Over Rs 208 crore earmarked for training of babus

Over Rs 208 crore has been allocated to the Ministry of Personnel for 2015-16 to augment its training facilities for bureaucrats.
In the budget presented today by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Rs 208.91 crore has been earmarked for the Ministry to meet establishment-related expenditure of Institute of Secretariat Training and Management (ISTM), here and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie.
Both the ISTM and LBSNAA arrange several training programmes including foundation courses, refresher courses and mid-career training among others to equip all levels or grades of secretarial functionaries with adequate exposure to the latest rules and regulations and aptitude.

The grant include expenditure on domestic or overseas travel, course fees etc in respect of Central Secretariat Service and Central Secretariat Stenographers Service officials who are to undergo mandatory training at ISTM as a pre-condition for consideration for promotion to higher grade, according to the Demand of Grants of the Ministry.
The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension had got Rs 205.66 crore in 2014-15. The allocation was revised to Rs 179.48 crore for the ongoing fiscal.
The Finance Minister has also proposed to increase by over Rs 13 crore to Rs 43.55 crore the budgetary allocation for Central Information Commission (CIC) and Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) for 2015-16.

The grant of Rs 43.55 crore is to meet establishment related expenditure of PESB and CIC. This also includes provision for construction of office building of the CIC, dak digitization, setting up of video conferencing facilities, preparation of publicity material on RTI, setting up of call centre and establishment of wing for transparency and accountability studies for the transparency watchdog.
The Finance Ministry had given Rs 30.32 crore for the CIC and PESB in the ongoing fiscal which was later revised to Rs 24 crore.