RTI, RTE 'shining examples' of governance: Narayanasamy

NEW DELHI: Right to Information Act and Right to Education Act were "shining example" of paradigm shift by the government in its approach towards governance, Union Minister V Narayanasamy said today.

Addressing the Civil Services Day function here, he said the governance in the country today was rights-based.

Narayanasamy cited legislations like RTI and RTE as shining examples of a paradigm shift in approach to governance, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, which organised the event, said in a release.

The Minister urged senior civil servants present to pay greater attention to creating an environment conducive to innovation in their organisations.

Narayanasamy also highlighted the importance of training for preparing civil servants to face multifarious challenges of governance in a diverse country like India and urged them to strictly implement the National Training Policy, which requires all government departments to set aside at least 2.5 per cent of their salary budget for training of employees.

He underlined the rights-based approach to service delivery, empowering citizens to seek time bound delivery of goods and service and redressal of their grievances.

The event was inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who asked bureaucrats to be innovative and enterprising in order to ensure the country's rapid growth.

A book on 'Best Practices - Thinking Out-of-the-Box' was released on the occasion by Pulok Chatterji, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister.

Referring to a book brought out by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Singh said, "This brings me to the issue of the collective capability of our civil services to be innovative in their approach to solving problems and to think out-of-the-box."

Earlier, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth emphasised on the need for civil servants to be more sensitive while dealing with public.

He brought out two specific issues - shortage of faculty in the national training institutes and need for modification of numerical annual appraisal system - which were being considered seriously.

Seth stressed that the civil servants must try to achieve higher satisfaction levels of public.