PM Modi's Pep Talk to Secretaries: 'Come Together, Work Together'

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today urged Secretaries of all government departments to "come together" and "work together". Mr Modi hosted all the Secretaries of government department for a high tea at his 7 Race Course Road residence, where he reviewed the functioning of various government departments, spoke about the Swachh Bharat or Clean India Campaign and set the tone for next year's Budget.

During his interaction with Secretaries, the Prime Minister told them that the next Budget should be transformational and encouraged them to come up with new ideas and proposals for the next fiscal session. He also called for shifting government emphasis from that of output-oriented to outcome-oriented.

Mr Modi also asked all the departments to pre-pone the Budget exercise by three months so that by April 1, all the elements of the Budget could be implemented immediately.

He also exhorted the officials to work harder on the Swachh Bharat or Clean India campaign, which he launched on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary on October 2. He also reviews how far each department had implemented the campaign and told the bureaucrats that during the cleanliness drive in the Prime Minister's Office, 12 truckloads of garbage was removed.

Mr Modi urged all the government departments to implement digitisation at the earliest.

When the Secretaries raised their fear of not having enough protection in the anti-corruption laws and their fear of being implicated despite having taken a correct decision, the Prime Minister told them to take decisions without fear. "The government will protect you," he assured the Secretaries.

"We are one team. Let us bring openness in governance, come closer and work together," the Prime Minister said. In a bid to strengthen the idea of good governance to all corners of the country, the PM advised the bureaucrats to go back to the area of their first posting to convey best ways of creating and implementing government policies.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh were present at the meeting which was held in an informal setting in the lawns of the PM's residence.

This was Mr Modi's second interaction with Secretaries after becoming the Prime Minister in May. More than 80 Secretary-level officials were present at today's meeting. Last month, Mr Modi met with all the MPs of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance over tea and also held a dinner meeting with his ministers.

In its maiden Budget in July, the Modi government pledged to narrow the fiscal deficit to a seven-year low of 4.1 per cent of Gross Domestic Product for the current fiscal year. Keeping in view of its promise, the government has pushed the pedal on reforms, taking decisions like freeing prices of diesel from government control, hiking the price of domestic gas and streamlining labour laws.