Birthday of Sri Guru Ramdas Ji

Governance Reforms
governance. The main focus of the
governance reforms had been to ensure
equity, access and accountability
to civil society.
“As the cardinal principle of engaged
governance, the first and foremost
focus of the PGRC was to
reduce the mistrust between the citizens
and the government. Secondly,
the focus must protect the dignity of
citizens by identifying spaces, policies,
processes and practices which
perpetuate undignified exchange between
the citizens and the state,” he
added.
Dr. Pramod Kumar’s assessment
was that the citizens value their dignity
over and above everything else.
In a major initiative the Punjab
Government in 2010 decided to do
away with filling of affidavits except
in cases where it was mandatory by
law . The Government also issued instructions
to Vice-Chancellors of
Universities to dispense with the requirement
of seeking attested copies
of documents at the time of admissions.
For dignified interaction with the
Revenue Department, provisions
were incorporated to provide comfortable
and easy access to revenue
services. The online copies of jamabandis
simplified the process for settlement
of contested mutations.
For Birth and Death Registration
Certificates, approval of the District
Registrar-CMO was needed for a
delay beyond one month and the citizens
missing the registration deadline
had to keep waiting for 5 to 10
years. To overcome this hurdle, an
incentive compatible procedural
amendment was introduced in which
the Asha worker has been made the
notifier instead
of family and
ANM has been
made local registrar
and authorised
to
issue birth certificates.
Reg
a r d i n g
payment of
late fee for
procuring the
certificate the
a m e n d m e n t
does away with
the same upto
one year of the
event thus
helping the citizens
to register
and get
c e r t i f i c a t e s
easily.
“Punjab is the best” says Prime Minister
Narendra Modi as he confers ‘Best Governance
Practice’ award on Punjab. Chief
Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal receives the
award.
Punjab Chief Secretary Sarvesh
Kaushal said the Right to Service
Act,2011 had been introduced in
Punjab to make Citizens’ interactions
with the Government dignified with
their claims to be considered as a
matter of right. Implemented on July
26, 2011, this Act provides a statutory
backing for ensuring delivery of
services to the citizens within the
stipulated time limit. At presentl, 206
services have been included which
relate to the departments of police,
revenue, transport, housing, local
government, health, welfare of SCs
and BCs, social security, etc. “It is direct
empowerment of the citizens;
and shall help to reduce corruption
and check harassment of the citizens,”
he added.
The Right to Service Commission
is empowered to take suo moto
notice of complaints and recommend
action against the corrupt functionaries.If
a citizen does not get a service
within the stipulated time period, he
can make an appeal to the Sub Divisional
Magistrate. The SDM too will
have to provide him the required
service or respond to him within the
stipulated period. If by chance, the
SDM too does not respond then the
citizen can go directly to the court of
the Deputy Commissioner.
The DC will then have to dispose
it off within a stipulated period. The
DC can take penal action against the
official concerned. Under the Act, a
fine from Rs 500 to Rs 5000 can be
imposed.
Mr S.K. Sharma, DGP, Community
Policing, Punjab, mentioned that
in police reforms, a wide network of
community-policing centres had
October 2015
Punjab Advance 15