Good governance has been the focus of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s fifth term in office. As the longest-serving chief minister of the state, Patnaik has come up with innovative administrative reform initiatives such as Mo Sarkar to enhance transparency and efficiency. There is also an effort to bring the administration closer to people and seek their feedback on its programmes and policies.
Taking another step in this direction, the government has now asked its officials to undertake field visits and even make night halts in remote areas to ensure that welfare programmes are implemented properly. During these field visits, which are to be undertaken in the third week of every month, they are also supposed to collect feedback from people on various schemes of the government. The objective is to find out whether the benefits of these programmes are actually reaching them. This will help the government take corrective measures where required.
Opposition leaders, as usual, have seen the latest move of the government from a political angle. They have sought to dismiss it as a political stunt being enacted by the Patnaik administration ahead of the 2024 elections.
The truth, however, is that ever since coming to power 22 years ago, Chief Minister Patnaik has been constantly trying to bring about a positive change in the lives of people through a raft of programmes, with a number of them aimed at improving administrative efficiency. Efforts in this direction have been stepped up significantly in his fifth term which has seen the 5T formula of governance becoming the focus of his administration.
Personally monitored by the Chief Minister and his secretary VK Pandian, who also happens to be the first 5T secretary of the state, the new governance formula aims as much at increasing efficiency as at enhancing transparency. Mo Sarkar, which is an effort at bringing the government closer to the people, is an offshoot of 5T. It started showing results within months of its launch. It succeeded not only in increasing the level of administrative efficiency but also bringing about a positive change in the attitude of policemen and government officials towards common people.
The push for good governance is likely to receive a fillip with the decision to send officials on field trips and make night halts in far-off areas. This is the best way of not only monitoring government programmes but also connecting with the people to know about their problems. In fact, it is impossible to have first-hand knowledge of what is happening in remote areas, especially in the tribal belt where the level of illiteracy is high, without personally interacting with people.
Besides, field visits by senior officials will help galvanize the local administrations which sometimes develop a tendency to take things easy. This will ensure greater accountability and enhanced efficiency.
The Patnaik government’s chances of reaping political benefits from such moves cannot be ruled out. If people are happy with the performance of the government, they are more likely than not to vote for it again. But to say that the government has taken this decision only with an eye to the next elections would be unfair. We must give the government its due credit.
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