By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 5, 2021: Asking States to replicate each other’s best practices in governance, Union Minister Jitendra Singh has said that ensuring ease of living among common people is the sole objective of a government.

Citizen centric administration is at the heart of governance model of the Narendra Modi government and the changes for improved quality of governance have to be reflected in states and even the districts as the aim is to provide corruption free and transparent governance, he said.

“The best practices in governance should be adapted and replicated by all states. Good practices become best practices when they get shared and some of them can even excel in execution and set higher standards,” Singh said at the valedictory session of a regional conference on ‘Replication of Good Governance Practices’ here on Saturday.

The Minister urged all participants to replicate the good governance practices, administrative innovations of the Centre, state and districts so that a citizen centric administrative set up with the credo ‘minimum government maximum governance’ can be realized at the ground level.

The Centre has taken initiatives on good governance like Centralized Public Grievances Redress and Monitoring System to redre
ss public grievances, the Minister of State for Administrative Reforms, Public Grievances & Pension said.

Among the notable reforms introduced are automatic refunds on cancellation of railway tickets, single window pension through disbursing banks, intensive mechanized cleaning of coaches, e-verification of income tax returns and expeditious income tax returns up to Rs 50,000, he said.

The prime minister always insists on optimal use of technology and the ministry is using it in the best possible way, he said.

When the Modi government came to power there were around two lakh grievances every year which has increased six times now as people have reposed faith in its intention to address their problems and grievances.

The grievance disposal rate in the government departments is between 90-95%, which is an example of the citizens believing that there is someone who is mapping these grievances and there is a hope for time bound acknowledgement and finally proper redressal.

Addressing the conference through the virtual mode, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that good governance includes building competency, aligning strategies with goals, being accountable, having a high level of ethics and integrity, defining roles and responsibilities and above all having a pro people approach to all interventions.

Good governance is ultimately the greatest tool of transformation and we all have a genuine responsibility to the people, said Patnaik