Governance reforms are in fact social reforms: Jitendra
*J&K CS, Sehrish receive awards
Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Apr 21 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed Civil Servants on the occasion of 16th Civil Services Day, 2023 at Vigyan Bhawan here today. He conferred the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration and released e-books on “Viksit Bharat”.
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Addressing the gathering, Modi congratulated everyone on the occasion of Civil Services Day. He noted that the occasion of Civil Services Day this year becomes much more special as the nation has completed 75 years of its independence and is starting to move forward to achieve the goals and objectives of a developed India. He highlighted the contributions of those Civil Servants who joined the service 15-25 years ago and emphasized the role of young officers who will contribute towards nation-building in the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal.
The Prime Minister expressed confidence that the young officers are extremely fortunate to serve the nation in this Amrit Kaal. “The responsibility to accomplish the dreams of every freedom fighter of the nation lies upon every shoulder”, he remarked as he pointed out the paucity of time but the abundance of potential and courage in the country.
Modi said that the country is prepared for take off due to the work done in the last 9 years. He said that different results are being obtained with the same bureaucracy and personnel. He acknowledged the role of Karamyogis in the growing profile of the country on the global stage, for the growing confidence of the poorest of the poor in ‘Sushasan’ and for a new momentum of development of the country.
He mentioned India rising as the 5th largest economy in the world, taking strides in fintech as India is number one in digital transactions, one of the cheapest mobile data countries and the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. He remarked on transformative changes in the rural economy, railways, highways, port capacity augmentation and the number of airports. He said that the awards today reflect the contribution and sense of service of the Karmyogis.
Recalling his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on 15th August last year when the Prime Minister invoked the ‘Paanch Pran’ namely the development of Viksit Bharat or developed India, breaking the slavery mentality, taking pride in India’s heritage, strengthening the unity and diversity of the country, and keeping one’s duties before anything else, the Prime Minister underlined that the energy emanating from these five resolves will take the nation to its deserved place in the world.
Dwelling on the theme of this year’s Civil Service Day being based on the notion of Viksit Bharat, Modi said that the concept of Viksit Bharat is not limited to modern infrastructure. “It is important for Viksit Bharat that India’s Government system supports the aspirations of every Indian and every Government servant helps every citizen in realizing their dreams and the negativity that was associated with the system in the previous years, turns into positivity”, he added.
Throwing light on decades of experience after India’s independence, he stated the importance of last-mile delivery in the implementation of Government schemes. He gave examples of results from policies of previous Governments and mentioned that there were more than 4 crore fake gas connections, more than 4 crore fake ration cards, and support was provided to 1 crore fictitious women and children by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, fake scholarships were offered to approximately 30 lakh youths by Ministry of Minority Welfare, and lakhs of fake accounts were created under MGNREGA to transfer the benefits of workers who never existed.
The Prime Minister highlighted that a corrupt ecosystem had emerged in the country under the pretext of these fake beneficiaries. He credited the civil servants for the transformation that has taken place in the system where roughly 3 lakh crore rupees have been saved from landing in the wrong hands, which is now being used for the welfare of the poor.
Modi emphasized that when time is limited, it becomes very critical to decide the direction and working style. “Today’s challenge is not about efficiency but in figuring out how to find and remove deficiencies”, he said. He recalled the time when in the garb of deficiency even the small aspect was attempted to be controlled. Today, he continued, the same deficiency is being turned into efficiency and removing obstacles in the system.
“Earlier, the thinking was that the Government will do everything, now the thinking is that the Government will work for everyone”, he said highlighting the efficient use of time and resources to serve everyone.
“Motto of the Government is ‘Nation First-Citizen First’, today’s Government’s priority is prioritizing the deprived”, Modi remarked, informing that the government is going up to Aspirational Districts and up to Aspirational blocks. He said today’s government is treating border villages as the first villages rather than the last villages. He said that for 100 percent saturation, we will need even more hard work and innovative solutions. He gave the example of departments asking for NoCs and information that is available somewhere in the system. He said for ease of living and ease of doing business we will have to find solutions for these.
“The country has put its faith in you, work while maintaining that trust. Basis of all your decisions should always be the national interest”, he insisted.
Highlighting the importance and necessity of political parties with different ideologies in a democracy, the Prime Minister stressed the need for Bureaucracy to assess whether the political party in power is utilizing the taxpayers’ money for the benefit of the nation.
“It is the duty of the bureaucracy to analyze whether a political party is making use of taxpayers’ money for the benefit of their own organization or the nation’s”, he continued, saying “if it is using the money to create a vote bank or making the lives of the citizens easier; if it is advertising itself with the Government treasure or making the people aware; if it is appointing its own party workers in various organizations or creating a transparent process for recruitment.”
