Kakkanad: The top bureaucrat in the district is searching for an aide. None of the district collectorate staff in Ernakulam want to be within earshot of the collector as long as he is in office. The risk of long hours is not the only minus point for a dafedar. The ceremonial job requires the aide to don himself in a white kaftan, belt, cross-belt and cap.
Bureaucratic conventions require the appointment of the most senior office attendants as the dafedar. Of course senior attendants could refuse to be a dafedar and let juniors take up the position. In Ernakulam, however, none of the 180 attendants want to put on that cap.
While an office assistant’s duty time if fixed from 10 am to 5 pm, like any other government servant, a dafedar cannot expect to close shop at 5 pm. He has to be around as long as the collector remains in his office. Collectors often want to work late into the evening on urgent conferences or some such work.
The meager uniform allowance is no incentive for the office attendants to be a dafedar and forego their family time. Attendants who are forced to take up the assignment pull strings to find other assignments elsewhere.
The establishment section of the Ernakulam collectorate had gone through a similar crisis a year and a half ago, when Manorama published a report on the vacuum. The report prompted S Ramakrishnan, a caretaker of the collector’s conference hall, to volunteer for the job.
Ramakrishnan, however, had had enough of the ceremonial post within six months. He could go down in history as the last dafedar of Ernakulam if no one else comes forward to succeed him.
Though an office attendant is bound to do the duties of a dafedar, the organizational might of the government staff often comes to their rescue. They point out that the collector can get his works done even now, with or without the dafedar.
Read: Ernakulam News | Kerala News
