GANGTOK: Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Golay on Monday announced that the government is considering creating a separate department for non-performing employees. Was it in jest or a serious consideration?
The Chief Minister spoke elaborately at an entrepreneurs event in Samman Bhawan in Gangtok.
This is not the first time the CM has expressed his displeasure at non-performance of government employees. In 2021, an extensive drive was conducted against officials entering the government offices late for work, with the issuance of showcause notice for late comers. However, the same measure resulted in punctuality by officials for a month, but soon the showcause notices fizzled out.
Urging the government officials to be proactive in their work, the CM addressed the gathering of top bureaucrats in attendance.
Golay said, “We have plans to create a new department where engineers, accounts officers or even the likes of additional chief secretary, who do not work and become an obstacle for public work, will be transferred. No official vehicles for them, but only salary. Such employees create hurdles and need to be kept aside so that other efficient employees can be productive.”
Golay clarified that not all government employees are lazy in their work. “There could be two from a group of 10 employees who could hinder the progress of work. If it is a work that needs to be completed in a day, it should be completed in a day. But the same work gets stretched to months, hampering the honest public of Sikkim. The function of bureaucracy is to ease the public’s work and not become an obstacle themselves.”
The CM clarified that the step considered by the government is not a move towards ‘victimization’, adding that a cabinet meeting finalized a name for the said department – to be known as ‘Directorate of Coordination’ – which will function under the Home Department with immediate effect.
A government notification said, “This Directorate will have officers from all organized services, including departmental and technical services of different cadres, at all levels. The function of the directorate will be to carry out the coordination of the work as assigned.”
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