Decision-making without fear, favour; J&K LG pushes for citizen-friendly administration

J&K, like the whole of India, has been fighting the deadly second wave of COVID-19, but has been coming up with effective ways to combat the effects of the virus and provide financial security and healthcare stability in more ways than one. Continuing a steady decline in Covid spread, J&K on Monday reported 1,525 new cases and 37 deaths during the last 24 hours. J&K is also taking lead in preparing for the third wave of COVID, but that's not the extent of governance that the administration has in store for the people of the valley.

J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha chaired a high-level meeting of Administrative Secretaries on Monday in a bid to improve governance and further the mission of citizen-friendly administration. Sinha directed the officials to improve speed, quality of decision-making without fear and favour and work solely for the welfare of the common man.

"The officers have done a great job in handling global pandemic and simultaneously pushing development works. Moving forward, scheduling due dates and deliverables is compulsory for every project," Sinha said in a series of tweets on Monday.

Citizen-friendly administration

Sinha directed the Administrative Secretaries in the meeting to interact with public on a daily basis and redress their grievances with empathy. Officers should put an end to ad-hocism, determine the need & action required for welfare of common man, he said.

Sinha stressed the importance of every department being responsive, accountable for citizen-centric governance and interact with officers in the field to create citizen-friendly administration.

"Covid challenges are not over. We have transformed healthcare infrastructure in last 10 months but need to continue real-time, personalized communication with the public while enabling greater efficiency, better coordination among concerned departments," Sinha noted.

So far, 290,465 people have been infected with coronavirus in J&K out of which 251,463 have recovered, while 3,907 have succumbed. The total number of active cases is 35,095 out of which 13061 are from the Jammu division and 22,034 from the Kashmir division.