22nd NCeG begins in Shillong
SHILLONG: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Dr. Jitendra Singh and Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Conrad K. Sangma inaugurated the 22nd National Conference on e-Governance 2019 (NCeG), the first ever in North East region, here on Thursday.
The Conference is being attended by senior government officers from across India, researchers and eminent personalities from IT industry.
Addressing the Inaugural session of the Conference, Dr. Jitendra Singh congratulated the Government of Meghalaya for organizing such an elaborate and successful National Conference on e-Governance. Twenty-eight states and all Union Territories have participated in this conference, which itself is a testimony of the commitment shown by state Governments across the country towards e-Governance, he said.
He proposed that the conference adopts a ‘Shillong Declaration on e-Governance’ so that the important takeaways from the sessions may be referred to and developed upon, in the future.
Highlighting the importance of the citizen-centric approach in service delivery, Dr. Singh said that after the BJP-led NDA Government first came into power in 2014, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in his e had urged to move beyond Vigyan Bhawan.
“We at DARPG have been religiously following PM’s vision and holding this conference across the country. The PM had earlier defined e-governance as easy, effective, economical and environment-friendly governance. The ease of governance would only be possible by minimum government and maximum governance”, he said. Government of India has been focusing on this aspect especially in the remotest corners of the country, Dr. Singh added.
Talking about important reforms taken by Ministries/Departments under his charge Dr. Singh enumerated different initiatives. He said that this Government did away with the need to certify documents by government officials, a legacy of the British empire. “By doing this the Government demonstrated the resolve that it trusted the youth of India,” Dr. Singh said.
Over 1500 obsolete rules and regulations had been done away with, which made government functioning efficient and citizen-friendly, he added. He said that under Prime Minister’s guidance, many initiatives have also been undertaken by Government of India and projects like IRCTC Rail connect app and UMANG app of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) have been rolled out. Because of other initiatives like Jeevan Pramaan retired civil servant won’t have to travel to bank for submitting life certificate or common citizens can get to know about various schemes being implemented in their area through mobile app, he added.
The Minister mentioned that CPGRAMS, the grievance redressal portal of DARPG, is witnessing a significant jump in citizen complaints from what it was five years earlier. This is not because people are not happy with the government, but it is the faith that the people repose in the efficient grievance redressal mechanism, he added. The increase in efficiency of the government can be analysed by comparing figures of disposal of grievances which has gone up to over 95% and that this proves the responsiveness of Government, he said.
Dr. Singh highlighted the importance of increasing awareness among the common people about new citizen-friendly initiatives taken by the Government. Dashboards, portals and apps have been set up by the Government to establish citizen-friendly governance. The most striking example is revolutionizing the format of Prime Minister’s Excellence Awards. Because of the adoption of new format, 682 districts across the country are competing for these awards. Also, PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration became an occasion for a countrywide competition, particularly among young Collectors of the country and has given a boost to implementation of various flagship programmes of the Government.
The Minister said that Ministry of DoNER was keeping up with the pace of digitization and service delivery through electronic means. “It has constantly engaged itself with promoting e-governance initiatives that are being taken up by the North Eastern states and that it has extended its support to various externally aided projects proposed by different NE States in the field of Health (Telemedicine), Education (Digitization of Classrooms) etc.,” he added.
The minister further said that for the last 5 years, the Government has made significant progress in the direction of achieving e-Governance mandate being discussed at the highest level. For making digital literacy universal, the Government has taken key initiatives like Aadhaar and Jan-Dhan Yojana and has laid down the target completion by 2022, i.e. the 75th Independence year of India.
Addressing the Conference, Conrad K. Sangma described how application of technology was close to his heart and how important it was for achieving effective citizen centric governance. He said, “It is not the best technology that matters, but it is how best the available technology is applied for the larger good of the masses”.
Sangma talked about the challenges of digital connectivity in the North East, especially Meghalaya. He thanked the Union Government for sanctioning new mobile towers for the State, which would help to reduce the challenges of connectivity. Sangma said that conferences like this facilitate pooling of great experience and best practices, that go a long way in addressing traditional challenges using new age technologies.
Sangma also focused on another aspect which is the data that the government collects for public service delivery. He noted that effective decision making depends upon the quality of data collected. It is a very important aspect of good governance. The kind of impact it can have at the grassroots is immense. He gave the example of the successful model of how technology is being used in Meghalaya in creating a database of expectant mothers, details of health infrastructure available and using that effectively to increase institutional deliveries in the state, without incurring extra cost. This has gone a long way in improving the figures of maternal mortality rates in the pilot district, he said.
Sangma also talked about the e-initiatives being initiated by the Meghalaya government for revolutionising the farming and entrepreneurship sectors in the state. He stressed on the need for focusing on villages and leveraging technology to make them SMART, in addition to creating SMART CITIES.
Hamletson Dohling, Meghalaya’s Minister for IT and Communications, Government of Meghalaya noted that information and communication technology was a powerful tool to bring the Government and public together and ensure efficient public service delivery. He said that NCeG was an important platform to realise the huge potential of ‘Digital Dividend’ across the country. He enlisted the citizen centric initiatives taken by the Government of Meghalaya, like e-Districts; sponsoring students and local companies to increase digital literacy in the state, among others. He requested the Union Minister to continue providing Central Government’s support to realise the dream of Meghalaya establishing an IT hub in the North East.
