All the talk about increasing the government's efficiency by discarding 'bad elements' and rewarding meritorious people -- as has been recommended by the Surendranath Committee -- remains an unreachable goal.

The stark reality is that merit will be throttled while recommendations and money play the key role in the matter of postings and appointments.

Because of built-in evils in the system, merit cannot be promoted in government and so the next best system is seniority by which you often find people occupying space which they should not.

Some reforms can be ushered in by downsizing the bureaucracy. One computer can do the work of a hundred government employees. And although we have computers, the size of the government is not getting any smaller.

A computer illiterate officer will never encourage computerisation. He is rather threatened by the computer and the computer whizkids. It is time the government got rid of some of this deadwood. And what better way then a happy golden handshake?

Banks have done it; several public sector units have done it; so why does not the government introduce a VRS scheme for its employees.

No bank has been shut down nor has the efficiency of the banking system come down after or because of the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for employees.

On the other hand profits are bulging and banking has become such a pleasure with counting machines, Internet accounting and ATMs. Surely if the government undertakings can do it, the government itself can do it too and probably with better results.

With the architects of India's fiscal turnaround now in saddle again as the nation's prime minister (Dr Manmohan Singh) and finance minister (P Chidambaram), this is the right time to rightsize the government.

TIOL suggests that a new voluntary retirement scheme for the central government employees should be announced in this budget.

To make the scheme affective we suggest the following:

All the employees who are above 50 years of age should be convinced to opt for the VRS. While dangling the carrot of VRS, employees should also be shown the stick of compulsory retirement. This scheme should be open to even those who are facing disciplinary proceedings. This will reduce the workload in vigilance cells of the various departments and also reduce the work in the Central Administration Tribunal.

But the idea is not to limit the VRS only to above 50. All those who have put in 15 years with the government should be declared eligible, irrespective of their upper age, for this scheme. No doubt, some good officers who may command some premium in the private sector may move out but deadwood would also be shed. The good officers will eventually be working for the Indian economy, albeit in the private sector. Since the concept of public-private partnership is a much-touted policy, the government should not mind if it loses some of its best.

If many people do not go for the VRS, the next exercise should be to identify 'surplus' employees. No department would agree that it has surplus employees. So the declaration of a department/cell/employee as surplus should be done by an independent agency.

After the VRS scheme closes and the identification of the surplus department/cell employees is done that department or cell should be closed down and the employees compulsorily retired.

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