New Delhi, Dec 23 (IANS) Voicing disquiet over the recent trend of "questioning the basic fundamentals" of the constitution, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has hoped for a solution to the problem of accountability of public servants.
"Men and women of the civil services are being questioned in courts of law, by investigating agencies, which is very disturbing," Khurshid said here Saturday at an awards ceremony for civil servants.
"The worry today is that fundamentals that we, through our constitutional makers, had settled are suddenly being questioned by series of groups of people in the new generation," Khurshid said in his address at the gfiles Governance Awards 2012.
Holding it the duty of ministers to protect civil servants from being questioned in parliament, Khurshid said: "Today civil servants are being made personally accountable, which is a disappointing scenario."
He urged a fresh look at the Administrative Reforms Commission recommendations.
The minister said that on the issue of a public official's accountability both the civil service and the politicians need to understand that there existed the concept of an "honest mistake".
He cited the example of a minority judgement in a division bench of court, saying that the judge in minority was not being "dishonest" despite the fact that the majority judges did not share the minority viewpoint.
Referring to the issue of governance and law and order thrown up by the recent case of gang-rape in the capital, Khurshid expressed strongly against street trial of the perpetrators of such horrific crimes.
"Now I cannot tell you how much one feels for every such individual (victim). I think that you would be inhuman if you could not feel for such individual. But my training, our understanding of the constitution and rule of law of governance tells us that you don't have street trials," Khurshid said.
The minister earlier presented awards recognising excellence in governance instituted by gfiles magazine.
The awardees included Indian Administrative Service officers Anil Swaroop, for evolving and implementing the government's health insurance scheme for the poor - the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and Armstrong Pame, for organising the local tribal community for construction of a 100-km road between Tamenglong and Haflong in Manipur without any government help.
null
|
|
Comments:
