Day 33 – Q 2. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed the exemplar services being rendered by public servants. What lessons have you learnt from their conduct? 

2. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed the exemplar services being rendered by public servants. What lessons have you learnt from their conduct? 

COVID-19 महामारी के दौरान, हमने सार्वजनिक सेवकों द्वारा दी जा रही अनुकरणीय सेवाओं को देखा है। आपने उनके आचरण से क्या सबक सीखा है?

Demand of the question:

It expects students to observe and analyse the exemplar services being rendered by public servants during this pandemic. It also expects students to write about the lessons learnt from their conduct.

Introduction:

Public servants work tirelessly to ensure the smooth functioning of the public administration. But, when it comes to crisis  situation like COVID-19, public servants show exemplary courage in rendering services to people.

Body: 

Following are  such examples of  public servants who  showed exemplary services & lessons learnt from their conduct:

• Hard Work & Commitment: To accomplish and outclass in any task an IAS Officer should be a hard worker and committed to his/her duty. Which can be seen from the exemplary service  shown by top Odisha cadre IAS officer and state health secretary, Nikunja Dhal who returned to duty within 24 hours of his father’s death. It emphasise his commitment to duty,
• Decisive and Resilient in Approach: In this COVID-19 Pandemic situation where the administrative machineries and health infrastructure are overburdened by the work, District collectors and Health officers are showing their decisive & resilient approach.
• Compassion: As a civil servant, an administrative Officers show compassion  & motivates the people with a desire to help the sufferings or misfortune instead of just feeling sympathetic.
• For instance, Around 20 IRS officers in Bengaluru,  Provided  Meals to Migrant Workers. It’s a sign of compassion. It also emphasised the importance of unity among colleagues.
• CARUNA Initiative: CARUNA stands for ‘Civil Services Association Reach to Support National Disasters, which is an association formed by the above-mentioned services. It is a unique collaborative platform that brings together civil servants, industry leaders, NGO professionals, and IT professionals, among others in the fight against corona virus pandemic.
• This initiative give us a lesson that when it comes to crisis, administration doesn’t works alone, it takes all the stakeholders together and work in harmony to tackle the situation.
• A major chunk of the population of the country is currently practising isolation and is working from home, or not working at all. During such a time,  IAS officer and Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation Commissioner (GVMC) G Srijana,  returned to work just 22 days after giving birth, cutting short her maternity break.
• This act of dedication by IAS officer G Srijana gives a lesson by showing the importance of handling such huge responsibility. 
• Out-of-the-Box Thinking for Excellence in Work: Public servants in some of the districts have came up with new ideas to bring back the daily life of citizens such as odd even scheme to start the market, creating innovative advertisements etc. 
• Leadership: Many of the public servants gave a lesson of how a leader should act in this unprecedented situation. e.g. Nagpur Municipal Commissioner Mr. Tukaram Mundhe initiated the door to door testing of the people to contain the spread of COVID-19.
• The exemplary services by the public servant not just have given us the lessons of what to do but it also gave us the lessons of what not to do, such as not taking hasty decisions, not thinking about particular strata of the society while rendering service etc.
• However, some public servants were also transferred, to handle other responsibilities, due to their failure to contain the spread of COVID-19.
• These failure should need to be carefully assessed and lessons from them should be learnt to understand what not to do.

While applauding these acts of exemplary service our President said that, “In the present times too, the steel frame of our country, the civil service, has shown its strength and resolve in handling COVID-19 situation, with sensitivity and professionalism.”

Conclusion:

At this time, India is going through extreme crises because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country has been in lockdown for more than  3 months, giving rise to a plethora of problems. The work burden has increased manifold on the administrative system of the country. But, India’s efforts of fighting against the corona virus disease have been applauded globally and the undeniably credit for this goes to the bureaucrats of the country.