My Dear Venkatesh,
I am a fan of your very well researched and informative messages published from
time to time. I shall be grateful if you could kindly enlighten us of any
information you may be having on the following points:
1 I had brought out in my mail dated 08.09.09 that it had now become a rule in
all govt offices, starting from top ministry and departmental head offices of
the Govt Of India not to acknowledge any letters/documents sent to them
although a Receptionist/Customer Care Cell is located in the office to help
visitors. They direct the applicants to just drop them in the drop boxes placed
near their counter instead of acknowledging them. Thus there remains nothing to
prove if the said letter/document was really to the office and many problems
arise on this account later on. To counter such a problem, I had suggested that
a Right to Acknowledgement Act be issued by the Govt. Actually, even a simple
directive from the Govt could get over such a problem.
2 Urvi
through her mail dated 09.09.09 brought out that she shared my concerns.
3 Siddarth
through his mail dated 09.09.09 also shared my concerns. He added that day
in and day out we face similar predicament. Be it state or central govt. depts
& agencies. No one is prepared to be accountable to anyone. Taking my
idea of RTA a little further I would like to see a legislation in the line of
"RIGHT TO ACCOUNTABILITY" where upon the Citizens have a right to
expect an accountable administration & governance. Is it too Utopian ?
4 S K Agarwal of Transparency
International vide his mail dated 09.09.09 stated that the experience till now
suggests that most Government departments attempt to clear pending work when
they are questioned and responsibility is fixed. The situation in smaller towns
and villages are worst. Therefore, we suggest that the standards of all the
public services mentioned in the concerned Citizens’ Charters should be clearly
spell out in consultation with all the stake holders with penalty clause on the
RTI pattern for any deficiency in the delivery of the promised standard of
services. We have no doubt that such a step will not only improve the
public service delivery and make our system accountable and transparent, but
reduce the use of RTI substantially.
5 It is also my experiance that govt officials now do not care to take any
action, let aside reply, to any complaints or representations made to them.
I therefore now feel that some act like the 'Right to Accountability Act'
needs to be passed by the govt, after having passed the 'Right to Information
Act 2005' because any information cannot be much use unless the official
agencies can be requested to take steps to rectify their action, if any is
found to be wrong.
I shall be grateful if you could inform us of any information you may be having
with regard to accountability of govt officials in matters such as above and
hat you think should be done in this matter.
Thanking you and with best wishes,
sincerely,
mksinghal
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