Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
On 25th October 2017 Government of Jammu & Kashmir through Finance Department issued a circular titled “Austerity Measures in Government Spending” . In order to promote fiscal discipline several instructions were issued to Government and semi Government organisations. It seems there are no takers for this Government circular which was issued by none other than the Principal Secretary Finance himself. I cannot comment on all the points mentioned in the circular , but there are few directions which are not followed properly. At point number VIII , Government officers have been directed to avail facilities of video conferencing rather than travelling from Srinagar to Jammu or Jammu to Srinagar or outside the state for official meetings, but most of the officers do not abide by this direction. During summers officers posted in Jammu are always wait to get a chance to visit Srinagar and family trips are undertaken under the garb of official meetings. Same is the case with officers from Kashmir region, who are always wait to get a signal from their administrative department in civil secretariat Jammu.
Use of Video Conferencing :
From last several years a serious trend has emerged within our Government officers. If a senior Government officer who is posted in Kashmir division has to attend a meeting in Jammu , he travels by air and directs his official driver to take the vehicle allotted to him from Srinagar to Jammu. The driver has to cover 600 kms distance from Srinagar to Jammu and back . Whosoever officer indulges in this act on an average spends Rs 20,000 to 25,000 on a single trip. The meeting for which officer goes to Jammu or comes to Kashmir from Jammu lasts for just 20 or 30 minutes. The same meeting could have been held via video conferencing as well. It is the fault of the senior Government functionary , Administrative Secretary or the Minister who is ordering or calling for these so called meetings . In-fact he or she can ask the officer not to travel to Jammu or Srinagar whatever may be the case. Every day at least 20 to 30 senior Government officers in Jammu & Kashmir state at an average travel from Srinagar to Jammu during winters and same number of officers travel to Srinagar from Jammu in summers. Such travels could be easily curtailed if Government stresses on the use of technology especially discussing official matters on Skype or using video conferencing facilities which are facilitated by National Informatics Centres (NIC) at block , district and state level.
After MrKhurshid Ahmad Ganai took over as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) , State Information Commission (SIC) is hearing 2nd appeals and complaints via video conferencing. Earlier in many cases the Public Information Officers (PIOs) as well as appellants / complainants used to travel long distances to attend RTI appeal hearings in Srinagar / Jammu. Now I believe in 70 % of cases hearing is done through video conferencing. Recently I myself attended an RTI appeal before Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) while he was sitting at his Jammu office and I was arguing a case on behalf of a visually impaired RTI appellant from SIC office in Srinagar via Video Conferencing. I felt as if I was sitting before the CIC in Jammu. The voice and video quality was also very clear. Last month Horticulture Minister Syed BasharatBukhari while on his tour in Baramulla was told by DC that he hadto attend a video conference with Food Supplies and Tribal Affairs Minister ChowdharyZulfiqar. Without missing any time Horticulture Minister also accompanied DC to his conference hall and discussed issues related Tribal Sub Plan with the concerned Minister and on the spot got some issues addressed. Otherwise he would had to arrange for a new meeting in Jammu Secretariat with Tribal Affairs Minister and then several district officers from Baramulla would had to come all along to Jammu, but a 20 minutes video conferencing solved all the issues.
Conclusion :
Rigorous use of video conferencing will not only lessen the financial burden on state exchequer but this will also help to address public grievances. Whenever a senior officer leaves his headquarter to attend the meeting with Minister or Administrative Secretary, the ultimate sufferers are the people. In-spite of clear cut directions from Finance Department the officers continue to leave their headquarters, travel long distances from Srinagar to Jammu or vice versa by flight , send their official vehicle in advance and then claim for TA , DA as well. This is a huge loss to state exchequer. Why do HODs or senior officers send vehicle in advance to Jammu or Srinagar ? Can’t they hire a cab ? Why are officers of state not worried about their cash starved state ?I would suggest General Administration Department (GAD) to issue an order directing all the officers to curtail their visits and to make rigorous use of video conferencing. Even the divisional level officers , directors and HOD’s should advise their district , sub division , tehsil and block level officers to make use of video conferencing via skype or through local block level NIC centres which are 100 percent connected with internet. It is observed in most of the block level offices the officers are usually busy with meetings, either with DC’s or their Directorates and the poor people who come with lot of hope to see BDOs , BMOs , Tehsildars , SDMs , Executive Engineers etc are made to wait for hours and days.
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