Forum Whispers Forum — 10 Apr 2018
DEBATE (1)
No one can replace Modi as PM of India. He was born to lead India to a glorious future as he has led Gujarat.
Vijay Kumar
DEBATE (2)
Some one will emerge as PM after the elections like it happened in the case of V P Singh, Chandra Shekhar, Charan Singh, I K Gujral or Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Vijay Tiwari
Administrators as household names..
The partition of the country in 1947,resulted in the colossal catastrophe and most gruesome tragedy of mankind in the world history. India was under the British rule then, which had created proverbial steel frame of ICS cadre to administer it. But unfortunately neither the British rulers nor its bureaucracy could prevent or control prowling beastly crowds from committing most heinous, diabolic and dastardly crimes against the humanity. Similar situation was repeated in India in 1984,1992 and 2002,with the same spectacle of failure of the bureaucracy. Not a single officer emerged as a saviour of the people in distress on such accursed times. However, on many other occasions some officers have done wonders to become the recipients of peoples' affection and part of folklore. One such person was Sir Chhotu Ram, who came to the rescue of debt mauled peasantry in the mid 1930s and earn its permanent gratitude. Similarly, lakhs of people had left their property in west Pakistan. Two legendary ICS officers MS Randhawa and Tarlok Singh, rehabilitated them by allotting them property, both in the urban and the rural areas in a record time. People still remember with fondness the wonderful task performed by them .
Amritsar city had seen rise in goondagardi in the aftermath of the partition of the country. In the years 1952-54, GC Behal was the session judge and S Kuldip Singh Virk was the city Magistrate. These two legendary officers would personally visit the cinemas ,parks ,girls schools and college ,restaurants, liquor vends,bus stands and railway station very often to catch hold of the anti-social elements.They had become household names and also their names appeared in some songs.They had eliminated the goondagardi from the area.Incidentally,one daughter of Mr GC Behal was Ms Prabha datt(mother of Ms Barkha Datt),who covered the 1965 war in the actual battlefield particularly khemkaran sector.His other daughter was Ms Shyama Maan IAS,who remained Financial Commissioner Revenue Punjab, and unearthed scandals of fraudulent land allotments worth crores of rupees. S. Kuldip Singh Virk retired as Chairman PPSC and his son SS Virk IPS remained DGP Punjab. In the 1960s, the name of Ashwani kumar IP, the then IG police Punjab, emerged as a terror for the criminals.He had personally supervised the arrests of murderers of S. Partap singh kairon from Nepal.He was so famous that in the year 1971, when provincial armed constabulary revolted in Uttar Pradesh,he was chosen by Smt Indira Gandhi ,to quell that revoltNow goondagardi,snatchings,traffic violations, and many other crimes seem to have significantly become way of life.
S Partap Singh Kairon became CM Punjab in the year 1956,when the consolidation of land holdings scheme was already operating in Punjab. Those, who are closely associated with the land and the agriculture, know that single most significant factor in ushering in of green revolution in the state was successful implementation of consolidation of holdings. Kairon would personally hold the meetings of the consolidation officers in the districts to monitor the scheme. It was one of the most arduous schemes ever implemented anywhere especially when Punjab included Haryana and most parts of Himachal Pradesh .Kairon's list of successes is very long and for this reason ,whenever topic of good and effective administration is discussed anywhere in the country, his name figures at the top.
Some days back, I heard a young boy singing a song in praise of Krishan kumar IAS, School Education Secretary Punjab, in the youtube. It was on the subject of his successful campaign against copying in examinations and its effects around the globe. He sang in the lighter vein that the aeroplanes to foreign countries would go empty this time, as many students were going to fail. He is perhaps the only bureaucrat in the recent times, who has become a household name. I remember, in the year 1975, Ms Harsimrat IAS was a young SDM at Anandpur Sahib. She relentlessly and fearlessly removed almost all encroachments from the area and as a consequence she was removed from there to be sent to Malerkotla. She continued her crusade against encroachments and mal-administration and suffered another transfer to Kapurthala. Kapurthala reminds me of Satish Chandra IAS, who was deputy commissioner there for 11 months only. It is unbelievable that when he joined, all govt lands were encroached and no land was available for construction of Ambedkar Bhawan .His consistent strategy and fearless stance brought back thousands acres of govt and panchayat lands .I have heard that Jagmohan, who rose to be a minister and governor of J&K, started his career as a PCS officer and also worked as GA to.DC Amritsar. His work in the DDA and in J&K is regarded as legendary. And Khairnar, demolition man of Bombay, still lives in the admiration of millions. The trend of diminishing impact of administrators to maintain law and order and to implement development and welfare schemes, needs to be stemmed and reversed for the betterment of the country.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, Amritsar
