MAJOR DECISIONS AND INITIATIVES

The UPA Government completes one year on May 21, 2005. During this period, the Government has taken several important initiatives. Some of these are being brought out in the series  ‘Major Decisions and Initiatives’.

            The UPA Government under the leadership of Dr Manmohan Singh have laid great stress on providing clean and efficient administration. A number of steps were taken in the last one year to reform the administrative system of ills.

Administrative Reforms Commission

            The National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) has envisaged setting up of an Administrative Reforms Commission to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system. The proposal to set up the second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) was approved by the Cabinet on April 8, 2005. The Commission will have a Chairperson, four Members and a Member-Secretary.

Enactment of Right to Information

            NCMP provides that “The Right to Information will be made more progressive, participatory and meaningful”.  In pursuance of the commitment, the National Advisory Council had proposed certain amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, 2002 in order to ensure maximum disclosure and minimum exemptions consistent with the Constitutional provisions; independent appeal mechanism; penalties for failure to provide information as per the law; and effective mechanism for access to information and disclosure by authorities.

            The Right to Information Bill, 2004 was introduced in the Lok Sabha and was referred to the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law & Justice for examination and report.  The Committee has since presented its report to the Rajya Sabha on March 21, 2005 and laid it in the Lok Sabha on the same day.  As per directions of the Cabinet, a Group of Ministers has been set up to consider the Government amendments that need to be made in this Bill.  Cabinet on May 4, 2005 gave its consent to the amended Act.  The Parliament has since passed the Right to Information Bill.

Model Code of Governance

            A day-long Conference of Chief Secretaries was held on November 2, 2004 under the Chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary focusing on good governance, administrative reforms and related issues. The Conference agreed that a Model Code of Governance would be drawn up which would enshrine the fundamental principles and benchmarks of good governance. The Code would look at governance from the point of view of the citizen and outline the framework for good governance, based on identifiable benchmarks for comparison and evaluation, which can be a model for States to follow. Accordingly, a Model Code of Governance which is in the form of a roadmap for the administration has been finalised and circulated by the Cabinet Secretary to all Chief Secretaries of States/UTs. They have been requested to indicate the specific measures proposed to be taken and the time frame for their implementation.

Liberalised Pension Rules for AIS Officers

            Government has liberalised payment of pensions and other retirement benefits to the members of the All India Services (AIS).  Now the AIS Officers, retiring from service while serving in the Government of India, on deputation basis, can draw their pension and other retirement benefits from the Central Ministries/Departments from which they retire.  These orders are effective from June 2005.

Delegation of Powers to States

The State Governments have been delegated powers for grant of permission for post retirement commercial employment to retired All India Services Officers, who retired below the apex level posts while serving in the State Governments.  Powers have also been delegated for waiver of notice period to the State Governments for voluntary retirement of AIS officers on attaining the age of more than 50 years or rendering more than 30 years of qualifying service.

Redressal of Public Grievances

            References received from the Standing Committee to look into the grievances of  officers of the level of Joint Secretary and above of All India Services were given top priority and processed in a time-bound manner. Grievances of officers below the level of Joint Secretary belonging to All India Services were also attended to on top priority.

Transparency In Decision Making

            All the rules/regulations pertaining to All India Services and instructions issued are put on the web site. Proposals relating to amendment to All India Services (Confidential Roll) Rules, 1970, All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 and All India Services (Discipline & Appeal) Rules, 1969 were also put on the web site to enable all concerned to give their views.

Amendment to AIS Rules, 1969

            The Proposal relating to amendments to All India Services (Discipline & Appeal) Rules, 1969 to reduce the delay in disciplinary and vigilance matters and to ensure that the members of the service are not put to undue harassment as a result of prolonged suspension is being finalised.

Central Administrative Tribunal

The Central Administrative Tribunal was set up on November 1, 1985.  Today it has 17 regular Benches, 15 of which operate at the Principal Seats of High Courts and the remaining two at Jaipur and Lucknow.  These Benches also hold circuit sittings at other Seats of High Courts.  Since its inception in 1985 upto February 28, 2005, the Central Administrative Tribunal received for adjudication 449,023 cases (including those transferred from High Courts), out of which 425,302 cases have been disposed of leaving a pendency of 23,721 cases.  As on March 31, 2004, there were 27,331 cases pending in the CAT.  The same has come down to 23,721 cases as on February 28, 2005.

Liberalised Family Pension

The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare is the nodal agency of the Government for formulation of a general policy on pension and other retirement benefits, as also for redressal of grievances on retirement benefits. 

The Government has decided to grant family pension to widowed/divorced daughters of the deceased Government servants even if the widowed/divorced daughters have attained the age of 25 years.

Two instalments of Dearness Relief (DR) were sanctioned to pensioners/family pensioners with effect from July 1, 2004 and January 1, 2005.  To enable banks to speedily disburse these DR, copies of the orders were sent by Fax/E-Mail to the respective Public Sector banks and also hosted on the web site of the Department.

