The two day Regional Conference on ‘Good Governance Initiatives,’ got underway at Kohima today. The Conference, held under the theme “Capacity Building / Technology / Best Practices by Aspirational Districts”, is being organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) in collaboration with the Nagaland Government.Addressing the inaugural function as the Chief Guest, Shri Neiphiu Rio, Chief Minister of Nagaland said Good Governance is not an option of the Government, but a basic right for all citizens and the government is duty bound to provide it. He said clean and accountable government is a basic necessity. Pointing out that expectations and aspirations of the citizens have risen over the years and today citizens demand the best services, he said we need to learn from each other, adopt the best practices and ensure that successful models are replicated. Shri Rio reminded the need to focus more on initiatives that are sustainable and can be scaled up.Maintaining that technology is a tool to improve service delivery, Shri Rio said IDs like Aadhaar have helped us to ensure that benefits are better targeted. He also said the spread of banking and mobile telephony has enabled Direct Cash Transfers and JAM- Jandhan- Aadhaar-Mobile trilogy has helped better implementation of schemes.
Highlighting the challenges faced by northeast in the adoption of digital payments and DBT, Shri Rio said that the northeast faces poor connectivity and limited outreach of banks while several blocks have no banking facility. In order to truly benefit from the mobile and banking revolution, he stressed the need to focus on improving connectivity and bank network in northeast. He also said that most of the 14 aspirational districts of northeast are facing challenges of physical connectivity and infrastructure. Shri Rio said such physical distance also leads to a developmental gap.While stating that participation of delegates from all northeastern states will give an opportunity to learn from each other and evolve strategies to improve governance, Shri Rio expressed the hope that the conference will come up with an action plan and a roadmap which will not only help northeastern states but will also provide solutions and answers that can be replicated across the country.Shri K.V. Eapen, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India also addressed the inaugural function. He stated that the states could avail funds for replication of Good Governance Initiatives under State Collaboration Initiative of the Government of India in DARPG.
He also briefed about the Priority Programmes for PM Awards to be given away on next Civil Services Day. He expressed the hope that sharing of the outstanding and awarded initiatives would help in accelerating their replication.Smt. Vasudha Mishra, Additional Secretary, DARPG presented the Vote of Thanks. Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog addressed the participants through Video Conference.The two day event is the 30th in the series of such Regional Conferences held across the country and is being organized to create a common platform to share experiences in the formulation and implementation of best practices in citizen centric governance, improved public service delivery through e-governance, transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly effective administration.In today’s technical session, 11 presentations followed by panel discussions were made in five sessions covering the topics of Technology for Good Governance, Transforming Aspirational Districts, Citizen Centric Services, PM Awarded Initiatives and Capacity Building. The two-day Regional Conference on Good Governance Initiatives will conclude tomorrow.