Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances

-Shashikant Nishant Sharma

Ministry of Panchayati Raj, encouraged by the resounding success and transformative outcomes of the previous editions of Special Campaign, is all set to act as an active partner during Preparatory Phase (15–30 September, 2023) and Implementation Phase (2–31 October, 2023) of Special Campaign 3.0 steered by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG).The Special Campaign conducted in Ministry of Panchayati Raj primarily focuses upon encouraging clean and pro-environment workplaces for its officials and staff–members and welcoming reception areas for visitors. The major outcomes of perpetual Best Practices adopted by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj under the Special Campaign for a conducive work environment are as follows:

✅Execution of 100% file work through e-Office

✅ Efficient management of office spaces

✅ Enhancement and productive use of office spaces

✅ Environmental friendly Practices

✅ Maintaining a clean and hygienic workplace at all times

✅ Ensuring 100 % electronic scrape disposal

✅ Zero Pendency of Public Grievances

Additional Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Dr. Chandra Shekhar Kumar chaired a meeting with Divisional Heads on 11th September, 2023 to discuss the Work Plan/ Action Plan for the Special Campaign 3.0 to be organized from 2ndOctober, 2023 to 31st October, 2023 under the aegis of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India. Emphasizing the importance of institutionalizing Swachhata and minimizing pendency in Government offices, Dr. Chandra Shekhar Kumar advised all the Divisions to work in a concerted and collaborative manner for the best results as per the parameters identified by DARPG for Special Campaign 3.0, which is a campaign having an overarching goal to promote Good Governance through Swachhata.

In view of the importance of the Special Campaign 3.0, Dr. Chandra Shekhar Kumar suggested that senior officers in the Ministry may provide leadership in implementing Special Campaign 3.0 activities effectively. The meeting was attended by Joint Secretary, Smt. Mamta Varma, Joint Secretary, Shri Alok Prem Nagar,Economic Adviser, Dr. Bijaya Kumar Behera, Director,Shri Ramit Maurya, Director, Dr. Sriramappa V. and representatives of other Divisions/ Sections in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj.

Dr. Bijaya Kumar Behera apprised that efforts are on to raise awareness, mobilize officials and ensure their active participation in making Special Campaign 3.0 a grand success by the way of making Swachhata “everyone’s business” and “a way of life”. Citing some remarkable results in respect of cleanliness campaigns, space freed, files weeded out, revenue earned by scrap disposal and public grievances disposed of during the period from December 2022 to July 2023, Dr. Behera made a reference of 5541 public grievances spreading over all States and UTs redressed during December 2022 – July 2023, and stated that State-specific engagement of Nodal Officers and dedicated Public Grievances Redressal Cell helped in disposal of public grievances within a month’s time and thus there was no pendency.

The discussions during the meeting were focused on various activities and aspects of Special Campaign 3.0 and it was centered around conducting special cleanliness drives and mobilizing the government functionaries to streamlining processes and procedures to strengthen grievance redressal mechanism to ensure fast disposal of grievances at all levels. Special Campaign 3.0 in the Ministry of Panchayati Raj will focus on creating healthier workspaces, keeping workplace tools in working order, increasing efficiency / improving productivity i.e. speed and quality of work and boosting the morale of the employees / staff-members (regular, contractual and outsourced) through a clean, tidy and organized work environment. Clean Desk / Clean Office / Clean Corridor / Clean Workstation and other best practices will be promoted through social media on regular basis.

Ministry of Panchayati Raj will organize a mini-workshop with the record officers for their capacity building on record keeping and helping them for categorization of files for preservation, distribution and retention etc. as per Record Retention Schedule. Necessary action will be taken to give feel-good environment by placing flower pots, sapling pots etc. in both the office premises of Jeevan Bharati Building and Jeevan Prakash Building. Special emphasis will be given on behavioural / attitudinal changes towards cleanliness and sanitation for tackling workplace hygiene issues considerately along with disposal of pending matters such as references from Members of Parliament, Parliamentary Assurances, References received from State Governments, Inter-Ministerial Consultation, Public Representations/ Grievances, better record management, review and weeding out papers on regular basis as we move towards a more sustainable future for everyone.

