Proposed citizen charter law to cover pvt sector

The private sector utilities providing public services such as electricity distribution companies have been brought under the ambit of the citizen’s grievance redressal, also known as citizen’s charter bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha this week. Chetan Chauhan reports. What the bill lacks

Updated on: Dec 23, 2011, 01:34:25 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The private sector utilities providing public services such as electricity distribution companies have been brought under the ambit of the citizen’s grievance redressal, also known as citizen’s charter bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha this week.

The proposed law provides for designating a public grievance officer responsible for redressal of grievances of citizens within a period of 30 days. It also mandates each public authority to have a citizen’s charter defining its public services and duty of officials in providing the services.

Failing to redress the grievance in 30 days could result in fine of up to Rs 50,000 by the state grievance redressal commission and action against the erring officer. The bill also prescribes grievance redressal mechanism to be adopted by public authorities.

The definition of the public authority in the proposed bill mentions that any company which supplies goods or renders services in pursuance of an obligation imposed under any Central or State Act or under any license of authorization under any law for the time being in force by the Central and the State government.

This clearly covers private companies such electricity distribution or municipal service companies which have signed an agreement with the government to provide services to people on behalf of the government. Companies providing other services such as telecom and health would also be covered.

The definition of public authority under the Right To Information (RTI) law was regarding private sector substantially financed by the government. But, the proposed grievance law is a step forward from the RTI law with provisions clearly including private companies rendering public services.

The proposed law explicitly mentions any agreement between the government and private entity including Public Private Partnership agreements to be covered, which the government had refused to bring under the ambit of transparency law RTI.

Once the proposed bill is enacted, the citizens will get another platform to get their grievances redressed apart from consumer courts. With it, the government has tried to address a major concern of citizens regarding companies not heeding to their complaints.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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