Gujarat wins UN award
By IANSThursday, June 24, 2010
GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s office has won a UN award on improving accountability and responsiveness in public service, an official said Thursday.
The chief minister’s office has been named as the recipient of the “2010 United Nations’ Public Service Award” in the “Improving Transparency, Accountability, and Responsiveness in Public Service” category, the state government spokesperson said here.
The programme termed State Wide Attention on Grievances with Application of Technology (SWAGAT) was selected by the UN for the prestigious award.
The chief minister’s secretary A.K. Sharma received the award on behalf of the state government at a ceremony held at Barcelona in Spain Wednesday on the occasion of the UN Public Service Day.
Modi said people’s voice was the “key driver of a democracy and listening to that voice is the key test of good governance.”
The SWAGAT programme operate on the principle that grievance redressal is an essential part of effective governance.
Every month, the chief minister personally looks into the grievances and considers solutions through multi-video conferencing with all the 26 districts and all the 225 taluka offices and the complaints are redressed on the same day or in a time-bound manner.
