Karnataka secretariat abuzz on Sunday, clears 40,000 files

BANGALORE: The secretariat, quiet on holidays, came alive on Sunday. Hundreds of government staff, led by chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee, worked against the clock from morning till evening with a single goal of clearing as many pending files as possible.
This is not a sudden burst of activity. Officials have been on an overdrive since the state cabinet expressed displeasure at the huge pendency of files on August 28.As many as 2,03,541 files were pending with various departments then.
By the end of Sunday, they had disposed of 40,000 files - the pendency reduced from 1,75,975 files on Sunday morning to 1.35 lakh in the evening.
The pendency is the highest in the revenue department, followed by home, urban developments and the department of personnel and administrative reforms. The chief secretary is certainly not pleased with this. Asked about it while he was conducting an inspection at the secretariat, Mukherjee said: "You ask them (the employees) why it is pending."
The disposal drive also helped in keeping the offices clean and spacious.
"This drive is to set our house in order. It is to help people. The files are lying everywhere and many are unnecessarily pending. There is no space even to sit. Once the files are disposed of, they are sent to the records room," the chief secretary told reporters.
To keep up the momentum, the government has devised five principles on file disposal (see box): fixing responsibility from the case worker to the cabinet.
In short, the government's message to its staff is: "Files are not lifeless letters and documents. They contain lives."
The hundreds of employees - from revenue, health, rural development and panchayat raj, DPAR, finance, education, co-operation and urban development departments - who were in office at the Vidhana Soudha, Vikasa Soudha and MS Building won't get a compensatory off or special pay. A circular stuck on the doors of the offices explained it best: "Service mindset is important in government job."
"We were never called to work on a holiday in the past. The chief secretary issued a directive to work today. As it is only for a day, I have no complaints," said an employee of the finance department.
Till Saturday, we had cleared around 30,000 files. On Sunday, we cleared around 40,000 files. In the next 3-4 four days, we want to bring down the pendency by another 50,000. We'll have a focused disposal of files and conduct random checks. Disciplinary action will be initiated against those who show negligence.