TOI : Yet To Cut Trough The Red Tape : Nov 12,2007
YET TO CUT TROUGH THE RED TAPE
More than a year after the state promulgated an act to improve transparency and avoid adminstrative delays, TOI carried out a reality check and found departments are
Nitin Yeshwantrao | TNN
Mumbai: The Maharashtra government’s law to improve transparency and avoid administrative delays has met with veiled resistance from the bureaucracy.
A reality check by TOI, using the Right To Information Act, on the implementation of the Maharashtra Government Servants Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act, reveals the top bureaucracy’s reluctance to implement the pro-people measures in the law more than a year after it was promulgated.
TOI selected four key organisations that make a big difference in citizens’ lives—BMC, Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA), Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (Mhada)—to check the implementation of the Act.
TOI sought specific information on the compliance of Section 8, 9 and 10 of the law, which make it mandatory for every office or department to publish a citizens’ charter, declare its list of officials in the department along with powers delegated to them and a rigid time-frame for file disposals.
Using the RTI Act, TOI asked the heads of all the four bodies, all of whom are directly under chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, to share copies of the above stated documents. The BMC, SRA and MMRDA did not submit any document at all, despite the law having come into force more than an year ago on July 2006. Mhada, however, was the only exception having complied with the key provisions of the law.
The office of T Chandrashekhar, vice-president of Mhada, gave TOI a 61-page document detailing the delegation of powers to officials with time-frame for file disposal. A copy of the citizens’ charter of various boards under Mhada—Mumbai Housing and Area Development Board, Mumbai Repair and Reconstruction Board, Mumbai Slum Improvement Board among others too was made available to this newspaper . On the other hand, the response of BMC commissioner Jairaj Phatak’s office was classic bureaucratise. “The law does not govern local self-government bodies. The requested information is not available with this office and so cannot be given to you,’’ declared S J Babar, a BMC official in his one-page brief note quoting a government notification of October 30, 2006 which supposedly exempts BMC from implementing the law. Observers in Mantralaya, however, said, “The law aims at good governance measures as well as to weed out corruption and wilful delay in the administration. If it is good for the state departments why is it that the BMC, which deals with day-to-day affairs of the common man, is spared of the propeople legislation. The BMC should either adopt the law or the state government should specify why such indiscriminate exemptions are given to select agencies.’’
MMRDA commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad’s office too has failed to implement the law but promised to do so. MMRDA official T S Sawant informed TOI in his crisp one-paragraph note that, “We propose to prepare a citizens’ charter as required under the act,’’ clearly indicating that it has defaulted on Section 8 of the law which states that every office shall prepare and publish a citizens’ charter within six months after the law comes into being.
Ironically, the MMRDA, which is a key body to plan and implement multi-crore infrastructure projects in and around Mumbai lacks an administrative plan to deal with files and delegation of powers. “We have circulated the notification to all divisions of MMRDA to implement this act and take necessary action as per provisions made in the said act,’’ clarified Sawant.
SRA, which is under a cloud for corruption, has failed to take note of the key legislation. SRA official Y V Tidke claimed in his four-line response that, “The SRA office has prepared a citizens’ charter. However, as it has not been published and distributed, the said document cannot be given to you. The information sought by you will be provided after the charter is published by this office.’’
Curiously, Tidke chose not to specify the exact date when the charter would be published or when it would be made available to this newspaper.
Mantralaya officials said those who fail to publish the citizens’ charter by January 2007 or neglect files are liable for a disciplinary action. Moreover, it is mandatory for all departments to set up a mechanism to audit administrative performance by July 2007 so as to ensure effective enforcement of the law.
However, all measures to ensure accountability to the tax-payer have met with little success with the higher echelons of the bureaucracy unwilling to tow the line. It remains to be seen what punishment is meted out to those officials who had failed to implement the provision of the law.
Publication:Times Of India Mumbai; Date:Nov 12, 2007; Section:Times City; Page Number:2