Public Reforms

7/29/2019 Public Reforms

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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 OrCitizens Charter Bill. It was tabled byV. Narayanasamy, Minister of State for

Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, inLok Sabhain 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 afterAnna Hazareasked for its provisions to be included in theJan 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 its users. Theconcept was first articulated and implemented in the United Kingdom by the ConservativeGovernment of John Major in 1991 as a national programme with a simple aim: to continuouslyimprove 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 LabourGovernment of Tony Blair which rechristened it Services First.

The basic objective of the Citizens Charter is to empower the citizen in relation to public servicedelivery. 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.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._Narayanasamyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._Narayanasamyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._Narayanasamyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lok_Sabhahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lok_Sabhahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lok_Sabhahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hazarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hazarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hazarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Billhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Billhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Billhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Billhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Hazarehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lok_Sabhahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._Narayanasamy


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Problems faced in Implementing the Charters

Citizens Charters initiative in India had started in 1997 and most of the Charters formulatedthereupon are in a nascent stage of implementation. Introduction of new concepts is always difficult inany 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 therigid 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 theexercise was to be carried out because there was a direction from above. The consultationprocess was minimal or largely absent. It, thus, became one of the routine activities of theorganisation and had no focus;

(ii) 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 bedelivered by a workforce that is unaware of the spirit and content of the Charter. However, inmany cases, the concerned staff were not adequately trained and sensitised;

(iii) Sometimes, transfers and reshuffles of concerned officers at the crucial stages offormulation/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;

(iv) Awareness campaigns to educate clients about the Charter were not conducted systematically;

(v) In some cases, the standards/time norms of services mentioned in Citizens Charterwere either too lax or too tight and were, therefore, unrealistic, thereby creating an

unfavourable impression on the clients of the Charter;

(vi) The concept behind the Citizens Charter was not properly understood.Information brochures, publicity materials, pamphlets produced earlier bythe organisations were mistaken for Citizens Charters.

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 nationalprogrammes, 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.


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

Health Services.

Supplementary Strategiesinclude regulation of the private sector to improve equity and reduceout of pocket expenses, foster publicprivate partnerships to meet national public health goals, re-

orienting 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 needto be transported from mines to thermal power station.

For infrastructure (bridges, roads, buildings)= need fast transportof cement, steel, machinery.

Because of growing international trade via sea lanes= need toquickly transport products from factories to ports.

This has led to birth of Dedicated Freight Corridors along theEastern and Western Routes in 2005.

Eastern Corridor Western Corridor

Start Ludhiana in Punjab Dadri in Uttar Pradesh

Via

1. Haryana,2. Uttar Pradesh3. Bihar

1. Haryana2. Rajasthan3. Gujarat

4. Maharashtra


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EndDankuni in WestBengal

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trustnear Mumbai

When to

complete?

2017 2016.

Lengthapprox.

1800 1500

Total length 3000+Kms. Japan is providing financial and technicalhelp 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 andefficiency.

HIGH SPEED RAIL CORRIDORS

Under the High Speed Railway corridors (HSR) plan, theRailways intend to run trains at the speed of 160 km to 200 kmper hour.

Ministry of Railways has selected following six corridors

1. Delhi-Chandigarh-Amritsar2. Pune-Mumbai-Ahmedabad

3. Hyderabad-Dornakal-Vijaywada-Chennai4. Chennai-Bangalore-Coimbatore-Ernakulam5. Howrah-Haldia6. Delhi -Agra-Lucknow -Varanasi Patna

Benefits

1. A high-speed rail moving at speeds of 300 km/hr would take justabout 2 hours to reach from New Delhi to Lucknow. Currently, it

takes six hours for the fastest train on the route to cover thesame distance.


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2. The benefits of high-speed rail are immense vis-a-vis road andairlines. These rail systems have 30% less land requirement incomparison 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 thanairplanes.

problem

Railways is more interested in constructing the Ahmedabad-Mumbai project first.

But Planning Commission recommends that Delhi-Agra corridorshould be constructed first. Because it is shorter and cheaperthan Abad-Mumbai project.

National High Speed Rail Authority

Ministry of Railways has decided to set up a National HighSpeed Rail Authority (NHSRA)

Itll be an autonomous body through a bill in Parliament .

NHSRA will be responsible for planning, implementation andmonitoring 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 RailwaysMinistry.

selection of chairman and members of the NHSRA would bedone by the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) with theapproval 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 andtighten productivity loss.


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

Counter arguments: Rail Tariff Regulatory Authority

Road transport segment is entirely in the private sector and itdoesnt 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 controltransport 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 helpfulfilling the social-objectives.(such as concessional passes forstudents, cheap tickets for poor people)

On these arguments, the Working Group of planningCommission has said, maintain status-quo. No need to setupRailway Tariff regulatory authority.

India vs China: Railway success

The Productivity of Chinese Railways= >More than twice of IndianRailways! Why? Because

China India

1. They use heavier, longerand faster freight trains totransport coal, cement,iron-ore etc.

We dont have the money tobuy such trains.

