Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Dec 19: Newly appointed Director of Mussoorie’s Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) for IAS/Civil Services, Upma Chaudhary today formally called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh who is also Minister in-charge DoPT (Department of Personnel & Training) with which the Mussoorie Academy is affiliated.
This was Upma Chaudhary’s first visit to union capital after taking over the charge as Director, LBSNAA. Upma Chaudhary is a 1983 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre and has held senior positions in Government of India as well as in Government of Himachal Pradesh where she was last posted as Additional Chief Secretary.
In a meeting lasting over 40 minutes, Upma Chaudhary discussed with Dr Jitendra Singh, a number of issues pertaining to the Ministry and also the road-map ahead. Among the issues discussed were the vacancies at the faculty level as well as in the administration which are affecting the working in the Academy.
Dr Jitendra Singh assured Upma Chaudhary that he will promptly look into the issue of filling of vacancies of Joint Secretary and other administrative posts at the Academy. However, he said, for filling up of faculty posts, we need to be more discreet, because this is a job which calls for aptitude, teaching skills and knack of communication for which every individual may not be suitable.
Dr Jitendra Singh also suggested that the panel of visiting faculty can be made more wide – based and should include scholars from every stream and every school of thought. He said, the future civil servants are a part of bureaucratic hierarchy of India and deserve to be exposed to all the diverse influences and streams of thought.
Dr Jitendra Singh underscored the point that the present government had, following personal intervention by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, introduced, first time in the history of independent India, a new designation post of Assistant Secretary for probationers coming out of the Mussoorie Academy wherein they are expected to spend three months under mentorship of different Ministries and Secretaries in Government of India before they proceed on to join their postings in the respective State cadres allotted to them. This experiment, he said, has not only proved immensely successful, but has provided a different kind of exposure to the probationers soon after completing their probation in Mussoorie Academy and has also offered them the lifetime opportunity of having an audience with the Prime Minister of India not once, but twice, first in the form of an interaction with the PM before starting their 3-month stint and second time after completing this period.
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