Team Anna may delink citizens’ charter from Lokpal Bill

NEW DELHI: Team Anna seemed willing to accept a separate legislation to address grievances provided the bill was modelled after the Uttarakhand citizens' charter. The group had so far demanded citizens' charter should be part of the Lokpal bill.

In a statement, Team Anna said the government should bring a strong grievance redressal mechanism with provision for penalty and compensation. The group also underlined the importance of establishing a system at the grassroots level so that each complaint did not have to be tackled at the state level.

The activists on Tuesday gave the government two options - implement the resolution of Parliament and include the charter in Lokpal bill or bring a strong grievance redressal bill. "If the government wishes to bring a separate bill to deal with citizens' charter, we request the Uttarakhand model for the same should be adopted wherein the citizens' charters have been provided through a separate bill,'' the statement said.

"However, the violation of the same by various levels of officers in the same department is required to be strongly dealt with by judicial officers. In Uttarakhand, these judicial officers are selected and controlled by Lokayukta," it said.

Claiming the draft public Grievances Redressal bill provides for a highly centralized system which is bound to collapse under its own weight, they said the House resolution stated three key issues would be addressed through the Lokpal bill. "We are surprised that contrary to that resolution, the government proposes to exclude citizens' charter from Lokpal's jurisdiction and bring in a weak and ineffective bill," they said.