Kolkata: With the initiative taken to update the Secretariat Manual, the Personnel and Administrative Reforms (PAR) department will seek suggestions and inputs from all the departments of the state government in this connection. Letters to the departments will be sent next week.
The Secretariat Manual acts as a statutory document or a relevant guideline for functioning of the secretariat as a whole. The necessity to update the manual was felt by the PAR department as have been several changes in the system in the 13 years since it was last updated in 2005.
According to a senior state government official, major developments including introduction of e-office, Human Resource Management System (HRMS) and Integrated Finance Management System (IFMS), etc. have got introduced in the past seven years.
"The necessity to update the manual was felt to include all the major developments related to the functioning of the secretariat and at the same time, to exclude what has turned irrelevant in the present context," said the official, adding that the developments are taking place against government orders (GOs), but their inclusion in the Secretariat Manual is quite crucial as it is the statutory document for functioning of the secretariat.
After getting the letters, all the departments will carry out their respective assessment in this connection and will send their report, giving necessary suggestions. They can also suggest if they feel that there is any matter that needs to be excluded from the manual.
Citing an example, the official added: "There is a chapter in the existing manual on the process of entering the state secretariat. Interestingly, the state government's headquarters have now shifted to Nabanna from Writers Buildings. So, there could be an update in the manual regarding the process of entering the state secretariat as well."
It was after Durga Puja in 2017 that the matter related to updating the manual had cropped up, after its necessity was felt by the top brass of the PAR department. Concerned officials of the PAR department had then sent a note to the state Home and Hill Affairs department in this connection, as the department is the nodal body for the West Bengal Rules of Business.
Moreover, both the departments were under one umbrella till 2000, when the task of updating the manual was taken up last time.
Subsequently, all necessary steps were taken and an order was passed in March to form a committee for the task of updating the Secretariat Manual. Dhaval Jain, OSD to the Chief Secretary and Under Secretary, Home and Hill Affairs and PAR and e-Governance departments, Nirmalya Ghosal, Commissioner, Home and Hill Affairs department, Dipak Roy, Deputy Secretary of the Finance department and Uttam Dutta, Registrar of the Finance department, are in the committee that has been constituted.
Two retired officials - Swapan Bhattacharya, who was in the committee when the manual was updated last time and Chandicharan Patra, who is attached to the Administrative Training Institute at present, - are providing necessary support to the committee.
Two meetings of the committee members have already taken place. The first meeting took place on June 21, while the second one was held last week. Sources said that the committee has sought necessary logistic and manpower support to carry out the task.