Guru Nanak Institutions Group’s MBA colleges and Departments are organizing a management students’ festival entitled “Guna-2011” on 15th-16th April, 2011.
About 500 MBA students from all around Andhra Pradesh are expected to participate in this event. This event is a platform for all MBA students to display their managerial skills and business management knowledge.
As part of this event, Guna-2011, competitions are held for the students in:
Business Inquisitive(Business Quiz),
Fin Quiz (Financial Management Quiz),
Business Plan (Business Plan Preparation),
ADZAP (Ad Copy Making),
Poster Presentation(Presentation of a Business Idea),
JAM (Extempore Talk),
Paper Presentation (Research Paper Presentation), and
Young Manager (Prerequisite Skills for a Young Manager).
Handsome cash prizes will be given to winning students; elaborate hospitality arrangements (free lunch) for two days are being made for participating students.
The inaugural session of the event runs between 10.00 a.m. and 12.00;
students will be addressed:
by the chief guest Dr. Y. Manohar, Former Director (HR) Vizag Steel Plant;
and the key note speaker, Mr. Sandeep Goel, CEO, Acuvate Software, Madhapur.
Contact: Venu: 8099944344
Karthik: 9908815427
Harinadh: 9966642829
Visit:
http://gniindia.org/
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Monday, November 1, 2010
Where is ‘marketing’ headed from ‘social marketing concept’? ‘Customer Life Growth Monitoring Concept’ seems to offer promise!
Where is ‘marketing’ headed from ‘social marketing concept’? ‘Customer Life Growth Monitoring Concept’ seems to offer promise!
A marketer who is interested in keeping with him his customer quite longer or for ever have till now traversed many stages- from production-orientation to sales-orientation to product-orientation to marketing-orientation to social marketing orientation. The evolution of marketer’s love and protective inclination for the customer extended further to the creation of life-time customer value and co-creation. These apart, the Porter’s value chain analysis has set out to explore all possibilities of giving the best service to the customer. What is the next marketing philosophy that can guide the marketer’s efforts? Is there any space left for further exploration by the marketing scholars?
What all the previous concepts fail to capture and can do further is: can the marketer monitor the growth ladder of the customer’s life and the corresponding upgrading of the customer to the next life stage in terms of what the marketer’s next product category can offer a customer. For example, an automobile company has sold its customer a scooter, which has later been replaced with a bike, which, in turn, later by an entry-level car, and later a medium-range car, and later, a luxury car.
The marketer’s main function of this philosophy is : take back the product first sold at its salvage value and give the upgraded version of product that new life stage of the customer requires, and later next cycle starts with a new product category as required by the growing customer. In the process, alongside of it, the customer’s network and their references are also brought into the marketer’s fold.
The main planks of the this concept are:
The customer is under eternal protective cover of the customer, which is an aggressive pursuit of customer’s life time value.
A customer’s life success growth graph is monitored for a very long period by the marketer by giving the customer’s product upgrades for ever.
His ramshackle clunkers are taken care of the marketer.
His network of relations are also tracked to bring them into the marketer’s fold.
Research scholars are challenged to take this further and establish its value for the marketer.
A marketer who is interested in keeping with him his customer quite longer or for ever have till now traversed many stages- from production-orientation to sales-orientation to product-orientation to marketing-orientation to social marketing orientation. The evolution of marketer’s love and protective inclination for the customer extended further to the creation of life-time customer value and co-creation. These apart, the Porter’s value chain analysis has set out to explore all possibilities of giving the best service to the customer. What is the next marketing philosophy that can guide the marketer’s efforts? Is there any space left for further exploration by the marketing scholars?
What all the previous concepts fail to capture and can do further is: can the marketer monitor the growth ladder of the customer’s life and the corresponding upgrading of the customer to the next life stage in terms of what the marketer’s next product category can offer a customer. For example, an automobile company has sold its customer a scooter, which has later been replaced with a bike, which, in turn, later by an entry-level car, and later a medium-range car, and later, a luxury car.
The marketer’s main function of this philosophy is : take back the product first sold at its salvage value and give the upgraded version of product that new life stage of the customer requires, and later next cycle starts with a new product category as required by the growing customer. In the process, alongside of it, the customer’s network and their references are also brought into the marketer’s fold.
The main planks of the this concept are:
The customer is under eternal protective cover of the customer, which is an aggressive pursuit of customer’s life time value.
A customer’s life success growth graph is monitored for a very long period by the marketer by giving the customer’s product upgrades for ever.
His ramshackle clunkers are taken care of the marketer.
His network of relations are also tracked to bring them into the marketer’s fold.
Research scholars are challenged to take this further and establish its value for the marketer.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Reaching AICTE helpdesk- It is a pie in the sky!
Dr. Kapil Sibal wants to make his presence felt. He appears to be seriously engaged in revamping the higher education system, and as part of it, he has set out to streamline the AICTE approval process. Accordingly, he has made it mandatory for every institution to upload their details on AICTE website.
But alas! The website is not at all accessible and is hardly open to feed the details into. Realizing the reality, AICTE has extended the time of uploading from 28-2-10 to 15-3-10. Now the accessibility is a little better. But problems that are staring in the face are those related to payments and helpdesk services.
1. Payments are not acknowledged although about 15 are completed after payment; payments are supposed to be acknowledged within 3 or 4 days, but they are not. It is difficult to know when they will be acknowledged. That apart, the worst inconvenience that every institution faces is that further details cannot be uploaded until the first payment is acknowledged. AICTE is sitting on the payments like a dog in the manger. To get some reply, one can call the helpdesk.
2. But helpdesk is the worst ever disorganized system known to mankind. None of the four numbers they have given are reachable; they are either engaged or don’t answer till doom! It is the height of disorganization. Quite strangely, one number they gave is an invalid number.
That is the level of service that Ministry of Higher Education/ Government Of India is prepared to give to their stakeholders!
Friday, July 10, 2009
Transport Commissioner ( Andhra Pradesh ) Should Stand in the Queue Like an Ordinary Citizen to Obtain a Driving License!
Transport Commissioner ( Andhra Pradesh ) Should Stand in the Queue Like an Ordinary Citizen to Obtain a Driving License!
Road Transport Authority seemed to have made a slight yet good makeover. Driver’s Learning License which was once a ritual is now determined by one’s traffic and driving knowledge. In the earlier era, the staff of driving school used to take the signature of a person requiring a license on a prescribed form, and fix an appointment with the transport officer. The practical test was just a ritual. After that, in a week or so, one could get Driving License. It is not so now.
