Oommen Chandy Won United Nation's Public Service Award for Mass Contact Programme

The Chief Minister of Kerala, Oommen Chandy won United Nation's Public Service Award for his Mass Contact Programme on 22 May 2013. In the Mass Contact Programme, he engaged with masses of Kerala to address the grievances.

He was conferred with the first prize from the Asia Pacific region along with other awardees that are selected on yearly basis from five different zones of the world.

About United Nation's Public Service Award

• Since the year 2003, United Nations has been awarding people as part of the programme for Public Service Day that is celebrated on 23 June.
• The United Nation's Public Service Award was instituted through the UN resolution and are announced after the three-tier security as well as meticulous examination.
• The candidates who are shortlisted are kept under examination by the seven-member sub-committee of Committee of Experts in Public Administration of the United Nations.
The UN Public Service Day ceremonies are scheduled to be organised from 24 June 2013 to 27 June 2013 in Bahrain. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon will confer the awards on the awardees on 27 June 2013.

The Mass Contact Programme of Oommen Chandy

• The Mass Contact Programme was appraised worldwide as the democratic experiment. The CM of Kerala, Oommen Chandy met a lot of people without intermediaries.
• He got up to 5.5 lakh petitions, out of which he resolved approximately 3 lakh petitions and also distributed financial aid of 22.68 crore Rupees as part of this programme.

The criteria of evaluation included mechanism for increasing the ability of people to receive information on time, monitor the decision making as well as transparency. Other parameters included documentation and accountability, procedural as well as fiscal requirement as well as evidence of the conformity of government.