Conferring Rights on Citizens—Laws and their Implementation
| Published date | 01 January 2014 |
| Date | 01 January 2014 |
| Author | P.R. Dubhashi |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120140105 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
CONFERRING RIGHTS ON CITIZENS-LAWS AND
THEIR IMPLEMENTATION
P.R. DUBHASHI
When a
government
chooses
to
neglect
growth
to launch
populist welfare schemes it faces the hazard
of
half-hearted
implementation because
of
inadequate resources
and
resultant
low sustainability. The last one decade witnessed a slew
of
measures to bestow a number
of
rights on citizens which are
already obligatory on the state
by
virtue
of
directive principles
enshrined in the Constitution.
But
the initiatives too often
suffered
from
faulty
conception
or
slow
and
ham-fisted
implementation Several such measures have failed to make
the desired impact because
of
prevailing
ground
realities,
desultory attitude
of
the state governments
and
overall wider
economic factors. Putting 'rights' on statute
book
will not
be
effective unless appropriate implementation strategy is in
place.
POLICY CONTRADICTIONS
UNITED PROGRESSIVE Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre
dominated by the Congress Party has followed during the last nine years a
dual policy. On
one
side, a policy
of
marketisation, privatisation,
liberalisation and globalisation which has led to growing inequalities and
disparities between the 'haves' and 'have nots' rapid urbanisation marked
by large number
of
slums and shanties with abominable conditions
of
living,
rising consumerism and its concomitant hedonistic values destroying the
moral fabric
of
the society and leading to rampant corruption
as
witnessed
in Commonwealth Games scam, IPL scam, 2G scam and coal scam.
To
mitigate, as
it
were, these unsavoury consequences
of
the policy
of
liberalisation, the government has taken, under the influence National
Advisory Committee headed by Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi, a
number
of
legislative and administrative measures to 'confer' rights on
the
citizens-"right
to get information" from public authorities, right to
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