Today, I attended a learner’s driving test. It was not a practical driving test; it was a computer-based one to test an aspirant’s knowledge but not skill. I, who has been driving for the last twenty years, failed in the test! The test examines a person’s knowledge about road signs, and also about what one does in certain critical driving situations.
When I was on a trip to my home village and on the way to railway station, a small truck which came in on reverse gear and hit my car on its bonnet no matter how loudly I cried saying he (one coming in the reverse direction) was wrong ; he was unable to apply brakes. I realized that the driver, probably new to driving, was not adequately familiar with use of gears and brakes. His mistake cost me Rs.20000. This driver must be an employee, and must have been engaged without his driving skills verified. Effective driving tests are a must to avoid loss of this kind to the innocent citizens and their families.
The Road Transport Office was in an utter mess when the server was down and the waiting lines were quite long. They have no alternative. Any Transport Commissioner should visit the transport offices, come like a ordinary citizen and find for himself what happens in the grueling queues. This is what the illustrious TTD Executive Officer, Mr. IYR Krishna Rao did; he stood in line like an ordinary citizen to get to know of the service given to devotees.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Non-responsive and Disconnected Governance : The Choice of Masses?
Non-responsive and Disconnected Governance : The Choice of Masses?
“We haven’t got Indiramma Houses although we are unquestionably eligible; only the henchmen of the local Congress leaders have scooped up all of them regardless of their eligibility. Same is the case with old age pension benefits or any other welfare schemes launched by the Congress government.” This is the opinion expressed by the public when TV9, a popular Telugu News TV Channel has organized “ Auto Yatra”, which is an oral survey of the common people conducted in April, 2009; it is an attempt to find out the public perceptions about the how the government have performed so far. This corresponds to what some villagers have repeatedly told me: welfare schemes are the monopoly of Congress supporters only. This confirms what Columnist Gurucharan Das comments: though every political party promises more rice, more schools, more hospitals and so on but 80% of the rice will not reach the poor, 25% of teachers will be absent from the schools, and 40% of the doctors will not show up at the primary health centers.
Simply stated, welfare scheme don’t reach the eligible; nobody knows what procedures are followed; it is an easy guess that there is no accountability in the functionaries. Given this, it is quite likely that citizen’s requests or their grievances are considered Cinderella and so they are either pushed under carpet or forgot. As far as my experience goes, there is neither the grievance handling mechanism nor a semblance of interest on the part of the Congress governments to make existing mechanism successful.
Congress governments, if what I see in the A.P. is any indication, have apparently adopted a non-responsive, non-transparent governance as a strategy; by pursuing it, it is possible that only the handpicked beneficiaries are identified and favored; they are expected to form a strong vote bank which the party can fall back on with aplomb for future elections as well; it is also possible that certain government officials are encouraged to favor only the handpicked beneficiaries, for which government functionaries are either suitably rewarded or let off with no accountability or encouraged to be corrupt and low performers. But I don’t ever harbor even the faintest feeling that all this is done frivolously or purposelessly; nor is it the output of the inefficiency of the Congress government. It surely is a well-conceived and carefully pursued strategy, which is corroborated by the facts I recount in following parts of this article. Non-responsive governance systems help the party functionaries amass more wealth and muscle power; such resources can again be used for the next elections. It is needless to say that such corrupt systems have no place for either inputs from the public, or transparent and responsive governance. This can generate money and muscle power to fund the elections, besides loyal employee groups; these resources are assumed to help Congress win the upcoming elections; back to power, the party would ladle the same non-responsive, non-transparent and corrupt governance to generate money, and create or maintain loyal employee groups. This kind of cycle which is expected to repeat over many future elections is apparently made the centerpiece of the strategy of the party in power in A.P.
Before putting any stock in this theory of non-responsive, non-transparent and corrupt governance being pursued as a strategy, let us find out if, by any chance, the chief functionaries of Congress are prepared to create transparent governance systems, and interested in properly handling the grievances of the general public. As a citizen and as a victim of governance systems, I happened to send many representations to many government functionaries including Chief Minister and Vigilance Commission and principal secretaries, and down to mandal revenue officers. No letter is ever acknowledged, leave alone taking of action on them, no matter how many years I, the aggrieved, waited! Andhra Pradesh state deserves the label ‘Action-less (ignored) Papers State. Similarly, Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy cannot be reached on email, which contrasts sharply with the Chandrababu who invites representations and acknowledges them; besides, he adopted a well-conceived method of disposing of them as well. Further, look to see how the Congress party deals with the inputs from the public. Deplorably, even in the votecong website of the local Congress too, there in no provision for feedback or grievances or suggestions. Similarly, the Congress party website, aicc websit does not have a button for recording the opinions of the public. What about the top brass? Are they any different? About four years ago, I happened to write letters to Sonia Gandhi, Sushil Kumar Shinde, and YS Rajasekhar Reddy about the problems I was facing from the government systems; none of my letters was acknowledged, leave alone action taken on them. My experience with the government portal, pgportal website too says that its operational responsiveness is just lackadaisical.
Congress governments typically turn a deaf ear to public grievances and a blind eye to responsive governance. But it shows an assuring hand (their election symbol). By and large, one is left to believe that Congress party does not want inputs from public; nor is it willing to effectively deal with the public grievances.
There is a clear disconnect between the public and the governance in the Congress regime. At the most, it cares for the opinions of the local leaders, their henchmen, who obviously have their own interests, definitely not those of the public in general whose opinions might often change; the interests of the local leaders and governance offenders are stealthily safeguarded; this generates money, muscle power and loyal employee groups to ensure success in the future elections. ‘Will this strategy work?’ is question the Congress leaders have to reflect on quite seriously. This may mean doom to the Congress since the voters are increasingly becoming aware of how governments are performing. The voters who voted for Congress last time (26.54% in 2004) may not all prefer Congress again due to subsequent realization of how non-responsive the Congress governments are. The efforts of the local Congress supporters and loyal employee groups, who are just a minority, may fail to bring victory. Congress people may reason that other parties like Telugu Desam too did the same. But Telugu Desam was relatively more transparent and tilted towards better governance.
But, it is unfortunate that the voters don’t want good governance, clean governance and efficiency! I think this is a trade-off for stability and populist schemes. 2009 elections pushed India 10 more years behind!
Friday, March 20, 2009
Why should government make citizens jump through hoops to obtain a certificate?
Why should government make citizens jump through hoops to obtain a certificate?
