The two-day 10th Civil Services Day function was inaugurated at Vigyan Bhawan here today. The inauguration was followed by eight panel discussions on the replication of Prime Minister awarded initiatives last year and four Priority Programmes of the Government. These sessions were chaired by Union Ministers/persons of eminence. Panel discussions on the replication of PM awarded initiatives covered four issues - On-Time Delivery of Services, Vocational Training and Inspiring Youth for Sports, Preventing Child Marriages, Female Foeticide and Malnutrition in Children under three years of age and Canal Top Solar Power Plant and Rejuvenation of Water Bodies. The panel discussions on the Central Government’s Priority Programmes included the schemes to be awarded by the Prime Minister, namely Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin), Swachh Vidyalaya and Soil Health Card Scheme.
The Union Minister of Minority Affairs, Dr. Najma A. Heptulla chaired the panel discussion on “Preventing Child Marriages, Preventing Female Foeticide, Save the Womb and Malnutrition.” This discussion focused on eliminating gender disparity by fighting issues such as Preventing Child Marriages and Preventing Female Foeticide. Child sex ratio has been declining sharply in some states and there is an urgent need to stop female foeticide. Community mobilization, Economic empowerment of women and Greater participation in public policy were identified as key dimensions for advancing women’s rights. Initiatives such as ‘Save the Girl Child’ and ‘Lado – Eradicating Child marriages’ have shown positive results.
Session on Swachh Vidyalaya was chaired by the Human Resource Development Minister Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani.mportance of the programme, specially for Girl Students was deliberated. The programme has achieved 100% target for toilets in Schools. Maintenance of Toilets, Sustainability issues and inculcating menstrual hygiene were deliberated upon as way forward for the programme.
The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh chaired the session on On-Time Delivery of Public Services, the core of any Good Governance Initiative. The discussion on this topic focused on the scale and complexity of delivering service in India. It called for creating accountability at all levels, use of technology to improve productivity and introducing sustainability measures in public services. Two examples of providing online citizen services in Karnataka and Maharashtra – ‘Sakala’ and ‘Aaple Sarkar’ respectively – were discussed in detail. Session on Swachh Bharat Gramin was chaired by MoS for Drinking Water & Sanitation, Shri Ram Kripal Yadav. Substantial impact of the programme and efforts towards construction of more than 1.67 crore toilets and converting more than 50000 villages as Open Defecation Free (ODF) were discussed. Community mobilization, close monitoring & tracking & sustainable waste management were identified as critical success factors towards efficient implementation of programme.
Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Jayant Sinha chaired the discussion on the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY). Efforts done towards financial inclusion along with way forward were discussed. People participation, use of technology, role of Bank Mitras and convergence of schemes were identified as critical success factors for implementation of the scheme. Improving financial literacy was stressed upon as way forward towards financial inclusion. The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore chaired the session on Vocational Training & Inspiring Youth for Sports. This discussion focused on importance of imparting market relevant skills to youth, imparting vocational training in particular. There is a huge demand supply gap in terms of skills needed in industry and availability of trained youth. There are huge capacity constraints in achieving the target of skilling 4 crore people by 2022. It also emerged that public private partnership models yield best results in placing students in steady jobs. Training is provided by private foundations and infrastructure by government. Tribal youth in Gadhchiroli and Chhattisgarh have benefited immensely from vocational training initiatives.
The discussion on “Canal Top Solar & Rejuvenation of Water Bodies” focused on achieving sustainable growth through reduced dependence on exhaustible resources. Power and water were identified as key ingredients to achieving such growth. Innovations such as Canal top solar plant which reduce dependence on land for solar power and save canal water from evaporation were discussed at length. More such innovation are needed to achieve the target of 100 GW by 2022. Rejuvenation of water bodies to ensure availability of water for irrigation was also discussed. During the session on Soil Health Card, the Potential of the Scheme for increasing the farmers’ income and issues related to infrastructure support, process improvement, technology use & increasing people’s participation were discussed in detail. Changing of Conventional agriculture towards a future state of data-rich precision agriculture was discussed as a way forward. ecretaries to Government of India, Principal Secretaries of various States, senior officers from various Ministries of Central and State Governments and experts on the subject also participated in the panel discussions.