Over 700 districts participate in PM awards for public administration: Govt

Over 700 districts have participated in the prime minister's awards for excellence in public administration which will be conferred on October 31 at the Statue of Unity in Gujarat, the Personnel Ministry said on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will give away the awards to the winners.

The scheme for this year's awards has been restructured to recognise the performance of district collectors towards economic development of their areas, it said.

The contribution of district collectors would be recognised for implementation of inclusive credit flow to the priority sector, promoting people's movements through 'jan bhagidari' and improving service delivery and redressal of public grievances, the ministry said in a statement.

Almost 702 districts have registered and participated in the prime minister's awards for excellence in public administration 2020 which is 95 per cent, it said.

Out of this, 678 districts have chosen the District Performance Indicators Program (DPIP), the statement said.

A total of 646 applications have been received under innovations category out of which 104 belong to central government organisations, it said.

The ministry said 193 applications belong to state-level innovations and 660 applications have been received for district-level innovations.

As many as 48 and 81 districts have applied under Namami Gange and aspirational district programmes, respectively, it said.

The prime minister's awards also seek to recognise the efforts of district-level officials in Namami Gange programme, the statement said.

The award for the aspirational district's programme has been revamped to reward the district having the best overall progress under the scheme following two years of implementation, it said.

The PMs awards portal was launched by Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh on July 17, 2020.

The last date of registration and filing nominations was extended till August 23, considering COVID-19 pandemic situation, the minister said.