ITANAGAR, 24 Aug: “Politicians will come and go every five years but you will be the permanent upholders of democracy,” said Chief Minister Pema Khandu to the 2020 batch of the Arunachal Pradesh Civil Service (APCS) probationers while flagging off their foundation training at DK Convention Centre here on Tuesday morning.
Emphasizing on the importance of training, he said that officers without training “will be like a misguided missile” and urged the young officers to sincerely attend each course of the four-month-long foundation training.
“This is not a flagging-off ceremony. This is the foundation-laying ceremony of your career,” he said.
Khandu termed the civil servants the “backbone of the government who work as a bridge between the common people and the government” as all the government policies and programmes are executed through them.
“You have the onus of ensuring that every single paisa of development fund is judiciously used for the welfare of the common people,” he said.
Giving details of the run-up to the proposed four-month training programme, Khandu informed that, during his district tours in the times before the pandemic, he had interacted with a few officers of the current batch serving as circle officers in remote areas.
“Many requested me for a proper training programme, so that they could discharge their duties more efficiently. I could sense the enthusiasm and sincerity in them. So I immediately asked the chief secretary to chalk out a proper training programme for the current batch,” he said.
He said the four-month foundation training is the first of its kind wherein the probationers will first undergo a course at IIM Shillong, then at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie, followed by a training programme at the Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management, Faridabad, and finally at the state Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Naharlagun.
It may be noted that Khandu, who visited the LBSNAA on invitation to address the 2019 batch of IAS probationers, had requested the authorities of the academy to help Arunachal in whatever way possible. As a result, for the first time, an ‘Arunachal study circle’ was formed in the LBSNAA, where the 2020 batch APCS probationers will be trained for about a week.
Also, the state government recently signed an MoU with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Centre for Policy Research and Analysis, IIM Shillong, for collaborating as a knowledge partner for capacity building of state government officers, and for setting up a satellite centre of the IIM Shillong in Arunachal for necessary policy interventions.
“We had announced in Budget 2018-19 that our own ATI would be converted into a state-of-the-art training institute. Work on upgrading it is going on,” Khandu informed.
He further informed that, to improve service delivery, the government enacted the Public Service Delivery Act, 2015 for prompt delivery of services to the citizens within a notified timeframe, with provision of penalty for any delay in such delivery by the public servants.
“And to address the problem of skill deficiency, we have decided to equip employees with necessary skills and improve their performance level through the state training policy,” he added.
Khandu advised the civil servant probationers to “always be approachable by the common people, be innovative, and create solutions to problems.”
He also suggested that, after completion of the foundation training, the officers submit a report to the chief secretary on what they have learnt or gained that would help them discharge their duties and suggest if anything needs to be changed or added to the training programme, so that it can be further improved for future APCS officers.
Fifty-seven, including three differently-abled, officers of the 2020 APCS batch will be attending the training programme.
Meanwhile, on the occasion, the newly compiled web portal of the ATI was launched by the chief minister.
The ceremony was also attended by Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein. (CM’s PR Cell)
