By Sudhansh Pant
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has repeatedly underlined his commitment towards P2G2 (Pro-People, Proactive Good Governance) from various platforms including in the Chief Secretaries’ Conference. The Prime Minister has been urging all to follow P2G2 as the sprit behind Government functioning.
P2G2 also reflects the fulcrum of Chanakya’s statecraft wherein public interest is paramount. Good Governance is transparent, accountable, participative and efficient without compromising on equality and morality. Therefore, it is imperative that all of these values are observed in the Government.
Attempting a true embodiment of this very sprit, the entire file work of the Government of Rajasthan has been migrated to ‘RAJKAJ’- an official online portal of the Government. While encouraging innovations for Good Governance, the State Government has accomplished unprecedented results in the first one year of this initiative. In order to inspire successive improvements, every individual Officer’s Average e-File Disposal Time (AFDT) is being monitored periodically. The Officers have been instructed to monitor and encourage speed and efficiency in file disposal at subordinate levels too.
A glance at the average e-File disposal time of senior State level Officers including Chief Secretary, Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners and District Collectors, amply illustrates the success of these efforts.
The AFDT of Officers from Chief Secretary to Secretaries to Government was 24 hours 31 minutes per file in January 2024 which was reduced to only 3 hours and 47 minutes by December 2024. The files are moving at least six times faster now than before. The Divisional Commissioners’ AFDT has been reduced from 31 hours 22 minutes in January 2024 to 1 hour and 9 minutes in December 2024. This reflects a nearly 30 times faster disposal in a period of one year. Likewise, the AFDT for District Collectors has been reduced to 2 hours 20 minutes in December 2024 from 36 hours and 56 minutes in January 2024, again a more than 15 times faster disposal within one year.
This remarkable reduction in the AFDT is indicative of an accelerated and efficient process of decision making. The files no longer hit obstacles and unnecessary delays in Rajasthan. The success of online disposal is also attributed to the fact that not only the Senior Officers, but all the personnel included in the hierarchy of official business are mapped on this system, irrespective of the level and designation. The status of every single file, as to where and for how long it has been pending, is visible to the fellow Officers and subordinates- which has consistently produced amazing results.
Consequently, the e-File system is facilitating much quicker decisions which directly and indirectly impacts works related to the common person. There has been an appreciable improvement in ground level implementation of all the Projects and Schemes. The inertia that is commonly felt against such changes has been successfully tackled and it has created a better work culture at all levels. This has also emerged as a wonderful example of Change Management. There are more collateral benefits of this change. It has automatically curbed the tendency of procrastination and opportunities of misuse of authority for undue gratification.
Rajasthan has also developed a Mobile App for easier and greater flexible access of RajKaj. This App has liberated the files from the bindings of space and time- It is now possible to dispose of the file literally from anywhere, at all times, on a mobile phone.
The online file disposal portal also offers an opportunity for self evaluation. The ‘Analytics’ section of this Portal works as a mirror which displays data pertaining to AFDT, to each individual Officer/Staff.
This facility also motivates the Officers/Staff to introspect, prompting continuous improvement. This has also brought in a general consciousness about the AFDT, resulting in a healthy sprit of mutual competition.
A file is the basic unit of official functioning. Strengthening file disposal inevitably makes the system more efficient. Monitoring of every single file movement down to not just the hours but minutes, has galvanized the overall disposal by several times. Faster decision making and implementation of the projects and schemes materializing at the grassroots level is a testimony to this fact.
This digital revolution in regular official work has had a widespread impact worth emulating. Rajasthan has successfully established an important and optimistic change in the Government’s work culture. Overcoming initial obstacles, unrelenting efforts and improvements have stablised the system to greater efficiencies and a vastly improved work culture, thus realizing the vision of P2G2.
The scalability and simplicity of this digital revolution in file disposal provides for easy replicability in other State Governments too.
(Sudhansh Pant is Chief Secretary, Rajasthan.)
