Home |Citizen's Charter

Time 2020-12-22 03:03:36

Web Name: Home |Citizen's Charter

WebSite: http://www.goicharters.nic.in

ID:142150

Keywords:

Home,Citizen,Charter,

Description:

A Citizens Charter represents the commitment of the Organisation towards standard, quality and time frame of service delivery, grievance redress mechanism, transparency and accountability. Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, in the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, in its efforts to provide more responsive and citizen-friendly governance coordinates the efforts to formulate and operationalise Citizens Charters. Various Central Government Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations have brought out their Citizens Charters. With a view to ensure effective implementation of Citizens Charter, Nodal Officers have been appointed in the concerned Central Government Ministries/ Departments/ Organisations. The concept of Citizens' Charter enshrines the trust between the service provider and its users. The concept was first articulated and implemented in the United Kingdom by the Conservative Government of John Major in 1991 as a national Programme with a simple aim: to continuously improve the quality of public services for the people of the country so that these services respond to the needs and wishes of the users. The Programme was re-launched in 1998 by the Labour Government of Tony Blair which rechristened it Services First. The basic objective of the Citizens Charter is to empower the citizen in relation to public service delivery. Six principles of the Citizens Charter movement as originally framed, were: (i) Quality: Improving the quality of services (ii) Choice: Wherever possible (iii) Standards: Specify what to expect and how to act if standards are not met (iv) Value: For the taxpayers money (v) Accountability: Individuals and Organisations (vi) Transparency: Rules/ Procedures/ Schemes/Grievances Over the years, in India, significant progress has been made in the field of economic development. This, along with a substantial increase in the literacy rate, (from 51.63% to 65.38% in the last decade) has made Indian citizens increasingly aware of their rights. Citizens have become more articulate and expect the administration not merely to respond to their demands but also to anticipate them. Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances in Government of India (DARPG) initiated the task of coordinating, formulating and operationalising Citizens' Charters. Guidelines for formulating the Charters as well as a list of do's and don'ts were communicated to various government departments/organisations to enable them to bring out focused and effective charters. The Charters are expected to incorporate the following elements: (i) Vision and Mission Statement (ii) Details of business transacted by the organisation (iii) Details of clients (iv) Details of services provided to each client group (v) Details of grievance redress mechanism and how to access it (vi) Expectations from the clients During the Year 2002-03, DARPG engaged a professional agency to develop a standardised model for internal and external evaluation of Citizens' Charters in a more effective, quantifiable and objective manner. This agency also carried out evaluation of implementation of Charters in 5 Central Government Organisations and 15 Departments/ Organisations of States of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. This Agency was also required to suggest methods for increasing awareness, both within the organisation and among the users, and to suggest possible methods for orientation of management and the staff in the task of formulating and deploying Charters. As per the report of evaluation carried out by the Agency, major findings were: (i) In majority of cases Charters were not formulated through a consultative process (ii) By and large service providers are not familiar with the philosophy, goals and main features of the Charter (iii) Adequate publicity to the Charters had not been given in any of the Departments evaluated. In most Departments, the Charters are only in the initial or middle stage of implementation (iv) No funds have been specifically earmarked for awareness generation of Citizens' Charter or for orientation of staff on various components of the Charter (i) Need for citizens and staff to be consulted at every stage of formulation of the Charter (ii) Orientation of staff about the salient features and goals/ objectives of the Charter; vision and mission statement of the department; and skills such as team building, problem solving, handling of grievances and communication skills (iii) Need for creation of database on consumer grievances and redress (iv) Need for wider publicity of the Charter through print media, posters, banners, leaflets, handbills, brochures, local newspapers etc. and also through electronic media (v) Earmarking of specific budgets for awareness generation and orientation of staff (vi) Replication of best practices in this field Citizen’s Charter is a document of commitments made by a Government organization to the citizens/client groups in respect of the services/schemes being provided to them or to be provided to.... Citizen’s Charter is a document of commitments made by a Government organization to the citizens/client groups in respect of the services/schemes being provided to them or to be provided to them. The objective of Charter exercise is to build bridges between citizens and administration and to streamline administration in tune with the needs of citizens. This exercise, if appropriately conceived and carried out, can enthuse and enable organizations to tune their planning, policy and performance to the needs and concerns of citizens/ stakeholders/ users/ clients. For this transformative process to materialize, effective strategies