Politics must not override policy: Modi
Politics should never override policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told IAS officers of 2014 batch, who met him after completing their three-month stint at the Centre as Assistant Secretaries in various Central ministries.
The IAS officers made eight presentations before Mr Modi on various themes of governance.
Underlining the significance of team spirit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked freshly recruited IAS officers that they should aspire to work towards breaking silos during their career as bureaucrats.
“Politics should never override policy”, was another message of the PM to the IAS officers of the 2014 batch, who met him after completing their three-month stint at the Centre as Assistant Secretaries in various central ministries.
In 2015, Mr Modi started the system where freshly recruited IAS probationers were asked to spend the initial three months of their service in Delhi, prior to moving to their respective cadres.
The motive behind the move was to sensitise them with the functioning of the Central government departments and instil in them confidence and team spirit.
In 2015, around 100-odd 2013 batch IAS officers spent three months in Delhi. “Stating that politics should never override policy, the PM urged the officers to use two touchstones to help them in their decision-making —
their decisions should never be counter national interest, and the decisions should not harm the poorest of the poor,” official sources said.
The IAS officers who completed their threemonth stint at the Centre as assistant secretaries made eight presentations before Mr Modi on various themes of governance such as DBT, Swachh Bharat, e-courts, tourism, health and satellite applications in governance.
The PM complimented the young officers for their in-depth presentations.
These officers worked as assistant secretaries in 58 Central government departments from August 1 — instead of starting their career from the cadre states assigned to them — after training at the Lal Bahadur Shashtri National Academy of Administratio in Mussoorie.
The officers were assigned important desks related to policy and flagship programmes of the ministries and departments concerned.