New plans for an efficient government and a happy population

THE GUJARAT GOVERNMENT HAS ALWAYS STRIVEN TO ENSURE THAT THE BENEfiTS OF ITS VARIOUS WELFARE SCHEMES ARE ACCESSIBLE TO EACH AND EVERY CITIZEN OF THE STATE.

To ensure that Gujarat’s progress not only continues unabated, but is taken to the next level, the Gujarat government under the leadership of Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has worked on two novel initiatives — Seva Setu and Pragati Setu — that aspire to bring the government machinery even closer to the people, in fact “right at their doorsteps”.

The Gujarat government has always striven to be one of the forerunners among Indian states in adopting citizen-friendly measures and ensuring that the benefits of its various welfare schemes are accessible to each and every citizen of the state. Gujarat has also ensured that an efficient mechanism is put in place to acknowledge the grievances raised and ensure prompt redressal. Over the past decade and a half, the state government has introduced several programmes to achieve the same.

According to Chief Minister Vijay Rupani: “The Seva Setu and Pragati Setu programmes have been launched to accelerate the pace of our transparent, decisive, progressive and sensitive government system. The idea is to ensure prompt and on-the-spot delivery of core government services and resolution of public grievances by the respective regional officers. Establishing and sustaining pro-people and proactive governance, that works for the welfare of one and all and reaches out to the citizens, is the primary objective of these schemes.” This initiative is designed to spare the citizens of Gujarat the chore of the countless visits they are obliged to make to the district level government offices, and to the headquarters in Gandhinagar to avail routine services. Accessing government schemes and the benefits they provide, processing Aadhar and other identity cards etc. are some examples of these essential services. The government has set up a mechanism that reaches out to the people in a unique way. It delivers these core services at their doorsteps. Some of the main highlights are:

Acts as a bridge (built by the government) that brings the government to the common people.

Organised in all the 33 districts, 271 talukas and 18,000 villages of the state.

Teams comprising 13 officials to set up camps to deliver services and benefits of various government schemes.

Each camp caters to 8-10 villages.

All requests of citizens are processed on the spot and the benefits provided right away .

Details of various government schemes, their benefits, eligibility criteria and procedure to avail them are also announced to create awareness.

The proceedings of Seva Setu are recorded and stringently monitored by the state government.

Many departments have also taken this opportunity to provide additional services to the citizens like car- rying out health check-ups, animal health check-ups etc. The transformation of India into a developed nation is impossible without the development of its villages. There has to be a new system of administration at the village and taluka level that ensures that people do not have to visit the district and the city level offices time and again to voice their opinion and suggest constructive changes in administrative processes for more efficient governance. The incarnation of this system in the progressive state of Gujarat, is what we term as the “Pragati Setu” programme.

This programme has been introduced to resolve governance related issues raised collectively by the citizens of a particular region. The first phase of this scheme had been effectively launched on the auspicious day of “Laabh Pancham” in 33 districts and 1,330 villages of 124 talukas. Some of the main highlights are:

Camps under the chairmanship of district collector along with a team of officials from 17 departments are organised at the taluka level.

Citizens of a taluka collectively report their concerns at the camp organised in their respective taluka.

The decisions on the concerns reported are taken after making consultation with officials of the departments concerned.

Even the deadline for implementation is decided on the spot.

Ministers, secretaries and officials of the departments concerned approach regional offices and employees to resolve public issues.

This initiative has been implemented with a view to giving priority in financial management by the departments concerned in certain cases of collective issues and policy-related matters.

As of 14 December 2016, in all 12,555 queries/complaints were received under the Pragati Setu programme. Out of this, 9,470 queries/ complaints were resolved positively with 94.43% success ratio.

No government fee is charged for any service offered under the Seva Setu programme, except the charges for any legal procedures.