“Government has nothing to hide,” said Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, participating in a Facebook Live session on Citizen Grievance Redressal, here today. “Great headway has been made with the launch of this MyGov Live platform on Facebook to carry forward the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s mission of Minimum Government, Maximum Governance by deploying e-Governance tools. The aim of the Government is to reach out to the last man in the last queue. This will help achieve maximum outreach, bring transparency in Governance and help interact directly with the citizens,” he added. DrJitendra Singh is the first Union Minister to participate in a Facebook Live session ever.Answering online queries during the one hour programme, DrJitendra Singh assured efforts are on to help citizens lodge their grievances on the Centralized Public Grievance Redress And Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal in Indian languages and the process will be expedited. “Many States have already replicated the CPGRAMS model and already some States have provisions to lodge grievances in respective regional languages,” he said.The Minister said a big leap has been taken in the newly carved out Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with the launch of the “Awaaz-e-aam” UT Grievance Redressal Cell and it will soon be linked with the CPGRAMS portal, he added.
Interacting with more than 8,000 active viewers during the Live programme, DrJitendra Singh appealed citizens to submit their entries in the first Online Hackathon on Data-Driven Innovation for Citizen Grievance Redressal, being conducted by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). The Hackathon was made live on 5th November last year in a DARPG Workshop and over 53 proposals have been submitted by 1,329 registered teams. Upon popular demand, the Hackathon has been extended by two days, till 12th January by 5 pm. “The response has been amazing and I appeal the GenX to come forward with their ideas in Artificial Intelligence on designing Innovative Apps in improving the public grievances mechanism,” said DrJitendra Singh.Also participating in the session, Secretary, DARPG, Dr. KshatrapatiShivaji said the Department’s effort is to meet the aspirations of the people with effective and efficient solutions. “Pathbreaking innovations will help the Government come to your doorstep; you don’t need to run pillar to post to get your grievances redressed,”he said.Additional Secretary, DARPG, Shri V. Srinivas said as many as 13 awards are up for grabs during the Hackathon. “First prize worth Rs.1 lakh, 2nd prize – Rs. 50,000 and 3rd Prize Rs. 25,000 will be given to the three best entries. Ten consolation prizes of Rs. 10,000 each, besides Merit Certificates for all participants who reach Jury stage from the Screening Committee will also be given out,” he said. “The awards will be presented by the Minister during the 23rdNational Conference on e-Governance to be heldin Mumbainext month, on February 7-8, 2020,” he added.CEO, MyGov India, Shri Abhishek Singh said this was the first Hackathon on Public Grievances and offered an interactive opportunity with the citizens. He said, the MyGov portal has a base of more than one crore users.Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Smt. Alka Mishra also participated in the Facebook Live session with DrJitendra Singh.