Citizens’ Charter Bill 2011

Citizens’ Charter; The Right of Citizens For Time Bound Delivery of Goods; Services; Redressal of Their Grievances Bill 2011

What is a Citizens’ charter?

• Citizen charter is a similar concept- applied to public organizations.
• Basically a public organization will write on a paper “we provide this this and this services with this this and this time limit. If you don’t get the service within that time, contact xyz officer.”
• Such written document is called citizens’ charter. You can see citizen charters in the websites of almost all union ministries, PSUs, and Public sector banks. click me to see the citizens’ charter of Environment Ministry.
• Prime Minister John Major introduced the first citizens’ charter in early 1990s in UK.

Components of a Citizens’ Charter:

• Vision –mission statement
• The list of services delivered. Names and contanct numbers of officials responsible. Grievances redressal mechanism, in case service is not delivered.
• List of responsibilities of the citizens in the context of the charter. (that you’re supposed to bring this this and this documents if you want to get xyz service in time.)

Advantages of Citizen charter?

• He can avail services in a time bound manner.
• Will not have to depend on the mercy of the bureaucracy.
• He will not have to face long delays due to red tape.
• For a passport, a birth or death certificate, a driving licence or a ration card, Aam Aadmi need not have to sweat it out. There will not be any need to grease palms of corrupt officials.
• He can seek compensation for undue delay in delivery of service.
• For ex: In Europe people are compensated if the train gets delayed.
• Basic thrust of Citizens Charter is to make public services citizen centric by ensuring that these services are demand driven rather than supply driven.

Indian Experience

1. At the central level, Ministry of Personnel> Department of Administrative Reforms. This department helps other organizations to formulate the citizens’ charters. However, 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission found following problems with Citizens’ charters in India:
2. Measurable standards of delivery are rarely spelt out in the charter.
3. Standards are poorly defined, it becomes tough to assess whether the desired level of service has been achieved or not.
4. Most charters are verbose. (containing too many words).
5. Promises contained in the Charter were vague and meaningless. (like those stupid vision and mission statements.)
6. If the service is not delivered then very hard for citizen to get compensatation. (he has to make trip to this office and that office, bring this Xerox and that receipt.)
7. Citizen Charters are not revised with time.
8. The needs of senior citizens and disabled are not considered while drafting charters.
9. Resistance to change.
10. Lack of Public Awareness.
11. End Users (public) & NGOs are not consulted when the charters are drafted.

Recommendations of 2nd ARC:

1. The Charters should clearly spell out the remedy / penalty / compensation in case there is a default in meeting the standards spelt out in the Charter.
2. better give a few promises that can be kept, rather than a long list of lofty but impractical aspirations!
3. Before the organization makes charter, it should restructure its internal system and processes.
4. One size does not fit all. Citizens’ Charter should be close to ground reality and local conditions.
5. Consult all the stakeholders before finalizing the charter (including civil society).
6. Firm Commitments should be made. There must be redressal mechanism should be citizen friendly..
7. Organization should evaluate the Citizens’ charters periodically.
8. Hold officers accountable for results.

Citizens’ Charter Bill 2011: Salient Features

• Full name: The Right of Citizens’ For Time Bound Delivery of Goods & Services & Redressal of Their Grievances Bill 2011.
• Applies to: The Bill deals with government departments that deal directly with citizens: they include
• Constitutional bodies, Statutory authorities, Public-private partnerships, NGOs substantially funded by the government and companies that provide services under a statutory obligtion.
• Provisions: The Bill makes it mandatory for every public authority to publish a Citizen’s Charter within six months of the commencement of the Act. Every citizen is given right to get time bound delivery of goods and services. If not delivered, there is redressal mechanism.

According to the bill, citizens’ charters should be in following format:

1. List the details of the goods and services provided by a public authority;
2. The name of the person or agency responsible for providing the goods or services;
3. The time frame within which such goods or services have to be provided;
4. The category of people entitled to the goods and services; and
5. Details of the complaint redressal mechanism.

Public Grievance Redressal Commissions
Bill aims to establish Public Grievance Redressal Commissions @Centre and State level.
Strength

• Chief Commissioner + a maximum number of 10 Commissioners.

Qualification

• Present or former Supreme Court judges or Chief Justices of a High Court (district court judges for 10 years, or High Court judges); or
• Present or former Secretaries to the central (state) government;
• Eminent persons with at least 20 years of experience in social sectors with a post graduate degree in a relevant sector.(15 years for state panel)

Appointed by

• Governor (in state Commission)
• President (in Central Commission)
• But President /Governor will make appointments as per the recommendations of select Committee. The select Committee will consist of Union level: PM, Leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Sitting just of SC and State level: CM, Leader of opposition in Legislative assembly (Vidhan Sabha), Sitting just of HC
• The Commissioners may be removed by an order of the President /Governor under certain conditions.

Penalty

• DA and Commission can impose fine of Max.Rs.50000 to concerned officials/GRO.
• The penalty shall be recovered from the salary of the official. Such penalty may be awarded as compensation to the appellant.

Criticism
1. Against federal Spirit

• Parliament doesn’t not have jurisdiction to enact such law. Because 7th schedule of constitution->State list ->State Public services (Entry 41).It means, only State legislature has jurisdiction to make laws regarding state public services.
• More than ten states have already enacted a Citizen Charter Act or Public Services Guarantee Act in their respective states.
• The states of Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttrakhand and Himachal Pradesh have their own laws in place.
• Many of these state laws have provisions that are much better than the proposed Bill.
• The Central government can and should enact Citizen Charter for central services but should not encroach upon the states’ domain. At best, the Centre can suggest a model law.
• However, the Ministry of personnel affairs, defends this bill saying “Provisions of the Bill relate to ‘actionable wrongs’ which comes under the concurrent list.”

2. Duplication of work

• Several states such as Delhi, Punjab and Bihar have also enacted their own grievance redressal laws. The mechanism provided under these laws is different from that provided under the Bill.
• So this will lead to duplication of work and organizations.
• Similarly, MNREGA Act, RTE Act, National Food Security Bill, 2011, and the Public Procurement Bill, 2012 also have their own grievances redressal forums. = duplication.
• Similar to R.T.I act, this bill also applies to organizations funded by Government. (e.g. Air India, Public Sector Banks, LIC.) However, if those organizations donot provide services on time, the matter also falls under jurisdiction of consumer courts, Banking ombudsman, IRDA respectively= lot of duplication.
• So it seems Government hasn’t done the homework, they just want to pass a bill to divert peoples’ attention from more important issue, that is Lokpal.

3. Autonomy

• According to the bill, the commissioners may be removed without judicial inquiry. This is unheard of!

4. Lokpal yet to come

• Government officials intentionally delay the service delivery because they want to demand bribe. So the whole Citizen charter thing is incomplete, without Lokpal and Lokayukta.

5. Exclusion of Non Citizens:

• Only Citizens can seek redressal, NRI & PIO are not entitled.

6. Distribution of responsibility

• For example, if a passport is held up because the police verification took too long, should the passport office be responsible? Or should the police be held responsible? Bill is silent over the issue, this will only lead to blame games and further delays while seeking redressal.