In a move aimed at furthering ease of governance, the Centre has asked secretaries of all its departments to reduce pendency of public grievances and government works to the minimum. It has also asked them to devote at least three hours a week for ensuring that pendency of work is at its lowest level. Pendency of work includes references from members of Parliament, parliamentary assurances, inter-ministerial and state government references, files to be weeded out by them, public grievances and their appeals, and pending swachhata campaign sites where cleanliness activities need to be intensified and office space freed from unwanted material or scrap. The move is inspired by the success of the country's largest cleanliness drive, spearheaded by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), undertaken in October last year. "Government has decided to institutionalise the special campaign 2.0 activities of 'swachhata' and reduce pendency on a continuing basis
The group which will be headed by food secretary of Madhya Pradesh will comprise food secretaries of eight states
19 new secretaries have been appointed in various central government departments