Citizen’s Charter and its Implementation in Biratnagar Metro-Politian City

Abstract

The citizen’s charter is a document which is the dedication of the government toward its citizens for improving the quality of services, information, choice of service, accountability & transparency of service providers etc. This article aims to explore the people’s knowledge of the citizen’s charter and the quality of service provided by Biratnagar Metropolitan City. Purposive sampling was done for analysis using an interview with 10 service receivers. The deputy mayor and some officials of the metropolis were also interviewed as the service provider. The qualitative method is used in data analysis. Due to the lack of education and awareness of the citizens and the charter being traditional, not updated and not regularly kept in the office, most of the service receivers had little knowledge about the charter. Only a few respondents with good knowledge said that the citizen’s charter was a source of information and commitment of the government to service delivery. Regarding service delivery, the receivers added that service quality by metropolis had slightly improved but not in the spirit of the citizen’s charter and had become faster and easier after federalism and local election. The authority of the metropolis claimed that they were always responsible and accountable for providing quality service to local people. On the contrary, the city charter, which was supposed to be updated by the metropolis, has not been placed in the office premises within six months of the research duration and has raised questions about the service delivery. The receivers are still lacking knowledge about the concept of the citizen’s charter, its importance, and the contents of the charter. The service quality of the metropolis is not met as per the norms of the charter. Local government should be responsible towards people to make its services people-oriented. The provisions mentioned in the citizen’s charter should be followed literally by the state. The government must be accountable and transparent. The government should also create awareness about charter among the people. The charter’s commitments should be translated into action to make it effective.