Babus, be ready to be shepherded into villages

<div class="section0"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">HYDERABAD: As per the hoary rules of our civil service, officials are required to be on tour 90 days during any six-month period and spend one night in three in the villages. In the pre-Odomos era, government officials braved mosquitoes and obeyed these commandments—bearing the reverential title of Board of Revenue Rules.But the city slickers of today''s steel frame don''t have much of a stomach for rural AP any more.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">But now the government, fed up of goading babus to the villages, is inserting a punitive clause into these guidelines. Its ''tours and night halts'' policy, to be announced soon, will make village nights mandatory for officials and put in place a vigilance mechanism to espy any babu stealing away to the city in the dark of night.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">The new guidelines are being drawn up at the behest of chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. The visits would be announced by the town crier much before their arrival and the people asked to be ready with their petitions for the dora.</span><br /><span style="" font-size:="">The new policy, however, is expected to cost the government a pretty penny though, since babus on tour tend to run up handsome travel bills.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Old-timers says today''s officers are being ninnies by saying no to village visits. "In our days, we used to carry our own food and sleep in rooms without fans. Sometimes the villagers used to arrange food. The guest houses were poorly maintained and if there was no official accommodation available, we used to sleep in the tahsildar''s office," said a retired bureaucrat."Nowadays officers don''t stir out of their air-conditioned cars."</span></div> </div>