OREANDA-NEWS. The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in collaboration with UNDP organized an International Symposium on excellence in public service/public administration at New Delhi on October 7-8, 2014.  The symposium showcased global practices in Public Administration and Public Services Delivery.Participants from about 25 countries shared best practices and initiatives in Public Administration.  Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions reiterated the pledge of Good Governance and stated that the measures taken by the Government of India include process simplification, focus on e-governance, single window system and acceptance of self attestation of documents.

A two day Regional Conference on Innovation in Public Service Delivery in collaboration with the Government of Odisha was organized at Bhubaneswar on November  12, 2014.  During this conference, representatives from States and UTs in theNorthern,  North East and Eastern Region made presentations on award winning initiatives and projects on  ‘Best Practices’. A seminar on transparency and accountability was organized in which participants from renowned Public Sector Undertakings and Corporate bodies participated along with the representatives of multi lateral institutions.

The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013 came into force on January 16, 2014. Under the Act The Public Servants (Furnishing of Information and Annual Return of Assets and Liabilities and the limits for Exemption of Assets in Filing Returns) Rules, 2014 were made for pro-active disclosure of property returns of all government employees. In view of comments/suggestions received from various government departments, orders were issued subsequently, in February and September removing certain difficulties and simplifying the format. The deadline for compliance with the above said rules was extended up to December 31, 2014. 

FOCUS ON GRIEVANCES REDRESSAL OF GOVT. SERVANTS AND PENSIONERS

The Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare is conducting Pre-Retirement Counseling (PRC) workshops every month for retiring persons from various Ministries/ Departments of the Government of India.  About 700 retiring persons have benefitted from such PRC workshops, during this year. The Department is also holding PRC Workshops for ‘Training of Trainers’ for the benefit of various Departments and Ministries.  Three such training programmes have been organized recently and a pool of 300 trainers has been created.

In order to bring the people of NE Region into the mainstream, the Department organized PRC workshops and an awareness programme on Pensioners’ Portal and SANKALP for 400 Pensioners at Shillong in November 2014. SANKALP is an initiative from Department of Pension & Pensioners' Welfare, to provide a platform for the pensioners to access opportunities available for useful interventions in the society. It also facilitates the organizations working in these areas to select appropriate skill and expertise from the available pool of volunteers.

As a part of the larger mandate of streamlining and simplifying the sanction of pension and payment process, the Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare has taken steps towards minimizing delays in sanction and disbursement of pension and making the process more transparent. The objective is to simplify the forms as well as to do away with the requirement of submission of affidavit and to accept all information and documents on the basis of Self certification, 26 forms under CCS Pension Rules (1972) have been reviewed and modified where necessary. 

‘Jeevan Pramaan’ - Aadhar based digital Life Certificate was launched by the Government in November 2014. This will do away with the requirement of a pensioner having to submit a physical Life Certificate in November each year, in order to ensure continuity of pension being credited into his account.

An award Scheme to encourage timely payment of Pension and other retirement benefits has been instituted for Ministries/Departments of the Government of India.  Online platform for retiring employees to highlight their life time experience and achievements is also being promoted through a concept paper with the stakeholders.

There are approximately 40,000 fresh retirees every year from Central Government Civil establishments alone.  This number could be close to one lakh every year including defence, railways, posts and telecom sectors.  There is an existing pool of around 50 lakh pensioners.

With a view to providing know how about the operational aspects of the pensioners’ portal and the grievances redressal mechanism in particular, the Department of Pensions is conducting Awareness Programmes at different stations in the country. So far such programmes have been conducted at Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Jalandhar, Vadodara, Shillong and Agartala for Pensioners/Pensioners’ Association who are major stakeholders.

For redress of public grievances in general and grievances pertaining to central government agencies Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) is operational since 2007. The portal is accessible at www.pgportal.gov.in. It is an online system for lodging grievances from anywhere, anytime 24x7.

After careful scrutiny, the grievances received in the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances are forwarded to the Ministries/Departments/Organizations/State Governments/ UTs concerned for appropriate action. The complainant is also informed about the details. The system enables Ministries/Departments close monitoring of the grievances received for expeditious disposal and upload Action Taken Report. The citizens can view the status of action taken.

GOOD GOVERNANCE DAY AND GOOD GOVERNANCE INITIATIVES

The Government of India to observe December 25 as Good Governance Day throughout the country every year.

Among the many initiatives undertaken by the Government to simplify governance, the promotion of self certification in place of affidavits was a significant step towards making life easier for the common man and placing trust in citizens.

A facility to upload the reply of RTI applications and first appeals on the respective website of the Ministry/Department has been started from October 31, 2014.   All the Ministries/Departments of Govt. of India have been requested to upload the reply to RTI application and first appeal on their respective websites, except the replies relating to the personal information of an individual, if they do not serve any public interest.

A book titled “Lighted Windows” on Best Practices or good governance initiatives was compiled by DARPG.  The book consists of select good governance initiatives from all over the country.  Innovations in governance are akin to improvement within the existing system that emerges from the dynamism of an individual or a group of civil servants or the organization at various levels.A Compendium of Best Practices on implementation of RTI Act was finalized in February this year.

The Government has invited suggestions for a proposed scheme akin to Swantah Sukhaya of the government of Gujarat under which a government employee can pick his/her own voluntary service outside their usual structured work and do it with the Department’s backing.  The Government would recognize the best initiatives. Swantah Sukhaya is a Sanskrit term, meaning swantah – oneself and sukhaya, happiness.  This initiative is meant to provide internal happiness and a sense of achievement.

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) has so far released 67 films/documentary on good governance initiatives which are e-governance award winning film as well as the Prime Minister award winning documentaries.