Insanity at the PSC
The Public Service Commission (PSC) has been thrown into turmoil over the demand by its employees and officials that the chairman of the organisation resign and three senior officials be removed. Originally their complaint was against the secretary for his alleged corrupt practices. Now they want the chairman to resign because, they allege, he failed to take action against the secretary. Well, this much is understood; but what cannot be condoned is the violent form their protests degenerated into. Not only did they force the secretary and two other top officials out of the office building but also locked their rooms last week. All this happened in the chairman's absence. Can we ask why the PSC staff chose the time for its violent agitation when the chairman was out of the country and another senior officer was in charge of his office? Was there any necessity for resorting to the violent means? It is totally unacceptable.
If allegations of corruption are to be brought against somebody, there are certain procedures to be followed. And these do appear in the official manual which provides a mechanism in this behalf. One cannot expect PSC employees or officials to behave like a mob going berserk and sit in judgement over top functionaries of the organisation. If the PSC chairman did not entertain their complaints in the first place, they could at least wait for his arrival and reiterate their demand in a peaceful manner. If they were turned down even then, they could very well seek redress from the higher authorities. They did none of these and are now only to be blamed for violation of rules and resorting to violence. We do not say that if a high official is involved in corruption, he cannot be exposed. But this does not give the complainant any right to take the law into their own hands and deliver mob justice on him. We record our disgust over the trend.
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