GS4 · 10 marks · 150 words

The Citizens' Charters initiative was a response to the quest for solving the problems, which a citizen encountered, day in and day out, while dealing with the organisations providing public services. But the introduction and implementation of Citizens' Charters in the government of India has been difficult due to the old bureaucratic set up and the rigid attitudes of the work force. Discuss the major obstacles that have been encountered in implementing the Citizens' Charter initiative.

Answered by 7 toppers · CSE 2023

Citizens ChartersWork CultureQuality of Service DeliveryCivil Service Values

Syllabus: Probity in Governance: Concept of public service; Philosophical basis of governance and probity; Information sharing and transparency in government, Right to Information, Codes of Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Citizen’s Charters, Work culture, Quality of service delivery, Utilization of public funds, challenges of corruption.

How toppers approached it

From all 7 answers · about 160 words · 43% drew a diagram.

Opening

  • A definition86%
  • No separate opening14%

Body

  • Points71%
  • Points and prose29%

Close

  • A summary43%
  • A way forward43%
  • A source14%

The toppers’ answers

Aditya SrivastavaAIR 1 · CSE 2023 · 164 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening · a definition

Citizens charter is a commitment by the organization to the Standard and quality of service delivery.

Yet, faces many obstacles

Body · points

  1. Resistance to change due to status quo of bureaucracy (II ARC)

  2. Not in vernacular → not meant for the locals → lack good governance

  3. Lack of public participation during forming charter → top-down imposed

  4. Lack of transparency about internal mechanisms to uphold charter.

  5. No legal backing → no accountability

  6. Information needed to hold the officers accountable not there in public domain

Way ahead

  1. Adopt Sevottam model (II ARC)

  2. Agile approach → change the charter based on feedback

  3. Rights based approach → revive the 2011 lapsed bill for citizen charter.

  4. Provide local auditors for capacity building

  5. More transparency → have punishment mechanism for violation → learn from [RTI Section 20]

This would help to uphold responsive & good governance

Case study

  1. Mayurbhanj charter "Window of hope" is a case in point for [responsiveness]

Close · a way forward

None written.

More on Citizens Charters

Citizen's charters as a commitment to the citizen, and their enforcement or absence of it.

All GS4 questions on Citizens Charters