The Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) on Friday held consultations with Right to Service (RTS) commissioners from eight states and union territories to explore ways to strengthen public service delivery under the National e-Services Delivery Assessment (NeSDA) “Way Forward” framework.
The meeting, chaired by DARPG secretary V. Srinivas, was attended by RTS commissioners from Chandigarh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Assam, West Bengal, Haryana and Maharashtra, along with National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) director general Surendrakumar Bagde.
According to the DARPG, discussions focused on enhancing e-service delivery in the sectors of land, labour, finance and environment under the Right to Services Act, with an aim to improve both ease of living and ease of doing business. States were urged to consider adding more services from these categories to their list of notified services.
Srinivas said API linkages between the Centralised Public Grievance Redress and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) and RTS commission websites are being finalised to enable real-time data sharing on state-specific grievances. The move, he said, would give state grievance officers greater oversight.
Currently, states and UTs report more than 22,000 e-services under the NeSDA framework. Their performance is evaluated using the Aaklan benchmarking tool developed by the National Informatics Centre, with best practices compiled in monthly NeSDA reports for adoption elsewhere.
Bagde said the NCGG will conduct a nine-month study on the impact of RTS Acts across states, covering both service delivery and grievance redressal. Former Maharashtra RTS commissioner Swadheen Kshatriya welcomed the initiative, saying it could help establish links between good governance practices and improved delivery outcomes.
The RTS commissioners were also invited to submit proposals under DARPG’s State Collaboration Initiative to expand digital services in line with the Centre’s digital governance objectives.
