DARPG team visits J-K to collaborate in implementation of e-office in Civil Secretariat

An eight-member team of the central government's Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) visited Jammu and Kashmir and held a detailed meeting with senior functionaries of the state administration, an official spokesman said on Friday.

The DARPG will be collaborating with the state administration to implement e-office in Civil Secretariat - the seat of the Jammu and Kashmir government, improving public service delivery and strengthening of the grievance redressal mechanism in Jammu and Kashmir among other good governance initiatives, the spokesman said.

He said advisor to Governor, K Skandan and Chief Secretary B V R Subramanyam discussed on Thursday the DARPG collaboration roadmap with the visiting team headed by Additional Secretary, Ministry of Personnel, PG and Pensions, V Srinivas at the Civil Secretariat.

Srinivas gave a detailed presentation on the areas of specialisation of DARPG and its proposed engagements with the Jammu and Kashmir administration, the spokesman said.

Srinivas said previously DARPG has also collaborated with the state in projects like Visitor Management System in Civil Secretariat, e-Assembly and the ongoing automation of Jammu Development Authority.

"Now DARPG is looking ahead to collaborate with J&K Government in initiatives like e-Office in Civil Secretariat, Pension And Pensioners Welfare, CPGRAMS, strengthening of J&K IMPARD, capacity building training programmes, conferences or seminars on good governance and documentation of governance success stories," Srinivas said.

CPGRAMS is Centralized Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System and J&K IMPARD stands for J&K Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development.

He said after assessing the priorities and the requirements, a roadmap would be finalized within the next two weeks and shared with the state administration, for which they will again visit Jammu and Kashmir later this month.

Advisor Skandan urged DARPG, under Union ministry of personnel, public grievances, and pensions, to conduct an assessment of the various e-service initiatives of the J&K government so that these can be further improved, the spokesman said.

Regarding grievance redressal, Chief Secretary observed that similar to CPGRAMS, J&K has a robust grievance redressal mechanism in place wherein public grievances are received and uploaded on the online Grievance Redressal Portal and being resolutely monitored by the Governor's Grievance Cell till their redressal or closure.

However, the government would like to see it strengthened further with the support of DARPG, he said.

Several senior officers were also present in the meeting, the spokesman said.