Citizen-Centric Administration: Problems and Prospects

Preamble of the constitution ensures the social justice and economic opportunities for all citizens. Further, the Directive Principles of State Policy play an important role for the overall development of our citizens. In the words of CJI, M.C. Chagla, "if all these principles are fully carried out, our country would indeed be a heaven on earth, India would then be not only democracy in the political sense, but also a welfare state looking after the welfare of its citizens. "In this connection, administrative machinery is responsible to act according to the spirit of the constitution. Our constitution gives the direction to administration to adopt, a citizens’ centric approach. But it is far from reality as our administrative structure has failed to provide efficient, effective and transparent administration to the people. This sorry state of affairs is due to of lack of administrative culture; red-tapism; indifferent attitude of public servants; lack of accountability and transparency; ineffective implementation of laws; unawareness of citizens about the rights and duties; rigidity of laws; lack of customer oriented approach; corruption etc. These are the problems which are always faced by citizens. Ultimately, this leads to maladministration. These problems can be tackled by making administration more accountable, effective, transparent and responsive through awareness of RTI, implementation of Judicial Reforms; providing strong lokpal and lokayukt; introduction of rewards and awards for honest personnel: simplification of administrative procedure; less paper work; e-governance; equity based administration; Right to Service Act and Citizen's Charter; and strong grievance redressal mechanism etc.