Vigilance Week celebrations concludes in J&K

JAMMU: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, today chaired a meeting of Administrative Secretaries and took stock of activities undertaken during the course of vigilance week.

During the meeting, it was informed that the government had been vigorously working to promote both preventive and participatory vigilance for bringing transparency and accountability in governance.

The meeting was attended by Director General of Police, all Administrative Secretaries of various departments, Deputy Commissioners and SSPs of all districts.

The Commissioner Secretary, General Administration Department informed the Chief Secretary that following the government’s resolve to make government-to-citizen interactions more transparent and accessible through 1075 e-services which is highest in the country, along with related IT initiatives such as MobileDost, Rapid Assessment System, DigiDost for doorstep delivery of e-services, linking of services with DigiLocker, there has been immense progress in mitigating corruption. The latest data indicates that more than 52 lac applications have been processed for availing various services in the online mode of which more than 42 lac have been disposed off.

To ensure time-bound delivery of online services, e-services are progressively being covered under the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) with linkage to Auto-Appeal System (AAS) which escalates breach of timeline cases to the next authority for action against defaulting officer. As of now, around 64000 appeals have been generated with 32000 appeals disposed off. Besides, penalty proceedings have been initiated against 55 officers who have delayed delivery of various services in the Revenue Department.

To address complaints of frivolous reverts in the online mode, the government has started analyzing such reverts and unjustifiable reverts shall be inquired and defaulting officers penalized.

Dr Mehta stressing upon measures to promote participatory vigilance mentioned that initiatives such as Janbhagidari online portal which allows citizens to oversee and review all developmental works being executed in the region. This exclusive portal has been designed to facilitate easy access to information related to developmental works and ensure transparency in the execution of such projects.

Emphasizing the importance of financial discipline in checking the abuse of discretionary authority, the Chief Secretary highlighted the functioning of BEAMS and PaySys linked digital payments have further streamlined the disbursal of timelines. In tandem with these initiatives, the Government has achieved 100 per cent disbursal of financial assistance under 55 flagship schemes in the UT exclusively through DBT mode.

Strict enforcement of e-tendering mandatory, prior Technical and Administrative sanction has led to fiscal prudence with more than 92000 works completed during the financial year 2022-23 which is highest ever.

The Public Distribution System (Food Supplies) has also undergone significant improvements, switching to distribution through POS machines, besides achieving 100% Aadhaar seeding both at Ration Card and Beneficiary level under both NFSA and Non-NFSA categories. The exercise has empowered the department to remove around 11.5 lakh persons from the ration cards database under the de-weeding exercise. This effort has saved 1.6 lakh metric tonnes of food grains worth Rs. 230.00 crore per annum. Simultaneously, nearly 90,000 genuine households were added to PDS.

In the Revenue Department, ‘Apki Zameen Apki Nigrani’ Portal (Land Information Management System) has facilitated easy access to land records with Land Passbooks providing clear information regarding account number, khasra number, land type, land owner, cultivator, gender, etc. Issuance of Land passbooks in all districts was completed during the last year. Further, demystification of revenue records has been undertaken which has allowed citizens to have comprehensible information about their land record. The launch of ‘Online Fard’, Mutation, Revenue extract, Income Certificate etc. are steps to bring greater transparency in time-bound delivery of revenue services.

During the meeting, it was revealed that the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has been working tirelessly in recent years to strengthen the punitive measures against corruption, resulting in the successful prosecution of 142 out of a total of 276 FIR-registered cases since 2021. The bureau has also been vigilant in registering 121 trap cases and 29 Disproportionate Assets (DA) cases against corrupt officials in the UT.