According to DoPT, "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."
It is no more a secret that our elected representives are generally not available to the cityzens of their constituency nor they are found accountable. I had sought various information on this issue includeing " Existance or non-existance of any obligation on Hon'ble MLAs to be available to the cityzens of their respective constituencies for few hours at least once in 6 months when they can meet them and appraise them of the atrocities and maladministration as and when happen in the constituency" I had made an effort using RTI Act to probe existance of Cityzens' Charter on commitment of the Hon'ble MLAs of Kerala State The Nodal Agency of the State viz., Personal & Administrative Reforms (AR-12) Department replied that "This Department has no information to furnish on the various points mentioned in your application. Hence your application hassd been forwarded to the SPIO, Legislature Secreatariate and SPIO, Psrliamentary Affairs Department to provide the required information" The Legislature Secretariate replied that " No Cityzens' Charter has been adopted for the Members of the Kerala Legislative Assembly. It is also informed tht there is no specific rule or norms fixed for the interation of the Members with the cityzens of their constituencies" The Parliamentary Affairs (A) Department has intimated that "The details/information called for in your application are not available with this department" There ends the acountability of our elected representatives to their Constituencies. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