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DARPG collaboration with Government of Maharashtra on Administrative Reforms and Good Governance

On the invitation of Chairman Committee for Good Governance, Government of Maharashtra Shri Suresh Kumar IAS (retd), a 6 member DARPG delegation led by Secretary DARPG V.Srinivas visited Mumbai on December 1, 2022 to firm up the roadmap for collaboration between DARPG and Government of Maharashtra on Administrative Reforms and Good Governance. The DARPG delegation held meeting the 3 meetings (i) Meeting with the Chairman and Members of the Committee for Good Governance (ii) Meeting with the Chief Secretary Shri Manu Kumar Srivastava and Additional Chief Secretary GAD Smt. Sujata Saunak, and Senior Officials of Government of Maharashtra and (iii) Meeting with the Divisional Commissioners, District Collectors, CEO’s of Zilla Parishad and Municipal Commissioners of all Districts of Maharashtra.

The following roadmap for collaboration was drawn up:

Draw up a roadmap for time bound saturation of e-Services, e-Office and for replication of the Government of India’s Initiative for Increasing Efficiency in Decision Making in State Secretariat comprising of Delayering, Delegation, adoption of Desk Officer System and Digitization of Central Registration Units.
Regional Conference on e-Governance at Mumbai proposed for January 2023
Documentation of best practices and administrative innovations of Maharashtra’s districts uploaded on the Good Governance Portal and the PM’s Awards
Rewriting the Manual of Office Procedure 2023 for enabling the March to a Digital Maharashtra State Secretariat

The DARPG delegation called on Hon’ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra and appraised him on the deliberations and proposed roadmap for collaboration.

The DARPG delegation comprised of Secretary Shri V.Srinivas, Joint Secretary Shri N.B.S.Rajput, Director Shri K.Sanjayan, Deputy Secretaries Shri Parthasarathy Bhaskar, Smt Sarita Taneja and Under Secretary Shri Santosh Kumar.

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Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances

Major developments pertaining to Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances during the year 2021 (Jan-Dec21):

Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava India @75

India is celebrating its 75th year of independence, Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava India @75, from 12thMarch 2021 to 15th August, 2022. DAR&PG has planned a number of Good Governance Workshops, Webinars and Conferences to mark the occasion. As a part of Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava India@75 celebrations, the Department has undertaken following activities:-

2) CPGRAMS Reforms:

A number of Reforms were undertaken in the Central Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism, as mentioned below:-

Introduction of an Appeal Mechanism/functionality in CPGRAMS

An Appeal Mechanism/functionality in CPGRAMS has been introduced. A separate workflow and functionality for escalation of grievances to appeal authorities in CPGRAMS has been operationalized and made live on 20.01.2021 by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. The time line for resolution of an Appeal by the Nodal Appellate Authority is 30 days of receipt of the same. The Appeal provision has been made for redressal of dissatisfied grievances identified through a mandatory feedback rating to be given by the Citizen on disposal of the grievance by the Nodal Grievance Officers.

The Appellate Authority is one level above the existing designated Nodal Grievance Officers. 79 Ministries/ Departments have appointed Nodal Appellate Authorities details of which are available on the website at pgportal.gov.in.

CPGRAMS Reforms in Other Ministries/ Departments:

CPGRAMS version 7.0 was operationalized in the Ministry/Department of Civil Aviation, Labour & Employment, Higher Education and Department of Personnel & Training on 09.03.2021. CPGRAMS Version 7.0 enables a guided registration process for the citizens through drop-down menu / questionnaire and also direct transition of grievance to the concerned grievance redressal officer by skipping intermediate levels and thus reducing redressal time of a grievance. With this CPGRAM 7.0 has been implemented in 13 Ministries/Departments in GOI.

