Forward looking secretaries

When the nation was gripped by election fever, government offices in the Capital looked deserted. Most of the officers were deputed on election duty and were away from the Capital. But the Secretaries remain in Delhi, and some utilised this time well. The Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Ashish Bahuguna, acted on his own as he was aware of the rough weather forecast this year. He called on all the additional secretaries, joint secretaries and chief secretaries to have an on-the-spot assessment of the crop yield and preparedness of the states this year. He asked the representatives of the states to meet the ministry officials in their respective capitals and share a brief on the current status of the agriculture scenario. All additional secretaries of the agriculture ministry visited the state capitals, met Chief Ministers, chief secretaries and other state officials of the agriculture department. By the time the election results were out, the Ministry of Agriculture had an updated report from across the country. Another Secretary that ofIndustrial Promotion and Planning, Amitabh Kant, instructed his staff to prepare the next five-year agenda. The Secretary, Shipping, Dr Vishwapati Trivedi, was also in touch with officials across the country andready with the latest updates. This is called proper utilisation of time.