The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, chaired his eleventh interaction through PRAGATI – the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.
The Prime Minister reviewed the progress towards handling and resolution of public grievances.
The Prime Minister reviewed the progress of vital infrastructure projects in the road, railway, power, and oil sectors, spread over several states including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.
Reviewing the progress towards ease of doing business, Shri Narendra Modi observed that there is now healthy progress among states for investment. He called for further concerted efforts to build on the momentum, to create a positive perception.
The Prime Minister asked about Mission Mode projects under Digital India. Examining the progress of Digitization of Land Records, the Prime Minister called for integration of all land records with Aadhaar at the earliest. He emphasized that this is extremely important to monitor the successful implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana.
Reviewing the progress of provision of citizen-centric services electronically, the Prime Minister called for a comprehensive district-wise review across the country, of how many services are actually being delivered online.
In the social sector, the Prime Minister assessed the status of the Widow Pension Programme, and the progress towards eradication of leprosy.
Urging the officers to further speed up the pace of work in this regard, Shri Modi emphasized that grievance redressal is one of the biggest aspects of democracy. He called for focused action within the next one month, to ensure that barring exceptions, grievances are disposed off within 60 days. He reiterated his directive for top officers to intervene in this matter.
ABOUT PROJECT ‘PRAGATI’:
The PRAGATI platform uniquely bundles three latest technologies: Digital data management, video-conferencing and geo-spatial technology. It also offers a unique combination in the direction of cooperative federalism since it brings on one stage the Secretaries of Government of India and the Chief Secretaries of the States.
With this, the Prime Minister is able to discuss the issues with the concerned Central and State officials with full information and latest visuals of the ground level situation. Such an effort has never been made in India. It is also an innovative project in e-governance and good governance.
Immediately after assuming office, the Prime Minister had shown his keenness to design a credible mechanism for redressal of Public Grievances. He was equally keen to see that programmes and projects launched by the Central and State Government(s) are monitored properly for timely implementation and desired outcome. With that spirit and for holistic development of the country, it was also felt necessary to facilitate from the Union Government level the projects of the States.
Accordingly, with the three objectives of: Grievance Redressal, Programme Implementation and Project Monitoring, an IT-based redressal and monitoring system has been designed. It combines Data Management and Analysis, Geo-spatial Applications as well as Video-conferencing. The application is accessible to the Secretaries of the Government of India and the State Chief Secretaries.
Key features of the PRAGATI application are as follows:
- It is a three-tier system (PMO, Union Government Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries of the States);
- Prime Minister holds a monthly programme where he interacts with the Government of India Secretaries, and Chief Secretaries through Video-conferencing enabled by data and geo-informatics visuals;
- The first such programme was launched on 25th March, 2015
- It is held once in every month on Fourth Wednesday at 3.30 PM-to be known as PRAGATI Day.
- Issues to be flagged before the PM are picked up from the available database regarding Public Grievances, on-going Programmes and pending Projects;
- The system rides on, strengthen and re-engineer the data bases of the CPGRAMS for grievances, Project Monitoring Group (PMG) and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
- PRAGATI provides an interface and platform for all these three aspects.
- It also takes into consideration various correspondences to PM’s office by the common people or from high dignitaries of States and/or developers of public projects;
- The issues flagged are uploaded seven days prior to the PRAGATI day (i.e. on third Wednesday of every month).
- These issues can be viewed by the Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries after entering into the application;
- User ID and Password for each of the Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries have been created and made available;
- Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries is able to see the issues pertaining to their Department /State;
- Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries have to put their comments and updates about the flagged issues within three days (i.e. by next Monday);
- One day – Tuesday is available to the PMO team to review the data entered by the Union Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries;
- The design is such, that when PM reviews the issue he should have on his screen the issue as well as the latest updates and visuals regarding the same;
The system has been designed in-house by the PMO team with the help of National Informatics Center (NIC).
As the name suggests, it is aimed at starting a culture of Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation. It is also a robust system for bringing e-transparency and e-accountability with real-time presence and exchange among the key stakeholders.
