Only seven per cent general public visit the secretariat: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Citing a recent study, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that out of the people visiting the state secretariat in Guwahati only 7 percent are general public and 6 percent are retired government servants.

Sarma urged the officials of Janata Bhawan to redefine their roles and re-dedicate themselves to the service of the people. The Chief Minister made this call while taking part in an interactive programme with the officials in connection with Project Sadbhavana.

Sarma said that taking a decisive action to clear all old cases and close the long-pending files, the state government will start implementation of Project Sadbhavana from 1 ^st February, 2022. He said that there are many old cases pertaining to various departments at Janata Bhawan and in such cases, decisions have been pending for years. While the old files are gathering dusts at the rack, the citizens have to make visits in pursuing the cases, hoping for some decision by the concerned department, he said.

Sarma said that M/S KPMG recently carried out an exercise to understand why the citizens come to the secretariat. The exercise revealed that top five departments attracting visitors are Education (27%), PWD (19%), Pension & Public Grievances (8%), Irrigation (5%) and Social Welfare Department (4%). Out of the visitors, 29% are government employees, 24% are contractors, 12% are teaching staff, 7% are general public, 6.5% are corporate people and 6% are retired government servants. The study showed that most of the cases related to the visitors are old cases where no decisions have been taken for years together.

The Chief Minister said that in view of this, a onetime exercise to dispose of all the old cases, i.e. cases before May 2021 in a time bound manner by 10 ^th May, 2022, Project Sadbhavana has been undertaken by the state government, which will bring huge relief to the citizens. Sarma said that it will result in closing files and making space in the departments. Clearing all the old cases will drastically reduce the number of visits to the Secretariat too, he observed.

Sarma informed that under Project Sadbhavana, in first phase, a window of two months will be given to all the citizens for registration and quoting the file number or reference of government communication regarding the old cases. This can be done online in the government Sadbhavana portal. Those, who do not have access to the internet, can also approach Public Facilitation Centres and subsequently register and give the details. The citizen will be provided a unique number for tracking the progress of the case. Simultaneously, all the departments will undertake the exercise to collect, document and examine all the old files and the cases dating before May, 2021.

The Chief Minister said that in the second phase, the departments will be given time till April, 2022 to clear all the old cases and subsequently close the files. The clearing of the cases will not mean that decisions will always be affirmative. It will however involve due diligence regarding these cases which will be done by the department and final decision will be taken. After the decisions, the old files will be closed and archived. The exercise will be completed by 10 ^th May, 2022, he said.

Stating that the government will use technology extensively in completing this exercise, Sarma said that in the frontend, the portal will be used for inviting response from the citizens. Citizens can track the progress of their response also. The file movement will be tracked through e-Office. Further, the implementation of this project will be monitored by the Government through a Dashboard, the Chief Minister informed.

Outlining plans for making government more efficient and people centric, the Chief Minister informed that alongwith Project Sadbhavna, the government of Assam aims to undertake swacchta drive to create a healthy working environment at Janata Bhawan.

He also said that once Project Sadbhavana is brought to a logical conclusion on 10 ^th May, 2022, state government will initiate implementation of e-Office system at Janata Bhawan, which is targeted to be made operational across all departments at the secretariat by 10 ^th May, 2023. Sarma urged the officials to be an active part of this new change and be the change agent that people of the state are waiting for.