It took half an hour for firefighters from a station reportedly a kilometre away to arrive at the site of a blazing house in Tyuni. To make things worse, they did not have enough water to effectively fight the fire. The result was the horrific death of four young girls. This tragedy proved to be another example of the routine negligence among government agencies in the performance of their duties. Suspending the Naib Tehsildar and the fire-fighting staff does not in any way absolve the government and the senior authorities of culpability in what is undoubtedly a serious crime.
There was a time when every department used to have a checklist available to ensure preparedness and regular upkeep of facilities – inherited from the almost obsessive-compulsive nature of the British to keep things ‘in order’. Over time, this habit has been lost as the reason for such regular checks was forgotten due to lack of accountability. For too long, negligent seniors have got away without liability for failures, and juniors have had to pay the price. This also has to do with the quality of the political leadership that has established a different set of priorities when selecting the ‘right’ person for the job. It is not unusual for the honest, sincere, hardworking officials to have brief tenures in important posts and be continuously shifted around for obvious reasons.
What does, for instance, the sudden ‘discovery’ of hundreds of mazaars in forest lands imply? Very obviously, officials of the required seniority were not moving around in the forests they were in charge of – small time guards and other staff can be bought off and intimidated to overlook such transgressions. In a service that should have officials that love the forest environment and feel suffocated in offices and air-conditioners, the exact opposite work culture prevails. Just the fitness level of the officers betrays how much into their jobs they are! No wonder, the many problems that plague the forests – from fires, to poaching, to human-wildlife conflict – are not getting anywhere near a solution.
Government needs to get rid of its VIP culture and adopt high quality professionalism in carrying out responsibilities. The bureaucracy is an essential and important part of this – it can’t be allowed to become a power unto itself, tricking, both, the political bosses and the general public into believing that it is too important to be held accountable.
