Vigilance awareness week | CS urges participation of RTI , social activists in mitigating corruption

Srinagar, Nov 4: Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta today urged the constructive participation of RTI and social activists in mitigating corruption.

According to an official press release, he was holding an interactive session with them here this morning and later in Jammu in the afternoon..

“The interaction with Right to Information Act(RTI) and social activists was part of the ongoing Vigilance Awareness Week,” it added.

Besides Commissioner Secretary, GAD senior civil and police functionaries from Divisional and District Administrations were present at both the venues. These included Divisional Commissioner Kashmir/Jammu; Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar/Jammu; SSP Srinagar/Jammu; Commissioner JMC/SMC; several HoDs and other Sectoral Officers of the concerned districts.

The RTI Activists from different parts of the Kashmir and Jammu divisions participated in these interactions and made various suggestions for further enhancing transparency, accountability and speedy delivery of public services in a corruption free environment.

On the occasion, the Chief Secretary stressed on the RTI activists to extend their constructive support to the administration in weeding out undesirable elements which misuse processes for private benefits. He asked them to channelise their energies to ensure percolation of due benefits to the deserving people. He called on them to work with positive mindset in a collaborative spirit.

Dr Mehta maintained that the Government has adopted a zero tolerance towards corruption and has worked on the principle of increasing citizen participation in governance, with more accountability and transparency in government business.

The Chief Secretary underscored that the technological interventions made during the past couple of years like digitization of all the services, BEAMS, DBT, PROOF, PAY-SYS, e-tendering, mandatory Administrative Approval and Technical Sanction of projects are key steps taken by the Administration in ensuring accountability and transparency in the governance system. He continued that the administration has no intention to shield any one with malafide intent and has taken various steps to enable people to participate in Governance.

He said since the introduction of digital governance system in the UT, filing of RTI applications by people has seen a sharp dip as all information about government schemes, development works, their implementation and execution is available in public domain. He encouraged all of them to often visit the Janbhagadari portal for so as to keep people informed of works under implementation in their areas.

The Chief Secretary also made a mention of PSGA bolstered by the feedback mechanisms of Auto-appeal and RAS which has increased the efficiency of service delivery to public substantially. He revealed that the delivery of services hovers at around 80% within laid down time lines and more than 86% applicants have given the positive feedback regarding this services availed by them.