PM Modi carrying forward Sardar Patel's vision for civil services: Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is carrying forward the vision of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel for civil services. Addressing the 66th annual meeting of the general body of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), he said that Sardar Patel, in his address on the first Civil Services Day after independence, had described the civil services as the steel frame and emphasised the need to orient civil services according to the needs of India.

Carrying forward the same vision, Prime Minister Modi, with his special focus and aptitude for good governance, has taken a number of path-breaking decisions in the last over six years which are in keeping with the emerging priorities and goals of India as it assumes a global role, said Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel. He said that under the Modi government, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoP&T) amended the Prevention of Corruption Act after 30 years to bring in several new provisions including the onus of guilt on bribe-givers and also safeguards for honest officers. Singh said that ever since this government came to power in 2014, Modi has successfully carried forward pledge of “minimum government-maximum governance” and the mantra of zero tolerance for corruption, another vision of Sardar Patel for a corruption-free India.

The minister said that in the last 5 to 6 years, a series of reforms were undertaken under the Prime Minister. He cited the decisions to do away with the time-old practice of getting documents attested by a gazetted officer and replacing it with self-attestation and abolish interviews for lower-rung selections for groups B and C posts.

Singh said the two very important decisions of the Modi government in the recent past are Mission Karmayogi and National Recruitment Agency (NRA). He said Mission Karmayogi is the biggest capacity building programme for civil servants in the world and it is an endeavour to incarnate civil services into a real Karmayogi and to ensure a real shift from rule to role-based service delivery. Singh said that the NRA will conduct a Common Eligibility Test (CET) to screen/shortlist candidates for the Groups B and C (non-technical) posts and will provide a level playing field to all candidates.

"IIPA can contribute as a valuable partner to the government to awareness and implementation of good governance reforms introduced in recent years,” he said. Singh also called the IIPA to enlarge the spectrum of its activities and to speak with stakeholders outside the civil service which would keep with the Modi government's emphasis on its centricity and citizen participation in governance. Appreciating the hard work of IIPA faculty and officials, the minister said the best evidence of their commitment and diligence came out during the difficult times of the COVID-19 pandemic when IIPA established a digital classroom for conducting online classes and did not allow the curriculum to be disrupted. He also referred to the inauguration of 46th advanced professional programme in Public Administration (APPPA) in July this year and said that show went on despite pandemic. A statue of Sardar Patel was also unveiled in the premises of IIPA by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, according to an official statement. The statue has been made by renowned sculptor Padmabhushan Ram Sutar, who also built the tallest statue of Sardar Patel in Kevadia in Gujarat, it said. India on Saturday observed 'National Unity Day' to commemorate the 145th birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

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