Strengthening of State Apex Training Institutions

Mr.B.K.Srivastva, Director General of Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration Punjab interacting with Joint Secretary Personal and Training Govt of India during 1st meeting to examine and recommend measures for strengthening of State Apex Training Institutions through the country held here today in Punjab Bhawan New Delhi.

by Punjabnewswire4u

 NEW DELHI, AUG 10

The Ministry of Personnel and Training recently constituted a committee to examine and recommend measures for strengthening of State Apex Training Institutions throughout the country so that quality of public administration is improved to meet the benchmarks of good governance. Every state in India has an apex state training institute engaged in administrative research and training. Even though some of such institutions have come up well, the Ministry felt that much more is required to be done to shift the paradigm of governance to the new imperatives of SMART governance. Mr. B.K. Srivastava, Director General, Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration (Punjab State ATI) welcomed this visionary initiative of the Ministry.

Heads of six Administrative Training Institutes of the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Karnataka, Punjab and Rajasthan and an officer of the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances  are represented on this committee headed by the Joint Secretary (Training),  Mrs. Upama Srivastava. Its first meeting was held today with an ambitious agenda of moulding the state ATIs as ‘ Centres of Excellence’ and turning them as ‘Think Tanks’ playing proactive role in policymaking, programme formulation and implementation.

Mr. B.K. Srivastava said that world over, it has been experienced that quality imperatives of modern governance cannot be achieved without proper emphasis on and investment in training and development of government personnel. Infusion of funds for ambitious programmes has to be accompanied by commensurate research and training inputs. With this concern, the Ministry set up this committee so that the standards of governance are upgraded uniformly across the states using the state Apex Training Institutes as the main catalyst, with an overarching role, in this process of change.

Apart from the basic issues of lack of infrastructure, manpower and funds, the discussions in the meeting revolved around creation of administrative research and training facilities at the regional and district levels, autonomy to the heads of ATIs in all administrative decisions including selection of faculty and the problem of lack of coordination between the various ministries of Government of India and the nodal ministry of Personnel and Training.

Heads of the state ATIs felt that there should be a permanent coordinating forum consisting of the state ATIs and representatives of the Central Ministries which deal with State and Concurrent subjects through the mediation of Department of Personnel & Training and the Planning Commission.  The state ATIs committee viewed with concern the fragmentation of training by the creation of separate institutions by different ministries without linking them to the state ATIs thereby entailing duplication of expenditure, creating parallel structures and not taking advantage of possible synergies.

Mr. Ajoyendra Pyal, Addl. Director General, ATI Andhra Pradesh said that the seeds of change through research and training were sown by the second Administrative Reforms Commission which underscored the importance of state Administrative Training Institutions in catalyzing the whole process. The Commission had strongly recommended the overarching role of the state ATIs in fulfilling this task. The Commission had felt that the centres of Good Governance should be embedded in all such institutes and it must have to do with all sectors of governance in a holistic perspective.

Dr. Bala Prasad, Director General, Bihar State ATI added that the Sixth Pay Commission has mandated compulsory mid-career training for all employees of the government as a prerequisite for promotion for which the state ATIs are not well-equipped, as of now. It may be noted that the Pay Commission has also enhanced the special allowance for training faculty to thirty percent of emoluments.

Dr. Amita Prasad, Director General, ATI Karnataka, suggested that the Department of Personnel & Training and Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances should together share the financial burden of strengthening of the state ATIs so that reform and training go hand-in-hand in achieving the objective of good governance.