In a major development, the union department of administrative reforms & public grievances (DARPG) has shown keen interest in the initiatives of the state government for good and transparent governance. The DARPG will not only develop a district good governance portal, it will also help Arunachal Pradesh in upgrading the e-office version 5.6 to e-office version 7.0 in a phased manner. Moreover, the National Centre for Good Governance under the DARPG is going to organise mid-career building programmes in governance for 500 officers of Arunachal Pradesh administrative services over the next five years.
Arunachal has already embarked upon the e-office system. It has already brought the state civil secretariat under e-governance. The state government had also identified 22 sectors to bring in under e-office and fast-tracked more than 200 projects and schemes by conducting e-pragati review meetings. The state government has succeeded in processing more than eight lakh files through e-offices so far, as a commitment towards transparency and accountability in governance.
After the e-office system, the state government should seriously think about conducting online conferences and meetings to lessen government expenditures. Online conferences will not only save time, it will help save the prices of fuels of the government vehicles, since the economic scenario of our country is not encouraging during the Covid-19 global epidemic.