Chandigarh, April 20, 2015: To mark the Civil Services Day being celebrated at national level, Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration, Punjab and Department of Personnel today organised an In-service training programme for IAS/IFS and PCS on the theme of Citizen-centric Services. Over 70 officers from the State and District headquarters participated in the event.
Punjab Chief Secretary, Sarvesh Kaushal, in his inaugural address encouraged the officers to update their knowledge and skills to meet the challenges of time and ensure speedy delivery of services to the citizens. He asked the officers to enhance their professional efficiency, competence and capacity to give outstanding performance in different areas. He also emphasized the need for transparency and accountability in the process of carrying out their official business so that the efficient and humane side of the civil service is evident to the public.
Quoting Rabindranath Tagore's poem "Where the mind is without fear and the head held high............. let my country be awake", Kaushal said that it covers all the goals of Indian polity. He emphasized that we must develop a positive approach and good habits to serve the people and make huge impact on the quality of services delivery by fostering citizen's confidence in Government functioning. He further said that the officers must update themselves on various laws and statutory provisions for ensuring justice to every individual in delivery of services.
Dr.Upneet Lalli, Honorary Director, Institute of Correctional Administration, Chandigarh while speaking on the topic "Gender Issues in the Workplace" highlighted various social and legal remedies for protection of women by creating ideal environment by the employers and heads of the organisations. She said that there are various challenges which could be overcome by generating awareness and changing the attitudes and behavioural pattern of the people.
Rakesh Verma, Secretary, Governance Reforms, Punjab, while making a presentation on “Citizen-centric Governance: Challenges in delivering citizen services”, discussed the roadmap for providing citizen-centric governance in the State of Punjab. The setting up of 2300 unified service delivery centres, known as Sewa Kendras, was in the offing and would be operational both in urban and rural areas in Punjab by July 2015.
He stressed upon the role of the State Portal, where all services are available at one place for citizens. The State Portal is already in place and providing some services. Soon, all the departments would be providing services from a single interface through the State Portal.
Verma dwelt upon the challenges in providing citizen-centric governance, namely, inadequate infrastructure, manual working, coordinating with multiple departments, etc. Another complexity of providing citizen-centric governance is hybrid systems in the government. He talked of how various departments and ministries have successfully migrated from manual processes and systems to fully automated systems – like, railways, banking, housing and urban development, etc.
Verma also spoke about various strategies and issues related to the implementation of the National eGovernace Plan (NeGP).
R K Kaushik, Special Secretary (Home), spoke on “Nuggets from the history of the civil services”. He briefly spoke on the Indian Civil Service, which was in place during colonial rule. When the ICS was started in 1855, only Britons were considered for this service and from 1855 to 1921, the entrance competition was held only in London.The predominant role of the Deputy Commissioner in British rule also came to be discussed. Democracy and the cessation of imperial rules resulted in many changes in the civil service.
Jaspal Singh, Secretary (Planning), Punjab, elaborated upon the process of Plan formulation and budget preparation in the State Government. He further elaborated on the system of various accounts – consolidated fund, contingency fund and public account. He also discussed the receipts and expenditure of the Punjab Government.
Vipin Pubby, Editor, Indian Express, spoke on media in transition. He felt that digitization has been around and the newspaper, which used to be the primary source of information, has become the last source of information, with the mobile phone and the laptop, being the instant source of information for most the citizens. He referred to various innovative technologies for speedier dissemination of information to the public.
Date:
Monday, April 20, 2015