The current buzz around the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is the operationalisation of ward offices and enforcement of a Citizen’s Charter delineating the responsibilities and time-frames for addressing various kinds of citizens’ grievances.
A little publicised fact is that a Citizen’s Charter already exists for the GHMC, drafted and displayed on its website since 2013, a year before Telangana was formed as a separate State.
Signed by the then Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration, Adhar Sinha, the charter fixed time frames for 39 services, as against the 17 services listed in the latest charter being circulated now.
Included in the list are services pertaining to issue and renewal of trade licences, issue of sanitation certificate, issue of birth/death certificate and corrections/inclusion of name, sanitation grievances, addressing stray animal menace, assessment/revision of property tax, mutation of property, filling of potholes, replacement of catch pit covers, removal of blockages in emergencies, building/layout permissions, issue of occupancy certificates, action against encroachment on public properties, action against unauthorised construction, maintenance of parks, and other grievances.
While only a fraction of the list appears on the new charter being circulated for display in ward offices, time frames for several services have been reduced. For instance, filling of potholes was allowed 15 days in the original charter, but the same has been reduced to 24 hours in the latest charter, thanks to the availability of ready-mix asphalt.
Likewise, catchpit cover replacement was given three days earlier, which has been reduced to 24 hours now. Footpath repairs and entomology services have been added to the new charter, which were not there in the earlier one.
Despite the existence of the citizen’s charter and mandatory display of the same in the head office, and zonal and circle offices, the time frames are hardly adhered to, as vouched by thousands of applications pending in several wings of the civic body. Deserving special mention are the services related to issue, and correction of birth/death certificates, and property tax related grievances.
As per the charter, 30 days is the time given for assessment of a property, revision of the tax, and for mutation of the property, which is rarely adhered to.
Likewise, 30 days is the time frame given for action against illegal structures, and 15 days for action against encroachment of public properties, which too go unheeded most of the time.
When originally proposed, the citizen’s charter was to be reviewed a year later, which has not been done till now despite the time frames becoming redundant due to advancements in technology.
