|
|
|
|
Citizens Charter Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department Measures Taken Towards Administrative Reforms In Tamil Nadu The Government of Tamil Nadu is focused seriously on providing a transparent and accountable administration and has taken several new initiatives in this direction. The efforts so far taken were directed towards making the Government accountable citizen friendly, transparent and improving the performance and integrity of Public Services. The following measures taken by this Government are important for an Effective and Responsive Administration :-
CITIZENS CHARTERS In G.O.Ms.No. 263, P & A.R. (T) Department, dated 4.11.1997 orders were issued for the formulation of Citizen's Charter for each Department of Government. Accordingly following twenty seven Departments have prepared Citizen's Charter and placed them on the Table of the Legislative Assembly :-
The following Seven Departments have been exempted to prepare a Citizen's Charter due to lack of Public interface : -
(1) Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department (2) Planning and Development Department (3) Prohibition and Excise Department (4) Youth Welfare and Sports Development Department (5) Public Department (6) Law Department (7) Information Technology 2. Guidelines were prepared by P & A.R. (AR) Department for preparation a Citizen's Charter and a Booklet viz. "Guide" has been sent to all Departments of Secretariat. The Citizen's Charter have been made available through NICNET/INTERNET in Website - www.tn.gov.in. As per the information gathered from NICNET 60 Citizen's Charter have been made available through NICNET. They include Citizen's Charter prepared by the Departments of Secretariat / Heads of Departments / Boards and Corporations under the Government of Tamil Nadu. Further all Departments of Secretariat have been directed to review and assess the impact of Citizen's Charter for better Public Service and better departmental functioning. They have also been directed to send a report on various points including the response of the Public regarding the implementation of the Charters as well as the awareness of the staff and consumers and their satisfaction. The Departments of Secretariat are conducting periodical review on the implementation of Citizen's Charter introduced by them. 3. In G.O.Ms.No. 252, P & A.R. (T) Department, dated 22.10.97 orders were issued that all Department of Government are to ensure that Public has the access of the details of Government Welfare Scheme and procedures in the computer through the NIC and therefore opened ten information-cum-facilitation counter in the following places at Chennai :-
4. In G.O.Ms.No.308, P & A.R. (T) Department, dated 22.12.1997 all Departments of Secretariat and Collectors were instructed to open information-cum-facilitation counter, so that administration will be Effective, Responsive and People friendly. Further in Lr.No. 30489/AR/2001-1, P & A.R. (AR) Department, dated 1.7.2002 all Departments of Secretariat and Collectors have again been addressed to send the report, regarding to functioning of the Information-cum-Facilitation Counter. STREAMLINING THE SYSTEM OF REDRESSAL OF PUBLIC GRIEVANCES. This Government is pioneer in introducing the system of "Mass Contact Programme". Under this system the District officials headed by the District Collector will to visit villages on predetermined days and meet the Public, obtain written petitions hear their grievances and take prompt action on their petitions/grievances. There is also a scheme of taking administration to the Public to deal with their problems and execute priority schemes on the spot. The System of Redressal of Public Grievances by the District Collectors by direct contact with the people is called the "Manu Needhi Thittam" which was introduced in the year 1969. This is conducted once in a month and apart from the District Collector and the District Revenue Officers, the R.D.Os and other gazetted officers also conduct this programme. All Villages in a District are covered in a cycle of three years. Prior to the visit of the officers to the respective villages wide publicity would be given. The highlight of this programme is "on the Spot disposal of Petitions". This programme has been further revamped so as to pave the way for promoting among the people an attitude of self-help under the scheme known as "Namakku Naame Thittam" (Self-help). CHIEF MINISTERS' SPECIAL CELL FOR PETITIONS: The Chief Minister's Special Cell was formed in 1974 with the laudable object of redressing the grievances of the public. The Special Cell is headed by a Special Officer in the cadre of Deputy Secretary to Government with Five Sections. The petitions containing the grievances of the public addressed to the Chief Minister, presented in person to Chief Minister and in the Chief Minister's special Cell and those sent by post, are sent to the concerned officers for redressal of the grievances. The Special Officer has been authorised for this purpose to correspond direct with any competent officer under the State Government dispensing with the usual channel of communication. In the Chief Minister's Special Cell, petitions are received from the following sources:
By post from public. Petitions are classified as follow up, those calling for action and the others which do not call for any action. Follow-up cases are pursued till final orders or replies are sent to the petitioner. The petitions which need follow up action are entered in the computer after segregating them District wise Computerisation of the Cell has been done at State level. In order to enable the District to follow a uniform pattern, a computer software package for the entire State has been formulated in consultation with the National Informatics Center and the District units are connected with the State Computer System through NICNET. Special Deputy Collectors have been appointed for each District as Nodal Officers for grievance redressal. In addition, the Special Officer conducts monthly reviews with the Special Deputy Collectors (Public Grievance Cell) in the District and Head of Departments to speed up action on the petitions received in the Chief Minister's Special Cell/MLAs, M.Ps, etc. . Apart from the above categories of petitions, Public approach the Special Officer in the Special Cell every day for presenting petitions. In case of follow up petitions (entered in the computer), the competent authorities are requested to send final reports within a period of 15 days. The Special Officer also conducts personal enquiries with the petitioners and counter petitioners in case relating to dowry harassment, cheating and reunion of husband and wife, etc. The Chief Minister's Special Cell also is a nodal agency for arranging for financial assistance from the Chief Minister's public Relief Fund of heart/kidney/cancer surgeries accidents, etc. vigorous follow up action by Chief Minister’s Special Cell has clearly reflected on the results in terms of speed and reliability of relief assistance. Apart from the above categories, two special packages have been designed exclusively for dealing with the petitions received by the Hon'ble Chief Minister in person and by the MLA/MPs from the general public. The petitions received by the Hon'ble Chief Minister in person are classified subject wise and sent to the respective officers. The District Collectors in turn with the help of their personal staff monitor the action taken on the petitions by the Departments till replies are given to the petitioners. In order to watch the progress on the above petitions, Nodal Officers are nominated in all the Departments of Secretariat. There is a separate computer system for the MLA/MP petitions and the MLAs and MPs are also kept informed on the results of such petitions besides the petitioner. In addition to the above, the Government in P.&A.R. Department have issued guidelines to all officers in the State regarding the disposal of the Chief Minister's Special Cell/grievance petition and the officials have been instructed to give reply to all petitions within a period of 30 days regarding the action taken on their grievance. AMENDMENT OF LEGISLATION TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY IN GOVERNANCE AND RIGHT TO INFORMATION, USE OF COMPUTERIZED INFORMATION COUNTERS TO FACILITATE PUBLIC ACCESS TO INFORMATION: Tamil Nadu was one of the pioneer states to introduce the Right to Information Act and Competent/Appellate authorities have been nominated by the concerned departments. To provide the public the right of access to information about the administration, the State Government has enacted the Right to Information Act 1997. In order to keep the people better informed of various Government schemes and programmes available to them, a scheme of Wall Newspaper has been introduced. Under this, the Wall Newspaper is pasted in rural and urban areas to serve as a source of authentic information on Government programmes. To tackle the problem of corruption the State Government has instituted investigation into all corrupt practice and set up additional courts exclusively for this purpose. Transparency has been introduced in public distribution system, and in the issue of ration cards by the use of computerised counters. Further Information-cum-Facilitation counters have been opened in all important Government Offices enabling the public to approach the centers and get the details of procedure and also about the present stage of their pending requests.
|
| |||||||
