Changing Paradigm of Public Services: The Experience of Kerala Right to Service
| Author | Jaya S. Anand |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120140410 |
| Published date | 01 October 2014 |
| Date | 01 October 2014 |
CHANG.ING PARADIGM OF PUBLIC SERVICES:
THE EXPERIENCE OF KERALA RIGHT TO
SERVICE
JAYA S. ANAND
·Public systems in Kera/a as elsewhere have been getting
alienated from the people because
of
fall
in quality
of
services
from
the
Government.
The
environment
of
perceived
inefficiency
in
government has been addressed through various
reforms
of
which the recent one is the Kera/a Right
To
Service
Act. Kera/a went
for
a 'big bang approach' while the other
states adopted the 'phased approach'. Though the legislation
guarantees efficacy in service delivery due to the provisions
of
timelineness,
inbuilt
grievance redress mechanism,
transparency and accountability and the penal clause, the slow
pace
of
implementation has hampered the desired outcome
even after 18 months
of
implementation.
The
article discusses
the issues in implementation and suggests the way forward
THE
CONCEPT
of
good governance and citizen-centric administration
are intimately connected. Citizen centricity with the aim
of
ensuring citizens'
welfare and satisfaction,
is
important for any government, local, state or
national which aims to ensure good governance. However, the experience
in
developing countries shows that there has been deviance from the ideal
type
of
Max Weberian model
of
bureaucracy resulting
in
irresponsive
bureaucracy, corruption, poor quality
of
service delivery and abuse
of
authority. Citizens' faith
in
public institutions have eroded drastically over
the years.
In
India as
in
many countries, despite having
'Big
Government'
and
'Big
bureaucracy,' the situation remains bleak
in
pub I
ic
service delivery
and
is
a matter
of
serious concern. Various Committees and Commissions
including the 'Second Administrative Reforms Commission' (2008-09)had
made recommendations for 'revamping and reorganising government'
through responsive and efficient administration. Most
of
these either
remained on papers
or
had an abysmal record
of
poor implementation at
the State level.
Despite
Kerala's
remarkable achievement
in
the field
of
human
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