Empty desks muddle pay hike argument

COIMBATORE: Government employees’ struggle to get the the State to implement the seventh pay commission and fix the anamolies in the system has attracted a lot of attention over the last couple of months. While there has been both support and criticism for their cause and the government’s response to it, the general response among the populace has ranged from indifference to frustration to outrage.
For long bureaucratic procedures, inevitable bribery and unavailable officials are what contribute to their picture of the government and its employees. They do not understand why the officials are never at hand during duty hours despite the heft bribes and the constant demand for pay hikes.

N Logu, member of Coimbatore Consumer Voice, gives a picture of this phenomenon. “Working hours for government officials are between 9:15 am and 5:30 pm with an hour’s lunch break. However, most officials are never seen in office before 10 am and are accused of taking multiple breaks. They not spending enough time at the desk is a regular concern for the public, forcing them to revisit several times to get any work done.” he explains.

Despite a 2014 PIL at the Madras High Court resulting in the directive to instal CCTV cameres in government offices, very few of them have the facility. The time given for the job was six months but cameras were installed only in 44 municipal offices in the State.

A sum of `76 lakh sanctioned to set up the monitoring devices at the Coimbatore collectorate was not utilised, points out Logu. Same was the treatment for biometric scanners – CMCH has the facility, albeit after a long-drawn struggle. This issue of unreachability extends to teachers at government schools too, charges a private school teacher, on condition of anonymity.

This is the case even as government school teachers enjoy a lot of benefits and luxuries for very litte work, unlike their private school counterparts, the teacher adds.

Government employees dismiss the allegations of officials being unavailable during working hours. No government employee winds up work before 7:00 pm. With all employees working well over the allotted time, their salary hike is well deserved, they argue.

J Baskar Babu, State secretary of Tamil Nadu Rural Development Officers Association, points out that people do not see the pain government employees have been through during the course of their job. They too started off with very meagre pay with hikes being dependent on
experience and productivity.