New Delhi, June 02: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Dr Jitendra Singh on Friday said the nine years of the administrative reforms under Prime Minister Narendra Modi are, in the long run, aimed at the socio-economic transformation.
Delivering the inaugural address at a webinar on Administrative Reforms (2014-2023) in New Delhi, Dr Singh said, “The large-scale use of technology and integration approach are the twin pillars of the revolutionary Governance Reforms carried out in the last nine years.”
On the occasion, he also released two booklets and one flyer and its e-Version on 9 Years of Administrative Reforms (2014-2023) to mark the completion of 9 years of government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
Dwelling on administrative reforms, the minister said, “Ever since Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, the Prime Minister gave us the mantra ‘Minimum Government – Maximum Governance’, which means a government to act as a facilitator, not an intimidator. When we talk of a government like this it means increased transparency, increased accountability and most of all increased citizen participation.”
Speaking about transparency and accountability in governance, Dr Singh said that the benchmark for clean and effective government is the robust grievance redressal mechanism. He listed out several out-of-box ideas like abolishing the century-old colonial practice of attestation of documents by a gazetted officer and replacing it with self-attestation, doing away with interviews for Group-B (Non-Gazetted) and Group-C posts in the Central government since 2016, three-month Central stint for fresh IAS officers as Assistant Secretary, structural reforms in PM Awards for Excellence in Public Administration and the abolition of around 1450 government rules.
To recognize the efforts and exceptional work done by the civil servants, the Prime Minister’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration have played a significant role, he said, adding that after 2014, the process and selection of PM’s Excellence Award have been institutionalised and now this is based on the performance of the district, rather than that of the District Collector or individual civil servant.
Dr Singh said another improvisation brought is to assess the scale and rating of the implementation of flagship schemes in the district. He said a record number of 2520 completed applications have been received and a total of 743 districts out of 763 have registered for Prime Minister’s Awards, 2022.
Talking about the initiatives to improve governance, the minister said that an index has been developed to gauge the performance of States. On digital transformation, the minister said that e-Office version 7.0 has been adopted in all 75 Ministries/ Departments of the Central Secretariat.
Dr Jitendra Singh also mentioned that Prime Minister Modi is “a man of several innovations in governance” and the Chintan Shivir laid down a futuristic model of governance representing far-reaching administrative reforms in the Amrit Kaal period. “As our country moves further ahead on this journey towards building a self-reliant India, it is imperative that we focus on empowering our citizens and reach the last person at the end of the line,” he said.
