Public grievances rose to about 16 lakhs now due to people's trust in govt: Jitendra Singh

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Friday asserted that the number of public grievances has increased from two lakh to about 16 lakh due to people's "trust" in the government. He said the government has made the grievance redressal mechanism prompt and pro-active, according to a Personnel Ministry statement.

"The mechanism has been institutionalised now with the number of grievances lodged increasing from 2 lakh earlier to about 16 lakhs now. This increase is due to the trust shown by the people of the country in the grievance redressal mechanism of the government," the statement quoted Singh as having said. Addressing the valedictory session of the capacity building programme for the permanent secretaries and secretary generals of the Maldives, Singh spoke about 360-degree appraisal system adopted by the government for promotions to avoid arbitrariness.

He said these programmes help in providing training in implementation of ease of governance which leads to ease of living for citizens. Singh, the Minister of State for Personnel, said these programmes have now been institutionalised and developed into a healthy convention.

The capacity building programme was conducted by the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) from Dec 6 to Dec 13. The programme was attended by 15 permanent secretaries and secretary generals of the Maldives.

This is the first capacity building programme for top management officials of the Maldives conducted by the National Centre for Good Governance in India. Under a Memorandum of Understanding between India and the Maldives, 1,000 civil servants of Maldives are to be trained at the NCGG. Till date, 3 capacity building programmes for 100 officials have been successfully conducted by the NCGG.

Singh said these initiatives will help in promoting healthy relations with the neighbouring countries. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been emphasising on good relations with the neighbours from the beginning, with 'Neighborhood First Policy'.

The minister said India and Maldives have much in common and there is a lot we can learn from each other. Singh said the prime minister has adopted the mantra of 'minimum government, maximum governance' and given priority to the last man in the last queue.

He said that the government's emphasis has been on citizen-centricity, transparency and citizen-participation. Abdulla Saeed, DG, Maldives Civil Service Commission and head of the visiting delegation expressed his gratitude to NCGG for conducting this training.

He mentioned about the learnings in the fields of technology, policy and other areas. He wished for good India-Maldives relations. During this visit, the permanent secretaries and secretary generals of the Maldives interacted with Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, Secretary Personnel C Chandramouli, CEO Ayushman Bharat Indu Bhushan and Additional Secretary Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances V Srinivas and senior officials of central government departments on various issues of public policy and governance.

The delegation visited the NITI Aayog, the UIDAI, Passport Sewa Kendra, Delhi Metro, IIT Delhi and the AIIMS, the statement said. Additional Secretary DARPG, Srinivas said four capacity building programmes have been conducted by the National Centre for Good Governance in the year 2019 attended by 100 officials of the Maldives.

For the year 2020, another seven capacity building programmes for training 200 officials have been drawn up, he said. Srinivas said the NCGG capacity building programmes have been appreciated by the participating officials as immensely beneficial for their career progression.

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