of realization would have to be worked out at multiple levels and authentification of these strategies needs to be attempted at every level in the political and administrative system. These strategies must incorporate three elements. One, clarity at every level about the objectives of Charter as an instrument of policy rationalization and administrative tuning to deliver policy goals expected by the citizens. Two, designing and delivery of Charters as live instruments of citizen-administration interface and instituting citizen in public domain. Three, evolving mechanisms for Charter monitoring, Charter evaluation and Charter review. Instituting a system of acknowledging effectiveness in Charter implementation can help the process. SEE MORE SEE LESS The first key component of a meaningful Citizen’s Charter is a clear statement of vision.Vision implies the ultimate direction in which the organisation seeks to move. Clarity ofvision enables the organisation to plan and prepare itself to deliver specific outcomes.Every organisation has to be clear within as well as to the citizens as regards its vision.Vision statement may emanate from an open and consultative process, involving multiplepoints in the organisation as well as citizens, client groups or stakeholders. Thebroadening of processes for defining vision through an active interface with citizens islikely to lend way to a vision which has far greater degree of acceptability and activesupport in fulfillment than would otherwise be possible. The ‘mission’ statement provides the specific objectives which drive the organization intune with its vision. Specificity of ‘mission’ is significant to enable the organisation tomove towards its vision. Organisation needs to think of the manner in which the vision isto be realized. This should help it frame its mission in more concrete rather thanambiguous terms. The Charter should clearly identify the services, which would be provided by theorganisation to attain its mission and vision. This should list all the services, which wouldbe made available through its various agencies. Some Charters give information about‘Details of business transacted by the organization’. The expression is not sacrosanct, onecan always use different expressions like ‘Our Function’, or ‘Our Duties andResponsibilities’ or even ‘The services being provided by us’. Regardless of theexpression used, all services should be clearly mentioned in the Charter. Since organisations operate at multiple levels and within each organisation, allocation ofresponsibilities and authority defines their commitment to specific client groups/ users/stakeholders. Irrespective of whether the organizations mention ‘details of business’,‘commitments’, ‘functions’ or ‘services’ in its Charter, it is necessary to indicate thespecific levels of the services or functions etc., in the Charter, there should be a clearidentification of the levels at which specific services would be provided. This wouldenable the citizens/ clients to know the levels at which they can access a specific serviceand not waste their time and energy in approaching the wrong levels. It should also bementioned if the Charter applies to all the agencies that come under the Ministry orDepartment or the agencies have their own specific Charters. A clear understanding of the client groups/ stakeholders/ users by the organisations wouldbe necessary for an increased interface with these in matter of policy and administration.This will also enable the organisation to cater to the needs of these groups better. It is amatter of concern that most of the Charters of Union Ministries/ Departments do notidentify the client groups/ stakeholders/ users with reference to the services offered. Thisis a serious deficiency, which should be rectified urgently. True, there may be someconfusion about the relevance of these categories in case of some organizations, which donot have clearly identifiable client groups with whom organizations have a regulardealing. Some organizations may have direct clients, who pay for the service accessed.But others may have users who may access the service by virtue of being citizens. Insome cases, despite not being the users of a service, citizens or groups may feelconcerned about the organizational decisions as they have to bear the fall-outs of thedecisions, as in case of many decisions related to industrial or mining projects, whichaffect the local people even if they are not users or clients. Likewise, some organizationsmay prefer to use the term citizens rather than users/ clients/ stakeholders as all citizensare their potential users. However, in case of some others, the term citizen may seem tocarry limited value as they also have foreign clients and stakeholders. It is therefore important for the organizations to use any of these terms while they indicate theircommitments.Big organizations having a number of client groups may have different services fordifferent client groups. In such a situation, it is obvious that the Charter should list out the services for each client group and the ‘commitments’ for each of such services. This canbe fine tuned further by listing out the specific ‘commitments’ at each level and the‘commitments’ in terms of the special client groups like the Scheduled Castes, ScheduledTribes, religious minorities and other weaker sections. Steps taken by the organization toimplement the commitments and listing out such steps in the Charter is desirable. There should be a clear commitment about the time-frame for delivery of specificservices in the Charter. This would save the organisation from undue expectations as alsoenable it to project its capacity to commit delivery of service as well as to work towards itin its own organisational plans. Awareness of time-lines will also enable the citizen to optfor specific providers where options are available