'Penalty proceedings' against 55 officers for delay in delivery of services in J-K: Official

Jammu, Nov 7 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir administration has initiated 'penalty proceedings' against 55 officers for alleged delay on their part in delivery of various services in the revenue department, a senior official said.

This step has been taken by the administration to ensure time-bound delivery of online services, e-services being covered under the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA) with linkage to Auto-Appeal System (AAS) which escalates breach of timeline cases to the next authority for action against defaulting officer, they said.

Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta chaired a meeting of Administrative Secretaries on Tuesday and took stock of activities undertaken during the course of vigilance week. During the meeting, it was informed that the government had been vigorously working to promote both preventive and participatory vigilance for bringing transparency and accountability in governance.

'To ensure time-bound delivery of online services, e-services are progressively being covered under the PSGA with linkage to AAS which escalates breach of timeline cases to the next authority for action against defaulting officer', Commissioner-Secretary General Administration Department (GAD) Sanjeev Verma said at the meeting.

He said that as of now, around 64,000 appeals have been generated and 32,000 of them disposed of. 'Besides, penalty proceedings have been initiated against 55 officers who have delayed delivery of various services in the Revenue department', he added.

The Commissioner Secretary said that following the government's resolve to make government-to-citizen interactions more transparent and accessible through 1075 e-services, which is highest in the country, along with related IT initiatives such as MobileDost, Rapid Assessment System, DigiDost for doorstep delivery of e-services, linking of services with DigiLocker, there has been 'immense progress in mitigating corruption'.

'The latest data indicates that more than 52 lakh applications have been processed for availing various services in the online mode of which more than 42 lakh have been disposed of', he added.

Emphasizing the importance of financial discipline in checking the abuse of discretionary authority, Chief Secretary Mehta highlighted the functioning of BEAMS and PaySys linked digital payments have further streamlined the disbursal of timelines.

In tandem with these initiatives, the government has achieved 100 per cent disbursal of financial assistance under 55 flagship schemes in the Union Territory exclusively through DBT mode, he said.

More than 92,000 works have been completed during the financial year 2022-23, which is the highest ever, the Jammu and Kashmir chief secretary added. PTI AB CK