Citizen's Charter and Grievance Redressal Bill 2011 The Citizen's Charter and Grievance Redressal Bill 2011

in India is also known as The Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of their Grievances Bill, 2011 Or Citizens Charter Bill. It was tabled by V. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, in Lok Sabha in December 2011. The Bill seeks to confer on every citizen the right to time-bound delivery of specified goods and services and to provide a mechanism for grievance redressal. The Bill makes it mandatory for every public authority to publish a Citizens Charter within six months of the commencement of the Act, failing which the official concerned would face action, including a fine of up to Rs. 50,000 from his salary and disciplinary proceedings. The bill came after Anna Hazare asked for its provisions to be included in the Jan Lokpal Bill. Citizen charter(one reading required to grasp the concept)
The main objective of the exercise to issue the Citizen's Charter of an organisation is to improve the quality of public services. This is done by letting people know the mandate of the concerned Ministry/ Department/ Organisation, how one can get in touch with its officials, what to expect by way of services and how to seek a remedy if something goes wrong. The Citizen's Charter does not by itself create new legal rights, but it surely helps in enforcing existing rights Initiative of DEPTT OF ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS AND PUBLIC GRIEVANCES,MINISTRY OF PERSONNEL,PUBLIC GRIEVANCES,AND PENSIONS ,GOI.

The concept of Citizens Charter enshrines the trust between the service provider and it s 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. The six principles of the Citizens Charter movement as originally framed were: (i) Quality: Improving the quality of services; (ii) Choice: Wherever possible; (iii) Standards: Specifying what to expect and how to act if standards are not met; (iv) Value : For the taxpayers money; (v) Accountability: Individuals and Organisations; and (vi) Transparency: Rules/Procedures/Schemes/Grievances. These were later elaborated by the Labour Government as the nine principles of Service Delivery (1998), which are as follows:i. Set standards of service; ii. Be open and provide full information; iii. Consult and involve; iv. Encourage access and the promotion of choice; v. Treat all fairly; vi. Put things right when they go wrong; vii. Use resources effectively; viii. Innovate and improve; ix. Work with other providers.

Problems faced in Implementing the Charters Citizens Charters initiative in India had started in 1997 and most of the Charters formulated thereupon are in a nascent stage of implementation. Introduction of new concepts is always difficult in any organisation. Introduction and implementation of the concept of Citizens Charter in the Government of India was much more difficult due to the old bureaucratic set up/procedures and the rigid attitudes of the work force. The major obstacles encountered in this initiative were:(i) The general perception of organisations which formulated Citizens Charters was that the exercise was to be carried out because there was a direction from above. The consultation process was minimal or largely absent. It, thus, became one of the routine activities of the organisation and had no focus; For any Charter to succeed the employees responsible for its implementation should have proper training and orientation, as commitments of the Charter cannot be expected to be delivered by a workforce that is unaware of the spirit and content of the Charter. However, in many cases, the concerned staff were not adequately trained and sensitised; Sometimes, transfers and reshuffles of concerned officers at the crucial stages of formulation/implementation of the Citizens Charter in an organisation severely undermined the strategic processes which were put in place and hampered the progress of the initiative; Awareness campaigns to educate clients about the Charter were not conducted systematically; In some cases, the standards/time norms of services mentioned in Citizens Charter were either too lax or too tight and were, therefore, unrealistic, thereby creating an unfavourable impression on the clients of the Charter; The concept behind the Citizens Charter was not properly understood. Information brochures, publicity materials, pamphlets produced earlier by the organisations were mistaken for Citizens Charters.

(ii)

(iii)

(iv) (v)

(vi)

NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH MISSION KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER (MCQ)

What is the coverage of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)?
It covers the entire country, with special focus on 18 states where the challenge of strengthening poor public health systems and thereby improve key health indicators is the greatest.

Is NRHM a new programme of the Government of India?

No NRHM is not a new programme of Govt. of India but NRHM is the combination of national programmes, namely, the Reproductive and Child Health II project, (RCH II) the National Disease Control Programmes (NDCP) and the Integrated Disease Surveillance Project (IDSP). NRHM will also enable the mainstreaming of Ayurvedic, Yoga, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy Systems of Health (AYUSH).