and better understand the capacity oforganisation to deliver a service in a specific time-frame. True, some organisationsprovide certain services of perennial nature. For example, there may not be any timeframe for certain services provided by Department of Telecommunications, IndianRailways, Department of Posts, Department of Drinking Water Supply etc. However, insuch cases also there can be specific time-frames, as, for instance, for redemption/finalpayment of postal deposits, installation of telephone connections, reservation/cancellationof reservation of Railway tickets etc. It is important that time-frames for service delivery are provided for each level at whichspecific services are delivered. Adherence to these needs to be ensured too. This mayrequire an obligation to provide reports on the extent of adherence to time-frames at eachlevel. Public sharing of a comparative picture of various levels in the organisation mayintroduce competition to improve performance. (i) Formation of Task Force (ii) Identification of all Stakeholders and major services to be provided by Organisation (iii) Consultation with Clients/Stakeholders/Staff (Primarily at cutting-edge level) and their representative associations (i) Formation of Task Force (ii) Identification of all Stakeholders and major services to be provided by Organisation (iii) Consultation with Clients/Stakeholders/Staff (Primarily at cutting-edge level) and their representative associations (iv) Preparation of Draft Charter (V) Consideration of the Charter by Core Group (VI) Modification of Charter by the Ministry/Department on the basis of suggestions/observations by the Core Group (VII) Approval by the Minister-in-charge (VIII) Submission of a copy of the charter to the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (IX) Formal issue/release of Charter and putting up on website (X) Sending copies to People's Representatives and all stakeholders (XI) Appointment of a Nodal Officer to ensure effective implementation (i) To be useful, the Charter must be simple (ii) The Charter must be framed not only by senior experts, but by interaction with the cutting edge staff who will finally implement it and with the users (individual organisations) (iii) Merely announcing the Charter will not change the way we function. It is important to create conditions through interaction and training for generating a responsive climate (i) To be useful, the Charter must be simple (ii) The Charter must be framed not only by senior experts, but by interaction with the cutting edge staff who will finally implement it and with the users (individual organisations) (iii) Merely announcing the Charter will not change the way we function. It is important to create conditions through interaction and training for generating a responsive climate (iv) Begin with a statement of the service(s) being offered (V) A mention be made against each service the entitlement of the user, service standards and remedies available to the user in case of the non-adherence to standards (VI) Procedures/cost/charges should be made available on line/display boards/ booklets inquiry counters etc at places specified in the Charter (VII) Indicate clearly, that while these are not justiciable, the commitments enshrined in the Charter are in the nature of a promise to be fulfilled with oneself and with the user (VIII) Frame a structure for obtaining feedback and performance audit and fix a schedule for reviewing the Charter every six months at least (IX) Separate Charters can be framed for distinct services and for organisations/ agencies attached or subordinate to a Ministry/Department (i) A brief statement regarding the services concerned (ii) Public Interface of the service concerned to be addressed (e.g., Reservation, Passenger amenities by Railways, Mail Delivery, Premium services by Post etc) (i) A brief statement regarding the services concerned (ii) Public Interface of the service concerned to be addressed (e.g., Reservation, Passenger amenities by Railways, Mail Delivery, Premium services by Post etc) (iii) Commitment to Standards (Time frame, Quality of service) (iv) The Staff: What to except from them?, Where are they located?, What information do they need? If things go wrong (remedial measures): What could go wrong, Whom to contact, What to expect to set it right, How Citizen's can help the organisation? (2) List areas of interface (3) Phase out areas for introduction of small steps (2) List areas of interface (3) Phase out areas for introduction of small steps (4) Involve customer and staff in formulating and implementing them (5) Prepare a Master Plan for formulation and implementation over five years and budget for the period (6) Win consumer confidence with small, highly visible measures (7) Be responsive to the need for the charters to be evolving in nature (8) Inform the customer of the proposed commitments (9) Use simple language (10) Train you staff (11) Delegate powers (12) Set up systems for feedback and independent scrutiny (13) Don't merely make haste (14) Don't be unrealistic (15) Don't take on more than you can commit (16) Don't involve only senior officers in their formulation and implementation (17) Don't rush into an overall package for the whole Ministry/Department/ Organisation (18) Don't look upon it as a one-time exercise, with a final outcome (19) Don't inform the customer unless you are sure of delivering the service (20) Don't centralize (21) Don't continue blindly without regular periodic reassessment of performance. For further assistance, please visit our FAQ's section Sardar Patel Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi -110001 Contents of this site are provided by the concerned Ministry/Department/Organization. Site Designed and Hosted by : National Informatics Centre

TAGS:Home Citizen Charter 

<<< Thank you for your visit >>>

Hot Websites