CS stresses on addressing public grievances, field visits

Srinagar, May 19: Chief Secretary, B B Vyas Friday chaired the first meeting of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS).

The Committee deliberated upon a wide range of issues which include inter-alia settlement of SRO 43-cases and cases relating to adhoc/consolidated/ contractual employees as have been cleared by the Empowered Committee, abolition of interviews for junior level posts, abolition of affidavits, disposal of pending departmental enquires, implementation of Aadhaar Enabled Bio Metric Attendance System (AEBAS), Aadhaar Based Bio-Metric & Skill Profiling of Casual and other Workers, up-dation of departmental websites, weeding out of old records, web based file tracking system, reference of vacancies to recruiting agencies,.

Chief Secretary observed that the State Government accords highest priority to redressal of public grievances and issues relating to delivery of public service. He urged all Administrative Secretaries to interact with people during the designated hours (1:00 PM to 3:00 PM) for attending to their difficulties and insisted upon institutionalizing the grievance redressal mechanism in the departments. He asked the Administrative Secretaries to undertake field visits to review the implementation of developmental progress so as to evaluate the impact of different welfare programmes/schemes, development and reform initiatives at the ground level. He asked the Administrative Secretaries to ensure punctuality of staff in their offices as well as subordinate offices, for prompt public service delivery.

To expand the avenues of employment for youth, Chief Secretary directed the Administrative Secretaries to have all the vacancies under direct quota referred to J&K PSC/SSB within 15 days positively. He also stressed upon fast tracking the promotion proposals through DPCs.

Chief Secretary asked the Administrative Secretaries to nominate a Nodal Officer to monitor the implementation of Public Service Guarantee Act (PSGA) in their respective departments. The departments were asked to explore the possibility of inclusion of more services within the ambit of the PSGA. It was also suggested that Third Party Monitoring be got conducted to assess the impact of the implementation of the Act and taking corrective measures as may be required.

Chief Secretary asked Commissioner/ Secretary GAD to examine constitution of a Sub- Committee for up-dation of recruitment rules in a mission mode, so that the recruitment rules can cater to the felt needs of the departments. The Administrative Secretaries were also requested to send the pending Annual Reports to J&K State Information Commission.

Chief Secretary informed the Administrative Secretaries about various aspects of Aadhaar Act, in the context of which the Union Cabinet Secretary had held a meeting through video conferencing on May 18th, 2017. He asked the IT department to conduct audit of all departmental websites of the Civil Secretariat to check against any violation of Aadhaar Act and IT Act. He said all departmental websites should be Aadhaar Act, IT Act and RTI Act compliant, to ensure against misuse of Bank Account and other Aadhaar related details.