Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the measure of good governance in society is dependent on the quality of the public grievance redressal system and this is the true test of democracy.

He was addressing a programme to mark 20 years of the SWAGAT (StateWide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology) initiative started by him in Gujarat in April, 2003 when he was the Chief Minister of the State. The address was via video conferencing.

The main purpose of the initiative was to act as a bridge between citizens and the government by using technology to solve their day-to-day grievances in a quick, efficient and time-bound manner. During the event, the Prime Minister interacted with past beneficiaries of the scheme.

Addressing a gathering, the Prime Minister expressed satisfaction that objectives behind starting Swagat have been successfully achieved, and citizens not only find solutions to their problems but also raise issues of the entire community of hundreds.

“The attitude of the government should be friendly and common citizens can easily share their issues with them”, the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister recalled his past experiences upon interacting with the beneficiaries. He said that it is the effort and dedication of the citizens that make the SWAGAT initiative a grand success and congratulated everyone who has contributed in this direction.

The Prime Minister said that the destiny of any scheme is determined by the intention and vision of that scheme when it is conceived. He recalled that when the initiative was launched in 2003 he was not very old as Chief Minister and he too faced the common refrain that power changes everyone.

He said that he was clear to remain unchanged by the assumption of the chair. “I was clear that I would not become a slave of the restrictions of the chair. I will remain among people and will be there for them,” he said.

This determination gave birth to StateWide Attention on Grievances by Application of Technology. The Prime Minister said that the idea behind SWAGAT was to welcome the views of the common citizens in democratic institutions, be it in legislation or solutions. “SWAGAT stands by the idea of Ease of Living and Reach of Governance,” Mr Modi said.

He underlined that the good governance model of Gujarat has found its own identity in the world due to the efforts made by the government with all honesty and dedication.

He said that SWAGAT drew a lot of praise from the United Nations and was also conferred the prestigious award for Public Service. The Prime Minister pointed out that Gujarat received the gold award from the Government of India for e-governance owing to SWAGAT during the Congress regime in 2011.

“For me, the biggest reward is that we could serve the people of Gujarat through SWAGAT,” the Prime Minister said. “In SWAGAT we prepared a practical system. The first systems of public hearings under SWAGAT were created at the block and tehsil levels. After that District Magistrate was made responsible at the district level. And at the state level, the Prime Minister said, he took the responsibility on his own shoulders,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that he would carry out an analysis to understand if there were any specific departments, officers or regions whose complaints were registered more often than others. “An in-depth analysis was carried out where policies were also amended if needed,” Mr Modi said. “This created a sense of trust amongst the common citizens,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that SWAGAT changed the old notion of following the established trails in government. “We proved that governance is not limited to old rules and laws but governance takes place due to innovations and new ideas”, he added.

Mr Modi recalled that in 2003, e-governance was not much of a priority by the governments of the time. Paper trails and physical files led to a lot of delays and harassment video conferencing was mostly unknown.

“Under these circumstances, Gujarat worked on futuristic ideas. And today, a system like SWAGAT has become the inspiration for many solutions to governance. Many states are working on this type of system.

“At the Centre we have also made a system called PRAGATI to review the working of the government. PRAGATI has played a big role in the rapid development of the country in the last nine years. This concept is also based on the idea of SWAGAT,” he said.

The Prime Minister said he has reviewed projects worth about Rs 16 lakh crores through PRAGATI and many projects were speeded up due to this.