster. The actions of the authorities, while commendable - the disaster management in the case of Cyclone Phailin is perhaps unprecedented in terms of scale - acquired a halo of uniqueness. Thats not surprising because the public have become familiar with tales of government apathy and ineptitude. But truth is there are instances of similar heroic efforts by bureaucratsin the past. Eighteen years ago, Surats new municipal commissioner SR Rao embarked on a Herculean task of saving a city from a treacherous plague that led to 300,000 fleeing for safer environs. In the next two years, Rao, now union commerce secretary, cleaned up the diamond city and put it back on the business trail. The government honoured Rao with a Padma Shri, a rare instance of such an honour being bestowed on a serving bureaucrat. Other bureaucrats too have adopted managerial tactics to preempt crises. ET presents three such cases in the recent past:- 2011: EVACUATION OF INDIANS IN LIBYA Key Player: Ms M Manimekalai, the then Indian ambassador to Libya. Challenge: Evacuating Indian nationals stranded in Libya amid European air strikes to end Muammar Gaddafis regime. Strategy: Organised evacuation by air, sea and also by road to neighbouring nations. Arranged local logistics, money and even 10,000 emergency passports from MEA in anticipation that Indians fleeing hot war zones of Benghazi and Tripoli may not be carrying travel documents Result: 16,000 Indian nationals were safely evacuated 2011-13: WOOING YOUTH IN NAXAL-HIT DANTEWADA Key Player: Om Prakash Choudhary, former district collector, Dantewada, Chhattisgarh Challenge: Preventing future generations from taking up guns in Naxal-hit Dantewada where one in two kids is a school dropout Strategy: Emphasis was on creating residential facilities for out-of-school children. Convinced government of India to build 500-seater residential campuses called Potacabins at 53 different locations in the district. Each campus is equipped with a large LCD TV, DVD player, sound systems and CDs of learning packages, cartoon films and educational films. Roped in unemployed local boys and girls as volunteers (with incentives thrown in) to survey dropout kids and bring them to educational centres. Result: The percentage of out-of-school children dropped from 50% to 13% in two years. 2011: PANCHAYAT POLLS IN J&K Key Players: Madhav Lal (the then chief secretary), Kuldeep Khoda (the then DGP), BR Sharma (the then chief electoral officer) Challenge: Conducting grassroots polls against a backdrop of unrest in the preceding summers of 2008, 2009 and 2010. Strategy: Created awareness ahead of elections. For example, state police arranged youth awareness camps. Computerisation of electoral rolls in over 29,000 polling stations.Elections were staggered in 17 phases. Result: 78% voting was recorded
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 06:56:42 +0000
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