Year 2015 saw DoPT taking several out of box administrative initiatives
By TIOL News Service
NEW DELHI, DEC 27, 2015: THE Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has taken various initiatives during the year 2015. These initiatives aim at working in the direction of larger public interest and to establish accountability and transparency.
In a landmark decision, the Government scrapped Interviews for recruitment to lower posts wherever it could be dispensed with. This was followed by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr. Jitendra Singh writing D.O. letters to Chief Ministers of all States in September to take the lead in carrying forward this initiative with respect to State Government jobs.
The discontinuation of interviews will not only be in larger public interest but would also offer a level playing field and benefit youth hailing from the lower socio-economic strata. Interviews will be dispensed with for all Group C and Group D posts which are now reclassified as Group C posts. Interview would also be discontinued for non-gazetted posts of Group B category. The process of doing away with interview for these posts will be completed by 31.12.2015. In those cases pertaining to non-gazetted Group B posts and Group C & D posts, where Recruitment Rules specify the process of selection which includes conduct of interview, the Ministries/authorities concerned will take necessary steps to carry out the requisite amendment to the Recruitment Rules immediately. Necessary directions have also been issued to the Staff Selection Commission in this regard.
In a big relief to the common people, the DoPT discontinued the practice of submission of affidavit by the family members of deceased Government employees for the appointment on Compassionate grounds. Now they are required to submit self-declaration at the time of applying for compassionate appointment. It will ensure fast process of compassionate appointment and help family members of deceased Government employee immensely.
For the first time in the history of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Officers of 2013 batch of IAS were posted as Assistant Secretary in the Central Secretariat for a period of three months. Exposure to Central Government functioning will provide insight into policy formulation at the Centre to these officers. These officers left for their field posting with a macro picture of such policies which will help them in effective implementation of the schemes keeping citizen at the centre.
In another novel initiative, the DoPT has started Yoga camps for the Central Government employees and their dependents. The Yoga training sessions are conducted in 29 locations (26 Samaj Sadans of Grih Kalyan Kendra and 3 other places) in Delhi and 12 Samaj Sadans of Grih Kalyan Kendra outside Delhi. Approximately 1900 individuals are benefiting from this scheme per day. With this initiative, the employees would be able to de-stress themselves and also take control over various lifestyle diseases like obesity, hypertension, Hyperglycemias etc. The healthy & happy employees would be able to perform more effectively in their office work.
The Department has also started an innovative scheme for the training of the cutting edge level employees of the State Governments. In the first phase, masters trainers are being trained by the ATIs in collaboration with DoPT. These trainers will impart training to the field level employees. Emphasis of the training will be on citizen centricity. Pilot projects had been started in Maharashtra, J&K and Tamil Nadu. It has now been extended in other States. Training will bring an attitudinal change in these employees which in turn will result in increased citizen friendly environment in the field offices.
DOPT also exempted the parents of differently abled children from the mandatory transfers so that they can take proper care of their differently abled child. This move will ease the pain of these parents and ensure care and upbringing of these children.
A weekly one hour in-house training programme for its employees was started. Three modules of the training programme have been completed and the fourth module is currently running. The employees are imparted up-to-date information on various aspects of day to day work in the office. This gives an opportunity to the employees to clear their doubts and the input given in the session is found very useful for them in discharging their duty more accurately, efficiently and effectively. This has speeded up the rate of disposal of work and the ultimate beneficiary of the same are the citizens.
The scheme of interaction of Officers with School Students has been launched in which the Officers of Government of India visit Schools and share their experiences with the School Students. As a pilot, the Senior Officers of DoPT have visited Kendriya Vidyalayas in Delhi and interacted with the students. The interaction of Senior Officers with School Students will have a long lasting impact on their impressionable minds. They will also get a glimpse of the functioning of the Government.
