States should replicate each other's best practices in Governance: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh

Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that States should replicate each other's best practices in Governance.

Speaking at the valedictory session of the Regional Conference on 'Replication of Good Governance Practices' at Bhubaneswar, Dr Jitendra Singh said, "Citizen Centric Administration is at the Heart of PM Modi government's Governance Model."

He said, "The changes in Government of India towards improved quality of governance have to be reflected in States and Districts as the aim is to provide governance which is corruption-free and transparent," he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that the best practices in governance should be adapted and replicated by all states and added that good practices become best practices when they get shared and some of them can even excel in execution and set even higher standards.

The Minister urged all participants to replicate these good governance practices, administrative innovations of the Centre, state and districts, so that a citizen-centric administrative set-up with credo of "Minimum Government Maximum Governance" could be realized at ground level.

Stating that the Government of India had taken many initiatives on good governance like CPGRAMS to redress public grievances, Singh said that the notable reforms introduced have ensured automatic refunds on cancellation of railway tickets, single window pension through disbursing Banks, intensive mechanized cleaning of coaches, e-verification of Income Tax Returns, expeditious Income Tax Returns upto Rs 50,000 etc.

"Prime Minister always insists on optimal use of technology and the ministry is using it in the best possible way," he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh recalled, when the PM Modi Government was elected to office in 2014, a need was felt to address certain weaknesses in grievance redressal and steps were taken in this direction. He informed that when the new Government came to power, there were around two lakh grievances per year and now the numbers have a six-fold increase as people reposed faith in the intention of the Government to address their problems and grievances.

He also noted with satisfaction that, the grievance disposal rate in the departments is between 90-95 per cent, which is an example of the citizenry believing that there is someone who is mapping these grievances and there is hope for time-bound acknowledgement and finally proper redressal.

Addressing the conference through virtual mode, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that Good Governance precisely includes building competency, aligning strategies with goals, being accountable, having a high level of ethics and integrity, defining roles and responsibilities and above all having a pro people approach to all interventions. "Good governance is ultimately the greatest tool of transformation and we all have a genuine responsibility to the people," said Patnaik.

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances Secretary Sanjay Singh said that this regional conference is a tool to replicate and also ensure sustainability of the Best Practices. "There is a need to come up with a mechanism to stock up the best practices and look that it is replicated in a sustainable manner," he said.

More than 250 delegates attended the conference physically whereas around 250 delegates are connected to the Conference virtually from 15 states of the Eastern and North- Eastern region.

( With inputs from ANI )