Letters: Advisory overkill

This refers to T N Ninan's column "Where are the doers?" (Weekend Ruminations, June 15). A similar situation occurred during former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's regime, in which a large number of advisers were appointed from outside the civil services. Their editorials began debating whether it was a "boon or bane". A similar situation prevails here. Having too many advisory bodies with little matching action on the ground is certainly a bane for us. Further, it impedes the work of civil servants. It has now been over six months since the high-powered Cabinet committee was set up to clear stalled projects. The public is not aware of how many projects they have cleared so far. The only way to ensure this malaise is removed, is to insist on the annual reports of the respective ministries to be more meaningful with objectives, the relative achievement and reasons for shortfall. Currently, these annual reports deal with mundane information like the number of directors and divisions they have. No wonder the media does not even look into these reports and our legislatures hardly debate them. Further, we do not give adequate importance to a higher degree of training for our civil servants. For example, Britain is sending its civil servants to the Oxford University's Said Business School, for training on interaction with the private sector; whereas, we just ignore "latest skills imparting" for upper levels of civil service who bear the brunt of not only evolving major projects, but also managing them successfully. Astronomical amounts have been allocated in the 12th Plan for infrastructure, a bulk of which would involve private sector participation. Unless training for civil servants is taken up seriously, a far worse performance can be predicted in infra projects management in the next decade. It would not be a surprise if even smaller countries begin to dub us "mere talkers".

S Subramanyan Navi Mumbai

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