New Delhi, Mar 25 (PTI) Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday said the Narendra Modi government has sought to give a new outlook to governance in the last seven to eight years.

Not just in terms of governance, there has been huge social reforms that will give the coming generations a level-playing field, he said at the valedictory function of the Third Capacity Building Programme for senior officers of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service here.

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Singh, the Union Minister of State for Personnel, said the intent of the government became clear when soon after the BJP came to power in 2014 with one of the first major decisions was to introduce self-attestation and do away with getting documents attested by a gazetted officer.

Since then, the Modi government has done away with around 1500 rules, including abolishing interviews for recruitment, he said.

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Singh said the Ministry of Personnel has streamlined governance and made it timeline-oriented.

As for Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said cadre review had been pending for several years because the earlier governments were never keen about it.

Now, the exercise has been undertaken to ensure regular induction of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service officers into IAS, Singh said.

He said that in Jammu and Kashmir, the number of IAS officers is lower compared to its approved total strength. This situation needs to be improved so that civil servants stay motivated, he said.

The Union Minister said, "Earlier, we were living in the bliss of not having the capacity. But the fact is that capacity and potential were always there, but it is being realised now with a change in work culture in the last seven to eight years under the present regime."

The 12-day Capacity Building programme from March 14 to 25 was organized by the National Centre for Good Governance, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

A total of 32 officers attended the programme from the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)