-: [rti4empowerment] Re: Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill, 2011.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

[rti4empowerment] Re: Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill, 2011.

Dear Friends,

Shri Dhirendra Krishna IA&AS (Retired) has suggested certain suggestions on Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill, 2011. He has addressed those suggestions to Joint Secretary - Shri P K Jha of Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances. The same is reproduced below for members perusal and if they want they can also write suggestions to the concerned authority with reference to this letter.

To,

Shri P K Jha

Joint Secretary,

Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances

Government of India,

New Delhi.

Dear Shri Jha,

1. It is suggested that draft bill may be reviewed in the light of :

a. Requirements of section 4 of the RTI Act 2005.

b. Recommendations emerging from the Workshop on SOCIAL AUDIT: ROAD MAP

FOR EFFECTIVE PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY, organized by the Institute of Public

Auditors of India on 26-27 July 2011 ( copy attached for ready reference.)

c. Directions to public authorities by the Central Information

Commissioner regarding appointment of Transparency Officer in every Public

authorities.

2. In the definition of Information and Facilitation Centre in section

2(i) of the draft bill, statutory obligation of public authorities under

section 4 of RTI Act may be incorporated. This aspect has been clarified by

Central Information Commissioner regarding appointment of Transparency

Officer, available in web site www.cic.gov.in. Accordingly Transparency

Officer is a senior person in every public authority to ensure

implementation of section 4 of RTI Act. Grievance Redressal Officer

envisaged in the draft bill seems to be a comparatively junior level

officer, but his duties about disclosure and dissemination of information

are akin to Transparency Officer. Linkages between two should be clarified.

3. Citizens Charter envisaged in section 4 of the draft bill may

include obligations of public authority under section 4(2) of suo moto

disclosure of information. This aspect has been neglected and increase in

RTI applications is partly attributable to unsatisfactory implementation

of section 4(2). There is need for sustained improvement in quality of

disclosure and dissemination of information and this aspect needs adequate

emphasis in section 5 of the draft bill.

4. Citizen's scrutiny of public records enables SOCIAL AUDIT and

redressal of grievances are interlinked with a transparent regime , where

grievance are based on facts contained in public record. SOCIAL AUDIT of

MGNREGA is mandatory and the gazette notification of 30.6.2011 on Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Audit of Schemes Rule 2011 clarifies that

audit of schemes includes SOCIAL AUDIT. Although other centrally sponsored

schemes do not have mandatory legal provision about SOCIAL AUDIT, there is

need for its conceptual and administrative linkages with redressal of

public grievances. In my humble opinion, social audit is vital for highly

decentralized implementation of centrally sponsored schemes for

socio-economic development. This aspect has been clarified in attached

proceedings of the Workshop.

5. Definition of "complaints" under section 2(f) of the draft bill

should include social audit finding of citizens by access to public records

under RTI Act 2005.

If any clarification is required, I can meet you to

explain these aspects, which are vital for effective redressal of public

grievances.

Dhirendra Krishna IA&AS (Retired)

C-4, Usha Niketan

Safderjung Development Area,

New Delhi-110016

Phone 29515035, 9871440814

On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 3:17 AM, Prashant Uikey <prashant.vikey@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Friends,

Today government has placed 30 pages draft of "Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill, 2011" on the website of 'Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievance (DARPG).

21 Days time has been given to Public to send 'Comments and Suggestions' by 23 November 2011 on following Emails IDs.

pk.jha@nic.in & satish@arpg.nic.in

'Over View' of the Draft Bill can be perused on Link below:

http://darpg.gov.in/darpgwebsite_cms/document/file/overview.pdf

Draft of 'Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill, 2011' may be perused on following Link:

http://darpg.gov.in/darpgwebsite_cms/document/file/Draft_Bill.pdf

The complete notice can be read on Link:

http://darpg.gov.in/MarqueeHtmFile.aspx?CatId=40

First Reaction from fellow RTI Activist - Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd.)

"Suggestions being sought from Civil Society though in accordance with Section4(1)(c) of the RTI Act, however this notification gets limited to only those who are net friendly and that too only 21 days time given. What about views from the rest and rural areas. Certainly not giving wide coverage to notification is a violation of Sections 4(2) to 4(4) of RTI Act."


7. Important

Kindly participate in democratic process by lending your Voice. Request others too.

REQUEST: I would request Krishnaraj Rao & other eminent experts to analyse the said Bill Draft and come up with "Comments & Suggestions" on Draft Citizens Right to Grievance Redress Bill, 2011 so that it may be forwarded to the specified email ids.

--

  Thanks & Regards

Prashant Uikey
  Founder - "IT'S MY RIGHT" Forum: CLICK TO JOIN
  Striving For Protection & Successful Implementation Of Citizen's Rights