Irked by delay in event, Home Minister Rajnath Singh advises bureaucrats to be punctual

New Delhi: "I was a little bit worried today. The programme was supposed to start at 9.45 (am). We reached five minutes before the scheduled time. But it started at 9.57 (am)," said Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday at the inaugural session of an event to mark the Civil Services Day here. Union Home Minister pulled up bureaucrats and asked them to be punctual after the event that he attended got delayed by 12 minutes. In the the event which was attended mostly by officers belonging to IAS and other all India services, Singh was the chief guest. Worried that the function of bureaucrats got delayed by 12 minutes and the attendees kept entering the venue even after it formally began, Home Minister said there maybe many reasons for the delayed start and some reasons maybe right but there should be an introspection as to why the situation is such as it is today. "It would have been good that we would not have deviated (from the scheduled time). Has there been any carelessness in our commitment?" Singh asked. Singh also referred to the country's first Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who had termed the civil services as the 'steel frame' of India, and asked whether the 'steel frame' of the civil services has become vulnerable? He recalled that when he was invited to a function when he was the chief minister, it was quite natural that he would reach the venue 10 minutes before the scheduled time, he said. But as a minister also, Singh said that he have seen that whenever he go to attend a function, people reach the venue a few minutes before the scheduled time but for the first time he witnessed people getting late), he added. The function was also attended by Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh. In addition to him, Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha and Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister P K Mishra were also present. Secretaries of many central ministries and departments also attended the event.