Self-attestation of documents planned for easier governance

New Delhi, Sep 9: Taking forward Prime Minister

's motto of 'minimum

, maximum governance', the government Tuesday announced its move to go for self-certification of documents instead of affidavits and also involve retired service personnel in some kind of productive work.

Announcing the move to do away with the tedious process of getting documents attested by a notary or a government official, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Jitendra Singh here said it is part of the government's move to be "open, friendly and as transparent as possible".

He also said rules are being amended to widen definition of sexual harassment at the workplace.

"Rules are being amended to widen the definition of 'sexual harassment' and 'workplace' in law, to make the work environment more conducive for women," he said.S

Singh said the Modi government has decided to do away with the six-decade-old practice of attestations. The move to go in for self-attestations would be helpful to the youth in seeking employment, he said.

An official notification of this move would be issued soon, he said.

However, he added that "in certain areas where the act requires attestation from certain authorities, the concerned department will be consulted and the practice retained where necessary".

"But by and large, the practice of affidavits will be done away with," he said, adding that it will help do away with the long queues and the unnecessary hassles that people have to undergo to get documents attested.

"The promotion of self-certification is a significant step towards making life easier for the common man and placing trust in its citizens," he said.

He said the ministry has accelerated the grievance redress mechanism with special focus on pensioners so that they don't feel forgotten after their retirement. The ministry has also exempted the parents of differently-abled children from mandatory transfers, he said.

Singh claimed said the ministry has shown "incredible speed" in setting up of the state administrative machinery in the newly created Telangana state.

The ministry is also moving towards reducing the processing time and fast-tracking decisions. One example of this is that newly passed out IAS candidates were being assigned their cadre in 12 days from the previous 148 days.

The government is also going in for e-governance in a major way to cater to specific requirements of personnel management and records.

Singh said his ministry has also decided on a new approach to pensioners.

Noting that with people living longer, there were more pensioners than serving people, he said that his ministry was to launch a pre-retirement counselling to help make the lives of retirees easier, and also begin post-retirement engagement of pensioners to channelize their energies in a healthy way.

The pensioners would be engaged in their areas of expertise with or without remuneration, he informed.

Another reform measure, he said, would be to have an Employee of the Month but without any monetary reward.

The minister said the ministry was also beginning the process to have personal interactions with Indian Administrative Service personnel.

IANS