GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said the state government will clear around one lakh pending files gathering dust at the state secretariat, some even from the 1990s, by May 10 next year.
Sarma said a new portal will be launched where people will be asked to enter the file number related to their case and the department concerned will clear it.
Those people not able to use the internet can go to the facilitation centre at the respective deputy commissioner's office in districts and then it will be taken care of, he said at a press conference here.
"Recently, the Assam Cabinet cleared a land related proposal of 2003. Then we understood that scores of old files are pending. As per my estimate, around one lakh files are pending at the secretariat and some may be lying there since the 90s," Sarma said.
He said many people have died while their files are pending and some such cases are related to even clearance of pension. According to a conservative estimate by a leading agency, 300-700 people visit the secretariat every day, the chief minister said.
"A feedback from these visitors revealed that the top few reasons for the visits are follow up on the older bills, follow up on older files, commutation of pension, provincialisation, employment and service matters," he added.
The top five departments attracting the highest number of visitors are education (27 per cent), PWD (19 per cent), Pension and Public Grievances (8 per cent), Irrigation (5 per cent) and Social Welfare (4 per cent), he said.
"A one time exercise to dispose of all the old cases will bring huge relief to people. We are targeting to complete this exercise by May 10 next year. If we can do that, the governance in the next four years will be a completely different one and we can move to an e-office set-up," Sarma said.
This 'Project Sadbhawna (goodwill)' will have two phases of three months each. In the first, people will register their file numbers either online or at the customer centres, followed by clearance of the files by the departments concerned in the second phase.
"People from remote areas find it difficult to come to Guwahati and settle their cases. In such a scenario, middlemen come up and they misguide the people also. This project is going to be a unique experience of our state," the chief minister said.
He said all ministers, officers and government employees will have to work overtime. "The clearing of the cases will not mean that the decision will always be affirmative. It will mean due diligence regarding the case and it will be closed accordingly. After the decisions, the old files will be closed and archived," he added.