To get a caste certificate for son, I went to the office of the Mandal Revenue Officer. It is a story that happened in 2002. I portrayed myself to the officer as a cog in the wheel of the government! The officer wore a welcome look and spoke very courteously giving me an impression that for a person of my stature, issue of a certificate is just a walk in the park. He said, “ Send somebody, sir, it would be ready by tomorrow and it would be given to your person”. It was very assuring so I did not have a fleck of doubt about what I had to get.The next day, I got off work a couple of hours earlier and headed for the caste-certificate issue office. An old man, appearing to be a low-rung employee, stared at me for a few seconds and ignored me. I went straight to the officer I spoke to yesterday. The officer was not there since he was on tour. A clerk who was shuffling papers and files in the officer’s cabin volunteered to advise me that I should come the next day. I was puzzled and disappointed.
To ascertain if my application was receiving the attention of the right person, or, luckily, action was already taken, I went to the relevant clerk to enquire. He dug through the papers and files to find mine, and the answer I was anxious to get came out of his lips, and I was shocked. ‘Your paper did not reach us’. This is the language particular to Indian public offices.
I went home and made another set of applications. I went to the office and searched for the low-rung employee for his help; he said he was observing me since the first time I went to that office. He took the application and told me to come a couple of days later. Dealing with him was not very expensive. He took the responsibility to file the application and get the certificate issued. I went two days later and collected the certificate from the clerk who made it ready. Things have to be got done through the agents!
This is the story of a privileged member of the society who has to pursue or bribe the staff in the public offices! Imagine the situation a poor farmer or crafts person has to encounter in these offices to get a certificate for his son. It is horrendous! He has to make a few overnight stays and bribe many!
Can’t governments spend money on database and its updating? Why should an officer issue a certificate! Certificates can be issued within minutes by the front office manager or a receptionist in a public officer if only the database about the citizens is kept and updated! Which Government Can Do This? I will vote for such political party.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
It is difficult to reach public servants in Andhra Pradesh
It is i to reach public servants!
In this era of information/computer technology and internet, governments like those of Andhra Pradesh should be seamlessly wired/ connected to receive inputs from the public or sort out their problems; still, the people at helm in Andhra Pradesh appear to have the mindset that a member of the public should visit their offices and submit their complaints and queries! How much wastage does such personal visits entail –expenditure, hassles and inconvenience to the visitor, and attention that has to be paid by the officer. To illustrate, one has to spend money on transport, spend time to visit and encounter the hassles of passing through security or elicit cooperation from the unwilling employees.
In this era of information/computer technology and internet, governments like those of Andhra Pradesh should be seamlessly wired/ connected to receive inputs from the public or sort out their problems; still, the people at helm in Andhra Pradesh appear to have the mindset that a member of the public should visit their offices and submit their complaints and queries! How much wastage does such personal visits entail –expenditure, hassles and inconvenience to the visitor, and attention that has to be paid by the officer. To illustrate, one has to spend money on transport, spend time to visit and encounter the hassles of passing through security or elicit cooperation from the unwilling employees.
I visited ‘www.aponline.gov.in’. When I tried to contact the officers on email - for example, those of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation or Vigilance Commission, the email messages either rebounded or remained unacknowledged; most of the email ids given in the portal are either non-extant or dead (long unopened). A citizen cannot reach a government servant; during Chandrababunaidu’s time, email system was good, whereas in current regime, no such focus is seen. No government officer responds to the emails from the public. Earlier, even Chandrababunaidu used to personally respond to the emails, which contrasts sharply with the present situation in which YSR has no such discipline to respond; for one, all the representations to CM of our colleagues who were unfairly discharged from services during Chandrababu’s rule appear to have been pushed under carpet, although five years have elapsed after the first submission of their representations. I am sure you cannot now reach the CM in any manner; he does not have a system to look at the correspondence or meet the public and has no system to monitor what happens to such correspondence or visits.
He does not want us to reach him. He appears to believe that system takes care of what has to be done to the public; but what puzzles me is that he does not know that there is no system. Or, he seemingly assumes that he can figure out our needs himself without our inputs; YSR either has no understanding of concept of good governance; or, such pretence of ignorance benefits him as well as supporters. Same is the mindset of either Sonia Gandhi or Sushil Kumar Shinde! In fact, Congress government appears to thrive on bad governance. ‘Don’t be transparent and don’t let people reach you’ is the lodestar and centerpiece of their strategy! May God Bless This Country!
AP People Cannot Understand Social Justice
Dr. Chiranjeevi held a ‘Social Justice Conference’ yesterday in Rajamundry. The centerpiece of his manifesto or political strategy is social justice and corruption-free government. Do such promises appeal to the plebian people? The people, unfortunately, cannot distinguish slavery from decent living; they cannot distinguish bad governance from a good one; they cannot tell between corruption and rule of law. They don’t mind the way they are treated in a police station or an MRO office. They don’t mind paying bribes, and experience insults in the public offices; they don’t bother if their children are unable to get into public employment; they have no ability to understand that their brethren of lesser gods are either marginalized or disadvantaged. This is the backdrop created, or canvass laid by the successive Congress and Telugu Desam governments. Congress, Chandrababu and Corruption all, belong to the same Caste!
How To Finalize Party Manifesto: A Scientific Method
When the political parties formulate their strategies basing on different agendas/promises, they should take care to identify and finalize the combination of agendas (Portfolio of Promises). This Agenda Portfolio will either make or mar a party’s chances of success greatly. This is something like a product offer; a company identifies carefully the features of their product to be launched: features, material quality, style and design, price and so on. Each product is a unique combination of offers. Is there a statistical or scientific method to find out the best mix of product features or, for that matter, party agenda? Yes. It is ‘Conjoint Analysis’.
The Dismal Inefficiency in Voter Identity Cards’ Issue in Andhra Pradesh
After a long, excruciating wait, today, my son and my daughter got their voter identity cards ; they are registered as voters for the first time. They were all eyes to see their voter identity cards. They received but there is not even a single entry which is correct! The entry clerk did not appear to be able to read from the record at least name, not speak of date of birth or address or father’s name! A shining example of sloppy work that happens in any government department!
The following entries are wrong:
1. The voter’s name itself is wrong in both English and Telugu entries; there is at least no correspondence between Telugu and English entries;
2. Father’s name is wrong;
3. Address is wrong; and
4. Age is wrong.
The following are the details.
