*Attempts to make 13 key deptts accountable fail
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 25: No one in the civil administration right from Civil Secretariat to down the line in the districts is bothered about strict implementation of Public Service Guarantee Act (PSGA) by ensuring timely delivery of identified services of 13 departments to the common masses. Due to the continuous slackness and non-serious approach thousands of applications remain pending for disposal with the concerned authorities beyond the stipulated time-frame thereby defeating the objective of this landmark legislation.
This can be gauged from the fate of directions issued from time to time by the present PDP-BJP Coalition Government through Chief Minister’s Secretariat and General Administration Department, which is the State level nodal agency to ensure effective implementation of the Act.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that from August 2011 till early this year, a total of 35,41,608 applications were received by 13 departments for providing various services to the applicants under PSGA. Out of this, a total of 26,63,076 applications were disposed of within the stipulated time frame while the number of applications pending disposal and disposed of beyond the stipulated time was 8,78,529.
Keeping these figures in mind, the Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, while chairing numerous meetings of bureaucrats, issued directions for bringing an end to the dilly-dallying approach in disposal of applications under PSGA so as to make the departments accountable for delivery of hassle-free services.
While admitting that departments were not seriously implementing PSGA despite the fact that designated officers can be punished for denial of timely services as per the provisions of the Act, the Commissioner /Secretary to Government, General Administration Department vide Circular No. 21 dated April 19, 2016 drew the attention of all the concerned towards the concern expressed by the Chief Minister particularly in a review meeting held on April 5, 2016 and issued fresh instructions for implementation of people-friendly legislation in letter and spirit with the direction for submission of monthly progress report.
Through this circular, all the concerned authorities were also asked to ensure that progress report with effect from April 2015 onwards, consolidated at the district level (department wise) reaches PSGA Cell in the General Administration Department by or before April 25 without any fail.
However, the dilly-dallying approach continued in providing timely services to the people by the officers of 13 identified departments and submission of progress reports and this prompted the Government to think about making amendments in the Act to make it more stringent. The task of suggesting amendments was entrusted to a senior Minister, sources said, adding the objective behind this step was to make not only the designated officers but their seniors also accountable for providing timely services to the people, sources said.
“But whether this much needed exercise was conducted is not known as Government has yet not taken any step towards amending Public Services Guarantee Act”, sources said, adding “in this way all the statements regarding timely delivery of services, bringing more services under the ambit of Public Services Guarantee Act and making it stricter failed to become reality till date”.
As she was not satisfied with the implementation of Act despite her repeated concerns, the Chief Minister while chairing a high-level meeting on June 15, 2016 issued directions that all the Deputy Commissioners shall establish a central monitoring cell for effective monitoring and implementation of PSGA for time-bound service delivery. It was further directed that websites of all the districts shall reflect daily status of receipt of application and disposal for various services and performance of the departmental nodal officers shall be reviewed on monthly basis.
But these directions have also met with uncertain fate as website of not even one district reflects daily status of receipt of application and disposal, sources informed, adding “the concerned authorities have even failed to organize awareness programmes so that more and more people come forward to make use of PSGA to avail different services from 13 identified departments”.
“The senior functionaries of these 13 departments have also failed to review the performance of departmental nodal officers”, sources further informed, adding “in this way the tall claims about making Government accountable for delivery of hassle-free services have proved hollow”.
It is pertinent to mention here that more than 80 services of 13 key departments have been brought under the ambit of PSGA. These departments include Housing and Urban Development, Revenue, Power Development, Transport, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Forest, Home, Labour and Employment and Health and Medical Education Departments.
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