Do not lack political will to carry out reforms: Modi

New Delhi, April 21

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that he did not lack the political will needed to carry out reforms as he asked the civil servants to break silos and work together as a team to perform and transform.

Addressing the bureaucrats on the Civil Services Day, Modi said time had come for out-of-the-box thinking and from being a regulator, the government needed to become an enabler.

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“Political will can reform but bureaucracy performs and public participation transforms. We have to bring them in one wavelength,” he said.

“To reform, political will is needed. I do not lack it and may be have a bit extra,” the Prime Minister said.

Modi said senior officers should introspect if their experience was becoming a burden.

He said hierarchy in bureaucracy remained an issue which had been inherited from colonial rulers and “was not left behind in Mussoorie (where civil service academy is located)”.

The Prime Minister said the role of the government was very strong but things had changed for the past 15 years.

'Use social media for public welfare, not for self-praise'

He also asked the civil servants to use social media, e-governance and mobile governance for the welfare of the people by reaching out to them.

The Prime Minister said that mobile phones were banned from his meetings because he often found officers checking social media sites in the midst of official discussions.

“I see these days that district-level officers are so busy, busy, that most of their time goes into it (social media). I have stopped the entry (of mobile phones) in my meetings as they (officers) would take them out and start (checking out social media sites),” he said.

The social media should be used for the welfare of the people and not for self-praise, he told bureaucrats.

The world was moving from e-governance to mobile- governance and the best equipment needed to be used for the welfare of people, he added. Social media sites were helpful when they were used for spreading information about the good work being done.

“If I am informing the people about dates of polio vaccination through social media, saying that they should come out on a particular date for the vaccination, then it (social media) is helpful. But if during vaccination-related work, I am praising my own photograph on facebook, then it puts a question mark (on the work done by civil servants),” he said. PTI