Ahmedabad, June 23 (IANS) The Gujarat Administrative Reforms Commission (GARC) submitted its third recommendation report to Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel. The report, titled 'Technological Governance for Empowered Citizens', outlines a series of reforms aimed at creating a transparent, efficient, and technology-driven governance framework in the state.

The report recommends the consolidation of various student scholarship schemes under a single digital platform called the Gujarat Unified Scholarship Portal, structured around the concept of “One Student – One ID - One Portal.” This would streamline coordination among departments, minimise duplication, and reduce the administrative burden while ensuring timely scholarship delivery.

In the realm of public transport, GARC has proposed enabling ticket bookings for government buses via QR codes and UPI, along with real-time bus tracking and feedback collection to enhance passenger convenience. Further, the Commission has advised integrating government services with DigiLocker, allowing citizens instant digital access to official documents.

One of the standout proposals includes a fully automated pension system, where retiring government employees receive pension deposits in their bank accounts the day after retirement, following digital verification and automated pension payment orders.

Additionally, the Commission recommends a digital service book for all government employees, including digitisation of historical records and educational or training qualifications.

To strengthen administrative transparency, the report suggests the creation of a centralised portal for Government Resolutions (GRs), categorised by department and subject, to remove ambiguities. Moreover, a GIS-based mapping system for all government assets and services in villages and talukas has been proposed to improve budget allocation and reduce redundancies.

The report also envisions a system to keep citizens continuously informed about the status of their applications -- right from submission to approval -- through automated SMS and WhatsApp alerts, and the use of trusted courier services to deliver official documents directly to citizens’ homes.

In terms of workforce management, GARC has called for the digitisation of service records and the creation of an e-Civil List for real-time employee data and seniority tracking. A satisfaction survey among Class 1 and Class 2 officers is also proposed to assess workload distribution and enhance human resource strategies within the government.

--IANS

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