Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances,Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singhtook a comprehensive review of DoPT, DARPG and DoPPW through Interactive Video Conferencing today.
First of all, the Union Minister reviewed the steps/initiatives taken by DoPT during the period of the lockdown and its preparedness to bring in normalcy after the lockdown is lifted. Grah Kalyan Kendras are working to stitch the face-masks. Every Section of DoPT have identified priority items of work which they shall be completing while Working From Home. The AS/JS would be closely monitoring the progress. The Integrated Government On-line Training (IGoT) Platform has been rolled out for training workers in and outside Government on COVID 19 matters.
On the issue of DARPG, the Minister was informed that it has launched the National Monitoring Dashboard on COVID 19 Grievances on April 1, 2020 (https://darpg.gov.in ) and the portal has received 10659 public grievances as on April 6, 2020. The daily public grievances being filed on the portal have increased from 333 on April 1, 2020 to 2343 on April 6, 2020. The DARPG has issued advisories to all line Ministries/ Departments and State Governments to ensure disposal of COVID 19 Public Grievance cases on priority basis preferably in 3-days time. The disposal of public grievances pertaining to migrant labor issues and essential commodities has been given highest priority. Further the DARPG has attended to media tweets and reports on Television channels on issues pertaining to food requirements of migrant labor. Daily reports on receipts/ disposal, source wise grievances, and category wise grievances are being submitted by DARPG to the Empowered Group of Ministers, Empowered Group of Officers 10 on Public Grievances & Suggestions, Empowered Group of Officers 5 on Essential Commodities and Empowered Group of Officers 7 on Migrant Labor.
On the Department of Pensions, Dr Singh was informed that the entire Department is functioning 100% on e-office with all officers working through VPN connection and the Department has also enabled inter-ministerial exchange of files on e-office. Approximately 4 lakh SMSs were sent to Pensioners informing them about the precautions to be taken with respect to Covid-19 pandemic. The Department is also organising a tele-consultation program for 100 Pensioners across Indian cities through video conferencing with a senior doctor of the Department of Geriatric Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences on 09.04.2020 followed by another session on Yoga and fitness for the elderly Pensioners during lock-down on 13.04.2020 through video conferencing which will include Pensioners from 24-25 Indian cities. These programs will be repeated after the lock-down period to ensure physical and mental fitness of the Pensioners who being senior citizens are a vulnerable group. A special helping hand will be extended in this way to this group.
All Officials of DoPT, DARPG and DoPPW have committed to contribute one day’s salary to the PM CARES Fund for COVID 19 relief operations. Civil Services’ Officers Institute (CSOI) has also contributed Rs.25 lakhs to PM-CARES fund.
