Cut the red tape, Bommai tells officials 

BENGALURU: Cracking down on officials for pendency of files in various departments, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai at a recent meeting with Chief Secretary Ravi Kumar and other senior bureaucrats, ordered that files be cleared as soon as possible. There have been complaints that some files have been pending for more than a year, while some important files are not cleared for over six months.

Bommai, who has indicated his dislike of red tapism, said he will shortly hold a meeting on pendency and clearance of files with all departments and bureaucrats. Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) Secretary Munish Moudgil passed an order on Tuesday to all heads of departments, saying pending files need to be cleared immediately.

The order says that all old files need to be identified and cleared. The files are to be separated into three categories: older than one year (100 per cent), older than 6 months (50 per cent) and older than one month, on which no action has been taken. Officials also have to accord reasons for failure to clear the files.

Officials in the Vidhana Soudha, though, are unperturbed by this urgency over file clearance, and say such orders on bureaucratic red tape have been issued time and again for at least four decades. They recall a memorable exercise of file-clearing when then CM Gundu Rao had passed an order that no visitors will be allowed into Vidhana Soudha till all files are cleared. The file clearance drill lasted a few days.

Former CM B S Yediyurappa had orally instructed officials to ensure there is no unnecessary pendency of files. A reliable source said this does not mean that all old files are cleared or dumped, for some projects go on for years, and files are a record of progress of work. Insiders say that with the next legislative session just three weeks away, Bommai is trying to ensure the opposition has no ammunition and no one can point a finger at his government over red tape.