Work as a team: Modi urges civil servants

New Delhi, April 21: Prime Minister rendra Modi on Tuesday urged civil servants to end their “silo approach” and work as a team. Addressing civil servants on the occasion of Civil Services Day, the prime minister urged them to maintain a positive outlook, convert adversity into opportunity and strive towards perfection. He said political interference was undesirable but political intervention was necessary to ensure people-friendly governce in a democracy. Recalling Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s vision of the civil services of independent India, he said socio-economic integration should also be an objective of the civil services.

He said tiol unity today implied an end to the digital divide, urban-rural divide and all forms of socio-economic inequity. Modi said the entire administrative machinery should gear up to serve the needs of the society. The prime minister referred to a Goldman-Sachs report which said it will take India a decade to reach the Asian average on government effectiveness.

“Sheelam Param Bhusham (character is the highest virtue),” Modi said, and urged civil servants to maintain a positive outlook and spend quality time with their family as well. “Your life should not become a file,” the prime minister said. Modi, who conferred ‘Awards for Excellence in Public Administration’ for 2012-13 and 2013-14, said the civil services required capacity-building to be able to better serve the people as the Indian economy moves from “scarcity” to “plenty”.

Referring to good governce, he said it requires the “ART of Accountability, Responsibility and Transparency”. The prime minister urged senior civil servants to spend time in motivating youth to join the civil services so that the best talent was available to the government. Modi said the best practices should be adopted, and urged civil service personnel to develop an institutiol memory. A book titled “Best Practices - Tomorrow is Here” was also released on the occasion. (IANS)