New Delhi, June 11
With the youth emerging as the flavour of the season, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh followed suit today by giving the floor to younger officers in his office and asking them to present their views on improving governance.
The Prime Minister had an hour-long meeting with all PMO officials, including eight directors, on his first working day in South Block in his second stint as head of the UPA government. He had last visited South Block in January and since then had been working from his 7, Race Course Road residence-cum-office as he was recuperating from a bypass surgery.
While the entire staff was called in for a “pep talk”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh first asked eight young officers to make short presentations on their respective areas of work, including innovative suggestions on improving implementation of programmes.
“Since the director-level officers are young, they are not only energetic but also brimming with fresh ideas,” said a PMO official, adding that, the Prime Minister was obviously keen on listening in on their suggestions which essentially dwelt on cutting down on the lengthy official processes and speedier implementation.
After hearing out the officials and in many cases endorsing their views, the Prime Minister had more than a word of advise for his staff. While setting the tone for effective functioning and improved delivery systems, he also cautioned them against adopting a “big brother” attitude towards the other ministries. The individual ministries, he is
learnt to have said, must be allowed ownership of their programmes and schemes without the PMO stealing their thunder.
Given the high expectations from the UPA government in its second innings, the Prime Minister has repeatedly underlined the need to “get going and start delivering” on their promises. Earlier this week, he had written to all his Cabinet colleagues, in which he had reminded them of the ruling combine’s pro-poor inclusive agenda, stating that “equity, innovation and public accountability” shall be the watchwords in the working of this government.
He held out similar advise to his officials. He urged them to change their mindset and think creatively in the implementation of the government’s agenda and improving delivery systems and asked the officers to rethink new systems of monitoring and evaluating performance of various arms of the government. He reminded them about the follow-up measures, which need to be taken to fulfil the 100-day agenda laid down in the President’s address. A PMO official said the Prime Minister also dwelt on the constitution of a delivery-monitoring unit for the flagship programmes, stating that the new unit would function transparently by releasing regular reports on the status of these schemes.
