Former Union Home Secretary K. Padmanabhaiah suggested radical overhauling and restructuring of the government machinery and institutions if the flagship projects proposed by the Central government are to achieve any success.
Clear enunciation of responsibility, ex-ante setting up of targets, national targets fixed in key sectors, accountability, re-engineering with the help of e-governance, reasonable tenures to officers, rewarding of performance, and weeding out of ineffective officials, among others, were a few measures forwarded by him towards result oriented approach.
Delivering the Foundation Day lecture at the Administrative Staff College of India on the topic ‘Redesigning administration to propel India into World League’ here on Thursday, Mr. Padmanabhaiah noted that some of the iconic projects announced by the present government were in fact, carried out by earlier governments too, albeit under different names. But they had made little progress, due to various reasons including bureaucratic delays.
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Though there is a negative opinion on Indian bureaucracy, Mr. Padmanabhaiah pointed out, that much of the performance of any organisation depends on the quality of the system used with its rules, policies and procedures. India, he said, is the most over-regulated countries in the world.
Apart from simplifying the procedures, the government should allow lateral entry of technocrats and domain experts into the government up to 25 per cent, he felt. He also suggested downsizing the number of ministries, and tenure-based appointment of civil servants.