Reinventing the Wheel
Accountable and Citizen Friendly Governance
Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao
Accountable and Citizen Friendly Governance was what probably the essence of Civil Society Leader Anna Hazare and his team demanded and put as a condition to end the twelve day old fast of Hazare. Both Houses of Parliament responded positively through identically worded resolutions read out by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the end of an eight hour marathon debate on August 27, 2011. He said that “the House discussed various issues relating to the setting up of a strong and effective Lokpal and unanimously resolved to endorse key ideas of Hazare as the Sense of the House”. The three basic issues which the Parliament agreed in principle to include in the Lok Pal Bill are, Citizen Charters for all Government Departments, Lower Bureaucracy to be brought under Lokpal through appropriate mechanism and establishment of Lokayuktas in states.
The resolution is a beginning towards meeting the conditions of Hazare and there is a long way to go before an appropriate legislation is adopted in the Parliament and enacted. Towards this direction the House further resolved to transmit the entire proceedings of the Parliament to the Department related Standing Committee for its perusal while formulating its recommendations for a Lokpal Bill. The outcome is awaited. The “Sense of the House” before it was announced by the Minister, was however questioned by couple of Members in the House with regards the propriety of Parliament discussing issues raised by only a section of civil society that did not represent all segments of people. Vocal among them are also members of the Standing Committee that has to decide on including Hazare points.
The three key points of Anna Hazare to form part of proposed Lok Pal are not a fresh idea and certainly not for the first time to be discussed and implemented. All three as well few more ideas that Hazare brought out during the course of his speeches before, during and at the end of his fast are not new. No doubt a fresh impetus has been given. The Government too has been very careful and cautious in its commitment which was clearly reflected in the words of Pranab Mukherjee when he initiated the discussion. “The points suggested by Hazare deserve serious consideration. In case a consensus emerges at the end of the discussion, the Standing Committee will take into account their practicability, implementability and constitutionality.” Individual member’s approach is also equally important!
Probably a similar cautious approach of successive governments at the center-be it the Congress, non-congress, Congress led UPA or non-Congress led NDA-both in the past and at present might have prompted Hazare to bring pressure on Government. At the same time it is not correct to say that Government and Prime Minister in the past and now did not want Citizen Charters or Public Grievances Redress Mechanism or Cleansing of Public Services or Lokayuktas for states or Decentralization of Powers to be implemented!
BJP Leader Sushma Swaraj while participating in the discussion in Lok Sabha said that it was not the first time that Lokpal Bill was being taken up by the House and reminded the members that their government tried earlier but could not get it passed. Similarly Pranab Mukherjee said UPA Government has amply demonstrated that it is sensitive to the common man's concern at corruption. Who is at fault? May be none or all!
On the threshold of fifty years of Indian Independence a conference of Chief Ministers presided over by the then Prime Minister IK Gujral was held on May 24, 1997 to discuss an Action Plan for providing Effective and Responsive Government at Central and State levels. The Action Plan comprised of among others, Citizens’ Charter and Accountable Administration; Effective and Speedy Public Grievance Redress System; Code of Ethics for Public Services and Tackling Corruption and cleansing the Administration. Many Chief Ministers who attended that meeting are still in active politics either in power or in opposition.
Central and State Governments were mandated to formulate Citizens' Charters for “departments and offices”, starting with those, which have a large public interface. It was agreed that, Citizens' Charters would be formulated based on a “Consultation Process” involving different stakeholders. After formulation these charters would be prominently made available to the public concerned for making use of them. These Citizens’ Charters would specify standards of service and time limits that the public can reasonably expect as well as avenues of grievances redress and a provision for independent scrutiny with the involvement of citizen and consumer groups. Government departments have to publicize widely about facilities at various levels for the “prompt and effective redress of public grievances” from the secretariat downwards to the village.
Though the charter is not proposed to be made justifiable it would carry a moral commitment of the government and would provide a framework under which public services could be evaluated. Citizens’ Charter is based on the principle of wide publicity of standards of performance of public agencies and local bodies; assured quality of service; access to information, courtesy and helpfulness of staff; choice and consultation with the citizens; simplified and convenient procedure for receipt and acknowledgement of complaints and time bound redress of grievances and provision for independent scrutiny of performance with the involvement of citizen groups. While it is not justifiable, it represents the moral and democratic commitment of the government to service of the public. What else we need?
Many Central Agencies, such as the Railways, Post, Health, Central Board of Direct Taxes, Central Board of Excise and Customs, Petroleum, Industry, Delhi Development Authority, Nationalized Banks and Passport Office and others announced a series of citizen friendly initiatives. The Ministry of Home affairs set up a task force to formulate specific steps for citizen friendly law enforcement system and crime prevention. In AP with the active initiative of the then CM Chandrababu Naidu, more than fifty departments prepared and put in action Charters with the assistance of Dr MCR HRD Institute.
The Government (NDA) of India constituted a Core Group to evaluate the progress in November 2001. The group consisted of Additional Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India; Secretaries in-charge of Administrative Reforms from six state Governments (including AP) and Director, LBSNAA, Mussoorie as Convener. Evaluation confirmed that central as well as state governments and Union Territory Administration taken action. Citizens Charters were formulated by 17 Ministries and Departments of the Central Government and 21 States and Union Territories. The mechanism of redress of public grievances was also in place at the central as well as almost all the States and Union Territories. Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh Governments got Charters prepared by various departments. By and large all those states who have brought out the Citizens' Charters and to the extent they could formulate, was based on, some sort of a consultation process. Similarly there was considerable progress achieved in establishing Grievance Redress Cells.
Are we reinventing the wheel? Creating new version of something? Anna Hazare may not be aware of many of the Governments’ Reform Initiatives…but...What about his team members like former Civil Servant Kiran Bedi and senior Advocates the Bhushans? Why not they brief him?
(Jwala Narasimha Rao along with Sundeep K Nayak of LBSNAA was a Member of the Sub-Group constituted by Government of India to evaluate Action Plan in March 2002).
