The innovation of citizen's charter was made by the British Government headed by Prime Minister John Major. It was adapted by some of the other western countries. It aims at addressing some of the problems of interface between the Government and its citizens' and also continuously improving the quality of public services for the people at large to make them responsive to their needs and wishes. The basic objective of the citizens' charter is to empower the citizens' in relation to public service delivery in areas like improvement of quality and provision of standard services with the taxpayer's money. This should lead to accountability of organizations and their staff with total transparency about the rules, regulations and the processes and procedures. It also aims at providing a mechanism for redressal of citizens' grievances. The extension of the citizens' charter programme in India has been a welcome step to provide the basic information to the public and to open the vistas of transparency and accountability in the systems. These charters are required to spell out the standards of services and time limits within which the public can reasonably expect the disposal of the requests made by them to the government.
Both the Centre and State governments have responded favorably to the innovation and come out with over 416 citizens' charters.
Delhi Government too has brought out 75 such citizens charters for the benefit of its citizens.
These charters are available with the concerned departments and can be obtained free of cost.
Local Services 