By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, NOV 05, 2021: VICE President, M. Venkaiah Naidu, today called for a moral resurgence of civil services in the country to improve the delivery of services to the common man and to ensure the fruits of development reach the people.

In this regard, he urged zero tolerance towards corruption and ensuring total transparency and accountability at all levels of governance. Noting that corruption eats into the heart of the democracy, he stressed the need for stringent and timely action under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) against erring civil servants and public representatives. He called for fast-tracking the high pendency of cases related to corruption involving public servants on priority. 

At the same time, Mr Naidu cautioned that civil servants taking bona fide proactive actions are not discouraged or harassed. “While  corrupt civil servants must be strictly dealt with, we must not dissuade officials from taking bold decisions in the larger public interest”, he added.

The Vice President was speaking at the release of the book, ‘Public Service Ethics’ written by Prabhat Kumar, former Governor of Jharkhand and former Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India, at Upa-Rashtrapati Nivas today. Mr Naidu observed that there is a general decline in the ethical values in society and called for a broad-based social movement for a ‘Naitik Bharat’ or ‘Ethical India’. 

In this regard, Mr Naidu called for celebrating the achievements of honest civil servants and recognizing their contributions. This, he suggested, will not only be an incentive for younger officials to push for excellence, but such publicity will also encourage the replication of innovative efforts by others. He advised the media to highlight such contributions of local civil servants and encourage them.

Recalling his experience of working with enterprising civil servants, Mr Naidu noted that many young officers have been bringing innovation into their work, in programmes like Swachh Bharat.