The salient features of a Citizen’s Charter are:
- Agreed and published standards for service delivery;
- Openness and information about service delivery;
- ‘Choice’ and Consultation with users;
- Courtesy and helpfulness in service delivery; and
- Provision of redressal of grievances.
- Standards: The Charter should lay out explicit standards of service delivery so that users understand what they can reasonably expect from service providers. These standards should be time‐bound, relevant, accurate, measurable and specific.
- Information and openness: A key attribute of good service is the availability of relevant and concise information to the users at the right time and at the right place.
- Choice and consultation: The Charter should provide choice of services to users wherever practicable. There should be regular and systematic consultation with the users of the service to fix service standards and to ascertain quality of service delivery.
- Courtesy and helpfulness: The Charter can help embed a culture of courteous and helpful service from public servants.
- Grievance redressal and complaints handling: by facilitating and responding to complaints, the causes for complaint can be reduced. Secondly, by identifying ‘trends’ in complaints, the service provider can resolve systemic and recurring problems.
