In pursuit of good governance in Rajasthan, chief secretary Sudhansh Pant has been doing surprise checks on government offices specially those dealing with public. So far he had targeted Jaipur Collectorate and Jaipur Development Authority where the maximum public dealings take place.
On Wednesday, he picked up Jaipur Greater Nagar Nigam office and made an unscheduled visit. The entire office went in frenzy. The commissioner of Nagar Nigam Rukmani Riar accompanied him in the morning while he took a round of the office, enquired about the pendency of files, checked e filing system and also attendance register. He found a large number of staff absent front duty. He instructed Riar to take strict action against the violators. The commissioner, though new to the system, has been actively trying to put government machinery in place. She has been conducting surprise checks on cleanliness of the city and has taken several steps to ensure that garbage collection happens in time.
There have been complaints of irregularities in Nagar Nigam and perhaps the chief secretary acted upon those complaints. The visit of Sudhansh Pant will definitely improve the working of Nagar Nigam, if not for good then at least for couple of months.
Why Sudhansh Pant is doing surprise checks
The first step to good governance is punctuality and availability of staff at their duty place. Pant has been persistently inculcating the habit of coming office in time among staff. Such surprise checks at regular interval are just reminders for department heads and collectors to implement practices of good governance and tight monitoring.
The chief secretary has given monthly and weekly targets to field officers and department heads to conduct surprise visits.
Not wary of punishing officers
A hard task master, Sudhansh Pant is not wary of taking action against senior officials. Recently, he put two RAS and one IAS officer on APO in JDA for laxity in their duties. Even in collectorate he was upset with the absence of Revenue Appellate Authority Ramavatar Gurjar and showed his dissent.
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