Bengaluru: Union Minister of State for PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space Dr Jitendra Singh on Tuesday said that the governance reforms introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the last eight years are actually social reforms aimed at achieving ‘ease of living’ for the common man and a ‘level playing field’ for the aspirational youth.

Delivering the valedictory address at the two-day ‘Regional Conference on Governance’ here organized by DARPG and Karnataka Government, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the hallmark of Modi’s governance model is his capacity to take out-of-box decisions, break the taboos of the past and the capacity to convert government’s campaign into mass campaign on the basis of his courage, conviction and sincerity.

Referring to the theme of the conference ‘Bringing Citizens, Entrepreneurs and Government Closer for Good Governance,’ Dr Jitendra Singh listed a series of such reforms having wider social implications. He recalled that within three months of taking charge in May, 2014, the Prime Minister took the most revolutionary and path-breaking decision of abolition of attestation of certificates by gazetted officers instead promoting self-attestation, thus reposing faith in youth of India.

The Minister said that the number of complaints in CPGRAMS increased from two lakh per year in 2014 to 25 lakh per year at present, which also reflects positively that there is a government which listens to citizen grievances promptly and addresses them. The PM Excellence Awards focusing on flagship schemes rather on the individual profile of officers was another far-reaching governance reforms promoting healthy competition among 750 districts, the Minister added.

Dr Singh said that based on the model of Aspirational Districts, DARPG has introduced the novel concept of District Good Governance Index. He said that Jammu and Kashmir was the first state where the District Index was released in January this year followed by Uttar Pradesh and now the work is on in Madhya Pradesh. He said that the District Good Governance Index is a milestone and it is expected that it will provide a robust framework for evidence-based assessment of the performance of all the districts in the states.

Secretary, DARPG, V Srinivas said that the conference is an effort to bring the Government and Citizens closer through various administrative reforms at centre, state and district level. The is being enabled by use of digital technology, pursuing next generation reforms and innovations with policy objective of ‘Maximum Governance, Minimum Government’  entailing government process re-engineering, universal access to e-services, excellence in digital initiatives at district level and excellence in adopting emerging technologies and use of ICT management. /BI/