New Delhi:
The government is all set to table the Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill, 2011, in Parliament today. According to the bill, every ministry and department of the government will have to address people's complaints within 15 days, failing which action will be taken against the officer concerned.
The new law will set up a mechanism similar to the Right to Information Act, and seek to have a Citizen's Charter to deal with public grievances. Under the proposed law, every public authority will have to designate a Grievance Redress Officer right from the block level up to the Central government.
NDTV has accessed a copy of this draft bill. A big change in the draft cleared by the Cabinet is that the government is now trying to meet Team Anna half way on their demands on Citizen's Charter. Team Anna wanted the Citizen's Charter to be under Lokpal. It will, however, come under a separate bill - the Public Grievance Bill - which says a person aggrieved by the decision of the Central Public Grievance Redressal Commission may prefer an appeal to the Lokpal and any person aggrieved by the State Commission may prefer an appeal to the Lokayukta.
It remains to be seen whether Team Anna will accept this. According to them, the 'sense of the House' promised them that the Citizen's Charter will be under the Lokpal.
"On our three demands they had said they had reached a consensus in Parliament...Now different laws are being passed... A separate law for Citizen's Charter is not right," Anna had said. The Citizens' Charter makes it necessary for government offices to post a notice that indicates how long it will take to deliver a service, and the penalty for officers who don't meet that deadline.
Another change in the Bill is the introduction of compensation. The bill seeks to impose a penalty on the grievance redressal officer if any complaint is not addressed in a stipulated timeframe. The penalty could be anything up to Rs 50,000. Now, the appellate authority may also reward compensation to the complainant, but that should not exceed the amount of penalty imposed.
Right of Service Delivery and Grievance Redress Bill