My daughter’s Card
No.YZK0229674 As in the card (wrong entry) What it should be as per record (correct entry)
Name M.Nirupam Mrunalini M.Nirupama Mrinalini
Age 1985 1986
Father’s Name Appalayya Appa Laiah
Address Saktisainagar KL Nagar Community Hall
My son’s Card
No.YZK0229708 As in the card What it should be as per record
Name MVIR Venkatesh MMVR Venkatesh
Age 1988 1987
Father’s Name Appalayya Appa Laiah
Address Saktisainagar KL Nagar Community Hall
The obvious reasons for these blunders are:
1. Quality staff was not hired.
2. There was no supervision.
3. There was no planning.
4. The job was done in a rush.
The following entries are wrong:
1. The voter’s name itself is wrong in both English and Telugu entries; there is at least no correspondence between Telugu and English entries;
2. Father’s name is wrong;
3. Address is wrong; and
4. Age is wrong.
The following are the details.
My daughter’s Card
No.YZK0229674 As in the card (wrong entry) What it should be as per record (correct entry)
Name M.Nirupam Mrunalini M.Nirupama Mrinalini
Age 1985 1986
Father’s Name Appalayya Appa Laiah
Address Saktisainagar KL Nagar Community Hall
My son’s Card
No.YZK0229708 As in the card What it should be as per record
Name MVIR Venkatesh MMVR Venkatesh
Age 1988 1987
Father’s Name Appalayya Appa Laiah
Address Saktisainagar KL Nagar Community Hall
The obvious reasons for these blunders are:
1. Quality staff was not hired.
2. There was no supervision.
3. There was no planning.
4. The job was done in a rush.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
A.P.Government Retrenches PSU Staff To Accommodate Ad-Hoc Deputation Officers: A Handiwork Of Vested Interests
A.P.Government Retrenches PSU Staff To Accommodate Ad-Hoc Deputation Officers: A Handiwork Of Vested Interests
(A Story on Chandrababunaidu’s Machiavellian Machinations)
Pandering to the World Bank’s blood thirst (excessive desire for laying off staff) for employees, Chandrababunaidu, the power-hungry, back-stabbing, Machiavellian CM formulated a plan to retrench Government staff.
Although the aim was to retrench unproductive, non-responsive government staff, he guessed that Government employees would not take such reforms kindly; he predicted a strong backlash. To get round this, the only way out for him was to cut the personnel of PSUs who were poorly unionized. The blind, retrenchment-hungry World Bank was shown how the Government cut the government personnel.
Massive retrenchment was launched no matter how unfair, unwarranted and implausible that exercise was. Organizations, as a result, were weakened. Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy also tried to follow suit. But he panicked at the specter of losing his job as it was the case with Chandrababunaidu.
Chandrababunaidu, to be brief, concentrated all his energies on retrenchment; even in the court cases dealing with prejudice, he saw that the retrenchment was not halted under any circumstances no matter how outrageous and cruel it was; he asked the PSUs to engage very expensive Advocates. For instance, in Serifed’s case, a former Advocate General was engaged to argue against the case filed by a handful of employees; as if it was not enough, he instructed the State Advocate General to be present at the time of argument. It was a bizarre, savage-sounding scene that two Advocate Generals were present for a case filed by as few as 6 employees that too on prejudicial grounds; the final output is the discharge of all the employees; the saving grace is that the cases were kept open for final hearing; by now, five years flew off but the discharged employees are still finding it difficult to get the case for final hearing.
Such an overbearing administrator who was out and out for retrenchment took a U-turn now to say that he is not for retrenchment! That is the definition of Machiavellianism and Hypocrisy.
Another angle to the story of Chandrababunaidu’s (government’s) retrenchment carnage is that retrenchment is not done in the departments where there is real need; there are excessive personnel and they have to be laid off; but they are not; moreover, more personnel are selected regularly; take for example, the officers and staff in the Department of Cooperation or Revenue or Sericulture, most of the officers of these departments are on deputation to other departments and PSUs, which means that in their own departments they have no permanent jobs/posts. We call them deputationists. They remain government servants just for the reason that they occupy temporary jobs in PSUs or other departments; no need to say that they have to be retrenched. Further worse, new posts are created and selections made just based on these ad-hoc posts to be filled by personnel on deputation.
An important harm the officers (working in host organizations on deputation) are doing to their host organization is that because of them, PSUs are run on ad hoc basis, which is a measure of a disastrous lack of professionalism. Besides, the native employees (the employees of the host department) are demoralized for lack of promotions and the utter disregard for professionalism. The governments are stupid enough not to notice this trend. Probably, vested interests have their way! The staff of the PSUs is bearing cross and sadly retrenched when government staff has to be laid off just because government is run by vested interests! In nutshell, posts are created and protected where there is no need and PSUs which require people are deprived of their hands!
Strangely, this Chandrababu is today ranting and raving that people are affected by the rule of DR.Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy because of the rampant corruption, and so YSR be dethroned. But Chandrababunaid should realize that we were more seriously affected by his retrenchment practices than the corruption of YSR’s Regime. If he says that he will not retrench Government staff, who will believe such promises particularly from a person who very brutally retrenched the staff and who stabbed in the back of his own father-in-law who gave power.
(A Story on Chandrababunaidu’s Machiavellian Machinations)
Pandering to the World Bank’s blood thirst (excessive desire for laying off staff) for employees, Chandrababunaidu, the power-hungry, back-stabbing, Machiavellian CM formulated a plan to retrench Government staff.
Although the aim was to retrench unproductive, non-responsive government staff, he guessed that Government employees would not take such reforms kindly; he predicted a strong backlash. To get round this, the only way out for him was to cut the personnel of PSUs who were poorly unionized. The blind, retrenchment-hungry World Bank was shown how the Government cut the government personnel.
Massive retrenchment was launched no matter how unfair, unwarranted and implausible that exercise was. Organizations, as a result, were weakened. Dr. YS Rajasekhara Reddy also tried to follow suit. But he panicked at the specter of losing his job as it was the case with Chandrababunaidu.
Chandrababunaidu, to be brief, concentrated all his energies on retrenchment; even in the court cases dealing with prejudice, he saw that the retrenchment was not halted under any circumstances no matter how outrageous and cruel it was; he asked the PSUs to engage very expensive Advocates. For instance, in Serifed’s case, a former Advocate General was engaged to argue against the case filed by a handful of employees; as if it was not enough, he instructed the State Advocate General to be present at the time of argument. It was a bizarre, savage-sounding scene that two Advocate Generals were present for a case filed by as few as 6 employees that too on prejudicial grounds; the final output is the discharge of all the employees; the saving grace is that the cases were kept open for final hearing; by now, five years flew off but the discharged employees are still finding it difficult to get the case for final hearing.
