Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions – Year End Review 2019

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions – Year End Review 2019

Following are the initiatives of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions during the year 2019:

‘Good Governance Index’ launched on ‘Good Governance Day’

MoS (PP) Dr Jitendra Singh launched the ‘Good Governance Index’ at an event organized by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, on the occasion of Good Governance Day i.e. 25th December, 2019. The Good Governance Index is a uniform tool across States to assess the Status of Governance and impact of various interventions taken up by the State Government and UTs. The objectives of GGI are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and UTs, enable states and UTs to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result oriented approaches and administration. Various principles have been kept in mind while selecting the indicators, i.e. it should be easy to understand & calculate, citizen-centric & result driven, leading to improved results and applicable to all states and UTs, among others. Various consultation meetings were held with the stakeholders, including consultations with sector experts, ministries, states & UTs. The GGI takes into consideration ten sectors: 1). Agriculture and Allied Sectors, 2). Commerce & Industries, 3). Human Resource Development, 4). Public Health, 5). Public Infrastructure & Utilities, 6). Economic Governance, 7). Social Welfare & Development, 8). Judicial & Public Security, 9). Environment and 10). Citizen-Centric Governance.

On the occasion, the Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare has also brought out a Handbook for Retiring Central Government Employee, including All India Service Officers, to make them, as well as their families, aware of their entitlements and various procedural formalities with respect to their retirement benefits.

The Minister also launched the 15th edition of Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP).

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG)’s initiatives for UTs of J&K and Ladakh:

• A two-day Regional Conference (November 15-16, 2019) on ‘Replication of Good Governance Practices in UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, was organised in Jammu. The Conference was inaugurated by the Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, in the presence of the Lt. Gov. of J&K, Shri G.C. Murmu, Secretary DoPT & DARPG, Dr C. Chandramouli, and J&K Chief Secretary, Shri BVR Subrahmanyam. The valedictory session was chaired by Shri K. K. Sharma Advisor to the LT. Governor of J&K. After intensive deliberations, ‘Sushasan Sankalp: Jammu Ghoshana’ resolution was adopted. The Conference resolved that Government of India and the participating State Governments and the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh shall collaborate to Develop the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh as models of administrative excellence using digital technologies in implementation of welfare Union Territory programs. The Regional Conference was attended by Delegates from 19 States and 4 Union Territories. In addition, 450 officials from Government of Jammu and Kashmir participated in the Regional Conference.
• A 2-day regional conference in Jammu under the theme ‘Ek Barat Shresht Bharat’ with focus on ‘Jal Shakti and Disaster Management’ was organized on 30th Nov-1st December 2019. The Regional Conference brought together officials from the sister State of Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir in technical sessions on Jal Shakti and Disaster Management Practices. The technical sessions included Rejuvenation of Rivers – Cauvery and Jhelum, Reducing Water Consumption in Agriculture, Urban Flooding, Experience Sharing by District Collectors and Line Departments and also talks by specialists in Water Management practices. The Regional Conference was inaugurated by the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr. Jitendra Singh in the presence of Lt. Governor of J&K Shri G. C. Murmu on November 30, 2019. The conference was attended by 350 delegates from Jammu and Kashmir.
• Three delegations from DARPG visited Srinagar in September – October 2019 to firm up the collaboration, the first delegation led by Shri V. Srinivas, Additional Secretary, DARPG had visited J&K on 4-5th September, 2019. This was followed by 2 delegations led by Joint Secretary DARPG Shri V. Shashank Shekhar. The Additional Secretary DARPG held discussions with the Chief Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir and Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries of the line Departments in outlining the collaboration roadmap.

22nd National Conference on e-Governance and adoption of ‘Shillong Declaration’

DARPG, in association with Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India and the State Government of Meghalaya organized the 22nd National Conference on e-Governance (NCeG) 2019 on 8-9thAugust, 2019 at Shillong, Meghalaya. The theme of this Conference was “Digital India: Success to Excellence”. At the valedictory session, the historic ‘Shillong Declaration’ outlining the roadmap on e-Governance of the Nation was adopted after intensive deliberations during the sessions held over two days.

