CM suggests reforms to improve State infrastructure
Dimapur, April 21 (EMN): Chief Minister Dr. Shurhozelie Liezietsu urged the members of the civil services to rededicate and recommit themselves to the service of the people by reminding that they are public servants and not their masters.
Addressing the third Civil Services Day celebration held at Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Kohima, on April 21 as the chief guest, Dr. Shurhozelie mentioned that Civil Services Day should provide an opportunity for self introspection and for chalking out future strategies to deal with the new and emerging challenges posed with the changing times. He also reminded all the government servants to maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty at all times under the “Government Servant Conduct Rules” and to refrain from doing anything which is unbecoming of a government servant or a public servant.
“If one can keep basic rules as our guiding principles and remind ourselves of it every day as we start our daily work, we will never go astray and will surely become an exemplary government servant as well as a true public servant,” a DIPR report said quoting the chief minister.
Stating “Good Governance” has become the favourite catch word for most political parties in their election manifestos for effective delivery of development programmes and public services and as a goal to itself, he said it would be appropriate to reflect and try to understand about governance on a day like this.
He further pointed out that there is a need for improving punctuality in the Secretariat which represents the highest seat of the government. He said we have to lead by example if we want the directorates and the field offices to follow suit.
“Only when one sits in the office during the office hours, you will be able to devote quality time for your work and be more available to the public to attend to their problems,” he added.
Also stating that another virtue connected with punctuality is staying true in the place of one’s posting, he reminded members of the civil services on the importance of maintaining discipline and loyalty to the government under which one serve. “Since one is to be the instrument for delivery of good governance, one need to be sincere and loyal to the government of the day in implementing its policies and programmes as enunciated in the manifesto of the ruling party,” he said.
To improve the State infrastructure, he encouraged to focus on some urgent reforms. Firstly, he suggested controlling growth of expenditure on salaries and pensions. He urged to take full advantage of the Personnel Information Management System (PIMS) as it will lead to increase in the resources available for development and investment in the much needed areas.
Secondly, he suggested making good use of the limited resources available at our disposal. He urged to focus on completing the ongoing projects on priority. He was of the view that new projects should be taken up sparingly, till such time we have reduced the number of ongoing projects.
Thirdly, he urged all departments to give more focus on how to avail funds from the Central Schemes and CSS instead of fighting for allocation of funds from the meagre State resources.
Fourthly, he suggested adopting transparency in the process of awarding contracts. In this regard, he said the cabinet had recently approved the e-tendering policy proposed by the Department of Information Technology & Communications.
Fifthly, he suggested encouraging educated and semi- educated unemployed youth to find employment in the private sector, both within and outside the State. As a new initiative in this direction, he said the government had declared the year 2016-17 as the ‘Year of Construction Workers’.
On the Civil Services Day, he called upon all the civil servants to rededicate oneself to the cause of public service and to make fresh commitments to achieve new milestones in the development of the State and in the delivery of public service.
In his opening remarks, the Chief Secretary, Pankaj Kumar stated that the observance of Civil Service Day is of recent origin. It was started in India in 2006 by Government of India and accordingly the event has been observed in Nagaland since 2015.
He reminded that the primary duty of government officials is to carry out policies and programmes of the government for the benefit of the citizens. He said Civil Services Day is an occasion for civil servants to review what has been achieved and evolve strategies to implement programmes and policies more efficiently and effectively.
“As public servants, their first and foremost job as a leader is to take charge of their own energy and then help to orchestrate the energy of those around them,” he said.
With regard to PPP mode of public service Rev. Dr. S Chingmak Kejong likened the government servants in Nagaland to soldiers with guns but without bullets. “They just have their jobs and their salary and no money for programmes,” he said.
While mentioning that there has been an increase in the salaries of the officials, he however said if we look at the output, ‘we will notice that those who have just ¼ of their salary are providing better work than those whose salaries have tripled.’
He further urged the public servants to engage with the community for the uplift of the State.
Rev. Dr. Nukh Phom briefly spoke with special reference to Midday Meal (MDM) where he mentioned that development activities are cradled around four approaches namely Diagnostic measures, Prescriptive measure, Preventive measure and Reference measure.
The inaugural programme was chaired by Additional Chief Secretary & Development Commissioner, RB Thong and the vote of thanks was delivered by Additional Director ATI, Kevin Zehol.
