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Widespread Endorsement of NCPRI Grievance Redress Bill by Political Parties and Citizen Groups
-Righttoinformation.info
 
The NCPRI, in collaboration with Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), JOSH, Pardarshita and National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW)organised camps for public consultations and registering grievances in Delhi. Two days camps on the 15th and 16th of December were held in Malviya Nagar, Trilokpuri, Nandnagri and Takiyan Kalekhan. The camps concluded in an Open Forum with representatives from political parties and citizen groups to discuss the essential features of a Grievance Redress architecture.
 
Over 4000 people visited the camps andclose to 2000 complaints were registered at the camps. Public consultations and awareness exercises on the detailed suggestions made by the NCPRI to strengthen the proposed National Grievance Redress Bill were conducted at each camp.Complaints relating to more than 10 departments of the MCD and the Delhi Government were prepared.Complaints related to both individual and class action grievances. Camp summaries at the end.
 
The grievance redress camps highlighted the following issues:
 
1.The need to facilitate and provide support to complainants for the registration of grievances. At each camp, coordinating organizations and student volunteers from several universities assisted complainants in framing and filing their complaints.
 
2.The limited coverage of the existing Delhi time-bound delivery of services act; less than 10% of the grievances registered at the camps are covered under the Act. In fact, even the Citizen’s Right to Grievance Redress Bill put up by the Government on its website will not address many of these grievances
 
At the Open Forum, exemplary case studies, which highlighted the lacunae in the existing grievance redress mechanisms, were presented. It was noted that the proposed Citizen’s Right to Grievance Redress Bill would be unable to address many of the complaints, and the NCPRI draft Grievance Redress Bill was discussed to suggest a viable alternative.
 
The Open Forum was attended by Prakash Javadekar (BJP), Ashok Tanwar (INC), Pinaki Mishra (BJD), Sandeep Dixit (INC), ComradeAchuthan (CPI), Prasenjit Bose (CPM), Pinaki Mishra (BJD), Shivanand Tiwary (JDU), Udit Raj (Indian Justice Party), Kavita Srivastava, Kalpana Sharma amongst others
 
Prakash Javadekar said that the BJP did not want a “maha” bureaucracy, and that the Grievance Redress Bill must be separate from the Lokpal Bill. He said that the BJP was in agreement with NCPRI’s demand for a separate legislation to redress peoples’ grievances.
 
Comrade Achuthan endorsed the NCPRI stand and said that the Grievance Redress mechanism must be independent of the Lokpal. Promised full support for the four essential features demanded by the NCPRI of the CPI when the Bill is introduced in the Parliament.
 
Comrade Prasenjit Bose said that an effective Grievance Redress Bill must be decentralized to facilitate registration of grievances, and have independent district level appellate mechanism. He also supported NCPRI’s demand that the Bill be harmonized with the RTI Act and for compensation for complainants for delayed/denied entitlements.
 
Sandeep Dixit said that grievances must be kept separate from the Lokpal. He said that the Lokpal is a regulatory, investigative institution and the character of the institution must be respected and therefore, it should not be mandated with tasks other than anti-corruption. He agreed that the grievance redress framework must start at the block level.
 
Pinaki Mishra said that the day-to-day grievances of people must be redressed in a decentralized manner to ensure speedy and effective redress. He said that his party is in agreement with NCPRI’s demands and will raise the points put forward by NCPRI when the Lokpal and Grievance Redress bills are debated in Parliament. He said that his party strongly believes that corruption and grievance redress mechanisms must be kept separate and grievances should not be part of the Lokpal.
 
Shivanand Tiwarysaid that Parliament’s dignity should be respected and agitations and fasts should not be used to put deadlines on debates for important legislations.
 
Udit Raj endorsed NCPRI’s demand for a separate and comprehensive grievance redress legislation. He stressed the need to ensure the accountability of the proposed independent institutions of Lokpal and Grievance RedressCommission. He said that it is important to limit the mandate of the Lokpal to ensure its accountability.
NCPRI Demands
 
1.The Citizen’s Charter and Grievance Redress Bill be tabled immediately in the Parliament for consideration and passage
 
2.The following four essential features must be included in the Grievance Redress bill proposed by the government:
 
a.A generic and independent Citizen’s Support Center at the block/ward level to facilitate registration, follow-up, and tracking of grievances.
b.Independent district level appellate mechanism to ensure speedy disposal of appeals against the orders of the Grievance Redress Officer
c.Compensation for entitlements delayed/denied as a reparative measure and to encourage people to file complaints to promote systemic accountability
d.Codification of Section 4 of the RTI: Explicit inclusion of Section 4 of the RTI Act as part of the Citizen’s Charter and Statement of Obligations of the public authority. Non compliance with Section 4, is in itself a violation of the RTI Act, and thus a legitimate complaint as per the Grievance Redress Bill
 
The feedback received at the camps and the deliberations at the Open Forum will help NCPRI to productively engage with the government at a time when the Grievance Redress legislation is being debated and discussed in Parliament.
 
Signed/-
Anjali Bhardwaj, Nikhil Dey, Shekhar Singh, and Aruna Roy
 
Dated: December 17, 2011
 
Overview of the Camps
 
The NCPRI, in collaboration with Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), JOSH, Pardarshita and National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) organised camps for public consultations and registering grievances in Delhi. Two days camps on the 15th and 16th of December were held in Malviya Nagar, Trilokpuri, Nandnagri and Takiyan Kalekhan.
 
Bulk of the complaints were against the Food and Civil Supplies Department, MCD, DJB, Education department, Social Welfare Department, Delhi Administration, Health Department, Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB).
 
At Takiya Kale Khan, a recent fire gutted several houses and has left about one thousand people without shelter. Several complaints were filed by people whose dwellings were destroyed in the fire regarding the delay in receiving immediate relief from the government. Sama, a resident of the slum for the last 10 years, complained about the difficulties that her family has been enduring since the fire and the lack of any response from the government.
 
For more information, please contact the camp coordinator Mukesh (9468.862.200)
 
At the Malviya Nagar camp, Jamila, a 70-year old widow filed a complaint against the Social Welfare Department regarding the non-payment of her widow pension. Under the pension scheme, she is entitled to receive Rs. 1000 every month and yet in the last 4 years, she has received her pension only three times. Despite making several rounds of the Department headquarters and filing four complaints, her grievance has remained unaddressed. Officials from the MCD who were present at the Malviya Nagar camp, received hundreds of complaints regarding the broken condition of roads and drains in the area and the lack of sanitation and cleanliness in the area.
For more information, please contact the camp coordinator Amrita Johri (98102.73984)
 
At Nandnagri, where the camp was organised in front of the DC’s office, several people filed complaints about not being able to access their entitlements under the Public Distribution System. Several people complained that despite possessing Ration Cards, they were unable to receive their entitlements as the Food and Civil supplies department had not stamped their cards. Under the PDS, only those people with a stamp on their ration card declaring that their family income to be below Rs. 1 lakh are eligible to receive ration entitlements. The Food Department organised a drive for a limited time period to stamp the ration cards and has not put in place any mechanism to stamp the cards that were left out of the drive, thereby denying ration entitlements to families even though their annual income is less than the mandated limit.
 
For more information, please contact the camp coordinator Rajiv (9999.311.044)
 
At Trilokpuri, most of the complaints were regarding the poor infrastructure provided in schools in the area. Anam, a 15-year old student of the Senior Secondary Government School filed a complaint about the lack of proper toilet facilities for girls in her school. Several people filed complaints

For information, please contact camp coordinator Saurabh (98118.72752)/ Thomas (8447.867.144)