Manmohan Singh promises systemic response to reduce corruption

New Delhi, Feb 3 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Friday stressed on a systemic response to reduce chances of corruption and to ensure transparency, accountability and probity in public life.

Inaugurating the two-day Chief Secretaries conference here, Dr. Singh said: " We still have a long way to go in our efforts for ensuring transparency, accountability and probity in public life. I would urge all of you to ensure that the Centre and States work together to move ahead to achieve these goals."

Emphasising that progress is also being made on a law to regulate public procurement, Dr. Singh said: "The Bill on Citizens Charter introduced in Parliament will empower citizens to demand services from government departments."

"The Electronic Delivery of Services Bill has also been introduced in Parliament and as the name suggests it provides for electronic delivery of public services to our citizens," he added.

He also said that the government hopes to enact a strong Lokpal law soon.

"Unfortunately, the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill could not be passed in the last session of Parliament last year. But we do hope that we would soon be able to enact a strong Lokpal law. We still have a long way to go," Dr. Singh added.

He further informed that the National e-Governance Plan is being implemented to make use of Information and Communication Technology to improve delivery of services to our people.

"We have made rapid progress in providing Aadhaar numbers to about 13 crore residents, which will help in improving the delivery of programs, particularly those meant for the poor and the under-privileged, and in eliminating leakages. We have also recently approved the coverage of an additional 40 crore residents under the Aadhaar scheme," he said.

"All this builds upon our earlier initiatives such as the Right to Information Act, the Judicial Accountability Bill and the Whistle Blowers Bill. But we still have a long way to go in our efforts for ensuring transparency, accountability and probity in public life. I would urge all of you to ensure that the Centre and States work together to move ahead to achieve these goals," he added. (ANI)