The secretary-general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, Satnarayan Maharaj, has thrown open a debate about the political neutrality of the Public Service in the context of the implementation of government policy by any government other than one formed by the PNM. His statements were made at the Indian Arrival Day celebrations in Debe.Mr Maharaj has raised a fundamental issue of delay of policy implementation by putting the spotlight squarely on the Public Service.
His argument about civil servants creating blocks for any government other than a PNM one or boxing in those governments would require some kind of review of performance of the Public Service. Is it political partisanship or is it untimely delivery based on bureaucratic bottlenecks that is the problem?His remarks are naturally quite controversial and have also been made in the context of the geographical spread of the development resources of the country.
He has entered into a raging debate about whether or not this Government, which he openly supports, has been given fair treatment for its development programmes that fall "south of the Caroni river" to use his terminology. Mr Maharaj is challenging the traditional psychology of what he sees as the dominance of Port-of-Spain and the East-West Corridor in the national debate about who gets what from the development programmes of the State.
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