FIXING OF RESPONSIBILITIES

One of the distressing aspects in service is passing the responsibility of fixing the problem to someone else.This is a perennial problem of government service in India.Surprisingly and distressingly this attitude is creeping rather rapidly in private sector also.


The reason why this attitude is creeping is simple.No action is taken for passing on the buck and no real encouragement is given for persons who strive hard to solve the problem at their end.


I shall illustrate this by a few examples:


1 A person comes to a ration supplier for changing address so that he can get the services of the ration shop nearby his new residence.This is a simple job requiring deletion of the name from existing shop,giving details of card holders particulars in a form ,communicating this information to the new ration shop and thereby the consumer getting ration facilities within a single day.The ration shop should communicate the change to the regional ration office.In this age of fax ,email etc this process can be done in no time,in fact in real time (instantly).In reality because the responsibilty is tranferred to regional office this process takes a minimum of ௧. month.

2. The service of banking is an example how decentralisation and encouraging single window operation has benefitted the customers.A decade ago getting a draft involved several steps in the bank and as a result one applying for draft at 10 O'Clock would be expected to get it by 3 O'Clock.Now with single window operation you can get the draft made in 5 minutes!
I feel this type of single window operation is possible in most situations.
In certain situations like patient care also this single window scheme is possible but in a modified way.The person comes in contact with a doctor for a problem;it is the responsibilty of this first doctor to arrange for appropriate consultation and to follow up the patient.This in effect will be single window scheme for patient care.This doctor cannot and should not be allowed to pass on the patient to another doctor just like that;he should be made accountable to the patient forever.This will ensure that he shows adequate interest in the welfare of the patient.
iN SHORT WHAT I SUGGEST IS THAT RESPOSIBILTY SHOULD BE FIXED ON THE FIRST PERSON WHO HANDLES THE CASE.