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dated August 15, 1956: Report on working of Govt.

There is no lack of idealism or great vision in India or its Government but far too much of the dynamism and imagination characterising the setting of objectives is "smothered in procedures dominated by small thinking." This is the view expressed by Dr. Paul H. Appleby, American expert on Public Administration, in his second report on the administrative system of India, which was placed on the table of the two Houses of Parliament on August 13. "Perhaps nowhere else have so many systematic barriers been erected to prevent the accomplishment of that which it has been determined should be done," Dr. Appleby says. He believes that far too many proposed actions are reviewed and that the review is far too often in a "useless and frustrating fashion." The report says that granted prior agreement in principle on the kind and dimension of the programme to be undertaken and the amount of money to be made available for the purpose, "specific decisions incident to effectuation of the purpose in India are reviewed by too many persons in too many organs of the Government in too detailed, too repetitive and too negative terms." Dr. Appleby remarks that "by a curious proliferation of the conceptions of Parliamentary responsibility and Cabinet responsibility and by reliance on excessive procedures of cross-reference, there has been built an extraordinary evasion of individual responsibility and a system whereby everybody is responsible for everything before anything is done."

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