A FOWARD LOOKING CONCEPT "Right to Service

[Mama]

THINK AND SUPPORT THE CONCEPT THROUGHOUT INDIA

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Right-to-service-next-step-after-RTI/articleshow/7049440.cms

"Right to Service" Essential next step after RTI

Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Dec 6, 2010, 02.22am IST

The first step towards opening "secret" files maintained by civil
servants and public authorities was taken by Parliament through
Freedom of Information Act, 2002. It was replaced by Right to
Information Act in 2005.

The objective was to give meaning to the word "civil servant". For,
the babus had been groomed by the system to hide almost everything
from those for whose service they were employed. Attitude is an
important aspect of service, which has been sorely lacking in a
majority of civil servants. Those who cleared tough competitive
examinations to become civil servants behaved like masters.

Most of them felt that whatever they did, be it at block, district or
state level, people should stay obliged, even though much more was
expected of them. They moved around with an air and paraphernalia that
people generally referred to them as "uncivil" servants.

With the RTI Act, citizens were empowered to find out where their file
was struck. The law made it mandatory for civil servants and public
authorities to give information promptly on the common man's query.

Let us assume that RTI Act has been implemented to the T and every
citizen now knows about the bottlenecks in completion of a particular
work. But how does this knowledge help? He can either write to higher
authorities or move court seeking redressal of his grievance.

Well, the courts are already deluged with cases and there is little
chance of him getting early relief in matters pertaining to digging a
tubewell in a village or constructing a school. There is no guarantee
that the higher authorities, generally sympathetic towards their
peers, would do anything promptly to redress the grievance.

In this backdrop, the Nitish Kumar government's proposal to bring in
Right to Service Act brings fresh hope of development catching pace in
hitherto neglected hinterlands.

It is probably time, after 60 years of India becoming a Republic and
the free run the civil servants had till now, that the common man must
get the right to point out which official was responsible for not
getting the sanctioned work executed in villages and towns within the
stipulated period. And it is about time for that civil servant to face
the music from the real masters, the people of India.

Without the right to service, the RTI Act will be rendered meaningless
as mere knowledge of what the babu has noted in the files is not
enough. It must be supplemented by giving people the right to demand
service from civil servants. This alone can make files get dusted out
and catch pace and translate decisions to actual work on the ground.

Right to service is explained as a key element in the Constitution's
Directive Principles of State Policy. The preamble of the Constitution
also promised to secure justice "social, economic and political" for
the citizens. Directive principles provided guidelines for creation of
conditions in which citizens could, in the true sense, enjoy their
fundamental rights.

The importance of directive principles, embodying the essence of right
to service, is explained by the Supreme Court in its judgment Mohini
Jain vs State of Karnataka [1992 SCC (3) 666].

For example, it was promised by our leaders in Parliament in the 1950s
that illiteracy would be wiped out within 10 years. Did it translate
into enough primary schools? The lack of enthusiasm towards this
commitment had been discussed in the 1992 judgment.

The SC had said, "The three-pronged justice (social, economic and
political) promised by the preamble is only an illusion to the teeming
millions who are illiterate. It is education which equips a citizen to
participate in achieving the objectives enshrined in the preamble."

Has the government been able to provide safe drinking water to all?
There are a host of urgent matters which have remained wrapped in red
tape for decades. If the RTI Act is able to untie the red-tape and
make information flow, then this knowledge would be rendered
meaningless unless the common man is equipped with a legal right to
put the `civil servant' to task through Right to Service Act, which
needs to be enacted by every state and the Centre, not Bihar alone.

--
To fight against injustice is to WORSHIP GOD.