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.