What are the strategies of the NRHM?

While providing a broad framework for operationalisation, NRHM lists a set of core and supplementary strategies to meet its goals. The core strategy of NRHM will include decentralisation of villages and district level Rural Planning and Management and to appoint ASHA for creation of awareness, to counsel women and for the mobilisation of community facilities for accessing health related services. ASHA is supposed to escort pregnant women for delivery to institutions as PHC/FRU.

The Ayurvedic system will improve management capacity to organise health system and Public Health Services.

Supplementary Strategies include regulation of the private sector to improve equity and reduce out of pocket expenses, foster publicprivate partnerships to meet national public health goals, reorienting medical education, introduction of effective risk pooling mechanisms and social insurance to raise the health security of the poor, and taking full advantage of local health traditions.

Does the NRHM exclude provision of Health Care to urban populations?

A Task Group on Urban Health is being constituted to recommend strategies for urban poor.

What is the institutional set up at National Level?

The Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare will provide policy guidance and operational oversight at the National level. Secretary of Planning Commission, Rural Development, HRD, H&FW, H&FW Secretary of 4 states and 10 Public Health professional nominated PM will be members of Mission steering group.

What is the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in the NRHM?

For developing the Village Health Plan with the support of the ANM, ASHA, AWW and Self Help Groups. Block level Panchayat Samitis will coordinate the work of the GP in their jurisdiction and will serve as link to the DHM. The major role of Panchayat is to select ASHA preferably from there village.

Why Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC)?

For high GDP growth, we need lot of electricity =lot of coal need to be transported from mines to thermal power station. For infrastructure (bridges, roads, buildings)= need fast transport of cement, steel, machinery. Because of growing international trade via sea lanes= need to quickly transport products from factories to ports. This has led to birth of Dedicated Freight Corridors along the Eastern and Western Routes in 2005. Eastern Corridor Western Corridor Dadri in Uttar Pradesh 1. 2. 3. 4. Haryana Rajasthan Gujarat Maharashtra

Start

Ludhiana in Punjab 1. Haryana, 2. Uttar Pradesh 3. Bihar

Via

End When to complete? Length approx.

Dankuni in West Bengal 2017 1800

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust near Mumbai 2016. 1500

Total length 3000+Kms. Japan is providing financial and technical help for this project.

Benefits of Dedicated Freight Corridors?

1. The existing rail network, runs on a combination of diesel + electrical trains. 2. The Dedicated freight corridor will operate entirely on electric trains= less greenhouse gases. 3. After Dedicated freight corridor, the passenger traffic and freight (goods) traffic will be separated = leading to faster speeds and efficiency.

HIGH SPEED RAIL CORRIDORS

Under the High Speed Railway corridors (HSR) plan, the Railways intend to run trains at the speed of 160 km to 200 km per hour. Ministry of Railways has selected following six corridors Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam Howrah-Haldia Delhi -Agra-Lucknow -Varanasi Patna Benefits

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

1. A high-speed rail moving at speeds of 300 km/hr would take just about 2 hours to reach from New Delhi to Lucknow. Currently, it takes six hours for the fastest train on the route to cover the same distance.

2. The benefits of high-speed rail are immense vis-a-vis road and airlines. These rail systems have 30% less land requirement in comparison to expressways for same carrying capacity. 3. High-speed railways would directly compete with economy class tickets of an airline. 4. These trains are highly fuel-efficient as their energy consumption is one third less than private cars and 5 times less than airplanes. problem

Railways is more interested in constructing the AhmedabadMumbai project first. But Planning Commission recommends that Delhi-Agra corridor should be constructed first. Because it is shorter and cheaper than Abad-Mumbai project.

National High Speed Rail Authority

Ministry of Railways has decided to set up a National High Speed Rail Authority (NHSRA) Itll be an autonomous body through a bill in Parliament . NHSRA will be responsible for planning, implementation and monitoring of High Speed Rail Corridor projects. NHSRA is being proposed to be set up on the lines of the National Highway Authority and it would be under the Railways Ministry. selection of chairman and members of the NHSRA would be done by the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) with the approval of Appointment Committee of Cabinet.

