ગુજરાતી
English
27/04/2025
The second recommendation report of the Gujarat Administrative Reforms Commission has been submitted to the government on 26 April 2025. Keeping in mind the goal of ‘Government at your doorstep’ through the use of digital technology, 10 citizen-centric recommendations have been made.
The second report of the commission focuses on technology for public services.
* Making government websites user-friendly.
* Need to make the citizen charter more effective.
* Single sign-on for all government services. Get the benefit of any government service or scheme from one place.
* Verification of government certificates can be done using QR technology. Establish systems including codes.
* Social media should be used more effectively.
Within a month of the announcement of the formation of the Gujarat Administrative Reforms Commission, the first recommendation report was submitted to the state government. GARC Chairman Dr. Hasmukh is a man with half a heart.
Topics
(1) Creating user-friendly government websites for pleasant citizen experience:
To ensure quality, accessibility and security of government websites and applications, GARC has asked all government websites to be assessed by August 2025 and comply with the Guidelines for Government of India Websites and Applications (GIGW 3.0).
(2) Making Citizen Charter effective:
With a citizen first approach, a robust system based on Citizen Charter will be developed for all citizen service delivery departments, with full details about the services and timelines for providing those services, grievance redressal mechanism and accountability mechanism.
(3) Making government service delivery portals citizen friendly:
It is recommended to create a single sign-on for all government services so that citizens can avail any government scheme or program from a single place, thereby ensuring efficient interoperability. Additionally, citizens will be exempted from entering the same demographic and identity information separately for availing different benefits.
(4) Establishing a system to verify government certificates through technology:
In keeping with the government’s vision of transparency and accountability, a technology-enabled QR-based mechanism will be developed to verify the authenticity of official certificates, licenses, approvals and other documents issued by the government.
(5) Making the grievance redressal platform integrated, citizen-centric and comprehensive:
The government will integrate various grievance redressal mechanisms by making the existing Swagat platform more comprehensive. This integrated platform will provide multiple channels for citizens to register their complaints. For example, email, WhatsApp, phone calls, online portals, etc.
(6) Strengthening organisational knowledge through effective knowledge management:
The government will develop a ‘knowledge transfer protocol’ according to which all employees (whether transferring or retiring) will have to submit a knowledge transfer document to the incoming employee to further strengthen organisational knowledge. Further, government departments and offices will have to develop multimedia content on the theme “Know Your Department” regarding the functions performed by their offices to help citizens understand government functions.
(7) Vehicle disposal protocol for government vehicles:
The government will prepare a vehicle disposal protocol for disposal of old vehicles being used by government departments and the existing system for disposal of unused vehicles has also been recommended to be simplified.
(8) Protocol for disposal of unused furniture for all public offices:
The report also suggests that the government will develop a furniture disposal protocol in all public offices within the next six months and dispose of unused furniture accordingly.
(9) Office hours for offices other than educational institutions should be from 9:30 am to 5:10 pm to enhance productivity through effective work day management:
The report recommends that keeping in view the work-life balance approach and increasing efficiency, the official working hours of all government offices and institutions, including Government regional offices, should be fixed from 09:30 am to 05:10 pm.
(10) Effective use of social media by the Government:
The Government will take steps to ensure that the day-to-day activities undertaken by the Government as well as various schemes at the local level, infographics related to success stories, explanatory videos, etc. are easily accessible to the public through official social media accounts. For this, the Government will formulate guidelines for social media handling and has also recommended setting up a dedicated task force for enhancing social media outreach at the grassroots level in each department and their respective regional offices.
GARC is chaired by Dr Hasmukh Adhia, panel members are Chief Secretary Pankaj Joshi and Member Secretary Harit Shukla.
Suggestions were invited, of which the commission received 2150 responses and recommendations. (Google translation from Gujarati)
