Citizens should feel empowered to hold government agencies and elected representatives accountable for their actions and assert their right to competent public services

By Samantha Saldanaha

Indian Express Newsline, February 06, 1999

In most of our interactions with services provided by the government, we had experienced high levels of frustration.  And within these agencies, there is a warped understanding of "accountability", which is towards the superiors who hold power oer their promotions rather than to the citizens who are really their "customers".  We found ourselves dismissing these agencies as "hopelessly inefficient".  But on reflection, we realised that corruption is not a one way street.  We began reviewing our role as citizens in the deterioration of public services.  There we found our answer : Lack of people's participation.  And Praja was born.

Over two years, our team met every week and finally arrived at a Citizens' Charter'.  This concept first commanded our attention in 1997 when a citizens' charter of the New Delhi Municipal Corporation was distributed at a workshop.

The concept of a charter has been borrowed from the United Kingdom.  Observing the success of this exercise of improving the performance of public service providers, the Indian government decided  to apply this idea to agencies of the State at the central, state and city level.  So far, 43 governmental departments have developed citizenscharters.  The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has developed its own charter, though its circulation is limited.

What distinguishes the Praja initiative from the rest is that it is truly a charter of, for and by the citizens.   Enlisting the support of municipal officials has made it a joint efforts.  The charter enables citizens to interact more effectively with the municipality.  Information is provided on the nature and quality of services, who are responsible for these services,  and the procedure of complaint redressal.  Praja has also developed a system to supplement the complaint redressal procedure, wherein we will like up chronic problems that have repeatedly been ignored by the municipality.

We then approached the municipality with our project.  Ratnakar Gaikwad, the then a Additional Municipal Commissioner, obliged us comletely.  He introduced us to the Heads of Departments, who set aside time to meet us, documented information for us and patiently explained uto us the systems at work in the municipality.  Any intrusions were welcomed.

The information collected was supplemented by extracts from the BMC Act and other publications.  The heads of departments authenticated each chapter, which was also whetted by retired BMC officials.  The layout has necessitated professional intervention, so the Social Marketing Division of Lintas is working on making the document user-friendly.  Once printed, the charter will be widely distributed in Hindi, Marathi and English.

After succeeding in getting the municipal officials aligned with our objectives, our next step was to garner the support of the staff whic hwould actually be delivering the services.  We hold workshops where the staff is informed about the Citizens' Charter and the standard of performance expected of them.  Their feedback on the contents of the charter is also recorded, which makes them feel a part of the process.  These workshops also facilitate a valuable bond between the staff and Praja members.  We have covered 16 of the 23 wards in the city.

There are plenty of organisations that share our vision, and we look forward to working with them to foster a dovetailing rather than duplication of activity. Many residents' associations are absorbed in struggles with the municipal services and such groups would benefit from the information contained in the charter.

Such groups should also be encouraged in areas where no such bodies exist.  These associations would shake the service providers out of their apathy and encourage people's participation in the current system of governance, somthing which is grievously laking.

Though the charter has developed a clear line of complaint redressal, there are still situations when certain problems would not be effectively dealt with.  We, therefore, propose that a group of distinguished citizens such as retired Municipal Commissioners like B G Deshmukh, Jamsheed Kanga and (initials) Sukthankar as well as professionals like Gerson da Cunha could regularly meet with the Additional Municipal Commissioners, the Municipal Commissioner and the Mayor to work on through macro urban issues.

The cornerstone of our next project-Project Performance - is accountability.  Here, we have adopted teh Report Card system of evaluating the performance of public service providers and elected representatives like corporators, MLAs and MPs.  This is a system developed and used extensively by the public Affairs Centre in Bangalore, and evaluation by the citizens is carried out scientifically through a Survey Method.  This feedback is provided the municipal officials and elected representatives and commitments extracted from them to improve on services that were rated as low by the citizens.

Citizens should feel empowered to hold government agencies and elected representatives accountable for their actions and assert their right to competent public services.  Simultaneously, we trust that the service providers will begin to respond to the feedback of service users effectively, thus building a spirit of mutuality between citizens, service providers and elected representatives.

Praja is voluntary organisation conceived by a group of young Mumbaiites from diverse professional backgrounds.  This piece has been written on behalf of the organisation by samantha Saldanha, who works full time on the project.