Pushing to cut delays in decision-making at the top, the Cabinet Secretariat has for the first time sent letters directly to the offices of Central ministers where files have been pending for more than two months, asking them to clear the backlog at the earliest, The Indian Express has learnt.
The letters were sent in the second half of June and mention the number of pending files. Until now, the pendency of files used to be reviewed at the level of joint secretary, additional secretary and secretary, and not by the offices of ministers.
The Cabinet Secretariat is learnt to have been monitoring pendency at each level using the Government’s E-Office digital workplace, which has around 7,000-8,000 e-files in circulation daily, of which about 2,000 go to the offices of ministers. A majority of these files pertain to inter-ministerial subjects, such as national policies and schemes.
It learnt that the Cabinet Secretariat has flagged files pending at ministers’ offices for 61-90 days, 91-120 days and over 180 days. At one minister’s office, several dozen files were found pending, it is learnt. At another minister’s office, files related to the release of funds for a state were found pending for more than six months.
The move to flag pendency at this level is the latest measure taken by the NDA Government to cut bureaucratic delays.
The Government has earlier launched PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation) to monitor implementation of infrastructure projects. It has been described as a three-tier system that includes officials at the Prime Minister’s Office, Central Government Secretaries and Chief Secretaries of states.
The Prime Minister chairs a monthly meeting of PRAGATI where he interacts with Central Secretaries and Chief Secretaries through video-conferencing. This platform has helped accelerate over 340 “critical projects” since its inception in March 2015, sources said.
In October 2021, the Government launched the PM GatiShakti platform to facilitate planning and decision-making on infrastructure projects. Another platform, e-SamikSha, is also being used as a real-time monitoring system for follow-ups on announcements and decisions pertaining to Central ministries.
