NEW DELHI: Addressing a meeting of Principal Secretaries, General Administration Department (GAD) of all the States and Union Territories as well as senior officers of Department of Personnel Training (DoPT), UPSC, CBI and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said, GAD is not meant only for transfers and therefore this misplaced perception needs to be set right, because the truth is that the Department of GAD/Personnel/DOPT is in fact virtually an R and D (Research and Development) Wing of the government and serves as jugular vein of the administrative machinery. The responsibility of GAD/DOPT is to ensure optimum utilisation of the potential and talent of each officer at right time and right place, and at the same time, provide a work-friendly environment in which an officer can give his best without any intimidation or subjugation, he added.
Taking a review of a wide range of issues related to the ministry, Dr Jitendra said, cadre review of IAS is complete in respect of most of the States barring Jammu and Kashmir, but the State Government has assured that they will submit all the requisite documents within next two weeks so that the cadre review for J and K could also be completed at the earliest. In this regard, instructions had also been issued to the Principal Secretary GAD, J and K, Mohammad Ashraf Bukhari who was present at today’s meeting.
A significant proposal taken up at today’s meeting at the behest of Dr Jitendra Singh was to reduce the duration of induction training from eight to six weeks for state level Civil Service Officers who get inducted into IAS. The meeting also discussed the progress made by State Government and Union Territory administrations to constitute Civil Services Boards in respective states and progress made in setting up of special CBI Courts in different States including Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
The issue of faculty for the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie also came up and Jitendra called upon such officers who had an aptitude for teaching and academics to voluntarily offer themselves for a stint as faculty teacher at the LBSNAA, which will not only be of use to the IAS trainees in the academy but will also give them a satisfaction of having served the alma mater which trained them for a coveted career.
Union Secretary, DOPT Sanjay Kothari and Establishment Officer, Rajiv Kumar also addressed the participants.