11 civil servants honoured at gfiles' Governance Awards

As many as 11 civil servants were awarded for their extraordinary achievements in governance at gfiles Governance Awards 2016 on Sunday.

A four-member team led by former governor and former cabinet secretary Prabhat Kumar decided on the names for the awards to be presented. The award is given to IAS and IPS officers, including bureaucrats, for exemplary works in their districts and reforms among general public. It is given after assessment and evaluation of the officers' two years' work.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Guest Union Minister of Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh said, "There is a need to narrow down the gap between political leadership and the steel frame of India to improve on governance in the country."

"Governance should rest with politicians and administration with bureaucracy," he added.

Singh, along with Ram Bilas Sharma, Haryana Education and Tourism Minister, honoured eminent scientist Dr. R A Marshelkar and ten other civil servants with gfiles Governance Awards.

Dr R.A. Marshelkar, a chemical engineer and a former Director General of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), was honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award.

"All my life I worked 24x 7, days after days, week after week and year after; I promise you to continue to do so," he said.

Others bagged Exceptional Contribution Awards and Excellent Contribution Awards

O.P. Singh, IPS, Director General, Central Industrial Security Force, was given Exceptional Contribution Award for successfully leading the disaster relief operations.

Saurabh Kumar, IRS, Managing Director, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), Ministry of Power; Sanjay Kumar, IFS, Deputy Inspector General, Nation al Tiger Conservation Authority, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; K. Balamurugan, IFS, Regional Passport Officer, Chennai; Sutirtha Bhattacharya, IAS, CMD, Coal India Limited (CIL); R.S. Julania, Additional Chief Secretary, Panchayat and Rural Development Department, Madhya Pradesh; N. Prasanth, IAS, District Collector & District Magistrate, Kozhikode, Kerala; Amit Lodha, a Bihar cadre IPS, presently Deputy Inspector General, BSF, Jaisalmer; Mandeep Singh Randhawa, IPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central District, Delhi Police; and Vikas Arya, Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers (IRSME) officer.

Gfiles Governance Award recognises the young officers, who are working in the districts against all odds and doing commendable work to ameliorate the condition of citizens of India.

The award ceremony was fifth consecutive in as many years. Gfiles is a brain-child of former India Today editor Inderjit Badhwar, Senior Journalist Anil Tyagi, and well-known financial expert Dr. G.S. Sood.

This award has been decided by former governor and former cabinet secretary Prabhat Kumar, former Union energy secretary Anil Razdan, former Union internal security secretary M B Kaushal, former chief secretary of Haryana Vishnu Bhagwan.

Gfiles is the country's first independent magazine written, designed and produced for India's civil services-the vast and formidable network of bureaucracies and public sector organisations, which provide continuity and stability to this nation's governance.