Young IAS recruits of Bihar and Jammu & Kashmir cadre on Thursday had a freewheeling discussion with the Union Ministers from their respective States. The discussions ranged from issues concerning the State and the prospect of further developing it in a responsible manner.
The exercise is part of the Centre’s initiative to orient newly inducted civil servants to State-specific issues through a direct interaction with the Central Ministers hailing from States and UTs. All these officers have completed their training at the lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, Mussoorie and the probation period.
In addition, they have also undergone three months’ stint as the newly designated Assistant Secretaries at the Centre under an arrangement introduced in 2015 on the advice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which enables the young IAS officers to spend a term with various central ministries before reporting for posting in their respective State cadres. The interaction with the Ministers started this year.
Union Ministers Ram Vilas Paswan, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Radha Mohan Singh, JP Nadda and Upendra Kushwaha met about 26 Bihar cadre 2014 batch officers, who are currently undergoing training as Assistant Secretaries in Delhi. While Nadda is from Himachal Pradesh and represents it in the Rajya Sabha, he was born and has studied in Bihar.
“This is a PMO’s initiative. The idea is that Ministers from a particular State share their experience and views with young officers as they may find it helpful in discharging their duties,” Paswan said.
He told the officers, who have been serving in the national Capital as Assistant Secretaries before they are posted in their cadre States, that people’s expectations from the Government have increased and due to connectivity provided by the social media, they want quick remedy to the issues raised by them.
“I asked them to develop rapport with the people they are serving,” he said, adding he advised them to use “act (law), fact and tact” to help the citizens of the State.
Radha Mohan Singh, sources said, told them to focus on implementation of schemes as he noted that some central schemes were not executed properly in the State. Sources said similar meetings with officers linked to other States will also be organised in due course.
During his interaction with the newly inducted IAS officers, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said they should act as ambassadors of the central Government-run welfare schemes and ensure that the benefits of these measures reach every parts of Jammu and Kashmir. The Minister was speaking to six IAS officers, allocated Jammu and Kashmir cadre, who have completed their three-month training here.
He expressed hope that these young IAS officers will become ambassadors of the incredible new schemes introduced by the Modi Government and will ensure that the benefits of these schemes reach every nook and corner of the three regions of Jammu, Kashmir and ladakh.