Shillong, April 21: Joining the rest of the nation in observing the 16th National Services Day, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Friday urged the officers to be driven by purpose and keep reminding oneself of that purpose.

Encouraged our officers to continue working as a team with dedicated passion to ensure we not only bring smiles but positive difference in the lives of our people. Thank each of them for their service to our State and our nation. pic.twitter.com/ILbz7mssQz

— Conrad K Sangma (@SangmaConrad) April 21, 2023

“Never let power, money or any influence drive you in your purpose but focus on serving the people and nothing will go wrong and only then we can achieve the goals,” he said adding that it is important to maintain and work in team. “When we are in a team, we need to respect and depend on each other having clear vision of the purpose and support each other so that we do not fail in our duties and responsibilities,” he further said.

The Chief Minister also informed that there will be a lot of reforms and changes in the State administration in the days ahead and said, “One of the important reforms that is being proposed is to have Village Volunteers and this volunteer will be the representative of the government in that village. So we will have about 6500 volunteers in every village who will be connected with the government through central database to help the government get real time information and update on everything that is happening in the village.”

He further elaborated that these village volunteers can inform the government in times of emergency like floods, landslides, disruption of power and water when a transformer blows up or pipeline bursts and the village volunteer can also be an important banking correspondent so that old age pensions, assistance to person with disabilities and other schemes of the government can reach the person to the doorstep with the beneficiaries having to frequent the block offices or banks. “These volunteers at the grassroots level will also be connected to different self help group programmes so that delivery will be easier and faster so that the villagers who need the basic services of Certificates, schemes and development should not face the different challenges we have in our administrative system,” he said.

He also spoke of the need to empower and strengthen the Gram Sevaks and look into how to improve the existing working system of the Gram Sevaks.

He was also hopeful that the Technical Session would look into the different challenges in the administration to improve the overall governance.

Earlier, Chief Secretary said that over the last few years the civil services have received a lot of flak and criticism and it is time to retrospect and also to introspect as to why the ‘steel frame’ has rusted and why the definition of civil service has been questioned time and again. The Chief Secretary also spoke on the relationship between the officers and the public and also with the officers and the political executive.

“We are very fortunate to be working in a State like Meghalaya because the political executive in Meghalaya is different from the rest of the States where we seldom come across any conflict between the political executive and the bureaucracy,” he added. He also urged the officers ‘to keep the eye on the ball’ and not to lose focus. “It is important not to lose focus and finish what you have started and ensure closure without abandoning it or giving it up, ensure that whatever you are doing goes and benefits the last denominator in this whole ecosystem that is the common man, and if that is not done we have not done our job,” he added.

The Chief Secretary also mooted for the Civil Service Award in the State replicating the National Civil Service Award.

Among the distinguished audience was Retired IAS officer, Anil Swarup, a distinguished writer and IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre of 1981 batch. He, in his 38 years of career served in various capacities, was also the Secretary to the Government of India. Also present was Rakshit Tandon, a revolutionary in the field of cyber security and has years of experience if more than a decade in Security domain.

The theme of this year’s National Civil Services Day is ‘Viksit Bharat’ aimed at ‘Empowering Citizens and Reaching the Last Mile’. The 21st of April is dedicated to the Civil Service officers to acknowledge the work of officers engaged in various public service departments. This day is also a reminder for the civil servants to run the administrative machinery of the country collectively and with a dedication of serving the citizens.