The Citizens' Charter for Panchayat Raj Institutions will cover 33 district level Zilla Parishads (ZPs), 322 block level Panchayat Committees (PC) and 27,620 Village Panchayats. The Charter will cater to over 5 crore people staying in rural Maharashtra. A high-ranking officer of the Rural Development and Water Conservation Department of the State Government, which has prepared the Charter, told The Indian Express, ``The Charter is a part of a larger effort for enhancing the standards of services provided by Panchayat Raj institutions and other public offices in the rural areas.''

Maharashtra has a three-tier Panchayat Raj system established in 1962. These institutions at grass-roots level are the principal mechanism to provide basic development services like portable water, health services, education,sanitation etc. The Charter assigns specific responsibilities to various members of this system for providing prompt service to the public. It consists of three chapters: the main charter, guidelines for transparent administration and a handbook for development programmes.

The Charter decrees the quality of public services, in terms of time limits which are required to be adhered to by officials like the Chief Executive Officer of a ZP, the Block Development Officer of a PC and so on. For example, the Charter makes it mandatory for a Gram Sevak to issue a birth certificate within 5 days of the application.

The Charter also establishes a framework for the flow of information to village communities, through a variety of means. It also provides for establishing an information booth in every ZP to facilitate dissemination of information. It has been made compulsory to issue statements of revenue and expenditure of all projects undertaken by the village panchayat. The statement has to be signed by the sarpanchand the gramsevak to attribute responsibility.

The Charter has introduced a new concept of a grievance redressal officer in the village administration. The post will be held by the CEO of each ZP. The Charter has reserved the second Monday of each month as Panchayat Administration Day and the CEO will be available to the public for redressal of grievances.