DARPG in association with the Administrative Reforms Commission of the Government of Kerala organized the National Seminar on e-Governance at Thiruvananthapuram on August 27-28, 2019. The theme of the National Seminar was digital empowerment of the citizens.

‘Nagpur Resolution- A Holistic approach for empowering citizens’

The ‘Nagpur Resolution- A Holistic approach for empowering citizens’ was adopted during the Valedictory session of the two-day Regional Conference on ‘Improving Public Service Delivery – Role of Governments’, in Nagpur on 22nd December, 2019. The Conference resolved that Government of India, the Government of Maharashtra, the Maharashtra State Commission for Right to Public Services and the participating State Governments shall collaborate to empower the citizens by policy interventions for better service delivery through timely updation of citizens charters, implementation of enactments and benchmarking standards for continuous improvement, among others.

Chairperson and members of Lokpal administered oath of office:

The Chairperson, Lokpal, Sh. Justice P. C. Ghose and its eight members were administered the Oath of Office. The logo, motto and website of the Lokpal were also launched during the year.

Four Information Commissioners administered the oath of office of the Information Commissioner

Four Information Commissioners namely Shri Yashvardhan Kumar Sinha, Smt. Vanaja N Sarna, Shri Neeraj Kumar Gupta and Shri Suresh Chandra were administered the oath of office of the Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission(CIC) by the Chief Information Commissioner, Shri Sudhir Bhargava, on 1st January, 2019. With their induction, the total number of Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission including Chief Information Commissioner has gone upto 7.

Passing of RTI Amendment Bill, 2019

After being passed in Lok Sabha, the RTI Amendment Bill, 2019 was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 25th July, 2019. The Lok Sabha had passed the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019 on 22nd July. In this amendment, it is proposed to amend the Right to Information Act, 2005 so as to provide that the term of office of, and the salaries, allowances and other terms and conditions of service of, the Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners and the State Chief Information Commissioner and the State Information Commissioners, shall be such as may be prescribed by the Central Government.

CPGRAMS reforms and National workshop on CPGRAMS

The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) organised the National Workshop on Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) Reforms on 5th November 2019. The CPGRAMS reforms for Departments of Financial Services and Telecommunications (DoT) and the ‘Online Hackathon on Data-Driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal’ was launched during the event. The CPGRAMS reforms for Department of Posts were launched on 25th September 2019 as part of the 100 days’ agenda of DARPG. The new version of CPGRAMS 7.0 will lead to reduction in grievance disposal time and improved quality of grievance redressal.

National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG)’s training programmes:

The National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), India’s leading civil services training institution, has entered into an MoU with the Maldives Civil Services Commission for capacity building of 1000 Maldives civil servants over the next 5 years. The agreement was signed during the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Male on 8th June 2019.

The 2-week long Special Training program was conducted by the National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) at Mussoorie and Delhi in pursuance of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India-Bangladesh and India-Maldives which were signed for training 1800 civil servants of Bangladesh and 1000 civil servants of Maldives over a period of 5 years. In all, 33 officials from Maldives and 31 officials from Bangladesh participated in the Training Program.

The Valedictory Session held on 27th September in New Delhi was addressed by Dr Jitendra Singh Minister of State for Personnel Public Grievances and Pensions. The program was conducted under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation program (ITEC) from 16th September at Mussoorie and Delhi. Under the MoU, 10 training programmes will be conducted from September 2019 to December 2020. The first 3 training programs under the MoU would be held in 2019 (a) September 16-28, 2019 and November 18-30, 2019 for 60 officers of the middle management level (b) December 2-14, 2019 for 30 officers of top management at the Permanent Secretary level.

Capacity building program for the Permanent Secretaries and Secretary Generals of the Republic of Maldives held

The Capacity Building Program was conducted by the National Centre for Good Governance from December 6 to December 13, 2019. The program was attended by 15 Permanent Secretaries and Secretary Generals of the Republic of Maldives. This is the first capacity building program for Top Management Officials of the Republic of Maldives conducted by the National Centre for Good Governance in India. Under Memorandum of Understanding between India and the Republic of Maldives, 1000 civil servants of Maldives are to be trained at the National Centre for Good Governance. Till date, 3 capacity building programs for 100 Officials have been successfully conducted.

