With a view to curb malpractices, Haryana Government will enforce uniform standard operating procedures (SOP) in all offices of sub-divisional magistrates (SDM) in the State.
A decision to this effect was taken by the Chief Minister Manohar lal, in his meeting with Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates (CMGGAs) in New Delhi on Sunday.
The Chief Minister devoted more than three hours with his Associates who have been appointed in all districts. He took keen interest in the study conducted by the CMGGAs, apart from observations and suggestions offered by them.
The Chief Minister also announced that CM Windows would be opened at the sub-divisional level as well. Till now, the CM Window is functional at district headquarters, and a total of 2.05 lakh complaints have been received at these windows, out of which, 1.85 lakh have been redressed amicably.
The CM Window was opened to facilitate the people to send their complaints directly to the Chief Minister without travelling to Chandigarh.
During the meeting, the Chief Minister directed that all loopholes in the offline and online functioning of SDM offices be fixed to weed out all sorts of corruption. He said that strict action would be taken against individuals indulging in such delinquent practices.
On finding irregularities in making driving licenses in SDM offices of Kaithal, Bhiwani and Dadri, it was decided to take strict action against the dealing clerks concerned.
Rajender Kumar, Clerk of SDM office, Kaithal was found to be allegedly sending a large number of driving licenses on same address (read agent) through registered post. Similarly, Hem Singh, license Clerk in SDM office, Bhiwani was alleged to be illegally issuing 200 to 300 driving licenses in a day. Shashikant, working as Steno in SDM office, Dadri was allegedly found to be working in nexus with agents. Corruption in the form of nexus between agents and officials was found in SDM offices, where agent codes are marked on files and bulk licenses are made without taking tests.
Manohar lal said that the observations of CMGGA have become a base for good governance, the impact of which would be felt later.
He said that the aim of the present government was to provide hassle free delivery of services to the general public. For this, training modules need to prepared, so the number of good working people increase, he added.
After the SDM offices, the next target would be Regional Transport Offices (RTA) where procedures followed would be studied and efforts would be made to re-engineer the procedures to make them more citizen-friendly.
During the last six weeks, the CMGGAs worked on understanding ground realities in several areas such as registration of non-commercial transport vehicles at the SDM offices, Motor Vehicle Inspection centers at RTA offices and Common Service Centres (CSCs). The inspection of vehicles was made visually instead of adopting automated fitness procedures, said the Chief Minister.
It was told that NATRIP has set up automated fitness centres in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. The Chief Minister directed to study the working of those centres and submit report.
During the meeting, it was observed that Common Service Centers (CSCs) are unviable for most entrepreneurs because the commission given to the entrepreneur against any service is insufficient for sustenance. As a result, the entrepreneurs are forced to start multiple businesses, hence, they invest little time in CSCs or operate illegally outside the system to earn their living. Technical support, training and hand-holding was also found to be lacking.
In this matter, the CM has ordered that pricing of services and entrepreneurs’ revenue share be scientifically fixed so that it is a viable business for any entrepreneur. Nodal officer of the rank of ADC should be appointed in each district to monitor the project and solve issues faced by entrepreneurs.
In the coming weeks, the CMGGAs would work with the Police Department and they would assist the CPs and SPs in conducting data-backed review of pending complaints and FIRs and study the process of Police Control Room to increase its efficiency. Subsequently, CMGGAs would also study the process of FIRs and citizen service delivery at the police stations.
The Chief Minister also felicitated five CMGGAs, including Ankit Jain from Jind, Chirag Garg from Fatehabad, Karan Alawadi from Gurugram, Pratik Harish from Kaithal and Surekha Yadav from Gurugram.