This refers to A K Bhattacharya’s column “Civil servants as policy signal” (Delhi Diary, August 8). Senior civil servants are responsible not only for preparing policy prescriptions for ministers’ approval but also for getting these implemented. In this case, one of the measures suggested by civil servants and duly approved by the then minister and the Cabinet has run into rough weather and the government has had to re-examine it. But to pin the responsibility for that decision on a senior civil servant and have him transferred on a Sunday is odd. Ministers and civil servants have to work together.
S Subramanyan Navi Mumbai
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