Recalling the words of Sardar Patel about the bureaucracy being the steel frame of India, the Prime Minister said that it is time to live up to the expectations and prevent the dreams of the youth from getting crushed along with taxpayers’ money from being destroyed.
Underlining that he has been the head of the Government for more than 20 years now, the Prime Minister expressed delight at getting the opportunity to work with Civil Servants. He emphasized capacity building and expressed happiness that ‘Mission Karmayogi’ has become a huge campaign among all Civil Servants.
He underlined that the Capacity Building Commission is taking this campaign forward with full force and said, “The aim of Mission Karmayogi is to utilize the full potential of civil servants.” Highlighting the iGOT platform that has been created to ensure the availability of quality training material everywhere, the Prime Minister stressed that training and learning should not remain a formality for a few months. “Now, all the recruits are also being trained on iGOT platform with the orientation module of ‘Karmayogi Prarambh’”, he added.
Highlighting the Government’s initiative to do away with the protocol of hierarchy, the Prime Minister said that he constantly meets the secretaries, assistant secretaries, and trainee officers. He also gave the example of brainstorming camps to increase everyone’s participation within the department for new ideas. He also stated that the issue of officers getting work experience in the Central Government on deputation only after living in the states for the first years has been addressed by filling the gap through the assistant secretary programme where young IAS officers now get a chance to work in the Central Government at the very beginning of their career.
The Prime Minister said that 25 years of Amrit journey is considered a time of duty (Kartavya Kaal). “The century of independence will be the golden century of the country when we will give first priority to our duties. Duty is not an option for us but a resolution”, he said.
“This is the time of rapid change. Your role will also be determined not by your rights, but by your duties and their performance. The power of the citizens of the country has increased in the new India, the power of India has increased. You have got an opportunity to play an important role in this new emerging India.”, he added.
In his opening remarks, Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, said that in the past 9 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, many revolutionary changes have taken place, which were not just limited to being governance reforms but have wide societal impact and can infact also be described as social and economic reforms.
The Minister recalled that soon after the Government came to power in May 2014, within two to three months, the colonial practice of getting certificates attested by gazetted officers was done away with. Thereafter within a year, the Prime Minister spoke from the ramparts of Red Fort about the abolition of interview in job recruitment so that a level playing field could be provided.
Taking forward the same level playing field approach, few days back the Ministry decided that the Staff Selection Commission would conduct the written exam for jobs in 15 languages consisting of 13 regional languages along with Hindi and English.
Dr. Jitendra Singh said the grievance redressal mechanism was shifted to CPGRAMS as a result of which about 20 lakh grievances are received every year in comparison to just 2 lakhs every year before this government came in because this government followed a policy of time bound redressal and gained the confidence of the people.
Dr Jitendra Singh mentioned that following the Prime Minister’s direction to ensure that the Central Government reach beyond Delhi, “we have started regional conferences on good governance. Spanning from Leh, Srinagar and Jammu in the North to Bengaluru and Hyderabad in the South, Bhuvneshwar in the East, Mumbai in the West till Itanagar and Shillong in the North East, various regional conferences have been organised.”
The Minister added that even the format of today’s program is based on the Prime Minister’s inspiring vision. It was based on PM Modi’s suggestion that we gave it an holistic approach and a sense of competition among districts was instilled. As a result of this, today 97% of India’s districts are participating.
The Minister informed that DARPG has now started working on Vision 2047.
Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, P K Mishra, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, V. Srinivas, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances were among those present on the occasion.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred the PM’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration which was received by J&K Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta and Deputy Commissioner Baramulla Dr Syed Sehrish Asghar on the occasion of Civil Services Day in New Delhi.
Sehrish got the award in Aspirational Districts category for Baramulla district. Key aspects for Aspirational District Programme in Baramulla for which the Deputy Commissioner was awarded by the Prime Minister include establishment of Birth Waiting Wards in Primary Health Centres, Community Health Centres, Up gradation of diagnostic services at all delivery points and Poshan Tracker Tabs for all Anganwari workers.
CEO Mission Youth Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary accompanied the Chief Secretary and received the award from him. Shahid Choudhary expressed great satisfaction over very positive response to the initiatives by the youth of Jammu and Kashmir, and proactive measures by the Departments and especially Deputy Commissioners in making the scheme a grand success at the ground level. Pertinently, Mission Youth has been picked up as a unique cases study by the Capacity Building Commission of India in collaboration with Harvard Business School for inclusion in courses of top management and public policy schools.
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