Earlier the maximum stipulated time for disposal of grievances was 60 days. DARPG, vide O.M. dated 22.06.2021 have reduced this stipulated time limit from 60 days to 45 days.

3) Grievance Redressal

A MoU have been signed with IIT, Kanpur to Introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) tools in the system in partnership with IIT, Kanpur to categories grievances and assess quality of resolution.

DARPG signed an MoU with Common Service Centres (CSCs) on 20.09.2021 to increase accessibility of CPGRAMS to rural population.

In phase-I the CPGRAMS portal has been made live in three regional languages i.e. Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi, which are three highest grievance receiving regions among the non-Hindi speaking States.

4) Civil Services Day, 2021

The DAR&PG celebrated the Civil Services Day on April-21, 2021. To mark the occasion, tweets were issued by the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Home Minister, Minister of External Affairs, Minister of Railways, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Minister of State for Personnel & PMO and Cabinet Secretary.

5) Capacity building programme by National Centre for Good Governance

National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), DAR&PG organized a two-day Capacity Building Program for Senior Officers of Union Territory of Ladakh in collaboration with General Administrative Department of Administration of Union Territory of Ladakh at Leh on 9-10 September 2021. The participants were imparted training on diverse topics to create a Civil Service fully familiar with the Union laws on procurement and financial management, Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP), eOffice and also to usher in digital procurement practices through wide spread adoption of GeM and digital governance, keeping in view, Government’s mandate of transparency and ease of business.

6) Special Campaign for disposal of pending matters (2nd October to 31st October, 2021)

On the direction of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India a Special Campaign on disposal of pending matters and cleanliness drive was undertaken from 2nd October to 31st October, 2021 in every Ministry/ Department of government of India including their attached/ subordinate offices and autonomous organizations across the country and abroad. During the campaign all pending references received from Members of parliament, State Governments, Inter -ministerial references , Parliament assurances and Public grievances were to be taken up for disposal in mission mode approach. Records to be reviewed and files/ papers which have completed their retention cycle was to be weeded out in accordance with the set procedure and protocol. Special cleanliness drive both indoor and outdoor in all government buildings including disposal of scrap was also part of the special campaign. Preparatory phase of campaign was from 13 September to 31 September when pendencies were identified, record rooms and stores were inspected and action plan for campaign were chalked out by the Ministries.
To conduct and coordinate the campaign nodal officers were appointed in each Ministry. A dedicated portal was created to monitor real time progress of the campaign. DARPG coordinated and monitored the campaign aggressively with all the nodal officers. During the campaign about 44.89 lakh records were reviewed and 22 lakh records were weeded out. Rs.62.00 cr. was earned from the disposal of scrap. Weeding out of records and scrap disposal have freed up about 12 lakh sq. ft. space for productive use. Cleaning drive in offices which included renovation/ repair / whitewash etc. was undertaken. About 5968 outdoor cleanliness campaigns were also conducted by the Ministries/ Departments
Progress of Special Campaign for disposal has been reported as under

Sl.No.	Category	Reported Target	Disposal
1.	References from MP’s	11,088	8,765
2.	Parliamentary Assurances	2,262	1,064
3.	Inter-Ministerial References (Cabinet Proposals)	211	176
4.	State Government References	1,236	1,030
5.	Public Grievances	3,30,964	3,03,415
6.	Record Management – Files for Review	45,54,997	44,89,852 Reviewed 23,69,185 identified for weeding 21,89,999 Weeded out
7.	Cleanliness Campaign Sites	6,101	5,968
8.	Easing of Rules/ Processes	907	699
9.	Public Grievances Appeals	25,978	21,547
10.	Freeing up of space	–	1,20,1367 sq feet
11.	Scrap disposal earning	—	Rs.62,54,12,062

7) International Cooperation & Exchange

A virtual Bi-lateral meeting between Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and Public Service Division (PSD) Govt. of Singapore on Cooperation in the field of Personnel Management and Public Administration was held on 06th July, 2021.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DARPG and Public Service Commission, Office of the President, Gambia on Refurbishing Personnel Administration and Governance Reforms was signed on 08th July, 2021. The First meeting of India – Gambia Joint Working Group (JWG) was held virtually on 22nd November, 2021 under the aegis of the MoU signed between Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) and the Public Service Commission (PSC), Government of the Republic of Gambia. During the meeting 6 presentations were made by experts from the Indian side on e-HRMS, Mission Karamyogi, e-Office, e-Recruitment, e-examination and pension reforms including New Pension Scheme.

