The state government's stringent accountability fiat for its employees has had an impact since its introduction last year, resulting in a marked improvement in the functioning of government offices. The creation of a separate department has been decided upon to ensure continuity of the positive trend. In the past too such accountability and punctuality fiats had been imposed, but with time those directives lost their impact in the absence of proper monitoring. The government, therefore, wants to avoid a repetition of that.

A separate department-Home Personnel Affairs-will be entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring not only the attendance of the state employees but also the day-to-day work they do. Personal files documenting the activities of the employees would be kept stored in a computer, a senior home ministry official said in Kolkata. The various district administrations have also been directed to constitute special task forces to monitor the work done by employees in district offices. A secretary-level official would head the department and present monthly reports on work culture to the cabinet. Senior official Dilip Chakraborty will be the first secretary of the new department.

Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, who took over from Jyoti Basu in November, will directly monitor the overall functioning of the new department.On December 13 last year, the government circulated the latest directive.

Strict punctuality measures, like maintenance of attendance registers backed with the threat of punitive action in case of failure to adhere to the new norms, have made a difference to the slothful work culture in state-run offices.

Maintenance of a daily diary on the amount and nature of work done by each and every state employee has been made mandatory. At the end of a day's work, the employees make the required entries and submit their diaries to their superiors.

Efficiency has gone up after the professional prospects of an employee became dependent on the evaluation of his daily diary and the reports prepared by the Home Personal Affairs Department chief. The government hopes this will finally link productivity with professional incentive.

After some initial opposition from the Leftist union of the state government employees, Mr Bhattacharya has been able to get the approval of the workers' union for the venture.

West Bengal had gained notoriety for its sloth and several past official diktats had not been able to change things in the state offices, particularly in the state administrative headquarters, the Writers' Building.

Several other measures like starting contractual jobs, gradation schemes and a carrot and stick policy are also showing results. Contractual service has been started in the health and primary education departments. The government's determination to rein in indiscipline and inefficiency is reflected most in this decision as it means it is prepared to take on the powerful workers' unions, which are alleged to be providing protection to even errant employees.

(India Abroad News Service)