The document discusses recommendations from India's 2nd Administrative Reforms Commission and Citizens' Charters. It provides background on administrative reforms in India since independence. It summarizes the 2nd ARC's 15 reports and recommendations in two categories. Citizens are at the core of good governance and citizen centricity. Citizens' Charters aim to make administration transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly by outlining service standards and grievance procedures. Key components and effective implementation of Citizens' Charters are also outlined.

1. GOOD aFterNoon

2. Today’s Topic
Recommendations of
2nd Administrative Reforms Commission
&
CITIZENS’ CHARTER
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3. Different Phases of Administrative
Reforms in Independent India
• Evolutionary Phase (1947-1969)
• Experimental Phase (1970-1984)
• Transitional Phase (1984-1991)
• Reformist Phase (1991-1995)
• Mainstreaming Phase (1996- Present)
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4. 1ST ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION
(ARC)
• The 1st ARC was set up in 1966 under the
chairmanship of Shri Morarji Desai.
• The 1st ARC was mandated for making public
administration a fit instrument for carrying
out the social and economic goals of
development and also making administration
responsive to people.
• From 1966 to 1970 it gave 20 Reports
containing 580 recommendations.
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5. 2ND ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS COMMISSION
(ARC)
• The 2nd ARC was set up in 2005 under the
chairmanship of Shri Veerappa Moily .
• The Commission was asked to suggest
measures for achieving a proactive,
responsive, accountable, sustainable and
efficient administration for the country at all
levels of the Government.
• Upto 2009 it submitted 15 Reports.
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6. REPORTS SUBMITTED
• 1st Report - Right to Information : Master Key to
Good Governance
• 2nd Report – Unlocking Human Capital :
Entitlements & Governance – A Case Study
• 3rd Report – Crisis Management : From Despair to
Hope
• 4th Report – Ethics in Governance
• 5th Report – Public Order
• 6th Report – Local Governance
• 7th Report – Capacity Building for Conflict
Resolution : Friction to Fusion
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7. • 8th Report – Combating Terrorism : Protecting by
Righteousness
• 9th Report – Social Capital : A Shared Destiny
• 10th Report – Refurbishing of Personnel Administration
: Scaling New Heights
• 11th Report – Promoting e-Governance : The SMART
Way Forward
• 12th Report – Citizen-Centric Administration : The
Heart of Governance
• 13th Report – Organisational Structure of Government
of India
• 14th Report – Strengthening Financial Management
Systems
• 15th Report – State & District Administration
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8. Recommendations of 2nd ARC
fall in two groups
1st set - changes for administrative
structures/processes/ techniques
2nd set- a number of issues to be examined
by Government for implementation of
suggested changes need strong political will
and sustained political guidance at the highest
level
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9.  Citizens are at the core of the Good
Governance.
 Citizen Centricity is the essence of any vibrant
democracy .
 This objective is, therefore, the central focus
of all Reports of 2nd Administrative Reforms
Commission ( 2nd ARC)
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10. Good Governance
• Participatory
• Consensus-oriented
• Accountable
• Transparent
• Responsive
• Effective & Efficient
• Equitable & Inclusive
• Follows the Rule of Law
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11. CITIZENS’ CHARTER
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12. What Citizens Expect from Government
Departments / Service Providers
i. Reliability, i.e., consistency in performance;
ii. Responsiveness, i.e., timely service;
iii. Credibility i.e., having customer interest at
heart;
iv. Empathy, i.e., attention to customer’s
needs;
v. Courtesy and care, i.e., physical evidence
of willingness to serve.
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13. 12th Report of 2nd ARC
Tools & Mechanisms which can be usefully employed
to make the administration Citizen-Centric:
(i) Re-engineering processes to make governance
‘citizen centric’.
(ii) Adoption of Appropriate Modern Technology.
