Role of Civil Services in National Integration,Inclusive Development, Building Better & New India
Civil Servernts should take the most important role of translating ‘Swarajya’ to ‘Surajya’
Sardar Patel had said: ‘You will not have a united India if you do not have a good All-India Service which has independence to speak out its mind’.
Today’s citizenry is an awakened one. They are connected to the world through technology and know about developments taking place elsewhere. They expect better services from the government.
“Unless we change how we think, we will not be able to change what we do.”
The steel frame that harmonizes the social, cultural, linguistic, religious and economic differences. Officers have played a crucial role in national integration and national development.
They have most important role of translating “Swarajya” to “Surajya” – the fruits of development must reach each citizen and each person in this country must feel that there is a perceptible improvement in the quality of life. This is possible only if governance becomes corruption free, citizen-centric and
business friendly. Various initiatives have been taken in this direction like
1. GST – making India into a single connected market,
2. GeM – to reform government procurement process,
3. Public Finance Management System (PFMS) – to make Just-in-time payments between various entities;
4. eNAM – creating a national agriculture market by connecting the existing Mandis through an electronic platform, and
5. JAM – Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile using Aadhaar to target government schemes to the poor and the needy sections of the society besides removing intermediaries.
6. DBT is the most significant innovation that cuts down multiple intermediaries.
7. Ease of Doing Business include cutting down on layers of regulations, simplifying procedures, putting applications online and fixing time-lines for approvals.
The reforms undertaken by the government will not be able to deliver the outcomes, without changes in thinking and functioning. What is expected?
1. Effective, transparent, people-centred good governance are the need of the hour to deliver all the basic services to the common man. Illiteracy, ill health, poor quality of education, lack of clean drinking water and sanitation facilities, poor urban planning, inadequate attention to environmental pollution and a host of other issues continue to pose formidable challenges.
2. We need to spread the benefits of democratic governance to all sections in society without any discrimination.
3. Ensure that terrorism, communal violence, insurgency and Maoist extremism do not derail the processes of social and economic development of our country.
4. Four salient aspects that we should adopt as guiding principles: ‘empathy’, efficiency’, ‘impartiality’ and ‘incorruptibility’. This will enable each one of you to emerge as an effective, responsive
administrator and also rise to greater professional heights as a managerial leader.
5. To ensure that the legislative intent is translated into effective implementation, fully utilize the power of information technology to reach out to the intended beneficiaries. A Civil Service without honesty of purpose and integrity, cannot enjoy the trust of the people, and therefore will never be able to deliver change. We need a civil service that is focused on outcomes rather than on its own internal processes and files PM’s call is to ‘Reform, perform and transform’ i.e. acquire new competencies, scale new heights in efficiency and evolve into transformational leaders.
by GAJANAN WADJE
Informative