Madhya Pradesh addresses 3.6 mn complaints: Sounds too good?

     Bhopal, July 12 (IANS) The Madhya Pradesh government claims it has disposed of a staggering 3.6 million public complaints in the last six months, thanks to a law passed last year that guarantees basic services to citizens. However, the opposition and civil society are smelling a rat.
The Madhya Pradesh Public Services Guarantee Act 2010, passed in the monsoon session of the assembly last year, guarantees delivery of basic public services to citizens within a stipulated timeframe and sets in place accountability mechanisms for non-delivery.
Rights activists, opposition parties and retired bureaucrats, however, believe that the claims made by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government are too good to be true.
The government is saying over 600,000 cases — relating to services such as issuing of caste, birth and marriage certificates, drinking water connections, ration cards and copies of land records — are being amicably disposed of every month.
‘It is absurd that a bill that has been in force for less than a year bears such spectacular results. Many citizens, particularly those in smaller towns and rural areas, are perhaps not even aware of it,’ sociologist S.N. Choudhury, who teaches at Barkatullah University here, told IANS.
Choudhury said it would be better if monitoring and evaluation were conducted by an independent agency.