Question

Discuss some of the specific programs that aim to bring good governance in India.

Answer 1

Some of the specific programs that aim to bring good governance in India:

1. Lokpal and Lokayukta: The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 came into force in 2014. The Act provides for the establishment of a body of Lokpal for the Union and Lokayukta for States. This office would inquire into allegations of corruption against public functionaries. It shows the Government’s commitment to clean and responsive governance. The concept of Lokpal has been taken from Sweden where the office is called the Ombudsman. The typical duties of an ombudsman are to investigate complaints against government officials and attempt to resolve them.
2. Citizens’ Charters: Citizens’ Charter has based on the premise that the Citizen is the “King” and government organisations exist to serve the citizens. In order to ensure that both, the service providers as well as citizens realize that public agencies are meant to provide service, each organization should spell out the services it has to perform and then specify the standards/norms for these services. Once this is done then the organization can be held accountable if the service standards are not met. The government of India commenced the exercise to formulate Citizens’ Charters in 1996.
3. E-Governance: Revolution in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has the potential of elevating the governance process to new levels. That is the reason why countries around the world are increasingly opting for ‘e-Governance’. E-Governance in India has evolved from the computerization of Government Departments to initiatives in Governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation, and transparency. The objective of the National e-Governance Plan of the Government of India is to bring public services closer home to citizens. This is to be achieved by building a countrywide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages and large-scale digitization of records to enable easy, reliable access over the internet. Today applications for a birth certificate, death certificate, PAN card, or even a Passport can be done online. This has brought the administration closer to people.
4. Right to Information: The right to information is one of the most important aspects of good governance. It provides access to information about public policies and actions. It is the key to strengthening participatory democracy and ushering in people-centered governance. Transparency in government organisations makes them function more objectively, and predictably and also enables citizens to participate in the governance process effectively. In a fundamental sense, the right to information is a basic necessity of good governance. The Right to Information Act, of 2005 has enabled citizens to seek important public information from the government.
5. Citizen participation: Citizen participation in governance is seen as contributing to a healthy democracy. It enhances and improves upon the traditional form of representative democracy to transform it into a more responsive and thus participative democracy. All the above programs ensure citizens' participation in governance. Citizens are not to be considered as recipients of development but as participants in the development process. It is essentially a ‘bottom-up’ approach and not a ‘top-down’ approach. It refers to the modalities by which citizens can influence and take control over resources and decision-making about development. It accepts that citizens have a legitimate right in making decisions about their future.