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Mass contact programme of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has earned him a rare top ranking in Asia and the Pacific and a United Nations Public Service Award.
The Chief Minister will receive the award from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a function in Bahrain from June 24-27 being held to observe UN Public Service Day.
EXEMPLARY SERVICE
The UN has been giving public service awards since year 2003. June 23 is celebrated as Public Service Day.
The award usually goes to a model department or an exemplary service rolled out by a country falling under any of five specially notified regions across the world.
The award is announced after a three-tire exercise involving strict scrutiny and detailed examination of entries.
A seven-member expert sub-committee of the UN Committee of Experts in Public Administration examines the short list.
Winner is chosen after a laborious process starting every month of January and going until May.
TOP RANKING
The Chief Minister’s award was announced under the category of ‘Preventing and combating corruption in the public service,’ a spokesman for the office of the Chief Minister said here.
Two such winners are each elected from five different regions of the world – Africa; Asia and the Pacific; Europe and North America; Latin America and the Caribbean; and Western Asia.
Chief Minister’s mass contact programme won the first place from Asia and the Pacific region under the ‘Preventing and combating corruption in the public service’ category.
The second place went to ‘anti-corruption clean construction system of Seoul Metropolitan Infrastructure Headquarters’ in South Korea.
PURELY DEMOCRATIC
Four other categories under which entries are judged are improving the delivery of public services; fostering participation in public policy decision-making through innovative mechanisms; promoting whole-of-Government approaches in the information age; and promoting gender-responsive delivery of public services.
The award-winning mass contact programme represented a purely democratic exercise in which the Chief Minister listened personally to people’s problems at pre-announced venues.
In some districts, the programme would start early in the morning and would go until 8 p.m. at a stretch. The mass contact programmes have received 5.5 lakh petitions in all. Around three lakh have been settled.
Financial assistance of Rs 22.68 crore was distributed as part of the programme. The Chief Minister’s Office has set up a system to evaluate the progress of the programme.
vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in
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