Wisdom lies in knowing what to reckon with and what to overlook. An officer being engrossed with the…

Question

Wisdom lies in knowing what to reckon with and what to overlook. An officer being engrossed with the periphery, ignoring the core issues before him, is not rare in the bureaucracy. Do you agree that such preoccupation of an administrator leads to travesty of justice to the cause of effective service delivery and good governance? Critically evaluate.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Habitual preoccupation with peripheral matters does amount to a travesty of justice, since delay and misdirected attention deny citizens services, though fair procedure itself is core. The Morbi bridge collapse of 2022, killing 135, followed reopening without a fitness certificate.

**Introduction**

Herbert Simon observed that "a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention", so wisdom for an administrator is **prudence**: judging what deserves attention. The question is whether misplaced attention merely wastes time or denies citizens justice.

**How Peripheral Preoccupation Harms Service Delivery**

1. **Goal displacement**: When formats and returns become the work, citizens wait; the Second ARC (2008) found the civil service oriented to process rather than results.
2. **Neglected core duties**: The Morbi bridge in Gujarat reopened in October 2022 without a fitness certificate and collapsed within days, killing 135 people, because the one check that mattered was overlooked.
3. **Outputs over outcomes**: Counting toilets built rather than used is the trap the Swachh Bharat Mission addressed by shifting to ODF Plus in 2020.

**Why the Verdict Needs Nuance**

1. **Procedure can be core**: Maneka Gandhi v Union of India (1978) held procedure must be fair, just and reasonable, so recording reasons and hearing parties is due process, not periphery.
2. **The system rewards the periphery**: Frequent transfers and audit fear push officers to safe paperwork, hence fixed tenure in T.S.R. Subramanian (2013).
3. **Focus can be practised**: Armstrong Pame's 100-km "People's Road" in Manipur (2012) came from fixing on villagers' one real need.

SKETCH: matrix | Reckon or Overlook
cols: Urgent | Not urgent
rows: Important | Not important
tl: Act now: crises
tr: Plan: core reforms
bl: Delegate: routine
br: Overlook: trivia

**Conclusion**

I agree that habitual preoccupation with the periphery is a travesty of justice, because delay and misdirected attention deny citizens what they are owed. The remedy, however, is not contempt for procedure but **phronesis**, telling fair process from mere formality, within a system that rewards outcomes over files.

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