Reforms to boost the system
The administration in today’s world needs to be open and transparent so that the schemes that are made available for the people especially in developing regions are made accessible to them without any hassles.
Also the mechanism that makes peoples participate in such initiatives by the government needs to be people friendly so that citizens who have limited or little exposure to the present day functioning of various procedures including internet and other technological tools end up using the new mechanisms with ease.
For ensuring that people get a friendly and least pestering mechanisms the administration in Jammu and Kashmir has initiated various governance reforms and initiatives to ensure increased transparency, efficiency and effectiveness for delivery of citizen services to the common people.
Keeping pace with its commitment of extending good governance to people of Jammu and Kashmir, the administration has institutionalized a slew of good governance initiatives as the administration has adopted the mantra of zero tolerance against corruption, nepotism and discrimination against minorities in J&K so that voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard and given due recognition.
Notably, the initiatives include Prevention of Corruption Act, Abolition of Interviews for Group C and D posts besides more than 800 Central Laws have been made applicable to J&K after it got the status of Union Territory, pending cadre review, establishment of CAT benches, Extension of RTI Act, CPGRAMS and conduct of common eligibility test through the National Recruitment Agency at every district headquarter in the UT besides other similar pro-people measures.
Moreover, with the adoption of e-office, a simplified, responsive, effective and transparent paperless working culture in most of the government offices of Jammu and Kashmir has been established. The e-Office is aiding government departments to enhance the public service delivery by eliminating the delay of files in offices.
Interestingly, the e-office practice has made services easy and accessible to the people dring the entire part of the year as two Secretariats in Jammu and Kashmir are operational for the entire year because of e-office and that has put an end to the annual darbar move carrying over 300 truckloads of files between the two capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu.
Not only has this measure been beneficial to the people but the exchequer too has benefitted as it has managed to save Rs 200 crore per annum on mere transportation of files and employees from one place to the other. The move has also led to an uninterrupted work culture and is helping the employees as well as they too have got rid of relocation to twice during the year.
However, as these measures are being put in place some steps need also be ensured so that the new systems that are put in place are made to operate in such a way that people especially the elderly and less literate are able to manage them.
For this the administration needs to depute helpers and assistance desks for some time at various public dealing offices so that the people are able to cope up with shifting to a new method of office functioning. This will make the system more acceptable and result oriented.
KV News