Such an overbearing administrator who was out and out for retrenchment took a U-turn now to say that he is not for retrenchment! That is the definition of Machiavellianism and Hypocrisy.
Another angle to the story of Chandrababunaidu’s (government’s) retrenchment carnage is that retrenchment is not done in the departments where there is real need; there are excessive personnel and they have to be laid off; but they are not; moreover, more personnel are selected regularly; take for example, the officers and staff in the Department of Cooperation or Revenue or Sericulture, most of the officers of these departments are on deputation to other departments and PSUs, which means that in their own departments they have no permanent jobs/posts. We call them deputationists. They remain government servants just for the reason that they occupy temporary jobs in PSUs or other departments; no need to say that they have to be retrenched. Further worse, new posts are created and selections made just based on these ad-hoc posts to be filled by personnel on deputation.
An important harm the officers (working in host organizations on deputation) are doing to their host organization is that because of them, PSUs are run on ad hoc basis, which is a measure of a disastrous lack of professionalism. Besides, the native employees (the employees of the host department) are demoralized for lack of promotions and the utter disregard for professionalism. The governments are stupid enough not to notice this trend. Probably, vested interests have their way! The staff of the PSUs is bearing cross and sadly retrenched when government staff has to be laid off just because government is run by vested interests! In nutshell, posts are created and protected where there is no need and PSUs which require people are deprived of their hands!
Strangely, this Chandrababu is today ranting and raving that people are affected by the rule of DR.Y.S.Rajasekhara Reddy because of the rampant corruption, and so YSR be dethroned. But Chandrababunaid should realize that we were more seriously affected by his retrenchment practices than the corruption of YSR’s Regime. If he says that he will not retrench Government staff, who will believe such promises particularly from a person who very brutally retrenched the staff and who stabbed in the back of his own father-in-law who gave power.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Congress may go out of voters’ favor in the next elections
Congress may go out of voters’ favor in the next elections for the reasons of corruption and bad governance.
Congress has no idea or concept of good governance. Their leaders’ minds are devoid of the faculty for such initiatives. Due to this there are no proper governance systems; so it takes money and influence to get anything from government offices. Congress did nothing on this count. Nobody responds to your requests made to any government office. There are no well-maintained websites and interactive systems to lend ear to the public grievances. I wonder if this is their ( Congress) chosen route to corruption. Chandrababu scores better on this count. Congress will be viewed as an institution strongly in favor of neglected governance. Though populist schemes lure the poor, the latter have problem in accessing the former unmistakably due to the rickety governance systems. The initial letter C in Congress may evoke the pictures of Corruption for the public.
(Chandrababu who has C as his initial letter in his name is already known to be corrupt too, due to his undue haste in pandering to the wishes of World Bank; he wanted to please the World Bank by downsizing public sector, and neglecting the traditional industries. This jinxed him. However, people don’t believe him since he now takes U-turn on most of what he first opposed)
Congress has no idea or concept of good governance. Their leaders’ minds are devoid of the faculty for such initiatives. Due to this there are no proper governance systems; so it takes money and influence to get anything from government offices. Congress did nothing on this count. Nobody responds to your requests made to any government office. There are no well-maintained websites and interactive systems to lend ear to the public grievances. I wonder if this is their ( Congress) chosen route to corruption. Chandrababu scores better on this count. Congress will be viewed as an institution strongly in favor of neglected governance. Though populist schemes lure the poor, the latter have problem in accessing the former unmistakably due to the rickety governance systems. The initial letter C in Congress may evoke the pictures of Corruption for the public.
(Chandrababu who has C as his initial letter in his name is already known to be corrupt too, due to his undue haste in pandering to the wishes of World Bank; he wanted to please the World Bank by downsizing public sector, and neglecting the traditional industries. This jinxed him. However, people don’t believe him since he now takes U-turn on most of what he first opposed)
A Eulogy to Rama Linga Raju
A Eulogy to Rama Linga Raju
Raju is indeed valiant, brave and really royal. He didn’t run away like that Krishi Bank fellow. He admitted to his follies, though belatedly. Real estate downturn may have wreaked havoc on his audacious plan or else he will have continued to be a hero. There is also a possibility that he spent more on bribing the government functionaries which he may have wanted to set off with the appreciated value in real estate. Still I consider him a hero for a good number of reasons.
He has established a company which ranked fourth in the Indian software industry. Through that, he provided employment to more than 50000 persons. He put Hyderabad on the software map.
The most important is the one related to the poor. In eight minutes, a sick person can get transfer from his home to any hospital of his choice just because of the concept advanced by Sri Rama Linga Raju, 108 Emergency Service. It would not have existed without this humble idea of Rama Linga Raju. It is a wonderful service no Nobel prize winner could ever think of. If Government did it, it would have reached the service level of any squlid sarkari davakhana, a home of filth, delay and corruption. Thank you, Rama Linga Raju, the posterity can never forget your service through 108. Your bungling of Rs.7000 crores is nothing before what you did to the poor and vulnerable. In fact, I would not have minded if you did an error of 17000 crores.
Sorry, Investors, I am sympathetic to Ramalinga Raju for what he did to this country. But all said and done, I cannot help staying with you for the misfortune brought about by Satyam debacle; plan your future investments better and make allowance for such risks.
The law will punish Raju but it does not serve any purpose for you in respect of what you invested in Satyam Computers.
Raju is indeed valiant, brave and really royal. He didn’t run away like that Krishi Bank fellow. He admitted to his follies, though belatedly. Real estate downturn may have wreaked havoc on his audacious plan or else he will have continued to be a hero. There is also a possibility that he spent more on bribing the government functionaries which he may have wanted to set off with the appreciated value in real estate. Still I consider him a hero for a good number of reasons.
He has established a company which ranked fourth in the Indian software industry. Through that, he provided employment to more than 50000 persons. He put Hyderabad on the software map.
The most important is the one related to the poor. In eight minutes, a sick person can get transfer from his home to any hospital of his choice just because of the concept advanced by Sri Rama Linga Raju, 108 Emergency Service. It would not have existed without this humble idea of Rama Linga Raju. It is a wonderful service no Nobel prize winner could ever think of. If Government did it, it would have reached the service level of any squlid sarkari davakhana, a home of filth, delay and corruption. Thank you, Rama Linga Raju, the posterity can never forget your service through 108. Your bungling of Rs.7000 crores is nothing before what you did to the poor and vulnerable. In fact, I would not have minded if you did an error of 17000 crores.
Sorry, Investors, I am sympathetic to Ramalinga Raju for what he did to this country. But all said and done, I cannot help staying with you for the misfortune brought about by Satyam debacle; plan your future investments better and make allowance for such risks.
