Gurgaon: A Two-Day Regional Conference on “Learning from Successes” involving the States/Union Territories of Northern, North-Eastern and Eastern regions was inaugurated by Shri Randeep Singh Surjewala, Minister of State (Industries & Commerce, Parliamentary Affairs, Science & Technology, and Public Work (B&R), Government of Haryana at Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA), Gurgaon today. The Conference is being organised jointly by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Government of India and the Government of Haryana.
While inaugurating the Conference, Shri Randeep Singh Surjewala said that Conferences such as this one provide a good opportunity to showcase well recognised good governance initiatives as well as the new initiatives of participating State/UT Governments. He observed that while there are good success stories to be showcased, there also are concerns which need to be addressed. He exhorted civil servants to bring about good administrative reforms in order to provide the basic services like water, electricity, sanitation, health and such essential services to the people. He also mentioned that we should not only ‘learn from successes’ but also ‘learn from failures’. He urged the Civil Servants to get involved with people in order to understand their needs and aspirations in a better way and to try to solve them in an efficient manner. He called for a more accountable and responsible bureaucracy.
The Director General, HIPA welcomed the delegates and emphasised the importance of such Conferences in sharing of new and innovative ideas for better Governance. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Sanjay Kothari, Secretary, DARPG, Government of India mentioned that this is the nineteenth conference in a row and this is the first time that the participants from three different regions, namely, North, North-Eastern and Eastern regions, have been invited for the Conference. He emphasised the need of organizing such regional conferences on regular basis. He further stated that the country is progressing well and there is need to highlight all good things that are happening as well. He said that everyone of us has to look at what he/she can do in your his or her domain to simplify the processes and bring in innovations in governance. He also highlighted the initiatives of DARPG for fostering good governance, such as developing of case studies for discussion in the ATIs. He highlighted the need for simplification of official procedures such as abolition of affidavits, business process re-engineering and making small changes in procedures in order to make governance citizen centric.
Among those who attended the Conference were: Shri ArunJha, Additional Secretary, DARPG, Shri RanjivS. Dalal, Director, HIPA, Shri Y. S. Malik, Additional Chief Secretaryand Shri Pradeep Kasni, Secretary(AR), Government of Haryana, and senior officers from various States in the North, East and North-East region in the country.
The Inaugural Session was followed by a Panel Discussion on Innovation in Governance during which the panellists and the participants highlighted the role of innovation in improving Governance for better public service delivery. Regional Conferences have been organized with the objective of bringing national and state level organizations along with other stakeholders, intelligentsia, etc., on the same platform to share experiences in the formulation and implementation of good governance practices in order to facilitate their adaption, replication and further innovation.