Come up with citizen’s charter by June 20: Govt directs administrative secretaries

To strictly monitor implementation of PSGA

Nasir Azam

SRINAGAR, Jun 02: In a significant move, the administration of Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory on Wednesday directed all the administrative secretaries to come up with a citizen’s charter in respect of their departments by June 20.

The general administration department (GAD) today directed all the administrative secretaries to publish citizen’s charter in respect of their departments.

They have been asked to clearly mention the mandate of the department along with its services including procedures, standards, quality, time-frame etc. in the citizen’s charter. “Details of grievance redressal mechanism and how to access shall also be stated in the citizen’s charter,” reads a circular, a copy of which is in possession of news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO).

The GAD has also directed the administrative secretaries to strictly ensure the implementation of the Public Services Guarantee Act (PSGA).

The law was enacted by Omar Abdullah-led government in 2011 to provide transparent, efficient and hassle free services to public services and to regulate the business environment in the government departments.

Under the law, different services were notified as public services from time to time. The notified public services are provided to the eligible citizens within the specified time period.

After enactment of the law, the government had come up with eight notifications between 2011 to 2018 to bring different services under the purview of the law.

The police verification for availing passport was also brought under the law.

Under the law, it is mandatory for the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) wing of J&K police to complete verification of antecedents of a passport applicant within a period of 30 days—(KNO)