DARPG Year End Review 2021

Year-End- Review-2021- Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances

Major developments pertaining to Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances during the year 2021 (Jan-Dec21):

1.Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava India @75

India is celebrating its 75^th year of independence, Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava India @75, from 12^th March 2021 to 15^th August, 2022. DAR&PG has planned a number of Good Governance Workshops, Webinars and Conferences to mark the occasion. As a part of Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava India@75 celebrations, the Department has undertaken following activities:-

2) CPGRAMS Reforms:

A number of Reforms were undertaken in the Central Public Grievance Redressal Mechanism, as mentioned below:-

• Introduction of an Appeal Mechanism/functionality in CPGRAMS

An Appeal Mechanism/functionality in CPGRAMS has been introduced. A separate workflow and functionality for escalation of grievances to appeal authorities in CPGRAMS has been operationalized and made live on 20.01.2021 by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. The time line for resolution of an Appeal by the Nodal Appellate Authority is 30 days of receipt of the same. The Appeal provision has been made for redressal of dissatisfied grievances identified through a mandatory feedback rating to be given by the Citizen on disposal of the grievance by the Nodal Grievance Officers.

The Appellate Authority is one level above the existing designated Nodal Grievance Officers. 79 Ministries/ Departments have appointed Nodal Appellate Authorities details of which are available on the website at pgportal.gov.in.

• CPGRAMS Reforms in Other Ministries/ Departments:

CPGRAMS version 7.0 was operationalized in the Ministry/Department of Civil Aviation, Labour & Employment, Higher Education and Department of Personnel & Training on 09.03.2021. CPGRAMS Version 7.0 enables a guided registration process for the citizens through drop-down menu / questionnaire and also direct transition of grievance to the concerned grievance redressal officer by skipping intermediate levels and thus reducing redressal time of a grievance. With this CPGRAM 7.0 has been implemented in 13 Ministries/Departments in GOI.

• Earlier the maximum stipulated time for disposal of grievances was 60 days. DARPG, vide O.M. dated 22.06.2021 have reduced this stipulated time limit from 60 days to 45 days.

3) Grievance Redressal

• A MoU have been signed with IIT, Kanpur to Introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML) tools in the system in partnership with IIT, Kanpur to categories grievances and assess quality of resolution.

• DARPG signed an MoU with Common Service Centres (CSCs) on 20.09.2021 to increase accessibility of CPGRAMS to rural population.

• In phase-I the CPGRAMS portal has been made live in three regional languages i.e.  Bengali, Gujarati and Marathi, which are three highest grievance receiving regions among the non-Hindi speaking States.  

4) Civil Services Day, 2021

The DAR&PG celebrated the Civil Services Day on April-21, 2021. To mark the occasion, tweets were issued by the President, Vice-President, Prime Minister, Home Minister, Minister of External Affairs, Minister of Railways, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Minister of State for Personnel & PMO and Cabinet Secretary.

5) Capacity building programme by National Centre for Good Governance

• National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG), DAR&PG organized a two-day Capacity Building Program for Senior Officers of Union Territory of Ladakh in collaboration with General Administrative Department of Administration of Union Territory of Ladakh at Leh on 9-10 September 2021.  The participants were imparted training on diverse topics to create a Civil Service fully familiar with the Union laws on procurement and financial management, Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure (CSMOP), eOffice and also to usher in digital procurement practices through wide spread adoption of GeM and digital governance, keeping in view, Government’s mandate of transparency and ease of business.

Also Read: DOPPW Year End Review 2021

6) Special Campaign for disposal of pending matters (2nd October to 31st October, 2021)                

