Bimal Julka's eyes were almost moist, Anil Swarup embraced his old driver and visited his house and Anita Agnihotri's faith was restored in the bureaucracy. This all happened during a three-day visit to the respective districts of their first posting.
Around 30 years ago, these Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers had started their careers as sub-district magistrates or equivalent in these districts. They were young, inexperienced and had a large area to administer. Over the years, the officers went through a lot of churning, learnt at every stage of their careers and participated in policy making of both the state and Union governments.
Today, they stand as seasoned bureaucrats, with vast experience of governance and international work exposure. Julka is secretary in the information & broadcasting ministry and previously served in the ministries of defence, finance and external affairs, before moving to Delhi from Madhya Pradesh. Swarup is coal secretary and Agnihotri is secretary in the department of social justice & empowerment. They, too, have handled various assignments in the Union government.
Julka, Swarup and Agnihotri were among many other Union secretaries, who, on the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had visited the place of their first posting to experience ground reality, measure the changes and suggest policy amendments based on their experiences.
After the three-day tour, almost every secretary returned overwhelmed. Many had summarised their experiences in a brief note to the department of personnel and training, which works under the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). These reports, a few reviewed by Business Standard, detail the physical condition of their offices, roads in the districts, public infrastructure, health facilities and cleanliness.
What the reports lack are the anecdotal encounters and emotions these officers brought back with them to Delhi. For instance, when Julka entered a weavers colony, which was established during his tenure in the 1980s, in Chanderi Block, some 215 km from Madhya Pradesh's capital, Bhopal, people gave him a rousing welcome. They burst into applause for Julka, who had served them as a sub-divisional magistrate, accompanied by the chorus, "Julka sahab aa gaye (Julka sir has come)".
"They have done so well in these years. I am so overwhelmed. Given a chance, I will go back to them," says Julka. He had gone beyond his mandate to convince the State Bank of Indore to give loans to these weavers.
What has not changed since 1983 is the upkeep of records. Julka says though each block office flaunts computers, the record keeping and the maintenance of files continue to be done manually, as was the practice earlier. Then, there is not much change in the condition of the Guna district hospital, where one of his children was born. "Though the district hospital has been renovated and refurbished, the hygiene conditions need to be improved. There is a shortage of doctors and paramedics, as not enough trained professionals are opting for government jobs," says Julka.
He, however, is pleased with the fact that the road through which he took his pregnant wife to the district hospital is free from potholes and is well-carpeted. But in the same breath, he criticised the condition of the national highways.
What unites these officers is the nostalgia about their travels in jeeps, which at that time was the official vehicle of bureaucrats. If Julka travelled in a jeep to get to far-flung areas, Swarup and his driver used it to waylay a truck carrying smuggled items. Agnihotri recalls the "majestic and awful experience" of how her driver would apply brakes suddenly to allow a tiger to pass.
Swarup says on reaching Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh, where he served as district magistrate and collector, he spotted his former driver, Abdul Mannan, among the others who were waiting to welcome him. "I recognised him immediately and called out to him. He immediately threw his arms around me. Later, he took me to his home for a cup of tea," says the coal secretary. Swarup says a lot has changed since then. The thatched houses have given way to concrete houses, with television dish antennas on top, roads have been laid and more girls are cycling to schools.
"But there is still a lot of poverty. The closing of sugar mills has given rise to unemployment and things have not improved much in the interiors," he narrates. "In my time, people were very demanding and so are they today. Nothing has changed in their behaviour. They were outspoken about demands for more schools, irrigation facilities, which have come down, and increasing of train halts in their villages," he adds.
Though he has already spoken to the railway ministry about it, what he has suggested to PMO is for an effective garbage disposal system in India's most populated state, Uttar Pradesh.
In this, Swarup has the support of Agnihotri. The lady officer visited Sambalpur, which in 1987 was one of the biggest districts in Odisha. She says a lot of slums have come up as the government has not paid enough attention to urbanisation. She reported a rise in Hepatitis-A cases. "There are 78-80 water bodies around Sambalpur town which have been buried or encroached upon. The nallas in the periphery of the town are flooded during rain and when their gates are opened, the town is flooded. There is a problem of underground water pipes being contaminated with sewerage. There is no sewage pipeline in the entire city. This comes as a surprise," she wrote in her report.
Agnihotri adds the population in the town has doubled in 28 years. "Management of solid waste and infrastructure planning is sub-optimal, on account of a shortage of staff in urban local bodies."
She praises Prime Minister Modi for Swachh Bharat, under which toilets are being built. In 1987, she had to face this problem, she says. Her office lacked a women's washroom. After visiting ground zero, she was full of praise for the young IAS officers who are serving in the districts. "In our time, we would handle four-five issues and had a year's budget of Rs 3-4 crore. Today, these officers are taking care of hundreds of issues and schemes with a budget equivalent to any small ministry in the Union government. After seeing their dedication and hard work, my faith has been restored in the bureaucracy."
