On the invitation of Chief Secretary Government of Andhra Pradesh, a 6 member DARPG delegation led by Secretary DARPG V.Srinivas visited Vijayawada on January 12, 2023 to draw up the roadmap for collaboration between the DARPG and Government of Andhra Pradesh. The DARPG delegation held a series of official meetings with the Chief Secretary Jawahar Reddy, Special Chief Secretary GAD Praveen Kumar, and other senior officials.
DARPG Secretary V.Srinivas congratulated Chief Secretary Government of Andhra Pradesh Dr. Jawahar Reddy on his assumption of office. He also congratulated the Government of Andhra Pradesh for the successful implementation of the Good Governance Week 2022, operationalizing the comprehensive public grievances redressal system SPANDANA, for the strong performance under the National e-Services Delivery Assessment 2021, for widespread adoption of e-Office in the State and implementation of several award winning models of Good Governance under the Scheme for PM’s Awards for Excellence in Public Administration and the National e-Governance Awards Scheme in Andhra Pradesh.
The DARPG delegation visited the AP HRD Institute in Kaza Amaravati and met Senior Officials. The annual plan for conducting capacity building programs for Grievance Redressal Officers in Andhra Pradesh under the Sevottam scheme was discussed. From January to March 2023, 50 Sevottam modules to cover 5000 Grievance Redressal Officers would be held. From 2023-24 the Sevottam program in the State would be further expanded.
The DARPG delegation also visited the Gram Sachiavalaya at Nambur village and familiarize itself of the best practices in citizen centric governance models of Government of Andhra Pradesh.
The following roadmap for collaboration was drawn up:
- Capacity building of 5000 Grievance Officers under the Sevottam Scheme for improving grievance redressal in collaboration with APHRDI.
- Convening a Regional Conference on e-Governance, Improving Service Delivery and Grievance Redressal in Tirupati on mutually agreed dates.
- Improved coordination between Government of Andhra Pradesh and DARPG in the formulation of Good Governance Index and National e-Services Delivery Assessment.
- Formulation of the District Good Governance Index for Andhra Pradesh.
- Documentation/ dissemination of the SPANDANA as a best practice of Government of Andhra Pradesh.
The DARPG delegation called on Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and appraised him on the proposed roadmap for collaboration. The Hon’ble Chief Minister appreciated the initiative and shared his thoughts on citizen centric governance models of Andhra Pradesh. Hon’ble Chief Minister said the SPANDANA portal would be further strengthened with addition of data analytics and focus on quality of grievance redressal. Further the Gram Sachivalayas have been developed to provide a comprehensive array of e-Services and DBT services at the village level and also to monitor the progress of SDGs at village level. Internet connectivity remains a challenge and the Government of India should focus on enhancing the coverage of Bharat Net. Hon’ble Chief Minister said the Government of Andhra Pradesh focus on bringing citizens and government closer through digital empowerment of citizens and digital transformation of institutions is also backed by social audit of village level programs that has enhanced accountability and transparency.
The DARPG delegation to Andhra Pradesh comprised of V.Srinivas, Secretary DARPG, N.B.S.Rajput, Joint Secretary, Directors N.K.Meena, K.Sanjayan, Deputy Secretary Parthasarathy Bhaskar and Under Secretary Santosh Kumar.
