Personnel ministry thrust on prompt redressal of public grievances, good governance initiatives in 2024

New Delhi: Prompt redressal of public grievances, promotion of digital life certificates among pensioners and generation of wealth from disposal of scrap were some of the key initiatives undertaken by the personnel ministry this year.

Besides these, the ministry was in the news due to a row on lateral recruitment drive which was eventually withdrawn over the lack of a reservation provision. It was also involved in dealing with the issue of misuse of power and privileges by now-sacked IAS officer Puja Khedkar.

Speaking to PTI on the ministry's achievements in 2024, Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said several initiatives were undertaken to further ensure ease of governance for people, especially those living in far flung areas.

"The ministry is proactively following the mantra of 'maximum governance and minimum government' given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For instance, the average time for disposal of public grievances has come down from 28 days in 2019 to 13 days in 2024," he said.

Singh said over 1.12 crore public grievances were redressed during the last five years. These complaints were raised on the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal.

"A total of 1,12,30,957 grievances were redressed from 2020-2024 and an annual all-time high of 23,24,323 grievances have been redressed on CPGRAMS portal from January-October, 2024," he said.

The minister said that the Department of Pensions and Pensioners’ Welfare (DoPPW) under his ministry actively promoted use of digital life certificates among the pensioners.

"As a result, a whopping 1.3 crore digital life certificates were generated during a month-long special campaign undertaken by the government in November," he said.

Pensioners need to submit a life certificate annually for the continuation of their pension. Traditionally, these life certificates were submitted in physical mode only which was inconvenient for the pensioners.

In November 2014, an Aadhaar-based scheme for online submission of digital life certificates (DLCs), Jeevan Pramaan, was launched by Prime Minister Modi to ensure transparency in the system and facilitate the pensioners to submit life certificates at their comfort, thus greatly enhancing their ease of living.

To promote Jeevan Pramaan, the nationwide DLC campaign 3.0 was conducted from November 1 to 30.

"Focused efforts led to the submission of a substantial number of DLCs by pensioners aged 80 and above during the campaign period," Singh said.

By March 2025, the ministry aims to achieve over 1.60 crore of DLC submissions.

The minister said that the government has been continuously moving towards the ambitious Mission Karmayogi -- the National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB) -- mandated to meet changing needs and aspirations of the citizens.

"Central to the programme is to have role-based training of civil servants instead of rule-based," he said.

Singh said the government has recently started the "Viksit Panchayat Karmayogi" initiative which focuses on strengthening panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) through innovative tools and capacity-building frameworks.

Besides this, the cleanliness campaign has been one of the productive features of the ministry's work for the past few years.

The Centre earned over Rs 650 crore revenue from scrap disposal during a special cleanliness campaign spearheaded by the Personnel Ministry during October.

These campaigns have generated a revenue of Rs 2,364 crore through disposal of scrap from 2021-2024.

This year, the special campaign 4.0 was undertaken at more than 5.97 lakh sites and it resulted in freeing at least 190 lakh square feet of space for effective office use.

Singh said with every passing year, the size and scale of the special campaign are increasing.

When asked about the ministry's priorities during 2025, he said it will take further steps to ensure ease of governance.

"Emphasis will be on expeditious disposal of public grievances. The government will further popularise submission of digital life certificates by the central and state governments pensioners. Institutionalising cleanliness in government offices and premises across the country would remain another focus area. The government will aim to declutter spaces in its offices and sell off unwarranted items or scrap," Singh said.

He said the online public grievance redressal system CPGRAMS will be further modernised using next-generation technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI).

During 2024, the ministry caught attention due to a row over lateral recruitment drive as well.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) had on August 17, issued a notification for the recruitment of 45 posts -- 10 of joint secretaries and 35 of directors or deputy secretaries -- through lateral entry, which is referred to as the appointment of specialists (including those from the private sector) in government departments.

It was one of the biggest tranches of lateral recruitment announced by the commission.

However, Singh on August 20 wrote to the Commission seeking cancellation of the recruitment drive to ensure that the marginalised communities get their rightful representation. The UPSC then cancelled it.

As many as 63 specialists have been appointed in different central government departments through the lateral entry mode from 2019 to 2023. Of these, 35 were appointed on contract basis and the remaining 28 on deputation.

In another case concerning the ministry, the central government had in September discharged Puja Khedkar from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), over a month after the UPSC cancelled her selection.

Khedkar, who was a trainee officer from the 2023 batch, was accused of cheating and wrongly availing OBC and disability quota benefits to ensure her selection in the government service. She has denied all allegations though.

Khedkar, who was provisionally allotted the Indian Administrative Service (Maharashtra cadre), on the basis of the result of the civil services examination (CSE)-2022 taken by her, was also accused of misusing power and privileges during her training in Pune.

She was accused of bullying everyone around and of placing a red-blue beacon (indicating high-ranking official) atop a private Audi (a luxury sedan) car used by her that also had 'Maharashtra Government' written on it during her stint.

After the Pune district collector flagged the matter, Khedkar was transferred to Washim District Collectorate in the Vidarbha region.

In a related development, the personnel ministry in June operationalised provisions of a stringent law that aims to curb malpractices and irregularities in competitive examinations and entails provisions for a maximum jail term of 10 years and a fine of up to Rs 1 crore for offenders.