Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh called on the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow on Saturday, 19 August 2023. In their meeting lasting over an hour, they discussed threadbare the Digital Governance Plan for Uttar Pradesh.

It was informed that the Uttar Pradesh District Good Governance Index (DGGI) 2022, the first of its kind survey of districts undertaken by any state in the country, is ready for release.

The Good Governance Index (GGI) Report, 2021, prepared by DARPG, says that Uttar Pradesh has shown an incremental growth of 8.9 % over GGI 2019 performance. Among the sectors, UP has secured top position in Commerce & Industry sector and has also shown increase in Social Welfare & Development and Judiciary & Public Safety. Uttar Pradesh has also performed well in citizen centric governance including public grievance redressal.

Dr Jitendra Singh proposed that the State Administration should design DGGI-based performance incentive system to reward the Best Practices and institute the Chief Minister’s Awards for Good Governance / Practices on the pattern of PM Awards being managed by DARPG, GoI.

Dr Jitendra Singh also congratulated the UP CM for two districts, - Rampur and Chitrakoot, bagging the Prime Minister’s Awards on Civil Services Day, 2023. Several other innovative practices have also been recipients of the PM awards for excellence in Administration and E-Governance, including district Chandauli for Black Rice, district Siddharthnagar for ODOP- Kala Namak rice, Varanasi district for Swamitva Yojana and the state’s Mines and Mineral Management System.

Dr Jitendra Singh lauded Yogi Adityanath for providing as many as 714 Government Services online in Uttar Pradesh. He urged the UP Chief Minister to bring more services onboard the Unified Services Portal and hoped the state would soon catch up with Madhya Pradesh, which tops the rankings providing 1,000 services online. It was mentioned that Uttar Pradesh has the potential to provide e-services of at least 20 types in Tourism sector, 9 types of Environment and 14 types in Education.

As per the National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) 2021 index released by DARPG biennially, Uttar Pradesh ranked 2^nd in assessment of portals and service portals among the large states with a compliance of more than 85%. Uttar Pradesh was among the forerunners in implementing mandatory services covered in NeSDA 2021 assessment. An exemplary initiative from UP on an integrated portal named "Nivesh Mitra" was also covered in the 2021 assessment.

Dr Jitendra Singh appreciated the fact that the state has consistently performed exceptional in the Grievances Disposal rankings.

As per the Grievance Redressal and Assessment Index (GRAI) monthly report of States/UTs, released by the DARPG, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh topped the rankings among the large States continuously in the months of May, June and July 2023. Uttar Pradesh received and disposed maximum number of grievances during 01.01.2023 to 15.08.2023 among all States and UTs. Uttar Pradesh, with an average closing time of 23 days, is the only large State which has average closing time of their grievances within the standard redressal time of 30 days.

The State Govt has developed a very robust Integrated Grievance Redressal System popularly termed as IGRS or the ‘UP Jansunwai Samadhan’. The CM Helpline is at the heart of this system. Common citizens can register their grievances through toll free number 1076, which is backed by a call centre staffed with 500 strong work force. The IGRS is fully integrated with Govt of India’s PG portal (CPGRAMS) as well as those received in various offices like the Governor’s office, CMO and down to the level of districts/tehsil and police stations. The impact of the IGRS has been highly positive. On an average, 80 lakh public grievances are being received and disposed of every year through this system. Receipt of a large number of grievances or references from the citizens reflects their growing confidence in the system and the enhanced credibility of administration. The average disposal time has been reduced drastically.

Dr Jitendra Singh suggested that the DARPG can conduct the 2^nd National Workshop on SEVOTTAM in Uttar Pradesh. SEVOTTAM is a capacity building programme for the Grievance redressal officers registered under the CPGRAMS.  The programme is implemented through State Administrative Training Institutes (ATIs).  19 ATIs including UP have joined DARPG in implementing SEVOTTAM. A grant of Rs 20 lakh was released to UP ATI in 2022-23. They have conducted 11 training programmes for 658 officers.

Dr Jitendra Singh also urged the UP CM to direct state treasuries to tie up with the MeitY to enable Digital Life Certificate (DLC) generation of Jeevan Pramaan using face authentication technique and ensure installation of the app in pensioners’ mobile phones. This will make the DLC facility available for the pensioners drawing pension from U.P. state government treasuries. Dr Jitendra Singh said the Central Govt’s Department of Pension & Pensioners’ Welfare will be conducting another awareness campaign in November 2023 at 100 locations across the country in collaboration with Banks, Pensioners Associations, MEITY, UIDAI and Ministry of Defence with a target of generation of DLCs for 50 lakh pensioners. This will enable the pensioner to submit the DLC every year from the comfort of their homes

As Central Minister in-charge of Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh urged the UP CM to allot land for the setting up of a Biotechnology Park in Lucknow by the Centre’s Department of Biotechnology at the earliest.

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