All departmental secretaries have to take their spouses along on observations

New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Cabinet Secretary has asked all departmental secretaries to visit the districts of their first posting and assess changes and developments in the areas.

The babus will have to take their spouses along as their observations and recommendations, if any, also need to be given due consideration. All the secretaries have been told to file a report which is to be sent to the secretary, department of personnel training (DoPT), by January 31, 2015.

In a recent DoPT directive, the secretaries have been told to spend at least two to three days at the place where they were first posted after joining the service, interact with the ground-level officers and people so as to find gaps in implementation of schemes, if any. For most of the secretaries, this will be the first-ever visit after almost 35 years.