VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh government has readied the draft bill on Grama Sachivalayams and Ward Sachivalayams Department Act, 2022 to further strengthen delivery of services to people within their villages or wards in towns and cities.
Implementation of decentralised governance through village and ward secretariats is already being successfully implemented with 15 lakh service requests for various needs being fulfilled locally every month.
According to officials, the draft bill, after its approval by the state cabinet, will be introduced in the State Legislative Assembly during its session scheduled to start from September 15.
There are over 15,000 secretariats in the state with 1.30 lakh staff or secretaries representing various government departments. Their areas of operation have already been delineated, enabling the secretariat employees to deliver 540 plus services, including mutations for corrections, mutations for transactions of land titles, re-issuance of integrated / income / family member certificate, income certificate, integrated certificate, record of rights (ROR) – 1B certificate, computerised Adangal certificate, payment of water tax for agricultural lands, and issue of birth, death, caste and other certificates.
Officials say the secretariat system has received accolades from people, as they are able to get numerous works completed at this one centre, instead of making rounds of different departments located in various places in the past.
Services of these secretariats have been a subject matter of appreciation throughout the country. Several state governments are making efforts to replicate these secretariats in their own states.
