Gandhinagar, Jan 30 (PTI) Reforms in governance that got stalled after the death of the country’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel gained momentum only after the Narendra Modi government was installed in 2014, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.
The Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions was addressing a gathering in Gujarat’s capital Gandhinagar after inaugurating the two-day ‘National Conference on Good Governance’.
“Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel introduced the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the successor of Indian Civil Services. He termed this service as the steel frame of India. He also stressed on the need to bring changes in governance in line with the country’s needs. Unfortunately, there was no significant progress in that direction because he passed away within a few years of India getting Independence,” Singh said.
“Luckily, the turning point came after 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office and gave the mantra of Maximum Governance, Minimum Government,” he asserted, adding that the governance model started in Gujarat when Modi was chief minister is being replicated by other states.
Many governance reforms introduced by the Centre were successfully implemented in Gujarat when Modi was CM of the state, Singh said.
“This model encompasses greater transparency, more accountability, citizen centric approach, use of technology and zero tolerance towards corruption. All these reforms were done over the years with a huge amount of sensitivity,” said Singh.
So far, the Modi government has abolished nearly 2,000 laws and rules which were not required in today’s world, he added.
Singh said the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS), an online platform available to the citizens to lodge their grievances, is one of the “role models” of his department in terms of governance.
In the past, the previous version of this initiative “had a dubious record because people hardly came forward to register their complaint on the website because there was no response from officials”, he pointed out.
“At one point, the number of complaints from all over India had reduced to just 2 lakh. Today, that number has gone up to 25 to 30 lakh because there is prompt response. We are also sensitive towards complaints. That’s why a counsellor talks with the complainant. Countries like Kenya and Bhutan have expressed their desire to adopt this initiative,” the Union minister informed.
Another “role model” initiative Singh mentioned was ‘Mission Karmayogi’ or The National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB).
Singh urged civil servants to evolve through the use of recent advancements in technology, especially Artificial Intelligence tools.
V Srinivas, Secretary of Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG), informed the audience that nearly 30 speakers and 100 delegates from across the country will take part in this two-day conference.
The conference will focus on government process re-engineering for providing citizen centric services, Srinivas added. PTI PJT PD BNM
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