• On the direction of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India a Special Campaign on disposal of pending matters and cleanliness drive was undertaken from 2nd October to 31^st October, 2021 in every Ministry/ Department of government of India including their attached/ subordinate offices and autonomous organizations across the country and abroad. During the campaign all pending references received from Members of parliament, State Governments, Inter -ministerial references , Parliament assurances and Public grievances were to be taken up for disposal in mission mode approach. Records to be reviewed and files/ papers which have completed their retention cycle was to be weeded out in accordance with the set procedure and protocol. Special cleanliness drive both indoor and outdoor in all government buildings including disposal of scrap was also part of the special campaign. Preparatory phase of campaign was from 13 September to 31 September when pendencies were identified, record rooms and stores were inspected and action plan for campaign were chalked out by the Ministries.  
• To conduct and coordinate the campaign nodal officers were appointed in each Ministry. A dedicated portal was created to monitor real time progress of the campaign. DARPG coordinated and monitored the campaign aggressively with all the nodal officers. During the campaign about 44.89 lakh records were reviewed and 22 lakh records were weeded out. Rs.62.00 cr. was earned from the disposal of scrap. Weeding out of records and scrap disposal have freed up about 12 lakh sq. ft. space for productive use. Cleaning drive in offices which included renovation/ repair / whitewash etc. was undertaken. About 5968 outdoor cleanliness campaigns were also conducted by the Ministries/ Departments
• Progress of Special Campaign for disposal has been reported as under

7) International Cooperation & Exchange

• A virtual Bi-lateral meeting between Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) and Public Service Division (PSD) Govt. of Singapore on Cooperation in the field of Personnel Management and Public Administration was held on 06th July, 2021.

• A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DARPG and Public Service Commission, Office of the President, Gambia on Refurbishing Personnel Administration and Governance Reforms was signed on 08th July, 2021. The First meeting of India – Gambia Joint Working Group (JWG) was held virtually on 22nd November, 2021 under the aegis of the MoU signed between Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances (DARPG) and the Public Service Commission (PSC), Government of the Republic of Gambia. During the meeting 6 presentations were made by experts from the Indian side on e-HRMS, Mission Karamyogi, e-Office, e-Recruitment, e-examination and pension reforms including New Pension Scheme.

A Two Days DARPG-APSC virtual Conference on Public Administration and Governance Reforms was jointly organized on 13-14 July, 2021 by DARPG and the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) under the aegis of the MoU signed by DARPG and APSC during 2020.

8) Regional Conferences    

• A two-day Regional Conference was organised in collaboration with Government of Jammu & Kashmir on “Replication of Good Governance Practices” at Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir on 01-02nd July, 2021.

Delegates from 10 States/Union Territories participated in the Conference. And it was attended by 750 officers through semi-virtual mode, including 250 officials, who attended the conference physically.  Conference unanimously adopted the Behtar Nizam-e-Hakumat – Kashmir Aelamia after extensive deliberations during the sessions held over two days.

• A two-day Regional Conference on “Strengthening of State Institutes of Public Administration” was organized in Lucknow in collaboration with the Govt. of U.P on November 11-12, 2021. About 95 Delegates from Central Training Institutes and State Institutes of Public Administration including Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration participated in the Conference. The conference was jointly inaugurated by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and MoS for Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances. The Conference adopted Lucknow Sandesh.

• Regional Conference on the theme ‘Replication of Good Governance Practices” in collaboration with Govt of Odisha at Bhubaneswar, Odisha was orgainised on December 03-04, 2021. 14 States of North-Eastern and Eastern Region of India (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal,  Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh including Odisha) participated in the Conference in a semi-virtual mode.

Shri Navin Patnaik, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, and Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Science and Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences; Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office; Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions; Minister of State in the Department of Atomic Energy and Minister of State in the Department of Space, Government of India addressed the valedictory session.

9) Good Governance Index 2021

• Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah released the Good Governance Index (GGI) prepared by DARPG on Good Governance Day on 25th December, 2021 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

GGI is a comprehensive and implementable framework to assess the State of Governance across the States and UTs which enables ranking of States/Districts .Good Governance Index (GGI) 2021 Framework covered ten sectors and 58 indicators. The sectors of GGI 2020-21 are 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. The GGI 2020-21 categorises States and UTs into four categories, i.e., (i) Other States – Group A; (ii) Other States – Group B; (iii) North-East and Hill States; and (iv) Union Territories.

20 States have improved their composite GGI Scores in 2021. Gujarat tops the composite ranking in 58 indicator index followed by Maharashtra and Goa.  Uttar Pradesh registers 8.9 percent improvement in GGI indicators in the period 2019 to 2021.  Jammu and Kashmir registers 3.7 precent improvement in GGI indicators in the period 2019 to 2021. Delhi tops the UT category composite ranking.

