pril, 2017 13:52 IST
The
Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, presented awards for Excellence in
Implementation of Priority Programmes and addressed Civil Servants on the
occasion of the eleventh Civil Services Day here today.
The
Prime Minister presented a total of 12 awards, which include 10 under the five
Priority Programmes and 2 under Innovation category. These awards were given in
three Groups, the first group consisting of eight North-Eastern States and the
three Hill States of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir,
second group comprising of the seven Union Territories and the remaining 18
States constituting the third group.
Under
Innovation category, Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh was awarded for
initiative “Cashless Village Palnar“ and Dungarpur district of Rajasthan was
given award for initiative “Solar Urja Lamps Project”. Under the Priority
Programme Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, Siaha district of Mizoram was
awarded in North East and Hill states category and Banaskantha district of
Gujarat was awarded under the category of other states. Under the Priority
Programme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, the awards were given to Gomati
district of Tripura in North East and Hill states category and Jalna district
of Maharashtra under the category of other states. Under the Priority Programme
e-National Agriculture Market (e-NAM), Solan district of Himachal Pradesh was
awarded in North East and Hill states category and Nizamabad district of
Telangana was awarded under the category of other states. Under the Priority
Programme Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, the awards were given to Sivasagar
district of Assam in North East and Hill states category and Nalanda district
of Bihar under the category of other states. For Start-Up India, the award was
given to Gujarat state under other states category and for Stand-Up India, the
award was given to North and Middle Andaman of Andaman & Nicobar islands
under Union Territories category.
The
Prime Minister also released two books “New Beginning” on Innovations for the
Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence and “Fostering Excellence” for
initiatives under identified Priority Programmes.
During
the function, “Making New India-2017”, a film by DARPG was also screened.
Addressing
the Civil Servants on the occasion, the Prime Minister described this day as
one of “rededication,” and said that civil servants are well aware of their
strengths and capabilities, challenges and responsibilities.
He said conditions prevailing today are quite different from about two decades
ago, and would evolve much further over the next few years. Elaborating on
this, the Prime Minister said that earlier, Government was almost the sole
provider of goods and services, which left a lot of scope for ignoring one’s
shortcomings. However, now, very often, people perceive that the private sector
offers better services than Government. The Prime Minister said that with
alternatives now being available in several areas, the responsibilities of
Government officers have increased. He added that this increase is not in terms
of scope of work, but in terms of the challenge.
The Prime Minister emphasized the importance of competition, which brings
qualitative change. He said that the sooner the attitude of Government can
change from regulator to enabler, the faster this challenge of competition will
become an opportunity.
The Prime Minister said that while the absence of Government in a sphere of
activity should be perceptible, its presence in a sphere of activity should not
become a burden. He asked civil servants to strive towards such arrangements.
Noting the quantum jump in the applications for Civil Service Day awards, from
less than 100 last year to over 500 this year, the Prime Minister said that the
focus should now be on improving quality, and making excellence a habit.
The Prime Minister urged senior officers to ensure that experience does not
become a burden that stifles innovation of younger officers.
Shri Narendra Modi said that anonymity is one of the greatest strengths of the
civil services. He cautioned officers that the use of social media should not
lead to a decline in this strength, even as social media and mobile governance
are leveraged for connecting people to benefits and government schemes.
Speaking in the context of “reform, perform and transform”, the Prime Minister
said that political will is needed for reform, but the “perform” part of this
formulation must come from civil servants, while transformation is enabled by
people’s participation.
The Prime Minister said that civil servants must ensure that every decision is
taken keeping national interest in mind, and this should be their touchstone
for taking a decision.
Recalling that the year 2022 would mark 75 years of independence, he urged
civil servants to play the role of catalytic agents in fulfilling the dreams of
freedom fighters.
The
Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (I/C), Prime
Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy
and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that under the leadership of Prime
Minister Shri Narendra Modi, the celebration of Civil Services Day has undergone
a considerable change during the last three years and has now emerged as an
effective platform for mutual exchange of best practices. He said that this
year, 599 districts participated in the PM Awards competition, as compared to
74 districts last year. He said that this shows the trend towards competitive
federalism and now more and more districts are competing for these awards by
improving their performance in various Priority Programmes. The Department of
Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances made an elaborate exercise through
a platform for young officers and 615 IAS officers of four batches (2013-2016)
spent about 2000 hours and provided their inputs on this platform, he added. The
Minister said that this year’s theme of CSD is ‘Making New India’, which is on
the lines of the Prime Minister’s vision of New India. Without good Civil
Servants, we can never achieve good governance, he added. He also emphasised on
the Maximum Governance and Minimum Government.
Earlier,
the Cabinet Secretary, Shri P.K. Sinha in his welcome address highlighted
the entire process involved in the selection of awardees through different
committees for initiatives under the various Priority Programmes. The
Department organised workshops at different places for replication of identified
good governance initiatives of the Government, he added.
Principal
Secretary to the Prime Minister Shri Nripendra Misra, Additional Principal
Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr P. K. Mishra, Secretary, DARPG Shri C.
Viswanath, former Cabinet Secretaries were also present on the occasion, in
addition to senior officers from the Central and State Governments.
The
two-day Civil Services Day programme was inaugurated by the Union
Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh here yesterday. The inaugural session was
followed by a Plenary Session on the topic ‘Creating value
through Human Capital Management in Government’ and three Breakaway
Sessions on subjects related to Agriculture, Energy and Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship were also held.
The
links of the two books which were released during the function are:
http://darpg.gov.in/sites/default/files/Book-on-Success-stories-released-by-Hon'ble-PM-on-CSD,2017.pdf
http://darpg.gov.in/sites/default/files/Book-on-Innovations-released-by-Hon'ble-PM-on-CSD,2017.pdf
The
link of the film ‘Making New India-2017’ is
http://darpg.gov.in/sites/default/files/films/MAKING-NEW-INDIA-2017.html
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KSD/NK/KM