M A I N   N E W S

Punjab Govt enacts Right to Service law
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 7
In a major administrative reform, the Punjab Cabinet today approved the Right to Service Ordinance-2011 that will ensure timely delivery of services to the people of the state. The ordinance is the result of proposals submitted by the State Governance Reforms Commission.

The ruling alliance intends to go to the people on the twin issues of administrative reforms and development in the coming assembly elections.

With the SAD led by Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal having already launched a campaign to ensure that development emerges as the core issue in the assembly elections scheduled for early next year, the approval to the Right to Service Ordinance will enable the coalition to go back to the people with a bang.

Services like procuring driver’s licence, revenue records, water supply and sewerage connections, copy of FIRs, passport verification and NOCs will now be available to the people within a stipulated period.

Officers failing to provide the services within the requisite time frame (varying from one day to 60 days) will face penalty ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 5,000, besides departmental action.

The Deputy CM said the ordinance would be notified within 20 days and implemented immediately. He claimed Punjab was the first state in the country to come out with such an ordinance with Madhya Pradesh providing only five services within a time frame.

Meanwhile, the setting up of a commission, which would act as the final appellate authority under the ordinance, is yet to be constituted. The IAS Officers’ Association had suggested that officers in service could be appointed to the commission. It had called for providing adequate infrastructure to officers to conduct work in the new time frame.

Sukhbir Singh, when questioned, said the commission would be formed soon and that the Cabinet had cleared 8,000 posts to help provide timely services to the people.

Pradesh Congress President Capt Amarinder Singh said the fact that the ordinance had come up at the fag-end of the government indicated the insincerity of the government in implementing it.

“The very fact that the government needed to come out with an ordinance to deliver routine services to the people proves its inefficiency and lack of control over the administration,” he added.