Govt employees to design, implement own projects

Taking a cue from Gujarat, the Centre has asked all its employees to design and implement projects of their choice to help it in improving citizen- centric services, governance and provide new initiatives of mass welfare.
"It has been decided to launch an initiative to provide a platform to government officials to design and implement projects or schemes of their choice on voluntary basis which would give them a sense of self satisfaction and achievement," the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) said in an order.
The scheme of 'Swantah Sukhaya' (Sanskrit words meaning for one's happiness) envisages providing an opportunity to all government employees to use their initiative and insights for the benefit of the community and nation at large outside their structured format of work.

The government is trying to meet the challenges of fulfilling diverse needs and expectations of a large number of people. However, due to structure of administration, limited freedom is available to its employees to initiates programmes or projects based on their own ideas, concepts and capabilities, the order said.
The initiative would give autonomy to the employees to make use of their initiative, enthusiasm, energy and innovation as well as their knowledge, understanding and insights of ground level reality for taking up assignments and schemes, it said.
"As the employees themselves design the projects, it creates their own stake in the implementation and thus motivates them to excel. Freedom to collaborate with agencies facilitates direct interaction with local people and stakeholders, and also ensures faster implementation of the project.

"The scheme is structured on the model successfully practised in Gujarat state for the past 10 years," said the draft guidelines issued by the DARPG.
The 'Swantah Sukhaya' initiatives was first planned by Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration, Ahmedabad and supported by the DARPG.