Even though Gandhian Anna Hazare has issued a threat to kickstart a political campaign against the Congress, a key showcase legislation, the Grievance Redressal Bill, which was drafted with no loss of time, appears to have been
caught in inter-ministerial “wrangle”. The legislation, which has been modelled on the structure of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, was drafted in a clear bid by the UPA government to take credit for eliminating bureaucratic red-tapism at the local level.
Sources said that though the draft legislation has been vetted by the law ministry, there appears to be a delay in putting it in the public domain before it is taken to the Cabinet for the approval. Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh, who had taken the initiative to draft the Grievance Redressal Bill and had made a presentation before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is likely to meet minister of state (personnel) V. Narayanasamy to press for speeding up the process.
“The draft was prepared with valuable inputs from civil society activists like Nikhi Dey, Aruna Roy and others. It seeks to put in place mechanism for a citizen to lodge complaints against any grievance at the block, district, state and Centre level. It stipulates 15 days’ time for redressal of grievance and if officials fail to do so they could be fined,” sources said.
The ministry of rural development has also proposed that the Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kandra at the block level could act as a facilitation centre for registration of complaints, with complainants getting receipts through SMS and email. In the urban areas the complaints could be registered at the ward level of municipal blocks.
The draft legislation is distinct from Lokayukta in a sense that if the officials investigating complaints come across cases of corruption it would only recommend registration of an FIR with the police.
The Grievance Redressal Bill is stated to be part of a number of legislative proposals being initiated by the UPA to counter demands of Mr Hazare for an anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill covering all aspects of corruption.
Sources said that the department of personnel and training would most likely pilot the legislation as its scope is not just rural India even though it was initiated by the rural development ministry.