In an interaction with the administrative officers particularly the circle officers of Assam, the Chief Minister of the state Himanta Biswa Sarma took up a very issue that has been the culture of the state, the Dallal or the middle man who gets done the government work. In a scathing remark to the officials, he commanded with dateline that this culture needs to end at least during his Chief Ministerial tenure. In a strongly articulated message, he also echoed his thoughts in a threatening tone to the middleman that he himself will put them behind bars if he finds anyone in the business of middlemanship.

Chief Minister Sarma has grown from the files and ranks and without mincing words he has accepted that for his own work as a Minister also had to get his personal work done through the middleman. His Big Question to the officials was if a young officer is known by the company of Dallals at an early age, then over the period of their career, they will be surrounded by dallals only whereas an officer of the Government is supposed to serve the people.

All said and done this could be the beginning of a changing paradigm for the state if these strongly but correct messages are not delivered for the politically correct stance and narrative but are followed by actions at the grassroots level. The CM did not hesitated to indicate that he is getting impact study done by independent citizens in each district of the state followed by each office etc. Again my money will be placed on future actions and not on political statements. But I would rather keep an optimistic view and fuel the hope alive.

Mr. Sarma is a vivid researcher and I have a feeling that he has seen the Bengal Chief Minister had been functioning in a similar manner where she does not hesitate to take on administrative officials down the block level in an open forum which gets broadcasted live on her social media, not to mention the media picking it up. This has worked for Mamata Banerjee and Assam Chief Minister must be hoping the same for him.

The road is a long one and any changes can come only with the cooperation of people and dedicated young officers. The seasoned officers have the role to mentor and impact society thus get recognized and not known for corrupt practices. The media can play a vital role. NGOs can extend help to the people to educate them on their rights and use of technology etc.

The toughest challenge the Government has on its hand is not corruption but lack of motivation of its employees to work. The work culture has to be ushered in through discipline, training, a good work environment with the use of ergonomic concepts, and a system of accountability.

The dallal raj that exists in our country is the root source of generating black money. It is the few ‘Dallal’ who makes some living out of it but snatches away the rights of people and makes the government babus filthy rich who in turn makes these extra unaccountable, so-called ‘speed money’ income into a black fund. Where do these black funds go? It does not enter the taxable net but keeps circulating in the parallel economy.

The government and tax authorities will do good to the exchequer if one can analyse the spending habits of Government officials, scrutinize lifestyle, identify the human side of an official as well as the productivity matrix of each government employee, starting from the top.

We require a tech-savvy department like ‘Internal Affairs’ of the United State for each state and central agency accountable to the Parliament and Assembly if we are really serious about rooting out corruption from the society.