To have or not an ombudsman

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 1 DEC.: The Union ministry of rural development has directed to set up an ombudsman, a Parliamentary commissioner, in district levels across the country, within three months from the date of order for the redressal of grievances, under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).

But, interestingly, the district administration still does not have such an ombudsman, following the present guidelines of the central government. Since the implementation of the NREGA, only a grievance cell has been functioning here.

The joint secretary, NREGA, Mrs Amita Sharma had issued the order on 7 September, 2009, to the principal secretary of all states and union territories, enclosing instructions formulated under section 27(1) of the Act.

The objective of this order is to establish a system for the redressal of grievances and disposal of complaints related to implementation of the NREGA and other schemes made under the Act by the states.

When asked for his opinion, the district magistrate Mr Sridhar Ghosh, instinctively said: “I do not know about the concept of ombudsman”.

Later he said: “We have a grievance cell in our district nodal office to redress complaints. It has been functioning for many days now. Such an unit works like an ombudsman but under a different name.”

On the other hand, the additional district magistrate, Mr Kajal Banerjee, who is also additional district programme coordinator, NREGA, said: “We have a grievance cell, following a single window system including a help line here. We receive complaints and then we forward them to the concerned officials so that they may deal with the complaints suitably.”

According to the central government order, the “selection committee” shall prepare a panel of suitable persons who will be considered for appointment as ombudsman. Deputy-ombudsman shall also be appointed from the same panel based on merit. They shall be appointed for a two-year tenure. There shall be no re-appointment. The ombudsman shall be independent.

The “:selection committee” will consist of the chief secretary of the state government, as chairperson, representative of the union ministry of rural development and eminent civil society persons. These committee members will be nominated by the Central government, the secretary and the state nodal department, as member convener.