Citizens Right to Grievance Redressal Bill 2011 Open public comment

Comment sent to pk.jha@nic.in, satish@arpg.nic.in on November 3, 2011 Introduction These comments are put in the public domain by Sanjay Bhargava (sanjaybhargava@yahoo.com). The spirit in which these comments are put up is constructive. There may be a few good points in these comments that can be used. Please use what is useful and discard the rest. Sanjay also hopes that other aam aadmi like him, eminent citizens, groups such as Team Anna, NCPRI, NAC, CII, FICCI etc. will comment constructively and DARPG will respond constructively so that effective two way communication results . It is the responsibility of DARPG to reduce the trust deficit by putting out how public consultation helped. A lot of people told me I was wasting my time preparing this note and I must admit I felt the same and yet I prepared this note. Recommendation #1 - DARPG should reach out to get constructive comments from people and not just sit there waiting for people to come to DARPG. For future bills to encourage public comment it should publish how public comment helped and the process by which comments were rejected and/or used. Objective of the Bill The objective of bill is to reduce problems related to the aam aadmi due to delay and corruption. How will we know whether this objective has been met or not and will DARPG and the minister feel any pain if the objective is not met. Just as Transparency International measures corruption the bill should have the provision of a COB Citizen Oversight Body that will engage a company in a transparent manner to measure the score as perceived by the aam aadmi on grievance reduction in the unit. Each unit which has not met its improvement target will feel pain and based on a weighted score for the nation if the nation has not met the goal then DARPG will feel pain. On the flip side if targets are met the units and DARPG should get incentives which may be contributed by grateful citizens. This will go a long way to ensuring that the bill is not eyewash and results in ROSU (Real Outcomes with a sense of Urgency) Recommendation #2 A COB should be formed and should set targets that are tough but can be reached. Measurement is by an independent company selected by COB in a transparent manner. Failure to reach the target should result in a 25% penalty of basic pay for seniors going down to 10% for juniors so that there is teamwork in each unit and DARPG. If the goal is met a citizen trust should pay out bonuses. Continuous Improvement

The bill should have a mechanism for continuous improvement based on real world experience. It is a real tragedy that six years after RTI, activists are still dying and we keep debating. After the first death the act should have been improved probably with an ordinance which was ratified by parliament. Recommendation #3 There must be a provision for quick and continuous improvement in the act. This will also ensure that the act does not have to be prefect when passed. Use Cases (Problem with Citizen Charter) If recommendation #2 is accepted then there will be an automatic incentive to cover all use cases. It should be obvious that cases such as police charging hafta to shopkeepers, charging to remove or register an FIR will not go away if we get a passport or ration card on time. In Delhi when a similar bill was introduced MCD put four simple services in the citizen charter like birth certificate, death certificate, Community Park and so on and said we are done. The potential for eyewash is enormous. If enumerating turnaround standards are considered good then so be it but there must be a solution for obvious corruption and problems such as sales tax evasion, black money in real estate and so on. Recommendation #4 DARPG must burn midnight oil and if necessary request help from public volunteers who can work 24 hours in shifts volunteer to help them think through implementation with use cases. The volunteers must be selected based on interviews and managed. Removal of Discretion In Sales Tax in Maharashtra there was a rule that the penalty was Rs 10000 but at the discretion of the sales tax officer it could be reduced to Rs 100. A good commissioner got this reduced to Rs 5000 but no one could waive this. The result on time filings went up from 35% to over 90%. Again recommendation #2 will give some incentive to remove unnecessary discretion but unless these opportunities for corruption are removed people may say I will part with 25% penalty on basic pay but I will make 2000% through corruption Recommendation #5- COB must engage a company to go through every unit and recommend changes to prevent corruption. These must be put in public domain and if the recommendation is rejected public unit must give a reason why Real Outcomes or Transfer Today many honest bureaucrats say they cannot remain honest or be very aggressive in stamping out corruption because then they will be transferred. The COB should monitor real outcomes and warn senior bureaucrats if they are not delivering real outcomes. For instance two years after the Delhi Defacement Act

became law posters and banners are all over Delhi and all that the act has done is increased corruption. If situation does not improve then COB should require a hearing and do a punishment posting transfer for the bureaucrat. The bureaucrat can then work on studying climate change at a non family station near Siachen Glacier. It is the job of a senior bureaucrat to produce results and if he/she cannot do that they must be transferred as they cannot be sacked. This will also reduce the transfer power of ministers where ministers transfer good officers Recommendation #6 COB must engage a company to monitor real outcomes and issue warnings/ conduct transfer hearings Self Reporting A sanitary inspector is responsible for reporting unsanitary condition, fining people responsible and so on. Imagine a situation where a sanitary inspector has to file a daily report on the sanitary score of his/her area. Technology enables this. With self reporting that is auditable improvement can be measured and each manager can have goals. With this hospitals will not be bad and schools will become better and so on Recommendation #7 Bill must require every unit to have daily self reporting so that ministers and senior bureaucrats have daily MIS to track and improve Avoiding a Bloated Bureaucracy Already there is a lot of confusion of who does what. Adding more unnecessary layers adds to cost and confusion plus causes delay. The structure in the proposed bill is unwieldy and unnecessary if the other recommendations are accepted Recommendation # 8 - KISS. Keep it Simple and Stupid Be Real. Citizens have a life How many citizens will have the patience to file a grievance and go through a lengthy appeal process? Have consumer courts helped in reducing customer abuse by private companies significantly? Recommendation # 9- Be real. Do not eyewash.