Rail Tariff Regulatory Authority

Railways Act, 1989, Ministry of Railways enjoys full powers to fix tariffs. But Finance Ministry recommends that a separate body should be established to regulate tariff in Railways. Currently, Telecome sector has TRAI to regulate the tarrifs. Because Railways is a monopoly. therefore an independent regulatory mechanism =necessary. This authority will help Railways to improve performance and tighten productivity loss.

And To ensure that the Railways meet the transport requirement at the minimum cost to economy.

Counter arguments: Rail Tariff Regulatory Authority

Road transport segment is entirely in the private sector and it doesnt have any regulatory body to fix transport prices. In Aviation sector, there are both private and public operators (Airindia!) and yet there is no regulatory authorities to control transport prices in Aviation either. And both road transport and aviation =competitors of Railways. So, if they dont have a price regulator then why should Railways? Besides, Ministry of Railways doubts such authority will not help fulfilling the social-objectives.(such as concessional passes for students, cheap tickets for poor people) On these arguments, the Working Group of planning Commission has said, maintain status-quo. No need to setup Railway Tariff regulatory authority.

India vs China: Railway success

The Productivity of Chinese Railways= >More than twice of Indian Railways! Why? Because China 1. They use heavier, longer and faster freight trains to transport coal, cement, iron-ore etc. 2. Theyve outsourced the minor tasks (such as cleaning the railway coaches, providing blankets to passengers etc.) to private companies =cheaper input cost and more

India We dont have the money to buy such trains.

Not done to annoy unions, vote bank.

efficiency. 3. They closed down many railway stations with low volume of freight or passengers. 4. They dont usually provide rail service for short distance passenger traffic. This is done to release staff and trains for longer distance rail travel. 5. Their railways doesnt waste ca$h on opening museums, cultural centers, hospitals etc. 6. Whatever hospitals, schools etc. Chinese rail authorities were running in the past, they handed it over to local municipalities.

Not done.

Not done

Prior to W.Bengal election, ExRailway minister Mamta Benerjee announced many such projects like Tagore museum, bottling plant, hospitals etc. These projects may be socially desirable but economically theyre not viable. Railways shouldnt involve in these activities. Our factories run like just sarkaari department= low productivity. The ruling party would insist to setup new factories in the election constituency of their leader.=not good from production/ Management/economy point of view. Our railways has division: western, southern.=empires

7. Their wagon construction factories run on privatecorporate level efficiency.

8. China abolished the regional-division system

and centralized the management of depots, stations and yards= more efficiency.

within empire.

What do we need to do?

Planning Commission formed a working group on Railways. It has recommended following things

Passenger trains

Restructure the tariff to maximize Revenue. (=increase ticket prices) At present, speed of trains of Passenger Mail/Express trains is below 55 kmph. These are low as per international standards. On popular routes, 24/26 coaches trains should be run to generate additional capacity. Replace conventional trains by EMUs/MEMUs/DMUs. Railways should develop alternative terminal at sub-urban areas of major cities. Railways should hasten the implementation of Dedicated Freight Corridor. This way passenger and freight traffic will become separate from eachother= faster passenger services, quicker freight movement.

Goods transport

Following the Chinese success story, our strategy should be HEAVIER, LONGER, FASTER trains for freight (goods) transport. Upgrade to heavier (higher axle load), speedier (100 kmph) and longer freight trains=maximum utilization of existing track capacity. We should Import bogies from USA. Theyre more track-friendly and capable of carrying enhanced loads.

No subsidy on magazines

Indian Railways carry Magazines parcel at highly subsidized rates. But nowadays the cost of magazines is very high and it is a profitable business! Besides, Magazines are not read by poor people. Therefore, Railways should stop giving concessional rates for transporting Magazines. However, Railways should continue giving concessional rates for transporting Newspapers.

Perishable cargo
Under Kisan vision project.

cold storage and temperature controlled perishable cargo centres Refrigerated Vans (VPRs) Through Public Private Partnership mode, Project done in Singur, Nasik and Jalpaiguri etc.

