‘HOW IIM-L GAVE GOVERNANCE TIPS TO UP MINISTERS & BUREAUCRATS’

LUCKNOW: Director, Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) Prof Archana Shukla (in pic) shared on Saturday how the institute worked on ‘capacity building’ of the Yogi government’s ministers and bureaucrats in three separate sessions in September last.

“I was invited to attend a dinner hosted by the chief minister for a ground breaking UP government event. With the help of a women bureaucrat known to me, I reached out to the then chief secretary and via him to the CM,” she said at an event held at an all girls’ degree college.

Shukla said, “I told the CM that if the BJP-led government in the centre had to achieve its target to be a $5 trillion economy by 2024, Uttar Pradesh had to contribute maybe US $1 trillion. And to achieve this target, capacity building of UP ministers was important. He agreed.”

“On his invite I went to meet the CM. He asked me to design and develop a one-day course module on governance for his ministers,” Shukla said during an interactive session.

“I told him a one-day programme would be more of a tokenism. I proposed a three-day programme to which he agreed.”

Shukla said, “Again I insisted that capacity building programme will not be fruitful unless the policy implementers were made part of it. So it was decided that additional chief secretaries, principal secretaries and secretaries should also be included in the training mnodule..”

Another thing that was bothering the IIM-L director was that there would be a lot many vehicles and security concerns if the ministers and bureaucrats came in their individual vehicles, as the IIML campus is not used to massive security cover for every minister. “The CM immediately told his principal secretary to arrange three buses. The ministers were asked to park their vehicles outside the CM’s residence and were taken to IIM-L in buses,” she said. On reaching the classroom, the experts did not start lecturing them. “We made them generate ideas,” she said.

After ‘priority setting’ of key areas that needed attention, chief minister Yogi Adityanath led his ministers to IIM-L with bureaucrats in tow, to ensure that ministers and officers were on the same page to improve public perception and delivery of services.