Mid Career Training Programme For IAS Officers

            A decision has been taken to introduce mid-career training programme for IAS officers in order to build up capabilities for higher level positions.

A Memorandum of understanding has been signed with the TERI School of Advanced Studies to run a Post- Graduate program in Public Policy and Sustainable Development for serving officers.

            An initiative has been taken for training grass root level functionaries in one district each of seven States (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Rajasthan) with a view to equip such functionaries for better delivery of citizen services.  Based on the experience from this training in seven pilot districts, a program would be developed for replicating in other districts.

Special Recruitment Drive for SCs/STs

            The NCMP of the Government in relation to the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes specifies that all reservation quotas, including those relating to promotions, will be fulfilled in time-bound manner and a Reservation Act will be enacted to codify all reservation.

            In pursuance of the commitment, a special recruitment drive has been launched to fill up backlog vacancies reserved for SCs and STs in direct recruitment. As a first step towards filling up the backlog reserved vacancies, 26,302 backlog reserved vacancies in direct recruitment quota and 30,534 backlog reserved vacancies in promotion quota have been identified in the services under the Government of India so far.

A bill namely, the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes (Reservation in Posts and Services) Bill, 2004 has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha.

The Staff Selection Commission has proposed to fill up the backlog vacancies reserved for SC/ST categories for the posts of Stenographer Grade ‘D’ and LDCs in Government offices under a Special Recruitment Drive.  To speed up the process of recruitment within the shortest possible time, a new Examination Scheme has been finalised by the Commission.

 Citizen Charters and Public Grievance Redress

            The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances is Developing a 'Scheme of Charter Mark' to certify the quality of citizen charters and their implementation, which will encourage and reward improvements in public service with reference to the commitments and standards notified in the Charters. A model for rating PG redress mechanisms would also be developed. Work relating to the development of these models is presently underway. M/s Tata Consultancy Services have been engaged to facilitate the efforts in this regard. Under the World Bank Sub-Project on "Capacity Building for Good Governance" the Department is developing a model for conceptualising and implementing a Charter Mark Scheme for recognising excellence in the implementation of Citizen's Charter and to develop a rating system for grievance redress mechanism. This is expected to augment the reforms initiatives and encourage and reward improvements in public service with reference to the commitments and standards notified in the Citizen's Charter. The prototype for this model has been prepared and is being piloted in identified Ministries/ Departments and Organisations. Workshops are being organised for members of the Task Force constituted by identified Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations.

 Setting Up of Information Facilitation Counters

            The Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances has constantly been approaching Ministries/Departments for setting up of Information Facilitation Counters for easy access of information to citizens. So far 105 Information Facilitation Counters have already been set up by different Ministries/Departments of the Government of India.

National Institute of Smart Government

            The Cabinet in its meeting held on March 24, 2005 has approved the Ratification of the establishment of the National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) as a Section 25 not-for-profit Company with equity of 49 per cent by Government and 51 per cent by the Private Sector and approved to Contribute Equity of Rs. One crore each by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances and the Department of Information Technology (Total Central Government Equity of Rs. Two crore). NISG has started its operation from its headquarters located in the campus of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad.

 Knowledge Centre/ Digital Repository

            A Web enabled Knowledge Centre/ Digital Repository is being set up by The Dept. of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances to disseminate the knowledge of best practices in the area of good governance/ e-Governance. The Design of the Digital Repository has been completed and along with the development of the digital repository, the contents for the repository are also being compiled. The development and hosting of the repository would be completed soon.

Digitisation of Reports

            Various reports of various Administrative Reforms Commissions / Committees spanning from pre-British era till date are being digitised by the Department through the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA). This work is expected to be completed by the middle of May 2005.

Awarding Exemplary Implementation of e-Governance

            The Department has been giving several awards to recognise individuals and State agencies, which successfully implement e-Governance initiatives. Such awards are presented during the National Conference on e-Governance being organised by the Department every year. This year, the awards were given under the following fields under New Entrants and Professional Categories:

            (1) Professional IT Achiever of the Year

            (2) Professional excellence for Process Re-Engineering

            (3) Exemplary leadership award

            (4) Outstanding performance in Service delivery

            (5) Innovative Operations and Best Practice

            (6) Trail blazing application of the year

Record Management Training

            Activities relating to training and capacity building of Government  employees for taking up and implementing successfully e-Governance initiatives are being given due focus. The International Record Management Trust has been associated with a project initiative to develop the curriculum for creating awareness and building capacities in the area of Record Management including management of electronic records. The curriculum developed by the consultants is under the consideration of the Government. Four workshops has been organised in this connection in April 2005 at Chennai, Bhopal, Calcutta and Delhi.

Documentary Films On Best Practices

            The Department produced eleven films on good governance practices by States in some specific areas. The Department has been organising presentations on Best Practices. Three presentations on best practices of States have been organised before a select group of senior officers of the Government of India in which representatives of some selected States were also invited. The presentation on best practices is being organised every month, which is presided over by Cabinet Secretary.

RK:LV

PIB  SF-48 (17.5.2005)