The new year promises Bihar’s ordinary people some unprecedented ease in dealing with the state’s rigid networks of officialdom as the Nitish Kumar-led government’s proposed Right to Service Act has fixed definite timeframes for several essential services frequently sought by the needy people.
The “Bihar Rajya Sewa Dene Ki Guarantee Vidheyak” or the Bill for the Right to Service Act, ready to be presented and passed in the state Assembly’s Budget Session in February-March 2011, has been drafted as a cure-all for the perennial blight of bureaucratic bottlenecks in Bihar. The draft bill, currently on display to seek suggestions from the public till January 5, has provisions that could overhaul the work culture in Bihar’s government offices, right from the police stations to the district-level offices.
The services demanded by the people from government offices across the state that have been considered in the proposed Act include the issue of licences (days for driving licence, shop-opening licences, etc), certificates (caste, birth and death, residence, income, vehicle fitness, oldage pension), and police verification reports needed for passports, arms licences and joining government jobs.
The Act makes it mandatory for officials to release driving licences and those for opening PDS shops and fertiliser shops in 30 days. Certificates for caste, residence, income, etc have to be issued in 15 days while 10 days have been given for the issue of vehicle fitness certificates. Police verification reports, a most vexing problem for ordinary people, have to be released in a week. Post-mortem reports have to be issued in just three days.
Most importantly, officials failing to keep the stipulated deadline in rendering these services would be fined at the rate of `250 per day up to the highest sum of `5,000, which would be deducted from their salaries and such officials would face departmental action.
According to the draft Bill, the government may also form a Public Service Delivery Commission to ensure that the Act’s objectives are met.
Along with the Bihar Special Courts Act 2009 enacted by the Nitish Kumar government, which empowers the state government to confiscate the property of corrupt officials even at the trial stage, the Right to Service Act is seen as a revolutionary move to curb corruption by government officials at all levels.