A Two Days DARPG-APSC virtual Conference on Public Administration and Governance Reforms was jointly organized on 13-14 July, 2021 by DARPG and the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) under the aegis of the MoU signed by DARPG and APSC during 2020.

8) Regional Conferences

A two-day Regional Conference was organised in collaboration with Government of Jammu & Kashmir on “Replication of Good Governance Practices” at Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir on 01-02nd July, 2021.

Delegates from 10 States/Union Territories participated in the Conference. And it was attended by 750 officers through semi-virtual mode, including 250 officials, who attended the conference physically. Conference unanimously adopted the Behtar Nizam-e-Hakumat – Kashmir Aelamia after extensive deliberations during the sessions held over two days.

A two-day Regional Conference on “Strengthening of State Institutes of Public Administration” was organized in Lucknow in collaboration with the Govt. of U.P on November 11-12, 2021. About 95 Delegates from Central Training Institutes and State Institutes of Public Administration including Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration participated in the Conference. The conference was jointly inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and MoS for Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances. The Conference adopted Lucknow Sandesh.

Regional Conference on the theme ‘Replication of Good Governance Practices” in collaboration with Govt of Odisha at Bhubaneswar, Odisha was orgainised on December 03-04, 2021. 14 States of North-Eastern and Eastern Region of India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh including Odisha) participated in the Conference in a semi-virtual mode.

Shri Navin Patnaik, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, and Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences; Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office; Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy and Minister of State in the Department of Space, Government of India addressed the valedictory session.

9) Good Governance Index 2021

Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah released the Good Governance Index (GGI) prepared by DARPG on Good Governance Day on 25th December, 2021 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

GGI is a comprehensive and implementable framework to assess the State of Governance across the States and UTs which enables ranking of States/Districts .Good Governance Index (GGI) 2021 Framework covered ten sectors and 58 indicators. The sectors of GGI 2020-21 are 1) Agriculture and Allied Sectors, 2) Commerce & Industries, 3) Human Resource Development, 4) Public Health, 5.) Public Infrastructure & Utilities, 6) Economic Governance, 7) Social Welfare & Development, 8) Judicial & Public Security, 9) Environment, and 10) Citizen-Centric Governance. The GGI 2020-21 categorises States and UTs into four categories, i.e., (i) Other States – Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North-East and Hill States; and (iv) Union Territories.

20 States have improved their composite GGI Scores in 2021. Gujarat tops the composite ranking in 58 indicator index followed by Maharashtra and Goa. Uttar Pradesh registers 8.9 percent improvement in GGI indicators in the period 2019 to 2021. Jammu and Kashmir registers 3.7 precent improvement in GGI indicators in the period 2019 to 2021. Delhi tops the UT category composite ranking.

10) District Good Governance Index

DARPG finalized District Good Governance Index (DGGI) for Jammu & Kashmir with 10 Governance Sectors and 58 Indicators. This will be India’s first Good Governance Index for a UT.

11) Good Governance Week

DARPG in Collaboration with DOPT, DPIIT, Ministry of External Affairs had convened events for one week under the Good Governance Week (GGW) from December 20 to December 25, 2021 under Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav celebrations to commemorate 75 years of progressive India.The theme of the GGW was “Prashasan Gaon ki Aur” a nation- wide campaign for redreseal of Public Grievances and Improving Service Delivery. Over 700 District Collectors participated in the campaign.

· An exhibition on Good Governance practices- “शासन की बदलती तस्वीर”was setup for 5 days at the Venue where Ministries/ Department showcased the Good Governance practices successfully achieved by them.

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