The Hindu : National : Need to re-orient civil services: Manmohan

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Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005

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National

Need to re-orient civil services: Manmohan

Special Correspondent

"We need people who have courage to take bold decisions" "What happened in Gujarat has caused a scar on the body politic. Such things should never happen in future."

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, on Tuesday said that an important responsibility of the civil services was to ensure that citizens did not fear arbitrary governments. Addressing the IAS probationers who called on him on Tuesday, Dr. Singh emphasised the importance of maintaining communal harmony and said: "What happened in Gujarat has caused a scar on the body politic. Such things should never happen in future."

"Our system of governance must address the primary task of developing our economic and social potential to enable our country get rid of poverty, ignorance and disease in the shortest possible time," he said.

Dr. Singh said that a significant portion of the national expenditure was accounted for by the Government and said it was crucial that the expenditure was wisely incurred and while decisions were taken, a full record should be kept to ensure efficiency and ensure that spending processes did not give rise to corruption.

Focussing on the need to reorient the civil services, the Prime Minister asked the IAS probationers to "be sensitive to the winds of change and be flexible to assume that you do not have the monopoly of the system all the time."

Terming it as a challenge for all Dr. Singh said: "Our system needs to develop appraisal skills which reward creativity of those who take initiative and not those who do nothing. India needs people who have the capacity and courage to take bold decisions. "

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