Itanagar: Civil Servants are Backbone of the Government- Pema Khandu
ITANAGAR- “Politicians will come and go every five years but you will be the permanent upholders of democracy,” told Chief Minister Pema Khandu to the 2020 batch of Arunachal Pradesh Civil Service (APCS) probationers while flagging-off their Foundation Training at the D K Convention Centre here this morning.
Emphasizing on the importance of training, he said officers without training will be like a misguided missile and urged upon the young officers to sincerely attend each course of the four-month long foundation training.
“This is not a flagging off ceremony…this is the foundation laying ceremony of your career,” he said.
Pema Khandu termed the civil servants as backbone of the Government who work as a bridge between the common people and the Government as all the Government policies and programmes are executed through them.
“You have the onus of ensuring every single paisa of development fund is being judiciously used for welfare of common people.” He stressed.
Giving details of the run-up to the proposed 4-month training program, Khandu revealed that during his district tours, in the times before the pandemic, he had interacted with few officers of the current batch serving as Circle Officers in remote areas.
“Many requested me for a proper training program so that they could discharge their duties more efficiently. I could sense the enthusiasm and sincerity in them. So I immediately asked the Chief Secretary to chalk out a proper training program for the current batch,” he informed.
He expressed satisfaction that the 4- month foundation training is first of its kind wherein the probationers will first undergo a course in IIM, Shillong, then at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, followed by a training program at Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management, Faridabad and finally at the state Administrative Training Institute, Naharlagun.
It may be noted that Khandu who visited LBSNAA on invitation to address the 2019 batch of IAS probationers had requested the authorities of the academy to help Arunachal Pradesh in whatever way possible. As a result for the first time an Arunachal Study Circle was formed in LNSNAA, where the 2020 batch APCS probationers will be trained for about a week.
Also, recently the state government had signed an MoU with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Centre for Policy Research and Analysis, IIM Shillong for collaborating as a knowledge partner for capacity building of state government officers and to set up a satellite centre of IIM-S in the state for necessary policy interventions.
“We had announced in the Budget 2018-19 that our own Administrative Training Institute (ATI) would be converted into a State of the Art Training Institute. Work on its upgradation is going on,” Khandu informed.
He further informed that to improve service delivery, the government enacted the Public Service delivery Act, 2015 for prompt delivery of services to the citizen within a notified time frame, with provision of penalty for any delay in such delivery by the public servants.
“And to address the problem of skill deficiency, we have decided to equip employees with necessary skills and improve their performance level through the State Training policy,” he added.
Khandu advised the civil servant probationers to always be approachable by the common people, be innovative and create solutions to problems.
He also suggested that after completion of the foundation training, the officers submit a report to the chief secretary on what they have learnt or gained that will help them discharge their duties and suggest if anything needs to changed or added to the training program so that it can be further improved for future APCS officers.
57, including three differently abled, officers of the 2020 APCS batch will be attending the training program.
Meanwhile, on the occasion the newly compiled web portal of the ATI was launched by the Chief Minister.
The ceremony was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein.
