Kerala - Kochi   

Prepare for changes, VS tells civil servants

KOCHI: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan has asked the Civil Service community in the State to prepare for

big changes, including redeployment according to workload, as the State speeds up the process of civil administration.

The Chief Minister was inaugurating a delegates’ meeting at the 42nd annual conference of Kerala Gazetted Officers’ Association here on Friday. He said civil servants were duty-bound to represent the government before the people. They should take it upon themselves to offer the best and quickest of services.

He pointed out that there was a group, however small, in the Civil Service community that did not live up to society’s expectations of them. There was corruption, inordinate delays and red tape which needed to be cut, he said.

He said fears that computerisation would lead to job cuts had proved to be misplaced. However, even with computerisation, services to the public were being delayed.

In his prelude to the address to the gazetted officers, the Chief Minister said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had succeeded in speeding up the process of making Kerala an Information Technology destination, in re-establishing government claims over 15,000 acres of government land and also in giving due consideration to the demands raised by government employees, including doctors.

He warned the doctors against going on strike, stating that the former United Democratic Front (UDF) government was responsible for fixing their wages. He said the LDF had considered sympathetically the claims made by the doctors and further corrections in the pay scale would be made through the next wage commission.

He appealed to the government officers to cooperate and respond creatively to the need for redeployment of

government employees in the process of reforming the Civil Service.

Kochi Mayor Mercy Williams; general secretary of CITU M.M. Lawrence; and general secretary of the Confederation of Central Government Employees’ and Workers M. Krishnan were among those who offered felicitations at the meeting. The 42nd annual conference began in the morning with the hoisting of the association flag at the Town Hall. This was followed by a meeting of the State council.

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