Civil services day to be a 2-day affair this time

NEW DELHI: The annual Civil Services Day will be held over two days starting on April 20 this year instead of a single day with the government changing its pattern to make it more interactive and focus on the Prime Minister’s mantra of ‘maximum governance minimum government’.

ET has learnt that the government has lined up special sessions over the two days for bureaucrats which will be attended by Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya and Minister of State for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy. The PM will attend the event at Vigyan Bhawan in the afternoon of April 21. Two secretaries to the government will also make presentations at the event regarding their field visits to their first place of posting.

Last year, Modi had asked all 80-odd secretaries to the government to visit their first place of posting and submit a detailed report to the Prime Minister Office.

Special presentations are lined on the PRAGATI and E-SamikSha projects – both are brainchild of the prime minister. The PRAGATi project, launched by the PM last month, is a unique integrating and interactive platform aimed at addressing common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and reviewing important programmes and projects of the central as well as state governments.

e-SamikSha project allows the government’s top bosses, including the prime minister, a realtime clear view of intra and interdepartmental file movements and gives them power to intervene when a bureaucrat is taking it too easy, and intervene immediately. A senior government official said this time, there will be specific emphasis on social sector, housing, employment & skill development, and farmers & agriculture in four different sessions.