Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed the need to revamp the governance strategy to give it a more humanitarian touch and get efficient results.
Recently the Prime minister had met the additional secretary and joint secretary level officials and after the meeting, he felt the need to bring in a few changed for better governance. Three weeks after the meeting Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha has issued orders in writing to the secretaries of all ministeries listing down 39 actions that they need to apply at the earliest and give a status report to Sinha regarding the same.
The few of the 39 actions mentioned are revamp office memorandum circular system, earmark 1% of the departmental budget for innovation, and make top officers spend 5-6 days a month in the field.
During the meetings with the additional secretaries and joint secretaries, Modi observed that the Central Secretaries have forgotten the need to focus on the field also and hence he made a mandatory rule for these secretaries to spend a minimum for 5-6 days in the field. He also said that these officials need to break the habit of working in silos and that everyone should be reached out and be aware of the work done, regardless of being a senior or a junior.
In the 39 actions issued, one of them is also the need to have a conversation between the seniors and the juniors and that all the employees should be aligned together regarding the vision of the organisation.
Sinha has also directed all the departments to reserve at least 1% of the total fun for development and innovation. To promote this, the Modi government has also proposed an award for innovation among officers.
The reformation in the governance also included the current system of office memorandum (OM) and orders. In the directions issued Sinha has also stated that instead of issuing multiple orders on the same subject, all the departments should adopt an annual validation of all OMs on the same subject.
“While doing so, all earlier orders on the subject should be subsumed and only one OM should remain current. Consolidation of circulars as has been done in MNREGA should be done,” the new directions to the secretaries read.
Modi also observed that the process of decision making and taking actions is too long in the governance. To overcome this in the 39 actions directed to the Central secretaries, one of them also points out the need for quick decision making.
“The speed of decision-making is critical — officers should constantly endeavour to reduce delays in processes,” the Prime Minister had said. To further quicken the process of works being done Sinha has ordered that the routine matters such as submitting the minutes of the meeting should be done with utmost priority and given within 48 hours of the meeting so that the timeline to take actions can be reduced.
Significantly, this need for the revamped governance is felt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just as the Lok Sabha elections are nearing. This may be another election campaign strategy of Modi to win the confidence of the people that the government is working efficiently and like it is assumed the ‘Sarkari Kaam’ is not delayed under the rule of the BJP led Modi government.