Consumer is King » Citizen

Making municipal services pay for negligence

ashish — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 09:43:37 +0000

One of the biggest issues we face in our cities as to today is the problem with regard to our sorry state of municipal services. The level of services varies from city to city, but some of the biggest problems that people currently face are examples of sorry state of sewage and cleanliness, poor condition of roads and streets, inadequate sanitation and garbage collection, poor upkeep of our current infra-structure. These problems can be attributed to bad governance, bad leadership, corruption and sheer laziness. Many times, citizens suffer because of this, and because of lack of responsibility, are unable to do much about this poor condition of municipal services. However, the courts are always a way to get justice, even if it takes a decade to do this:

CHENNAI: The Madras high court has directed the Chennai Corporation to pay compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the parents of a child, who drowned in a storm water drain negligently left open by sanitation workers. Pointing out that the 18-month-old Venugopal died over 10 years ago, Justice Chandru decried the Chennai Corporation for having failed to submit its reply to the court in a timely manner.
He directed the civic body to pay the compensation amount to the child’s parents within four weeks, and warned that any failure in this regard would be viewed seriously by the court. “Insofar as the death of Venugopal, the Chennai Corporation is squarely responsible. Because of their negligence in not keeping the storm water drainage in closed condition, such an incident had happened. The minor Venugopal cannot be expected to know the danger of the stormwater drainage kept in an open condition,” he said.

In this case, the drain was kept open while cleaning was happening. This is negligence, since as the court pointed out, it is not expected that children will have the same sense of danger. Keeping a drain open like this was hence very dangerous.

Delhi High criticizes sadistic behaviour of DDA

ashish — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:52:14 +0000

Citizens of the country have mostly bad thoughts about interacting with Government bodies; a lot of them come across officialdom who are not responsive and caring about their needs (as an example, making them come repeatedly even for small errors in the red tape process), and so on. There are babus (officials), who are friendly, but most are like hard faced officials, unwilling to come across as caring people. It would be nice for people to live in a gated community (and self-sufficient place) where one would not have to interact with the Government bureaucracy, but that is living in an ideal world. However, there are cases when official responses are such that you would be horrified to read about such cases, and wonder as to how the official structure of the country could be so insensitive to the problems faced by citizens, that too when the situation is due to a fault of the agency themselves. The Delhi Development Authority however has been roundly criticized from time to time over its openness, caring nature (lack of it), and inability to care about what citizens go through. Read this article for more information:

Wondering if DDA derives “some kind of sadistic pleasure” in harassing citizens, Delhi High Court has slammed the civic agency in a case of double allotment of a flat in 1991 due to which the rightful owner was deprived of its possession and had to wage a 17 year legal battle in court.
“Ignoring dictum of law the officials of DDA keep perpetuating their illegal acts giving an impression as if they derive some kind of sadistic pleasure to harass the citizens,” HC observed while castigating the civic body for having the nerve to demand double the price of a flat which wasn’t handed over to Gandhi in 1991 because of DDA’s double allotment mistake.

This case really highlights as to how uncaring an agency can be. DDA double-allotted a flat in 1991, and when the lady in question tried to get the mistake corrected, the DDA did a fresh allotment to her after 10 years and charged her new prices, at double the original cost. In such cases, the Court should also assign individual responsibility and fine officials responsible (including fining officials of the rank of Chairman and Vice-Chairman if they had made such recommendations).

Government grievance department (Govt of Delhi)

ashish — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:12:05 +0000

Citizens having to deal with the Government normally complain most about the myriad forms, the determined blocking nature of the bureaucracy, as well as the amount of corruption involved even to clear matters that should normally get cleared easily. The RTI Act was a good step in that direction, but there is still lots of improvement pending. One of the initiatives by the Delhi Government in this direction is the establishment of a website where citizens can log issues related to grievance with works of the Delhi Government. There is some amount of cynicism about whether this is related to the forthcoming elections, but if this becomes a success and the grievances of people are resolved, then it would be a great thing.

The website is http://www.155345.in/ (AAP KI SUNWAI).

The list of departments that can be reached with this grievance website is a comprehensive list:

A And U Tibbia College
Account Department NDMC
Accounts MCD
Acharya Shri Bhikshu Govt. Hospital
Administrative Reforms
Advertisement MCD
Agricultural Marketing Directorate
Agriculture Mkt. Board of Delhi

