DoT may appoint ombudsman

The concept was floated at the time when Rajesh Pilot was the Minister for Communications in 1991. The panel was set up under a convenor 8211; Bhaskar Rao, and usually consisted of eminent personalities like Justice P N Bhagwati, Kushwant Singh and Gulab Singh. It analysed the policies of the Department of Telecommunications and their efficacy on the ground level for the common man. The Panel acted as a link between the common consumer and the ministry and suggested guidelines to the department to fine tune its working by addressing itself to the problems of the consumers.

The Panel held open house sessions in remote areas and received over 3,000 memoranda through such sessions. Interestingly, the ministry picked up the bills for all these activities of the panel.

Operating from Dak Bhawan, headquaters of the Department of Posts, the panel submitted four reports in its six year tenure. These reports suggested improvement in the communications with the consumer. They also suggested privatisation of the some postal services especially those for bulk consumers, a standing committee on rationalisation of tariffs, active supervision of the Post Officies, setting up of a Postal Bank, permission to the Postal department to use the funds in its pipelines as money orders take a few days to reach their destination for investment and action against parties delaying printing of directories. Most of these suggestions remained on paper only.

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