Right to Public Services Provided by the State Government: A Comparative Study of State Laws and Need for a Parliamentary Enactment
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556119857863 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Author | Hemant Pandey |
| Subject Matter | Notes |
Right to Public
Services Provided by
the State Government:
A Comparative Study
of State Laws and Need for
a Parliamentary Enactment
Good government only happens when the people working in it do their jobs and do
them well.
—Matthew Lesko.
The provision of public services—such as healthcare, education, sanitation and
criminal justice—is a key task for government. People care about public services
and depend on them being delivered well. Public services provide the most
common interface between people and the state, and their functioning shapes
people’s sense of trust in government. At a national level, public services under-
pin human welfare and economic growth. Since the 1960s, effective public
service delivery is considered as a prerequisite for good governance, which
initiated a general trend of public sector management reforms in developed
countries. There was a growing recognition for transforming public service
delivery into citizen-centric, responsive, proactive, effective and one qualitative.
The notion of ‘government first’ changed into ‘citizen first’. As a resultant
implication, the USA’s Government Performance and Result Act (GPRA), the
UK’s Citizens’ Charter, Australia’s Public Service Act and Japan’s Public Service
Reform Act have been enacted. In 2003, the United Nations (UN) General
Assembly designated 23 June as the Public Service Day to commensurate the
value and virtue of public service to the community, highlighting the contribution
of public service in the development process.
In later years, developing countries also recognised the importance of efficient
public service delivery. Due to poor social indicators in these countries, various
social sector schemes are under implementation, but their outcomes are not meeting
the expectations due to secrecy, corruption and leakages in the public service
delivery process. To overcome them, various steps have been taken such as RTI,
the Citizens’ Charter, Social Audit, E-governance and Right to Public Service Act
by states. Among them, the Right to Public Service Act is very significant. This
essay highlights public service delivery in India and the administrative challenges
in its effective implementation, initiatives by the government to improve public
service delivery, limitations of the Citizens’ Charter, introduction of Right to
An Essay Note
Indian Journal of Public
Administration
65(2) 543–553, 2019
© 2019 IIPA
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DOI: 10.1177/0019556119857863
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