Focus On Time Bound Delivery of Services

 

Objective

• Getting basic services should not be a struggle for the common man.
• The ultimate test of good governance is the improvement in the quality of life of the people and the democratic government should be close to people and be very responsive to their needs and adopt a caring and facilitative role.
• installing an easy transparent and hassle-free systems and procedures in public offices to fulfil the peoples expectations.
• Essential services should be streamlined and citizen charters like the right to information must clearly specify the time within which any service can be availed.
• Reforms in governance have to be implemented in letter and spirit by all the stakeholders to bring about a transformation in people's lives.

 

What is required to be to be done to have a more trust based governance in terms of service delivery in the country?

• In line with the maximum of minimum government maximum governance, changing technology is becoming helpful to people but beyond that it is not ensured that the ordinary person living in some village, corner of a city, slum, etc can avail of whatever the government is supposed to provide be it a service, document, certification, etc in a hassle-free manner.
• There are any number of studies and surveys which talk about corruption there are certain areas and departments like the basic title to a property, getting registration done of the houses, etc. is a big hassle. So there is a lot needed to be done to make sure that governance happens in the right way because that is where the face of the government is seen by the ordinary person.
• It's one thing to say that technology has become a facilitator, digitalization has taken things closer to people but other than that there are certain areas where a sort of contact with the government functionary or office is a must.
• Both urban and rural resident have the struggle of going contacting people and are being asked to come back again. So, technology should be accessible to people but for an illiterate or semi-literate person, facilitation can become available if all departments try to list areas and figure out what needs to be done where the common people have more interface and where there are harassed by making it an agenda and taking it forward by the 75th year, India would have achieved a system of governance which can  be a model for world systems.

 

How gaps can be filled in the delivery of services?

• Even though technology has been a great enabler there are some gaps that still exist and need to be filled.
• There is lethargy visible at various places and to address it transparency and accountability are critically important. Accountability has to be at the local level whether it is a village, local body level or a town and it has to happen in the time-bound nature.
• An index must be formed which describes the services accessed by a common man in a hassle-free manner. This will help in taking the services of independent neutral people in the society who could oversee where what the problem is and then bring it to the authorities concerned immediately so that the required improvement is brought about.
• Therefore, a participative arrangement whereby people who are living in the midst of society but who are respected and won't try to take advantage of the system would also be in constant interaction with people who need services and get back to the system.
• Technology really has not facilitated for that person who is at the end of the queue or the ones who live in the remote areas of the society. So, a tight mechanism must be built at all the levels to ensure that technology is within reach to every section of society and time bound services as per the statutes are also needed to be defined.
• Governments need to be sensitised and underhand payments or corruption money need to be dealt on priority.
• The insensitivity among staff at public offices is seen and this is where the distrust on government agencies grows. Therefore, all the personnel should get trained about how they should be functioning and working.
• Various training programs which are organised for government functionaries should be shared with the public so the public person when he or she has to face a situation of discontent can point out to when a constant oversight happens.
• At ground level an independent mechanism different from the government system must be made and a procedure must be laid and certain amount of discretion in certain matters should be permitted and it should be transparent. Therefore, mechanisms must be there whereby when something new procedures are introduced it is transparently available and the procedures have to be in sync with the local area as well.
• Policy makers can think about the policies where the services can be outsourced to private agencies and bring about multiple user experience.

 

To summarise, to bring about transformation in people's lives and a trust-based governance as well there are certain reforms that need to be brought about and of course one among them is timely bound delivery of services.