THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lauded the role of officials in the smooth functioning of the administrative machinery. He said that facing the flood disaster was a good example of that. He was speaking at a meeting of the Secretariat officials on clearing the backlog of files, at the Durbar Hall, here on Monday. Officials from the rank of deputy secretary and above were present at the meeting.
The Chief Minister said that the Secretariat was considered as the centre of administration of the state and if the work culture of the secretariat improved then the administration of the whole state will improve.
He said that it was the responsibility of each official that the state’s indispensable projects were smoothly implemented. He said that if a file was delayed it would stall the development process and added that officials should take the responsibility of improving the living standards of the general public.
Pinarayi Vijayan said that any policy decision must be taken only after taking into account the benefits to the public. He also said that middle-level officials have the responsibility to be part of the development process of the state and to try and get out of the red-tapism which was a curse on the society. He said that officials should develop a culture wherein files are dealt with correctly and as soon as possible and added that the culture of putting queries on the files must be abandoned.
The Chief Minister said that decisions must be taken after discussions with all the concerned departments adding that the major drawback of the secretariat was the failure to develop such a culture. Pinarayi Vijayan said that the government wanted an efficient civil service and asked officials to introspect whether that was happening.
Chief Minister called upon the officials to be on their respective seats when the public visits them and added that using mobile phones as a tool for entertainment during office hours cannot be accepted and allowed. He said that the major speciality of the state was the handling of e-files in a big way and added that the government will look into whether the shortcomings in this system can be rectified.
He said that the government was serious regarding the efficiency of the employees and added that the training for this will be conducted through IMG.
Chief Minister called upon the employees to make good progress on file backlogs in three months.
Chief secretary Tom Jose, Chief Minister’s Principal Secretary V S Senthil and General Administration Secretary Biswanath Sinha were also present.