Gist of Important National Administrative Committees Report (First) Administrative Reforms Commission (1966-72)
Gist of Important National Administrative Committees Report
(First) Administrative Reforms Commission (1966-72)
Our terms of reference are too wide in scope to be covered exhaustively within the limited time. We have, however, made a critical survey of the present scene and in the course of this survey we have made it a point to study in detail a number of the situations now facing us. We feel, therefore, that our recommendations for remedial measures are not just broad generalisations like the Ten Commandments but are precise as steps or as starting points for the agencies concerned with the work of implementation, For example, in regard to regulations pertaining to discipline, for instance, we have gone even to the extent of including in our Report an exhaustive draft bill entitled the ‘Civil Services Bill”, the enactment of which, we feel, will transform the present amorphous position into one of clarity and facility of administration.
The administrative machinery, of which bureaucracy is only a part, is after all an instrument which the people have to use in managing their affairs. Basically as implying food, water, air and shelter, these affairs are changeless. But the means of provision, production and improvisation are ever-changing, more so in the present age of scientific innovation. The administrative machinery should, therefore, be capable of change so as to be able to keep pace with the changing patterns in provision, production and improvisation. of the administrative machinery may remain the same, there can be no permanent and rigid framework for every detail in its structure. There will always be problems which require impartial objective assessment and which, sometimes, can be tackled only by the trial and error approach.The maintenance of the administrative machinery is, therefore, a continuous task requiring constant attention from the people.
The human element is the dominant one in the administrative set-up. Any flaw which upsets this human element operates as an inhibition and will so lead to efficiency . A half century ago, or even a quarter of a century ago, implicit obedience to authority was regarded as film only rule and efficiency was sought to be maintained by fear of punishment in a traditional master-servant relationship. Authority once entrenched, made its own rules to create and perpetuate its own privileges, status and caste. But, today, as democracy has taken deep enough roots in our soil, this master-servant relationship has given place to a give-and-take relationship in which what man owes to society is weighed against what society owes him in return. This new relationship which is enshrined in our Constitution is, however, different from the give and- take bargains for commodities and services in the market because it recognises that society must survive if the individual is to live well and that, therefore, in the face of a common danger the interests of society must prevail over those of the individual.
This new give-and-take relationship can never be so precise as the alder one of implicit obedience to authority.It is ever subject to debate and negotiation. Those immersed in the old traditions of implicit obedience - and there are many of them – are horror struck at the present day manifestations of defiance of authority.They are right,though it may be said that they have failed to distinguish what gives rise to disruptive negativistic behaviour, from what encourages inventiveness and initiative, But neither they - nor, even, those champions of the new relationship have taken the trouble of overhauling the administrative machinery for meeting the new needs. Administrative leadership, unlike social or political leadership, has long suffered from grievous neglect.
We believe that an administrator is not born overnight. He cannot be created by a simple test which he takes on the basis merely of an average general college education. He has to be created through a conscious-process of career development. The top civil servant is one who should possess several specialities. He is a man which should develop specific skills and acquire a vast experience of handling men and matters both at the desk and in the field.