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New Delhi : Briefing about some major reforms introduced by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, on January 22, 2021, stated here that a path-breaking decision to improve the governance was to introduce the provision for Central Deputation for newly inducted IAS officers before they joined the respective State/UT cadres allotted to them.
Elaborating on this, Dr Singh said that starting in 2015, the 2013 batch officers were posted for a 3 – month Central assignment with the designation of Assistant Secretary, on completion of Phase-II training at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration(LBSNAA), Mussoorie. The basic objective was providing exposure to these young IAS officers to the functioning of Government of India and its priorities at an early stage of their career soon after completion of their Phase-II training, he said.
Dr Singh said it is heartening to note that this experiment has been warmly welcomed by young IAS officers and even in their later years they continue to look back at the Central leadership and their mentors in the Government of India for guidance and further cues. During the COVID pandemic especially, it was noticed that the Collectors and Deputy Commissioners in different districts of India, who had gone through this process, were seen taking decisions with a higher degree of confidence and conviction, he added, according to a PIB release.
As per the programme introduced at the behest of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Assistant Secretaries are expected to give their inputs for improvement in various Flagship Programmes in different Ministries/Departments of Government of India. This not only gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their skill and talent but also an opportunity to make a presentation before the Prime Minister of India, which is an opportunity that might have eluded their senior batches.
Since its introduction, the scheme is successfully continuing and 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 batch officers were posted in 2016, 2017 and 2018 respectively. The programme for 2018 batch IAS officers, however, got delayed due to COVID-19.