The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh interacted with the participants of 120th Induction Training Programme here today. The group of 89 officers from 18 states who have been promoted to IAS from the State Civil Service is attending the training programme at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie.Addressing the officers, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the officers promoted from the State Civil Services have the advantage of having experience of being worked on ground and also appreciated the fact that these officers have an average experience of about 20 years. Their experience can supplement the efforts of young IAS officers, he added. He congratulated the officers and expressed happiness that we have been successful in carrying forward this tradition. Speaking about lateral entry initiative, he said that it has been existing in the past also and the present Government has tried to institutionalise it and tried to make the process of lateral entry more objective and transparent.The Minister also said that the Parliament has recently passed amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act. He said that Government follows zero tolerance policy towards corruption and at the same time is committed to protect the honest officers also. The Act provides enough safeguards to the honest officers and a time-bound completion of enquiry against the officers, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh said that Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is committed to the principle of 'Maximum Governance, Minimum Government'.He also spoke about the other initiatives of the Government e.g. doing away with the interview at junior level posts, change in the Prime Minister's awards on Civil Services Day, self-attestation, doing away with about 1500 obsolete laws and providing work-friendly environment to the employees.Ms Upma Chawdhry, Director, LBSNAA, said that this is one the largest batch of induction training in the last few years. She said that this year the induction training programme is also being conducted at two other places; Kolkata (WB) and Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). The participants are visiting Seoul in South Korea as part of foreign study tour, she said.Course coordinator Shri Alok Mishra said that the induction programme includes 6 week training programme divided into three parts, the first part being training of 4 weeks at LBSNAA, one week Bharat Darshan and one week foreign study tour. The aim of the foreign study tour for participants is to learn best practices and understand the development trajectory of that country.During interaction with the Minister, the participants discussed various issues including standardisation of training, setting up of new training centres, shortage of IAS officers at some places and new initiatives of the Government etc.