Citizen and Administration

Citizens and administration can be considered the two most important components in any public administrative system. However, they are also different components because of their functionality and interconnection. Citizens under any public administration take facilities and benefits from the administration, and the administration utilises its citizens to run the administration properly.

Administration takes decisions for the citizens, and in a democratic setup, citizens have the power to choose the people of administration. This topic will help us understand how citizens and administration are interconnected and help each other grow in a public administration system or body.

Citizen and Administration  

Citizens and administration are two primary components in public administration interconnected yet independent. In a democratic system, both of them rely on each other. So, there is always a requirement to maintain a good and strong relationship between them.

A system administration is responsible for making the livelihood of citizens secure and happy. At the same time, the tax payments by the citizens are responsible for generating the pay and facilities for people under the administration.

The system needs to set up departments that do not discriminate between the people to maintain such a relationship. Despite these facilities, it is not uncommon to find animosity between citizens and administration. There can be various reasons behind this hostility. For example, the high-handed and rigid behaviour of people in the administration can make citizens hostile towards the administration, and lack of knowledge of citizens regarding their rights and political activities can generate alienation between the citizens and administration.

There are various channels in an organised hierarchy that are defined in the systems to resolve such hostilities. Let’s take a look at these different channels.  

Channels of redressal for grieving citizens

Parliament or legislature 

Parliament or legislature plays an important role in the redressal of grievances and problems of citizens. The responsibility of these bodies is to formulate and implement the laws and policies before the people. Under the hierarchy, we find that executives formulate laws and legislature, approve them, and again implement them on people.

Judicial remedies

Judicial remedies have a lot of control over the constitution and administration that can be utilised to address citizens’ grievances. Also, decisions taken through these remedies have the power to be implemented on the public without accounting for the suggestions of executives and people within the administration.

In order to combat this, citizens have the right to sign a PIL (public interest litigation). There can be various constraints, like social or economic, facing which sometimes people cannot reach the court to ask about their rights. A group of people of NGO can help such people by reaching out to the court on their behalf.  

Administrative tribunals

These are special channels appointed by the government. We can also consider them as special courts. These channels are responsible for dealing with the grievances of citizens, and also they are specialised for dealing with the grievances of civil servants. We can categorise these tribunals into two categories. 

• Central Administrative Tribunals: As the name suggests, it is responsible for dealing with the grievance of public or government employees(All India Services).
• State & Joint Administrative Tribunals are available at the state level. They can also work jointly and mainly deal with grievances of employees that work at state-level or similar to the staff public services. 

Lok Adalats

These channels are defined by the government to resolve the grievances of citizens that are ordinary and require quick resolution—for example, pensions, utilities, telephones, compensation, etc. If citizens do not get satisfaction by the solution of the Lok Adalats, they can approach the judicial remedies. 

Channels to deal with the corruption of the administration 

Central vigilance commission 

The commissioner of central vigilance controls this commission. The main task of the commissioner is to deal with the problems of citizens related to the corruption and lack of integrity of any part or person of the government department.

He can take decisions and also pass the matter to the union government. The union government can set an inquiry or investigation on behalf of the person through the related administrative ministry. Alternatively, the union government can ask the CBI to take the charges. Citizens can file their grieving individually, or they can also communicate using other sources like media. 

Ombudsman

The legislature can appoint this channel, and the task of the channel is to deal with only complaints that are against the legislature or govt. We can categorise them into two category 

• LOKPAL- works for the central government.
• LOKAYUKTA- works for the state government.

LOKPAL reports directly to the prime minister, and LOKAYUKTA reports to the chief minister of his state. 

Conclusion

Citizens and administration are related to each other in a democratic public administration system. Since they are two main components of any democratic system and interconnected to each other, they are required to be in such a system where strategies are collateral to each other.

Various bodies like parliament, judicial remedies, and Lok Adalat are defined for the welfare of the citizens and the central vigilance commission. Ombudsman is defined as the welfare of the citizens against the administration.