BHARAT CHAUHAN
New Delhi (Delhi Patrika). Chief Minister Mr Arvijnd Kejriwal on Friday met a group of this year’s 50 successful Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) candidates and congratulated them for being selected to the most elite services of the country.
Mr Kejriwal shared his experiences with them and asked the young selected candidates to use their idealism in their services by remaining accessible to the public they serve so that wherever they work in their lives, the people remember them forever.
Addressing the gathering of the young selected candidates, Mr Kejriwal said, “All of you are bright students, doctors, engineers, chartered accountants. I was also a bureaucrat. I was an IRS officer from the 1992 batch. I began my service in 1995, before I quit more than a decade later. I am in a different profession now, I wanted to share a few observations with you.”
The Chief Minister said, “Why is it that you are joining the civil services? What is your motivation? This is the first question you’re asked in the interview. And almost a 100% of the candidates respond that they’re joining the services to the serve the nation. If this were indeed true, the country would’ve reached great heights by now in 70 years after independence.”
The Chief Minister said bureaucrats have extraordinary powers and those who want to achieve something for the country have a very big opportunity to do that.
“All of us have a privileged background. Take my education for example. I studied at IIT Kharagpur where my fee at that time was Rs 32 a month. It’s obvious that engineering education cannot cost just Rs 32, so just imagine the level of subsidy my education at IIT involved. Similarly, whether it is to become a doctor, engineer or anything else, our education is heavily subsidised by the people of this country. The country has contributed a lot in our education,” Mr Kejriwal said.
The chief Minister said :“Now that you are joining the services, the country is taking the responsibility for your entire life. From your car, home, job, facilities to your post retirement, until your death, the country will take care of you. The country expects something in return. You have to give back two to three times of that back to the country.”
Referring to young UPSC successful candidates, Mr Kejriwal said :“We all join with a lot of idealism. More than 90% of us join with an idealism, but over time we become part of the system. That is something which is wrong. Life should be exciting and these services do give you a lot of excitement. You will have infinite opportunities to do something, whether you join the IAS, IPS, IRS.”
Sharing his observations, the Chief Minister said he has observed that a lot of officers become slaves of the written word. Laws are made to serve people, not the other way around. If there is more than one interpretation of law, then take the one that benefits the people.
Often, the bureaucracy has a tendency to delay people’s work, so that their importance in the system grows. When you do that, you might become more important for people, but you will not earn their respect. People will step out of your office and curse you. I know some bureaucrats who serve the people in such a way, that people mourn their transfers. They protest against the transfer of such officers. Aspire to become officers who are loved by the people. That will only happen when you serve the people, the Chief Minister said.
Mr Kejriwal asked the young officers to remain very accessible throughout their careers. “The more accessible you are, the more sensitive you will be to their issues. When you open yourself to what people want, you will be able to serve them better.”
The Chief Minister said there are so many officers who take up seemingly good initiatives. “Let’s say they work to build a footpath and the people of that area actually want you to build a handpump. In your perspective you may have done a service to people by building that footpath, but perhaps what the people needed was something else. You may have done something honestly, worked hard to achieve a goal you set out to achieve, but the people won’t appreciate that because they wanted something else. This is why it is important to be accessible to people,” he said. He wished the young officers a very successful career and a happy life
