Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 29: The Union Ministry of DoPT (Department of Personnel and Trainings) has come out with fresh guidelines calling upon all Government Departments to respond to issues raised by the people’s representatives within 15 days and follow up action in the next fortnight and assure that genuine issues are addressed.
The DoPT has written to all Union Ministries and General Administration Departments (GADs) of all State Governments calling upon them to extend due courtesy to Members of Parliament and other public representatives on the issues taken up by the MPs with them, pertaining to demands and problems of the people.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the step was aimed at addressing grievances raised by the people through public representatives and giving due attention to them within a time bound manner.
“The Ministries and GADs have been asked to reply to the issues raised by the people’s representatives within 15 days and follow up action like addressing the issues or steps taken to solve them in the next 15 days,” sources said, adding the decision would go a long way in ensuring good governances.
Some Members of Parliament had complained to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) regarding delayed response from Central Government departments and some State Governments to queries sent by them.
The matter was taken by the higher authorities and Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Incharge DoPT, Dr Jitendra Singh wrote to Ministers of all the Departments and GADs of all the State Governments concerned.
As per the guidelines, any communication received from the MPs should be attended “promptly” and acknowledged within 15 days, followed by a reply within the next fortnight.
In cases where delay is anticipated, an interim reply should be given, indicating the possible date for a final reply. This is to ensure that prompt attention is given to the communications received from the MPs, the guidelines said.
The guidelines further specified that appropriate record should be maintained and monitored in respect of communications received from the Members of Parliament.
“The Prime Minister’s Office has been receiving references from some of the MPs that they are not receiving timely acknowledgement and responses from the Ministries/ departments in response to their letters.
“I would be grateful, if you could issue suitable instructions to ensure prompt reply to the letters of the MPs and also like to consider setting up of a mechanism to periodically monitor progress in disposal of references received from the MPs,” said Singh, Minister of State in the PMO, in the letter.
In this regard, it is also suggested that all letters received from the MPs should be immediately scanned and uploaded in e-office, he said.
“This system will facilitate electronic monitoring of disposal of letters received from the MPs,” the Minister said.
It is not the first time that the legislators have raised this issue. In past also, the Ministry of Personnel has written to all the Ministries seeking timely disposal of the references from the MPs.
In almost all Parliament sessions, the Ministry is “questioned” on the delay in sending replies to letters received from Members of Parliament and non-adherence to the existing guidelines, as per another communique sent to the Ministries last year.
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