Minister of State in the Prime Minister”s Office V Narayanasamy on Sunday said that the government is to amend the Prevention of Corruption Act to punish bribe givers.
Addressing the National Editors” conference here, Narayanasamy said, his ministry has issued guidelines to sanction prosecution of government officers.
Asserting that the inquiry into corruption cases is now done in a time-bound manner, Narayanasamy said the Centre will assess the performance of government officers and whosoever is found to be not up to the mark, he or she will be removed from service.
Stating that public service delivery mechanism is the breeding ground for corruption, Narayanasamy said once the Public Services Delivery Bill is passed by Parliament, services will be provided in a fixed time frame.
Talking about the e-governance programme, Narayanasamy said, the government is pushing to make paperless offices.
He said awareness programmes, like seminars and conferences, are being held in the States to communicate benefits of such a proposed arrangement.
Narayanasamy further informed about the thrust being given by the Government on efficient functioning of the bureaucracy and need for review of their performance.
“Rules have been amended to provide for two tiers of intensive reviews of All India Service Officers on completion of 15 years of qualifying service and again on completion of 25 years of qualifying service, to assess the suitability of the officers for their further retention in service,” he said.
“A number of other legislations have been initiated to usher in greater transparency and accountability. ”Right of Citizens for time-bound delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill”, 2011, intends to make the Citizens” Charter statutory and to endow the public with the right to delivery of goods and services in a time bound manner. The Government is making all efforts to move the official amendments in the ongoing budget session,” he added.
The minister stated that comprehensive reform attempts are made through the implementation of the recommendations of the administrative reforms commissions.
“The 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission was constituted in 2005 to prepare a detailed blueprint for revamping the public administration system in the country. The ARC had submitted 15 reports containing 1251 recommendations. Out of these 1251 recommendations, more than 900 recommendations have been accepted by the Government,” he added.
Stressed on the need for E-Governance initiatives for providing a transparent administration, Narayanasamy said: “A framework for efficient handling of public grievances through the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRMS) is already in place. Pilot implementation of the e-Office project, which is one of the mission mode projects under the National e-Governance Plan is being carried out.”
He informed that the Ministry has taken a number of steps over the years for streamlining the pension administration system for greater convenience and welfare of the pensioners.
“The Department of Pension & Pensioners” Welfare has developed a web-based ”Pensioners” Portal”, a Mission Mode Project (MMP) under the National e-Governance Plan of Government of India. Mr. Narayanasamy listed the New Initiatives taken by Department of Pension that has resulted in significant relief to the pensioners,” he added. (ANI)