STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: In his address after inaugurating the “Good Governance Week 2023” at Dr Ambedkar International Centre here today, Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh lauded change in work culture following a series of Governance reforms brought under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last over nine years.
Best Practices in Good Governance introduced in recent years also reflect change within us and in our attitude, said the Minister.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, these Good Governance reforms have a long-term socioeconomic impact as well.
With PM Modi’s policy of ‘Maximum Governance, Minimum Government’, Dr Jitendra said, the Government has today brought transparency and citizen participation towards achieving ‘Ease of Living” for the common man.
“The colonial era practice of attestation of documents by Gazetted Officers was abolished soon after PM Modi first took office as Prime Minister in 2014. In January 2016, Interviews were abolished for lower Grade posts in Government, with merit the sole criteria for selection,” he said.
“We have about more than 10,000 pensioners above the age of 90, and almost 3,000 above 100 years of age, drawing pension as much as their salary. And there the fingerprints become a little unreliable, so we hit upon the idea of face recognition,” he said. Referring to the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, Dr Jitendra said, the Modi government amended it after 30 years in 2018 with an aim to make the bribe giver equally culpable.
“On the one hand, as the Prime Minister said, ‘Zero Tolerance towards corruption’ and on the other hand, a performing officer deserves to be given full protection and an enabling working environment,” he said.
During the Inaugural Session of the Good Governance Week, Dr Jitendra launched CPGRAMS Mobile app and e-office Advanced Analytics Dashboard. He also released DARPG publications, – Journey of 25 Regional Conferences from 2014-2023, Annual Report of CPGRAMS 2023 and a Coffee Table Book on Special Campaign 3.0.