Mains Practice Questions

The case deals with the moral understanding of the civil servant and compassion towards the common people. The decision of the civil servant should deal with the situation that pose least damage of people’s life.

• Stakeholders involved in the case are as under:
  • Common people like women, children and tourists.
  • Prisoners in jail.
  • Regional President of ruling political party and his family.
  • Chief secretary of the neighboring state.
  • Me as civil services officer of the state.
• Ethical issues involved:
  • Ethics in public administration: The various elements of administrative ethics are neutrality, impartiality, fairness, sincerity, integrity, sense of public good, efficiency, non-partisan attitude, devotion to duty.
  • Emotional Intelligence: Emotional intelligence would help civil servant in effective utilisation of resources and to handle difficult tasks and also manage them.
  • Empathy: It is an awareness of the needs and feelings of others both individually and in groups and being able to see things from the point of view of others.
  • Social Skills: It is applying empathy and balancing the wants and requirements of others with one’s. It includes building good rapport with others.
• The situational challenges faced are:
  • Crisis Management: Handling crisis efficiently with limited resources and saving maximum number of lives.
  • Timely decision making: There is need for prevailing trust among the public for the administration so that efficient decision making can take place.
  • Conflict management: Conflict management is another skill that public officer need. The conflicts here mean the quarrels and disputes among different group of people who would want to be rescued first.
• Course of action:
  • I would analyze the situation and according to that the enforcement would be sent to area, which is most damaged, and after that I would rescue people are as follows:
    • Chief secretary of the state, as the chief secretary of the neighboring state, he is the most important person of the state management and has been well trained to handle such situation, so he can send help from his state.
    • Ruling party’s president and his family, since he has political linkages, he can make many arrangements for the safety of people.
    • Then I would rescue hospital patients, as they are vulnerable and are many of them are unable to take care of themselves.
    • After them I would rescue senior citizens, as they also need help and are vulnerable due to their old age and physical dependency.
    • Further, Women and children would be rescued, because they are vulnerable both emotionally and physically.
    • In the last leg of rescue:
      • Rescue of Prisoners in jail would, their responsibility lies with the state, and they are also vulnerable to disaster situation.
      • Tourists, as they know very less about the local conditions and may be without any life supporting substances.
      • Hikers, as they have both the training as well as equipment's with them, to deal with challenging terrain.

Conclusion

Therefore, I will conduct the rescue operation according to the above-mentioned process. However, simultaneous rescue mission can be launched for different categories in accordance with the demand of the situation.