UP has no claimant to PM award
Uttar Pradesh, with one of the biggest work force in the country, does not find a single bureaucrat or any other employee who can claim the prestigious Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration/E-governance.
Uttar Pradesh, with one of the biggest work force in the country, does not find a single bureaucrat or any other employee who can claim the prestigious Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration/E-governance.
The State Government has failed to send any nominations to the Centre for this year’s covetous award to be given separately for excellence in public administration and excellence in e-governance.
What really surprises many is that not a single Government department sent a single proposal to the Administrative Reforms Department, here, recommending any name for nomination for the Prime Minister’s Award in either category. So, the question of the Government forwarding nominations to the Centre obviously does not arise.
The State Government had set September 15 as the last date for receiving proposals for the Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration while the extended deadline for sending proposals for the E-governance category ended today, but no proposals were received from any department. “No department sent any proposals to us for either category despite our repeated reminders to the HoDs,” Secretary (Administrative Reforms) Anita Singh told the Hindustan Times, adding, “We did get a proposal from the Social Welfare Department but the proposal was not worth considering going by terms and conditions of the award.”
The first and the last time anyone got the prestigious award was Amod Kumar, an IAS officer, as a team comprising another Zohara Chaterjee, another IAS officer, besides, SB Singh, Uma Shankar, Devendra Pandey and AP Singh in 2008. The team was given the award for innovative work in the field of E-governance.
A secretaries’ committee headed by the Chief Secretary considers the proposals received from various departments and then forwards the nominations to the Centre’s Department of Personnel and Public Grievances. The meeting that Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta was scheduled to hold last month to consider proposals did not take place as they there was no proposal to consider for public administration category. Since there is no proposal for the e-governance category, the next meeting may also not take place.
The Central Government instituted the Prime Minister’s Award in 2006 to acknowledge and reward the extra-ordinary and innovative work by officials of Centre and State Governments. All serving officials individually or as a team or as an organization are eligible for the award that is conferred for a novel and innovative work affecting masses and not for routine official work.
The award carries a medal, a scroll and a cash award of Rs 1 lakh in individual category and Rs 5 lakh when given to a team/organization. The awards, both in administration and e-governance categories, are presented by the Prime Minister on the occasion of the Civil Services Day on April 21, every year.
