No officer has been coming in time

Regimes must and do change; but most of the staff in government offices, like the dog’s curly tail, remain unchanged. In Telangana, it took a Minister’s ‘surprise’ visit (for photo-op, says a wag) to discover the unpalatable fact that no officer has been coming in time for over nine years now. After Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy’s discovery of ‘time lapse’ in work flow, everyone in the loop responsible for maintaining HR records was left red-faced. For, nobody had ever signed the register for recording attendance. It is understandable; for, they were bindaas en bloc because of the fact that former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao himself largely ‘worked from home’ and hardly visited the Secretariat. As for those who do not like to work, be it at home or in office, things have changed. ‘Working’ officials are divided over the sudden accent on sticking to office timings. The Congress government, having credited government employees for its victory in the Assembly elections, cannot afford to kick the ladder of its success. Surprise inspections apart, the ongoing ACB raids have also irked the employees, who, of course, cannot be expected to become nirmohi saints overnight even if they are primed ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.