|
|
|
Job Axing The job downsizing move of the government is a harsh one but one forced undoubtedly by circumstantial compulsions. No government, we are sure, would like to earn unpopularity, even if it is not an elected government, and what can be a more unpopular move than job retrenchment. So far, however, most of the posts abolished have been vacant posts and hence protests have been rather muted. Perhaps the government should keep it this way by not touching any active jobs. Instead, it can adopt a policy of making posts vacated by retirement each year lapse until the government work force has been right-sized. However, as one of IFP's leader writers pointed out in a recent column, if no alternatives are made available, merely abolishing posts would amount to shifting the problem form one area to another. The government’s downsizing move may reduce the excessive ‘disguised unemployment’ phenomenon, but it will proportionately swell the ranks of actually unemployed. And although it is a much more honest way of looking at the problem at hand; and although it would have also considerably eased the pressure on the state’s kitty, it an still hardly be said that actual unemployment is a solution to ‘disguised unemployment’. Unscrupulous
exercises of electorate appeasement, as well as the unscrupulous attitude of
politicians and other policy makers and influencers, of treating job creation in
the government where there are no need for them, as a means to earn big and
quick money, led us to the present unenviable predicament with salary bills
hogging up the entire resources at the command of the state. This has been made
all the more terrible because the jobs thus created artificially are not
resource multipliers as any job is expected to be, but most of the time proved
to be adipose tissue. Everybody had felt the crying need for a drastic
restructuring of the administration all the while, and here we are in the midst
of it. Expectedly, the government is drawing flak by the move. For long,
discourses on the solutions to the state’s problems amongst our intelligentsia
have been reduced to intellectual exercises of the cynical kind. Prescriptions
have been thrashed out at seminars and symposiums, but more with the intent of
criticizing for its own sake, than to have them put into practice. In a recent interview of the renowned economist and known India lover, Prof. JB Galbraith, by a popular Indian magazine, the nonagenarian was asked to name what he thought was the most undesirable quality of an Indian. Although by this own confession, he disliked generalizing, he said Indians by and large, expect the government to do everything for them. The problem, we suppose is very much the case in Manipur. We complain of uncleared garbage on the road, but give no thought about not littering in public places. We complain about strikes and bandhs ruining our living atmosphere as well as the economy, but have no scruples about calling a strike or a bandh when it is our grievances and demands we want heard…. The blame for all these maladies, we have also been in the habit of heaping on the government. Well of course, the establishment has to take the major blame for the chaos in the state, but let us for once learn not to forget the individual’s responsibility for the atrophy before us. (Courtesy: Imphal Free Press) Back to Top FrontPage Manipur Profiles Features Potpourri Opinions Editorials Books Photos Links Archives Contact Policy/Disclaimer |
