M K Gupta
Social activist
The state of Bihar, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Govt. of NCT, Delhi have brought service guarantee bills and appreciably, even the Delhi Municipal Corporation has brought its own bill. The Lok Sabha had also endorsed this proposal agreeing to Anna Hazare’s demandfor a service guarantee bill but an early action is required by delinking this issue from the (Jan) Lok Pal Bill. There is not much difference of opinion on SGB as is in the case of Lok Pal and the SG bills enacted by the state government can serve as a model of SG Bill for Centre and will make the task of finalizing of this bill easy. At present, many Central Govt. offices are adopting very casual approach in providing services to the citizens and the citizens have to run after the officials for their legitimate work.
I cite two examples. My two Kisan Vikas Patras of issued by the Krishna Nagar Post Office were lost/ misplaced and I submitted my application along with required documents as told by the post office by hand on 8th June, 2011. The documents told by the post office for the re-issue of certificates are too much which included Indemnity Bond on Rs. 100/- stamp paper, Police Report, photocopies of Vikas Patras, duly attested identity Proofs of the witnesses to the Indemnity bond, attested copy of pay slip of witness, attested copies of identity card and residential proofs of witnesses and duly filled form No. 27 issued by the post office. Even after submitting aforesaid plethora of documents, post office had verified each and every document from me and witnesses by sending Shri Bhuwan, inspector, even verified the genuineness of FIR from the Police Station. After the Inspector sent the papers back on necessary verification, they were again sent to R.K. Puram Post Office for the verification of pay-slip etc. of the witness and I received a call from another Inspector named Rana from there for the mobile number of one witness. After taking his phone number, new inspector again verified witness particulars and if he has actually been witness in the case. Mr. Gupta, the witness has recently retired from a senior govt. post in the Central Govt. office. Interestingly, the R.K. Puram post office is nowhere in the reckoning in this case but it seemed that the same was a delaying tactic only for re-issuing the certificates.
Moreover, I was told about the complete documentation for the re-issue on making four-five rounds to the Krishna Post Office during February, 11 to June, 11. From the above, it is clear that semi-literate citizens or a citizens with paucity of time will not be able to do all this.
In response to an RTI application, Sr. Post Master informed in August that my case has been sent to Dwarka Post Office for necessary verification of my address and other particulars.. On not hearing anything further, I again submitted an RTI application on 12th Sept. 2011 to know day-to-day movement of my application, time limit for the re-issue of the certificates and whether the post office will compensate me for the delay in re-issue and so on.
I am awaiting reply of this RTI and for these two certificates though am in dire need of money which will be around 40,000 on maturity. The delay is despite the fact the Central Information Commission has ordered payment of compensation of Rs. 700/- on 17thAugust for causing inconvenience and detriment to Shri G C Tiwari, Sr. Postmaster, Krishna Nagar Post office. The Post Office issued faulty cheque against the maturity of some NSCs and the Post Office has not given complete information on the RTIapplication filed by me. Till date, even after over 3 months, I have not got the fresh KVPs even after filling two RTI applications.
In other case, one of my colleagues applied for the disconnection of his phone to MTNL, Dwarka about six-month back and the same was disconnected soon thereafter. When inquired about non-refund of security of Rs. 3,000/- on not receiving the same even after about six months, it was informed that for the refund, separate application should be made despite the fact that this request may have already been made in the application for disconnection. In fact, in such cases, the security should be refunded suo-motu.
These are not the isolated examples of casual and lackadaisical approaches in providing services by the Central Govt. offices and therefore the Central Govt. should bring Service Guarantee Bill on priority basis. Also, the rules made decades ago need simplification and should be made easy.