Haryana circular sheds light on how serious the government can be

That a recent circular by the Haryana general administration department (GAD) to government servants regarding declaration of their “moveable property” has become fodder for considerable ruminations about sarkari intelligence, is not surprising. Have the denizens of the department detected secret equine assets in the residences of bureaucrats, leading them to demand accounts of horses owned by the officials? It is entirely possible, of course, that mandarins in Haryana have taken a cue from one of their own — who now holds the reins of government in Delhi as chief minister — and decided to combat pollution by this rather odd and even impractical method. As adept desk-jockeys and neigh-sayers, their affinity for this mode of transport would be understandable.

However, radiograms also figure in the list. The GAD likely has not got round to updating the declaration form before issuing the circular rather than a case of bureaucrats falling back on their colonial predecessors’ steeds in the interest of ecological prudence. Indeed, the intention not to stirrup things too much is apparent as the list does not seem aware of the advent of newfangled personal electronic gadgets that require rather more financial investment than the only four mentioned: refrigerators, radios, radiograms and TVs