New Delhi: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday asked officers of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service to adopt “whole of government” approach in governance, saying the days of working in silos have gone.
He also asked the officers to identify the schemes having commonality and adopt an integrated approach of their execution for better efficiency and result, benefitting common people.
Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, was addressing the sixth capacity building programme for officers of J&K administrative services organised by the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) here.
He said there is change in the demography of central and state civil services due to availability of technology even in the rural and remote areas and democratisation of resources.
Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has special penchant for governance reforms and soon after taking charge in May, 2014, a number of measures were taken to streamline the administration to make it more transparent, more accountable and to have citizen-centricity.
The minister said India has improved systems of grievance redressal to make them “more relevant to our times, and has tried to address any lingering sense of injustice springing from an administrative act by simplification of administrative processes and strengthening institutions”.
It is to this end that digital advancement has enabled citizens grievance redressal, he added.
Singh also promised to implement a call centre approach in J&K, currently being implemented at the Centre to personally ascertain the satisfaction level of the persons having redressed their grievances.
He said the new age competency of civil servants has to be anchored in ethics and accountability.
“The Government of India has maintained a ‘zero tolerance approach to corruption’ bringing greater transparency to government processes, enhanced supervision and severe penalties in cases of proven misconduct. India’s legislative and constitutional framework to fight corruption has been greatly strengthened with mandatory declaration of assets by civil servants on an annual basis, thereby focusing on preventive vigilance,” the minister added.
Speaking on the occasion, V Srinivas, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, said that the training is a platform for collective learning and sharing and working towards improving the quality of life.
He said that there is a need for accelerated and inclusive development for resilient growth and stressed on the importance of technology in transforming the lives of citizens.
Srinivas said the officials should create a conceptual framework to meet the needs and expectations of people and work for holistic development in the state.
The capacity building programme is being conducted from October 9-20 at the NCGG.
The programme is attended by 37 officers of the JKAS (Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service) working in the ranks of secretaries, special secretaries, additional secretaries, CEOs, directors, joint commissioners, mission directors, among others, a statement issued by the Personnel Ministry said.
The capacity building programme is scientifically tailored to equip civil servants of Jammu and Kashmir to deliver robust and seamless services to the people.
The cutting-edge knowledge and new skill set acquired during this programme will help these civil servants in efficient public service delivery to improve the lives of people, the statement said.
The aim of this programme is to reorient officers to work with single-mindedness to improve the quality of life and create opportunities for the people, it added.
“The officers are given exposure to the best practices in governance to emulate these practices of good governance, transparency and efficient service delivery in Jammu and Kashmir. The focus of the programme is on sharing the practical aspects of governance, to work with speed and scale, and be accountable to citizens and address their grievances proactively,” the statement said.
