T’puram: Be it the colour of the ink in a citizen’s pen or whether the public can wear footwear in govt offices, Keralam’s personnel and administrative reforms department (P&ARD) appears to be exploring some rather unconventional corners of govt rulebooks.Barely days after information was sought on whether citizens are required to use a particular colour of ink while submitting applications and complaints, an RTI application has now galvanised the P&ARD to ask departments to dig out any govt orders or circulars governing whether members of the public can enter govt offices and institutions wearing footwear.An ‘unofficial note’ issued by the department, dated Sept 9, seeks information from all secretariat departments, including law and finance secretariats, on whether there are any provisions prohibiting the public from entering govt offices, institutions and even hospitals while wearing sandals or footwear.But the department’s curiosity does not stop at the footwear itself. It has also asked whether any orders or circulars exist on what action should be taken if a govt office or institution puts up a notice saying: “entry wearing footwear is not permitted.”The information is being sought to prepare a response under RTI Act. Departments have been asked to furnish any relevant orders or circulars urgently.The latest query comes in the wake of another exercise by the department seeking answers over the colour of ink used by citizens in applications and representations. That inquiry sought to establish whether there was any prescribed ink colour and, more importantly, whether a citizen’s application could be rejected simply because the ‘wrong’ colour was used.For a bureaucracy that is increasingly looking to make the digital switch, the questions have an unmistakably old-school ring to them. “Officials are already preoccupied with several productive tasks that need to be completed on top priority. When such a query comes in from a govt dept, we have to provide a proper and accurate response. That means digging through files to find out whether such an order or rule exists. If it does not, that too has to be established. Several productive hours of officials are consequently spent chasing issues that have little bearing on the actual functioning of govt,” a finance department official said.
