The Department of Administrative Reforms on Monday announced the institution of the Prime Minister’s Annual Award for Excellence in Public Administration to honour “extraordinary and innovative work” done by districts and the organisations of the Central and State governments in implementing the priority programmes of the Government of India.
The award will be given away every year for excellence in implementing the priority programmes and extraordinary and innovative work done by the organisations of the Central and State government and the districts in ‘public governance’.
At least five priority programmes shall be chosen for the awards.
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For the awards to be presented on the Civil Services Day 2017, the five programmes identified are Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana, Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Start-Up India/Stand-Up India and e-National Agriculture Market (National e-Mandi).
The awards shall also be given to the organisations of the Central and State governments and the districts for innovations in environment conservation, disaster management, water conservation, energy, education and health, women and child-centric initiatives.
For the 2017 awards, the period of consideration is from April 1, 2015 to December 2016. To ensure rationality and equity, the States and the Union Territories have been put in three groups: Group 1-North-East States (eight) and the Hill States (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand); Group 2-Union Territories (seven); and Group 3-the remaining 18 States. For each group in an identified priority programme, there would be one award and the maximum number of awards would be 15. In addition to the awards for priority programmes, two awards shall be given to organisations of the Central and State governments and districts for innovation in public governance.
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The award shall consist of a trophy and a scroll and the awarded district/organisation will be given an incentive of Rs. 10 lakh to be utilised for executing the project/programme or bridging the resource gaps in any area of public welfare.
The awards for priority programmes will be based on the pre-determined parameters, and the awards for innovations will be based on an innovative idea/scheme/project to meet stakeholders’ requirements, bringing perceptible improvements in the systems and building institutions, making public delivery systems responsive, transparent and efficient, especially by leveraging technology.
A screening committee, to be chaired by an officer of the rank of Additional Secretary, will short-list districts/organisations, examining the applications in consultation with the nodal Ministry/Department, along with officers of the rank of Joint Secretaries and experts from the NITI Aayog. An expert committee, chaired by the Secretary of the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, will consider the spot-study reports and shortlist the districts/organisations for making recommendations to the empowered committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary. The empowered committee would submit its recommendations to the Prime Minister.