Union Minister Jitendra Singh launches restructured Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration 2020 scheme, web portal

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Friday launched the restructured Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration 2020 scheme and web portal, in which for the very first time the 'Good Performance for Ganga Rejuvenation Award' has been instituted.

"This year, for the very first time, the PM's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration seeks to recognize the efforts of District level officials involved in the Namami Gange Programme. This is an exemplary recognition for the initiatives being taken up under the Namami Gange Mission. Under this award category, one award shall be given to a district out of the 57 notified District Ganga Committees under the Namami Gange Programme," an official release said.

In the first meeting of the National Ganga Council held on December 14, 2019 at Kanpur under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it was decided to create a "Good Performance for Ganga Rejuvenation" award for the Ganga districts under the Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence for Public Administration Scheme.

According to the release, during the meeting, the Prime Minister gave the utmost priority to the functioning of the District Ganga Committees (DGCs) and closely reviewed the performance of the DGCs. He emphatically stated that there is a compelling need to have aligned thinking from the national to the district level and eventually to the field level and for ensuring this, the District Magistrate has to play a very important role.

Under the scheme, 57 District Ganga Committees on the Ganga main stem and tributaries have been included as a separate category for the Civil Services Day Awards by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), the release informed.

"The registration on the PM's Awards web portal, www.pmawards.gov.in, will commence from July 15th, 2020 and submission of application will be from August 1st, 2020 to August 15th, 2020 after registration. The award has been scheduled to be distributed on the occasion of Rashtriya Ekta Diwas on October 31, 2020," the release said.

It stated that all District Magistrates and Chairperson, District Ganga Committee (57 districts - 52 on Main Stem and 5 on Tributaries) have been requested to make "maximum use of this opportunity and to prepare details of District initiatives for the Prime Minister's Awards Scheme, based on the parameters identified for evaluation".

These parameters include -- Regular conduct of meeting of District Ganga Committee; protection and rejuvenation of traditional water bodies; cleanliness of ghats and areas in the vicinity of river; extent of orgc farming within 5 kms on both sides of river Ganga within their districts; plantation along river Ganga (Ganga Van); awareness (involvement of NCC, NSS and special attention to schools and college students).

"DGCs have also been requested to prepare, a write-up on the District Performance Indicators Programme/Innovation along with supporting documents like executive summary, field photographs (maximum 10), flow charts detailing uniqueness and success story of the initiative," the release said while adding that along with the application, a short film of 3-5 minutes' duration highlighting the initiative/ innovation may also be appended.

Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, Director General, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has also reached out to the Chief Secretaries of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, requesting them to "impress upon the District Magistrates under their State (out of the 57 identified DGC's) to ensure proactive participation and adherence to the timelines envisaged under the scheme."

The release stressed that the District Ganga Committee (DGC) is the "most unique feature of the notification of authorities under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 by the Government of India dated October 7, 2016, which creates a mechsm at the District Level for addressing the problem of pollution abatement of the River Ganga.

"The Government of India has instituted a scheme in 2006 namely, "The Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration" - to acknowledge, recognize and reward the extraordinary and innovative work done by Districts/ Orgzations of the Central and State Governments," the release said.

"The Scheme was restructured in 2014 for recognizing the performance of District Collectors in Priority Programs, Innovations and Aspirational Districts and was further restructured in 2020 to recognize the performance of District Collectors towards economic development of the District. For the year 2020, the scope of the awards has been expanded to identify areas of overall outcome-oriented performance in the districts across sectors," it added.

( With inputs from ANI )