Lok Sabha polls: Govt to hold chief secy meet, push states on beneficiary schemes, service delivery

NEW DELHI: Just months ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the entire government machinery is gearing up to step up on individual beneficiary schemes under flagship missions and easier access to government services, including availing of the Ayushman Bharat card, Jan Aushadhi Kendra, tap water connections and more hours of uninterrupted power supply.

The third National Chief Secretaries' Conference, scheduled to be held on December 27-28 in New Delhi, will mull the overarching theme of 'Promoting Ease of the Living' across five key social aspects - schooling, drinking water, electricity, health and wellness and land & property.

To be chaired by PM Narendra Modi, the conference will be pushing for better schemes and service delivery in both urban and rural areas, with the help of technology and good governance tools.


The theme of the conference, the second one in 2023, is also quite in tune with the ruling NDA government's focus on beneficiaries of its flagship schemes or the 'labharthis' who have emerged as a unique socio-political constituency for the current dispensation.

The steadfast focus on the 'labharthis' is also, in fact, being borne out in the ongoing Viksit Bharat Sankalp yatra wherein government servants have been deployed to take the message of central government beneficiary schemes and its achievements across states.

In the case of the new 'Ease of Living' focus, over 5,000 officials from across state governments and the Centre have already been engaged in the exercise, holding several workshops on the five sub-themes to states and sending details of success stories and feedback.

Ease of Living
In a September 16 meeting chaired by the Cabinet secretary, state governments were told that the overarching theme for the conference 'Ease of Living' is to focus on two facets - access to schemes "especially individual beneficiary schemes" and "ensuring the quality of service delivery".

For individual beneficiary schemes, simplification and re-engineering of processes through digitisation have been advocated in consultations and workshops held so far. For instance, for promoting ease of schooling, the focus is on aspects like easier issuance of marksheet/migration certificate, online re-evaluation, twinning of schools for ease of admission, universalisation of the use of digilocker for certification, Aadhaar registration, quality of infrastructure in schools and improving learning outcomes.

Quality of service delivery calls for improved evaluation and monitoring of processes.

So, states have been asked to ensure fast-tracked digitisation of land records to facilitate mutation, registration, payment of property tax and the greater adoption and use of the SWAMITVA scheme by citizens.