Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that ending the unnecessary interference of the government has improved the delivery of services to the citizens.

“Contactless customs, automatic renewals, faceless assessments, online applications for service delivery. All these reforms have ended the unnecessary interference of the government,” Modi said while addressing the event marking the celebration of the first Audit Diwas, organised by Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) here.

He said that today the government is making such a system in which the thinking of 'Sarkar Sarvam' i.e., the interference of the government is decreasing, and citizen’s work is also getting easier”, the Prime Minister told the auditors. This is in accordance with 'Minimum Government Maximum Governance,’ he added.

He said CAG keeps track of nations accounts and does value addition in productivity and efficiency, therefore deliberations on the Audit Day and related programmes are part of our improvement and improvisation. CAG is an institution that has grown in importance and has created a legacy with time. He said there was a time when auditing in the country was looked upon with apprehension and dread. 'CAG vs Government', had become the common thought of our system. However, “today this mindset has changed. Today audit is being considered as an important part of value addition,” he said.

NPAs brushed under carpet

The Prime Minister commented earlier various wrong practices were followed due to a lack of transparency in the banking sector. The result was that the NPAs of the banks kept increasing. “You know very well how, in the past, NPAs were brushed under the carpet. However, we have put the truth of the previous governments in front of the country with complete honesty. We will find the solutions only when we recognise the problems,” he said.

The Prime Minister expressed happiness that CAG has overcome the image of a meddlesome busybody fumbling with files. “CAG has changed rapidly by adopting modern procedures. Today you are using advanced analytics tools, geo spatial data and satellite imagery,” he said.

Talking about the biggest epidemic of the century, the Prime Minister pointed out that the country's fight against it has also been extraordinary. Today India is running the world's largest vaccination program. A few weeks ago, the country crossed the milestone of 100 crore vaccine doses, he informed. He suggested that CAG may study the practices that emerged during this great fight.

The Prime Minister said in olden times, information was transmitted through stories. History was written through stories. But today, in the 21st century, data is information, and in the coming times, our history will also be seen and understood through data. In the future, “data will dictate history,” he concluded.

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