Safety

There are almost 15000 unmanned level crossings. = Theyre responsible for 40% accidents (2011 data.) Accordingly, Indian Railways Vision 2020 and Railway Budget Speech, these unmanned crossing have to be fixed in the next five years. For Signaling & Telecommunication in Railways, switch over to systems and equipment of higher reliability and safety levels. Setup On-Board Fire detection and Fire Fighting equipment in trains. Use of GPS technology and RFID technology for tracking railway trains.

Biometric VCD

Drivers Vigilance Telemetry Control System). It is a small wrist-watch like device. It constantly moniters drivers posture, pulse etc. So if the driver has consumed desi-liquor and fell half-asleep in the cabin, the station manager would get alarmed and can automatically stop the train.

Russia has been using such telemetry system for Locopilots (=train drivers) since a long time.

Train Collision Avoidance systems (TCAS).

It is combination of GPS and Radio Frequency. It applies brakes without pilots. It avoid collisions due to human errors, rain or fog, natural calamities or sabotage. This would minimize human dependence in train operations and enhance the level of safety problem

Railway would need more than 16000 crores to do all these things. And Government of India is tight on cash already (MNREGA, food security etc..you get the picture) So Railways will need to arrange the cash by itself = need to raise the tariffs, otherwise safety reforms cant be done.

Misc. Cost reduction

LED based lighting & Display System to reduce electricity bill. Provision of solar Panels, Solar Water heaters, Solar Pumps etc. in Hospitals, Running Rooms, Rest Houses run by railways. Provision of roof top Solar Panels on passenger coaches running in Close Circuits Grid connected Solar Panels at major stations.

Human resource Management

Recruitment

For the medium term, UPSC should provide railway officers. But in the long term, railways itself should hire personnel from IIMs/IITs. Railways should also allow for lateral recruitment in R&D, marketing and finance, HR. Outsourcing Minor works Major works

Examples

cleaning of coaches,provision of blankets and food in trains Outsource this work private companies=less cost than permanent staff.

manufacturing locomotives, coaches, wagons. Partial disinvestment. Run it on corporate lines.=more efficiency.

Suggestion of planning commission:

^Both Chinese Railways and Japanese Railways are doing this.

Mock Questions
Q1. Correct statement about Dedicated Freight Corridors? 1. It is made up of three sub-corridors: Western, Eastern and Northern 2. The Eastern Corridor will connect Punjab to W.Bengal 3. Only electrical trains will be operated on these corridors. 4. The Western Corridor will connect Punjab to Karnataka. a. b. c. d. Only 1 and 4 Only 1 and 3 Only 2 and 3 Only 2 and 4

Q2. Correct Statement about National High Speed Rail Authority 1. Itll be responsible for implementing the Dedicated Freight Corridor project 2. Itll be an autonomous body, established by an act of parliament. a. b. c. d. Only 1 Only 2 Both None

Q3. Which of the following states are common for both Eastern and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor projects? a. Rajsthan and Gujarat b. Delhi and Haryana

c. Haryana and UP d. UP and Bihar

ANSWERS ::C,B,C

Cable Digitization, DAS vs DTH (Direct-to Home), Set-top Box, TRAI order Difference: DAS vs DTH?
DAS Digital Addressable Cable TV system Set-top box necessary to view channels. The Set Top Box used for DAS cannot be used for DTH service as technologies are different. In DAS service, TV signals reach consumer through the cable network. So it is local-cable operator>wire->customers home->settopbox->TV. DAS will become mandatory by Dec 2014. No cable channel can be served through Analogue format. DAS cable is a ground distribution network and you may have to change your operator if you move to a different place even within a city. keeps working unless cable is broken or damaged. DTH Direct to Home. (Tata Sky, Dish TV shahruk khan etc) Same Same in DTH service, TV channels are directly received by consumer from satellite using small dish antennas located at the customer premise. so it is small dish @roof->settopbox->TV. Not mandatory. It is just a product, if you can afford and you like it, then purchase, else no worries. all-India coverage. You can use the same DTH operator even if you move cities. Whatever money you had paid, stays in your account (smart-card.) Doesnt work in bad weather particularly when there is heavy rain and clouds.

What is set top box (STB)?

Set top box (STB) is a device. It is connected to a television set so the consumer can view encrypted channels of his choice. (using smart card.) The basic function of the set top box is to decrypt the channels and to convert the digital signals into analog mode for viewing on television sets.