Vice President M.Venkaiah Naidu has noted with concern that all is not well with the civil services in the country and called for reforms to enable promotion of meritocracy in bureaucracy so as to meet the emerging challenges and complexities in changing times.
He spoke at length on a range of issues impacting civil services while addressing Trainee Officers at Dr. Marri Chenna Reddy Human Resource Development Institute, Hyderabad on the occasion of Civil Services Day.
Tracing India’s developmental journey since independence, Naidu said there is still work to be done in eliminating poverty, illiteracy, gender and social discrimination, among other issues. Calling upon the civil servants to strive harder on addressing these issues, he said the Civil Services Day offers an opportunity to introspect and understand the opportunities and challenges for the services.
Naidu noted: “The civil services have played an important role in this journey of ours (since Independence) but all is not well with the services and they are in need of revamp, reawakening and reorientation to meet the challenges of the time”.
Naidu called for addressing the causes so that effective decision making is enabled and service delivery is substantially improved. He elaborated on the need for incentivizing and rewarding performers and promoting meritocracy in civil services instead of mediocrity.
Naidu highlighted the flawed system of incentives and penalties and performance evaluation in which the performers and shirkers are not properly differentiated. He stressed that “Continuation of the civil servants should be based on regular assessment of their contribution to formulation and execution of policies and programmes through new ideas, initiatives and practices”.
