14/09/2019 - Governance | Mainstorming

IAS Parliament 5 years

KEY POINTS

Maintaining the transparency and accountability is the core aspect of governance because it allows the government for its smooth functioning and aids citizens to cooperate with government effectively, thereby leading to health functioning of government.

Government’s efforts towards Transparency and accountability

MyGov

· It is a citizen engagement platform founded by the Government of India to promote the active participation of Indian citizens in their country's governance and development.

· It is aimed at creating a common platform for Indian citizens to "crowdsource governance ideas from citizens". Its users discuss and contribute to various government projects and plans.

eBiz

· The focus of eBiz is to improve the business environment in the country by enabling fast and efficient access to Government-to-Business (G2B) services through an online portal. This will help in reducing unnecessary delays in various regulatory processes required to start and run businesses.

Citizen’s Charter

· It is a document which represents a systematic effort to focus on the commitment of the Organisation towards its Citizens in respects of Standard of Services, Information, Choice and Consultation, Non-discrimination and Accessibility, Grievance Redress, Courtesy and Value for Money.

Jan Soochna Portal

· It is launched by the government of Rajasthan is a remarkable achievement in furtherance of the right to information (RTI) especially Section 4 of the RTI Act that deals with proactive disclosure of information.

· Transparency must be accompanied by accountability, and that is where the JSP has great value and significance since it places the power of making the State government accountable to everyone who accesses the information made available on the portal.

National Judicial Data Grid

· This gave information about all pending cases across the country. Some time back, a year-wise breakup of pending cases was given on the grid and it was found that more than 70,000 cases were pending for over 30 years.

Key challenges

· There are huge challenges with regard to maintenance issues and ensuring that there is no let-up in the availability of information also there is asymmetry of information.

· This often leads to exploitation of people by bureaucracy and leads to corruption at various levels.

· Digital divide among citizens is a huge problem along with illiteracy, this has to addressed properly.

· Citizens charter are not often presented in simple language and leads to a lot of confusion among people.

· In case of e-governance training has to be provided properly to government officials about installation of software and its working procedure.

Remedial measures

· Increase in availability of information to the citizens via Common service centres and kiosks.

· Narrowing the digital dividend through effective implementation of Digital India Campaign.

· Grievance redressal system in every department should be established and whistle blowers need to protected with thehelp of Central Vigilance Commission.