Govt services are people's rights, pending files should be disposed in 3 months: Kerala CM

Delays and procrastination are, in a sense, injustice to the work done, he added.He hoped that with the three month long project to dispose of the pending files, another such initiative would never be required down the road.

Services and benefits provided by the government to the public are their rights and not a favour, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Wednesday while kicking off a project to dispose of lakhs of pending files in government departments by the end of September this year.

Speaking at the online launch of the initiative, which will commence from Wednesday and end on September 30, Vijayan said, ''The government has a clear policy of getting services to the people instead of people going to the offices for the same.'' ''It is important to remember that the services and benefits provided by the government are the rights of the people. It is not a bounty given by the government or the employees,'' he said.

The Chief Minister said that public perception about the government was based on the actions of its employees.

Therefore, an efficient and corruption-free civil service was essential to make governance people-friendly, he added.

Vijayan said COVID-19 had significantly impacted the functioning of government offices and now that things were coming back to normal, the file disposal project was initiated.

Indicating the way forward for expeditious and efficient disposal of the pending files, the Chief Minister said it should be carried out effectively under the responsibility of the respective heads of all government offices from the Secretariat to the village level.

The progress of the project would be reviewed by the Chief Secretary and the ministers of the respective departments and it would also be evaluated in the cabinet as the government sees this as a very important issue, he said.

Vijayan further said the government's priority was to make the services available to the people faster and for that, it would be a good idea to set aside one holiday every month for disposal of the files.

While disposing of files, the decisions should be taken in a fair, transparent and expeditious manner and not automatically, the Chief Minister said and directed strict adherence to the action plan issued for file disposal by the Civil Service Reforms Department earlier this month.

At present, most of the files in government offices are in the e-office system and by September 30 this system will be fully functional. Therefore, pending files can be disposed of in these three months and thereafter, the government will move on to the e-office system, he added.

As part of the file disposal system, it was also imperative that answers to queries to be raised in Assembly are provided before the session commences and that directions of the courts are implemented within the stipulated time frame, the CM said.

On the workload of employees, the CM said that while there was sufficient staff in the government, some had more work and some less and this imbalance needs to be checked at the departmental level and necessary adjustments made.

He said the number of files disposed of by an official was not the only criterion for efficiency and employees should create a list of pending files by classifying them in various categories, like the nature and functioning of each department as well as age and the complexity of the issues involved.

''Determining the priority of such a classification will go a long way in making the file resolution process more effective,'' he said.

He also said that E-Service or M-Service, which are online systems aimed at making government services faster, more efficient and transparent, should be working efficiently.

''The goal of a corruption-free service is paramount when it comes to the efficiency of the civil service. Delays and procrastination are, in a sense, injustice to the work done,'' he added.

He hoped that with the three month long project to dispose of the pending files, another such initiative would never be required down the road.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)