Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Eighth Civil Services Day in New Delhi today. Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s office and Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Shri V. Narayanasamy; Minister of External Affairs, Shri Salman Khurshid; Minister of Rural Development, Shri Jairam Ramesh; Advisor to the Prime Minister, Shri T. K.A. Nair; National Security Advisor, Shri Shiv Shankar Menon; Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Shri Pulok Chatterjee; and Cabinet Secretary, Shri Ajit Seth graced the occasion. The event was also attended by former Cabinet Secretaries, Secretaries to the Government of India, Chief Secretaries of States, and other Civil Servants.Some of the champions who were conferred Prime Minister’s Award for excellence in Public Administration in the previous years and trainee officers from various National Training Academies also attended the Conference.

Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister exhorted that an effective system to incentivise innovation and removing inefficiency would determine how fit the Civil Services are for the future. He exhorted the Civil Servants to learn from best practices across the world. The Prime Minister also stated that the officers in the Civil Services need to be provided top class training early in their careers to equip them with the tools necessary to understand the underlying logic and complexities of our governance and economic systems.

While highlighting the need of citizens to have access to quality education and health services at affordable costs, safe drinking water, sanitation and so on, the Prime Minister, felt that in providing these services the Government has to take special care of the needs of those sections of the society which are socially and economically backward. He also drew attention to the legal framework in the form of ‘The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011’ which is under consideration of our Parliament, and when enacted, would give our citizens the right to receive specified goods and services in a time bound manner. The Prime Minister stressed on the urgent need to face challenges pertaining to safety, security and status of women in our country. The economy, which is facing a temporary downturn that should be corrected as quickly as possible; and the management of disasters.

The Prime Minister also conferred the `Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration’ for the year 2011–12 to seven outstanding initiatives in three categories – individual, group and organization. Of these, three were in the individual category: (i) Saving Open Spaces and Urban Lakes (SOUL) and Cultural Rejuvenation in the Twin City of Hubli-Dharwad, Karnataka; (ii) Educational Initiatives in Dantewada, Chattisgarh; and (iii)Daliyajalao: Liberating Manual Scavengers and Moving Towards Total Sanitation, Uttar Pradesh. In the group category, the award was given to (i) Sugarcane Information System, Uttar Pradesh; and (ii) Transformation of Commercial Tax Regime in Karnataka. Excellence in Rural Management and Development in the Challenging Physical Environment of the Sikkim Himalaya, Sikkim; and KaushalyaVardhan Kendra (Skill Development) Project of the Directorate of Employment & Training, Gujarat received the award in the organisation category.

Earlier addressing the delegates, Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions and PMO, Shri V. Narayanasamy felt that the governance in India today is in a Rights-based era. He cited the legislations like Right to Information Act, 2005, Right to Education Act, 2009, etc. as shining examples of this paradigm shift in the approach to governance. While highlighting the initiatives taken by the Government to disseminate good governance initiatives across the country, he made a special mention of the initiative taken to build the institutional capacity for training of Civil Servants at Central and State levels based on the 2nd ARC recommendations. He urged the Senior Civil Servants present on the occasion to pay greater attention to creating an environment conducive to innovation in their organisations. Shri Narayanasamy also highlighted the importance of training for preparing the Civil Servants to face the multifarious challenges of governance in a diverse country like India and urged the Civil Servants to strictly implement the National Training Policy, which requires all the Government Departments to set aside at least 2.5% of their salary budget for training of employees. The Minister underlined the rights-based approach to service delivery, empowering citizens to seek time bound delivery of goods and service and redressal of their grievances.

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Courtesy: PIB