Serve with a smile, Kerala Chief Secretary tells govt employees

 "I am scared of entering a government office as an ordinary citizen," says Kerala Chief Secretary, SM Vijayanand. Had he not been a senior public servant, it would have given him jitters to go to a government office to get something done, the top bureaucrat said revealing the hostile attitude of the officials. 

 

Addressing a seminar organised by the Kerala  Non-Gazetted Officers Union, the biggest organisation of the government servants in the state, Vijayanand shared the common complaint about government offices and stressed that it was high time for a change.  People are afraid of entering government offices.  There is a huge difference in serving people with a smile and without it. We often criticise the privatisation of certain government sectors, but fail to realise the reasons that drive people away from government services and why they prefer private firms to public offices, he said.

There is a huge difference in serving people with a smile and without it. We often criticise privatisation of certain government sectors, but fail to realise the reasons that drive people away from government services: SM Vijayanand
 

Integrity and transparency play a significant role. The bureaucracy should be made more efficient.  Efficiency must be the criterion for promotion, Vijayanand said. The Chief Secretary also stood for introducing punching system in every government office. 

 

 Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who spoke at the seminar, also shared the views of Vijayanand and said that the government wants to set up a system that is transparent and free of corruption.  Red-tapism hampers development and growth, and the government can no longer entertain it, he added.