Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Oct 31 :Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said today that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is carrying forward the legacy of Sardar Patel in Civil Services.
Dr Jitendra Singh was addressing the 66th Annual Meeting of the General Body of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA). The highlight of the occasion was commemorating the Birth Anniversary of Sardar Patel with the unveiling of his statue in the premises of IIPA by Vice President of India, Venkaiah Naidu. The statue has been made by renowned sculptor Padmabhushan Ram Sutar who is also credited with the making of the tallest statue of Sardar Patel at Kevadia in Gujarat.
Paying rich tributes to the first Home Minister of India, Dr Jitendra Singh recalled that Sardar Patel had, while addressing the first Civil Service Day after independence, described the Civil Services as the steel frame and emphasized the need to orient civil services according to the needs of India.
Carrying forward the same vision, Prime Minister Modi, with his special focus and aptitude for good governance, has taken a number of path-breaking decisions in the last over six years which are in keeping with the emerging priorities and goals of India as it assumes a global role .
Dr Jitendra Singh noted that under the Modi Government, Department of Personnel & Training (DoP&T) amended the Prevention of Corruption Act after 30 years to bring in several new provisions including the onus of guilt on bribe-givers and also safeguards for honest officers.
He said that ever since this Government came to power in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has successfully carried forward pledge of “Minimum Government-Maximum Governance” and the Mantra of Zero Tolerance for Corruption, another vision of Sardar Patel for corruption free India.
He said that in the last 5 to 6 years, a series of reforms were undertaken under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Referring to some out of box decisions since May 2014, he said that the decision to do away with the time old practice of getting documents attested by a gazetted officer and replacing the same with self-attestation, doing away with interviews for lower rung selections for group B and C.
IIPA, said Dr Jitendra Singh, can contribute as a valuable partner to the government to awareness and implementation of good governance reforms introduced in recent years. He also called IIPA to enlarge spectrum of its activities and to speak with stakeholders outside the Civil Service which would keep with Modi government emphasis on its centricity and citizen participation in governance.
Chief Executive Officer IIPA S N Tripathi, Shekhar Dutta a senior bureaucrat also spoke on the occasion.
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