The Punjab Governance Reforms Commission (PGRC) today organized a one day workshop to share the Best Practices of Governance Reforms with their counterparts in the Government of Haryana. Chief Secretaries of both the States also participated in this workshop in which besides the success stories of Governance Reforms model in Punjab various bottlenecks in the way of implementation of Governance Reforms were also discussed. During this workshop which was held in the office of Punjab Governance Reforms Commission Chandigarh, senior officers of Punjab & Haryana participated.
At the onset, the Chairperson of Punjab Governance Reforms Commission (PGRC), Dr. Pramod Kumar elaborated that there is an urgent need to reform the governance processes to meet the deficits of trust, dignity, productivity and citizen engagement. After six decades of Independence there is mistrust between the citizens and the state. Even to procure ration card, electricity, sewerage, water connection, birth and death certificates, admission to educational institutions – affidavit by the gazetted officer, public notary or Magistrate is to be given. Government of Punjab decided to do away with the filling of affidavits in 2010 except in cases it is mandatory by law. It was also observed that the citizens value their dignity over and above efficiency. These were the views expressed during the interaction between the members of the Punjab Governance Reforms Commission and senior officials of Punjab and Haryana Government organized by Punjab Governance Reforms Commission.
An institutionalized system of governance has been evolved to engage people with the system in a productive manner and provide conducive conditions to nurture people’s capacity to be productive and their ability to exercise some degree of control over their lives. The main thrust of governance model developed is to change the exchange between the citizens and the public functionaries from patron-client or Ria Mai Baap to public servants–citizen partnership. The Punjab Right to Services Act, 2011 was introduced to make Citizens’ interactions with the Government dignified with their claims to be considered as a matter of right. It is direct empowerment of the citizens; and shall help to reduce corruption and check harassment of the citizens. Under this Act Suo Motto notice of complaints can be taken and action against the corrupt functionaries can be recommended for departmental action.
The unified civic delivery of services model was also presented in which it was mentioned that 2,174 Sewa Kendras will open both in urban and rural areas. These centres are unique as they will break the urban-rural differences and give equitable access to services and would put in place unified complaint redressal system rather than multiple complaint redressal centres. A detailed presentation was also made on engaged governance through community-policing system by DGP S.K. Sharma.
The main thrust of simplification of procedure Chairperson of PGRC mentioned is to strengthen internal controls rather than multiplying external oversights and incentives compatible procedural changes. It has also evolved and brought disaggregate delivery mechanisms and discretion reduction procedural changes. The proforma for getting services have been made user-friendly and a checklist of documents for availing the services has been prepared.D.S. Dhesi, Chief Secretary, Haryana concluded by observing that it is perhaps for the first time that both states are sharing good practices. Chairperson of PGRC Dr. Pramod Kumar hoped that these interactions should become more frequent.The officers who were present in the workshop included Mr. S C Choudhary, Chief Commissioner, Haryana Right to Service Commission, Mr. Sarban Singh, Lt General V S Tonk, Dr. Amar Singh, Mr. Sunil Katyal, (All Commissioner, Right to Service Commission Haryana), Sh. J R Kundal, member PGRC, Sh. R N Gupta, member PGRC, Sh R K Verma, Secretary Governance Reforms Punjab, . Dr. Rajwant Pal Singh, IPS and other senior officers from both the States