The law will punish Raju but it does not serve any purpose for you in respect of what you invested in Satyam Computers.
Friday, November 7, 2008
POLICE STATION IS BUSY: IT HAS NO TIME TO HELP THE CITIZENS!
POLICE STATION IS BUSY: IT HAS NO TIME TO HELP THE CITIZENS!
Recently, my mobile was stolen while I was boarding an RTC bus at Nallakunta. When I retraced my movements, I realized that a person holding a Telugu newspaper tried to mob around me and feigned to ask somebody something on the board of the bus when I was checking from the gate if there was room; he did not board the bus since I did not. I boarded the next bus when there was really a big crowd but I was not mindful of my pocket in which my mobile phone and a purse were put; the same person play-acted boarding and while doing so, he put his newspaper on my pocket and did his trick and stole, which I did not notice till half an hour later.
My colleague suggested that I should complain this theft to the police, giving IMEI number (a unique identity number of any mobile phone).
I did not feel like going to a police station because when I visited a police station the last time for a similar purpose, the cooperation I got from it was dismally lukewarm and discouraging. It happened to me in Mehdipatnam Police Station in Hyderabad in September 2008.
A boy from my home village, as part of his tantrums, left his parents without informing them where he was heading; a couple of calls made by him to his parents gave the clue that he was hiding in Hyderabad. I along with the boy’s relatives went to Mehdipatnam Police Station seeking their help in locating the boy by accessing the mobile phone user database each police station is provided with.
There are many personnel in the station. On our way to the reception desk, about three officials (not officers, just staff members, probably constables and clerks) asked why we had come. We explained with full details. Nobody appeared to be enthusiastic or willing to help. Nobody showed the body language that a police station would be of help. Everybody agreed that they had the database. A relatively elderly person wanted us to wait saying that the relevant clerk was busy with the work related to submission of returns. We waited in the police about two hours and kept reminding the elderly staff member if the relevant person was then free to help. A little later, one person announced that the computer was not working since an important chord was broken and so connectivity gone.
One of the sentry staff suggested that a constable belonging to our district is working in the same station and he would help us if we requested him; his mobile phone number was also given to us. We called him more than four times. He was telling that he would come and did not for a long time. After about two hours, he came, went inside the station and left saying he would come back and help us. He did not turn up at all.
We waited in the station for about three hours with no help forthcoming. To push the process, I asked one of the personnel if I could meet the Inspector to speak about our problem; he replied it would be of no use since the computer was broken and the clerk was busy in his work.
By their delay and behavior, we were firmly convinced that they would not help us and we had to understand this fact ourselves since they would never tell us straight. We returned home in despair.
Government is staffing Police Stations very generously: in as many numbers as required. It is giving facilities like computers and vehicles to the Police. But police personnel are busy and computers are not working. What use are these police stations? First of all, who is really bothering if the police stations are doing their jobs as they should? The answers to these questions represent the bad governance we in Andhra Pradesh are forced to live with.
Recently, my mobile was stolen while I was boarding an RTC bus at Nallakunta. When I retraced my movements, I realized that a person holding a Telugu newspaper tried to mob around me and feigned to ask somebody something on the board of the bus when I was checking from the gate if there was room; he did not board the bus since I did not. I boarded the next bus when there was really a big crowd but I was not mindful of my pocket in which my mobile phone and a purse were put; the same person play-acted boarding and while doing so, he put his newspaper on my pocket and did his trick and stole, which I did not notice till half an hour later.
My colleague suggested that I should complain this theft to the police, giving IMEI number (a unique identity number of any mobile phone).
I did not feel like going to a police station because when I visited a police station the last time for a similar purpose, the cooperation I got from it was dismally lukewarm and discouraging. It happened to me in Mehdipatnam Police Station in Hyderabad in September 2008.
A boy from my home village, as part of his tantrums, left his parents without informing them where he was heading; a couple of calls made by him to his parents gave the clue that he was hiding in Hyderabad. I along with the boy’s relatives went to Mehdipatnam Police Station seeking their help in locating the boy by accessing the mobile phone user database each police station is provided with.
There are many personnel in the station. On our way to the reception desk, about three officials (not officers, just staff members, probably constables and clerks) asked why we had come. We explained with full details. Nobody appeared to be enthusiastic or willing to help. Nobody showed the body language that a police station would be of help. Everybody agreed that they had the database. A relatively elderly person wanted us to wait saying that the relevant clerk was busy with the work related to submission of returns. We waited in the police about two hours and kept reminding the elderly staff member if the relevant person was then free to help. A little later, one person announced that the computer was not working since an important chord was broken and so connectivity gone.
One of the sentry staff suggested that a constable belonging to our district is working in the same station and he would help us if we requested him; his mobile phone number was also given to us. We called him more than four times. He was telling that he would come and did not for a long time. After about two hours, he came, went inside the station and left saying he would come back and help us. He did not turn up at all.
We waited in the station for about three hours with no help forthcoming. To push the process, I asked one of the personnel if I could meet the Inspector to speak about our problem; he replied it would be of no use since the computer was broken and the clerk was busy in his work.
By their delay and behavior, we were firmly convinced that they would not help us and we had to understand this fact ourselves since they would never tell us straight. We returned home in despair.
Government is staffing Police Stations very generously: in as many numbers as required. It is giving facilities like computers and vehicles to the Police. But police personnel are busy and computers are not working. What use are these police stations? First of all, who is really bothering if the police stations are doing their jobs as they should? The answers to these questions represent the bad governance we in Andhra Pradesh are forced to live with.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
WE ARE STARVING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ANDHRA PRADESH!
WE ARE STARVING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ANDHRA PRADESH!
When I was working in a government-run cooperative society (I worked there for 20 years), I was made to work as a subordinate as long as nine years under a government officer drawing less than my pay. If it were others, they would definitely cry foul over such a practice!
When there was a vacancy to which I could be promoted, I was not given that position on a variety of fake alibis and pleas- young age, or technical person not usually taken for an administrative job, or a servant of a firm run by a government could never be equivalent to a government servant, or experience, qualifications and salary drawn could never be the criteria for promotion. This is the Andhra kind of apartheid!
When I pleaded down on my knees with the chairman of an upper caste for promotion (in 1994), he said:
“How it possible to give you any kind of advancement which may leave a certain group dissatisfied? That group had joined much before you did.” They were all lower-grade employees belonging to upper castes! My qualifications, experience and salary were not accepted as criteria.
