Nagaland chief minister, Dr. Shürhozelie Liezietsu who is pressing for punctuality and presence of his government officials in their offices, on Friday expressed dismay that most of the government officials in the State Civil Secretariat continue to arrive office late.
He underlined the need for improving punctuality at the Civil Secretariat, which represents the highest seat of the government, saying “we have to lead by example if we want the directorates and the field offices to follow suit.”
Speaking at the Civil Services Day function at Administrative Training Institute (ATI) here, the chief minister said that only when one sat in the office during the office hours, one would be able to devote quality time for work, and be more available to the public to attend to their problems.
Liezietsu said that another virtue connected with punctuality was staying true in the place of one’s posting.
Pointing out that the administration has expanded tremendously with more districts, sub-divisions and circles in the state, the chief minister said the people could get full benefit of the expanded administration only if government officers manned their offices regularly.
He lauded those officers, including young officers, doing well in their field postings. However, he said it would be deluding to think that people were fully satisfied with “our” efforts.
The chief minister also reminded the members of the civil services about the importance of maintaining discipline and loyalty to the government.
On the occasion, Liezietsu urged the members of the civil services to rededicate and recommit oneself to the service of the people, and also to remind oneself that they were public servants, and not their masters. He said the occasion should provide an opportunity for self-introspection and for chalking out future strategies to deal with the new and emerging challenges posed by the changing times.
He also asked the members to maintain the government “conduct rules” at all times with absolute integrity and devotion to duty and to refrain from doing anything that was unbecoming of a government servant.
Further, the chief minister emphasised the need to turn “our” focus on some urgent reforms such as bringing the growth of expenditure on salaries and pensions under control to enable substantially improve of the infrastructure and the delivery of public services to the people.
In this regard, the chief minister asked the members to take full advantage of the Personnel Information Management System (PIMS) and let the bigger departments take the lead in rationalizing their manpower and in controlling their non-developmental expenditure, which could be followed by smaller departments.
He also called for making good use of the limited resources available at its disposal and to focus on completing the ongoing projects on priority. Liezietsu said new projects should be taken up sparingly and till such time the number of ongoing projects should be reduced.
He also informed all departments to give more focus on how to avail funds from the central schemes and CSS instead of fighting for allocation of funds from the meagre state resources.
Calling for adopting more transparency in the process of awarding contracts, the chief minister said that the cabinet has recently approved the e-tendering policy proposed by the department of information technology & communications. Under this, he said it was made mandatory to award civil works worth Rs. 1.25 crore and above as well as supply orders worth Rs. 25 Iakh and above through e-tender.
He asked all the departments to prepare themselves for implementation of the new e-tendering policy. Insisting on encouraging educated and semi- educated unemployed youth to employment in the private
sector both within and outside the state, the chief minister said “we have to continuously strive to create opportunities for gainful employment outside the government sector.”
The chief minister also lauded social entrepreneurs like Rev. Chingmak Chang and Rev. Nuklu Phom for taking the initiative to improve implementation of government schemes and programme. He also congratulated SDPO Kohima, Atu Zumu, NPS, on being awarded the prestigious ‘Shaurya Chakra” award recently.
On the civil services day, he called upon all the civil servants of Nagaland to rededicate oneself to the cause of public service, and to make fresh commitments to achieve new milestones in the development of the state and in the delivery of public service.
In his opening remark, the chief secretary, Pankaj Kumar, said it was the primary duty of the government officials to carry out the policies and programmes of the government for the benefit of the citizens. He said the occasion was to renew what was achieved and what strategies to follow to implement programmes and policies more efficiently and effectively.
Rev. Dr. S. Chingmak Kejong, in his address on PPP mode of public service, said the government servants in Nagaland were like soldiers with guns but without bullets. He said that they just have their jobs and their salary and no money for programs.
Therefore, he said the government officials should look at their institution and to see how to go forward.
Delivering a short speech with special reference to Midday Meal (MDM), Rev. Dr. Nuklu Phom said the development activities were cradled around four approaches: Diagnostic, Prescriptive measure, Preventive measure and Reference measures.
He also gave power point presentation on how the community were selflessly engaged for implementation of MDM scheme.
He said as per the MoU the scheme was to be implemented only after receiving the first food grain. However, he said they ensure that the MDM scheme reaches the students even before the first grain reaches them.
Rev. Phom further added that in his district, the women group and also the self help groups (SHGs) have contributed to the midday meal scheme by supplying food and fire wood.
Earlier, the chief minister released the compendium of important notifications, orders, office memoranda issued by various departments –Volume-II.
The inaugural programme was chaired by addl. chief secretary & development commissioner, R.B Thong and the vote of thanks was delivered by ATI additional director Kevin Zehol.