10) District Good Governance Index

DARPG finalized District Good Governance Index (DGGI) for Jammu & Kashmir with 10 Governance Sectors and 58 Indicators. This will be India’s first Good Governance Index for a UT.      

11) Good Governance Week

• DARPG in Collaboration with DOPT, DPIIT, Ministry of External Affairs had convened events for one week under the Good Governance Week (GGW) from December 20 to December 25, 2021 under Azadi Ka Amrut Mahotsav celebrations to commemorate 75 years of progressive India.The theme of the GGW was “Prashasan Gaon ki Aur” a nation- wide campaign for redreseal of Public Grievances and Improving Service Delivery. Over 700 District Collectors participated in the campaign.

An exhibition on Good Governance practices- “शासन की बदलती तस्वीर”was setup for 5 days at the Venue where Ministries/ Department showcased the Good Governance practices successfully achieved by them.

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Guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination of children between 15-18 years and precaution dose to HCWs, FLWs & 60+ population with comorbidities

India’s National COVID Vaccination Program is built on scientific and epidemiological evidence, WHO guidelines and global best practices. Anchored in systematic end-to-end planning, it is implemented through effective and efficient participation of States/UTs and the people at large.

Government of India’s commitment to the vaccination program has been unwavering and proactive from the beginning, from strengthening Research and Development capacity, to encouraging and enabling manufacturing and vaccinating each and every adult Indian safely, as fast as possible.

As a consequence of reliance on scientific & epidemiological evidence and pro-active implementation, India’s COVID-19 vaccination programme has achieved historical milestone of administering more than 141 crore doses so far. 90% of the adult population of the country has been covered with at least one dose and 62% of the adult population has been covered with both the doses.

For the COVID vaccination program, Government of India initiated early and proactive steps as far back as April 2020:

• “Task Force for Focused Research on Corona Vaccine” (constituted in April 2020), to encourage domestic R&D of Drugs, Diagnostics and Vaccines, headed by Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India.

• “National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19” (NEGVAC), (constituted in August 2020), to formulate a comprehensive action plan for vaccine administration, co-chaired by Member (Health) NITI Aayog and Union Health Secretary.

• “Empowered Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19” (constituted in January 2021), to facilitate optimal utilization of technology to make COVID vaccination all inclusive, transparent, simple and scalable, headed by CEO, National Health Authority.

India’s COVID vaccination program incorporates recommendations of the foremost experts in the field of immunization, public health, disease control and information technology. Based on scientific and epidemiological evidence, the programme gives priority to strengthening the country’s healthcare system by protecting the professionals, health and frontline workers, manning it, as well as protecting the most vulnerable population groups.

COVID vaccination in the country commenced with vaccination to all Health Care Workers. The program was expanded with time to include vaccination of Front Line Workers, citizens more than 60 years of age, citizens more than 45 years of age, and eventually citizens more than 18 years of age.

Under the National COVID Vaccination Program, from 16th January to 30th April 2021, 100% of vaccine doses were procured by Government of India and provided free of cost to State Governments. State Governments were in turn to administer vaccination free of cost to defined priority groups. To increase the pace of vaccination, participation of private hospitals was also enlisted where individuals could also choose to get vaccinated at a prescribed rate.

In response to the suggestions of many State Governments to be permitted the flexibility to procure vaccine directly and administer them as per their own prioritization based on local requirements, Government of India revised the Guidelines. Under the revised Guidelines effective from 1st May, 2021, Government of India was procuring 50% of the vaccine produced and was continuing to provide them to States free of cost for administering to priority groups. The State Government and private hospitals were also empowered to directly procure from the remaining 50% vaccine pool.

Many States subsequently communicated that they were facing difficulties in managing the funding, procurement and logistics of vaccines, impacting the pace of the National COVID Vaccination Program. It was also noted that smaller and remoter private hospitals also faced constraints.

Keeping in view the aforesaid aspects, the experiences gained from 1st May 2021 and the repeated requests received from States, the Guidelines for National COVID Vaccination Program were reviewed and revised. These Revised Guidelines became effective from 21st June 2021.

