It keeps happening in India. Whether it is a metro like Mumbai or a small town like any other, the corporators and other functionaries of any municipality or Nagar Palika are always the blue eyed boys…or girls, born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Come rain or shine, whether the municipal body is cash rich or in financial doldrums, they continue to live life King size. Take the case of a Nagar Palika in a western state of India which is in the news due to heavy malnutrition and deaths of small children due to hunger. The poor rich men of the Nagar Palika had to make repeated visits to the town to take first hand updates since they were under pressure from the higher ups in government. This involved a lot of traveling on the same pot holed roads, when they were always claiming, there were non. A lot of sweat was also expended, due to which a lot of these rich men lost their weights. But they were so much concerned about losing their excess flab that this resulted in an order for the latest swanky car. And since the common babus cannot travel with their masters, the order for one car got converted into two. Nowadays, if you are in that part of the country, you can see swanky expensive cars making trips to the poorest of hamlets ‘to take stock of the situation’.
But I had always thought that this happens only in India. How wrong was I !! Take the municipal corporation of a city in Australia. The city of Canberra. This city was passing through a grim financial situation what with fast rising prices coupled with large scale unemployment. The government had to announce strict austerity measures and the common man was ready to abide by the same. Then suddenly the bureaucrats thought about learning the best austerity practices. But due to the high stress factor, they decided to conduct a seminar for all like minded bureaucrats in a place outside their city. And which better place than the city of love, Paris!! So entire circus of bureaucrats was sent on an all expenses paid trip to the opposite part of the world to the most expensive city in the world. And since a day of seminar was expected to raise the stress levels, the best HR in the world decided to throw in fun activities like visit to the Eiffel Tower, the Moulin Rouge, the Louvre, et al. Now this small investment of, visit to the most expensive city, is expected to motivate the bureaucrats to perform their duties and teach best practices of austerity to the denizens of their proud city. So what if the seminar lesson itself caused a big dent in the financial health of the city coffers!!
Yatindra Tawde
But I had always thought that this happens only in India. How wrong was I !! Take the municipal corporation of a city in Australia. The city of Canberra. This city was passing through a grim financial situation what with fast rising prices coupled with large scale unemployment. The government had to announce strict austerity measures and the common man was ready to abide by the same. Then suddenly the bureaucrats thought about learning the best austerity practices. But due to the high stress factor, they decided to conduct a seminar for all like minded bureaucrats in a place outside their city. And which better place than the city of love, Paris!! So entire circus of bureaucrats was sent on an all expenses paid trip to the opposite part of the world to the most expensive city in the world. And since a day of seminar was expected to raise the stress levels, the best HR in the world decided to throw in fun activities like visit to the Eiffel Tower, the Moulin Rouge, the Louvre, et al. Now this small investment of, visit to the most expensive city, is expected to motivate the bureaucrats to perform their duties and teach best practices of austerity to the denizens of their proud city. So what if the seminar lesson itself caused a big dent in the financial health of the city coffers!!
Yatindra Tawde
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