Etymology: The Hindi words “Seva” and “Uttam” combine to form Sevottam, which denotes “excellence in service delivery.”

What is it?: Sevottam, established by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), is an ideal model for benchmarking Public Service Delivery. The model provides a framework for organisations to evaluate and enhance the quality of service delivery to citizens.

Components: It includes the following three main components.

• Citizen Charter and Service Standards: Sevottam focuses on the creation, monitoring, and revision of the Citizen’s Charter. A citizen charter is a document in which a government agency declares its essential services, as well as the delivery schedules and conditions for those services.

• Public Grievances: The receiving, redress, and prevention of grievances are all addressed by Sevottam.

• Service Delivery Enablers:  The emphasis is on providing outstanding customer service.

 Customer feedback, employee motivation, and infrastructure are all part of this.

Key Features:

• Timeliness: The Citizen’s Charter specifies time limits for particular services.

• Effectiveness: A single-window system for service deliverables is being developed to reduce the time spent hopping from one desk to the next in order to obtain services.

• Responsiveness: A thorough grievance redress system is required to listen to public complaints and promptly address them.

• Courteous behaviour: The Citizens’ Charter outlines the expected standard of behaviour, particularly in client-facing roles, and proactive feedback on service delivery is gathered to assess it.

• Information: Facilitation and support centres are designed to address the information demands of clients.

• Empathy: Clients require public grievance officers to listen to them in their time of need.

ARC’s seven step model for citizen centricity: 

Union and state governments should adopt a seven-step plan that all organisations having a

public interface must follow:

• Identifying the clientele and defining the services.
• Establishing service standards and guidelines.
• Capability development in order to satisfy the established standards.
• Concentrate on the performance in order to meet the standards.
• Constant monitoring of performance against established benchmarks.
• An independent mechanism for periodic evaluation of performance.
• Continuous improvement based on the findings of monitoring and evaluation.

Whistle-blower Protection Act, 2014:

The Whistle-blower Protection Act of 2014 was enacted to allow anybody to report acts of corruption, deliberate misuse of power or discretion, or criminal offences committed by a public servant to a Competent Authority.

• For Ministers, the Competent Authority is the Prime Minister or Chief Minister; for Members of Parliament or state legislatures, the Speaker or Chairman; for district court judges, the Chief Justice of the High Court; and for government employees, the Central or State Vigilance Commission.
• The legislation prohibits anonymous complaints and expressly specifies that unless the complainant establishes his or her name, no action will be taken by a competent body.
• The maximum time period for making a complaint is seven years.
• Exemptions: The Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel and officials, who were formed under the Special Protection Group Act of 1988, are exempt from the Act.

Court of Appeal: Any person who is aggrieved by a Competent Authority order has sixty days from the date of the order to file an appeal with the appropriate High Court.