Another failed catcher of rodents…
Only the most cutting-edge news, when you need it….
New Delhi’s government has a rat catching department that hasn’t caught a single rodent in more than a decade, a newspaper reported Monday.
There are 97 rat catchers on the municipal payroll, all working for the Rat Surveillance Department, a decades-old agency that last saw a lot of action back in 1994, when a plague outbreak killed 56 people in areas of northwest India near the capital, The Hindustan Times newspaper reported.
Each rat catcher earns about 3,500 rupees ($77) a month for catching, but there are no records of any rodents being caught in the past 10 years, the newspaper said.
Rats are not hard to find in New Delhi _ they can be seen scurrying across public parks, streets and even in homes.
Government incompetence.. another bridge between peoples around the world.
Maybe they should try some outsourcing now:)
Hahaha, that’s helarious.
America has the same problem. Only our “rat catchers” are given jobs such as in charge of FEMA, Veteran’s Administration, HUD, various regulatory boards, and even Ambassadorships. They are readily identifiable as they worked on the Bush Re-election campaign, have no experience in the field hired into, and are failures in their past careers. Some will have problems with drool running down their chins or finding Adult size diapers.
Jeez, and these people are getting our jobs? Well, I guess you get what you pay for.
AH HA Thats where I’ve seen those rats before…. That Goodness Alberta is Rat free!!!! Now to deal with the polititians….
Michael Brown needs to be placed there. For references (real ones, this time) he can bring newspaper clippings saying what a great job he did recently, with the U.S. V.P. slathering praise all over him.
The rats are caught for testing for infections so that the public can be alerted for any disease outbreak. It is called sampling. It is not the job of the department to eradicate rats. You guys jump to conclusions at the drop of the hat. No wonder your jobs are going away.
MV
If you read the article then you would know that according to municipal authorities they have no knowledge of any rats being caught in the LAST TEN YEARS. There was no reference in the story about disease sampling.
Most likely these rat-catching employees were just on a bogus pay roll and had other jobs, elsewhere. The problem of “ghost employees” is huge in India. India has whole “ghost schools” “ghost hospitals” and, is seems, a “ghost rat catching department” that are on the books, have government funds flowing to them but don’t actually exist.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… the achilles heel of outsourcing is corruption. I’ve lived in India and other parts of south Asia for years and am still amazed at the amount of corruption at every level from the highest elected official all the way down to pion in the post office. And that’s just the government! Business people may be worse.
Do these outsourcing companies in the US understand this? When I’m in India, I NEVER EVER give out my credit card over the phone, to anyone. It puts you at high risk for fraud. But now I risk doing that whenever I place any purchase in America.
Watch for the stories on huge rip-off related to outsourcing. If my Indian experience is any indication, you can totally expect them to come.
Pat,
Does not the word “surveillance” mean anything to anyone anymore?
The journalist who filed the story does not care about completeness. He knows that can snag your interest only if leaves out the essential details.
Rats cannot be eradicated. They are however caught periodically just like mosquitoes, dogs, and other animals living among humans are caught to keep track of diseases.
There is an National Geographic TV documentary titled “RAT WARS” exclusively about rats in India where they show these men in action. Every night, traps are kept in various places in the city. Next day, the rats are collected and taken to labs where they are then dissected. Tissue samples are examined for diseases. Finally, the rats end in incinerators.
After the plague outbreak in 1994, municipal authorities in most big towns and cities have had similar rat surveillance drives to detect possible outbreaks. Some like the one in New Delhi started a new department. Others, assigned existing staff or people in vetinary hospitals or government labs to do the checking.
After a few years, the momentum was lost. Nobody cared. People who were hired for the job stayed on the rolls and continued to draw salaries. Of course, they did not do any work.
Government jobs are big in India. Politicians find all sorts of excuses to give jobs to people in the hope that they will vote for them.
MV
Again I refer you to the article. There was no mention of “sampling” for diseases. There had been NONE reportedly caught for any reason. I am only commenting on what was actually in the article.
Your comment was that we, and by that I take it to mean Americans, jump to conclusions. I believe that you are the one jumping to a conclusion on information NOT in the article.
As for the word “surveillance”, that could mean anything. I might take it at the most common meaning that someone sits there and watches the rat’s behavior or activity. Surveillance doesn’t mean the catching and killing of something, or checking for diseases.
I agree that rodents won’t be eradicated. My wife and I don’t care to share our home with them though. If one does invade our home, then I will set a trap to catch it. Unpaid by the government.
No one denies corruption exists in India. It exists only where government or politicians come in.
India has a very huge bureacracy. Government employees are always given huge pay advances and loans, which are then deducted from their salaries. The result is that their pay packet becomes extremely light after several loans and advances. So, they harrass the public for bribes.
Unlike the government, private businesses are run by profit motive. If anyone is found to be corrupt, they will be fired.
This is not possible with government jobs where hire-and-fire policy does not work. Exit policy in India is pretty tight in favour of the workers, particularly for those in government. (During the shutdown of the American Federal government during the Clinton administration, India was one of the places where embassy officials could not be sent home.)
The outsourcing industry is zero-tolerant towards corruption, as integrity is an important qualification. Indian BPO workers are paid huge salaries and live charmed lives. On purchasing-power parity basis, they earn far far better than similar workers in developed countries. A banana that costs one rupee in India costs 1000 rupees in Japan. Blame the IMF and World Bank for this. All we wanted was a small loan to tide over a balance of payments crisis and they forced to devalue our currency. Apparently, American investors like Enron wanted more bang for their buck. (Enron however borrowed most of the money from Indian financial institutions and left them with huge swathes of red ink on their books).
Credit card fraud is quite common in American and is not exactly news worthy. Besides, credit card companies don’t like to talk about it. The “ripoff” stories that you talk about can be enacted anywhere in the world.
Pat,
When I read the story, I knew what was left out.
If the journalist mentions the surveillance was for diseases, he doesn’t have a story.
Surveillance can only be diseases – not which mouse stole whose cheese.
If you see the National Geographic documentary “Rat Wars”, I assure you, you will agree. I am not making this up.
Indian cities are heavily populated and the rat population probably exceeds that of humans. A mature rat raises 8 litters every year with more than a dozen babies each time. It is only the availability of food that puts a check on their population.
No government, least of all the Indian government, can catch every rat and destroy them. It is just not possible.
Another thing: Sampling rat populations is done in developed countries too. All vectors of communicable diseases are regularly sampled to save humans, and domestic and farm animals .
I said that you jump to conclusions after John’s post about a girl being married to a girl. Everyone seemed to think that girl will have to spend the rest of her life with the dog.
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=2387