(iii) Right to Information
(iv) Citizens’ Charters
(v) Independent evaluation of services
(vi) Grievance redressal mechanisms
(vii) Active citizens’ participation – Public-private
partnerships
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14. The ARC Seven Step Model for Citizen Centricity
• Define all services which you provide and identify
your clients
• Set standards and norms for each service
• Develop capability to meet the set standards
• Perform to achieve the standards
• Monitor performance against the set standards.
• Evaluate the impact through an independent
mechanism
• Continuous improvement based on monitoring
and evaluation results
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15. CITIZENS’ CHARTER
A Citizens’ Charter is basically a set of
commitments made by an organization
regarding the standards of service which
it delivers. It is an instrument which
seeks to make an organization
transparent, accountable and citizen
friendly.
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16. CITIZENS’ CHARTER
A Citizens’ Charter is a public statement
that defines the entitlements of citizens
to a specific service, the standards of
the service, the conditions to be met by
users, and the remedies available to the
latter in case of non-compliance of
standards.
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17. “The Citizens’ Charter sees public services
through the eyes of those who use them. For
too long the provider has dominated and now
it is the turn of the user... The Citizens’ Charter
will raise quality, increase choice, secure
better value and extend accountability.”
----- British Prime Minister John Major in 1992
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18. CITIZEN
The term ‘Citizen’ in the Citizen’s Charter
implies the clients or customers whose
interests and values are addressed by the
Citizen’s Charter and, therefore, includes not
only the citizens but also all the stakeholders,
i.e., citizens, customers, clients, users,
beneficiaries, other Ministries/ Departments/
Organisations, State Governments, UT
Administrations etc.
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19. Components of an ideal Citizens’ Charter
• Vision and Mission Statement of the Organisation
• List of key service(s) being offered by the Organisation
• Details of ‘Citizens’ or ‘Clients’
• Statement of services including standards, quality, time frame etc.
provided to each Citizen/ Client group separately and how/ where to get
the services
• Details of Grievance Redress Mechanism and how to access it
• Expectations from the ‘Citizens’ or ‘Clients’
• Additional commitments such as compensation in the event of failure of
service delivery.
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20. What Makes a Good Charter?
• Charter should be precise and as far as possible simple and spoken
language should be used.
• Realistic , Measurable and Achievable standards for delivery of
service are to be mentioned.
• Highlight expectations of the organisation from its customers where
required.
• Describe or refer to complaint handling process. Include the name,
address, telephone number and other contact details of the public
grievance officer.
• Be periodically reviewed for up-dates and continual improvement.
A good feedback mechanism will be there.
• Provide information on the date of issue of the Citizens Charter and
persons who were consulted during its preparation.
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21. Implementation of Citizen's Charter
i. Ensuring wide publicity of the Charter. Conduct awareness campaigns.
Putting up the Charter on the Ministry/Department/Organisation's
website and sending copies to people's representatives and all
stakeholders and their representative associations etc.
ii. Organising training programmes, workshops etc. for orientation
and motivation of officers and staff of the Organisation for aligning
the workforce to the commitments made in the Charter so as to
ensure proper implementation of the Citizen's Charter.
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22. How to make Citizens’ Charter effective?
Points to be remembered :
(a) Internal restructuring should precede Charter
formulation;
(b) One size does not fit all;
(c) Wide consultation process;
(d) Firm commitments to be made;
(e) Redressal mechanism in case of default;
(f) Periodic evaluation of Citizens’ Charters;
(g) Benchmark using end-user feedback ;
(h) Hold officers accountable for results;
(i) Include Civil Society in the process.
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23. If successfully implemented, the charter can
enable the following:
• Improved service delivery;
• Greater responsiveness of officials towards
the public; and
• Greater public satisfaction with services.
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24. But ......
The Citizen’s Charter is not legally
enforceable and, therefore, is non-
justiciable.
Though Citizen’s Charter does not by
itself create new legal rights, it surely
helps in enforcing existing rights. The
basic objective of the Citizen's Charter is
to empower the citizen in relation to
public service delivery.
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25. Citizens' Charters initiative is a response to the
quest for solving the problems which a citizen
encounters, day in and day out, while dealing
with the organisations providing public services.
THANK YOU
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