Who is authorized to sign with a green pen?
If you thought the issue of publication of Commissioner's notification in the Gazette of India, was a silly exercise, several Departments of the Government of India spent more than two years to sort out the issue as to who can sign in green!
The first thing a newly promoted Superintendent does is to buy a green ink pen, for Superintendents being gazetted officers are authorised to sign in green! By whom? When? Nobody knows. If an Inspector signs in green, it is blasphemy. But does the Government have any rules on who should sign in what colour?
This colour scheme raised quite a controversy some time back.
Two officers in the Ministry of Steel caused an administrative storm when they wrote in an official document in red and green ink. Steel production could be stopped but it had to be urgently confirmed whether red ink could be used in official files. So they consulted the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances:
"Can officers use inks other than blue or black ?... Are there any Guidelines on the question? If so, could these be forwarded to the undersigned... "
This department had no ready answer and so it took them 18 months to solve the problem as they had to consult
1.the Directorate of Printing (experts on ink),
2.the Department of Personnel and Training (experts on rules),
3.the National Archives of India (experts on longevity) and
4.the Ministry of Defence (experts on hierarchy).
After more than a year of fitting consultations, the Manual of Office Procedure was amended to give the privilege of using green or red ink only to officers of the level of Joint Secretary to the government and above and that too in exceptional cases. The studied advice of the Archives that the inks used must have had the approval of the Bureau of Indian Standards strangely did not find mention in the newly inserted clause!
Interesting? This is what former journalist and former minister Arun Shourie discovered during his stint in Government as a minister, as can be found from his book Thought @ the speed of government. What does a former journalist do when he becomes a former minister? Obviously do the thing he is best at. And Shourie has come up with what he is best at – writing.