As the first Budget session is already over, the Delhi Government is now planning to appoint nodal administrative secretaries to get its 70-point agenda implemented in the city that all these days was on the backburner with the Arvind Kejriwal Government at loggerheads with its senior officers.
The decision has been taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. The meeting was attended by all Heads of Departments, Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of Delhi Government.
According to minutes of the meeting, it was made clear to the officers that the AAP Government was totally committed to achieve the 70-point agenda. A decision was taken that every agenda point should have a specific nodal administrative secretary responsible for its implementation. All the secretaries were directed to submit a list of agenda items which were under his or her charge chief secretary K K Sharma. The Chief Secretary was, in turn, requested to consolidate the agenda points with the respective secretary or HOD.
The Deputy CM is said to have instructed his IT department to develop on-line mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the 70-point agenda.
A senior official said on the condition of anonymity that due to ongoing tussle between the Government and lieutenant Governor Nabeeb Jung, the AAP Government had found it difficult to take initiative to implement its 70-point agenda.
The Government has ordered its IT department to reactivate its Cabinet Decisions Monitoring System and has also directed its General Administrative Department to monitor the implementation of the Cabinet decisions and bring to the notice of the Deputy CM and respective Ministers about the decisions which are not being implemented beyond one month.
It was also conveyed to the senior officials that the meeting of the HODs will be held every week for better coordination to facilitate resolution of interdepartmental issues.
The meeting took strong exception to the fact that Budget proposals and other important Cabinet proposals were being made available to the media before the approval of the Budget by the Assembly.
Instructions were issued that the HODs should ensure that the Cabinet and Budget proposals should not be leaked to the media in future.
The Deputy CM also emphasised on decentralising of work of those HODs who were being over-burdened.
Sisodia said the routine work of such officers should be delegated to their immediate juniors. He also suggested that the best practices of senior officers should be shared in the HOD level meetings so that the same can be adopted by other officers.
The meeting also focused on the fact that grievances of the legislators were not being properly redressed. A decision was taken that all out efforts should be made to positively address the grievances which are received through the MlAs.