Jubilant J&K; From Misgovernance to Good Governance; J&K emerging as new model

SRINAGAR, MAY 04: Jammu and Kashmir became the first UT/State across the country to devise a comprehensive District Good Governance Index (DGGI).
As per the Good Governance Index (GGI) 2021, J&K is making tremendous strides and is leading on different fronts of the index. In GGI, 2021, J&K has registered an overall increase of 3.7 percentage points over GGI 2019.
According to official data, J&K has performed significantly in various sectors like Commerce and Industry, Agriculture and Allied sectors, public infrastructure and utilities, Judiciary and Public Safety, among others.
The J&K model of DGGI is now being adopted by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), GoI, to help other 35 states and UTs to develop their DGGI.
The framework of the index was finalised with the technical support from the Center for Good Governance (CGG) of Hyderabad.
Union Minister, Jitendra Singh recently said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen that we should replicate in Jammu and Kashmir, the same best practices of governance which are followed in other states and UTs of the country.
For a long time, as a result of certain constitutional and administrative constraints, many central rules were not applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, but in the last over three years, there has been a fast-track attempt to change the work culture and to follow the mantra of Maximum Governance, Minimum Government, he added.
Good Governance Index at the district level, will enable each of the 20 districts of Jammu and Kashmir to rise to the level of some of the best administered districts of the country with time-bound disposal of office files and other matters, increased transparency, increased accountability and increased citizen participation.
An official said that next step would be to carry forward these good governance practices down to the Tehsil and block levels.
The DGGI framework has 58 indicators drawn from different aspects of development and district administration, distributed in an all-encompassing 10 sectors such as agriculture and allied sector, commerce and industry, human resource development, public health, public infrastructure and utilities, economic governance, welfare and development, public safety and judiciary and citizen centric governance, he added.
These indicators were finalised after a series of consultations with district officials of Jammu and Kashmir, academia, subject specialists, among others, he said.
While there will be a comprehensive rank of districts based on composite 10 sectors, the DGGI also offer a window on indicator-wise performance of the districts.
Government of India and Jammu and Kashmir administration has initiated this exercise for measuring the status of governance in the districts based on selected indicators and parameters to implement SMART Governance and assess the status of governance of various interventions taken by DARPG.
Government of Jammu and Kashmir currently has approved 10 development sectors, 58 indicators and 116 data sets. The data from each of the district was collated and weightage was accorded to each indicator keeping in view National and UT specific priorities. After application of statistical model, DGGI was formulated and districts were ranked and a composite ranking was assigned to the districts.
Pertinently, the CGG, Hyderabad and DARPG, Government of India, provided financial and technical support in preparing the DGGI. Besides, the J&K IMPARD with active collaboration of Department of Planning and Statistics, played a pivotal role in coordination and analysis for developing the DGGI.
The development of DGGI as a tool to assess the status of Governance in the UT of J&K is a path breaking initiative taken by DARPG which transpired as a follow-up to adoption of ‘Behtar Nizami-Hukumat Kashmir Aelamia’ resolution at two-day Regional Conference on ‘Replication of Good Governance Practices in Union Territory of J&K held in the month July 2021.