Who bothers if the winds of Parivartan still blow!

No longer does the chief minister talk of Parivartan. As for the Parivartan Cell, it seems to have disappeared in the bureaucratic labyrinth after Sanjay Gupta, an IAS officer who was appointed its head, was shifted to the energy department about two months ago.

Gupta’s office in the CMO, which was the visible symbol of the cell, is now occupied by S.K. Shelat, a former chief secretary who has been appointed adviser to the chief minister, while most of the cell staff has been given other duties. In fact, the cell was never given its full complement of staff in spite of its much-touted importance.

Officers in the CMO assure that the cell still exists; all that has happened is that its charge has been given to I.P. Gautam, secretary in the CMO. “We were getting very little fresh input. Therefore, there was no justification for having a full-time officer,” explained P.K. Lahiri, principal secretary to the chief minister.

But Lahiri’s explanation raises a few questions. The Parivartan Cell was given quite an ambitious mandate, which included obtaining suggestions, sifting out feasible ones, and ensuring follow-up action to make the administration result-oriented; scrutiny of reports of various commissions and committees to cull out recommendations for making the administration responsive, introduction of modern technology in the administration, carrying out efficiency audits of departments and other government institutions, idenitifying deficiencies and evolving methods of eliminating delays, and much else.

Has all this been done? Or, has the cell fallen in the government’s list of priorities? Gautam said that the 8,000 suggestions, which the cell had received, were being processed and additional chief secretary for co-ordination, K C Kapoor, was taking care of the follow-up action, while he himself was monitoring the progress in the CMO. Senior officers believe this is as good as killing the cell. A full-time officer was appointed as head of the cell to ensure results. With both Kapoor and Gautam having their routine work to do, the work of the cell is unlikely to get the attention it deserved. Besides, “divided responsibility means that no one is actually responsible”, remarked an officer.

According to Dinesh Shukla, a political commentator, the cell would, in all probability, become “victim of the very ills in the administration, like passing the buck, which it is meant to eliminate”. He pointed out that reports of several commissions and committees on administrative reforms were already gathering dust.

In Shukla’s opinion, administrative reforms ultimately depended on the dynamism of the political leadership. Keshubhai Patel showed much idealism initially, but had lost it in recent months, caught as he was between various “pulls and pressures” within the government and his party, said Shukla.

Former chief minister and Congress leader Chhabildas Mehta said administrative reform required firmness to tame the vested interests, which included the bureaucracy. But Keshubhai Patel had failed to infuse cohesion even among his ministers, who are often talking at cross-purposes, Mehta said, adding, “This is the kind of situation in which nothing constructive gets done.” Another former Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Party president Shankersinh Veghela felt Parivartan was just “an empty slogan which shouldn’t have been taken seriously”. According to him, the BJP men often coined attractive terms. “If they hold a meeting, they call it `chintan baithak’. Keshubhai Patel coined Parivartan,” Vaghela said.

A harsh remark, perhaps. But that is how it looks.