Flowers do not grow on barren land.
It’s said, “Flowers bloom where there is care, water, and light—never on a land left empty of hope.” Good governance is never borne of checklists, photographs and numerous reports; it lives only when there is honesty, sincerity and actual accountability. However, in many areas of our bureaucratic culture, reforms are narrowed down to paperwork and superficial solutions. The net outcome is a ghostly performance that appears impressive on paper and fails in practice. As flowers can never grow in arid ground, so no government based on fraud and double-dealing can ever now give fruit of justice or advance, or alleviation to the people.
When the intention is not right, the mind is sharp, so it disguises itself. You keep trying a million times; the stench of the well remains there. It is said about cancer and corruption that once they come, they do not leave.
Cancer cannot be completely eliminated. However, the growth can be stopped temporarily with chemotherapy and nuclear radiation. I think that cancer is a disease, but why have we made this corruption an incurable disease? Is there any cure for it? On the one hand, this is the scourge of corruption, and on the other hand, the tricks and fake actions of our bureaucracy, which aim to give the impression to the public and the government that they are doing a lot, but the damage is so great that it is not going to end. When Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz’s government was formed, some wise person suggested that officers should be given targets and tasks and their performance should be monitored and marked.
Those who perform better should be allowed to stay, and those who cannot should be removed from field postings and confined to the secretariat. For this, a system was created called KPI, meaning Key Performance Indicators. Under this system, officers, especially the Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner of DMG, were given set standards for good governance. It was also made mandatory to implement them and send a report to the CM Secretariat. Accordingly, the officers did some good work at first. There was also a running race; a healthy competition in this regard also started between the districts of the province. If one deputy commissioner went up in terms of his performance, the others would look at him with envy and would try to show good performance themselves.
These standards are very strict, and if their points were really implemented, then governance in Punjab could be much better, but sir, this is Pakistan; here a bad deed is found in every good deed. When the officers saw that the entire work was limited to sending reports and making photos and videos to show, they again started using the same old formula of looking busy doing nothing. If it was mentioned in the performance and findings that a school was to be inspected every week and the performance of the teachers and the problems of the school were to be considered, then the DC sir or sahiba soon figured out that only the report and pictures needed to be sent to the CM portal, and whether anything improved or not, that was a waste. So now it is happening that the DC goes to a school, gets pictures taken and comes back after drinking tea, leaving the school empty-handed.
The same is true of other points, including the cleanliness situation, the performance of provincial departments, inflation, adulteration, traffic problems, the condition of roads, stray dog bite incidents, reports on keeping manhole covers, patient care in hospitals, the condition of transport, and the report on non-increase in rent; that is, all kinds of issues come under its KPI system.
Now if the district officer really starts implementing them and dedicates the entire machinery of the district for this, then the people can get a big relief. But sir, the purpose of our bureaucracy is not to provide relief to the people; its only business is to cause trouble, so these officers have collectively tightened their belts to thwart this system of the Chief Minister. This is the reason why the people are still unhappy with this entire system. They are not getting relief from anywhere. While it seems to the officers that they have made Punjab an exemplary province by following the vision of the Chief Minister. When a district comes first in Punjab due to this monitoring system, the people of that district express surprise: What has happened that has made our district come first? There is no control over bribery; whoever wants to sell it at any price. The state of cleanliness is abysmal; there are no facilities in schools, and no medicine is available in hospitals. Even space and wheelchairs are not available. What kind of performance is that? Who has worn a Solomonic cap and is not visible to the public?.
Sirs! The story is that until we have passion, we do not work honestly; our officers do not feel sorry for the people of this country and do not think that this country has given them anything; we should also give something in return; and the most important thing is that they are not greedy for wealth. No change can come until then, no matter what system you bring. When there is a lack of intention in the minds of people, they will find some way out. What is this bureaucracy? There is a privileged class of people from our own society who are present in the corrupt society; they are also among these officers. Despite this, we expect that perhaps they will be able to show some miracle. No, brother, flowers do not grow in barren land, even if there is a lack of pride and passion.
How much fertilizer should be applied?
.jpeg)
0 Comments