It is rarely that the entire House extends its support to a measure initiated by the Government, howsoever well-intentioned it may be. The “Madhya Pradesh Public Services bill” evoked this rare response.

The bill, dubbed as “Citizen's charter” is aimed at helping people procure licenses, certificates and other documents from public officials within a fixed timeframe without hassles.

Hailing the bill as a “historic piece of legislation”, the Chief Minister Mr. Shivraj Singh Chauhan said that it was a first-of-its-kind measure in India, meant to ensure good governance. The bill makes the officials directly dealing with the public accountable to them.

A day's delay beyond the stipulated time frame would entail a fine of Rs. 250. Two day's delay would mean that the official concerned would have to shell out Rs. 500 and so on up to a maximum of Rs. 5000. The Chief Minister said that the bill had provisions to fix as to for how many days a file can rest on an official's desk. “If the official does not move the file ahead before the deadline, he could be penalised”, he said.

The bill empowers the applicants to approach an appellate authority, designated by the government, to lodge complaints against officials not performing their duty. The officials will be required to provide a duly signed receipt to every applicant on receiving an application and also inform him in writing the reason for the rejection of his application. The bill provides that the fine amount realised from the official would be paid to the applicant.

The Chief Minister said that the government was thinking in the terms of bringing the government construction works also within the purview of the bill and also include a provision that the officials who consistently fail to perform their jobs within the specified time frame may face disciplinary action. The deputy leader of opposition in the Assembly, Chaudhary Rakesh Singh, while welcoming the bill, demanded abrogation of a provision that empowers the State government to issue an order, waiving the penal provisions, in case it feels that there was some genuine impediment in completing a work before the set deadline.

The monsoon session of the Assembly, which gave its nod to this bill, was a comparatively smooth affair. Barring some disruptions, the House could transact some important business of public interest. Two issues of great public interest were discussed in the House in quite an orderly fashion. They included the issue of the Bhopal gas tragedy, which came before the House in the form of an adjournment motion. The government promptly agreed to admit the motion. The second issue related to the complaints that doctors of Indore medical college had conducted unauthorised clinical trials of some drugs on unsuspecting patients.

The discussion on Bhopal gas tragedy was reduced to a blame game. While the Chief Minister blamed the Congress governments at the Centre and the State (at the time of the tragedy) for the problems being faced by the gas victims, the Congress members retorted that if the BJP was so concerned about the plight of the gas victims, why did it not do anything for their welfare during the six-year NDA rule at the Centre. The Chief Minister held the Central Government responsible for dissolving the Enquiry Commission, set up in 1985 to determine the causes for the gas leak. He announced the decision to set-up another Commission to look into all aspects of the gas disaster and its aftermath. He also announced that drinking water connections would be installed free of cost in the houses of all gas victims.

The State government had received complaints about drug trials being conducted by doctors of the Medical College at Indore without seeking permission of the government and informed consent of the patients. What was shocking was that the drug trials were conducted by doctors who were members of the “Ethics and Scientific Review Committee” of the hospital, the duties of which include ensuring that drug trials were not conducted on humans.

In his reply, the Minister for Medical Education Mahendra Hardia declared that the government was, in no way, responsible for the unauthorised drug trials. He said that the government was unaware of any health hazards faced by the patients on whom the trials were conducted. He said that 50 drug trials were conducted on 2365 patients, including 1644 children, in the medical colleges of the state. “No one has come forward with any complaint that his or her health has been adversely affected by the trials”, he said.

Congress MLA Ajay Singh alleged that the trials were conducted on poor and illiterate patients. They were made to sign documents, which they did not understand. On the other hand, the doctors who conducted the trials made huge amounts of money. Some were sent on foreign junkets by the drug companies. (IPA Service)