*GAD too napping despite crucial role to play
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 26: The much-hyped legislation enacted with the sole objective of guaranteeing timely services of various Government departments to the general public has been gathering dust in the official files because of lack of interest from the State as well as District level Nodal Officers, who otherwise have the categorical instructions for ensuring strict implementation of the law. Moreover, the General Administration Department, which is supposed to play key role in not only ensuring implementation of law but its periodic review by none else than the Chief Minister, is too napping.
The legislation titled—Jammu and Kashmir Public Services Guarantee Act was enacted on April 13, 2011 by the State Legislature and its implementation formally started from August 23, 2011 when General Administration Department issued first Circular No.25 whereby instructions were issued to all the Administrative Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners, all Heads of Departments, all Deputy Commissioners and other concerned officers for strict compliance.
Thereafter, a number of circulars were issued by the General Administration Department reiterating the instructions issued vide Circular No.25 of 2011. Even the State level Nodal Officers of the rank of Special Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries etc were appointed for carrying out implementation of this special piece of legislation.
For strict implementation of Act in the districts, officers of the rank of Additional Deputy Commissioner, Additional District Development Commissioner, Chief Planning Officer and Assistant Commissioner Revenue were nominated as Nodal Officers. Above all, vide Order No.279 dated March 6, 2012 Public Services Management Cell was established in the General Administration Department headed by an officer of the rank of Additional/Deputy Secretary.
Initially there was enough focus both from the State and District level Nodal Officers as well as from the General Administration Department as a result of which the number of services to be provided under this Act risen to 80 of 13 Government Departments.
However, with the passage of time the implementation of the Act lost focus of the concerned officers and presently neither those who are required to provide these services to the common masses in a time-bound manner are evincing any interest nor those who are supposed to supervise implementation of Act by their subordinate officers, are periodically conducting reviews.
What to talk of State and District level Nodal Officers even the Cell established in General Administration Department has failed to perform the functions assigned to it vide Government Order No.279 dated March 6, 2012.
This can be gauged from the fact that capacity building programmes for the Designated Officers/Appellate Authorities independently or through J&K Institute of Management, Public Administration and Rural Development (IMPA) are not being conducted regularly. Moreover, the Cell doesn’t have any information about impediments in the implementation of the Act, which otherwise is imperative to initiate necessary steps.
This Cell is also supposed to coordinate quarterly reviews by the Chief Minister but during the past several years this review has not been arranged despite the same assumes importance for initiating steps for overcoming the technical shortcomings in the implementation of the Act. Moreover, this Cell was supposed to conduct public awareness camps in the districts through Deputy Commissioners and evolve mechanism for third party monitoring of the implementation of Act preferably through Non-Government Organizations but no major step has been initiated in this regard till date.
Due to non-holding of periodic review meetings, even no solution has been found to the practical difficulties in availing services, they said while disclosing that for some services huge formalities have been fixed instead of simplifying the procedure. Moreover, 30 days time-limit for providing services after completion of all formalities in unjustified particularly in context of Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC). “By arranging quarterly review of implementation of law by the Chief Minister, the GAD could have initiated corrective steps like minimizing the formalities”, they added.
When contacted, Additional Secretary, Public Services Management Cell in GAD, Ajaz Abdullah Saraf, said, “the implementation of Act is mainly the responsibility of Nodal Officers at the State and District levels”, adding “there are standing instructions for them vis-à-vis implementation of Act and we do receive even reports from them in this regard”.
He, however, could not specify the level of implementation of the Act ascertained on the basis of analysis of these reports. Moreover, he failed to divulge the information vis-à-vis the number of reviews conducted at the level of GAD and reasons behind failure to coordinate quarterly reviews by the Chief Minister.
Mr Saraf, however, disclosed that 10 services of five more departments are likely to be brought under the ambit of Public Services Guarantee Act.
It is pertinent to mention here that Public Services Guarantee Act guarantees delivery of services to the public in a specified time-frame failing which action can be initiated against the officers/officials, who are supposed to provide the same.
Follow our WhatsApp channel