Immediately after the completion of the three day parliamentary election review exercise, SAD president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today launched a twin project to provide 149 citizen services to the people without any government interface as well as start the process of reforming five major departments.
Presiding over a meeting of key officers at the Punjab Bhawan here, the Deputy CM announced that he would take up this twin project as his priority number one and that it would be undertaken as a mission mode project with the same importance as given earlier to making Punjab power surplus.Without mincing any words, the Deputy CM directed the officers to start work immediately on creation of computer kiosks in all villages of the State which could provide access to all 149 citizen services to the people. “My mission is to ensure no citizen needs to interact with any government department. It is also my desire to complete this project by March 31, 2015”, the Deputy CM added.
Outlining his second project, Mr Sukhbir Badal said he wanted to implement the reforms in the five major departments of Revenue, Power, Local Bodies, Police and Excise and Taxation departments also by March 31 next year.It is pertinent to mention that during the course of the three day review exercise it was felt that citizen services should be more easily available to the people. It was also felt that corruption still remains a major issue in major departments and that the reforms initiated by the department had not been implemented completely.Detailing his vision as far as citizen centric services are concerned, the Deputy CM said he visualised private computer kiosks in villages should be able to provide essential services to the people. He agreed with a proposal by Principal Secretary Governance Reforms C. Roul that back end integration with various departments and banks was needed to make this project successful and directed the department to start this work immediately. Mr Roul informed that critical infrastructure needed for this including a State wide centre and data network was in place.
Speaking about his second agenda, the Deputy CM said completing the reforms introduced in various departments was the need of the hour. He said in departments like Revenue and Power, citizens should not need to meet any government official. “We must find out ways to register land without the citizen having to deal with the Patwari or the Registrar. I want farmers to get their jamabandi, girdwari, copy of mutation and inteqal papers without interacting with any government official”. He said similarly in the case of the Local Bodies department citizens should be able to get their building maps, water and sewerage connections and change and land use certificates without dealing with officials.To make all this a reality, Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal announced setting up of a Mission Mode committee headed by the chief secretary, concerned administrative secretaries of the five departments, principal secretary to the chief minister S.K. Sandhu, additional principal secretary to CM Gaggandeep SIngh Brar and political representatives including former ministers Jathedar Tota Singh MLA, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Tikshan Sud and Dr Daljit Singh Cheema MLA besides experts in relevant fields. Chief Minister’s Adviser Mr Maheshinder Singh Grewal, who attended the meeting, has been asked to give names of any other political persons if needed to further strengthen the committee.The Deputy CM also directed that the committee members should visit four progressive States within the next month to gauge how the other States were loosening red tape and reforming their various departments. He also announced that he would hold a meeting for the twin projects on each Monday starting from June 9.