By Imlisanen Jamir
There are moments when a government reveals more about itself in reprimand than in celebration. The recent meeting of Administrative Heads of Departments and Heads of Departments did not announce a new scheme or unveil a slogan. It did something simpler. It exposed habits.
The Chief Secretary’s warning about officers leaving station without formal sanction ought not to be remarkable. Leave rules are not ornamental. They exist so that authority is traceable and responsibility is fixed. When senior officers proceed without permission, the lapse is procedural. It is also cultural. A system that tolerates casual absence will eventually tolerate casual work.
The language used in the meeting is instructive. A “casual approach.” Officers “proceeding on leave” without following due procedure. These are restrained phrases. They suggest that indiscipline has become familiar enough to require a collective reminder. That reminder, delivered at the first AHoDs and HoDs meeting of the year, carries a message: order must precede ambition.
The same meeting cautioned officers against attending workshops indiscriminately. Participation is not in itself work. A workshop can inform, but it cannot replace execution. When senior officials attend every meeting available, routine functioning suffers. Administrative efficiency declines not because there are too few engagements, but because there are too many without purpose.
Governance becomes visible and yet thin.
The State’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals and the Viksit Bharat mission was also restated. Departments were directed to prepare clear strategies, concrete proposals and action plans. That instruction stands alongside another concern raised in the meeting. Vision 2030, prepared after consultation and contributions from all departments, has not been actively pursued by many of them. A vision drafted with care has little meaning if it is left to rest in files.
The Finance Commissioner added a further detail. Departments have not carried out timely reconciliation of accounts. Matters that could have been resolved at departmental and Accountant General level have been “escalated unnecessarily.” Escalation is sometimes unavoidable. It should not be routine. When smaller matters are passed upward instead of settled where they arise, responsibility thins out. The file travels. The problem remains.
The Home Commissioner’s reminder about officers’ presence during Assembly and Budget sessions underlines the same principle. When questions are tabled in the House, inputs must be accurate and timely. Absence at such moments is not trivial. It weakens the chain between department and legislature.
None of these issues are dramatic. They concern leave sanction, workshop attendance, budget submissions, reconciliation of accounts. Yet taken together they describe the health of administration.
Grand targets mean little if routine discipline falters. A government does not fail in a single stroke. It loosens at the edges. The meeting in Kohima sought to tighten those edges. Whether the tightening holds will depend less on declarations than on habit.
Comments can be sent to imlisanenjamir@gmail.com
