India News | 'He Was More Innovative Than Us', Bureaucrats Remember Gogoi
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. It is believed that the backbone of any successful government lies in an efficient bureaucracy, which former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi realised and reposed immense trust in to successfully lead the state for three consecutive terms, officials who worked with him said on Wednesday.
Guwahati, Nov 25 (PTI) It is believed that the backbone of any successful government lies in an efficient bureaucracy, which former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi realised and reposed immense trust in to successfully lead the state for three consecutive terms, officials who worked with him said on Wednesday.
Gogoi always asked officers for innovative ideas for implementation in the state and accepted their suggestions readily if it was good, the state's recently-retired chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna told PTI.
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"We officers did present many innovative ideas but on most occasions, we found that he was more innovative than us," he said.
Krishna, who retired on October 31, said that when he served as the principal secretary of Planning and Development, the then chief minister, Gogoi, would often call him and give ideas which they tried to implement.
"We had set up a cell where experts from various fields were empanelled for proper preparation of Detailed Project Reports and set up an equipment bank from where contractors could hire equipment, following his suggestions," he said.
Gogoi, the state's longest-serving chief minister who died on Monday, was also very balanced and reasonable, Krishna said.
"Once I had proposed Rs 10 crore for the restoration of my school in Jorhat but he called me and said that since both of us are from the same school, it does not look good," Krishna said, adding that Gogoi had then asked him to choose five schools and allot Rs 2 crore for each.
"He was very keen to hear out experts as well and when I was posted in New York, I had arranged a meeting for him with renowned economists and experts from sectors such as tea. Many of them visited the state later on his invitation," he said.
Another retired bureaucrat, MGVK Bhanu, who served as commissioner, principal secretary and additional chief secretary for eight years in Gogoi's rule, said that the former chief minister chose his team well.
"He entrusted responsibilities onto them, supported them in their efforts and ensured that they worked within the framework of rules and law," he said.
A senior IAS officer currently serving in the state government, who did not want to be named, said that he attended hundreds of meetings with Gogoi as the chief minister and "every time we learnt something new".
"There were times he would get angry and scold us in a meeting, but we did not feel bad about it. We would come out of the meeting like naughty schoolboys who have been reprimanded by their headmaster," another serving bureaucrat said.
He might have scolded us in closed-door meetings but always had good words for the team in public, the IAS officer said.
The former chief minister's Officer on Special Duty for 16 years Bipul Gogoi, who remained with him till the end, said he always believed in the bureaucrats.
"He trusted them and always acknowledged their contribution to the smooth running of the government," he said. Gogoi, 84, died while undergoing treatment for post- COVID complications. He was the chief minister of Assam from 2001 to 2016, a six-time parliamentarian and Union minister twice.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)