New Delhi, July 4: Union Minister of State in PMO Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also minister incharge Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT), has asked the state and UT governments to facilitate central deputation of IAS and other All India Services officers.
He called for following the practice of cooperative federalism in true letter and spirit.
Addressing the annual conference of Principal Secretaries of States and UTs looking after Personnel, General Administration and Administrative Reforms, the union Minister said that it was the responsibility of both the central government as well as the state governments to maintain the All India character of the service and it was also in the interest of the officers to get exposure to wide range of experiences at the central level, which in turn also had a bearing on their future empanelment or promotion in the career.
Dr Jitendra, who is also the Union Minister of State (independent charge) Science & Technology; MoS Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, also asked Director LBSNAA Mussoorie to sensitise, encourage and guide young officers to serve both at the state and central level “as IAS officers are the shared resource between the Centre and the States.”
He said, “Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the officers get ample support to experiment with new ideas for policy formulation. Some of the best innovative pro-people and pro-poor schemes like Swachh Bharat, JAM Trinity, Jal Jeevan, PM Kisan have been formulated since 2014 having wider socio-economic impact. With increased use of technology, transparency in administration has set in and that has led to abolition of nepotism and vested interests.”
The Minister said, “Central deputation is part of the federal structure in our country.” He urged the state governments to cooperate with the central government to address the concerns in this regard. “An All-India Service officer is an important interface of the government, both within the State as well as the Centre,” he said.
Dr Jitendra said, “There is already a laid down structure for cadre management of All India Services and the same needs to be followed in letter and spirit. A particular aspect in this regard is the deployment of the All-India Service officers at Centre.”
He underlined that the central government, with the sole objective of weeding out the deadwood in order to maintain a high standard of efficiency and initiative in the state and Centre, carried out intensive review of service records of members of the Services, provided under Rule 16(3) of AIS (DCRB) Rules, 1958. He solicited the co-operation of the state governments in completing all such reviews pending with them expeditiously, under intimation to DoP&T.
The minister said that the officers of All India Services formed the backbone of Indian administration and it was important that concerted efforts were put in by the Government of India and by the state governments, to achieve the objectives of good governance by effective implementation of governmental policies and programmes. He said that there was a need to have a platform where interaction at regular intervals between this department and other stakeholders continued to take place.
The Government of India and the government of States are the biggest employers of the country. A government job is the dream job for every citizen, cutting across all sections of the society. The people look up to the government job not only because it provides the best facilities, salary package and job security but also because the selection process is open to all and is merit based.
Dr Jitendra said, “The central government has taken initiative to fill all the vacant posts under it in a mission mode and I hope that the state governments too will be undertaking similar exercise. While getting a government job remains a dream for every aspirant, the aspect of doing the job with integrity and devotion and living up to the expectations of the public attains equal significance, particularly in today’s scenario.”
He congratulated Secretary, DoPT and her team for their effort to make this interactive meeting a regular event and added that he would support such continued interaction with the representatives of the state government by DoPT.
