In a move that is most likely to infuriate Team Anna, the Government has now tabled the
Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of Their Grievances Bill, 2011in Parliament. Originally introduced by the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, the proposed Bill envisages a three-fold objective: creation of citizens' charters, time bound delivery of goods and services and the grievance redressal. This Bill is vital for the country as it would address long pending issues of timely delivery of public services by bringing in much needed accountability and responsiveness in the bureaucracy. Above all, it would reduce corruption that exists at all levels of service delivery institutions.
Key Features
Among the key features of the Bill, for the first time, it lays down an obligation on every public authority to publish citizens' charters, specifying the time within which the goods and services would be provided and a grievance redressal mechanism for non-compliance of citizens' charters. The Bill seeks to cover all schemes and departments of the central government.
Further, the proposed Bill stipulates the creation of Grievance Redressal Officers (GROs) in each department of the Government. It will be the responsibility of the GRO to provide all the necessary assistance to the public in addressing its complaints. The GRO will also be required to convert oral complaints into writing. Within two days of submitting the grievance, the complainant will receive an acknowledgment (via text messaging or mail) of the complaint and the time frame within which the same shall be redressed. In any situation, the GRO shall not take more than 30 days in addressing the complaint and ensuring delivery of goods and services. It shall be the duty of the GRO to inform the complainant of the manner in which the grievance has been redressed through an "action taken report".
In terms of ensuring timely compliance of grievances, the Bill ensures that an appeal shall lie to the designated authority if the complaint has not been addressed within 30 days or the individual is aggrieved by the decision of the GRO. Such an appeal must be disposed within 30 days of receiving it. It shall be within the scope of the designated authority's powers to order compliance of the citizens' charter by the public authority, to impose a penalty (upto Rs. 50,000) on an officer who has acted in a mala fide manner and to provide compensation to the complainant.
The Bill also establishes a network of State Public Grievance Redressal Commissions and the Central Public Grievance Redressal Commissions. The State Commissions shall address appeals for matters arising in departments under the jurisdiction of the State Government, complaints from persons who have not been able to submit an appeal to the designated authority or have been refused redressal under the law. The Central Commission shall also address appeals against the Designated Authority for matters arising in central government departments or for persons who have been denied redressal as per the stipulated procedure.
One of the key highlight of this new grievances architecture as proposed in the Bill is the creation of Information and Facilitation Centers for running customer helpdesks. This is critical for ordinary citizens who are starved off information on redressal mechanisms. However, most interestingly the Bill also provides that any person aggrieved by the decision of the Central Commission can prefer an appeal to the Lokpal and any person aggrieved by the State Commission can prefer an appeal to the Lokayukta under the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2011.
In short,
the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of Their Grievances Bill, 2011 is an extremely crucial initiative of the Government in fighting graft in the lower echelons of the bureaucracy. Not only is it significant in the fight against corruption but is also monumentally important to make the public service delivery system in India efficient and reliable.
Some food for thoughts
Despite its impressive provisions, the Bill is fraught with certain inadequacies that might not appreciate the grass-root realities of public grievances. The Bill fails to take into account a holistic interpretation of the kind of grievances that might arise not only in terms of providing services but also in ensuring proper access to the grievance redressal mechanism, bureaucratic hurdles and lack of infrastructure. The creation of an independent district level authority would have been prudent to share the immense burden of grievances that may arise at the sub-district level with the State Commissions but has not been considered in the Bill. Further, the Bill doesn't envisage an organic link with the Right to Information Act and its provisions on pro-active disclosure which would obligate every government authority to proactively disclose information beyond that in the citizens' charters. Experience has shown that since its inception in 1997, citizens' charters have never been implemented efficiently and have been reduced to mere symbolism rather than mandatory stipulation. Further, the Bill does not address (adequately) issues with respect to framing appropriate standards for the quality of goods and services, inclusion of citizens in the formation of citizen charters and performance related incentives for motivating public officers.
But on an optimistic note, the Bill is definitely a beacon of hope in the fight against graft and inefficiency. In a country of 1.2 billion people where at least 50 million would have three grievances each, the Government has displayed pragmatism that is essential to tackle public grievances with a mechanism separate from the Lokpal. The fight for transparency, accountability and honesty continues, and we shall await the contribution of this Bill towards this quest in earnest.
(Arjun Kapoor is a Research Intern at Observer Research Foundation)
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