Govt has no info of Agrawal panel report on ease of govt procedures

Times of India: Panaji: Wednesday, 22 July 2020.

In a clear indication that the BJP-government has ignored the N D Agrawal committee report on simplification of administrative procedures, the department of public grievances said that it has no record of the committee’s recommendations. In reply to an RTI query, director of public grievances Shivaji Dessai said that documentation about the acceptance and rejection of the report’s recommendations are also unavailable.

The department of public grievances had appointed a committee headed by former South Goa collector N D Agrawal in July 2014 to recommend steps to improve governance and administration. The committee submitted its report, Simplification of Procedures for Effective Delivery of Public Services, in June 2015, to then chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar.

Nearly five years later when Agrawal decided to follow up with the government about the report, he was shocked when Dessai informed him that the directorate had no record of the recommendations.

“The required information is not available with this directorate,” said the RTI reply signed by Dessai.

Agrawal applied for the information in December 2019, but got the reply after nearly six months. Unable to find the information, the director of public grievances wrote to the under secretary for public grievances in February 2020 seeking information on the report.

Section officer Shanti Makwana Harding responded saying that the information is not at the secretariat and is with the department of public grievances.

This is not the first time that government documents or reports have gone missing.

“Of the several recommendations made for departments only the revenue department, the registrar of cooperative societies and the civil-registrar’s office implemented some recommendations,” said Agrawal, who was paid a token fee of Rs 100 per month to prepare the report.

Agrawal said that former chief minister Manohar Parrikar had asked him to prepare the report and make recommendations to improve government administration. One of the many recommendations made was the introduction of self-declaration instead of notarized affidavits.