When do they listen?

Bureaucracy has been introduced in the administration centuries ago with the aim to bridge the gap between the citizens and the government, streamline the administrative setup and to bring transparency to the system which somehow had been hijacked by some well connected nobles or officials with ruler, king, governor or the chief minister or the prime minister in the present day terminology. But with the passage of time bureaucracy despite being a link, widened the gap between the ‘ruled’ and the ‘ruler’, hindered the access to the government and also acted as an unsurpassed barrier between the two extremities.

I am very sure that most of the people among us would have tasted this bitter reality in different offices one day or the other because we have to knock the doors of the administration for our daily needs. I don’t deny the fact that all are not alike but I am putting here the common perspective which is prevalent in the society. If we talk to people, I mean the common masses, this perception is dominant.

I hardly go to government offices but whenever I need to go, I face the taste of this bureaucratic imperialism, being given different excuses. Sometimes even I have realized that this bureaucratic imperialism has flown down from the bureaucrats to the lower rank officials.

In recent past, I with some people of our area decided to visit the district administration for a genuine public concern. After reaching the mini secretariat we directly went to the concerned official for its redress as it was under his jurisdiction as per the statutes. But before he could solve the issue he dodged us to the concerned district magistrate which we easily sensed from his cold response. The moment we reached outside the chamber of the magistrate, we were ‘ordered’ by his gatekeeper to wait for some time as ‘Sahab was busy’ ; a handy phrase we come across in every department. After waiting for at least fifteen to twenty minutes looking at the door of the chamber that we will be let in the next minute, but to our utter surprise the door remained closed. Then I gathered some courage to ask the employee to please let our request reach the magistrate handing a chit which he agreed upon after many requests. Finally the door opened and only two among us were allowed to go inside.

The magistrate was leisurely sitting in his chair. The scene made me angry but before I could open my tongue I decided to put forth our demand. But to our utter disregard and shame, he did not even let us to open our lips. He ‘ordered’ that he will go through the application once he finds some time and without even reading a single word he put his bossy signature on the application and kept it aside. I then dared to voice our concern but he did not let us speak a word and we were sent back in utter insult and shame. Then I knocked the governor administration with a complaint on the portal and within two days we got a response from the portal that your concern has been forwarded to the concerned official. After a day, the two of us, visited the same official who led us to the district magistrate at the very first instance.

I was utterly surprised that the same official has been assigned the job to redress our concern and then I directly told him that we are not satisfied with their bureaucratic work culture and we left without listening to his seemingly sophisticated administrative terms.

And till now a genuine concern of a population of more than five thousand souls is still unaddressed and unresolved.  And then we decided to rest our case for the future generation to decide.

This is just a tip of the iceberg.