Shabir Ahamd Shah
We know that Good Governance Day is being celebrated on the birth anniversary of Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India, on 25th December every year. Now, it has been observed as Good Governance Week in order to cover the villages and the whole system to be introduced.
The good governance is related to the institutional process and outcome therof to achieve the development goals. The week started from 19th December 2022 to 25th December 2022 vide Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Government of India.
During week long nationwide campaign, various government schemes, commitment, effectiveness & accountability introduced to the general public at Tehsil Level. Number of new on-line services introduced to the general public for their conveyance from district administration/ BDOs.
In this year’s good governance week the focus point was Government Sponsored Schemes, start ups, innovative projects and employment generation programmes.
Different schemes from DIC, PMEGP, Mudra finance on setting up of small units to generate local products getting top priority. Establishing a profitable Self Help Groups was a good experience among females usually composed of ten self employed women.
These SHGs not only managing their homes but also looking into their small business effectively. Hence participation of both men & women is a key cornerstone of good governance.
I also attend the program in my official capacity and experience the response from general public with regard to on spot redressal of their genuine issues & grievances from different departments present in the program.
The said programe proved an effective platform for greater co-ordination between different departments on development projects of a particular area, tehsil or district level. The BDO hands over the birth & death certificates to those families who had applied for the same.
The block development officer inspect playing field, interacted with youth and directed concerned JE to complete the work within weeks time. The BDO on spot directed action in case of violation and blacklist of contractor for delay in execution of work.
Usually the programme is a day long process and it will be in the interests of the administration & people to have an inter-department discussion session for better co-ordination between different departments on the issues and projects for timely completion.
Mostly irrigation set up in rural areas and transport system in urban areas remains burning issues during the programs besides sadak, pani & bijili. It has come in notice with dismay that in late hours senior doctor referring an emergency patient from district hospital is treated by Junior doctors at SMHS or SKIMS, hence the life of patient in danger. This peculiar situation needs to be addressed so that precious life could be handled efficiently & saved.
It has been observed that involvement of local people – citizen participation – is important on the projects’ commencement for the area in addition to government & public representatives in case of rural area. With the advent of globalization & interstate dependency new challenges to the administration came into being.
To tackle with an activated administration by technological improvements, a new inter-regional relationship of our interests across issues has to be addressed. Trade and financial developments have tightened to mesh of economic linkages. The new state of affairs just cannot be wished away but must be engaged with.
We should build up expertise to ensure regional interests and are properly served at both ends. We must evolve domestic policies to control our future and serve our interests better. Without the capacity to handle this new situation by involvement of intellectuals, “citizen participation”, we would be striking empty postures and would fail to seize the opportunity to develop in this behalf.
Similarly at UT level utilizing the services of intellectual people with bureaucratic & political government set up is immediate need to frame process & complete the developmental projects.
The main objective of “people participation” is to have a meaningful input into decision making process. The low cost projects needs to be completed within fixed time and land dispute cases to be settled on fast track basis for overall development of area.
