New Delhi: The two-day Regional Conference on Good Governance and Replication of Best Practices concluded in Guwahati today. Addressing the Valedictory session, Secretary Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India, Shri K. V. Eapen said a huge participation is manifestation of officials taking interest in initiating Good Governance all across the country. Shri Eapen said Administrative Reforms is now a priority area and the employees should come out with innovative ideas for bringing about good governance. Administrative Reforms should now become much more influential, he added.
Earlier in the Technical sessions on Good Governance Index for Ranking of States, Shri Shabeer Sheikh, Director, Centre for Good Governance (CGG), Hyderabad pointed out that there are five major Indicators to rank any State on performance level. States have been categorized into three categories: UTs, Hill areas which comprises North East, J&K, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, and the third category comprising rest of the States. He said the Ranking of States is with an objective to improve Governance for citizens. Ranking will lead to competitive federalism, he added. On issues of Good Governance in North-Eastern States, one of the speakers pointed out that Internet connectivity is a hurdle in prompt service delivery to the public. Coverage in Assam is only 1.9% compared to an all-India average penetration of 3%.
On issues of Good Governance with special reference to Assam Government Website, Smt Suchitra Pyarelal, Sr. Technical Director, NIC, Assam said websites are now Citizen Centric catering to all age groups and continuously updated by all Government Departments. On “Ease of Doing Business in Assam”, Dr KK Dwivedi, Commissioner & Secretary, D/o Personnel, Administrative Reforms & Training, Govt. of Assam said entrepreneurs can now apply online and get auto-registration certificate, with no need of human interface. The system is now transparent. It has erased red tapism and checked corruption, he added. 22 States and 150 participants from all over the country took part in the two-day-long Conference. a