By - Imkong Walling
What do dancing around the truth, beat about/around the bush, talk around something bring up? These terms bring up images of situations when stuff gets talked about in a roundabout, rambling way without actually getting to the issue— matters that are generally uncomfortable.
Watching the Nagaland Principal Accountant General’s (PAG) supposedly explanatory press conference on July 4, felt like a real life rendition of the aforesaid idioms.
‘Chai-paani,’ a term that screams bribery, has not only become a legit member of the Indian lexicon, but also a staple of government corridors, including the AG’s. It happens when one has to process a ‘sarkari’ work, or move a ‘file,’ and among other things, the completion of pension formalities.
Almost all retired government servants, or pensioners as they are more commonly known, excluding the cream of the bureaucracy, have been victims, having to meet monetary demands of office clerks or face unexplained withholding of their paperwork. It starts at the Directorates, stops over at the Secretariat and on for further holdup at the AG’s.
The revelation by a retired policeperson, about him having to fork out bribe money for processing his pension papers, apparently in the Establishment section of the police headquarters, and the causing of unnecessary delays in the AG cannot be simply disregarded as an unfounded allegation by a frustrated individual.
His experience is just one of the many unbridled ‘chai-paani’ demands that have become customary in the corridors of government, one that is an open secret, and that which no one can disagree with.
The state PAG though decided it was intelligent to ignore addressing the shenanigans of its employees. While the allegation was about demanding bribe by employees, it decided to deliver a crash course on the duties and functions, failing to address a culture of corruption that has been well apparent to all.
The performance statistics it came out with looked great— Settling 3515 pension cases, out of 3927, in the past 12 months, within the stipulated 30 working days.
Citing the pension rules, it asserted that every government department is required to submit the pension documents (of a retiring employee) to the AG, 6 months prior to the date of retirement. If the documents are submitted six months prior, it is the right of every government employee to get the pension paperwork completed on or before the date of retirement.
On the contrary, the AG said that not a single government department has forwarded a pension case well ahead of the retirement date, over the last 12 months.
It is not that the Directorates and the Secretariat have been all saintly; the whole point of the matter was alleged inducements demanded by employees in the AG’s office. The PAG was either honestly detached from the occurrences under its roof, or uncomfortable talking about bribery.
The public is certainly not misconceived about the unashamed corrupt practices.
The writer is a Principal Correspondent at The Morung Express. Comments can be sent to imkongwalls@gmail.com
