Driven to meet deadline, many govt. staff worked on holiday

Staff of 14 departments cleared 6,004 applications on May 10

Several government offices in the State were bustling with activity on May 10, a second Saturday, which is officially a closed holiday.

The reason – officials had to work to meet the deadline for time-bound delivery of services to people under Sakala (Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act, 2011).

Sakala Mission Director Shalini Rajneesh told The Hindu that employees of 14 departments worked on the holiday and cleared 6,004 applications on various subjects. In all, officials received 5,981 applications on that day.

Performance review

Introduction of Annual Performance Review for employees in promotions has driven many of them to clear pending files/applications under Sakala before the deadline. “The attitude of employees to complete work before the deadline and clarity of roles assigned to each employee are other factors that compelled the staff to attend office on the holiday,” she said.

“Unlike in the past, work and delivery of services by employees gets recognised. The performance of employees gets recorded in the system. Many employees work on holiday to avoid last-minute tension,” Ms. Rajneesh said. Election duty to a large number of officials and pressure to clear pending files also induced other staff to attend office and clear files on the holiday.

Among the departments, the Commercial Taxes Department ranked first in receipt (4,287) and disposal (3,721) of applications seeking various services, followed by Home (receipt - 672 and disposal - 265), Revenue (receipt - 411 and disposal - 1,192), Transport (receipt - 354 and disposal - 494), and Health and Family Welfare (receipt - 83 and disposal - 90).

Officials of the departments of Women and Child Welfare, Education, Urban Development, Commerce and Industries, Cooperation, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, Horticulture, and Labour too attended office and cleared pending files.

However, staff of the departments of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries; Personnel and Administrative Reforms; Youth Empowerment and Sports; Forests, Ecology and Environment; Kannada, Culture and Information, and Public Works, Ports, Inland and Water Transport enjoyed their holiday, she said.

Tops the list

Bangalore Urban district topped the list as officials cleared 2,207 pending applications under the Act. Belgaum district came second with the clearance of 644 applications, followed by Bijapur (464), Mysore (336), Chamarajangar (292), Dakshina Kannada (258), Dharwad (254), Hassan (214), Tumkur (174), Mandya (169), Bellary (141) and Chikmagalur (101). Rest of the districts cleared less than 100 applications on May 10. Chitradurga district was at the bottom of the list as only a handful employees attended office and cleared 12 applications.