2. Theyve outsourced theminor tasks (such ascleaning the railwaycoaches, providingblankets to passengersetc.) to privatecompanies =cheaperinput cost and more

Not done to annoy unions, votebank.


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efficiency.

3. They closed down manyrailway stations with lowvolume of freight orpassengers.

Not done.

4. They dont usuallyprovide rail service forshort distance passengertraffic. This is done torelease staff and trains

for longer distance railtravel.

Not done

5. Their railways doesntwaste ca$h on openingmuseums, culturalcenters, hospitals etc.

6. Whatever hospitals,

schools etc. Chinese railauthorities were runningin the past, they handedit over to localmunicipalities.

Prior to W.Bengal election, Ex-Railway minister MamtaBenerjee announced manysuch projects like Tagoremuseum, bottling plant,hospitals etc.

These projects may be sociallydesirable but economicallytheyre not viable.

Railways shouldnt involve inthese activities.

7. Their wagon constructionfactories run on private-corporate level efficiency.

Our factories run like justsarkaari department= lowproductivity.

The ruling party would insist tosetup new factories in theelection constituency of theirleader.=not good fromproduction/Management/economy point ofview.

8. China abolished theregional-division system

Our railways has division:western, southern.=empires


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and centralized themanagement of depots,stations and yards= moreefficiency.

within empire.

What do we need to do?

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

Passenger trains

Restructure the tariff to maximize Revenue. (=increase ticketprices)

At present, speed of trains of Passenger Mail/Express trains isbelow 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 becomeseparate from eachother= faster passenger services, quickerfreight movement.

Goods transport

Following the Chinese success story, our strategy should beHEAVIER, LONGER, FASTER trains for freight (goods)transport.

Upgrade to heavier (higher axle load), speedier (100 kmph) andlonger freight trains=maximum utilization of existing trackcapacity.

We should Import bogies from USA. Theyre more track-friendlyand capable of carrying enhanced loads.

No subsidy on magazines


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Indian Railways carry Magazines parcel at highly subsidizedrates.

But nowadays the cost of magazines is very high and it is aprofitable 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 cargocentres

Refrigerated Vans (VPRs) Through Public Private Partnership mode, Project done in Singur, Nasik and Jalpaiguri etc.

Safety

There are almost 15000 unmanned level crossings. = Theyreresponsible for 40% accidents (2011 data.)

Accordingly, Indian Railways Vision 2020 and Railway BudgetSpeech, these unmanned crossing have to be fixed in the nextfive years.

For Signaling & Telecommunication in Railways, switch over tosystems and equipment of higher reliability and safety levels.

Setup On-Board Fire detection and Fire Fighting equipment intrains.

Use of GPS technology and RFID technology for trackingrailway 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 canautomatically stop the train.


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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 thesethings. 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 toraise 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


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Examplescleaning ofcoaches,provision ofblankets and food in trains

manufacturinglocomotives, coaches,wagons.

Suggestion ofplanningcommission:

Outsource this workprivate companies=lesscost than permanent staff.

Partial disinvestment.Run it on corporatelines.=more efficiency.

^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 andNorthern

2. The Eastern Corridor will connect Punjab to W.Bengal3. Only electrical trains will be operated on these corridors.4. The Western Corridor will connect Punjab to Karnataka.

a. Only 1 and 4

b. Only 1 and 3c. Only 2 and 3d. Only 2 and 4

Q2. Correct Statement about National High Speed Rail Authority

1. Itll be responsible for implementing the Dedicated FreightCorridor project

2. Itll be an autonomous body, established by an act of parliament.

a. Only 1b. Only 2c. Bothd. None

Q3. Which of the following states are common for both Eastern andWestern Dedicated Freight Corridor projects?

a. Rajsthan and Gujaratb. Delhi and Haryana


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c. Haryana and UPd. UP and Bihar

ANSWERS ::C,B,C

Cable Digitization, DAS vs DTH (Direct-to Home), Set-topBox, TRAI order

Difference: DAS vs DTH?

DAS DTH

Digital Addressable Cable TVsystem

Direct to Home. (Tata Sky, Dish TVshahruk khan etc)

Set-top box necessary to viewchannels.

Same

The Set Top Box used for DAScannot be used for DTH serviceas technologies are different.

Same

In DAS service, TV signalsreach consumer through the

cable network.So it is local-cable operator->wire->customers home->set-topbox->TV.

in DTH service, TV channels aredirectly received by consumer from

satellite using small dish antennaslocated at the customer premise.so it is small dish @roof->set-topbox->TV.

DAS will become mandatory byDec 2014. No cable channelcan be served through

Analogue format.

Not mandatory. It is just a product, ifyou can afford and you like it, thenpurchase, else no worries.

DAS cable is a grounddistribution network and youmay have to change youroperator if you move to adifferent place even within acity.

all-India coverage. You can use thesame DTH operator even if youmove cities. Whatever money youhad paid, stays in your account(smart-card.)

keeps working unless cable isbroken or damaged.

Doesnt work in bad weatherparticularly when there is heavy rainand clouds.

What is set top box (STB)?


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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 forviewing on television sets.

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