Do away with obstructionist rules: Jitendra Singh to babus

Addressing a programme, he said officers can promote many initiatives started by the government such as self-attestation of documents for official works and others to promote easy and effective governance.

“Any rule which tends to create inconvenience or harassment... It is better to drop these rules which are obstructionist,” Singh said during a workshop on e-office, attended by representatives of central government ministries and newly-appointed IAS officers of 2013 batch.

Extending government’s full support for experimentation and innovation to create work-friendly atmosphere, he encouraged the officers attending the programme to use e-office in their respective departments.

“E-office is something which has been happening for long. This is a global phenomenon. We are rather late in it,” said the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.

He said the advantages of e-office or computerisation of office procedures will go beyond as it will reduce red-tapism from the system.

Singh said over 60,000 files, which were of no use, have been digitised in his Ministry alone.

The workshop, organised by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), was for the 2013 batch of IAS officers, recently deputed to the central ministries or departments as Assistant Secretaries on deputation basis. A presentation was also made on the merits of e-office. 

Devendra Chaudhry, Secretary (<g data-gr-id="30">DARPG</g>), Bhaskar Khulbe, Additional Secretary to the PMO and Usha 

Sharma, Additional Secretary, DARPG among others were present during the programme.

Recalling that the Prime Minister had during Independence Day address had suggested that whether 

it was possible to do away with the practice of holding interviews for posts where it was not absolutely essential, he said in less than one month of this, the Department of Personnel & Training and <g data-gr-id="28">DARPG</g> had already started the exercise and some states like Maharashtra had even made a big headway in this direction.