An ideal civil servant
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K Thansang
First of all, let me attempt to define who the civil servants are- All employees of Government are called Government servants. There are two kinds of Govt. servants-those in the defence services and those in the Civil services. A civil service is a person employed to deal with the affairs of Govt. either Central or State Govt. and is popularly known as ‘public servant’ because he draws his salary and parks etc from the revenue paid by the general public. Though a civil servant is generally understood to be an officer of the higher services, it is taken here to comprise of the general employees as a whole. In the context of the very nature of the job, an ideal civil servant is the one who devotes himself, heart and soul, to the service of the public in accordance with the laws of the land, and works for the furtherance of the policies and programmes laid down by the Govt. as by law established.
An ideal civil servant is expected to observe and abide by the Central civil servant (conduct) rules which are applicable to the large bulk of Govt employees working in the civil departments of Govt and similar rules made for various other categories of Govt employees. In a nutshell, Rule 3 lays down that, “a Govt servant shall, at all times, maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty”. These few words sum up the essence of all that is expected of an ideal civil servant (Govt employee). If a civil servant maintain, at all times, absolute integrity and devotion to duty, he will be observing automatically the other conduct rules such as not indulging in corrupt practices, not participating in election-politics and the like. It will thus be seen that the conduct rules expect an ideal Govt servant to stay away from all such acts which are morally incorrect, or which interfere with the performance of his official duties efficiently. Not only he maintains absolute integrity and devotion to duty, but also should appear to be doing so, meaning that there should not be any trace of doubt of his integrity or devotion to duty externally.
An ideal civil servant is the one who carries out the three functions:-
i) Implement the declared policies of the Govt without favour or partiality.
ii) To tender sincere and honest advice while assisting political masters in the formulation of policies.
iii) Carry on the routine administration without any change in policy when there is a gap in the transfer of power of when a change occurs in the Ministry following a general election etc.
Civil servants are there to serve the people for and by whom they are appointed. By their very name, they are ‘servants’ of the public, not their master. The need, aspirations, problems and welfare of the people have to be addressed and attended to. The real bosses are the public. They have to be treated well. A public servant should be courteous, polite, accessible, friendly while dealing with the public. He is expected to be hospitable to the visitors except on exceptional grounds. He should be a helper and sometimes act like a guide.
(To be contd)
First of all, let me attempt to define who the civil servants are- All employees of Government are called Government servants. There are two kinds of Govt. servants-those in the defence services and those in the Civil services. A civil service is a person employed to deal with the affairs of Govt. either Central or State Govt. and is popularly known as ‘public servant’ because he draws his salary and parks etc from the revenue paid by the general public. Though a civil servant is generally understood to be an officer of the higher services, it is taken here to comprise of the general employees as a whole. In the context of the very nature of the job, an ideal civil servant is the one who devotes himself, heart and soul, to the service of the public in accordance with the laws of the land, and works for the furtherance of the policies and programmes laid down by the Govt. as by law established.
An ideal civil servant is expected to observe and abide by the Central civil servant (conduct) rules which are applicable to the large bulk of Govt employees working in the civil departments of Govt and similar rules made for various other categories of Govt employees. In a nutshell, Rule 3 lays down that, “a Govt servant shall, at all times, maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty”. These few words sum up the essence of all that is expected of an ideal civil servant (Govt employee). If a civil servant maintain, at all times, absolute integrity and devotion to duty, he will be observing automatically the other conduct rules such as not indulging in corrupt practices, not participating in election-politics and the like. It will thus be seen that the conduct rules expect an ideal Govt servant to stay away from all such acts which are morally incorrect, or which interfere with the performance of his official duties efficiently. Not only he maintains absolute integrity and devotion to duty, but also should appear to be doing so, meaning that there should not be any trace of doubt of his integrity or devotion to duty externally.
An ideal civil servant is the one who carries out the three functions:-
i) Implement the declared policies of the Govt without favour or partiality.
ii) To tender sincere and honest advice while assisting political masters in the formulation of policies.
iii) Carry on the routine administration without any change in policy when there is a gap in the transfer of power of when a change occurs in the Ministry following a general election etc.
Civil servants are there to serve the people for and by whom they are appointed. By their very name, they are ‘servants’ of the public, not their master. The need, aspirations, problems and welfare of the people have to be addressed and attended to. The real bosses are the public. They have to be treated well. A public servant should be courteous, polite, accessible, friendly while dealing with the public. He is expected to be hospitable to the visitors except on exceptional grounds. He should be a helper and sometimes act like a guide.
(To be contd)