Under the Revised Guidelines, Government of India procured 75% of the vaccines being produced by the manufacturers in the country and provided it free of cost to States/UTs as has been the case from the commencement of the National Vaccination Programme. These doses were administered by the States/UTs free of cost to all citizens as per priority through Government Vaccination Centres.

Vaccine doses provided free of cost by Government of India have been allocated to States/UTs based on criteria such as population, disease burden and the progress of vaccination. Wastage of vaccine has affected the allocation negatively.

Government of India has also provided States/UTs advance information of vaccine doses to be supplied to them. States/UTs were expected similarly, to further allocate doses well in advance to districts and vaccination centers. They were also expected to put in the public domain the information about the above availability at district and vaccination center level, and widely disseminate it among the local population, maximizing the visibility and convenience of citizens.

In order to incentivize production by vaccine manufacturers and encourage new vaccines, domestic vaccine manufacturers were given the option to also provide vaccines directly to private hospitals. This was restricted to 25% of their monthly production. Later on, it emerged that the off take of private hospitals was much below the aforesaid 25%. Therefore, the Govt. of India procured more than 75% of vaccines being produced by the manufacturers in the country. These vaccines were provided free of cost to the States/UTs.

All citizens irrespective of their income status have all along been entitled to free vaccination. Those who have the ability to pay are encouraged to use private hospital’s vaccination centres.

The CoWIN platform provides every citizen the facility of conveniently and safely pre-booking vaccination appointments. All government and private vaccination centers also provide onsite registration facility, available both for individuals as well as groups of individuals, for which detailed procedure have been finalized and published by States/UTs, in order to minimize any inconvenience to citizens.

Keeping in view the recent global surge of COVID-19 cases, detection of Omicron variant which has been categorized as a Variant of Concern (VOC), scientific evidence, global practices and the inputs/suggestions of ‘COVID-19 Working Group of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization (NTAGI)’ as well as of ‘Standing Technical Scientific Committee (STSC)’ of NTAGI it has now been decided to further refine the scientific prioritization & coverage of COVID-19 vaccination as follows:

1. COVID-19 Vaccination of children in the age-group of 15-18 years to be started from 3rd January 2022. For such beneficiaries, vaccination option would be “Covaxin” only.
2. As a matter of abundant precaution, for those Health Care Workers (HCWs) & Front Line Workers (FLWs) who have received two doses, another dose of COVID-19 vaccine would be provided from 10th January 2022. The prioritization and sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of 9 months i.e. 39 weeks from the date of administration of 2nd dose.
3. All persons aged 60 years and above with comorbidities who have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, will on Doctor’s advice be provided with a precaution dose from 10th January 2022. The prioritization and sequencing of this precaution dose would be based on the completion of 9 months i.e. 39 weeks from the date of administration of second dose.

All citizens irrespective of their income status are entitled to free COVID-19 vaccination at Govt. Vaccination Centres. Those who have the ability to pay are encouraged to use Private Hospitals’ Vaccination Centres.

Co-WIN features and provisions:

1. HCWs, FLWs and Citizens 60+ with co-morbidities:

a. All HCWs, FLWs and citizens aged 60 years or above with comorbidities will be able to access the vaccination for precaution dose through their existing Co-WIN account.

b. Eligibility of such beneficiaries for the precaution dose will be based on the date of administration of 2nd dose as recorded in the Co-WIN system.

c. Co-WIN system will send SMS to such beneficiaries for availing the precaution dose when the dose becomes due.

d. Registration and appointment services can be accessed through both, the online and the onsite modes.

e. The details of administration of the precaution dose will be suitably reflected in the vaccination certificates.

2. New beneficiaries aged 15-18 years:

a. All those aged 15 years or more will be able to register on Co-WIN. In other worlds, all those whose birth year is 2007 or before, shall be eligible.

b. Beneficiaries can self-register, online through an existing account on Co-WIN or can also register by creating a new account through a unique mobile number, this facility is available for all eligible citizens presently.

c. Such beneficiaries can also be registered onsite by the verifier/vaccinator in facilitated registration mode.

d. Appointments can be booked online or onsite (walk-in).

e. For such beneficiaries, option for vaccination would only be available for Covaxin as this is the only vaccine with EUL for the age-group 15-18.

These Guidelines will come into effect from 3rd January 2022 & will be reviewed from time to time.

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