That group consists of members from his community; he and the group already had a private conversation to turn down any kind of requests from me for my promotion.
Ironically and curiously, the chairman belonging to an upper caste sneaked into a cooperative society meant for handloom weavers! He espoused the interests of upper caste employees disregarding my eligibility, most atrociously, by taking membership in a society established for backward weavers!
When regularizing the services of daily wage employees also, the chairman in collusion with the other officers belonging to upper castes, benefited only those of upper castes and henchmen of upper-caste officers in the process of regularization. Sadly, all those daily wage employees belonging to backward castes were shown the door, on the plea of economic revamp of the organization!
After some years, when Chandrababunaidu was humoring the World Bank by downsizing the organizations although such organizations were running in profits, I and other employees belonging to only backward classes were identified as candidates for downsizing! Even IAS officers believed to be impartial played into the games of upper caste officers! We lost our jobs!
Only Mega Leader Chiranjeevi who has taken social justice as a primary plank in the elections is our hope now.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The Change That I Expect Chiranjeevi’s Government to Bring into Andhra Pradesh
The Change That I Expect Chiranjeevi’s Government to Bring into Andhra Pradesh
( Dr. Appalayya Meesala, Professor, Deccan School of Management, Hyderabad. ameesala@gmail.com phone: 9848514011)
Structural Interventions
Improve farm productivity by way of more research or innovations in farm technology. Allot heftier budgets for research on crop varieties, crop management practices, and data management; a remunerative farm economy will fund higher education, and ensures distributive justice. Encourage more investment in agriculture goods processing industry.
Encourage migration of rural folk to urban areas which give even an illiterate person the vision about higher standards of living, education, a wide variety of livelihood opportunities, civilization and assertiveness. Create more jobs in urban areas. Invite foreign direct investment in a number of industries and design the necessary incentives. Design the government-clearance process in such a way that any industry can be started in just 15 days. Improve the facilities in the urban areas to make them more hospitable.
Give high quality education to the poor. The poorest should have access to the best of education.
100% literacy in 5 years. Engage all the matriculates and pay them remuneration for making people literate on per-head basis. (If there is a scheme to pay each matriculate Rs.700 to make one person a literate, achieving 100% literacy is no big deal).
Spend heavily on roads, communication, power and public transport.
Spend heavily on medical care to the people through private hospital. (Work out a method to avoid false claims.)
Focus on research and the transfer of the research outcome to the industry, as done by Singapore and Hong Kong. More patents applications should be filed from Andhra Pradesh.
Develop 100 new cities in Andhra Pradesh
Governance Interventions
100% transparency about how government machinery makes decisions.
There should be quantitative measures for the performance of every government servant.
There should be computerized data on every living hand of this state. Plans are failing on account of wrong data and intuitive estimates. Our budget is going into wrong hands because insufficient and inaccurate data.
Every citizen should be treated like a customer to the government; he should be able to get a response for his letter, from the government department within 15 days, which can be called ‘the right to response’- right-to-response should be enacted. It can work wonders and be more useful to a common man than right to information. This ensures that farmer is not insulted or snubbed when he visits an MRO’s office for a certificate; Government offices-be it MRO and municipality- are cesspools of corruption, carelessness, lethargy and immunity from action.
Educational institutions should be led by the efficient, clean and honest- not on caste lines- let a Kamma or a Reddy or a Dalit lead if he is efficient and honest, and has no caste-tilt. This selection should be more transparent, and the selection criteria and their weights should be set by the honest officers.
Increase employment opportunities in government sector but pay by productivity metrics, but not as an honorarium.
Government Officers should be recruited from private industries-there are a large number of highly energetic and vibrant turnaround professionals who can turn a loss-making company into a profit-making company; government should draw its recruits from them.
Reduce the incentives for politics-such arrangement can break the cycle-“spend money on elections and earn money many times what has been spent, by illegal methods”.
Any politician trying to supply to government or do contracts to government or recommend award of contracts to their kith and kin should be disqualified from contesting for any public office.
All appointments to the corporations and public sector undertakings- from chairman to director - should be based on merit and previous experience, and they should be paid reasonably well but not low sum given as an honorarium.
Crush muscle power ruthlessly with iron hand; if law should prevail, more investment comes and more development will take place.
The concerns of the tribal area people and their development should be addressed. All the vulnerable people, the poorest in scheduled castes, backward classes, and other unreserved communities should be provided housing, employment and unemployment allowance.
Make a statute to punish severely who don’t pay their dues to the creditors, loans taken from banks, and any other economic offences committed at individual level, to bring in discipline which is needed for free movement of savings.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Reply to A Citizen’s Query: An Important Agenda Item for The Lawmakers of India
Reply to A Citizen’s Query: An Important Agenda Item for The Lawmakers of India
This will surely be more effective than Right to Information Act
Do you want to change
In the offices of Andhra Pradesh Government as well as those of Government of India, a reply to a citizen’s query is just optional, but not compulsory. This, I strongly feel, is the root cause of all the inefficiency, corruption and opacity widely prevalent in government systems.
A citizen writes to government departments for more than one reason. The following is an illustrative list of occasions when a citizen feels like writing to government; of course this is not an exhaustive one.
1. Seeking a job.
2. Seeking extension of a welfare scheme.
3. Seeking PDS/ hospital/health services.
4. Certificates related to property, birth, death, and marriage registration.
5. Post-retirement grievances.
6. Permissions or certificates from local authorities, local hospitals, or any public office.
7. Common amenities.
8. Complaints with police stations.
9. Matters related to commercial, income and other taxes.
10. Caste, Income, and Nativity Certificates.
In advanced countries, every letter is answered simply because both government functionaries and citizens are conscientious, sensible and honest. It is an altogether different case in
When I wrote representations in 2003 and 2004, to VP Jauhari ( Principal Secretary, Agri & Coop), DK Panwar (Principal Secreatary, PE department), Dr. YS Rajasekar Reddy ( CM), Sushil Kumar Shinde( Government), Sonia Gandhi, President of India, State Human Rights Commission etc in connection with an unfair compulsory retirement inflicted on me and subsequent delay in disbursal of benefits, nobody cared to reply. The same is the case with MRO office, Uppal when I submitted application for caste and income. These personal experiences more than prove that a citizen’s query holds as much value as a strand of hair with government functionaries as well as persons of high offices.
The lawmakers shall awaken to this situation and do the needful to reverse this situation; it shall be enacted that every citizen’s letter is replied within 15 days, failing which all the functionaries till the top echelon are punished summarily.
