Rediff On The NeT: Responsive govt key to better administration: Gujral

Responsive govt, better laws key to better administration: Gujral

Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral said on Saturday that a ''responsive and reacting government'' was possible only if the process for a clean, decentralised and accountable administration began at the grassroot levels.

Inaugurating a meeting of chief ministers on 'effective and responsive administration, Gujral said laws would also have to be reviewed in the face of the ''complex and jungle-like'' legal framework. He proposed setting up a committee to review all laws and to dispense with obsolete laws.

Gujral was happy that a consensus was emerging on the right to information and that a bill for freedom of information had been drafted. The government's ''secretiveness'' had to be dealt with to make the administration more credible to the people, he said.

The prime minister said there was a need for vigilance without any move degenerating into a witch-hunt. ''We have to observe the rules of the game'' but ensure that no one is ''executed'' before a trial, he said.

Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Ramakant Khalap and S R Balasubramoniyan and many chief ministers and senior central and state bureaucrats were also present at the meeting, organised by the personnel, public grievances and administrative reforms ministry.

Cabinet Secretary T S R Subramanian presented an action plan for a responsive and efficient government.

Gujral said it was important to present a credible government ''so that people start believing us''. He said his recent visit to northeast states, which were far from Delhi, had confirmed this view. Furthermore, therapy, he cautioned, was as important as diagnosis.

Corruption, the prime minister said, could not be allowed to exist in an era of liberalisation. Corruption should, therefore, be dealt with at the grassroot level itself, he said.

Talking of the legal structure, he referred to some laws which were redundant and antique and regretted that ''we are a modern state but our mindsets are feudal. And this causes anxiety.''

Subramanian said the action plan proposed to be discussed at the conference included initiatives in three areas: making administration accountable and citizen-friendly., ensuring transparency and the right to information, and taking measures to cleanse and motivate the civil services.

He suggested that counters could be set up in all ministries to provide information, ''except that which was specifically barred by law''. He hoped that the state governments would also follow suit. He also called for a review of laws so that clean public services could be provided and people served better.

He also called for a reasonable transfer policy which was not arbitrary. He said, ironically, transfers were often effected in the name of public interest whereas the real reason and result was quite different.

At the outset, he said there was considerable frustration and dissatisfaction amongst the people, especially the weaker sections of society, about the apathy, lack of response and accountability of public servants, while expenditure on staff rose constantly. There was also anxiety about corruption and criminalisation in public life and administration, he said.

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