Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, lauded the change in work culture following a series of governance reforms brought under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last over nine years.
Dr Jitendra Singh inaugurated the Good Governance Week 2023 on Tuesday.
According to a press statement from the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions,Dr Jitendra Singh said, “Best Practises in Good Governance introduced in recent years also reflect change within us and in our attitude, these good governance reforms have a long-term socioeconomic impact as well.”
With PM Modi’s policy of ‘Maximum Governance, Minimum Government’, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the government has today brought transparency and citizen participation towards achieving ‘Ease of Living” for the common man.
“The colonial-era practise of attestation of documents by Gazetted Officers was abolished soon after PM Modi first took office as Prime Minister in 2014. In January 2016, interviews were abolished for lower-grade posts in government, with merit as the sole criteria for selection,” he said.
Dr Jitendra Singh said PM Modi has initiated a visible change in work culture, both in the executive and the polity. The optimal use of technology is being made to achieve transparency and delivery of services to the common man, he said.
“If we have to grow in this global world, we have to follow these global strategies, the global culture. This is what has happened in the last 9-10 years, it’s not documented, it’s not written, but it’s happening within us. I don’t know how far we are realizing that it has happened,” he said.
Pointing out that public grievances have multiplied tenfold since 2014 to over 20 lakhs annually on the CPGRAMS portal, Dr. Jitendra Singh said this reflects the growing faith reposed in the government by the people in alleviating their problems.
“CPGRAMS is now well integrated with PG portals of several state governments and the UT administration. The government aims to achieve zero pendency in public grievances,” he said.
The DoPT Minister said Pensions is the first department in the government to use face recognition technology for submission of a digital life certificate to avail of pension continuation.
“We have more than 10,000 pensioners above the age of 90 and almost 3,000 above 100 years of age, drawing pensions as much as their salaries. And there the fingerprints become a little unreliable, so we hit upon the idea of face recognition,” he said.
Referring to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Modi government amended it after 30 years in 2018, intending to make the bribe giver equally culpable.
“On the one hand, as the Prime Minister said, ‘Zero Tolerance towards corruption’ and on the other hand, a performing officer deserves to be given full protection and an enabling working environment,” he said.
Dr Jitendra Singh said Mission Karmayogi is another success story.
“In the Rozgar Mela, we have introduced Mission Karmayogi Prarambh. Any post, any department, you train yourself for that,” he said.
Dr Jitendra Singh said Swachhata turned into a mass movement after the PM spoke about it from the ramparts of the Red Fort. Swachhata lent dignity to the women folk, he said.
“Today, the government has earned more than Rs. 1,100 crore just by disposing of scrap, so we’ve also contributed to the nation’s economy,” he said.
During the inaugural session of Good Governance Week, Dr Jitendra Singh launched the CPGRAMS mobile app and the e-office Advanced Analytics Dashboard. He also released DARPG publications: – Journey of 25 Regional Conferences from 2014-2023, the Annual Report of CPGRAMS 2023 and a Coffee Table Book on Special Campaign 3.0.