By Desaraju Surya
AMARAVATI: The Chandrababu Naidu-led NDA regime in Andhra Pradesh is getting ready to bring government functionaries at all levels under the scanner to rid the administration of any malignancy.
It is developing a system that will evaluate functioning of government officers and staff on a real-time basis and hold everyone accountable.
The findings of the evaluation will be placed on a special dashboard and the whip will be cracked on those found wanting in effective and honest discharge of duties.
The “radical move” comes in the wake of growing complaints against the functioning of government employees at different levels.
In particular, reports of bad behaviour and corruption against employees have left the rulers worried.
The Public Perception Tracking (PPT) Index has been constantly showing a negative feedback against vital government functionaries, particularly in respect of staff delivering welfare pensions, health services, revenue services and police.
For instance, in March, 15.7 per cent of pension beneficiaries complained about corruption while 17.5 per cent said behaviour of the staff was bad.
The PPT also exposed the police as 32.80 per cent of people said the law enforcers were “taking no action” against drugs sellers or consumers (habitual offenders). Another 30.76 per cent said the police “were not at all effective” in curbing the drugs menace.
Another 34.91 per cent felt the police actions were “not effective” though they were said to be carrying out patrols, raids and arrests.
Similarly, people are vastly unhappy with the revenue staff at the lower levels in relation to land issues.
There was widespread dissatisfaction over the functioning of doctors and staff in government hospitals and primary health centres across the state.
There were also largescale complaints against staff of the critical electricity department in redressing public grievances.
Such growing negativity against government functionaries has left the rulers agitated about a possible political backlash if things did not improve.
The Chief Minister has been harping on good governance but the ground reality seems otherwise.
“The current systems do not help keep a real tab on employees, especially the errant ones. Hence, the Chief Minister wanted a real-time mechanism to constantly keep the government staff on watch so as to instill a sense of fear and accountability,” a top official involved in the thought process revealed.
The efficacy of the new system will only be known after a full-scale roll out in the coming months.