ROHTAK: With about 40 percent of Haryana Government employ ccs all engaged in private businesses at the cost of their official duties. The “upar ki aamdan” of government officials which was an important consideration for Parents hunting prospective husbands for their daughters has been Replaced by the “aamdan from side business”.
Income from these so-called side businesses is many times the salaries drawn by the employees. The craze has led to truancy and inefficiency in government offices.
Till a few years ago, only teachers and steno typists were utilizing their spare time for private tuitions and part-time jobs. The short-lived boom in the real estate and the share market a few years ago at traced government employees to such an extent that their businesses run in the names of close relatives visually became their whole time jobs.
The situation has come to such a pass that in the case of teachers, tuitions have been replaced by privately run English medium schools or teaching shops. The steno typists now devote more time to their part-time jobs with lawyers and private businesses than their own official.
An incident which took place. last month in Hisar district reflects the gravity of the situation, The panchayat of Kheri Gangan village near Hansi locked up the school building because the two teachers posted their were playing truant. They were found to be running private schools at Hansi.
However, the businesses run by the employees do not necessarily relate to their professional skills Or duties. Thousands of employees are engaged in properly dealing and share market business. Although the boom is long over, yet they have so much money locked in it that changing business now is not feasible.
Employees of several dependents are running firms in the names of their family members which supplies goods to their departments, Making we of their contacts, such employees bag lucrative contracts for supplying requirements of their offices. There are others who have setup construction firms and compete for contracts with government depart ments. This line of business is popular among employees of the engineering department and state corporations and boards.
Employees have devised ingenious ways to fund more and more time to devote to their businesses; There are hundreds of employees who have managed to get themselves suspended from service on frivolous grounds. This affords ‘them ample time for the business. besides ensuring payment of/subsistence allowance, The depart mental inquiries are deliberately got delayed in many cases by bribing people who matter, Still others proceed on leave and rejoin duty only after a last warming is given of the termination of services.
Enquiries reveal that often officers indirectly help them in playing, truant from their jobs. The employee concerned allows the officer to employ somebody else in his place. The employee’s salary goes to his substitute illegally’ Such unscrupulous officers get a cut from the substitute’s salary’ who invariably is 4 needy jobless: youth. The truant employee also” pays the officer a regular amount as part of the agreement. This ploy is employed mostly by those employees who are keen on completing 20 years of service to get pension and other benefits after seeking voluntary retirement. ‘According to a senior officer” overstaffing in. Government offices: loo encourages the tendency to engage in business while in set. Vice, with lithe work on their hands, several employees make. use of their time to earn an extra, buck. However, the phenomenon” is affecting the morale of diligent employees who take their jobs seriously and honestly, he says.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 2, 1994
