Be Courteous to Public and Legislators - Government Directs Babus

Be Courteous to Public and Legislators - Government Directs Babus

AS per the Conduct Rules, Government servants shall in the discharge of his duties act in a courteous manner and shall not adopt dilatory tactics in his dealings with the public or otherwise.

Government has reiterated and strengthened the instructions and directs:-

(i) Government servants should show courtesy and consideration to Members of Parliament and State Legislatures;

(ii) while the Government servants should consider carefully or listen patiently to what the Members of Parliament and of the State Legislatures may have to say, the Government servant should always act according to his own best judgment and as per the rules;

(iii) Any deviation from an appointment made with a Member of Parliament/State Legislature must be promptly explained to him to avoid any possible inconvenience. Fresh appointment should be fixed in consultation with him;

(iv) An officer should be meticulously correct and courteous and rise to receive and see off a Member of Parliament/State Legislature visiting him.;

(v) Members of Parliament of the area should invariably be invited to public functions organized by a Government office. Proper and comfortable seating arrangements at public functions and proper order of seating on the dais should be made for Members keeping in view the fact that they appear above officers of the rank of Secretaries to Government of India in the Warrant of Precedence;

(vi) Where any meeting convened by the Government is to be attended by Members of Parliament, special care should be taken to see that notice is given to them in good time regarding the date, time, venue etc. of the meeting.

(vii) Letters from Members of Parliament and Members of State Legislatures must be promptly acknowledged, and a reply sent at an appropriate level expeditiously as per the relevant provisions of the Central Secretariat Manual of Office Procedure;

(viii) Information or statistics relating to matters of local importance must be furnished to the MPs and MLAs when asked for.

(ix) If the information sought by a Member of Parliament cannot be given and is to be refused, instructions from a higher authority should be taken and the reasons for not furnishing the information should be given in the reply;

(x) Wherever any letter from a Member of Parliament is in English and the reply is required to be given in Hindi in terms of the Official Languages Act, 1963 and the rules framed there under, an English translation should also be sent along with the reply for the convenience of such Members of Parliament from non Hindi speaking areas;

(xi) References from the Committees of Parliament must be attended to promptly;

(xii) The officers should not ignore telephonic messages left for them by the Members of Parliament/State Legislatures in their absence and should try to contact at the earliest the Member of Parliament/State Legislature concerned.

(xiii) All Ministries/Departments may ensure that the powers of Members of Parliament/State Legislatures as Chairpersons/ Members of committees under various Centrally Sponsored/Central Sector government schemes are clearly and adequately defined; and

(xiv) A Government servant should not approach MPs/MLAs for sponsoring his individual case.

DOPT No. 11013/4/2011-Estt.( A) Dated: December 01, 2011