SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 22: Aimed at to implement SMART Governance and assess the status of governance of various interventions taken by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), Government of India, and Jammu and Kashmir administration, an exercise was initiated for measuring the status of governance in the districts based on selected indicators and parameters.
In this regard, Chief Secretary, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, today convened an online high-level meeting with Union Special Secretary, DARPG, V Srinivas.
Director-General, J&K IMPARD, Saurabh Bhagat; Director Training, J&K IMPARD, Dr. Reva Sharma; Director-General, Economics and Statistics Department; Director-General, Budget, and other senior officers attended the meeting.
At present 10 development sectors, 58 indicators and 116 data sets have been approved by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. The data from each of the districts was collated and weightage was accorded to each indicator keeping in view National and UT specific priorities. After the application of the statistical model, the district good governance index was formulated and districts were ranked and a composite ranking was also assigned to the districts.
It was decided in the meeting that after completing the data collation and validation process, the Index will be published in January-February 2022. Thus, J&K will become the first Union Territory in India to implement District Good Governance Index (DGGI). It is likely to be adopted pan India by DARPG as a replication of best practices.
During the meeting, Dr. Shabbeer Shaikh, Director, Centre for Good Governance (CGG), Hyderabad, gave a presentation on “Development of District Good Governance Index (DGGI)”.
Pertinently, the CGG, Hyderabad, and DARPG, Government of India, provide financial and technical support in preparing the District Good Governance Index (DGGI). Besides, the J&K IMPARD with the active collaboration of the Department of Planning and Statistics plays a pivotal role in coordination and analysis for developing the District Good Governance Index (DGGI).
The development of DGGI as a tool to assess the status of Governance in the UT of J&K is a path-breaking initiative taken by DARPG as a follow-up to the July 2nd Declaration of Behtar Nizami-Humumat Kashmir Aelamia.
Chief Secretary, while complementing the efforts of Union Additional Secretary, DARPG; Director-General, J&K IMPARD; and Director-General, Department of Economics and Statistics, in completion of the task of preparation of District Good Governance Index (DGGI) in a record time, approved its implementation in the districts of the UT to enable them to further improve upon various indicators of governance in three months’ time.
He also emphasized incorporating more indicators especially with regard to District Plan and Execution of Works, Self-Employment, Human Resources Development, Sports, etc., keeping in view priorities of the government thus making it a benchmark and a litmus test for effective public service delivery and good governance.