New Delhi, Sept. 21: Ministries should send an acknowledgement to members of the public and Parliament within 15 days of receiving any correspondence from them, the Centre has said.

The formal reply, which should also be polite, should be sent within the subsequent fortnight, the government has added.

The department of administrative reforms and public grievances has issued a list of dos and don’ts, addressing complaints from MPs that responses to their queries are delayed. Till now, the pace of replies even from the Prime Minister’s Office has often been viewed as tardy.

“I had sent a letter to the Prime Minister on the All India Institute of Medical Sciences a month ago but have not received even an acknowledgement,” said Ali Anwar, the Janata Dal (United) MP from Bihar.

Anwar said ministries’ replies to questions raised in one session of Parliament were given when another session was about to begin. Anwar said he did not bother to complain because even an acknowledgement of his letter was not given.

The Centre is now trying to take corrective measures.

“Each communication received from an MP, member of the public, recognised association or a public body will be acknowledged within 15 days, followed by a reply within the next 15 days,” said the communication to various ministries.

The department that sent the communication comes under Jitendra Singh, the minister of state for PMO and department of personnel and training.

The minister has iterated that when an MP writes, the officer at least of the rank of an undersecretary must reply. “That also in a polite letter form,” the instructions say.

When a communication is addressed to a minister, the reply should be sent by the minister as far as practicable, according to the instructions issued on September 16. The ministries have also been asked to avoid corresponding on pre-printed or cyclostyled replies.

Only information that could be denied to an MP even on the floor of Parliament may not be shared, the ministries have been told.

If delay is anticipated in sending the final reply or information has to be obtained from another ministry, an interim reply will have to be sent within a month from the receipt of the first communication. The interim reply will have to indicate the possible date by which the final reply can be given.

People at large may also elicit prompt replies if the instructions are followed. “As far as possible, requests from the members of the public should be looked at from the user’s point of view and not solely from the point of view of what may be administratively convenient,” said the instructions. In many cases now, people receive stock bureaucratic responses that give away little information.