Reemployment after Retirement

 

(Downloaded from internet)

 After the elections were over and before BJP formed the government, the General Administration (GA) department in Odisha asked all the departments for furnishing details regarding the employees reemployed after retirement; though the policy regarding reemployment of the BJP government was not then known.  The GA department took the step with all sincerity, for the new government might ask to know about the issue

The employees, from fourth class to the top bureaucrats, desire, and strive to get reemployment after retirement. This is more so for the last few years. Most of them become successful. It’s not true that those officers or employees are more efficient, and indispensable. There are no cogent reasons for an employee to increase his efficiency in the last five years before his retirement than what efficiency he has after twenty-five years in government service.

One officer was looking after legal affairs in a department. Since no substitute was found to manage law as efficiently as he did, the government did not transfer him and he stayed there for more than twenty years. He was expecting reemployment after his retirement, but he was not considered. It’s a fact the criteria for reemployment are not only good work or efficiency, but something other. One has to satisfy the higher boss or the authority; and the authority is not satisfied only with your work, but for some other traits and services. The aforesaid officer did not have the other qualities.

Another example: One officer does not stand straight before the secretary or the minister; always stands bending, making at least his torso forty-five-degree angle to his lower part of the body below his waist. He never says no to what the higher officers or the ministers say. On the other hand, he directs his subordinate to do the job saying the secretary or minister desires. If it is not within the purview of law, he does not have scruples to bend the law. He is reemployed after his retirement, has already worked for four years post-retirement, and still working. Examples are galore of such officers getting reemployment.

                                                     (Published in the Prameya)

The officer with propensity to please the boss cannot remain impartial, cannot do justice to the public. One gets promotion in government service after one senior retires on superannuation or if one dies in service, making a post vacant, on the basis of entries by the higher authorities in his confidential conduct record (CCR). It’s natural the flatterer, the officer with an instinct to please the higher ups gets outstanding entries in CCR, irrespective of whether or not he is a worker or a shirker. In the prevailing system, reemployment has adverse impact on the administration. If someone discharging his duty is not rewarded, how can he have the motivation to work?  He will resort to what the officer who stands bending his body before the authority, does.

The Chief Minister, after he was sworn in, told the press sixty-two thousand post of teachers and above two lakh posts in government were lying vacant. An additional secretary’s salary per month, on an average, is one lakh and fifty thousand rupees. If he is reemployed after retirement, he gets pension minus salary which comes to around seventy-five thousand rupees. Besides, he enjoys the facilities of a chauffeur driven car, services of peons, personal assistants, etc. In place of reemployment, a fresh officer can be recruited; an unemployed youth can get employment.

The identity of an officer is the post he holds in government, and the power that goes with the post. The identity, he feels, is lost on his retirement. He does not get the benefits of free use of car, peon or a personal assistant. He cannot afford all those with his pension. He also loses the power of the post. Hence, he needs the job after he is retires. The authority also needs the kind of officers who does not object, but works to satisfy him and to his requirement. The unhealthy honeymoon of the authority and subservient goes on well. The need of the time when there is large unemployment, is to break this tradition.

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My Favourite Reader

 

A reader can easily say his favourite writer and also his favourite books, but it is difficult on the part of a writer to select one of his favourite readers. Those who read and appreciate his stories, those who come across a story of the writer in a magazine and buy the magazine to read, those who purchase his books; all are dear to a writer. Before internet or mobile phones came to be used, the readers used to write letters if they liked a story. Now they make phone calls or send messages in the WhatsApp. But all the readers do not make a call or send message.  It has also happened, while travelling in a train or bus, in course of chitchatting, the co-passenger, after introduction, say I have read you. Sometimes, he also cites the story he has read. Once a reader posted in my Facebook time line that after she had read a particular story of mine in a magazine, she buys the magazines where my stories are published. A writer does not know the number of the readers those who read his stories. All the known and unknown readers are dear to his heart. How can I, and for that matter, any writer can choose his one favourite reader?

Recently the editor of the Sunday literary magazine of a newspaper has asked me this question.

                                        (Published in Dhwani Pratidhwani)

I shall tell you about a reader I consider him the most favourite:

The Sunday literary page of Sambad had published in 1994 my story, ‘Chenai Hasara Sansar’ (A Smile Makes Life Lovely). Many readers appreciated the story and wrote letters in praise of it. But a reader had written me a different letter that I still remember. I keep his letter, his advice and remarks in my mind when I write anything, even now.

He liked the Sambad story, but he had reservations on one sentence used in the story. His observations: that the sentence neutralizes the emotions the writer intends to create in the story. The writer should not have written that sentence, he said. The story is complete and a success without the sentence. He suggests a writer should consider the effect and implications of a sentence before he uses it in a story or a drama and even in a novel. He wishes me all the best and cautions me saying it’s not enough to write a good story, but it would be great if I continue to write good stories.

I reread the story ‘Chenai Hasara Sansar’ after I had received his letter and found his views correct. I rewrote the story and published it under the caption ‘Poka’ (Worm).

He had not mentioned his name or address in the letter. He addressed me, ‘Dear Writer’ and ended the letter with ‘Yours, A Reader’. I remember the unknown reader when I sit at the table with the pen and paper to write. Sometimes, a reader or a critic says, your stories do not have a single sentence in excess of what is required to tell the story and at that moment, I remember this unknown reader with love and respect.

Thank You

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