Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh reminds young IAS officers their destined role in 2047 when India celebrates 100 years of Independence
Interacting
with the Assistant Secretaries Batch of 2020, the Minister calls for massive
use of technology to bring in meaningful exchanges and definite improvements in
national governance
Dr Jitendra Singh says, the initiative of mandatory stint of Assistant
Secretaries with the central Ministries / Departments introduced at the behest
of Prime Minister Modi in 2015 has paid off extremely well to the benefit of
the Government of India
Addressing the young IAS officers of 2020 batch,
undergoing three months' stint as Assistant Secretaries in Central government
before going to their respective State cadres, 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, Dr Jitendra Singh today reminded them of their destined role
in 2047 when India celebrates 100 years of independence. With age on their
side, only they have will have that opportunity and privilege, he said.
Singh said, in order to make the Government citizen
centric, it is important that we use technology to bring in meaningful
exchanges and definite improvements in national governance. He said, today’s
citizen aspires to have a voice in the processes of policy formulation and
policy implementation.
Dr Jitendra Singh noted that the initiative of mandatory
stint of Assistant Secretaries with the central Ministries / Departments was a
huge experiment introduced at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in
2015 has paid off extremely well to the benefit of the Government of India. He
said, the Assistant Secretaries are expected to give their inputs for
improvement in various Flagship Programmes in different Ministries/Departments
of Government of India. This not only gives them an opportunity to demonstrate
their skill and talent but also an opportunity to make a presentation before the
Prime Minister of India, which is an opportunity that might have eluded their
senior batches.
He said, he was informed that this batch of 175 officers
has 108officers with engineering background and many officers with background
in medicine, management, law and Arts have also joined. He emphasised that it
would be very much admirable if they utilise their educational background to
showcase how the Ministries/Departments can innovate, use new ideas and deliver
high quality outputs directly to citizen with complete elimination of middlemen
and leakages. The Minister also hoped that the technocrats will be able to do
justice to the flagship programmes of the government in sectors like Health,
Agriculture, Sanitation, Education, Skills and Mobility to name a few, which
are technology based and technology driven.
The mnister added, as the
expectations and aspirations of citizens from the administration and governance
are on the rise, information technology, internet, mobile technology,
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning etc. can bring dramatic changes in
the lives of the people and they can help the administration to establish a
direct contact with the people. He said, the required improvement in citizen
services and speedy resolution of grievances related to them can be brought
about by utilising technology in an effective manner.
Singh exhorted
the young bureaucrats to remain grounded and added that their attitude to the
common citizen who comes to the doorstep of the Government is going to be one
of the most important factors in shaping citizen’s satisfaction from Government
Services. Once the attitude is supportive and full of empathy, the attitude of
those who are working with civil servants is bound to change and therefore they
should strive for being the role model in this Attitude Changing Mission, the
Minister added.
The minister also advised the young officers to adopt a
very respectful attitude towards public representatives and listen to them
patiently and promptly examine their suggestions in the light of policy
framework. He said, wherever feasible or desirable, we may have to seek
approvals from the higher ups to serve the cause of citizens. He said, the
public representatives be it an MLA or MP or Ward Councillor or Members of
Panchayat Societies are elected by people and can provide the officers a lot of
insights into what citizens require and how can Government provide effective
doorstep services to citizens. The Minister emphasised that young officers in
charge of Districts or Tehsils or any Department must ensure that no citizen
who needs your intervention or support is turned away from your office empty
handed.
Singh summed that like other years, the officers posted
as Assistant Secretaries for the 2020 batch are being given the opportunity to
contribute to the major programmes of the Government of India and they are
getting posted to different Ministries and are being allocated work relating to
the flagship programme. He said, the officers will be required to give
suggestions and ideas to improve the delivery of these programmes both qualitatively
and quantitatively. During this period, your special focus should be on the
States and Districts where implementation of these programmes is slow to take
off, the Minister added.
The minister urged the officers to examine the status of
the programmes, ideas and suggestions that were initiated by the 2013, 2014,
2015, 2016 and 2017 batches of Assistant Secretaries and ensure that their
ideas and suggestions are also taken to the logical conclusion. He said,
through this programme, officers are getting an awesome opportunity to gain
insight into Policy making with the senior most and most experienced officers
at the beginning of the career, which is going to be very useful, relevant and
enlightening for all of the officers. It will also help one to understand how
policy review and analysis takes place at the highest levels and how decisions
are taken before you join the field postings, the Minister concluded.