Excelsior Correspondent
PANAJI (GOA), Sept 15: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said here today that one of the major achievements of the Modi Government has been that it has carried governance to grassroots and added that some of the most difficult decisions taken during the last three years, including Remonetization and GST, could be successfully implemented because, besides the administrative machinery, these also involved the mass participation of people at the grassroots.
He said, the “Swachhta” campaign will also achieve its ultimate objectives only when the common man of India takes it up as a personal passion.
Dr Jitendra Singh was speaking at the valedictory function of the two-day Regional Conference on “Good Governance and Replication of Best Practices” organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (ARPG), Union Ministry of Personnel, where Chief Minister of Goa Manohar Parrikar and he jointly released the manual to mark the beginning of “Swachhta Hi Seva” fortnight.
Dr Jitendra Singh, at whose initiative the cycle of holding Regional Conferences on Governance in different parts of the country is taking place, recalled that during the last two years, similar conferences have been held in different parts of the country including Vizag in Andhra Pradesh, Nainital in Uttarakhand, Jaipur in Rajasthan, Guwahati in Assam and Jammu in Jammu & Kashmir. He recalled that soon after the Modi Government took over three years back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested, whether it was possible to move the Government of India out of Vigyan Bhawan.
Through these regional conferences, he said, the Department of ARPG has sought to vindicate the objective of carrying governance to the doorstep and bringing it closer to the citizen across the country.
In the last three years, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Ministry of Personnel has acted as a torch-bearer of the Modi Government’s prime goal of “Transforming India”. In this regard, he said, a number of revolutionary decisions were taken which no Government in the past had taken the risk to take. It is an unusual distinction that while most other Governments took pride in introducing new rules and laws, the present Government showed the courage to do away with nearly 1500 such rules which had become obsolete over a period of time. For example, the rule of getting certificates attested by gazetted officer was a legacy of British Raj and was done away by the present Government, he added.
Dr Jitendra Singh referred to the new experiment introduced two years ago wherein the fresh IAS probationers, before going to their respective State cadres, have to undergo a period of mentorship/internship in the Government of India with the designation of Assistant Secretary. This experiment, he said, has not only proved highly successful, but has generated tremendous enthusiasm among the young IAS officers and it was manifest in the form of the first-ever two-day “Northeast Calling” event held at India Gate, New Delhi recently which was exclusively organized and managed by the IAS officers of 2015 batch.
Manohar Parrikar, in his address, referred to some of the successful governance initiatives undertaken by the State Government of Goa. He made a particular mention of successful implementation of health insurance and simplification of the conditions for granting pension.
Secretary ARPG C. Viswanath and Chief Secretary Goa Dharmendra Sharma also spoke on the occasion.
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