Government to bid adieu to Tottenham system

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posted on 13 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is all set to bid adieu to the 65 year old Tottenham system of office procedure introduced by t..

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government is all set to bid adieu to the 65 year old Tottenham system of office procedure introduced by the British Raj in favour of an egovernancebased system, which is better suited for presentday requirements.
The government has formed a committee, comprising secretaries of revenue and personnel and administrative reforms departments, to evolve a new system of office procedure based on egovernance. The government has taken this decision accepting the recommendations of the Justice A K Rajan Committee in its second report on administrative reforms.The Tottenham system was developed by Sir Richard Tottenham, a British officer who worked as the district collector of North Arcot district between 1945 and 1946.

The system includes organisation of the office, general discipline, attendance, letters and their distribution, file management, referencing and flagging, linking of files, various types of communication (letters and circulars) and, finally, destruction of outdated files after a certain period.

K Balasubramaniam, president, TN Government Employees' Union, said according to the Tottenham system, a lowerlevel clerical staff should create at least 13 files a day. "In the last six decades, there has been a jump in the number of applications and communications.... Now, in the egovernance era, the Tottemham system will be completely irrelevant."