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Journalism of Courage
At the Sachivalaya, as in thousands of Gujarati homes, the week to Diwali was a time for cleaning up. Rummaging through drawers, shelves, and stack upon stack piled in office corners, officials discovered for themselves a burden they could do without— 3.69 lakh files that were of no use at all.
These files have been destroyed, while some 8.54 lakh other files have re-classified and computerised for easy access. A few hundred files deemed of ‘‘permanent importance’’ will be preserved by the archives department.
It was an unusual campaign for bureaucracy, which both thrives on and is weighed down by files, files, files. The ‘‘Tumar Nikal Zumbesh’’, or file disposal campaign, as it was called, was Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s idea.
‘‘To change work culture, we must begin with the physical environment at the work place,’’ said Modi. ‘‘The destruction of useless files is but a first step towards this. In this computer age, we shouldn’t be drowning in files.’’
The results show. With file stacks gone, offices of most department suddenly seem spacious, the tables and shelves neat. ‘‘Of course, disposing of files is something that is done every year under a fixed schedule. But it is for the first time such a large-scale campaign has been launched,’’ says Hasmukh Adhiya, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister. He said 25 departments undertook the campaign together and in one week.
Senior officials said almost every bureaucrat knows that much of what is kept in government departments is of little use and could be thrown out. The problem was that no one was willing to accept responsibility should some problem crop up in the future. With orders coming from the CM himself, that problem was solved.
Adhiya says he believes the drive will certainly improve efficiency, adding it will now be conducted every year.
The Chief Minister said the idea struck him while he was addressing a workshop of secretaries in Ahmedabad some months ago. He suggested that some key departments do some housekeeping and report on it.
