Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today asked bureaucrats to be innovative and enterprising in order to ensure the country's rapid growth.
Honouring civil servants for their out-of-box thinking which resulted in innovative work in the field of public administration, he stressed the need for creating an environment which encouraged creativity and entrepreneurship in the country.
"India's rapid progress depends critically on our ability to be innovative and enterprising in a diverse range of areas, and especially in administration.
"I am happy that we have recognised the innovation and enterprise these civil servants have shown in finding solutions to problems. We need more creativity of this kind," the Prime Minister said inaugurating 8th Civil Services Day function here.
He said there was a need to build an environment in the country where creativity, entrepreneurship and enterprise are encouraged and rewarded.
The Prime Minister gave away awards to bureaucrats for excellent work in public administrations including education initiatives in Naxal-hit Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh and efforts to liberate people from manual scavenging in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh.
O P Choudhary, a 2005-batch IAS officer of Chhattisgarh cadre, was conferred the Prime Minister's award for excellence in public administration here for his initiatives to provide education to children in Dantewada.
Choudhary, during his tenure as Dantewada Collector, had taken various innovative measures to transform the minds of future generations through education.
Another IAS officer Amit Gupta was also honoured by the Prime Minister for his initiative 'Daliya Jalao'--liberating manual scavengers and moving towards total sanitation, in Badaun district.
Gupta, as the then District Magistrate, had played a pivotal role in eliminating manual scavenging from the area and provided skill upgradation training for the people of the community involved in such works.
During his tenure all dry toilets in rural areas were also converted to flush ones.
