STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: As part of the “Vigilance Awareness Week”, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh administered pledge against corruption to officers and staff members of Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in South Block here on Monday.
Prominent among those who took the pledge include Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Nripendra Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister P.K Mishra, Additional Secretary to PMO Bhaskar Khulbe, Private Secretary to MoS (PMO) M Saravanan and other senior officers.
Speaking on the occasion, Singh said, eradication of corruption is one of the top priorities of the Narendra Modi Government and ever since the new Ministry took over nearly five months ago, a wide range of measures have been contemplated for the eradication of corruption and bringing to book those found guilty in different scams. Corruption in high places works as a fountain head of corruption percolating to the lower rungs of administration and therefore, the process of eradication of corruption must start from the top, he said.
Singh said, in order to accomplish the Modi Government’s commitment of “maximum governance, minimum government”, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the guidance of PMO, recently came out with the decision of having a single self-attested affidavit. This will go a long way in eliminating the middlemen and other potential loop holes of corruption which were prevalent in the earlier procedural system, he observed. The new innovative initiatives like e-governance and digitalisation will also seal the areas of pilferage and misappropriation in administration, he added.
Pertinent to mention here that the theme of Vigilance Awareness Week this year is “Combating Corruption – Technology as an enabler”. The week long awareness programmes will seek to focus on adoption of technology to enhance transparency, making procedures less cumbersome and reducing delays in decision making. There will also be interactive sessions on Information Technology aimed at making the process faster and less prone to corruption.
The pledge against corruption administered on the occasion read as follows: “We, the public servants of India, do hereby solemnly pledge that we shall continuously strive to bring about integrity and transparency in all spheres of our activities. We also pledge that we shall work unstintingly for eradication of corruption in all spheres of life. We shall remain vigilant and work towards the growth and reputation of our organisation. Through our collective efforts, we shall bring pride to our organizations and provide value based service to our countrymen. We shall do our duty conscientiously
