Times of India: Hyderabad: Monday, 18 July 2022.
In April 2016, the state government officially adopted the rules of the Gujarat Right to Service (GRS) Act, 2014, a powerful law for citizens who encounter corruption, delayed services, or the lack of transparency while dealing with public servants. Under this law, each of the 22 government departments were to set deadlines for each of the 260 services rendered to citizens, and disciplinary action was mandated against errant officers. A fine of Rs 10,000 was to be imposed for delays and even a compulsory adverse remark was recommended in the annual confidential report (ACR) of such officers.
Only Ahmedabad, Valsad,
Panchmahal, Surat, Kutch, Rajkot, and Vadodara districts' administrations have
bothered to upload the Act on their websites. None has mechanisms for citizens
to file complaints. For instance, no forms are available.
Every public authority had to designate grievance redressal officers (GROs) across departments, districts, talukas, municipal corporations, municipalities, notified areas, and panchayats. The GROs were supposed to receive complaints, inquire into them, and offer replies to the complainants. The Administrative Reforms and Training Division (ARTD) of the General Administration Department (GAD) is the official implementing agency of the law across the state. Sources in the GAD said that there has been stiff resistance for six years against the implementation of the law.
Every year, a report of the GRS Act was to be filed and officers who had performed well were to be rewarded. In theory, a citizen could file an application and escalate the case to the department, and finally to the state appellate authority, Gujarat Right to Service Commission (GRSC) to proceed against an official. "Over the past 1.5 years that I have held charge, the ARTD has not received any communication from the departments on the implementation of the Act," said the secretary of the ARTD, Dhananjay Dwivedi. "Individual departments will have to be approached." A Kalupur resident, Pankaj Bhatt, had recently filed an RTI application with the Ahmedabad's civic body to learn about the implementation of the GRS Act. "Officials aren't aware of the Act and you won't even get a form to apply under the Act," Bhatt said.
In April 2016, the state government officially adopted the rules of the Gujarat Right to Service (GRS) Act, 2014, a powerful law for citizens who encounter corruption, delayed services, or the lack of transparency while dealing with public servants. Under this law, each of the 22 government departments were to set deadlines for each of the 260 services rendered to citizens, and disciplinary action was mandated against errant officers. A fine of Rs 10,000 was to be imposed for delays and even a compulsory adverse remark was recommended in the annual confidential report (ACR) of such officers.
Every public authority had to designate grievance redressal officers (GROs) across departments, districts, talukas, municipal corporations, municipalities, notified areas, and panchayats. The GROs were supposed to receive complaints, inquire into them, and offer replies to the complainants. The Administrative Reforms and Training Division (ARTD) of the General Administration Department (GAD) is the official implementing agency of the law across the state. Sources in the GAD said that there has been stiff resistance for six years against the implementation of the law.
Every year, a report of the GRS Act was to be filed and officers who had performed well were to be rewarded. In theory, a citizen could file an application and escalate the case to the department, and finally to the state appellate authority, Gujarat Right to Service Commission (GRSC) to proceed against an official. "Over the past 1.5 years that I have held charge, the ARTD has not received any communication from the departments on the implementation of the Act," said the secretary of the ARTD, Dhananjay Dwivedi. "Individual departments will have to be approached." A Kalupur resident, Pankaj Bhatt, had recently filed an RTI application with the Ahmedabad's civic body to learn about the implementation of the GRS Act. "Officials aren't aware of the Act and you won't even get a form to apply under the Act," Bhatt said.
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