Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik urges officers to come out with innovative ideas to serve the people.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asked senior government officials to treat people with dignity, in a professional and ethical manner. Administering oath to senior officers at the Senior Officers Conference at the new convention centre of Lok Seva Bhawan here, Naveen said “People are the soul of democracy. Every institution in a democracy is for the people created by their money to empower and serve them. People are the masters and those who work are paid by them. Every person visiting any institution will be treated with dignity and his issues have to be treated in a professional and ethical manner.”

Stating that the spirit behind governance is reflected in the preamble of Mo Sarkar, Naveen said
“People are the masters and those who work are paid by the people.” He asked each one of the officials to share a transformational game-changing idea with him directly. “The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) will coordinate this,” he said. Stating that officers are the drivers of this transformation agenda, the Chief Minister hoped that the conference will be of immense help for them.

“I have a family of four and a half crore people of Odisha. With their blessings, I am serving them for the last 20 years. I want our children to have a quality education, our brothers and sisters to have good jobs and our elders to have good health care facilities,” Naveen said. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha, Finance minister Niranjan Pujari, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Sudam Marandi and Minister for Mines Prafulla Mallick also addressed the administrators.

The Chief Minister also heard the suggestions by Collectors’ groups in the course of their presentation on governance issues. They also highlighted governance challenges at the district level.In his address, Chief Secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy advised civil servants to turn themselves into professionals through constantly upgrading their skills and knowledge. The principles of 5T and Mo Sarkar require civil servants to be more proactive, responsive and accountable, Tripathy said and added the Government has resolved to reward outstanding performances on ‘out of turn basis’.

The conference was organised in 10 sessions, including inaugural and valedictory. Five sessions each were held during the first and halves of Day-1, wherein groups of principal secretaries and secretaries shared their experiences and observations. Five groups of Collectors presented their collective thoughts, ideas and suggestions on different topics.Day two will be for outdoor and off-site learning solutions at the eco-retreat camp at Konark. They would have field-level experience sharing and motivational talks on citizen centric governance, people’s empowerment and ethical service delivery.