The Bihar government has advised heads of departments, DMs and other senior officials not to call too many meetings as it was affecting the work culture in the state.

A recent circular issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) said that meetings should not be called on verbal orders and subordinates should be respected.

“The Subordinate Legislation Committee of the Bihar Assembly, in its report tabled on the floor of the House, has made several recommendations, including too many meetings (called by senior officials) are adversely affecting bureaucratic work culture in the state and officials should avoid calling meetings verbally (barring emergencies) and seniors must not use disrespectful/abusive/filthy languages against subordinate officials,” the circular which was accessed by PTI said.

All department heads, district magistrates and senior officials should ensure that all recommendations of the committee are strictly followed, said the circular.

“In case meetings are called verbally, it must be ensured by the senior most official that minutes of the meeting are prepared once they are over. Mostly it has been noticed that if a junior official, who attends a meeting, called verbally after office hours, meets an accident while going back to his/her home, they are not considered as ‘on duty’. Therefore, the practice of calling meetings verbally should be avoided,” it said.

Using abusive/filthy language against junior officials during meetings is just not allowed, said the committee, adding senior officials should respect, motivate and encourage their subordinate officials.

Ajeet Sharma, senior Congress leader and chief of the committee, said: “Attending too many meetings can be highly stressful and tiring and both productivity and quality take a hit and employees become demotivated, and lose valuable work time.