This measure has the potential to purge this country of all corruption, opacity and lethargy. In fact, this can work more miracles than the Right to Information Act.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Do Voluntary Retirement Schemes serve their purpose?
Do Voluntary Retirement Schemes serve their purpose?
The recent controversy over the GO No.5 of 18-7-06 providing budget for retrenchment of 60000 employees in 30 state level public enterprises ( SLPEs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh and its suspension has given the government some time to look back and take some cool-minded decisions about the rationale and justifiability of the external-agency induced restructuring reforms. The writer of this article being an Ex-General Manager of SERIFED, an SLPE, having been retrenched under so called VRS and being a victim of the such reforms wishes to air his views on the justifiability of such reforms and what kind of output results out of such exercises.
It is unfortunate that state government has been depriving the livelihood of many hapless employees to finance the populist and vote-securing projects. It is akin to ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. It is apparent that the World Bank is financing public welfare projects. But, while doing so, it is stipulating that the expenditure on salaries of the employees of both government department employees and public enterprises should come down every year continuously. It has given the advice through its conditions that government should prioritize its spending on education, health, power supply etc. What with lack of native wisdom or lure of bulk finance, the governments irrespective of their party affiliations have been complying with external advice and guidelines. It is unfortunate that handloom industry, agriculture, handicrafts etc, as a sequel to compliance to such guidelines, got very paltry budget allotments and as its retribution the ire of the affected artisans and farmers was reflected in the rout of Telugu Desam government. The governments are oblivious to the fact that they are surrendering their sovereignty just for the sake of securing hassle-free public finance. The result is that our state-specific priorities are dictated from outside. It is unfortunate that the governments are ignorant of the fact that externally-induced reforms miss out on the state-specific needs like those of handloom weavers, craft artisans, resource-poor farmers etc. An important realization that has to dawn on them is that World Bank or Americans or Europeans have very scant experience in dealing with such state-specific needs and hence their advice has to be taken with caution. But, Telugu Desam government has taken the advice of World Bank and complied with it in letter and spirit. In such subservient mood, it made a seamless arrangement to implement VRS programmes. As part of that, it was ensured that any petition, even the most insignificant one, challenging the VRS proceedings of any SLPE by even a few employees before courts had received the special attention of the Advocate General and every VRS proceedings went like a bullet from a gun without any hitch. Any representations to the government from victimized employees were pushed under carpet. What is surprising is that Telugu Desam government, which was so convinced about the world-bank induced reforms then, has taken a U-turn now after it rout from the rule and now took up the cause of employees who are on the chopping stick. Now, the party is thinking of ‘human face’, which was never in their vocabulary. The point that is proved here is that wielding of power is of paramount importance than anything else.
Under the restructructing program, 23, 449 employees of 32 SLPEs were sent out of jobs and an amount of Rs.351.39 crores was disbursed towards VRS benefits till date. Under the program, 24 units were ordered for closure, 32 SLPEs downsized and 9 units disinvested. The World Bank is all praise for the effective implementation of the restructuring programs. There is also a claim that 35% of the retrenched employees were redeployed, but the proof of the same is not within reach of the writer.
As per VRS guidelines, the decisions about which posts and how many have to be cut are left to the discretion of the managements of the SLPEs. No foolproof methodology was evolved at the government level. The guidelines, if any, are too broad to obviate arbitrariness. The government just endorses whatever proposals come from the SLPEs with regard to the kinds of posts and the number of employees in each category to be declared as surplus and retrenched. The net output of VRS implementation is that disproportionately big chunk of old employees remained in service, whereas young and energetic employees have left SLPEs either out of will or force, leaving the SLPE weaker than before. Though the guidelines are cautioning about proper age-mix in the remaining workforce, it was observed more in breach than in practice. A case in point is SERIFED, an SLPE, where all young officers were retrenched and because of that, there would not be even single officer and manager available in another four years. Sudden human resource bankruptcy was foisted on the SLPE.
The state level committee which monitors the restructuring and whose members are not willing to consider any other constructive and employment-generating measures, always on harp on closure. SERIFED has been making profits continuously for over 4 years till the time of restructuring. Hence the need for its downsizing was not as much as it was before. Nevertheless, buckling under the fear of winding up which would kill the lives of many, the management proposed downsizing by one-third, though that also was not warranted. The point here is that the decision about the downsizing and the number to be downsized is just an act of ducking, but not of objectivity. In fact, in most of the SLPEs there is enough scope for work in services. The paradox is that a large chunk of the employees in the Cooperative department are on deputation to the other organizations, since they don’t have work in their own department. Government did not dare to retrench any government employee, though they don’t have work. This is due to strong unionization in them and the perceived immediate and direct backlash from the unions. But, the unions were weak in SLPEs. Hence, the government presumably chose an easy target of SLPE employees to satisfy the World Bank’s desire. In fact, the salaries given to SLPE employees are not an expenditure on the government exchequer and hence reduction does not immediately benefit the treasury. If the organizations are allowed to work on their own even without any budgetary support, they would run well. The malady is that the government appoints chairman and members on the board of SLPEs without any consideration to their qualifications and the suitability of their background to the objectives of the particular SLPE. They mostly contribute to the expenditure, but not to revenues or effective management. That apart, governments use SLPEs for public purposes like free bus passes for underprivileged groups which cut into their profits on one hand, but at the end of the year, on the contrary they measure its performance in terms of profits. The truth is that governments represented by politicians, bureaucrats and deputationists had a big share in the messing up of SLPEs. Since they destroyed, they want to close it, though the scapegoats on the altar are the employees of SLPEs.
It is quite visible that the employees of SLPEs are more focused and devoted towards their jobs than their counterparts in the government. Compare the attitude of an employee of APSRTC with that of his counterpart in any government department. Vast difference is easily noticed and an RTC employee is many times better. I opine that APRTC is more useful than any other government department. But that SLPE is an easy target of all governments. There are many areas that need strategic and managerial intervention. The World Bank does not seem to have applied its wisdom in this area. Every government functionary sings one refrain that governments are not good for business. Presumably, World Bank has implanted this self-talk in the minds of the government officers. Thank god, they did not ingrain another refrain like ‘government is not good for any thing’, though it is believed to be true by many people. Governments and World Bank are not prepared to improve or streamline. The only recourse they know in the name of streamlining is downsizing. Is it not an insolvency of ideas and will to work and improve?
Restructuring not only destroys the livelihood of employees but also fails to improve the performance of the SLPEs. The mindset of the governments have to change towards taking positive decisions like productivity improvement of SLPEs in stead of just closing and washing of hands.
Dr.Appalayya Meesala
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