Business Standard: New Delhi: Tuesday,
October 11, 2016.
The National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has junked the idea of passing a grievance
redressal law, which would have given citizens legal rights to secure proper
and timely delivery of government services and benefits. Instead, it is working
on a scheme called the Delivery of Services and Grievances Redressal Scheme.
A law would
have given citizens legal entitlements to get government to deliver on time. A
scheme provides for a recourse to more departmental procedures and actions, as
the minister in-charge under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Jitendra Singh,
had said in response to a question in Parliament in March 2016.
The
turnaround comes more than two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
office told the ministries concerned that “passing of the Citizen’s Grievances
Bill” would be an “immediate thrust area” of the NDA government.
The PMO told
the Department of Personnel and Training and the Department of Administrative
Reforms and Public Grievance as much in an order in June 2014, ordering that the
departments should expedite action for the passage of the law and keep it
informed of the developments. Business
Standard reviewed the orders from the PMO.
When the
question on the status of the law was raised in Parliament, Singh had said,
“For this purpose, a scheme known as Delivery of Services and Grievances
Redressal Scheme-2015 has been prepared. The ambit of the scheme inter-alia
includes goods and services being offered by the public authorities of the
Government of India (with some exceptions). The scheme also has provisions for
administrative action with respect to delays, etc, in provision of designated
services in specified timeframe.”
When a Right
to Information (RTI) application was filed by Amrita Johri of the National
Campaign for the People’s Right to Information in June 2016, the government
said the scheme has not been finalised. “Finalisation of Delivery of Services
and Grievance Redress Scheme, which has been prepared by this department, is
still under consideration.” It refused to part with the details of the scheme,
stating that it was denying the information on the prepared scheme “in view of
Section 8(1)(i) of the RTI Act, 2005.”
The Right of
Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their
Grievances Bill, 2011, was introduced in Parliament in 2011. It had the support
of the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, and Opposition
parties, including the BJP. In December 2013, parliamentarians from across
parties spoke in favour of the law. But, with the dissolution of the 15th Lok
Sabha, the Bill, which had been tabled in the Rajya Sabha, also lapsed.
After the NDA
took over the reigns at the Centre, it reiterated in Parliament in 2014 and
2015 that it was committed to bringing in a legislation. This was backed by the
PMO missive that the passage of the law, along with setting up of a Lok Pal and
amendments to the Prevention of Corruption Act, were immediate thrust areas for
the government.
But by March
2016, the government told Parliament that it was not looking at legal
justiciable rights for delivery of services but had “prepared” only a
government scheme that would allow administrative action in case of deficiency
in delivering services. The fate of this, too, now remains unclear, with the
government saying in June 2016 that while it had “prepared” the scheme, it was
still under “finalisation”. Since then, it has not put out any public information
or announcement on the scheme in the public domain.
PREMATURE
DEATH?
· 2011 The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of
Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill introduced in
Parliament
·
Then UPA govt, Opposition, including BJP, back it
· 2013 Parliamentarians across parties speak in favour of
the law
· 2014 & 2015 NDA govt reiterates commitment to the
legislation
· 2016 Govt tells Parliament has only made a scheme to
allow administrative action in case of deficiencies in services
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