Agriculture Unit Development
Animal Husbandry Unit
APMC Azadpur
Archaeology
Archives
Art and Culture and Language
Aruna Asaf Ali Hospital
Audit
B.R. Sur Homoeopathic Med. College
Babu Jagjivan Ram Memorial Hospital,Jahangirpuri
Bhagwan Mahaveer Hospital, Pitampura
Bharatiya Chikitsa Parishad of Delhi
CATS_(Centralised_Accident_And_Trauma_ Services)
Central Jail Hospital, Tihar
Central Licensing Dept. MCD
Central_Jail
Centre for Occupational And Environmental Health
Chacha Nehru Bal Chikitsalaya, Geeta Colony
Chief Architect NDMC
Chief Auditor Department NDMC
Chief_Electoral_Office_(Election)
Chit Fund
Civil Engineering Department NDMC
Co-op. Housing Societies Finance Co. Ltd. Delhi
College of Pharmacy
College of -Arts
College of Engineering Delhi
Commercial Dept. NDMC
Commisioner- Rural Development Development
Commission for Women of Delhi
Community Services MCD
Conservator of Forest
Consumer Affairs
Consumer Co-Operative Wholesale Store (DCCWS) of Delhi
DDA
DDA-Chief Accounts Officer
DDA-Chief Architect
DDA-Chief Engineer(DWK)
DDA-Chief Engineer(East)
DDA-Chief Engineer(Elect)
DDA-Chief Engineer(QC)
DDA-Chief Engineer(Rohini)
DDA-Chief Engineer(SEZ)
DDA-Chief Engineer(SWZ)
DDA-Chief EngineerNZ)
DDA-Chief Legal Advisor
DDA-Chief Vigilance Officer
DDA-Commisioner(Housing)
DDA-Commisioner(LD)
DDA-Commisioner(LM)
DDA-Commisioner(Personel)
DDA-Commisioner(Planning)
DDA-Director(Building)
DDA-Director(Hort.)/South
DDA-Director(Host.)/North
DDA-Director(LandScape)
DDA-Director(Sports)
DDA-DirectorLand Costing)
DDA-Finance Member
DDA-Financial Advisior(H).
DDA-OSD(Plg.)/Master Plan
DDA-Principal Commisioner
DDA-Project Mangers(FlyOvers)
Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital
Delhi Cantonment
Delhi Metro
Delhi Traffic
DEMS MCD
Dental Council of Delhi
Department of Archaeology
Department Of Archives
Department Of Audit
Development Department
Directoreate Of Prevention Of Food Adulteration(PFA)
District Administration
Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, Rohini
Dr. Hegdewar Arogya Sansthan, Karkardooma
Drug Control
Education Directorate
Education MCD
Education NDMC
Electricity I NDMC
Electricity II NDMC
Employment Department
Enforcement NDMC
Engineering MCD
Environment Department
Estate Department NDMC
Excise
Family Welfare Directorate
Finance Department
Finance Department NDMC
Financial Corporation of Delhi
Fire Department NDMC
Fire Services of Delhi
Fisheries Unit Development
Food And Supply Department
Forensic Science Laboratory
G. B. Pant Hospital
General Administration Department
General Administration/council sectt. NDMC
Guru Govind Singh Hospital, Raghubir Nagar
Guru Govind Singh IP University
Guru Nanak Eye Center
Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital
Gurudwara Election Board
Health and Family Welfare Department
Health Services Directorate
Higher Education Directorate
Home Department
Home Guard And Civil Defence
Homeopathy Anusandhan Parishad of Delhi
Horiculture deptt Development
Horticulture Department NDMC
Horticulture MCD
Hospital Administration Dept MCD
Indian System of Medicine – Homeopathy – II
Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy
Industries Department
Information And Public Relation
Institute of Hotel Management of Delhi
Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences
Institute of Liver And Biliary Sciences
Irrigation and Flood Control Department
IT Department
IT Department NDMC
Jal Board Delhi
Khadi Village Industries Board_(DKVIB) of Delhi
Labour Commissioner
Labour Welfare Board of Delhi
Lal bahadur Shastri Hospital, Khichripur
Land and Building Department
Law and Justice and Legislative Affairs
Law Department NDMC
Legal Service Authority (Delhi )
Legislative Assembly Sectt. (Delhi)
LG Office
Lok Nayak Hospital
Maharshi Balmiki Hospital, Pooth Khurd
Maharshi Valmiki College of Education
Mahila Institute of Technology
Malviya Nagar Colony Hospital, Malviya Nagar
Manpower And Employment Office
Maulana Azad Dental College And Hospital
Maulana Azad Dental College, Delhi Gate
Maulana Azad Medical College
MCD
Medical Council of Delhi
Medical Services NDMC
Minority Commission of Delhi
N.C.C. Delhi Dte.
Navyug School NDMC
Nehru Homeopathic Anusandhan Parishad
Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology
Nursing Council of Delhi
OBC Commission
Other
Personnel Department NDMC
Pharmacy Council of Delhi
Physiotherapy Council of Delhi
Planning
Planning, Economics and Statistics Directorate
POLICE
Pollution Control Committee of Delhi
Power – BSES Rajdhani
Power – BSES Yamuna
Power – NDPL
Power Department
Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA)
Principal Accounts Office
Prohibition Directorate
Property Tax Department NDMC
Property Tax MCD
Prosecution
Public Grievance Commission
Public Health Department MCD
Public Health Department NDMC
Public Relations NDMC
Public Works Department
Quality Control and Technical Audit Department NDMC
R P Cell MCD
Rajya Sainik Board
Rao Tula Ram Memorial Hospital, Zafarpur
Registrar Cooperative Societies
revenue Department Now Factory Licensing MCD
Sales Tax
Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital
Satyawadi Raja Harish Chandra Hospital,Narela
SC/ ST/OBC/Minorities/ Handicapped Financial And Development Corporation of Delhi
Security NDMC
Services
Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women
Shastri Park Hospital, Shastri Park,Shahdara
Slum MCD
Small Savings Directorate
Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Services
Soil Testing Lab And Reclamation Unit Development
State Aids Control Society of Delhi
State Civil Supplies Corporation of Delhi
State Co-op Bank Ltd of Delhi
State Council of Educational Research And Training
State Election Commission of Delhi
State Haj Committee of Delhi
State Industrial Development Corporation of Delhi
Subordinate Services Selection Board of Delhi
Sushrut Trauma Centre
Toll Tax Dept. MCD
Tool Room and Training Centre
Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation of Delhi
Tourism Department
Training and Technical Education
Transco Ltd. (Delhi)
Transport Corporation (Delhi)
Transport Department
Union Territory Civil Services
Urban Development
Veterinery Dept. MCD
VIGILANCE And ANTI CORRUPTION GOVT.OF NCT OF DELHI DIRECTORATE
Vigilance Department NDMC
Waqf Board of Delhi
Weights and Measure
Welfare and Municipal Housing NDMC
Welfare of Sc/ST/OBC and Minorities Department