Largesse is wrong, withdraw it

Government orders do not have to justify themselves by offering reasons for what they seek to do. So, a recent Karnataka Government Order (GO) which extended a number of key financial benefits to retired senior IAS officers has not explained why such largesse is being given to them. Retired chief secretaries and additional chief secretaries, as per the GO issued by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms on March 4, 2015, will get certain allowances on very inexplicable grounds. According to this order, they will get Rs 6,000 as servant allowance because, yes, they need servants, Rs 1,000 as telephone allowance because they certainly have to make telephone calls and medical reimbursement because they may fall ill. The munificence will benefit almost all the IAS officers as most of them retire as additional chief secretaries, at least. How does a retired officer’s servant and telephone serve the public interest? The Siddaramaiah government has gifted this retirement benefit purely for IAS officers’ personal needs and comfort. Neither the Central government nor other states have extended these facilities to retired civil servants. The order is wrong and lacks all rationale, and is even feudal in its conception.

IAS officers are the best paid among all government servants. They enjoy perks, allowances and other benefits like no other employees do, when they are in service. They get hefty pensions after they retire from service. There is no case for the government to pay them for their personal expenses when they are not in public service. Retired additional chief secretary V Balasubramanian has himself gone on record to question the government’s decision. There are any number of people who cannot afford even minimum medical service because of extreme poverty. There are not enough doctors and facilities in hospitals and healthcentres, especially in rural areas. Most people cannot afford private healthcare and insurance is almost non-existent. When they need medical support, spending public money on those in the top rung of society, who can well afford all their expenses, is criminal wastage. 

Such wastage of public money has become rampant and the norm. The government spent Rs 1 crore of public money on the treatment of Housing Minister Ambareesh in Singapore, on travel and for other expenses of his family and entourage, when the actor-politician had more than the means to meet his expenses. It is not an isolated case of what amounts to misappropriation of public funds by the cosy club of politicians and bureaucrats. It is gross misuse of power by a minuscule section, and hurts the interests of the vast majority of people. The order is wrong and immoral, and the government should withdraw it immediately.