Obstacle in Administrative Reform in India

Human behaviour, outlook, attitude and many others are constantly changing and the impact of changes falls upon society in general and upon administration in particular. The public administration must make sincere and serious efforts to meet the new demands which are resultants of changes in outlook and behaviour. Viewed from this perspective the public administration can never remain static. In other words, the administrative system should be reformed so that it can meet the new demands of society. Here arises the necessity of reforming administration. 

Let us define reform. It means to make changes, especially an institution or practice in order to improve it. This is the general meaning of reform. But reforming administration has separate connotation. The administrative system of a state can never be permanent or be applicable to all cases. 

Obstacles arising in the course of Administrative Reforms  

Change and reform are both essential for every system and especially very important for public administration. But the essentiality of reform does’ not mean that its attainment and implementation are very easy tasks and naturally can be smoothly implemented. Here lie the obstacles of administrative reform. 

1. There has devel­oped a very big gap between the capacity of public administration and the growing demands and requirements. The employees became used to the current state of public administration and they are unwilling to accept the changeover in the current system of public administration. It is very hard to transform them from their environment to professional environment.

2. The administrative reform is not a day to day affair. That is, public administration cannot be reformed frequently. When to reform and how much to be reformed pose big problems and these cannot be solved easily. The authority will start reforming public administration when the necessity will be fully ripe.  

3. Reform in public administration is a long-term process and the results may are may not be desirables. This is why; administrative reforms are hardly implemented in the system 

4. An important objective of administrative reform is to ensure the support of the clients for the reform and participation of people in administration. Without people’s support a reform proposal can never be executed. Particularly in a country where there are large number of parties and the relation between them is far from cordial. When the party in power proceeds to introduce certain reforms in public administration other parties will or may object. 

5. Administrative reform is not restricted only to the work culture, environment, charter of duties, charter of responsibilities but also it make changeover in chain of command, responsibilities, salaries and payments and strength.  The discrepancies, if rises, results increase in legal and court cases. 

6. The public administration in India is secured in steel framework with self interest. They lack competitive nature, professionalism and risk. This is why; it is hard to transform the system for better competitive environment.

7. Political interference in public administration is very deep in nearly all the democratic form of Governments. There is lack of political will for implementation of the proposed administrative reform.  The loophole and lacklaissal attitude of the public administration suited fit to the political parties and political parties exploited administration for their personal gain.