From Monday onwards, the government administration in Kerala is going to look and feel positively different. There will be more fresh and younger hands in government offices and, for a change, the staff will be available for work on time. Well, if everything works out as per the plan.
The state is going to have its own civil service—Kerala Administrative Service (KAS)—modelled on the IAS, from this year onwards. With KAS, young and meritorious candidates will be able to enter the top posts in government directly after clearing the tests and interviews done by the state Public Service Commission. The entry post would be from deputy secretary level and one could see a twenty-something holding the post and calling the shots.
Naturally, there is a lot of heartburn among the existing Secretariat employees, who feel that the KAS would scuttle their promotion chances. And they are up in arms against the move.
“The KAS is detrimental to the Secretariat as it will certainly undermine the whole system. And the speed with which this government is pushing the reforms without considering the opposition from the unions is also suspicious,” said Biju S., general secretary of Secretariat Staff Association. According to him, there was no need for the KAS as the Kerala Secretariat has the best of minds that enter service.
“If the state never thought of having a KAS till now, it was because the need was never felt. Our state service is way ahead than the rest of the country,'' he argued.
He alleged that the Left government is least concerned about the concerns of the staff and is going ahead with the plan without proper study.
There were many dharnas and pen-down strikes against the government move. The Left government led by Pinarayi Vijayan, however, is in no mood to listen. It looks determined to see that the KAS is up and running at the earliest despite protests from left unions.
“Successive governments have been trying to implement KAS since 2001. But they all backed off as the union protested. But the current CM seems to be in no mood to step back and he will see to it that it is implemented as he has understood the need for having alert young minds in government offices,'' said an IAS officer.
It is learnt that the ministers are terribly upset with the speed with which files are moving in the Secretariat. “The work speed of the existing secretariat staff is pathetic as most of them are experts at sitting on the files. The ministers, especially CM, is determined to change the system,'' he said.
According to him, the government had nipped the protests of the unions in the bud by transferring a protesting senior employee belonging to a CPI(M)-affiliated union to the faraway district of Kasargod. “It really got the the rest of the staff worked up and the protests slowly mellowed down,'' said the officer.
The CPI(M)-affiliated Kerala Secretariat Employees Association had opposed the KAS ever since the proposal's inception. But now with Vijayan taking a stern stand, they also have backed off.
“It is true that we were initially against the KAS. The employees had a lot of concerns about it but this government has held several rounds of talks with the employees and has addressed most of our concerns. Hence we support the government,'' said M.S. Bijukuttan, general secretary of the union.
But the CPI-affiliated union alleged that the government is playing to the gallery. “There is a general impression among the public that the officers in the Secretariat are a lazy lot and they need to be shaken up. The LDF government is playing along with this public mood,'' alleged Biju S. of the CPI union.
The government is also making 'punching' mandatory for employees in the secretariat—another move many governments had tried to implement but failed.
But both the unions say they welcome the move to make punching mandatory. This is another measure many previous governments had been dithering to go ahead with, fearing the anger of unions.
“We are all for punching but the government should have considered certain realities before going ahead with the move. Most of us depend on public transport for commuting. If the train gets delayed or bus breaks down, we will be late. Hence we demand that government should allow extended timings... that is, if we are late by half an hour, we will sit late for half an hour,'' said Biju.
“Also, most of us sit beyond our duty hours. But there is no system to appreciate that extra effort, unlike in private sector, where extra times are valued,'' he added.
According to a senior official, both the moves, if implemented in true spirit, will revolutionise the government system. “Kerala Secretariat being the most politicised and unionised one in the country, it will be very tough to make these plans a reality. But if the government has the political will to see it through, then we are in for better days,'' said an official.
