12 April 2012 Kerala Commmentary
Ministry expansion in Kerala never ends.
P.S.Remesh Chandran.
Editor, Sahyadri Books & Bloom Books, Trivandrum.
A small state in India with just 140 members in their legislative assembly but with 21 members in their cabinet! If we travel in a fast car from the south to the north of Kerala, before it is seven hours, Kerala is over. When we travel in a fast train Andhra Pradesh will take about a day to cross. So, to run a small state like Kerala, why should there be an unnecessary 21 members in the cabinet of their ministry of their government? What an inexcusable waste of state resources! For several years the state ministers of Kerala have been boasting about fully computerizing the departments under their administrations, resulting in reduction in staff. If the finance ministers of the state are to be believed, not less than 500 crores have already been spent on computerizing top government offices in the capital city alone during the years. If what the so-called technical experts in the state bureaucracy say can be believed, one single chief minister can run the affairs of the entire state with a limited staff. Looked anyway, the state today, ought to have been run by 5 ministers. 15 ministers are in excess, just there to eat into public treasury. When computerization progresses in government, considerable number of staff are shed away, terminated from service or redeployed elsewhere. By the same logic, why are not the number of ministers in the cabinet reduced proportionately? More ministers means more state expenditure on account of their and their staff’s salaries, allowances, tour and medical expenses, escort, housing and pension, all for doing no job except inaugurating multi-crore private establishments all over Kerala everyday, at people’s expenses. They may say that it is part of the public relations of government. But for maintaining public relations, there is a paid full department in the government. Every movement, word, gestures and decisions of the ministers, including their clandestine relationships and involvements with inappropriate people, are reported the instant verbatim by the news papers and television channels. Also they can public relate directly from their offices through their computers. What do they travel during office hours for, instead of staying in their offices from 10 to 5? If we examine the travels made by these ministers during the past five years, we shall see that 99.99 percent of them were totally unnecessary, i.e. for the people of Kerala. They spent billions of state revenue for their popularity as if it is their privilege they should enjoy for the tiresome job of governing us. Kerala State is waiting for a fair chief minister who swears in with the right five ministers.