Citizens charter: Team Anna pushes for Ukhand model

Criticising the governments draft grievance redressal Bill as highly centralised system which was bound to collapse under its own weight,Team Anna on Tuesday indicated its openness to accepting de-linking the citizens charter from the Lokpal Bill but alternatively suggested that the UPA government should adopt the BJP-led Uttarakhand government model on this.

If the government wishes to bring a separate Bill to deal with citizens charter,we request that the Uttarakhand model for the same should be adopted wherein the citizens charter has been provided through a separate Bill. However,the violation of the same by various levels of officers in the same department is required to be strongly dealt with by judicial officers. In Uttarakhand these judicial officers are selected,appointed and controlled by Lokayukta, Team Anna said in a statement.

In this context,it suggested the government can consider setting up an independent Public Grievance Commission to control the cadre of judicial officers required to oversee the grievance redressal law. As per Team Annas proposal,Public Grievance Commissions will have to be instituted at state and central levels wherein they shall be responsible for judicial officers in the state government as well as central government departments respectively.