THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state cabinet, on Wednesday, has approved major digital infrastructure administrative reforms by the General Administrative Department, Chief Minister VD Satheesan announced.
In a move to get the comprehensive details of all government assets, the CM announced the formation of a Special Asset Management Platform for Administration Tracking and Harmonisation Portal. The portal will include the determination of all government assets, including land, buildings, heritage buildings, roads, dams, bridges, vehicles and machinery.
An expansion of the ongoing register of all capital projects of all government departments— Plan Space 2.0— will be implemented, with a major revamp of geotagging every project. Making this a GIS-based project register by mapping close to 1900 projects, the move will help the authorities to track all crucial details of a project through a single map layer, including its place of implementation, coordinates, agency undertaking the work, approving authority, fund sources and work phases.
An asset register of all government institutions will be maintained for a comprehensive understanding of their functioning. "We have close to 591 government institutions, where we spend close to 1900 crores for salary alone. Some institutions are functioning even after their founding objectives have been achieved. We are also planning to integrate the institutions which have similar functions," the CM said.
A state-level re-engineering of laws will be brought in to improve the quality of living and smooth interaction between businesses and government. An empowered committee of department secretaries will be constituted for this to bring in changes in the rules and laws of departments including Finance, Law, Industries, Tax, Revenue and LSGD, the CM noted. He also added that the laws will help people to avoid unwanted visits to government offices. Amendments will be brought in the laws which are found to be outdated, unwanted or contradictory.
In what could lead to heated political discussions in the coming days, the Chief Minister said that he will hold discussions with the leaders of different trade unions regarding the implementation of the Labour Code in the state. "With the Labour Code coming into effect, other labour laws have become irrelevant in the state. As the Labour Code has not been implemented, there are currently no laws for the protection of workers," Satheesan said. However, he added that the Congress party has opposed certain provisions in the code in the parliament itself.
The state government has also decided to allocate 90 acres of additional land to the DRDO for the BrahMos Aerospace project. While G Saseendran has been appointed as the Additional Director General of Prosecution, KK Ramachandran will be appointed as the executive vice president of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE).