Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has called for vast improvements to address the concerns related to safety, security and status of women in the country. Referring to gang rape incident in Delhi last December and the recent brutal assault on a little child, Dr Singh stressed on the need for collective work to root out this sort of depravity from the society.
In his inaugural address at the 8th Civil Services Day in New Delhi today the Prime Minister said that government has moved with speed in strengthening the law to deal more effectively with offences against women. Dr Singh said that civil servants as leaders in the government have a greater responsibility to contribute to the social and economic empowerment of women.
Stating that the economy is passing through difficult times, Dr Manmohan Singh emphasized on the need for boosting investment across all sectors to help emerge from the present difficult situation. He called for building an environment to encourage and reward creativity entrepreneurship and enterprise. Appreciating the major initiatives taken by the Cabinet Committee on Investment for fast tracking of mega projects, the Prime Minister urged the civil servants to pay special attention to the need for building enterprise and investment friendly climate.
On management of disasters, the Prime Minister asked the civil servants to identify best practices, document them properly and disseminate them widely to make people prepared for a disaster when it hits. He also called for giving more attention to pre-disaster issues of prevention, mitigation and preparedness.
The Prime Minister called upon the civil servants to consider ways and means to meet the major challenge of ensuring good governance and managing the economy. He said the officers in the civil services should be provided top class training to equip them with the tools to understand the complexities of governance and economic systems. He also stressed on putiing in place an effective system to incentivise innovation and remove inefficiency learning from best practices across the world.
Dr. Singh said the right of citizens for time bound delivery of goods and services and redressal of their grievances Bill 2011 is under consideration of Parliament and once enacted it will give citizens right to receive specified goods and services in a time bound manner.
On government's efforts to curb corruption and enhance transparency and accountability in the government, the Prime Minister referred to the Right to Information Act, Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill and the Whistleblowers Protection Bill. He said these bills are also intended to improve the standards of delivery of public services.
Dr Singh urged the civil servants involved in the implementation of direct benefit transfer scheme to make it a success. He said the scheme which now covers 121 districts in the country will lead to better targetting of subsidies and reducing delays in the delivery of benefits.
