HOW TO STRANGLE SOMEONE—WITH RED TAPE

 It has been said that bad  tidings come in threes.

I got a taste of this recently.

First came the news that Indian babus—the much derided government officials from the peon to the top echelons were to get an  hefty pay rise.

Then came the news that India’s bureaucracy is no longer a crisis for India. Don’t celebrate.   It is now raised to the status of one of the great WORLD PROBLEMS  [Courtesy the ECONOMIST magazine of U.K.]

The third bad news in this closely related list came in the form of the following headline

Man dies on road, cops can't decide whose case

The report says as follows

New Delhi: Twenty-four-year-old Ravi Girdhar, met with a fatal accident on Monday. The call centre employee died on the spot after his motorcycle hit the road divider on the Delhi-Noida border, in the Capital's Mayur Vihar area.

Even though the accident took place at around 4:40 am on Monday, Ravi's body lay unattended for over two hours as the police from Delhi and Uttar Pradesh quarreled over who should handle the case — and so, for over two hours, no one took Ravi's body to the hospital.

It was only when Ravi's relatives were informed and they arrived at the spot at 7 am, his body was transferred to the hospital, and then to in a goods carrier.

The police of both the states though, conveniently deny any charges of shirking responsibility.

Experts, however, say such incidents shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, Prakash Singh says, "Any police post would like to have one less case in its records. No one wants to take responsibility and spoil their track record."

My ‘ practical’  friends told me  ‘Ravi you will  agree that the man had already died so the bureaucratic attitude though  terrible did not really matter’.

Then read this episode.

A man was moving from the western railway platform to the central railway platform in the  inhumanly crowded Dadar station in Mumbai. Being crowded at the best of times   it being the evening rush time the man became breathless and suffered a heart attack right in the middle of the overbridge. One samaritan contacted the western railway authorities and  informed them about the fallen man and requested quick action. The western railway guy came after some time, saw the fallen man and decided that the patient was on the eastern half of the platform and was  the  responsibility of  the central railway. The august official of the central railway was ‘ requested’ to come, which he did after some time. The ailing man was still alive at that point of time   according  to eye witnesses. There arose a dispute between the two august officials each one insisting that the man was the other’s responsibility since he had fallen in the other’s jurisdiction. Even as the debate went on the man breathed his last –more  than an hour having elapsed.. Doctors said that if only the man been brought to the hospital nearby immediately  he could have been saved.

But then  RULES ARE RULES unless you are a V.I..P

But  our babus will get their pound of flesh .They are in for a hefty pay rise. The cost will be borne by the tax payer who is at the mercy of this slothful administration. I recall Gurcharan Das writing  about his visit to the residence of a senior I.A.S man. He saw the man appeared downcast contrary to   the normal demeanor of an  I.A.S man  who reeks of arrogance. Das  asked him why he was so morose. It transpired that the I.A.S man asked his son what his career ambitions were considering that he had just completed his  graduation . He specifically asked if he would be keen  to join the  I.A.S..

The son replied that  the I.A.S. was  full of sloth, negativity and corruption and he had nothing but contempt for the service.

I ask –Is our bureaucracy the solution or part of the problem? The ‘ECONOMIST’ FEELS IT IS A PART OF THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS !

K.R.RAVI

USA