Civil servants should act independently, Jitendra Singh tells 2016 toppers

New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) Union Minister of State in the PMO, Jitendra Singh, on Friday asked civil servants to work "independently" and "not perform under pressure".

"Civil servants contribute to the continuation in the government set-up and play a critical role. They should always act independent and not perform anything under pressure, as their acts are always open to scrutiny," the Minister said while felicitating the toppers of the 2016 civil services examinations here.

On the event, Singh said it has become a great challenge for the civil servants to optimally learn and perform as per the expectations of the people, given the high hopes these days, but assured that the civil servants who passed in the 2016 examination shall serve the nation to their best and act as a messenger of the general public.

The Minister invited the civil servants to enter the service to correlate to the aspirations of the general public.

"It is the right time for the civil servants to enter the service as they can better correlate to the aspirations of general public because more than 65 per cent of India's population is under 40 years of age."

Wishing all the candidates a great success in future, he gave them the success mantra of four Cs - Clarity, Conviction, Courage and Consistency - which according to him dictate the performance of civil servants.

Secretary (Department of Personnel) and Training B.P. Sharma and Secretary (Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances) C. Vishwanath also congratulated the toppers. Senior officers of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions were also present on the occasion.