MoU signed between UPSC and the Civil Service Council of Mongolia

On 3rd July, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the Civil Service Council of Mongolia in New Delhi, to take forward the cooperation between the Commissions of the two countries. The Chairman, Union Public Service Commission, Shri Arvind Saxena and Chairman, Civil Service Council of Mongolia, Mr. B. Baatarzorig signed the MoU in the presence of officers from Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT).

14th Annual convention of the Central Information Commission held on 12th October

The Union Minister of Home Affairs Shri Amit Shah presided over the 14th Annual convention of the Central Information Commission as Chief Guest on 12th October, 2019. Shri Shah praised RTI as a great step to remove injustice and corruption from the system and increase the efficiency of governance. He said that RTI removes arbitrariness from governance and acts as a major grievance redressal tool. He said that the use of high technology methods like video conference and digitization of RTI files makes the lives of litigants easier.

CBI organises first National Conference on Cybercrime Investigation and Forensics

The first National Conference on Cybercrime Investigation and Forensics was organized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 4th -5th September, 2019. Around 50 Officers including DGPs, ADGPs, IGPs, DIGPs and SPs dealing with cybercrime in State & UT Police, Central Agencies, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, other Ministries, experts from Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and academia participated in the Conference.

National e-Governance Awards, 2019 presented:

MoS Dr. Jitendra Singh, presented the National e-Governance Awards, 2019 at a function organised by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, in New Delhi on 27th February. With a view to recognize and promote Excellence in implementation of e-Governance initiatives, the Government of India presents National Awards on e-Governance every year. The 14 Awards were given in 6 categories to recognize achievements in the area of e-Governance, with Gold and Silver Awards in each category. A Special Jury Award was also presented in Category-I for IRCTC Rail Connect Mobile App.

Posting of Assistant Secretaries in Central Government Ministries/Departments:

On 2nd July, the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi interacted with about 160 young IAS officers of the 2017 batch, who were appointed as Assistant Secretaries in the Government of India. The Valedictory session was held on 1st October, 2019. The Prime Minister encouraged the officers to be receptive towards new ideas, new concepts and perspectives. Interacting with officers, Prime Minister said that maintaining service orientation is paramount for a civil servant as it will bring out neutrality.

Integrated Grievance Cell & Call Center for pensioners:

An Integrated Grievance Cell & Call Center was inaugurated on 20th June, 2019 for pensioners with the objective of providing easy access to pensioners in registering their grievances and getting speedy resolution. This centre is also working as team which coordinates with different Ministries/Departments to resolve the problems of the elderly pensioners.

All India Pension Adalat

All India Pension Adalat was organized on 23.08.2019 by DoPPW by roping in various Ministries and Departments all over the country. The MoS (PP) interacted with the nodal officers and the pensioners present at these Pension Adalats at remote locations from Delhi through live video conferencing. More than 50 centers were connected through live video conferencing with the event being organized in Delhi. Around 4,000 Pensioners’ cases were resolved in a single day.

Rule 54(3) of Family Pension Rules, 1964 amended

Rule 54(3) of Family Pension Rules, 1964 amended vide extra-ordinary gazette notification dated 20.09.2019 with an objective to provide enhanced family pension to the dependant of deceased government employee who dies before completing 7 years of service. Earlier, for Families of Government servant dying in harness for reasons other than attributable to government duty, the admissible Family Pension was 30% of last pay drawn, if the official had not put in at least 7 years of service. For the Families of those Government servants who had put in at least 7 years or more of service, the admissible Family Pension was at an enhanced rate of 50% of the last pay drawn. This distinction of the No. of years of service was removed with effect from 1st October 2019 and now enhanced Family Pension would also be admissible to the Families of all Government servant in the unfortunate event of their death even before their completing 7 years of service.

1. To provide ease of living for aged pensioners orders were issued on 18.7.2019 to allow them for submission of Life Certificate from October, 1st instead of November, 1st which will be valid till 30th November of subsequent year.

2. As part of this Department’s special emphasis to Jammu, a presentation on Bhavishya was given to J&K administration for adopting Good Governance practices after restructure in of the status. This was followed up with a workshop on Bhavishya at Jammu which was conducted for the personnel of the border Secretary Force Jammu on 25th September, 2019