Hallmark of Good Governance is Citizen Satisfaction: CM Naveen Patnaik

Bhubaneswar: People are the soul of democracy. The hallmark of good governance is citizen satisfaction, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while reaffirming that his government is committed to promote and implement all policies aimed at overall development of the State and to provide safe and secure environment to all its citizens.

The Chief Minister said, “Mo Sarkar is an important transformative initiative under the 5T Charter of governance. All departments have a charter approved for implementation of transformational initiatives and service delivery under 5T. Mo Sarkar has been implemented across the departments and more than 3 lakh citizens have expressed their satisfaction through Mo Sarkar calls and actions have been taken on the basis of their feedbacks towards institutional transformation”.

To ensure timely & hassle-free delivery of public services, the State Government has notified 412 numbers of Public Services relating to 31 Departments under Odisha Right to Public Service Act, the Chief Minister said while replying on Home, and GA&PG Department’s Demand Discussion in the Assembly.

Regarding recruitment, Odisha Public Service Commission, Odisha Staff Selection Commission and Odisha Subordinate Staff Selection Commission have been tasked to conduct recruitment examinations on a regular basis. During 2021-22, around 12 thousand 810 candidates have been sponsored by OPSC, OSSC and OSSSC to various Departments of the Government.

The State Government has introduced the Odisha Civil Services (Out of turn Promotion) Rules, 2020 for out of turn promotion of Government Employees having exceptional and exemplary achievements in furthering good governance and ease of public service delivery. In order to bring efficiency in the administration, Government has also issued instruction containing procedure to deal with cases of premature retirement of Government Servants with doubtful integrity or due to inefficiency in public service delivery. Total 164 Government servants have been sent on compulsory retirement/dismissal from Government service/pension has been withheld.

During the financial year 2021-22, a sum of Rs.367 Crores has been utilized for Covid management from the donations received under CMRF. Adequate assistance has been provided to indigent persons out of CMRF for their treatment of major ailments, he added.

For quick redressal of Public Grievance and to ensure timely disposal of Pension cases, e-Abhijog Public Grievance Portal has been converted to JANA SUNANI Portal with effect from 1st November, 2021. During this period, more than 16 thousand numbers of grievances have been disposed of through this system, the CM further added.

The Office of the Lokayukta has started functioning since 20th March, 2019. In the Court of Lokayukta, 499 numbers of cases have been disposed off out of 775 cases instituted in the year 2021.

He said, “My Government has adopted a Zero Tolerance approach to corruption. We have been taking a number of steps to strengthen the State Vigilance so that they can discharge their mandate more professionally and serve the people in a better way”.

The State Vigilance, during the year has registered 267 criminal cases against 475 persons and has also initiated 373 enquiries against the public servants. 272 accused persons have been arrested in Vigilance cases.

The Chief Minister said, “My Government firmly believes in honesty, transparency and high morality in public life. We have made it mandatory for all public representatives as well as Government employees at all levels to submit their property statement every year which will be made available in public domain for absolute transparency”.

“In democracy, people are supreme and we are here to serve them”, he added.