KARNATAKA - of Planning Commission

periodically and mid course corrections, if required,carried out.ConcernsThere are some specifi c concerns, however, whichneed to be addressed expeditiously. The poorrecord of redressal of public grievances in almostall departments of public utilities is a major causeof public dissatisfaction. This is, almost always, asubject of criticism by elected representatives. Publicgrievances generally arise out of the inaccessibilityof offi cials, failure to acknowledge applications,non-adherence to time limits, and highly crypticand bureaucratic responses to people’s grievances.Every government department should have a welldefined mission statement setting out standardsof service to be provided. The other reasons for thegrievance redressal system not being effective are(i) responsibility is not assigned to individuals foreach task; (ii) responsibility for non-redressal ofgrievances is rarely fi xed; (iii) government offi cialsare not properly trained in grievance redressalmeasures.A serious problem for any one who has to deal withthe government as a citizen is its sheer complexity.Because of the multiplicity and commonality of theschemes, the public has a hard task in identifyingthe right department that would be able to solvetheir problems. Worse, even for fairly simplematters such as obtaining caste and incomecertifi cates, birth and death certifi cates, licensesof business, selling of properties, a number ofdifferent agencies requiring a plethora of differentforms are involved. The illiterate and the poorare badly affected. They are unable to availthemselves of benefi ts under various developmentprogrammes because of lack of information, thediffi culties inherent in applying for such benefi tsand their inability to pay for speeding up work.Clearly, the citizens’ access to governmentalinformation is circumscribed. Even the Right toInformation Act will have limited success untilseveral other related Acts and GovernmentRules of Business are changed. There has to be afundamental change in the way the governmentfunctions, in terms of updating and codifyingprocedures, simplifying rules and an attitudinalchange in the civil service. The culture of secrecy thatpervades the functioning of the government mustbe broken. Though the Right to Information Act hasbeen passed, barriers to information continue toremain. Offi cial information is not easily accessibleto the people and what is available is not easilycomprehensible, written as it is, in bureaucraticjargon. Rules and procedures, more often than not,involve a lot of discretion, providing ample scopefor abuse of powers and corruption.The conduct of diagnostic surveys throughoutsourcing could also help in providing vitalinformation when institutional weaknesses inhibitthe regular fl ow of information. However, suchdiagnostic surveys are not regular and there areseveral levels of acceptability to be undergone,before any correctional measures based on thesurvey recommendations can be taken. ThePlanning Department of the Government ofKarnataka has instituted the practice of evaluatingcertain important schemes of the departments byoutsourcing evaluation to independent agencies.Government tends to measure the success ofprogrammes by the sheer number of peoplebenefi ted, rather than by ‘how’ they are benefi ted.While the Monthly Monitoring Review (MMR) andKarnataka Development Project (KDP) meetingsat the government level focus on review offi nancial and physical progress, such reviews donot provide enough opportunity to assess thequality of service delivery to the people.Rigid rules, archaic procedures and resistanceto change have always been the barriers togovernance reforms. Several tasks and schemesin the government have become so redundantand stereotyped that employees very often donot know what they are trying to accomplish.Workloads are unevenly distributed. While somefi eld offi cers are under-worked, others are overworkedand some offi ces are located in placesinaccessible to the public. The tax-payers and thegeneral public are not interested in what rules andprocesses the bureaucracy follows, but they docare deeply about how the government deliversservices.Karnataka Human Development Report 2005Every governmentdepartment should havea well-defined missionstatement setting outstandards of service to beprovided.275