Day 127

Recently, I read a news article in which the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, told Foreign Minister, Mr S M Krishna and his deputy Mr Shashi Tharoor, to vacant the suites of five star hotels to move to their places. Foreign Minister and his deputy told Finance Minister that they are paying the bills of their respective hotels from their private pocket. This indicates two things. First, the Finance Minister is worried about the extra expenditure of the exchequer. Second thing is that Foreign Minister and his deputy are not misusing the taxpayer's money for their personal use. I would like to say that if Finance Minister is really worried about the extra expenses then steps should be done to curb the expenditure of the bureaucrates. They are misusing the public funds. It's the bureaucrat class which is responsible for the extra expenses. The bureaucrat class is always misusing the government properties for their personal uses. Recently, Mr Mukherjee took an economy class to fly from New Delhi to Kolkata. He is entitled to a charted plane to fly at the expense of government exchequer. But still he took economy class flight to travel. He is setting nice examples. But I really wonder that how many bureaucrats are going to take lessons from this example. Hardly ten percent of the total bureaucrats in the whole country. Or even less than that. Bureaucrats think that they are not accountable for their actions. Or in the worst case, they think that they deserve all the things which they are getting. I think strong measures should be taken to make them accountable for using public funds. It needs strong laws and strong will power of the ministers to execute them to curb the menance of these bureaucrats. So instead of making plans on paper or saying it verbally, stress should be given to the execution of the plan. The Finance Minister should ask for monthly expenditures from every department especially from the bureaucrats. Then only the extra expenses will be curbed and then the money will be utilise for the public welfare. Whenever funds are allotted for some public welfare, then around three fourth of those funds goes in to the pockets of these bureaucrats. Finance Minister should stop these things. Then only the public participation will increase in the construction of the whole society. Because of the corrupt practices of the bureaucrat class, people blame the government for not implementing or not doing any development work. Many times the needy is deprived for getting the things which are really meant for them.